Page 40 of Crossroads of Betrayal
The door to the cabin opened. Lincoln and Cruz stepped outside.
Cruz situated a cowboy hat on top of his head, completing the police uniform he almost constantly wore. He noticed them and frowned.
Lincoln turned their way, the excess hair on his face and head combined with his casual clothes the only thing that showcased the difference in the twin brothers. “Grace, you should be home. Resting.”
She stiffened at the reprimand. Okay, so maybe Lincoln really just thought she should be taking care of herself after being hit by a truck, but she’d never taken kindly to being told what she should be doing. “I’m fine. The doctor said laying around all day isn’t good anyway.”
Cruz hurried down the stairs and pulled her into an awkward hug. “What he meant to say was it’s good to see you and he hopes you’re feeling all right.” He took a step back and aimed a tight smile at Zeke. “Morning.”
Zeke dipped his chin but kept his mouth shut.
Lincoln stomped down the steps.
“You’ll have to excuse my brother,” Cruz said, nodding over his shoulder. “He’s a bit of a grump in the morning.”
Scowling, Lincoln crossed his arms over his chest. “No, I’m irritated when I have an unsolved homicide and a missing woman.”
Grace winced. “How’s Joan?”
Cruz blew out a long breath. “Shaken up. She’ll be okay, but she’s lucky she wasn’t more seriously injured.”
“What happened?” Zeke asked.
“That’s her story to tell,” Lincoln cut in, voice firm. “But while I have you here, can you tell me where you were last night?”
Grace bristled. Lincoln was beating a dead horse by hounding Zeke. “He was with me.”
Cruz’s eyes went wide.
Lincoln dropped his gaze as if the statement flustered him then lifted to meet Zeke’s stare. “All night?”
Zeke shook his head. “Not all night.”
“So no alibi after you left Grace’s house?” Cruz asked.
Again, Zeke shook his head.
Lincoln tightened his jaw. “Stay close. We might have more questions.”
Grace rolled her eyes but refrained from barking out her irritation. Lincoln and Cruz might be her friends, but they were officers who had a job to do. Even if she didn’t like the way they were handling their job in this moment, she had to respect them and let them work the case their way.
A bit of sun reflected off a speck of something in Lincoln’s beard, and Grace leaned forward, squinting. “Is that glitter?”
Lincoln grumbled and wiped his hand through his beard.
Cruz snorted out a short laugh.
“Shut up, man. Blame Brooke. She had me up all night working on this party shit. With everything going on, most of her planning has been shoved to the middle of the night. Might not be my thing, but I’m not going to let her put everything together all by herself after stressing all day about this investigation.”
Grace’s crutches dug into her underarms, and she shifted her weight. “She’s still going forward with that? I figured she’d cancel. I’m sure people won’t feel like celebrating with a killer on the loose.”
“You know Brooke. Once she puts her mind to something, there’s no changing it,” Lincoln said.
“Where’s she now?” Grace wanted to spout off some remark about how maybe Brooke should focus all her energy on finding the person responsible for causing so much chaos. But that wasn’t fair. Her friend could only do so much, and Brooke had poured her life’s blood into Crossroads Mountain Retreat. She’d do anything to protect the people who stayed there.
Grace just hoped for a chance to cancel this ridiculous celebration. An event Brooke would never let her weasel her way out of, and a completely trivial problem.
“She and Tucker have Otto on some trails,” Cruz said, cutting into her thoughts.
