Page 25

The hinges shrieked as Hattie swung the front door open, and the noise inside completely cut off at once. Laughter, chatter, the rickety piano…all of it strangled into silence. It was like I’d stepped onto a Wild West movie set.

Dozens of heads turned toward the door, where I stood frozen at the threshold. Boots scuffed against warped floorboards as the locals looked me over, the weight of their stares pressing against my skin. Glasses paused halfway to mouths, and men froze with their pool sticks mid-lineup.

“Welcome to The Hollow,” Hattie said cheerfully, and everyone went back to their business as if that was their stage cue.

Behind the bar, a woman straightened, and the air seemed to harden around her. Her eyeliner was dark, and her hair, piled high in a messy knot, was skewered clean through with what I was pretty sure was a butter knife. Her denim vest was shredded, with patches stitched haphazardly across the back.

I assumed they weren’t Girl Scout patches, unless Thin Mints now came with a side of felony. I couldn’t help but wonder if she was one of Blackwood’s famous serial killers hiding in plain sight.

Her gaze landed on me, unblinking. And then she smirked.

“Well, if it isn’t Little Miss Roadkill,” she said, her voice roughened by a smoker’s rasp that curled around every word. “You don’t look quite as much like shit today.”

Heat scorched my cheeks.

Hattie leaned in close and whispered, “That’s Babs.”

Ah…the name behind the note on the paper bag of gifts. I’d pictured some cranky motel maid when I read it. Not the terrifying woman who clearly ran this bar like a mafia boss with a two-drink minimum.

Babs snapped her rag against the counter like a whip, her eyes still on me. “Don’t just stand there gawkin’. Either order somethin’ or get the hell out.”

A group of flannel-clad men who were seated at the bar cracked open with laughter.

But before I could even fumble out a word, the door behind us creaked open again, and I turned. Walking in…annoyingly good-looking, with a cowboy hat low over his face and a smirk you couldn’t forget…

Was Sterling Hayes.

My eyes widened. The moment he stepped in, the room subtly rearranged itself, like everyone knew who the alpha of the food chain was. His gaze swept once across the room, then locked on me as if he’d been anticipating this exact moment.

The bottom dropped out of my stomach. I might as well have been standing there with my pants down again for how off-kilter it left me—exposed, ridiculous, and completely unprepared.

His friend from last night followed, his easy grin already working the room, but my eyes stuck to Sterling’s, mostly because his hadn’t budged from me.

“See?” Hattie said to him, way too loudly. “She looks a helluva lot better upright than she did drooling on a pillow!”

My face went nuclear.

Sterling’s mouth curved, and his eyes burned into mine. “I’m well aware that she’s got plenty of good angles, Hattie,” he murmured.

And just like that, I knew I was in trouble.

Sterling didn’t stop looking at me, not when the room loosened back into conversation, not when the other man from last night, Ryder—Hattie had told me—clapped someone on the shoulder and started working the crowd, not even when Babs muttered something under her breath about “testosterone pollution.”

His boots scraped against the floor as he came closer, the space between us tightening until I could feel the attention of the whole bar knot around us.

“How’s she doing?” he asked Hattie, despite the fact that he was still staring right at me.

Hattie’s gaze pinged back and forth between us, and she looked way more delighted than the situation called for. “I’m happy to report that she’s upright and mostly not concussed.”

“Progress,” he said, his eyes still on me.

“Yeah, my head’s still attached,” I finally spit out. “It’s a big victory for me today.”

His mouth was still doing that almost-smile thing that made it very clear he remembered exactly what I looked like half naked.

“Good,” he said. “You gave us a scare last night.”

Us. Like there was a committee invested in my survival. This town was getting stranger by the minute.