Page 95 of Locked In Ice

Lane pushed open the door for Ophelia.They walked outside without another word.Dark clouds hid the sun.And the scent of coming rain blew on the wind.Ophelia strode away from the station, and he followed her.

When they were in front of her Jeep, she paused.“When he was a kid, Beau bounced from foster home to foster home.”

Lane didn’t speak.But he knew exactly what it was like to be pushed from place to place.Never belonging.Never finally safe or settled anywhere you went.Never trusting the people who greeted you at the door.

“No one ever wanted to keep him.He was viewed as one of the problem kids.He was angry.Always in trouble.Social workers said he had attachment issues.”Her gaze slid his way.“Sound like anyone you know?”

He didn’t reply.

“When he was sixteen, Beau got involved with a gang in New Orleans.Guy could wire a car in five seconds flat.And he loved the fancy rides.He was busted a few times.In and out of juvie.Looked like jail would be his future, but then one day, Beau did something special.Something dangerous and deadly.”

Lane waited.

“He was boosting a car, and he smelled smoke.Rounded the corner and realized a house was going up in flames.He could hear someone screaming from the second story.So he rushed inside.Went straight into the fire.”She bit her lip.“He rarely takes off his shirt, but when he does, you can still see the scars on his right shoulder.The fire left a mark on him.”

Damn.

“A fourteen-year-old girl was home alone.She would have died that night, if Beau hadn’t fought the fire for her.The girl called him her hero.She visited him in the hospital every day he was there.She thought he was the most amazing person in the world.”A slow exhale.“Sometimes, all it takes is for one person to believe in you, and that belief can change everything.When he got out of the hospital, Beau was done with the gang life.Done with stealing and theft.He wanted to be someone different.”

Okay, he’d seriously underestimated the guy.

“Beau stuck to the straight and narrow for years.And then, just when he thought his past was dead and buried, he was linked to a murder.A patron at his bar had gotten too rough with one of Beau’s waitresses.Beau fought with him.Threats were made.The next day, that patron was found beaten to death.Wanna guess who was the chief suspect?”

“Beau,” Lane supplied.He didn’t need to guess.

“Beau told me he was innocent.Hired me to prove it.I did.”

“And now you’re going to prove his innocence again.”

“We are,” she corrected as she pressed up on the balls of her feet.“Isn’t that what you said inside?”

It was exactly what he’d said.“We’re kind of a package deal now.”

Her smile tilted her lips and lit her eyes.“Glad you noticed.”

Hard to miss.Where you go, I follow, baby.

“Where do you think we should start, partner?”Ophelia asked him.

They both knew where they were going.He could see it in her eyes.“Thomas Bass.”She’d been right before.Bass’s life might provide them with the clues they needed to find the killer.

“You don’t mind a little breaking and entering?”She nibbled on her lower lip.“I’m worried I may be a bad influence on you.”

He wasn’t even a little concerned.“Considering he’s dead, I don’t think Thomas will complain.”Not that he gave a shit what Thomas would have done.But someone hewasworried about?Royce Nicholson.The bastard was still out there.Another enemy he couldn’t forget.So he would be sticking to Ophelia like a shadow.He hadn’t been bullshitting her before.No one would hurt her.

She was too important.

***

They went back home for supplies.Their bags.Guns.A taser.Lane was heading down the stairs with his bag slung over his shoulder when the front door swung open.

Dammit, not again.He surged forward—

And drew up short at the landing when he saw Ophelia’s father filling the doorway.

Wonderful.But, Opheliahadmentioned she’d get her sitter for Velma.The man glaring at him was the sitter in question.

Her father’s gaze swept over him.Noted the bag slung over his shoulder.The bulge of a holster on Lane’s hip.Her father nodded.“You’re going hunting with my daughter.”

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