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Riley

S weat beads along my skin as I finish the ten-mile run I’d set out to do as soon as I set foot in the gym. The treadmill is never my first choice, but I wanted to be near my truck just in case I’m needed at the hospital.

Nova is there now, sitting in Jules’s room to ensure she remains safe. I don’t believe whoever is after her will be able to track us here—at least not easily—but I’m taking no chances. This isn’t the first contract killer I’ve dealt with. I know how they think. Eventually, he’ll find us here.

I just hope he’s apprehended before that time comes.

After taking a drink of my water, I wrap my hands and head for the heavy bag in the corner.

I’d boxed for Team Army near the beginning of my enlistment, but after losing my temper in the heat of a fight, I stepped away.

Now, the bag is the only thing I’ll fight.

Unless, of course, I’m fighting for my life or the life of someone else.

I slam my fist into the bag, and it swings.

Right hook.

Left.

Spinning, I land a kick then drop down and knock out thirty pushups before bouncing back onto the balls of my feet and starting the routine all over again. It’s a great way to clear my head since it’s all muscle memory at this point.

Even as my mind keeps trying to run over the case, I shove the thoughts aside and focus only on the feel of my heart beating against my chest. The sweat slicking on my skin. I need this break. This step away from the chaos so I can get my mind right.

The door opens, so I pause my routine at round five and turn to face Dylan as he comes in. My youngest brother, also the youngest twin by fifteen minutes, always looks one second away from snapping.

The anger he carries rivals even my own, though it’s not quite matched. See, I was with Tucker when we pulled him out of that hell he’d been trapped in for three months. And the look of his gaunt, tortured expression will haunt me until the day I die.

“Hey, here for a workout?” I ask him.

“Yeah.” He doesn’t elaborate, but the look on his face says it all.

“You saw Emma today, didn’t you?”

He glares at me. “She and Mom are helping to plan the Independence Day barbeque. She was just at the house.”

My brother has only ever loved one woman: Emma Franklin. She was homeschooled just like we were, so our moms started a co-op that got together once a week, and we donated our time to various charities here and in Dallas.

They got close and started dating when they turned sixteen. Honestly, I thought they’d get married. We all did. But then Dylan surprised us by deciding to follow Tucker into the army and not following through with his original plan of college before applying to join the Dallas Police Department.

Once he came back from deployment, he wasn’t the same. And even though Emma has tried to reach him again, the walls he put in place are too strong. Too sturdy for anyone to break down.

It’s a small town, though, and whenever he sees her, it’s as though he’s being reminded of the parts of him he lost all those years ago. The happy boy he was. The hopeful man he’d been.

“Sorry, man.”

He doesn’t answer as he heads toward the rack of free weights.

We work out in silence for a while, and when I head over to the squat rack, he sits up. “You doing okay?”

“Fine, why?”

“You had quite a bit of action in Phoenix.”

“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

“Is Jules Landers what her brother described?” he asks curiously.

“You mean a weak, addicted, murdering thief? Hardly.”

He snorts.

“She’s not at all what I expected. Honestly, I think she’d give you a run for your money in the grumpy department. I can tell she’s never really felt like she has anyone to rely on. And frankly, the more I learn about her brother, the more I don’t like him.”

“I didn’t care for him from the second he walked through the door,” Dylan replies as he sets his weights down.

“Something’s off. I’ll be giving him a call after I leave here to see what else I can pump out of him. He doesn’t know I found her, and I intend to keep it that way until further notice.”

“I’d say that’s a solid plan,” Dylan replies. He picks up his weights again and lies back on the bench before pushing them up into a press.

“Is Tucker in his office today? Or is he working the ranch?”

“Ranch,” he replies. “He’s helping Leon check fencing before we rotate the cattle.”

“Gotcha.” Leon is a ranch hand who’s been with us for quite some time, but he got bucked off a new rescue horse last week and fractured his knee. Fixing fencing alone is not something he can do at the moment.

Our other ranch hand moved away last month, leaving just Leon, the five of us, and Dad to run things. Which is doable, but with the search and rescue business too, things have been a bit stressful.

“I’m heading back to the hospital after I talk to him. I’m hoping Nova has warmed her up a bit so she’ll be more open.”

Dylan gets up and trades his weights out for heavier ones. “Is she immune to the Riley charm?” he asks with a grin.

“Let’s just say she’s not a fan. Honestly, I’m not too crazy about her either.”

Dylan lies back on the bench. “How fascinating.”

“Why is that fascinating?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who didn’t crack for you. You must be losing your edge.”

“That, or she’s just a bit more closed off than most. Either way, I’ll get it figured out.” I wipe the sweat from my forehead and grab my water. “You good, or do you need a spot?”

“I’m good. Thanks.”

“See you later.” I step out of the gym and into the bright sunlight overhead. It’s nearly the end of June, so summer is just starting to ramp up here in Texas. And by that, I mean it hasn’t quite broken a hundred degrees yet.

It’s been plenty hot since May.

My cell rings, so I raise it to check the readout. Fantastic. Guess we’re doing this sooner rather than later. “Mr. Landers, I was just about to call you.”

“Have you found her?”

“I told you that I would call with an update when I had one.”

“And you just said you were about to call me. Does that mean you found her?”

“It means I have an update. I know who killed your grandfather.”

He’s silent a moment. “You don’t think it was Jules?”

“I know it wasn’t. There were boot prints at the crime scene—I saw them in the photos—and I managed to find the identity of his killer. A man who, I believe, is still after your sister because she managed to get away.”

“She saw him?”

“That’s my guess.”

“Who is it?”

“Ian Fletcher. Does the name ring a bell?”

He’s quiet a moment. “No. Could be someone Jules knows. An addict who used to run in her circle. She didn’t have the highest quality of friends, and she’d been staying with our grandfather.”

Anger eats away at the good mood my workout put me in.

For someone who claims to love his sister and want her back, he’s sure quick to throw her under the bus.

“Is there any chance your grandfather was into something he shouldn’t have been?

Something that could have brought this type of attention to the family? ”

“Absolutely not. My grandfather was a great man.”

“I’m not trying to insult him,” I reply as I unlock the front door of my house and step inside. Romeo rushes forward and greets me. “But I need all of the facts, Mr. Landers, or my likelihood of success is not nearly as high as both of us want.”

“I hired you to find my sister. Not my grandfather’s killer.”

“Until two minutes ago, you thought that person was one and the same.”

He sighs into the phone. “I’ll look through our phone records and my grandfather’s emails. See if there’s any Ian Fletcher that pops. I can check Jules’s phone, too, since she left it behind.”

“Perfect. I’ll let you know if I have anything to share.”

Someone knocks on my door, so I pull it open and wave to Bradyn.

“Thank you. Please, Mr. Hunt, I just want to find her. Let me know as soon as you know something.”

“I understand, Mr. Landers. Goodbye.” After hanging up the phone, I set it on my counter.

“How did that call go?” Bradyn questions.

“About as good as you would think since I haven’t told him we found Jules yet.”

“No?”

“I’ve got this feeling in my gut I can’t shake. Like there’s more to this than we’re seeing. So, until I get the all clear from her, I’m not letting him know where she is.”

“She doesn’t want him to know either?”

I shake my head and cross my arms. “Not yet, anyway. I think she’s still afraid Fletcher will track her down and he’ll get caught in the crosshairs.” I move into the kitchen and grab an apple from the bowl on my counter.

“Lani said she refused pain medication of any kind.”

“She did.”

“She also said you packed enough gauze in her injury to wrap a mummy.”

I snort. That sounds exactly like something Lani would say. “It was a big wound.”

“A hunting knife of some kind would be my best guess.” He tosses a 3D computer-rendered example of what the knife must have looked like. “Tucker made this after Lani sent him the dimensions of the wound. It was serrated, too, from the looks of the injury.”

“He wanted her dead. Fast.”

“She’s a loose end for him. And loose ends are not something contract killers care to have. It makes it harder to get a job.” Bradyn runs a hand through his hair. “What’s your plan going forward?”

“I’m going to bring her here and set her up in the guest room where I can make sure she’s safe. Then, as soon as she’s healed, I plan to take her back to Seattle to walk me through the crime scene. I need to see it myself.”

“If they catch Fletcher beforehand?”

“Hopefully, he rolls on whoever hired him, and Jules Landers can go back to her life without further incident.”

“Then let’s pray this gets wrapped up quickly. The last thing we need is anyone getting word we have a celebrity here in Pine Creek. Sharon will eat that up so fast we won’t be able to stop the backlash before it’s out in the open. This is one can of worms I want to control the release of.”

Sharon Thomas was Bradyn’s girlfriend when they were teenagers.

It was brief, and she’d cheated on him at the senior prom he’d been attending as her guest. Now, she’s a reporter for our small town’s newspaper and very nearly got Bradyn’s now-wife, Kennedy, killed when she’d—despite Bradyn’s refusal to allow an interview—run Kennedy’s face in the paper after a particularly nasty storm caused our barn to burn down.

Ever since then, she’s been lying low, but this is exactly the kind of story that would have her breaking whatever rules her editor has put in place with regard to our ranch just so she could get the scoop.

It’s why Jules is in the hospital under a fake name and why every employee signed NDAs when we arrived.

“Lani said she should be ready for release tomorrow, which means we won’t have to stress too much about it getting out once she’s not there anymore.”

“Sounds good.” He studies me. “You doing okay?”

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” I ask with a laugh.

“I’m rock solid, brother, you know that.

” It’s a facade. A mask I wear to keep what’s inside from coming out.

Fake it till you make it and all that. The truth is I’m tired.

Every day is a fight against the onslaught of memories I keep locked away.

After all, there’s no changing the past. So why let it have power over me?

“Just checking. Phoenix sounds like it was stressful.”

“You can say that again.” The sight of Jules lying on the floor, blood pouring out of her abdomen, kept me up last night. As did the fact that she wanted me to leave her there to die so I could catch her grandfather’s killer.

She’d been willing to give up her life in that moment. Maybe she wasn’t thinking rationally. But a part of me wonders if she’s not tired, too.