Page 122 of Present Danger (Rocky Mountain Courage 1)

“Tell me something,” she said. “After the deputies left, what did you do?”

His eyes clouded with disappointment. “I texted you to find out if you were okay. They didn’t tell me that you were involved, but you hadn’t come to the ranch.”

“Then did you try to contact Leif?”

“Of course.”

“Did you get ahold of him?”

“No.”

“And what would you have said had he answered?”

“Terra, you can’t—”

“And I don’t. I don’t believe you’re involved. But you guys were together for so long, this has to be hard on you. Did you have any idea something like this would happen?”

Owen nodded. “I didn’t want to believe it. I heard that he’d done things before. But he’s ... he was ... like a brother to me, and I guess ... I guess I ignored that he was close to the edge.” Owen pressed a hand against his eyes for a few moments, then dropped it. “I think he was out for revenge. He never got over his sister’s death.”

“How did she die?”

“She was murdered.”

“By who? Is that who he wanted to take out his revenge on? What aren’t you telling me?”

“I’d tell you if I knew anything. Leif was here in Montana for me, but he was here for another reason too. He wouldn’t tell me more because he didn’t want me involved. See? He ... was like a brother.”

“Who tried to kill your sister tonight.”

Owen hung his head and squeezed the bridge of his nose. “If I’d had any idea he was that dangerous...”

“Tell me what you would’ve said to him if you had gotten ahold of him.”

“If he had answered, I would’ve asked where he was and what was going on. But I figured he wouldn’t answer me because he knew I would give him away. I would give him up. He knew I would do the right thing, and he didn’t want to put me in such a tough position.”

“Would you have given him up? You once said he saved your life. So that means you owed him.”

Another car steered along the road, and Terra watched as it passed. She pulled back onto the road and kept driving—to where, she wasn’t sure.

“Of course I would have done the right thing, Terra. How can you even ask me that? And, yes, he saved my life. And he’d come to see me here. Not only that, but he said he could help with my new venture. He wanted to be part of it. To invest in it. Said he had come into some money.”

“This is what you should be telling the other investigators. I shouldn’t have come to the ranch. I don’t want to jeopardize the investigation or—”

He held up his hand to stop her. “You’re going to want to hear this. He wanted to invest in Gramps’s campaign.”

The discussion in Gramps’s office during the party.

“And you know this because he told you? Or Gramps told you?”

“Because I overheard the conversation. And I overheard another conversation but thought I had misunderstood. Now I’m not so sure.”

“Tell me.”

“I think Gramps wanted someone to break into that safe. That he planned for us to be gone.”

Terra kept driving, but she wanted to park again. “How can that be, Owen? This is all ... I don’t believe it’s what it looks like.”

“You don’t want to believe it.”