No One But You (Silver Springs #2)(87)

Once he reached his car, he was relieved to be out of the house. He didn’t think he’d been seen. But he didn’t know for sure. And, just in case someone was watching and listening, he waited, didn’t dare start the engine because of the noise.

As he sat there with his heart beating in his throat, he saw headlights again, only this time the car was moving back toward the highway. He didn’t think there could be two cars, so whoever had come to the farm was leaving. Already.

Had whoever it was even gone to the door?

No. There wouldn’t have been time. At least, Sly didn’t think so.

He held off another five minutes before starting his cruiser, turning around and rolling slowly and cautiously back toward the highway. From there, he took side streets—as much as possible—to his house so that he wouldn’t run into anyone he knew.

Not until he got home, where he’d left his phone so that his whereabouts couldn’t be tracked after the fact, did he understand what’d happened. It was Pete who’d visited the farm. Sly had missed half a dozen calls from him, texts, too.

Where the hell are you, man?

Don’t tell me you’re out at Dawson Reed’s place. That would be crazy. You realize that, right?

You gotta leave Sadie and Dawson alone. They aren’t worth your future.

Why won’t you pick up? I know you’re not home. I’ve been by your place twice already.

You’re not at your mother’s either. What the hell, dude? Are you trying to get yourself kicked off the force?

Pick up. You need to listen to me.

Pete had driven to Dawson’s in order to keep him out of trouble. But he would never know just how close Sly had come—because Sly could never tell him.

*

Dawson woke up when Sadie pulled away from him. “You’re leaving already?” he mumbled sleepily.

“Yeah. I’ve got to get back to Jayden.”

“But it isn’t morning yet.”

“I’m afraid I’ll oversleep if I don’t go now, and it’s best if he wakes up to find me where I usually am.”

Dawson had an alarm set for fairly early, but he didn’t mention that. Jayden could always wake up before the alarm went off. Besides, things were going fast enough as it was. Sadie would probably feel more comfortable sleeping with her son, like she usually did. “Just tell me one thing before you go.”

She was putting on her clothes. “What’s that?”

“You’re okay, right? You’re not too freaked out?”

“Right now I’m not freaked out at all. Right now I’m pretty happy.”

He knew she was referring to the climax he’d given her and smiled even though she couldn’t see him. “Then try to remember, in the morning, that everything’s going to be fine. Even if things go...bad between us at some point, we’ll figure out a way to be kind to each other, to end as friends. You won’t go through anything like what you’ve been through with Sly. I promise.”

“You’re a good man,” she said. “I’m glad I met you.”

You’re a good man. That wasn’t something he’d heard very often in his life. He’d been a troubled kid and barely out of that difficult stage of life when he’d been accused of murder. The whole town still believed he’d taken two lives with a hatchet—and not just any lives but the lives of his parents.

Maybe that was why he rolled her words around and around in his head for so long after she left the room. Her belief in him felt even better than the pleasure she’d provided.





23


Robin Strauss wasn’t a minute late. With her gray hair combed into a bun at her nape and a multitude of lines around her mouth, she appeared to be about fifty-five and rather...harsh.

Sadie could tell that Dawson grew even more nervous once he saw her. The media hadn’t been kind to him, and the media reports had to be at least part of what Robin Strauss would use to judge him by. With her sober demeanor, button-down suit and thick glasses, she looked like a no-nonsense nun, or maybe a spinster librarian—someone who would view him as skeptically as possible.

Once they let her in, she didn’t say anything overtly negative, but she wasn’t friendly, either. She walked through the house, peering into each room before pausing at the master.

“This is where it happened?” She turned to Sadie, since Dawson had stopped at the doorway rather than follow them inside.

“Yes.” Sadie had asked Petra to watch Jayden for a couple of hours. She hated to leave him, in case Sly tried to cause trouble, but she’d known it wouldn’t be wise to have him here during the visit in case the discussion turned to the murders, and Petra had assured her she wouldn’t let Sly take Jayden no matter what.

“Is anyone using this room?” She focused on the box springs that didn’t have a mattress.

“Not yet.”

Ms. Strauss turned around to address Dawson. “What do you plan to do with it? Anything?”

“Sadie and Jayden will move in here once Angela is allowed to come home,” he said.

Her eyebrows, carefully drawn in with pencil, rose slightly. “Sadie doesn’t mind the fact that there was a double homicide here?”

Sadie spoke up before Dawson could attempt an answer. “I’m not pleased by the idea, of course. No one would be. But, as we’ve already explained, I’m living here because Dawson felt it would be better for Angela to have round-the-clock care. Or are you saying the bedroom should be closed off and never used again?”