(Mira)
The cabin was warm when we got back inside.
Ridge set me down on the couch and went to turn on the lamp by the window. Low light filled the room. Outside the lake had gone dark, just a suggestion of water beyond the tree line, the same stillness that had been there all week but felt different now somehow. Like it knew something had changed.
I looked at the ring once and then looked at him when he sat back down next to me.
"You're quiet," he said.
"I'm thinking."
"About what?"
"About how none of this was supposed to happen. Coming to Crosswell. The Spoke. You." I paused. "I had a plan when I left Seattle. It wasn't much of one but it was something. Get far enough away that Tyler couldn't find me. Find work. Start over quietly somewhere nobody knew my name." I shook my head sli
