The Lie Hidden in Roses Chapter 13

The Lie Hidden in Roses Chapter 13 Toward the Frostline Border

After that, he said nothing.

He only turned around and started walking back.

I stayed beside him, but my mind had twisted itself into a knot I could not loosen.

Who was he really?

If he was working for the people behind all of this, why would he ask me something like that?

And if he was Rowan-

No.

I killed the thought before it could become anything more.

He was not Rowan.

Rowan had a mole at the back of his neck.

This man did not.

hed

But except for that one missing mark, everything else was exactly the same. His voice, his posture, even the quiet rhythm of his footsteps matched Rowan’s so perfectly that it made my skin crawl.

That night, he fell asleep before I did again,

I sat alone in the living room, staring at my phone until the screen started to blur.

Damon had sent a message.

Tomorrow morning, eight o’clock. Ravenshore Central Station. Someone will meet you there.

I typed back one word.

Okay.

Then I deleted the message and returned to the bedroom.

He was asleep, breathing evenly, as if there were not a lie lying in the dark between us.

I stood beside the bed and watched him for a long time.

Moonlight fell across his face, sharpening the familiar lines of his features.

He looked exactly like Rowan.

Slowly, I bent down and eased the collar away from the back of his neck.

The skin there was smooth.

No mole.

Not Rowan.

I straightened, left the bedroom, and closed the door behind me as quietly as possible.

By tomorrow, I would have answers.

Early the next morning. I left the apartment with my bag.

When I reached Ravenshore Central Station, the person Damon had sent was already waiting.

Finished

He was tall and lean, wearing glasses, with the serious look of a man in his late twenties who had learned to stay alert even when nothing seemed wrong.

“Maren?” he asked. “I’m Elliot Quinn. Captain Cross sent me to pick you up.”

“Then let’s go.”

We got into the car, and soon Ravenshore was slipping behind us as we merged onto Interstate 17.

“Did Uncle Damon tell you the plan?” I asked.

“Captain Cross already has people moving ahead of us,” Elliot said. “Once we meet up with them, we’ll head to the location marked on your map. He said it’s extremely remote. We won’t be able to drive all the way in, so we’ll have to cover the last stretch on foot. It may take about two hours.”

I nodded and leaned back against the seat.

Outside the window, the city thinned and then disappeared altogether. Office buildings gave way to open farmland, scattered barns, and low hills rolling beneath a pale morning sky.

Three hours into the drive, Elliot’s phone rang.

He answered, listened for a moment, and muttered something under his breath.

Then his expression changed.

When he ended the call, he looked at me.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Captain Cross said the impostor is gone.”

My stomach tightened.

“What do you mean, gone?”

“The surveillance team saw him leave Ravenshore Heights this morning. After that, he vanished. He didn’t call a cab. He didn’t get into a car. He walked out of the complex, stepped into a camera blind spot, and never came out the other side.”

Cone

That meant he knew I was leaving.

Maybe he had already started toward the border before I did.

“Drive faster.” I said.

Elliot pressed harder on the gas, and the car surged forward.

Two hours later, we reached Briarfall.

It was a small town with a single main street cutting through it, lined on both sides by low, worn-down buildings. Almost no one was outside. A few stray dogs lay in patches of sunlight along the road, too lazy or too cautious to move as we passed.

Damon was waiting beside a gray van.

Three other people stood with him. They were dressed in plain clothes, but everything about the way they carried themselves said they knew exactly where their hands would go if trouble started.

“Uncle Damon.” I said as I walked over.

“Where’s the map?”

I pulled up the photo on my phone and handed it to him.

Damon studied it for several seconds, and his frown deepened.

“This location is close to the Frostline Border,” he said. “It’s isolated, and the road won’t take us all the way in. We’ll need to continue on foot.”

He zoomed in on the image.

“The terrain is bad too. Ridges, thick tree cover, poor visibility. It would be an easy place to set an ambush.”

“What about Rowan?” I asked. “Have you found anything?”

Damon shook his head.

“Our people have been searching for three days. Nothing. No body, no signal, no trace. It’s as if he vanished into the ground.”

My heart sank a little further.

“But there is one thing we can be sure of,” Damon said.

I looked up at him.

“He’s still alive.”

Damon held my gaze.

“They need him alive because they need you to come willingly. But you need to understand something before we go in. If you see him, he may already be badly hurt. And there is a chance they will not let you see him at all.”

I forced the fear down and drew a deep breath.

“I know.”

Then I looked toward the road leading out of town.

“Let’s go.”