Page 98 of Last Seen

“Right. Sorry. Got carried away.”

“No, it’s fine,” she says. It is anything but fine. Raw, elemental desire for a complete stranger, one closely tied to this horrifying situation? One she’s known for a day at most?

She isn’t using her head.

Noah sits down again. “Go sleep. I’ll stand guard. Call me if you need me.”

She staggers to the bedroom. It takes her longer than she’d like to admit to fall asleep.

When Halley wakes, the room is dark and cool. Curtains block the windows. She is under the covers. Memories assail her, Noah’s lips on hers, and a flash of shame courses through her. She dodged a bullet, for sure. She laughs to herself.You’re an idiot, Halley.

Her head hurts. She must have been gritting her teeth. A headache has taken hold.

“Hi,” a male voice says, and she rolls over to see Noah sitting in the chair by the fireplace. He’s abandoned his post in the living room and joined her in the bedroom. Perhaps hoping she’d change her mind? Should she?

No. The moment is past. They are no longer ships lost at sea, but two grown-ups in an untenable situation.

He is reading something on his phone and closes it with a click. “You okay?”

“What time is it?”

“Three in the afternoon. You’ve been out for a few hours.”

She stretches.

“You stayed.”

“Of course I did.”

“Is there any news?”

“No. All’s calm. There’s a town meeting tonight—nothing unusual there. Everyone wants answers about what happened to Tammy.”

“This is a pretty tight-knit community.”

“Yeah. Claustrophobic at times for some, but we take care of one another.”

“It’s just ... Doesn’t all this isolation get to you? You’re cut off from the world. Alone. No news vans showed up when Tammy was killed. Has her murder been reported on at all?”

“Everyone here knows. Cameron is investigating. Who else needs to hear it?”

She sits up. “Sorry. I’m still a little wigged out.”

“That’s understandable. I am, too.”

“Do you know anything about the little boy in the woods? The one I saw when I left town? Your brother said he was going back out with a dog to see if he could locate him, but then Tammy ... happened.”

His brow furrows. “I don’t know about that, but I wouldn’t worry too much. The kids here are pretty free range. That’s part of the attraction. They’re safe to wander the streets. It takes a village, right? Everyone looks out for the others.”

“You that closely vet the people who live here? How can you be so sure none of them would do something to harm a child? Or a woman?”

“Point taken. But yes. The people who live here—such a thing would be an aberrance. They wouldn’t, because everyone would know, and they’d be asked to leave. And prosecuted, obviously.”

“You can’t know what people do behind closed doors. On their computers. You can’t know their darkest hearts. Women are missing, and now a woman has been openly murdered. That will certainly be talked about, yes? How will your town react to that? Will they come for me with pitchforks and torches because I’ve brought this horror to your doors?”

“How can you think that? This is not your fault.”

“But it is,” she says, the confession making tears well up. “If I hadn’t come here, if I hadn’t tried to find my sister, Tammy would be alive.”