Page 48 of Darkwater Lane

Despite everything that’s happened there, in all of the years since I learned the truth about my ex-husband, it’s the one place where I’ve felt truly settled. It’s where I dared to imagine a future for us—a path free of Melvin Royal.

We’ve had our ups and downs with Stillhouse Lake—there are certainly folks there who’d rather never see us again, and the sanctuary of our home was breached more than once. Even so, I’ve always felt safe there. Maybe that’s one reason the house never sold: it’s just been sitting there, waiting for us to return and finish our story.

Our only other option is to go into hiding again. Pick a new house in a new town, maybe even with new identities. It wouldn’t stop the authorities from coming for Sam, but it could at least keep the other sickos at bay. We wouldn’t be so easy to track down.

I imagine trying to sit Lanny and Connor down and explaining to them that we were starting all over again from scratch. Theywould understand, and Connor might even agree, but I’m not sure Lanny would. Her independent streak has been growing stronger and stronger. Going back to how things were before might break her.

I could never ask that of her.

So, that’s it then. We’re moving back to Stillhouse Lake.

“The Belldene’s are going to be pissed,” I mutter.

“The hillbilly mafia is the least of our worries,” Sam counters.

“You say that now…just wait until we’re back home and they start coming for us again.”

“Given everyone else coming for us, their feud feels somewhat quaint.”

“I’ll remind you of that the next time Jesse Belldene has his laser scope pointed at your head.”

14

GWEN

It’s an odd feeling, returning to Stillhouse Lake. I’ve been back several times since we moved, but this time, driving in with a trailer loaded down with all our belongings hastily packed in Knoxville is different. Even though this move is only meant to be temporary, there’s a sense of something permanent to it.

The gravel of the driveway crunches under the tires as Sam pulls up to the house. He’s already out of the truck, phone in hand as he texts Javi to let him know we’ve arrived and that it’s safe for the kids to come meet us and help unload the trailer.

I sit in the car, staring at the house as memories assail me. When we first moved here years ago, it had been with a sense of promise. It was the first house that had felt like a home. The first time sinceThe Eventthat I’d felt a sense of possibility for a future free of Melvin Royal.

How little I’d known that he would find us, even here.

I slip out of the car and stretch, breathing in deep. It’s cold, and while there’s no snow on the ground, the clouds overhead threaten the possibility. The air stings a bit in my lungs, but the smell iscomfortingly familiar: pine, lake water, and leaves left to mulch in the surrounding woods.

I’d forgotten how quiet it is here without traffic or Life Flight helicopters. Just the ticking of Sam’s truck engine as it cools and the whine of the trailer’s hinges as Sam unlocks it and pulls the doors open.

In the distance, a rusty truck stutters as it shifts gears, making its way slowly along the road that circles the lake. Instinct kicks in, and I watch it for a moment as it heads our way. Before reaching the turnoff to our house, it pulls off into a small gravel lot by a rickety dock that holds several small, weather-worn boats. An older man gets out, white hair tufting in the breeze. He rummages around in the bed of the truck, coming up with a long fishing pole and a tackle box. He fits a cap on his head and shuffles down the splintered planks to one of the rougher-looking boats at the end.

It takes him a few tries to get the engine going, but eventually I hear the muffledput-put-putas he pulls away from the dock, headed out toward deeper waters. A small wake cuts across the dark surface behind him, sending ripples through the reflection of the dull clouds overhead.

I shiver, thinking about what secrets those waters might hold.

When we first moved here, they’d pulled the bodies of two dead girls from the lake. The murders had been eerily similar to Melvin’s. He’d liked to flay his victims alive and then tie them to cinderblocks and drop them in a nearby lake, creating an underwater garden of rotting, mutilated bodies. Once local law enforcement learned of my true identity, it didn’t take long for me to fall under suspicion for the girls’ murders. In the end, it had been one of their own behind the killings. Officer Graham had been a neighbor, a father... and an acolyte of Melvin Royal’s. We’d been lucky to survive.

I’m pulled from my thoughts by the sound of another approaching car. This one I recognize: my SUV. Lanny pulls intothe driveway and parks next to Sam’s truck. At the sight of my kids healthy and whole, I let out a long breath. Some of the constant strain of worry eases from my tense shoulders.

Connor is the first one out of the SUV. I pull him into an immediate hug, which he grudgingly reciprocates. I inhale the familiar scent of his head, a smell imprinted on my heart from the first moment I held him after birth. “You okay, honey?”

He shrugs his way out of my arms. “Fine.”

A frustratingly vague response. We’ve talked on the phone a few times since they left Knoxville, but it’s been hard to get a sense of how he’s really doing. I tuck a strand of his hair behind his ear. “You sure?”

“I never really liked Knoxville anyway,” he says, lifting a shoulder.

This is a surprise to me, even though it shouldn’t be. Before I can press the issue, he starts toward the trailer. “I’m going to help Sam unload.”

Behind him, Lanny slips from the driver’s side of the SUV. I note that she pockets the keys instead of handing them over. I’m sure she’s enjoyed having the car to herself the last few days, though I’m also pretty sure Javi and Kez kept a tight leash on where they allowed her to go.

---