Page 37 of Thaw of Spring (Knife’s Edge, Alaska #2)

Ace nudged him hard with an elbow. At least it looked hard. “Seriously, now that you’re all in love and planning your future, you think we all should, Brock?”

“Yeah,” Brock said, snagging a french fry off Dutch’s plate. “I definitely think that. I don’t want to be the only one who’s happy.”

“I didn’t say I was going to be happy,” Christian said. “I said that I can’t let her be hurt. That’s as far as I can go with her. She’s a settle down type and I’m just not.”

Ace chuckled. “This is going to be fun. By the way, have you told her that she’s safe for life now?”

Christian leaned back further in his chair. “Well. No.”

Dutch threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, you’re not wrong, Ace.

I’m sticking around town for a bit. This is going to be a lot of fun.

” He glanced at his watch. “However, right now, I’ve got to go.

There are a couple more people up in Blue Creek who weren’t home earlier.

I don’t think we’re going to find anything on these two vics, but we’ve got to do the job. ”

“You want me to do it?” Christian asked.

“Nah,” Dutch said, already pushing up from his seat. “One of the ladies said she’d bake me a pie if I waited till later. I like pie.”

Who didn’t?

Dutch stood and then paused. “Wait a minute. Did you get hold of Damian?”

“I did,” Christian said. “I texted him the pictures again to look at, and he said he has no idea who those two victims are.” He was starting to worry that they’d never identify them. How sad would that be? To die and have nobody that cared? At least he had his brothers. And Amka. She’d care.

“What do you think?” Brock asked.

Christian scratched a mosquito bite on his arm. “I think Damian’s holding something back. I don’t know what or why, but he’s not telling me everything.”

Ace stood and tossed a twenty on the table. “I hate him working at that place. He’s not just there to provide security. We all agree on that, right?”

Brock nodded grimly. “Yeah, we agree on that. But we also agree that Damian’s the smartest person we’ve ever met, and he’s well-trained. He knows what he’s doing.”

“Not without backup, he doesn’t,” Christian snapped. “He talked about me trying to infiltrate the facility and test how good his measures are. I think I should do it. I mean actually do it and find out what’s going on.” He looked at his brothers. “You two in?”

“Absolutely,” Ace said.

Brock blew out air. “Yeah, I definitely am. It could cause some problems with the sheriff position, but if I get canned or arrested, Ophelia can take over. She’d be a better sheriff than I am anyway.”

“Okay,” Christian said. “As soon as we figure out who’s trying to hurt Amka and kill them?—”

Dutch cleared his throat.

“I mean arrest them,” Christian said half-heartedly. “We’ll figure out what’s up with Damian.” He looked at Ace. “I feel like we’re pretty solid with you right now. Have you been seeing Smitty?”

“Maybe,” Ace said. “Don’t want to talk about it.”

Fair enough. Christian didn’t push.

“Come on, Dutch. I’ll walk you out,” Ace said. “I promised Doc May I’d come by so she could check the shoulder I put out last week.”

“That Doc May, she’s a pretty one,” Dutch murmured, his voice trailing off as they walked across the tavern and then out the door.

Brock watched them go. “You think he has a hard-on for the doctor?”

“I don’t know. He does get hurt a lot,” Christian murmured thoughtfully. “I thought he was just being a moron, but maybe he has ulterior motives.” He could respect that. Definitely. Christian’s gaze returned to watch Amka by the bar.

“Can I give you a little advice?” Brock asked.

Christian cocked his head. “Always.”

“You might want to let her in on your plan about keeping her safe from a distance but not being in her life. I find they like to know what you’re thinking.”

Christian folded his arms. “I haven’t formulated the entire plan yet.”

Brock chuckled again and pulled Dutch’s deserted plate toward him to finish the fries.

“Like I said, this is definitely going to be fun.” His phone buzzed.

He lifted it to his ear. “Yeah. Thanks. Gotcha.” He clicked off and looked up.

“The Miller boys finished pulling Amka’s rig from the river earlier while you guys were out scouting. ”

“That was the mechanic?” Christian asked.

“Yeah. The brakes were cut.”

Fury tasted like ashes. “Of course.” He’d figured. Still, hearing the truth confirmed settled hard in his gut. “I still can’t figure why anybody would want to kill her.”

“Jarod had to have been into something dangerous, and somehow she’s involved,” Brock said.

“I don’t have a lot of pull outside of here, but Dutch does.

He should have the background on that idiot soon.

I need to ask Amka what she wants to do with the body once the coroner in Anchorage releases it. Officially, she was his fiancée.”

Just then, the doors opened and both Alaska state troopers walked inside, moving immediately toward Amka.

Christian didn’t think. He stood and walked toward her. “What’s going on?”

“We need to bring you in for formal questioning, Amka,” Jeb said. “We’re sorry, but we now have an even better motive for you to have killed Jarod Teller. Let’s go. Now.”