Page 50 of Murder at Rescue Ridge

Nikki stretchedher arms and yawned. She immediately noted Conrad’s absence. The bed was cold where his warm body had once been. The room was black as pitch. What time was it?

She glanced over at the nightstand. The digital clock displayed 6:27.

Throwing the covers off, she opened the blinds wide enough to realize it was daylight. No one was outside in the yard. Had the deputy arrived? Was she on her way?

Nikki made a beeline for the bathroom. She wore an old rock-n-roll band concert T-shirt Conrad had provided to bed last night, where she’d slept deeper than she had in months. Years? Ever?

Shaking off the brain fog, she brushed her teeth with the spare toothbrush Conrad had provided last night, threw on jeans, and then ran downstairs.

“What did I miss?” she asked a stunned-looking Conrad as he entered the kitchen from the hallway leading to the office in the front of the massive home.

“Beau’s gone,” he said, glancing from Nikki to Sandy as he rushed over to the window, holding a piece of paper in his hand. “Yep. His truck is gone.”

“What’s the plate?” Sandy asked.

“I don’t know,” Conrad said as Sandy joined him. He handed over the piece of paper and then looked at Nikki. “Said he was tired of being an outsider in the family.”

What the hell?

“Innocent people don’t run,” she said before realizing how hypocritical that sounded coming from her after taking off with Conrad to prove his innocence. “Normally.”

“Agreed,” Sandy said. “This makes it appear that he believes he would fail the test.”

“I didn’t hear him go,” Conrad said.

“He could’ve pushed his truck down the drive,” Sandy offered.

Conrad rattled off the make and model of the truck, along with the color. A blue Ford pickup qualified as a needle in a haystack on the highway. Besides, there was no way to tell how long he’d been gone. Since Sandy had no reason to arrest Beau last night, the best she could do would be to list him as wanted for questioning.

“I’ll call his cell,” Conrad said. He did, then put the call on speaker. Beau’s voicemail came on. “This is Conrad. Call me back.”

“I’ll run this past Travis,” Sandy said, pointing at the note. “See what action he wants to take next. At this point, Beau is a person of interest, which doesn’t mean he’s bound to stay in town. I’ll call him myself and ask him to come back to Saddle Junction to meet me at the sheriff’s office.”

“Do you think he knows where Lukas Wayne is?” Nikki asked.

“It’s possible,” Conrad said. “Are you thinking he’s going to question the trainer?”

“Or alert him,” Nikki supplied.

“Let me know the minute he calls back or turns up here at the ranch,” Sandy said, taking the note as evidence before excusing herself. “We’ll test axe-throwing abilities when I return.”

“I need to let the others know what’s going on and figure out a way to find Beau,” he said.

“Does anyone have a check-in type app on their cell?” Nikki asked.

“No,” he said. “And I can’t imagine they would.”

“I just thought after what happened to Chloe recently that you guys might have decided to grant access to each other in case of emergency,” she said.

“It’s probably not bad advice, but no one around here wants ‘big brother’ watching over their shoulder any more than necessary,” he pointed out. “Those apps can be hacked. The information can probably be sold, too.”

“Fair points,” she conceded with a shrug. Those were the same reasons she hadn’t allowed that type of GPS monitoring on her phone. Not voluntarily. For a split-second, she feared Heath might have a tracker on her cell. More doubts about the man who’d raised her crept in. Would he do something like that?

Could she trust him?

Conrad finished typing on his new cell, and then his gaze met hers. Electrical currents exploded in the center of her chest. He was honest, trustworthy, and the definition of chiseled-jaw Greek god-type good looks.

Was he irresistible?

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