We start talking through next steps, ideas overlapping, plans forming—but my mind drifts for a second, overwhelmed, and I move toward the door.
“Not so fast, Sierra.”
I pause, turning back. “Huh?”
Luke leans back in his chair, a smug look settling across his face. “You’re just going to walk out without telling the rest of the class what you told me out in the forest?”
It takes me a second.
Then it hits me.
“Oh.” Heat rushes to my cheeks.
“What did she say?” Reid asks, curiosity sharpening his tone.
“Nothing,” I say quickly. “Just… it slipped out.”
“What slipped out?”
I hesitate, my pulse picking up again—but this time for a very different reason.
“About… the fact that I’m in love with you guys.”
The words hang there.
Heavy. Real.
All three of them stare at me, stunned into silence.
My heart pounds, suddenly aware of everything—how big this is, how insane it sounds when you say it out loud.
“I know it’s soon, but?—”
“Soon?” Reid pushes to his feet, but Talon gets there first.
His hand closes around mine, pulling me closer.
His eyes lock onto mine, dark and intense, something deep and certain burning in them as his voice drops, rough and full of meaning.
“I didn’t even know it before… but I think I’ve been waiting for the three of you all my life.”
CHAPTER 38
Talon
The next few days are surprisingly quiet, but the silence doesn’t settle right. It sits under my skin, tight and waiting, like the forest itself is holding its breath.
Given the warning from Sheriff Clay Dawson about how the Denver police are trying to dig into Reid’s past, I’d been expecting the cops to show up at our doors within hours, but nothing happens. No cruisers winding their way up our track. No blue uniforms slamming car doors and doing their best to look intimidating. No questions. No pressure. Maybe Luke’s right and they don’t have enough evidence. Or maybe the Sheriff was bluffing, trying to shake us. Or maybe the investigation is happening somewhere else, which would make just as much sense. The alleged crime didn’t happen here. Different place, different time. There’s nothing for them to find on this mountain.
Whatever the truth is, none of us manage to relax. That much is obvious, even if everything else is still shifting under the surface.
I watch Reid and Luke as they throw themselves into gathering evidence to get Amanda’s husband—Daniel Barnes, the kind of man who hides behind a title and uses it to pushpeople around—locked up. I’ve seen them working late into the night, papers spread across the table, voices low and tight with focus. What they’re doing might actually help. But that’s not the only reason they’re doing it. They need to feel like they’re not just sitting here waiting. They need to feel like they’re pushing back.
I understand that.
Because I feel it too.
Only I don’t have their skills. I can’t dig through records or build a case.