Page 59 of What Doesn't Kill Her

“A murder? What kind of murder?” Max hoped he didn’t look guilty.

“Throat slashed.” Ranger Holt adjusted her stance and somehow looked even more forceful. “Someone saw a man fitting your description fleeing the scene.”

Max broke a sweat. Someone saw him. He was in trouble—and that meant Kellen and Rae were in trouble. “Look. You checked out the knife. It’s clean. I’m Max Di Luca. I’m related to the Di Lucas at Yearning Sands Resort. I manage the Di Luca Winery in Oregon. I left Oregon yesterday. I got here this morning.” Maxcouldn’tbe detained here.

“I know your name,” Ranger Holt acknowledged. “That doesn’t absolve you of possible murder.”

Max had to be very careful now. “I’m on a mission. My daughter and my...my girlfriend are up here somewhere.”

“Okay.” Ranger Nicolson drew out the word. “What made you decide they are in danger?”

Be wary, Max.“I didn’t think they were in danger. Not before I met you.”

“Then why are you tracking them?” Ranger Holt asked.

“I’m not tracking them. I know where they’re going—to Horizon Ridge.”

“Why would they do that?” Ranger Nicolson asked.

They were hammering him with questions, trying to catch him in a lie. But playing football had taught him how to remain calm under pressure, and that inner peace thing he’d learned at the monastery helped now, too. His voice remained steady, warm, trustworthy. He hoped to hell. “My girlfriend is in security. She got a job transporting an antique to that guy that lives up there for verification.”

“What guy?” Ranger Nicolson asked.

“The Restorer, they call him? Apparently he’s...odd.”

“He is.” As Max revealed what he knew, and Ranger Holt realized he had his reasons to be here, she seemed to relax. “Why is your daughter with your girlfriend?”

“It was kind of a...not-planned outing.”

Ranger Holt came to attention again. “Your girlfriend kidnapped your daughter?”

“No! The opposite. My—our daughter decided go along for anad vencher.” He tried to say it the way Rae had written it. “Her note is in my backpack. Left pocket.”

Ranger Nicolson pulled out the paper scrawled in crayon and showed Ranger Holt. They exchanged glances.

Ranger Holt lowered her pistol and click-released the safety. “Your daughter is your girlfriend’s daughter, too?”

“Yes.”

“Your daughter is how old?” Ranger Nicolson asked.

“She’s seven. Rae Di Luca. She thinks she should run the world. I’m pretty sure by the time she’s eleven, she will.” Max smiled the way he always did when he talked about Rae.

The rangers did not return his smile.

Max continued, “I’ve done a bad job of saying this, but I’m trying to rescue my girlfriend from my daughter. I can’t contact them. My girlfriend’s cell phone is going to voice mail. Now you tell me they could be dead?” His voice rose. He wasn’t acting out for drama’s sake; Kellen had taken a dangerous job, Rae had stowed along and somehow the job had gone sour. This delay and the knowledge he’d gleaned from the rangers only made him more anxious. “I need to find them. Can you help me?”

“We don’t have communication right now any more than you do,” Ranger Holt told him.

“What about the Restorer? Can you reach him?”

Ranger Holt laughed, brief and bitter. “Zone—the Restorer—avoids contact with us.”

“When we get to a place where we can send out an alert to the other rangers, we will,” Ranger Nicolson said. “Can you give us a description of your girlfriend and daughter?”

“I’ve got photos,” Max said. “Same pocket as the note.”

Ranger Nicolson looked and passed the photos to Ranger Holt, who ran a scan on the photos with her phone. Nicolson returned the photos and passed Max’s backpack to him.

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