Page 15 of Mountain Murder

Her voice tendrilled through his dreams. Soft and inviting, compelling and strong. It settled the nightmares and lit something along the lines of hope in his brain. Something for him to latch onto when the darkness got too thick.

Lance dragged his eyes open. Hell, he wasn’t sure how long it’d been since he’d slept so well. It was hard to want to wake up. He turned to face the hospital room door, expecting a friendly face. Only Audrey wasn’t there.

Scanning the rest of the room, he found it empty.

A cafeteria tray stacked with a questionable looking sandwich, a package of chips, and a box of apple juice waited on the side table.

Sitting higher in the bed, Lance dragged the tray into his lap, careful of the stitches and bandages around his left leg. Audrey had brought him something to eat. It shouldn’t have felt so…significant. Hell, knowing her, she’d probably fed the entire Battle Mountain police department and the nursing staff. But he couldn’t dislodge the appreciation building in his chest. The feeling took on up so much space, he wasn’t sure there was enough air in his lungs for a full breath.

She’d been right here with him. Not just here in the clinic after the stabbing, but at the ranch. In making sure to say hi after therapy most days, waving from across the rec room, smiling at him as they passed each other on the trails outside. They’d become something like distant friends over the past few months when he had no right in hell to ever expect that kind of gift.

It was one of the things he loved about her.

There were no games. No hidden agendas or secrets between them. Nothing about her had him thinking twice. Who else had he trusted that much in his life? Who else other than the few veterans at the ranch had he told about the nightmares he lived with? Not a single name came to mind. Because there was no one else. There was only Audrey.

A woman who’d committed her life to ensuring the healing and support of others through her work, who took on the blame and the responsibility of a patient who’d ended her own life. Who put everyone else’s needs ahead of her own and ran from the ranch to protect those still inside from a killer. Full of warmth, softness, compassion. Things he’d never seen in himself. At least not until he’d met her.

She had a way of doing that. Convincing him that he hadn’t really known himself or let others get to know him. Not the real him. Because this version of himself didn’t exist without her. And he wanted more. He wanted her.

Lance peeled back the self-sealing plastic on the sandwich, eyeing a particularly soaked section of bread, and thought better of taking a bite. It’d been sitting here for a while, but Audrey hadn’t come back. He skimmed the side table for his phone and ended up knocking it to the floor.

The hospital room door swung inward. The officer posted outside of his room poked his head in. “Everything okay in here?”

Damn it. He tried to maneuver the tray off his lap, but there really wasn’t anywhere to put it. “Yeah. I just knocked my phone off the table. I wanted to check in with my friend.”

“I got it.” The officer, a guy with at least fifty pounds on Lance, ducked to collect the phone and handed it off with a grace Lance had never had, even in the military.

“Thanks. Hey, have you seen the woman who was in here with me? Audrey?” Lance swiped the phone’s screen facedown along the hospital sheets to get rid of whatever it’d picked up on the floor. “Did she go back to Whispering Pines Ranch?”

“She and my partner took a walk a few minutes ago.” Deep lines etched into the officer’s face as he checked his watch. “Actually, they were supposed to be back by now.”

“What do you mean?” Dread fisted tight in Lance’s gut.

The officer pried the radio from his belt and hit the push-to-talk button. “Can I get a location on Audrey?”

“She ditched me at the bathroom,” a female voice said. “I’m searching for her now.”

Something didn’t feel right. He tossed the cheap cafeteria tray to the end of the bed and swung both legs to the edge. Stab wound be damned. Audrey wouldn’t just leave. She wouldn’t…

Understanding hit.

She wouldn’t go back to the ranch. Because that wasn’t where the killer was.

She’d figured it out. She knew who was behind this, who’d killed Inez McGarthy. It was the only explanation as to why she’d left without waking him up. She’d made the choice to end this alone.

“Stay here.” The officer wrenched the heavy metal door back on its hinges. His partner centered herself in the doorframe, both hands on her hips. “We’ll find her.”

“No. You won’t.” Lance caught sight of the blank space on the side table where he’d set the keys to his truck. He shoved from the bed, trying to keep his weight off his injured leg. He grabbed for his clothes bagged at the end of the bed. “She took my truck.”

“Hell. She could be anywhere by now. I’ll get access to hospital surveillance and go through what they have. Maybe someone got a look at which direction she was headed.” The female officer unpocketed her phone. “She was right there..”

Lance tore the open-backed gown from his chest and switched it out for his T-shirt. “Audrey’s convinced Inez McGarthy would still be alive if it weren’t for her. She would’ve found a way to get past you sooner or later. She’s spent her entire life trying to help others heal. I wouldn’t be surprised if she thinks she can do the same for whoever tried to kill her.”

“Do you know where she’s going?” the second officer asked.

“No.” A familiar sense of unease raced through him, and Lance gripped onto the bed’s handrail for support. Heart rate rocketing into overdrive, he tried to breathe through the sensations overtaking his control.

He should’ve been there for Audrey. Just as he should’ve been there for his unit before everything had gone to hell. The blood…soaking into the dirt. The scent of burned hair and skin. He could practically taste it, the odor was so thick.

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