Page 141 of Starcrossed Colorado

But my hunch was this:

Lori had asked Elias to meet with her that night, planning to break up with him. She drove to the trailhead about a mile away from Elias’s house. Maybe he walked there to meet her. Or drove himself.

We knew that Lori had walked the trail, dropping her phone near the old abandoned cabin not far from the highway. Elias had probably been with her. Maybe they’d been talking. He might’ve tried to convince her to give him another chance.

But when she wouldn’t, when she told him it was over, he snapped. Lashed out.

Lori ran. Elias chased her. Maybe she went toward the glow of those headlights on the highway, hoping to find someone,anyone, who’d help her. But at the last moment, Elias shoved her into the car’s path. An act of pure, reckless desperation.

He had done the same two days ago with Emma. Chased her down and tried to silence her. Thankfully he hadn’t succeeded a second time.

After the car had hit Lori, Elias must’ve gotten out of there as fast as possible. It was simply luck of the draw that the driver had been elderly with poor eyesight, which made it all too easy for the police to dismiss what she’d seen.

And we still wouldn’t know the truth if Ayla hadn’t appeared in town. If Emma hadn’t found that photo.

Elias could have gotten rid of it, but he had kept it, hidden away. I wondered about that. But now that I knew everything he’d told Emma, the grudge he had apparently borne against mesince high school, it made sense. Elias wasn’t the kind to let go of the past.

He’d had that darkness inside of him. Festering.

Elias had to have been nervous already. With Ayla’s appearance, he would have expected she could say something to point the finger in his direction. There was no way he could’ve known how much Lori shared with her sister.

I knew what it was like to have a secret. That sense of a noose tightening when you knew it was bound to be discovered. Only, Elias’s secrets were so much darker than any of mine.

He’d followed Emma at least once, supposedly to look out for her, but probably out of that same twisted jealousy of me.

He’d pursued mysister.

I hadn’t killed Elias intentionally, and I was glad not to have that stain on my conscience, if only so that it didn’t affect Maisie or Emma by association.

But was I sorry that Elias was dead? Fuck, no. I was not.

I wrapped my arm around Emma, brushing my nose over her hair. Taking that small comfort that I’d nearly lost forever.

THIRTY-FIVE

Emma

Ashford went outside to “supervise”the feeding of the carrots to the horses, while Piper went to take a shower. She, Grace, and I had spent all morning outside with the kids and Stella.

The exercise had been great to clear my head. Every minute that I got to spend with Maisie and my friends helped put what had happened with Elias behind me.

But having Ashford nearby was the best of all. Just knowing that he wasn’t far.

He had been incredible. My personal superhero. He had saved my life. And whenever my mind dipped back into those terrifying moments, when I had thought I wouldn’t survive, my love for Ashford brought me back out of it.

I finally understood exactly how my dad and Madison felt about each other. They’d been through life-threatening situations too. The kind of bond Ashford and I had now went soul-deep.

I wandered into Judson’s kitchen and found Grace there already, staring into a glass of water. She startled and looked up.

“Don’t mind me,” I said. “I’m on a quest for sugar. I heard a rumor about chocolate in the pantry, and I figured I’d better get to the bottom of that before the kids beat me to it.”

Grace smiled, setting aside her glass. “I’ll be your wingwoman. Chocolate is exactly what I need. Or a can of whipped cream. But if I find one of those in the fridge, it’s every woman for herself.”

I barked a laugh. “Duly noted.” Then I winced, because my throat was still a bit sore.

From the empathetic look on Grace’s pretty face, she could tell. “How are you doing?”

“Getting better every day.”

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