Page 19 of Montana Heat

“She new in town or passing through?” Lucas asked out of the blue.

“That’s an odd question. But yeah, she said she’s staying for a bit. Why?”

“Is her name Kenzie?” Lucas moved back to recline against the wall, facing both Liam and me. “I met a woman in town with Susanna a couple days ago, and she seemed a little jumpy. Made an excuse to leave pretty quickly after I walked up.”

Liam snorted. “Probably freaked out by your size.”

Lucas frowned and tossed his sweaty towel at him. We all knew Lucas’s own wife had once been frightened by his size.

“Yeah, Kenzie Hurst. That’s her.” I nodded. “I looked her car over briefly when she arrived at the garage. She’d been having trouble getting it to start.”

“Could you fix it?” Liam asked.

“Spark plugs, so yeah. Should’ve been a twenty-dollar fix. But something else was bugging me, and I started digging around more. I found some disturbing things.”

Both the guys stiffened at my words, and it felt like the air in the room went still.

Lucas rose to his feet and gave me a serious look. “Define disturbing.”

I didn’t like this. Didn’t even like to say it.

“Her car looks like it’s been tampered with. A smorgasbord of fuckery.”

“What?” Lucas asked. “Are you sure?”

“Hell yes, I’m sure. Her lug nuts had been loosened. Two were missing. Her fuel was watered down. The fuel gauge was tampered with. And something’s wrong with her electrical system, but I haven’t completely figured that out yet. I can tell it’s affected the alternator, but it’s messed up the brake system too. I’m actually surprised she made it here in one piece.”

Lucas cursed under his breath at the same time as Liam whistled through his teeth.

“So, I’m not sure how to proceed. She mentioned that she’d had some trouble and that’s why she’s in Garnet Bend. Do I bring her in and tell her what I found, or just tell Charlie and let him take over? He’s the one who sent her to the garage in the first place.”

“Any way this is all a coincidence?” Lucas asked.

I shook my head. “No. Somebody was deliberately trying to fuck with her. To what end, I have no idea.”

I could still see her face in my mind from yesterday afternoon—features pale and pinched. She was already scared. Hearing about her car was going to make it much worse.

“Brother, that’s a tough call. But since Charlie sent her, I’d go to him first and see how he wants to handle it,” Lucas replied, nodding as he spoke.

Liam walked over and slapped me on the back. “Yep, I agree with Lucas. If Charlie sent her, then she had to be at the police station for a specific reason. Maybe that has something to do with what you found. I’d definitely let him make the call.”

“That’s where my thoughts were going too. It’d be better coming from him anyway.” I retrieved my phone from my bag and stepped away to make the call. But something wasn’t sitting right with me.

“Invite him to come out here, and we’ll see if we can do anything to help,” Lucas called out before the door closed behind me.

There.Thatfelt more right.

I heard the police cruiser pull up just after Lucas, Liam, and I made it into the great room—high, vaulted ceilings with a huge fireplace and leather couch. Daniel, the unofficial leader of the Resting Warrior team, joined us. If there was something going on, he wanted to know about it.

Daniel answered the door at the knock, but it wasn’t Charlie he led inside, it was Charlie’s top deputy, Lachlan Callaway. I liked the man. He had a good head on his shoulders and Charlie depended on him for a lot. In a few years when Charlie finally retired, no one doubted Lachlan would be taking over as chief.

“Evening, fellas. Charlie was feeling a little under the weather so Linda made him come home. Blood pressure stuff.” We all nodded in return and walked farther into the room. None of us liked thinking about Charlie’s heart issues, but the man was getting up there in age.

“Jensen, thanks for the call,” Lachlan continued. “Charlie has gotten me up to speed with Kenzie Hurst’s case. I’m glad you suggested meeting here, because this sounds like something we might need help with.”

“Sure,” Lucas replied. “You know we’ll help if there’s anything we can do.”

“But I’d like for us to try to keep the contact to this place minimal.” Daniel frowned in Lachlan’s direction. “It’s been quiet here for a while now. We don’t need to bring more trouble to our door.”

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