Chapter 24

Cade swallowed past the boulder in his throat and rubbed a hand over his stomach. Acid was slowly burning a hole through his gut as he peeked around the living room corner a third time.

Avery was still standing just outside her back door, illuminated in moonlight and motionless. With the phone pressed to her ear, she occasionally nodded or responded to the other person, seemingly as calm as the shallow riverbed snaking through the yard. But her body language screamed with tension. From the wrinkle on her forehead to the stiff way she held her shoulders, she was wrung tight.

He ran a hand over his neck and resisted the urge to storm through the door and find out who was making his sweet Avery a wreck. And why. All day, she'd been killing him. Her mood, the distance, was so unlike her, and it was still assembling. She'd always been reserved, a little aloof, but she'd never been abrasive. Hell, she'd actually snapped at him when he'd tried to help earlier.