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Rhys

I couldn’t keep Teller Austin from destroying Eden’s life two years ago.

I couldn’t keep Paul from being a pile of dog turd in the park. And I can’t unsee how much it hurt her to discover the truth.

But I can definitely help her get those quilts back.

We just need a car.

Joe drops us at the rental place company in nearby Galilee, which—I learn—is a well-known central Washington tourist town.

The rental car desk is staffed by a solitary gray-haired woman wearing a Wonder Woman sweatshirt and a weary expression. When Eden and I step through the door, she says, “Please tell me you’re not here because you want to rent a car.”

“Bad news,” I tell her.

“Not as bad as the news I have for you,” she counters.

“No cars?”

“Worse than that. The platform that our software runs on got hacked overnight. One of those…what do you call ’em? Denial-of-service attacks. Some kind of security vulnerability in the”—she gestures at the ceiling—“cloud.”

Eden makes a soft sound of despair.

“How long is that going to be?” I ask.

She shrugs. “We’ve been told it should be up and running again by mid to late afternoon.”

“Will you have a car for us then?”

She wrinkles her nose. “I should ? But without being able to look at the computer I can’t say for hundred percent sure.”

“Look,” I say, “this is pretty important to us.” I dig in my wallet and come up with a hundred-dollar bill. “Could you call me on my cell as soon as the software is up and running again?”

Wrinkles appear in between her eyebrows. “I’m not allowed to take bribes?—”

“It’s not a bribe,” I say. “It’s a tip.”

She looks at the money, then back at me. “Sure,” she says, lifting one shoulder.

“And there’s another hundred for you if a car’s available when that happens.”

She thinks about that for a moment, then says, “I’ll call you. Regardless.”

“Thanks,” I say.

We step outside the rental car office, and Eden sighs heavily. Resigned.

“We could hire someone,” I tell her. “We could pay someone to drive us?—”

“All the way across Montana and South Dakota? That’s got to be eighteen hours.”

“Someone will do it for enough money. And we might catch Paul before he gets to Sioux Falls.”

She closes her eyes. “We can’t,” she says.

“We—can’t?”

“He blocked me.”

“He blocked you?”

“Yeah, I got ragey about him chasing after his ex-girlfriend and sent a text that said, ‘You need to turn that car around right now and bring me my quilts, or I’m going to call the cops and tell them you’re in possession of stolen property.’”

I whistle admiringly. “You’re a bona fide badass.”

She blushes. “Thanks. But I was a hundred percent bluffing, and he called my bluff by blocking me, which kind of fucks us for finding him before he reaches Grace’s place.”

I can still picture the crushed look on Eden’s face when she put two and two together about Paul’s probable whereabouts. “If that’s even where he’s going.”

“That’s where he’s going,” she scoffs. “We both know that’s where he’s going.”

For her sake, I want to believe it’s not true…but the evidence, even circumstantial, is pretty damning.

“So what we really need to do is fly to Sioux Falls.”

She ponders that for a moment. “Intercept him there, you mean.”

“Probably the fastest way to retrieve the quilts, right?”

Because whatever her reasons are for wanting to reach Paul, I can get her that one win. And getting wins is—well, it’s not just my job. It’s my calling.

I want Eden to get this fucking win.

And then I’ll figure out how I’m going to save my sister’s business and my family’s land.

After another hesitation, she says, “Right.”

We sit down on the curb outside the rental car office and search up flights.

A few minutes later, after coming to terms with how long it takes to get from the middle of Washington to the middle of the country, we have morning flights into Sioux Falls and a promise from Joe to drive us to a Spokane hotel near the airport for the night.

Even if the flight’s not till tomorrow morning, and even if we have to fly hundreds of miles south to hit a point that’s due east of here, it’ll still get us to Sioux Falls more efficiently than driving, and then we just have to find Grace Vain… and Paul.

“Now what?” I ask her. “We have some time to kill.”

She gives a wry laugh. “I need to go shopping.”