Free Ropes and Revenge by Jessie Evans

trail collapse wasn’t an accident. He didn’t know your feelings, did he?”
    “I’ve never talked to the man,” John said, beginning to see where she was going. “Before or after he was arrested. He and his family don’t come into town much. They’re conspiracy theorists, doomsday preppers, you know the type. They keep to themselves.”
    “They keep to themselves.” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, chewing on the pink skin as she paced away down the sidewalk and then back again. “So how would he have even known about the accident so soon?”
    John shrugged. “In a small town any death is big news. If he’d come into town that day, he would have heard people talking. Or maybe someone called him, I don’t know. A friend or someone.”
    “Did he have a lot of friends?”
    “No. Not that I know of,” John said, shooting a hole in his own theory. “From hearing Layla talk, it sounded like Wayne didn’t spend time with anyone except her, his parents, and his two older brothers. Mostly the brothers.”
    Percy’s eyes glittered and her breath came faster. “Brothers. Doomsday fearing brothers who believe it’s them against the world.” A flush spread across her cheeks and down her pale neck. “Brothers who tell each other everything. Even their darkest secrets.”
    “Are you okay, Spooky?” he asked.
    “Is my face red?” she asked, chest rising and falling like she’d been out for a run, not standing still on the concrete beside him.
    “As a beet,” he said, cupping her cheek in his hand, sending a wave of awareness sweeping through him as his skin touched hers. “And you’re burning up.”
    “Sometimes that happens,” she says, swaying closer. “When I have one of my feelings. One of the true feelings.”
    Even a day ago he would have been too dubious to go along with her, but that was before he’d felt a ghost moving around in his body. And before he’d learned that he was going to be an uncle and that Percy had known about the pregnancy before Layla or Cole.
    “So you think…” He trailed off, his tongue slipping out to dampen his suddenly dry lips. “You think maybe it was one of his brothers?”
    “I think the brothers had a part to play.” Percy blinked rapidly. “I don’t know what, but I think they know something. Something…” She trailed off, head tipping forward as she half fell against him, her hands braced on his chest. “I’m sorry. Sometimes I get dizzy. After.”
    “Then let’s find a place to sit,” he said, concern for her banishing his next question. “There’s a little park not far from here.”
    “Okay.” She nodded, her forehead moving against his tee shirt. “Just give me a second. I’m still shaky.”
    “Then let me carry you.”
    “No, it’s okay, I don’t want to be a bother, I just—”
    “It’s no bother,” he said, sweeping her into his arms, surprised to find she was even lighter than she looked. “Ought to be some pluses to hanging out with a big oaf like me.”
    “You’re not an oaf,” she said, her cheeks flushing again as she tentatively slid her arms around his neck. “You’re very nice.”
    “You too.” John started toward the park at the end of the lane, where Lula Bryce had turned her great-aunt’s old house into a city park and refuge for wayward gnome statues. “And I really appreciate what you’re doing. Until you came to town, I was getting nowhere.”
    “We may still end up at a dead end,” she said, her face close enough to his that he could smell the honey and lemon tea scent lingering on her breath. “I don’t want to get your hopes up and let you down.”
    “You could never let me down. You don’t even have a horse in this race. The fact that you’re even helping is just…” He turned to face her, steps slowing to a stop as their gazes connected with an almost audible sizzle. “It’s really good of you.”
    “I’m not all good,” she said, her lips parting, drawing his attention to