Page 19 of Snow River

She frowned at the stump.“It’s only about six feet away, that doesn’t seem like much of a challenge.”

“It’s your first throw.We’re taking it easy, starting with a half-spin.If you get interested in knife-throwing, I’ll teach you some more advanced throws.”

She pictured trips to the woods to get more lessons from Bear.Worked for her.She smiled at him, and noticed his dark pupils dilate in response.A shot of heat went directly to her lower belly.

Get a grip.Literally.Grip the knife.

“Blade faces you.Handle toward the sky.There you go.Now give it moderate force and aim toward that log.”

She let the knife fly.It dropped to the ground about two feet away from the target.“Ugh, that was terrible.Let me try again.”She darted toward the throwing knife and snatched it up by its handle.

“Get into position first,” he warned her when she was about to fling it again.“Always check your surroundings, make sure everyone knows you’re about to throw a knife.Make sure you’re wearing hard shoes.”

She laughed.“I haven’t changed my shoes since thirty seconds ago.”

“Basic safety protocol.Just getting it on the record.Now go.See if you can’t bury this knife right in the heart of that stump.”

“Geez, Bear, you make it sound so gruesome.”She winked at him, then lifted her hand to the throwing position, the knife next to her ear.

“Moderate force,” Bear murmured in her other ear, then stepped back.

She could still feel his breath on her skin as she released the knife.It soared through the air, over the stump, past the next tree, and disappeared into a pile of leaves next to a boulder.Exhilarated, she twirled in the air.“That was amazing!”

Bear let loose a “whoop” she’d never heard from the stoic bartender before.“Look at you go,” he hooted.“That was a solid throw.”

“But I missed.I overshot the stump.”

“That’s okay.You’re stronger than you realize.”

She ran in the direction of the knife, skirting the stump that had emerged untouched from her knife-throwing adventure.Dropping to her knees next to the boulder, she poked gingerly through the faded cottonwood leaves.An earthy smell rose from the pile of dead leaves, as if the microbes and fungus were already claiming their own.She’d seen the knife land, but couldn’t say exactly where.

Bear jogged over to join her.“Watch out for the blade,” he warned.“We don’t know how it landed.”

“I know.”She frowned as her finger encountered something hard, but not sharp, not metal.Definitely not her knife, although it did have a similar shape.She blew the leaves away so she could see the item more clearly, and pulled it free.

It was a black nylon sheath meant for a knife.

She stared down at it as chills swept through her.Had it belonged to the knife-thrower?Why else would a random knife sheath be out here?

Recoiling from the thought of holding something that had belonged to a killer, she dropped it onto the leaves and backed away.

Bear pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and gingerly picked it up.“Nice find,” he said, obviously trying to sound casual.“We’ll have to give this to Cromwell.He can run some tests.”

“It could belong to anyone.”

“That’s true.”He nodded, then pulled his phone from his pocket and took a photo of it.“I’ll ask around if anyone’s missing a sheath.”

Her heart hammered.She couldn’t tear her gaze away from it.“How are we going to explain to Cromwell how we found it?We just happened to stumble across it while strolling through the woods?”Maybe hand in hand, since she’d told him she had a crush on Bear?

“I’ll think of something.”

She was sure that he would; he seemed very much at home with murder investigations.

How much did she really know about Bear?

When it came to people, she relied on her instincts.They never led her wrong, as far as she knew.On the other hand, her intuition was dampened here in Firelight Ridge.

He’d made that throwaway reference to not calling himself a cop anymore—which he’d never explained.Why wouldn’t he want to tell her if he used to be a police officer?Was there something more to the story?Something Officer Cromwell knew, but she didn’t?

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