Page 4 of Mountain Murder

“Who?” Ford asked.

“I don’t… I don’t know.” She tore at the jacket now clenched in her grip. “He was in my room. In the shadows. I never saw his face.”

“Over here.” The second officer—Dwyer’s partner and the man responsible for recovering their daughter, Hudson, Lance thought his name was—accentuated bulky muscle earned over years of discipline and determination as he hauled a full branch of pine needles to one side. From what Lance had been able to gather on the former ATF instructor, Gregson was a man trained to see details no one else could.

“What do you got?” Ford rushed to assist.

Every nerve ending Lance owned had already answered that question.

“A body.” Hudson maneuvered out of the way to give his fellow deputies access. “Audrey was right. It’s Inez McGarthy.”

CHAPTER TWO

This shouldn’t have happened.

Audrey watched from her position against an insect-beaten log as Battle Mountain’s coroner zipped Inez into a body bag. There were other officers, too. Easton Ford sifted through the spot where the body had been left as morning sun broke over the cliffs.

She’d known about the dangers of staying in this small mining town on the brink of dying off. So much death, so much destruction in the span of two years. Murder, a bomber, the forest fire she could still smell in the air, and, more recently, a kidnapping, but the promise of recovery had tugged at her soul. That was what Whispering Pines Ranch did. Offered hope in the middle of the chaos.

Her skin felt too tight, a tingling washing over the back of her skull. The scene played out in front of her too fast and too slow at the same time as she tried to take in every detail.

Inez had finally gotten free by coming to Whispering Pines Ranch. She’d put her past and her abusive ex behind her. She’d created a second chance for herself. One where yoga and nuerofeedback therapy replaced self-harming tendencies and depression. She’d been getting better. She’d been a friend. Of all the residents here at the ranch, Inez had been a bright ray of hope. An example Audrey had wanted to follow.

She pressed her thumbnail into the seam of the jacket she’d found. Inez’s. It wasn’t anything special. A black puffer coat, worn in some places, patched in others. Only there was a new hole a few inches from the right pocket. Sleek, wide. Had Inez been stabbed?

“You don’t have to be here.” The wall of stability and silence stared out over the clearing. Lance hadn’t left her side since she’d run face-first into his chest, and for that, she felt more put together than she should have as a member of their group was loaded into a plain white van. She could still feel his hand in hers. The warmth deep in her tendons, the hitch of calluses in her palm. His hold on her in those terrifying moments had been real and reliable and was the only thing she’d been able to count on. As though his presence was all she’d needed to get through this. Which was ridiculous. Because she didn’t know much about him. Despite having admitted herself to the ranch three months ago, Lance had always kept his distance and never spoken up in group. An island of isolation and pain. “We can go back. Get you something to eat.”

But his reliability made sense. In her practice as a trauma therapist, she’d worked with her patients to recruit family members, friends, coworkers even, to support them in their healing journey. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t. Either way, recovery wasn’t achieved alone. No matter how much the urge to isolate clawed through her. “I’m not hungry.”

The truth was, she wasn’t exactly sure she could go back. Not after waking to find a knife-wielding psychopath in her room. I’ll always find you. The words etched deep into her mind and refused to let go. Someone had hunted her down, had tried to kill her. And killed one of her friends in the process.

Audrey visually followed the plain van as it navigated over the uneven terrain. The coroner would have to declare Inez dead, but who would she inform? “Inez didn’t have anyone. She came here to leave everything about her past behind. Her ex is in prison. Whatever is left of her family got tired of trying to help her. The people here were her only form of human contact.”

As they were for her.

“Easton Ford is going through the surveillance footage right now.” Lance shifted his weight beside her. Intense, in control. As though he were saving his energy and one slip might cost him everything he’d worked for. She’d known men like him. Veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. What little he’d voiced during her stay been laced with agitation and a low tolerance for his physical senses. PTSD did that. Washed the world in a frenzy of sensory overload and constant threats. She wasn’t sure what he’d gone through during his service, but it was clear why he’d run straight into the woods to find her. He craved the danger. The familiar. The place where he felt alive. To protect and be part of the action, and she couldn’t help but admire that dedication. “With any luck, we’ll know exactly who attacked you and killed Inez.”

“We were supposed to be safe here.” Audrey pressed her scraped palms into the bark of the dying tree beneath her. For something grounding and real to hold on to. She’d taken on so many of her past patients’ grief and trauma, their darkest secrets and shames as her own. She wasn’t sure if what she was feeling was coming from her or what she was supposed to be feeling. “There are keypads on the doors, an entire security system watching our every move outside of our rooms, and Battle Mountain PD patrolling the grounds. How did this happen?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.” He said it so matter of factly, her instincts automatically believed him.

And she found herself wanting his confidence for herself. Because sitting beside him on a dead log where her feet didn’t even touch the ground suddenly had her attuning to how much bigger he was than her. At how close she’d come to ending up like Inez. “How? Were you a homicide detective in one of your past lives?”

His laugh took the edge off her nerves. More than that, it did something to her insides, almost convincing her to relax. Lance swept a section of overgrown dark hair behind his ear. A long sleeve shirt and jeans did nothing to hide the flex and release of muscle underneath. Towering well over six feet, he was handsome. Devastatingly so, with a nose slightly too large for his face, a spread of unkept facial hair, and the sharpest jaw she’d seen outside of romance novels. But there was a resistance in his eyes, a warning of something darker and aggressive inside. “No, but it was my job to assess the enemy’s battle plan and pick it apart. You can tell a lot about the strategist by studying the way he works. If I can find out how the killer got into your room, I can find out who he is. Keep him from doing this to someone else.”

A tremor snaked along her spine, forcing her to sit straighter as Easton Ford turned his assessing gaze to her from across the clearing. Recalling the events in her statement had felt as though someone else had been talking through her. Using her as efficiently as a puppet. “You think this is going to happen again?”

“Whoever killed Inez didn’t get what he wanted.” Lance’s voice called to the fear clawing up her throat as he stood. Almost protective. “He came here for a reason, Audrey. He broke into your room for a reason. He’s going to try again.”

“He said he’s been looking for me.” She tried to absorb a bit of his rationalism, but her emotional brain had taken over. To the point, all she could focus on was the even rise and fall of Lance’s shoulders. “That I’ll never be able to hide from him.”

“I give you my word.” Something primal and hostile surfaced in the depths of his eyes. This wasn’t the man she’d studied from a distance the past few months, the one who’d rather stay separate and unreachable. Who’d once brought her a piece of birthday cake because one of her sessions had run overtime and he didn’t want her to miss out. This was the soldier Lance Whitcher had been, the one the Army had relied on so many times. “The son of a bitch won’t ever lay another hand on you.”

***

Battle Mountain PD hadn’t recovered anything at the scene.

Lance checked the angle of the surveillance camera pointed down the corridor housing his and Audrey’s rooms. How the hell had the killer gotten into the building without being caught on the cameras?

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