Page 18 of Montana Rain

My stomach growled, and I rolled my eyes. There was no way I could eat right now, despite my body’s thoughts to the contrary.

Jude was walking up the steps to the lodge when I pulled up. He smiled and started to wave when he saw me getting out of the car. “Is this a social call?”

“No,” I managed. “Well, I hope it will turn out that way, but no, not yet.”

“What’s going on?”

I led the way up the steps and into the lodge and sat in one of the comfy chairs near the empty fireplace.

Jude looked toward the stairs. “Do we need anyone else?”

“I’ll take whoever’s here,” I said. “I hope I’m overreacting, but…”

He held out a hand. “Stay put. I’ll be right back.”

Jogging up the stairs, he disappeared, and I slumped back in the chair. Was there something else I could have done? Was there a way I could have found her and helped her?

More than Jude came back down. Daniel, Lucas, Liam, and Grant were all with him.

“Sorry we don’t have the whole crew,” Daniel said. “Noah and Harlan are delivering a horse. But the rest of us were meeting. Good timing.”

“It’s fine,” I said.

“Are you all right?” Daniel sat the closest to me on the nearby couch, and the other guys arrayed themselves around him.

I shook my head. “I’m fine, but I was watching the news this morning. There’s been a murder in Chicago.”

Jude frowned. “As sad as that is, it’s not exactly out of the norm.”

“No,” I said. “What’s out of the norm is that I’ve seen her. She ran into me—full body and full speed—in the lobby of the conference hotel the night before I left. After I ran into Cole. She was being chased, and I helped the concierge get the men chasing her out, but when I looked, I couldn’t find her. Now she’s dead.”

The silence in the room was deafening.

“Did you speak to her?” Grant asked.

“No. She ran into me and then past me into the hotel. I saw she was being followed, so I took care of that first.”

He looked at the others, and that didn’t make me feel better. I blew out a breath. “I know it could be a coincidence and might be nothing to do with me at all. But they’re saying it’s the mafia. What are the odds? And I can’t get it out of my head that I was probably one of the last people she had direct contact with before she was killed. What if it gives the people who killed her a connection to me? God, I sound paranoid.” I dropped my head into my hands.

“You don’t,” Jude said, phone in his hand. “I think I speak for everyone when I say we’d rather our friends be paranoid.”

Liam nodded. “Agreed. It might be a coincidence, but in case it isn’t, we’ll check it out.”

“Tell us everything you can remember,” Lucas said as he leaned against the wall. “The whole thing, all the details.”

I did, glossing over my conversation with Cole, and ending with me leaving the hotel and going back to my family’s apartment.

“All right,” Daniel said. “We’ll look into everything. You found it, Jude?”

Steps sounded outside, and the door opened, revealing Cole. My whole body went tight.

“Yeah. It’s all over the media. They’re clearly trying to get the word out to the whole country just in case, which is an interesting call, but gives a little insight. They must be desperate.”

“Or they know more about things than they’re putting out in their statements,” Daniel said, eyes on mine.

I swallowed, taking a deep breath in and out. Everything would be fine. It was fine.

Liam looked over his shoulder and waved to Cole. “You ready to talk?”

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