Page 12 of Outlaw Ridge: Shaw (Hard Justice: Outlaw Ridge #5)

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Ava felt as if her mind was trapped on a hellish hamster wheel where she couldn’t get off, couldn’t stop moving.

And was accomplishing nothing. She’d been at this for hours now, ever since Shaw and she had returned from visiting Dell, and she was no closer to the truth than she had been when this hellish round two of the riddles had started.

Someone else was dead. A lab tech this time, and while his death couldn’t be positively linked to Dell and the other murders, she knew in her gut that the connection was there.

But why?

That was the answer she was trying to get as she read through the report on the murder once again. Across from her, in Owen’s office, Shaw was pouring over the same report, and she hoped he was coming up with more than she was.

“Rawley Cruz,” she said, voicing the tech’s name aloud.

Ava went ahead and read out the other details as well, hoping there was something in the sparse info they’d been given.

“Age forty-one. Divorced, no kids. Lived alone. Murdered a week ago in what appeared to be a botched burglary at his home. No witnesses. No forensic evidence left behind.”

All of that meant it could have been exactly that—a botched burglary. But that didn’t feel right, not with the new rounds of riddles and attacks.

“It feels as if someone is cleaning house,” Shaw admitted.

It did, and that pointed them right back to Dell or possibly Grant. That, in turn, pointed them to Valerie.

“Valerie is plenty familiar with computers and how to design websites, but there’s nothing to indicate she could break into the lab and destroy the samples,” Ava said. “In fact, that applies to all our suspects.”

There it was again, that going around in circles feeling, and it caused her to groan.

Shaw looked up, his attention snapping to her.

She knew what he was looking for—any signs that she was, well, losing it.

She wasn’t, but Ava understood that her body didn’t always play nice when it came to dealing with flashbacks from the past. And anything connected to Dell meant flashbacks.

Like now.

That sensation of being suffocated came creeping toward her, but Ava hurled her anger at it. Anger at Dell. At herself. At this frustration at not being able to stop people from dying.

Shaw got up and walked toward her. No doubt to pull her into his arms and try to soothe her. And it would work, too. That made her angry as well. That he could do more for her than she could do for herself. But before he even reached her, the door opened, and Owen came in.

Owen paused, his gaze sliding over both of them before he eased the door shut behind them. He motioned toward the laptop on the center of his desk.

“Both the reports have been uploaded from the interviews with Lorelei and Valerie,” Owen explained. He scrubbed his hand over his face, the fatigue and frustration showing through. “Neither said anything new nor anything we can use. Both denied any involvement with the latest attacks.”

Of course, they had denied it. With Donovan’s death, this would be a murder charge.

“Valerie also claimed she hasn’t seen Nathan since Dell’s trial,” Owen went on, “and she has no idea why he would have been near her house.”

That didn’t surprise Ava one bit. Even if Valerie had had some kind of encounter with Nathan, there’d be no reason for her to admit it to the cops. But it made Ava wonder if there had indeed been an encounter and what had come out of it.

It was possible that Nathan had considered seeing Valerie as some way to make peace with the past and then had changed his mind and gone back into hiding. They wouldn’t know for sure unless they actually spoke to the man, and they had to find him before that could happen.

“I cut both Valerie and Lorelei loose,” Owen added a moment later. “Had no choice about that.”

No, he hadn’t. With zero physical evidence to tie them to the scenes, Owen wouldn’t have had any grounds to hold them.

“Did you recall anything else I should know about your meeting with Dell?” Owen asked.

Ava had to shake her head, and Shaw followed suit. After they’d arrived back at the police station, Owen had come out of interview long enough for them to give him a recap, and there was nothing new to add.

“I looked into tracking down an order for the law firm’s stationary, but I came up with nothing,” Shaw let him know.

Owen shrugged. “That’d been a long shot anyway. It’s possible the person printed it out at home. What about the third riddle? Did you come up with any possibilities for that?”

Ava went to the desk and picked up the notepad that they’d used on their drive back from the prison. She’d printed the riddle at the top of it.

I take what’s owed, but never lend. I’m justice twisted, I’m the end. What am I?

Below that was a mix of info from internet searches and brainstorming. Sunset End Lookout—a scenic spot on a local limestone bluff. East End Ranch a couple of miles outside of town. And the nearly dozen dead end roads around the area.

“I’ve sent drones out to all of these,” Shaw explained, “but there was nothing out of the ordinary.”

“So, we moved on to other words in the riddle,” Ava said, picking up the explanation. “The only thing we could come up with for twisted were some areas of the creek. The drone didn’t show anything there either.”

“How about justice?” Owen asked, glancing over the notes. “Justice Creek,” he read. “That’s a town miles from here.”

“Yeah,” Shaw confirmed. “Eleven miles to be exact, but the drone is there now just in case.”

Since Justice Creek was about the same size as Outlaw Ridge, it would take hours to do an aerial scan of the entire town. Checking it out was necessary, but Ava didn’t believe they’d find anything there.

If the third riddle was the real deal and if someone else had already been taken, then the person would likely be stashed closer, just as Grant and Donovan had been. Added to that, the riddle would have almost certainly come straight to Shaw and her and not to Dell.

She prayed that was the case anyway.

If not, then it’d been twenty-four hours since the riddle had been received, and by now the victim would be long dead.

“I also had the security guard do a check of the entire Outlaw Ridge courthouse since there’s a small lady justice statue in the lobby,” Shaw continued, drawing Ava’s attention back to him. “He found nothing.”

“Good,” Owen muttered, but she could hear the worry in his voice. See it on his face. Just because they hadn’t found anything yet didn’t mean there wasn’t something to find.

Owen volleyed glances at both of them again. “I won’t ask how much it took out of you to visit with Dell. Or how much this whole damn mess is taking out of you.”

Good. Because Ava didn’t want to spell out that’d been salt in some very deep wounds.

“My suggestion is to get a little downtime,” Owen went on. “A breather. But since I doubt that’ll happen, continue to use my office and tap into whatever Strike Force or police resources you need. I’m going to run home, grab a shower and see Ruby. I’ll be back in an hour or two.”

Owen turned to leave but then stopped. “Look, the timing sucks for this, but I want you to know that I’ll soon be stepping aside as sheriff. I found a replacement, and I’m hoping she’ll start next month.”

Shaw nodded, seemingly not surprised by Owen’s news.

Then again, this was a temporary position, one that Owen had been forced to take after most of the Outlaw Ridge PD had been killed earlier that year.

From everything Ava had heard, Owen had never intended the position to become permanent, especially since he had Strike Force to run as well.

“I’m sure whoever you bring in will be qualified,” Shaw let him know.

“It’s Hallie McQueen,” Owen blurted, and that seemed to stop Shaw in his verbal tracks.

Shaw did some sort of mental doubletake and nodded. Ava did a mental doubletake, too. She knew that name, knew that Hallie was the lieutenant in charge of homicide at San Antonio PD. And Ava had worked with Hallie to bring down two serial killers.

Hallie’s parents.

Apparently, that kind of serious emotional and career baggage hadn’t stopped Owen from considering her for his replacement.

“If talk comes up about Hallie, try to smooth it over…” Owen started and then stopped. “To hell with it. Hallie can take care of it just fine.”

After Owen left, Ava turned to Shaw. “Are you okay with Hallie being your new boss?” she had to ask.

“Guess I’ll have to be,” Shaw muttered, sounding unsure. Sounding exhausted, too, because he followed that with a yawn and by scrubbing his hand over his face.

Ava considered taking Owen up on his suggestion about that downtime. And then dismissed it. She was exhausted as well, but it felt as if everything was speeding toward another attack. Another murder.

Downtime wasn’t going to help put a stop to that.

“The prison officials gave us a list of the inmates that Dell might have had contact with in the past seven years,” she muttered. “I can get started on that to try to figure out if one of them could have helped Dell do copycat crimes.”

Shaw made a sound of agreement. “And I can keep digging to find out who destroyed the DNA evidence and killed the tech.”

He finished that with a sigh, shut the office door and went to her.

Shaw reached out and pulled her into his arms. For a heartbeat, neither of them moved.

The tension hummed between them, thick and electric, as his hands settled at her waist. His touch was warm and steady, grounding her despite the chaos swirling around them.

“You shouldn’t look at me like that,” she murmured, her voice low and rough.

“Like what?” he asked.

“Like I’m the right answer.” Her forehead rested against his for a fleeting moment, and then he tipped up her chin. “I’m not. In fact, what I’m about to do could be the opposite of anything right .”

“And what are you about to do?” he pressed.

Ava didn’t answer. Not verbally anyway. She claimed his mouth with hers, a kiss that was more hunger and not a hint of hesitation. It was as if every moment of restraint between them unraveled all at once.

She slid her fingers into his hair, anchoring herself as the world outside his arms disappeared.

He tasted like a mix of all things she needed.

All things she wanted. And Ava couldn’t get enough.

She leaned into him, matching the urgency of his kiss, letting herself forget—just for a moment—the riddles and bodies and danger waiting for them.

When they finally broke apart, their breaths mingled, their foreheads touching again.

“That wasn’t the right answer,” she whispered, though her voice wavered with doubt.

“Maybe,” Shaw said, brushing a thumb along her cheek. He didn’t get a chance to add more because his phone rang.

Her body jolted with a different kind of emotion. Not heat and pleasure from the kiss but fear that this was another riddle. Another round of the sick game the killer was playing.

Shaw was clearly feeling the same thing as he dragged his phone from his pocket. “It’s Grant,” he let her know.

She didn’t relax one bit, and she tried to steady herself as Shaw took the call on speaker. “My assistant is missing,” Grant blurted the moment he was on the line.

Several worst-case scenarios had already started to form in her head before Grant had even said that. Scenarios that’d involved the killer going after Grant again. Or someone else. The assistant could be that someone else .

“Give me the details,” Shaw insisted.

“Molly Carrington,” Grant said, the name rushing out. “You might remember her. She was my assistant during Dell’s trial.”

Ava did indeed recall the woman who’d been in her early thirties and had had a no-nonsense, all business demeanor. She did a quick search and pulled up Molly’s photo and bio. Divorced with a five-year-old daughter that she shared custody with her ex-husband.

“I just got a call from Molly’s friend who said Molly was supposed to meet her for lunch, and she didn’t show,” Grant continued speaking at that breakneck speed. “I checked, and Molly’s not home or at the office. No one has seen her all day. Did that sonofabitch Dell have her taken?”

“Have you reported her missing?” Shaw asked, obviously ignoring Grant’s question.

“No, not yet.” Grant paused and groaned. “I wanted to talk to you first, to see if Ava and you had gotten one of those damn riddles.”

Ava thought of the one Dell claimed to have received. Did the justice riddle apply to Molly? Maybe. But Ava’s own phone sounded with a text before she could even give that a moment of thought. Worse, she heard the slight ding on Shaw’s phone to indicate he had an incoming text as well.

“Shit,” Shaw muttered when he looked at the screen. “Grant, I’ll have to call you back.”

He didn’t add more. Shaw just ended the call while Ava and he stared at the message they’d just gotten.

Let’s play a game .

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