His sheriff’s uniform was a dull brown, but the star he wore on his chest gleamed in the weak light. He held his hat in his hands, and his jaw clenched as he walked toward me.
I knew that hard look on his face too well.
I rose from the porch swing. “What happened?”
My heart pounded too fast. He’d only been on the job for a few days-four days—and this gig was supposed to be easy. No stress. No fuss. That was the whole reason we’d left the city.
To escape.
A long sigh slipped past his lips. “They found Sheriff Brantley today.”
Not what I’d expected. “The guy who ran off?” That’s why my dad had been called in to Haven. He and the mayor had once been friends, so my dad said, anyway. When Sheriff Brantley cut out of town, the mayor had been desperate. There’d been no one else ready to take the job, and he’d phoned my dad.
Instant new life…so we thought.
“So—what?” I asked, confused and angry. “The guy decided to walk back into town? The job’s yours now, he can’t just—”
He climbed up the porch steps. “He didn’t walk back in any place.” He ran his fingers through his hair. My dad does that move a lot—usually when he’s worried.
I wasn’t going to like the part that came next. But I just stood there, with my toes curling into the wooden porch and my chin up. The wound on my arm seemed to throb.
“Some kids found Brantley’s body in the woods today.” A rough sigh slipped past his lips. “Or they found what was left of it.”
My stomach clenched. There weren’t supposed to be any dead bodies here. This place was supposed to be quiet and safe.
Not filled with wolves and death.
I was starting to think this town wasn’t much of a Haven after all. My hands fisted. “How do you think he died?”
My dad’s eyes, an exact shade of green to match mine, cut toward me. “Hard to say…too much of his body is gone at this point.”
That was just gross and way too much information for me.
“The animals got to him,” he said and all I could picture then was that big wolf, coming at me with his snarls and growls and too-sharp teeth.
I shuddered.
“We won’t know for sure what happened to him, not unless we can find more of his remains.”
I forced my eyes to hold his. I had to say it. “Dad, do you need me to—”
He bounded up the porch steps and pulled me into his arms. “No!”
Great. The very fast, very adamant response I’d hoped to hear.
“I told you, Anna, things are different now. We’re starting over.” My head was against his chest, so I could feel the rapid beat of his heart. “Both of us are.”
A fresh start, with a dead body thrown in.
Somehow, that didn’t seem so different from my life in the city.
Back home, Dad had made a career out of bringing down killers. The more vicious they were, the harder he hunted them.
Most kids were told bedtime stories about fairytales and castles when they were little. That hadn’t been my life. At night, I’d overheard my dad talking about crime scenes and profiles.
So maybe I’d had more than my share of nightmares because of that cop talk.
No one’s life was perfect, least of all mine.
“We’ll send dogs out into the woods,” my dad said and his hand patted my back. “We’ll find what’s…hell, we’ll find him.”
It didn’t seem like there was much of him to be found.
He pulled back and stared down at me. “Until we figure out what’s happening, I want you staying out of those woods.”
His fingers rested just below my bandage. The wound still ached, and I was pretty sure the blood might be close to leaking through the gauze I’d put on it. “S-sure thing.” My immediate plans didn’t include another hike through the forest.
I pulled away from him before he could find evidence of my earlier slip-away into the woods. No sense worrying him now.
“A bear could’ve done it,” he said, and I saw his gaze dart to the line of trees just behind our house.
I nodded, but I don’t think he even saw the movement. “Maybe—maybe it was a wolf.” Yeah, I blurted again.
His head snapped toward me. He hadn’t missed that mutter.
I forced a shrug. “I heard some howls earlier. It sounded like a few wolves might be running close by.”
“Wolves?” He repeated like I’d spoken Greek. “In Haven?”
“I heard them.” And had almost been eaten by one. My, what big teeth you have…I already knew who—what—would be starring in my nightmares tonight.
“If you see any wolves, you run as fast and as far from them as you can.” A muscle jerked in my Dad’s jaw. “You understand?”