Page 178 of On Edge

She laughs then, and it’s music to my ears.

And then she tells me everything about stealing the evidence at Grayfleet before her father sold it off at auction, but someone was there, Darrow maybe. Her father wouldn’t admit anything about that night. But she remembers parts of it, from dreams of Nell she thought weren’t real, dreams of hiding the letter and the proof for me to find, leaving clues no one else would figure out, and then trying to run. But she never made it home.

She somehow fell and hit her head, and forgot everything.

Forgot being Nell.

And forgot me.

I share too, telling her what her father did to my family and me, some of which she’d already pieced together.

“Richard had our house burned while my parents slept, because they wouldn’t sell to him so he could excavate the land for stone. The only reason I escaped was that I was out lookingfor my sister, who had gone after her horse after someone let them loose in the forest. When we got back, the entire house was in flames, and it was too late. They arrested me because it was arson, and they found my clothes covered with accelerant. Richard’s friends in high places sent me down, and Joanna, my sister, into care. But she ran away from her foster parents, and I lost everything.”

“So it was your sister whom you were searching for?”

“She blamed me for it all, but I told her I had proof that I just had to find it.”

Sage’s shoulders slump. “That’s the only thing. I don’t know where I hid it.”

I go to her then and gather her in my arms. Of all the things, she smells of death and lavender. “I don’t need it anymore.”

“But what about your sister?”

“I’ll just have to do it the old-fashioned way and beg for forgiveness.”

Her mouth flattens. “I still hate you.”

“Then I’ll beg for forgiveness from you, too. I should never have let you go.”

She wraps her arms around me and clings to me tightly. “Well. That’s a start.”

I carry her out of there, making sure to take the files from Richard’s safe, the diary, andMercy, but leaving his red notices and demands for money with his body.

Dawn arrives just as the staff’s screams do, following us to where the SUV is parked, with Mundel waiting behind the wheel. I set her gently in the back and then climb in with her. I don’t want to be presumptuous and take her home, so I ask her where she wants to go.

“Take me to Laine’s.”

42

SAGE

“Do you want another mince pie?” Laine asks me.

I’m sitting in the window, well, I’m sitting at the wall that’s made of glass, staring outside at a mound of snow that shifts to brush the white powder off every now and again.

I glance at Laine. “How long has he been out there?”

Laine comes to stand beside me, looking down at Troy’s hunched figure on the bench across the street. “Since dawn. It was the same as yesterday, and the day before.”

“Oh. It’s been two weeks already?”

“Twelve days, actually.” Laine sighs. “Jax started a tally.”

I watch Troy stand, stamp his feet, then sit back down. Even from up here, I can see he’s not dressed right for the December cold weather; his coat is expensive but not heavy enough, he does have a hat on, but he’s not wearing any gloves. He hasn’t shaved either, and looks like he hasn’t slept in days.

“He’s going to get hypothermia.”

“I bet that’s his master plan.” Laine hands me a mug of tea I didn’t ask for, but I’m thankful all the same. Tea makeseverything better. “Guilt by freezing is very dramatic, wouldn’t you say?”