Page 130 of Starcrossed Colorado

“About forty minutes.” Though from the way I was speeding, it would be less. My lungs were tight. I wouldn’t be able to relax until I’d made it there and seen that Emma and Maisie were safe and sound. Even though I had no reason to think they were otherwise.

“I still haven’t decided about that date with Elias,” Grace said.

“He’s being patient, then. Good.”

“He is. Say hi to him for me. And if El says anything about the date, which I doubt, but if he does?—”

“Spit it out, Gracie.”

“Geez, give me a minute. Just tell him I’m leaning toward yes. Maybe. Definitely maybe yes.”

A quick response was right there on my tongue. But then my brain worked through the last few things Grace had said.

“Wait. You just called Elias ‘L’.”

“E-l. The first part of his name. I wasn’t really thinking. I didn’t mean?—”

“Does anyone call him that? DidLoriever call him that?”

Grace went quiet. “Ashford, you don’t think…”

A sick, cold feeling washed over me.

I had no clue what to think. I had known Elias since high school. He was one of my closest friends.

But he was with Emma right now. And neither of them were answering their phones.

I pressed hard on the accelerator.

THIRTY-TWO

Emma

Three Hours Earlier

As Judson droveus out of Silver Ridge proper, I looked up at the full moon overhead. A couple of news vans were still following us. But they didn’t worry me. So far, our plan was working perfectly.

We headed down the highway that led out of town. Moonlight washed the valley in pale gray and blue, most of the landscape impossible to see compared to the glare of the headlights. But I caught a glimpse of a white cross up ahead.

I pointed to it. “Is that the marker for Lori?”

Judson nodded. “I say a little prayer every time I pass it.”

The very first day I’d arrived in Silver Ridge, the day I had met Ashford, I’d walked past that cross. I hadn’t realized its significance then.

But now, I said a few words for Lori too.I’ll take care of Ashford and Maisie, I promised.The very best I can.

Judson turned onto a small side-spur of road just after we passed the cross. A moment later, his headlights lit up a sign for a campground and trailhead.

“I didn’t realize Elias lived down this way,” I said.

“His place is about a mile on.”

“Not that far from the scene of the accident that killed Lori.” Too far for him to have seen anything. But still, for some reason it surprised me.

“He and his wife Holly were some of the first neighbors the police interviewed about the accident,” Judson said. “His ex-wife, I mean.”

We drove past a dark, low-slung shape, and I realized it was an old abandoned cabin. Probably the one that Lori had visited that same night.

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