Page 24 of The Case of the Missing Love Stone

“No.” She exhales. “But not for the reason he thinks.”

I wait.

“I know when something is wrong before I can always prove why. Bonds are the easiest because they leave patterns. If one is straining, I feel the pressure of it in my chest. If the bond fracture is close, sometimes nausea and my hands get cold.” She rubs one thumb over the opposite wrist. “But it isn’t only bonds. Stories can feel wrong too. Or places. I just know when something is untrue, even if everyone else believes it.”

“And the evidence comes later?” Roman asks.

Scarlet looks at him for a long moment before answering. “Usually.”

Roman does not write anything down. I’m grateful for that.

“It runs in my family,” she continues. “Susannah Sage, one of the women connected to the Everlasting Pack, is in my line.”

I straighten. “The Everlasting Pack?”

“Distantly. My grandmother spent years tracking the old bond stories because she thought the version Sweetheart Haven preserved wasn’t complete.”

“Why?”

Scarlet gives me a tired look. “Because it felt wrong.”

My hackles rise. I don’t know how to mesh tangible evidence with ‘I got a weird feeling.’ I want to believe her but we’re going to need more proof to solve this case than a hunch.

She crosses to the porch and retrieves a notebook from the stack beside the rocking chair. Pages of dates, names, botanical notes, and bond failures crowd the paper.

Roman comes closer. “These are all local?”

“Most of them.”

“And the older ones?”

“My grandmother’s notes.”

I would prefer a clearer answer. My instincts have already determined Scarlet is innocent but that is exactly why I cannot let instinct decide the case. I want her. So does Roman. Our pack is already orienting toward her. None of that gets to become evidence.

“We work together,” I say. “For now.”

Scarlet hugs the notebook against her chest. “That sounds temporary and conditional.”

“It is.” Roman tries to interrupt but I wave him off. “She deserves to have this made clear.”

“At least you’re honest.”

“You share the research. You tell us before you go somewhere connected to the older rites. We share what we can from the GatorX case, and we don’t let Tom turn gossip into evidence.”

“If the evidence doesn’t support it,” she says, brow lifted.

“Correct.”

Her gaze holds mine. “And if it does?”

Roman starts to speak again, but I keep going. “Then I follow it.”

Her mouth tightens.

“I don’t know you yet, Scarlet. Tom being biased doesn’t make you innocent. Neither does me wanting you.”

Heat flickers through her scent.