Page 34 of Obscurity

Olive raised her eyebrows. “Is that right? Like what?”

Becca glanced around to make sure the guides weren’t listening, then leaned closer. “Like there was this one girl who worked for him back in Tennessee. She hasn’t been seen since her internship ended.”

Olive’s pulse spiked. “I had no idea.”

She truly hadn’t heard about this yet. It seemed like something that would have popped up in her research.

Becca’s voice dropped lower. “People said she just left early, but her family swears she never made it home.”

Olive’s pulse continued to pound harder, faster. “What do you think happened to her?”

“I wish I knew.”

Olive didn’t like the sound of that.

Why hadn’t she seen anything about this other missing woman in her research? She’d been thorough.

It was definitely something she needed to look into . . . if she ever got a signal on her phone.

Just then, a scream cut through the air.

Something else had happened . . . but what now?

CHAPTER 20

Maya—of course it was Maya again—paused on the path and pointed to something off the trail. “Look at that!”

Olive pushed herself to the front of the line so she could see.

Her breath caught.

There was a rocky outcropping there. And in the center of one of the biggest boulders was blood. What appeared to befreshblood.

All her instincts went on alert.

Max pushed his way to the front of the crowd also, and his eyes narrowed when he saw the red on the rock.

“It’s nothing to be alarmed about,” he announced. “Probably just a hunter processing his prize.”

“There are hunters out here?” someone else asked.

“Yes, of course there are hunters,” Max responded. “We’re a big enough group that they should be aware of us. But I’m sure that’s just what that blood is about.”

Olive would bet it wasn’t.

From across the crowd, she and Jason exchanged a look.

“Now, come on,” Max said. “Let’s keep going.”

He tried to continue herding people toward the festival site. But Olive remained near the blood another moment, her gaze sweeping over everything.

That was when her eyes stopped on what looked like a bracelet that had fallen off in between the rocks.

Using her phone, she pretended like she was taking a picture of the blood. But really, it was the bracelet. She needed to make sure that Chloe hadn’t worn one like that.

Jason joined her again. They had so much to talk about.

They just needed some privacy first.