But I didn’t have that luxury. I knew all too well that you were always just one breath away from having your life ripped out from under you. Mere seconds from your whole world changing. Five days out from becoming an entirely different person. And I didn’t need a shed on a mountain to remind me.
3
Everly
I muttered a curse when a cloud of dust engulfed me as I opened a closet door. The bones of the cabin might have been in good shape, but that didn’t mean it was pristine. Far from it.
I’d spent last night on an air mattress in one of the two bedrooms in the cabin, trying to adjust to the deafening quiet, interrupted by sounds that had once been familiar. The old owl. Crickets. Wind rattling the screen door.
I had a couple of days before my furniture arrived. The contents of my small apartment wouldn’t fill the space, but it would be good enough for now. Creating a sanctuary wouldn’t come cheap, and even though I’d been saving, I needed to pinch pennies wherever I could.
But that was one of the things my mother had taught me that I’d held onto. How to repurpose broken things or stuff others had thrown away. How to make the old new again. She’d also taught me how to live from the land. What things grew heartily here, and what needed the protection of a greenhouse.
I peeked through the large front window at the glass building that had lost many of its panes to winter storms. Those would be a challenge to replace. I added it to my mental list as my gaze shifted past the greenhouse to a green metal roof.
The one I’d told the sheriff about all those years ago. The structure where a little girl had pounded on the door, begging to be set free. I gave my head a little shake. Of course, it hadn’t been one of the things the storm took down. It would’ve been easier if it had.
I turned away from the window and refocused on my sweeping. I brushed the bristles of my broom across the wide planks of the floor and then moved into the open closet. I let out a high-pitched squeal as a furry critter shot out of the dark space. My hand flew to my chest as my heart hammered against my ribs. “Not a monster, just a little…” Chipmunk?
The knowledge startled a laugh out of me. I’d almost lost it over possibly the cutest and least intimidating creature on this mountain. And now I could see that he was limping. He made his way over to the corner, shaking. “I’m sorry, little guy. I think we scared each other.”
I moved towards the kitchen that opened to the larger living and dining areas. Pawing through the totes of groceries I’d brought and still hadn’t put away, I found a bag of almonds. I picked out a handful of nuts and crossed back to within just a few feet of the little critter.
I sat on the floor and tossed out an almond so it was just a couple of inches in front of him. The chipmunk eyed me carefully and then slowly reached for the nut, shoving it into his cheek.
“Want another one?” I repeated the action but dropped it just a little closer to me, trying to check the critter’s movement.
He scurried forward with that same gimp and grabbed another one, stuffing it into his other cheek.
“Those chubby little cheeks are pretty dang cute. Bet you’ve been hungry living in that closet.”
I held out another almond, this time placing it flat on my palm. The chipmunk looked at me as if I were crazy.
“I promise, I won’t hurt you.”
We stayed in a silent standoff for a moment, and then Chip made a lopsided dash forward, grabbed the nut, and ran away to his corner.
“See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” I dumped the rest of the nuts onto the floor and rose to open the door. “You can have those.”
It was official. I was losing it. Talking to a chipmunk as if he could understand every word that came out of my mouth.
Well, it would likely be a pretty lonely existence living in Wolf Gap. I needed all of the friends I could get—even if one of them was a chipmunk.
I returned to my sweeping, and Chip devoured his feast. My broom grabbed something that I realized was Chip’s nest. I crossed back to the kitchen and snagged a pair of gloves, pulling them on. I ducked into the closet and found the nest. Guilt clawed at me for disrupting the little guy’s home. I didn’t think he would do well outside; he moved too slowly and would likely get snapped up by something larger.
I searched the room for any sort of answer. The old built-ins on the opposite side of the living space seemed like as good an idea as any. I opened one of the bottom cabinets and carefully set the nest inside. Three nuts fell out as I did so.
“Apparently, you’re not so hard up for food.”
Chip hopped and scampered inside, his new bounty stuffed in his cheeks.
Just as he did, the sound of tires crunching on gravel filled the empty room. My heart gave a healthy lurch, and I moved to the corner where I’d placed my gun safe. I plugged in the code and pulled out my shotgun. If my family was making an appearance already, I was in for a battle.
I stood to the side of the large window, angling myself so I was protected but also had a view of whoever was coming. I caught sight of the lights fixed to the top of an SUV, then the sheriff’s star. I wasn’t sure if the vehicle made me more or less nervous. But at least I knew I didn’t need my gun.
I placed it back in the safe and tried my best to brush the dust off my clothes. It was a lost cause. Crossing to the entryway, I pushed open the screen door as a sheriff’s department SUV came to a stop in front of the cabin. I swallowed against my suddenly dry throat as a man climbed out.
He was younger than I’d expected. Dark hair and broad shoulders. Thick scruff gracing his jaw. But it was the eyes that stole my breath. Not because of how gorgeous they were but because they were familiar. The same pair that had haunted my dreams for the past fifteen years. Ones that still held fierceness but also untold pain.
I grabbed hold of the porch rail to keep myself upright, and the man who I’d only ever known as a boy circled his SUV. He tipped his head in greeting. “Afternoon, ma’am. I’m Sheriff Easton. I heard we had a new resident and wanted to introduce myself.”
He wasn’t simply an officer or a deputy, he was the sheriff. And Hayes Easton didn’t remember me at all. I cleared my throat. “Hello, Sheriff. I’m Everly Kemper.”
He froze, his foot halfway to the bottom step of my porch. “Everly.”
I nodded. “I know, it’s been a long time.”
His parents had protected him from the trial, but my uncle had demanded that Mom, Ian, and I go. He said the jury needed to see that Dad had family. Support. So, I’d been forced to hear every argument and detail, to watch as my dad lost it during closing arguments, yelling about evil and righteousness.
But Hayes hadn’t been there. He’d only come one day with his older brother. They’d attended the verdict reading. I’d watched as his mother kept a protective arm around him the entire time. How his father had ruffled his hair and tried to cut the tension with a joke. And his eyes had called out to me, so serious and full of pain.
His foot settled firmly back on the dirt. Apparently, he was no longer coming up those front steps. “You getting the place ready to go on the market?”
“No. I’m moving in.”
Those eyes lit with something entirely different now. Hot anger. It felt as if flames were swirling in their depths. Ones that could lash out and burn me without a second’s notice. “Hasn’t your family put mine through enough? Why the hell do you need to come back here and stir everything up again?”
Each word was a carefully placed blow. It wasn’t that I hadn’t expected some blowback. I guessed I’d simply thought I would have more time to prepare. And it wasn’t as if my family had disappeared from the area. My uncle’s ranch was just a few miles down the road in the flats. I was sure Hayes and his family saw them now and again.
“My mother left this to me in her will.” I wasn’t sure what else to say. I didn’t owe Hayes an explanation. Yet, somehow, I felt I did. I’d be paying for the sins of my father for the rest of my life—especially i
f I lived here.
“Sell it.”
“Excuse me?”
Hayes’ fingers wrapped around the railing, his knuckles bleaching white. “Sell the damn property. Maybe someone will buy it and finally tear everything down. Build something fresh here that doesn’t remind my sister and the rest of us of the hell we all went through.”
My knees began to quiver, but I locked them to keep steady. “I’m trying to build something fresh here.”
“You’re a Kemper. Whatever you build here will still be laced with the pain your father wrought. Do everyone a favor and go back to wherever you’ve been for the past fifteen years.”
I stiffened my spine. “I’d like you to leave now. Unless you have a warrant, that is.”
A muscle along Hayes’ jaw ticked. “Think about what I said. You won’t receive a warm welcome here.”
I watched as he retraced his steps and climbed into his SUV. I had known I wouldn’t receive any warmth from this town. Yet, somehow, I’d hoped. That I could atone for something that wasn’t even mine. That I could make things right. Find a home again in the mountains that had always soothed me when life was roughest. Maybe even find peace after all of these years. But I’d been naïve in my hope. And Hayes Easton wasn’t going to let me forget it.
4
Hayes
I brought my SUV to a stop outside my parents’ ranch house. Turning off the engine, I simply sat there, staring at the place that had always been home. The immaculately painted white siding, and rough, exposed wood beams. It had been in my mother’s family for generations. And you could feel the history as you walked from room to room.
It held so many of my happiest memories. Christmas mornings. Looking out my window to the first snow of each season. Epic games of hide and seek with my siblings. The time my dad had brought home a new puppy.
But it held pain, too. My mother in hysterics as the sheriff promised to do everything in his power to find Shiloh. Seeing my dad breaking down on his way to the barn, unable to hold it together and feeling the need to hide that from my family. Shiloh’s screams as she woke from a nightmare.
Koda stuck his head between the two front seats, pressing into my arm as if he could sense the progression of my thoughts. I scratched between his ears. The German shepherd had failed out of the K-9 program for being too friendly, but he was the perfect companion to come home to every night.
“What do you say we go in and find ourselves some dinner?”
Koda gave a half-whine, half-bark. I chuckled and gave him another rub. “Okay.”
Climbing out of the truck, I opened the door to the cab, and Koda took a flying leap. He went straight for the front door and then looked back at me as if to say, “Hurry up, would you?” I shook my head and trudged up the porch steps.
My feet might as well have been dragging. All afternoon, I’d thought about how to tell my parents and Shiloh what I’d learned. I still hadn’t found the right words.
Just as my foot hit the top step, the front door opened. Koda did a happy leap as my mom appeared. She grinned at the dog and bent to give him a good rubdown. “Well, isn’t this a pleasant surprise? I didn’t think I would lay eyes on you until this weekend.”
I crossed the space and pulled her in for a hug. My mom’s small form was deceiving. She was petite but could rope cattle with the best of them. She could run a fence line and soothe a skittish colt. I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I hope you don’t mind me showing up without warning.”
“You know I don’t. I’m happiest when all my chicks are home.” She pulled back and surveyed my face. “Come inside and tell me what’s got those worry lines popping up on your forehead.”
I should’ve known I couldn’t hide anything from her for long. “Are Dad and Shy here?”
Mom held open the door for Koda and me. “They’re on the back deck grilling the chicken. This serious?”
I nodded and wove through the open ranch house. A large living and dining area spilled into a kitchen that would make any chef jealous. And the entire back wall was dotted with massive windows, making it feel as if the house were open to the fields behind it. Cows and horses grazed on land that went on for miles. Property that ran right up to the mountains.
It had been more than a little disturbing that we could almost see the shed where Shiloh had been held for five nights. The mountain seemed to taunt us, even now. But the range was still beautiful—that beauty was simply haunted.
I opened one of the French doors, and Koda bounded over to Shiloh. She sat on the end of a lounge chair, and Koda put his paws on her shoulders. She’d always loved animals, but after her kidnapping, she’d started to spend more time with them than anyone else. Koda licked the side of her face, and Shiloh laughed.
There wasn’t a better sound than my sister laughing, a confirmation that she was happy and safe. And now I had to ruin it.
My dad’s hand clamped down on my shoulder in greeting. “What’re you doing out here? I thought you were on duty tonight.”
“I switched my shift to tomorrow.”
Mom joined us on the back deck. “Hayes has something to tell us, and it’s serious.”
Dad’s gaze turned assessing. “What’s going on?”
I shot a sidelong look at Shiloh, who picked up on it immediately, her spine stiffening. She’d developed this built-in radar for people looking at her or whispering, an ability finely honed over years of living in a small town where she was the biggest story to gossip about. My jaw worked back and forth as anger heated in me again. “Everly Kemper is back. She’s living at their old property.”
My mom froze, her gaze drifting to the Kemper property up on the mountain. “I didn’t think she’d ever come back.”
“Neither did I.” The words came through clenched teeth, and Mom’s gaze drifted back to me.
“There could be a lot worse news.”
I glanced at Shiloh, who seemed lost in a world of her making, imagination or memory taking over. “This is pretty damn bad in my book,” I hissed at my mom, inclining my head towards Shiloh.
My sister startled from her haze and sent me a death glare. But as usual, she didn’t say a word, simply took off for the barn, my dog following in her wake. I muttered a curse. “That was what I was worried about.”
My mom rubbed my back like she’d done when I was a little boy. “Nothing about the path Shy has had to walk has been easy. The gossip mill is bound to kick up, and that pisses me right off. But since you’ve given her a heads-up, Shiloh will steer clear of town for a bit.”
“She shouldn’t have to,” I gritted out.
“You’re right, she shouldn’t. But life isn’t fair. It certainly hasn’t been for Everly Kemper.”
I bit back the words that wanted to escape. Dad watched as Shiloh disappeared into the barn. “I can’t imagine how scared that little girl must have been. Only eleven. Riding down that mountain in the dark to do the right thing. And her whole family turned on her.”
I tried to push the image out of my mind. I didn’t want to see Everly as a little girl, scared and alone. I didn’t want to think about her or her family at all.
My mom took hold of my arm, giving it a squeeze. “How’d you hear about this, anyway?”
“Calder heard that someone had bought the place, but I guess he was wrong. I went up there to introduce myself, and there she was.”
She gripped my biceps harder. “Hayes Easton, please tell me you were warm and welcoming to that girl.”
Heat crept up the back of my neck. “She doesn’t need warm and welcoming. She needs to go back to wherever she came from.”
Dad set his barbeque tongs down with a clang and turned around to face me dead-on. “That girl saved your sister’s life. A couple more days and she could’ve died of dehydration. She risked everything for someone she didn’t even know.”
“Her father kidnapped Shiloh!” I couldn’t believe my parents were taking this in stride. So happy to have the memory dug up and
salt poured into every wound.
“Hayes…” My mom’s voice grew quiet, thick with emotion. “It kills me that Shy will never be the same because of the actions of a sick man. But none of it was Everly’s fault. You need to open your eyes a little more. You’ve always seen things in black and white, but life is shades of gray.”
I pulled my keys out of my pocket, fisting them so the bite of pain would keep me in check. “I just wanted to give you a heads-up. I’m going to head back to town now.”
Mom laid a hand on my forearm. “Hayes, don’t do that. Stay. Have dinner. Shy’ll be back when she’s ready, and we can all eat together.”
I couldn’t refuse. Not when there was so much hurt in my mother’s voice. She might not recognize it, but that pain was there because Everly had returned. Stirring things up just like I’d feared. We’d be lucky if Shiloh had only retreated to her loft above the barn. If it was a bad episode, she’d grab her horse and her pack and disappear for days, leaving us all worried half to death.
I just couldn’t see Everly as a hero. Couldn’t erase her ties to the man who’d destroyed so much of the heart of my family. I simply wasn’t built that way.
5
Everly
Pulling into a parking spot outside the hardware store, I kept my hands firmly on the wheel. I’d mentally donned my armor all the way here, bracing myself for any ugliness that might come my way. If Hayes’ reaction was anything to go by, I’d have to get used to it.
I rolled my shoulders back and turned off the engine. More than a few projects around the cabin needed my attention. Drawer pulls that needed replacing. A few warped cabinet doors. A bedroom door that needed to go. And paint. I needed lots of paint.
I’d decided that paint was the solution to ushering out the old and bringing in the new. Fresh colors on the walls to bring in light and drown out memories. I still hadn’t been able to bring myself to venture inside the main house. Making the cabin mine would have to do for now.
Tattered Stars Page 3