Chapter 20. The Warehouse

Wade POV

I made the forty miles back down the pass in thirty minutes with Rae's headlight in my mirror the whole way. She rode like she'd been born on a bike. She didn't fall behind once.

At the compound gate, I pulled alongside her.

"Stay with Birdie," I said. "Please. Not because you can't handle it. Because if the sheriff's looking at Black Pine tonight, I don't want your name anywhere near a murder scene. Your father would use it."

She looked at me for a long second. I could see her weighing it, the way she weighed everything, and I braced for the argument.

"Call me the second you know anything," she said. "Not the morning. The second."

"The second."

She went inside. I went to the river with Judge and Eli.