Page 15 of Deadly Target (Rocky Mountain Courage 2)

“And I agree,” Mom said as she entered the kitchen. “Once we’re done, we’re going to sit in the lawn chairs and soak up some sun before the rain comes back.”

Her mother smiled and seemed full of life and love. Except for ... Wait. Something flashed in her gaze, then it was shuttered away behind Mom’s smile. What was it? Anguish? Fear?

Oh, Mom.

Erin pressed her hands on Mom’s shoulders, then leaned in to give her a peck on her cheek. “Love you, Momma.”

She left her mother with Nadine and walked outside. Delmar was in his front yard watering his grass and waved at Erin. Was he watching for a chance to get her mother alone? Wow, Erin, give it a rest. The guy wasn’t committing a crime, for heaven’s sake.

In her vehicle, she leaned forward and pressed her forehead against the steering wheel. She had the distinct impression she was getting sucked into a quagmire, and she didn’t have a clue how to navigate it.

Where would you go, Nathan?

She’d hurt him before, when she pushed him away and left him behind. What had she been thinking to ever fall for the guy when it could only end in hurt? The secrets she’d held for years prevented her from letting him get too close. From taking that next big step in their relationship. She’d done the right thing, breaking it off. He would never understand because no one else, not even Nathan, could ever know what happened before.

Unbidden, the past rushed at her.

She’d made a mistake and trembled in fear. Mom shook her. “Look what you’ve done!”

A knock on her windshield startled her, pulling her back to the moment. She calmed her ragged breaths and stared up into Delmar’s smiling face.

Erin started the vehicle and lowered the window.

“Hi, Delmar. What can I do for you?”

“I just wanted to make sure you’re all right.”

Oh. She’d been pressing her head against the steering wheel. “Yes, I’m fine. Thanks. I was just thinking through something.” She’d said too much.

“Anything I can help with?”

“Nothing you need to be concerned about.”

He glanced at the house, longing in his eyes.

“Mom has company today. She’s doing fine, by the way.”

He turned his attention back to her, and her skin crawled. She rubbed the goose bumps.

“I’m glad to hear it. You need anything at all, you let me know.” Delmar turned and walked back to his yard. The high school science teacher and his wife had lived next door when Erin and Mom moved in. Then Mom married Dwayne, Erin’s stepdad. Delmar’s wife died and then, eventually, Dwayne died too. Both widowed, maybe there was something going on between Mom and Delmar.

Delmar waved toward the backyard. Mom appeared between the houses and gestured for him to join her and Nadine in the back. Oh, great. Then again, Erin’s aversion to the man was probably just a personal thing. Mom would be safe with her friends planting pansies and enjoying the sunshine.

Erin should concentrate on finding Nathan. Where would you go, Nathan? He’d always been driven to prove himself—to what or whom, she could guess. His father. Nathan couldn’t see it himself, back then at least, but it was plain as day to Erin that he longed for the man’s approval and had become a detective to be like his father. Erin didn’t understand that—the man had abandoned his family, after all. The human mind, human nature still confounded most of psychology, and that made sense considering that psychology studies didn’t take the sin nature into account. But her thoughts were getting off track.

She pushed them back on task—Nathan wanting to be like his father. Thinking along those lines, Erin believed he was probably at the river—just like she’d suggested to Terra—the place where his father was shot, especially if Nathan felt left out of an investigation this important to him. If he wasn’t supposed to be there, he could have waited until after the other detectives left the scene.

There was only one way to find out.

Erin headed out of town and toward the Grayback River to the place where Nathan had taken her once before. She’d never been able to shake her fear of the woods, but back then she was in love with Nathan and would have done anything for him.

The fishing spot had meant something to Nathan, and now that memory had been destroyed with the worst kind of violence. Painful though it was, she imagined Nathan’s shock at seeing his father shot in the head. A shudder crawled over her.

Twenty minutes later, she spotted the trailhead that led down to the Grayback River where Casper Creek ran into it, near that old dam. She recognized Nathan’s old Jeep Cherokee and parked beside it. He hadn’t come in his unmarked county vehicle. Had the evidence team and the investigators already finished with the crime scene, or was Nathan lurking in the woods, waiting for the moment when he could enter the area without concern? Erin tried calling Terra to let her know she’d found Nathan’s vehicle at the trailhead to the crime scene. But her call wouldn’t go through.

Still, finding his vehicle didn’t mean she’d actually found him.

She got out of her car and moved around, holding her cell up just right. There. Two bars. She called Terra and got her voice mail, so she left a message. Then she called Jack and also got his voice mail and left him a message. Then she texted both her friends in the same text.

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