Page 77 of Auctioned to the Reaper

I want it so badly my entire body shakes.

But I don’t want to be the man who comes home to Autumn with another man’s blood on his hands.

I release Tyler.

He stumbles backward.

I take out my phone.

“What are you doing?” he asks.

“Calling the sheriff.”

His face drains.

“Grim, come on.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Please. I made a mistake.”

“Yeah. You did.”

I dial Daniels.

“Sheriff. It’s Blackwood. Tyler Jensen just admitted he broke into Autumn’s bakery and wrote the message.”

Tyler lunges toward me.

“Give me that!”

I turn away.

“He’s at his house. I’d send somebody.”

Daniels says something about staying put.

I hang up.

Tyler stares at me.

“You son of a bitch.”

I look at him.

“You want to know the difference between us?”

He says nothing.

“You made a mistake ten years ago, and you’ve spent every day since trying to make it somebody else’s problem.”

I step toward the door.

“I made a mistake, too. But I’m done letting it destroy my life.”

By the time I get outside, my hands are shaking.

I sit on the porch steps and stare at the mountains.