Page 37 of Fatal Vision

She flipped through several pages as if looking for the answer. It was a bluff. Colton could see by her face and the way she wouldn’t meet his eyes that she didn’t need her notes to remind her of the connection.

One Colton could say out loud.

Reaching for her hand, he stopped her nervous fingers from shuffling through the pages. “It’s okay, Shelby. Tell me what you found.”

“You’re not going to like it.”

Had she actually figured out the Evers’ connection? “Already guessed that, sweetheart.”

She blew out a sigh that lifted her bangs. Her fingers tangled with his, threaded in between them. “Did you know Wyatt Evers?”

Colton steeled his face. “We might have crossed paths, why?”

“Think about it, Colton.” She lifted her eyes to his. “What’s the one thing they all have in common besides their deaths?”

Was that why she’d texted him that fateful day? Why he was in her folder as a person of interest?

“They were all good ol’ Okie boys?” he joked. “Makes for assholes, everyone knows that, but they hardly deserved to be shot over it.”

She didn’t take the bait. “Theywereall good ol’ Okie boys, all right. Ones who all knew you, right? That’s the link. Not only did all three of them know you, they worked with you while you were a SEAL.”

For a moment, he ignored her words and focused solely on the feel of her fingers entwined with his. That feeling, that connection…he’d never had it with anyone else.

Boy, had he missed it.

Salisbury snored softly, bringing him back to the present and Shelby’s worried face.

Colton released her hand, sat back. “That’s why your boss thinks I was involved? Because I had a passing acquaintance with these guys? Hell, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of personnel these guys might have come into contact with during their service years. Maybe the three of them had some sort of relationship, in or out of the military, and got themselves into trouble. There are dozens of explanations.”

“Yeah.” For a moment, doubt clouded her face. She tapped her head with a fist. “You’re probably right. I’m just missing something.”

What she was missing was more than her memories of the investigation.

She was right…hewas the link between all three men.