Free Devil's Lake (Bittersweet Hollow Book 1) by Aaron Paul Lazar Page B

still trickling down her cheeks. “Thank you. That would be perfect.” To her own surprise, she took his hand and let him walk her toward the door. Before they went out, she turned to the group with a hitch in her throat. “Thanks for listening.”
    The returned murmurs of affection gave her a renewed sense of strength, and surprising herself even further, she let Boone lead her around the barn.

Chapter 18
     
    B oone settled Portia on the glider, then ran back into the house to bring out a quilt, pillow, bottle of water, and a few magazines Daisy pushed on him.
    “Here you go,” he said, slightly breathless from running. “You can even use the little bathroom in the groom’s apartment. Remember? It’s right through this door, here.”
    She snorted. “Of course I remember. I’m not totally brain dead.” She tucked her legs under her, covering her lap with the quilt.
    Boone grinned. “Okay, Peaches. Settle down there, girl.”
    “I’m not a horse!” The corners of her mouth twitched. “Except I think I’d rather be one, at this point in my life.”
    “Don’t blame you. It would be one nice life. Especially if you lived on this farm.” Boone pointed to the far end of the glider. “May I?”
    “I guess.” She nodded, sliding closer to the other end, away from him.
    He sat down and began to move the seat back and forth in a comforting, rhythmic motion. “Remember when we were kids? We’d come out here after we had a long ride, have your mom’s lemonade… Those summer days were some of my best memories ever.”
    Portia began to relax. The sun-dappled patterns from the lilac hedges growing near the barn warmed her face and fluttered on her eyelashes, soothing her. “Me, too.”
    “Remember the time we went up to Deacon’s Point? And we got—”
    “—caught in that thunderstorm?” she said.
    “Yeah. That was so cool.”
    She actually chuckled, welcoming the sound. “We got drenched!”
    “And ran for that cave, where you heard the mysterious growling sound.”
    “I wonder what lived in there. Was it a big cat? Or a bear?”
    “I didn’t hear it. I still think you imagined it,” he said, tilting a smile toward her so she’d know he was just kidding.
    “I didn’t imagine it!” She unfolded her legs and put them on the ground, pushing back and forth in the same rhythm as Boone. The simple feeling of gliding gave her comfort, and for the first time since she returned home, she felt safe.
    But Portia jumped when her father came around the corner with Anderson, who wielded a long screwdriver. With a nod, they headed for the beat up blue truck and knelt at both ends, removing the license plates. She watched her father tuck the plates into the incinerator by the back shed. Would they burn? Or would he dispose of them later?
    They opened the driver’s side door and using the blade from a box cutter, scraped off all the stickers from the window.
    Boone watched them work. “I think they’re trying to get the VIN number off now. There’s probably a metal plate on the dash… Yup. They’ve got it. And now the one on the engine block. Okay, good. All traceability is gone.”
    Anderson and her dad conferred for a minute, and then disappeared. Her father got in the truck and started it up, heading down the dirt track that wound toward the woods. He leaned out the window with a small wave. “Back in a few hours.”
    Anderson’s Jeep appeared around the corner, following the truck. She watched until they vanished into the deep woods at the base of the mountains. “Where do you think they’ll hide it?” she whispered.
    Boone squinted in the sunlight. “I’m guessing No Bottom Pond. They could drive it right up the ledge and push it over. They’ve never been able to measure the depth of that hole. It’s at least a mile down, some say. You’d never see it again.”
    She nodded. “That’s probably where they’re headed.” She frowned suddenly. “But what if someone sees them?”
    He twisted