Page 61 of When the Smoke Clears

He lifts a brow, waiting.

“I wasn’t exactly social,” I add. “I was awkward. Obsessed with history. I worked. I went to school. I hung out with Luke. That was it.”

“What about your mom?” he pushes gently.

“We barely talked by then.” I exhale. “She was spending a lot of time at the casino.”

Gabe nods. “Heavy pours and easy gambling.”

“Exactly. And looking for her next husband. We passed like ships in the night.”

“She could’ve owed someone money,” he says, pacing now, energy vibrating under his skin. “But that doesn’t feel like the whole picture.”

He stops, eyes narrowing. “This has to do with Luke, too.”

I shrug helplessly. “Everyone liked him. Sure, there was regular high school jealousy, but nothing…like this. You were there. You saw.”

“Yeah.” He drags a hand through his hair. “Maybe Luke can shake more out of the SUV lead.”

“It was a sedan,” I correct automatically.

His mouth tilts. “That’s not what I heard.”

“Ugh. You two are insufferable.” I snag a throw pillow and launch it at his head.

He catches it easily, laughing.

The sound dies as his phone rings on the table.

He glances at the screen and answers. “You sick of the family already?” he asks, light.

His expression shifts as he listens—humor gone, posture tightening. His gaze drops to the floor. Something cold unfurls in my stomach.

I inch forward on the couch, fingers digging into my knees.

“Okay,” he says finally, and hangs up.

My heart hammers against my ribs. “Gabe?”

He looks up slowly, eyes heavier than they were a minute ago. “Luke’s on his way home,” he says. “The autopsy of your mom came back.”

He swallows.

“It’s not good news.”

CHAPTER 15

LUKE

“I can’t say for certain, Luke, but there’s a real possibility that Gretchen Tanner was murdered.”

I run Doc Stevenson’s sentence on repeat the whole way down the mountain, as if I play it enough times, it’ll turn into something else. It doesn’t.

For years, Gretchen Tanner was the woman who hurt Isla. Now all I can see is a scared mother whose last act might’ve been dying for secrets she never got to tell her daughter.

My heart kicks harder the closer I get to town, every curve in the road another reminder that I’m up against a clock I can’t see.

The last place I wanted to be when Doc called was precisely where I was—at my father’s birthday “dinner,” which turned into a full-blown event for the entire town.