He’d talk to Sloan about staying later. Sure, he had a reputation for being averse to relationships, but things had changed and it was time to approach this head-on.

  He’d talk to her and see what she wanted.

  And he’d put himself on the line. All the way, no half measures. Not like with Leanne, when he told her he wanted to marry her and move onto the next stage of their lives simply because some magical list of check boxes had been ticked in his mind.

  He’d focus on what Sloan wanted as much as his own needs and desires. On what it would really look like if they tried to have a relationship, even if it was long distance at first.

  His life was in Owl Creek and that wasn’t all that easy to untangle. But he’d already found himself imagining how he could juggle a life in Idaho along with one in Chicago, managing his personal life and his professional life across two places.

  For Sloan. And for the relationship he believed they could have together.

  They’d work it out because he wasn’t making the same mistake this time. He was committed to talking through how he felt.

  But in the meantime, he had a bigger problem staring him in the face.

  “We’ve put you in a really difficult position, Max. I’m sorry.”

  “Less difficult since I’m out of the FBI, but yeah, you really need to leave this sort of work to professionals.” Max side-eyed him before continuing. “Not the professionals we hire for jobs, either. Sloan should have left this alone.”

  “We both should have.”

  “While it pains me to say this, because you’re both outside the law, your nosing around has opened a few avenues law enforcement can’t quite as easily breach.”

  “So you’re okay with it.”

  “I’m making the best of it.”

  Max couldn’t quite hide the smile and Chase figured he’d passed some invisible hurdle. He wasn’t off the hook, but his cousin was determined to help them.

  “While you’re doing that, could you ask Sloan to stay off her computer?”

  “I think we both came to that conclusion on our own.”

  “Yeah, well call her and stress the same. We’ll visit Mike Arnold in jail and can come straight to her place to fill her in.”

  Chase was just ready to do that as Max turned into the entrance for the prison. Flashing lights filled the parking lot and an ambulance was parked near the front door of the facility.

  “What’s this all about?” Max hit the speaker on his phone, giving voice instructions into his device to call one of his contacts in local law enforcement as Chase scanned the lot for any clues to what was going on.

  “Owl Creek PD. Will speaking.”

  “Will. It’s Max Colton.”

  The two men exchanged quick pleasantries, then Max said, “I’m over at the prison hoping my former FBI status gives me a bit of an okay to talk to a suspect. There’s a lot going on over here.”

  “A lot,” Will agreed. “I’m manning things here at the station, but the chief sent over a few squads. EMS is on high alert as well.”

  “For what?”

  “An inmate died. He was brought in earlier and was found unconscious about fifteen minutes ago.”

  “Did his name happen to be Mike Arnold?”

  Will hummed as he checked his information, the sound of computer keys tapping in the background, before his grim voice filled the SUV.

  “Michael Arnold. EMS confirmed death ten minutes ago.”

  Max said his thanks before pulling into a space and turning around. It was only as he was headed back out of the lot, the prison filling the rearview mirror, that he finally spoke.

  “What was that I said earlier?” Before Chase could even ask, Max added, “About some accidents just being accidents?”

  “Yeah?”

  “No way in hell this is an accident.”

  Chapter 17

  “You did well, Brother Jasper.” Markus’s voice remained soft and calming as he spoke the words.

  This was a delicate time and any misstep in his handling of Jasper could lead to a problem.

  They’d nearly had a situation with the girls a few months before, but Jasper had come around. He’d calmed at Markus’s gentle words and the reassurance that he’d had to do the deed. That the killing and burial of several of the women had been necessary.

  More, as Markus had told Jasper, he’d had to protect the flock, assisting the leader with the difficult work of culling the bad seeds who’d infiltrated them.

  It was the same technique he’d use now, but he needed to work up to the approach. Jasper was a true believer, but he’d struggled when the girls were discovered. It had taken several personal sessions to calm him down and Markus had even begun to wonder if the man had outlived his usefulness.

  Winston didn’t seem to think so, but Markus wasn’t so sure.

  Nor was he convinced the events with Winston’s son couldn’t have been avoided with a bit of planning instead of rash action. The problem had been handled. But the death of a young couple with two adorable children was not going to go unnoticed.

  Which made Winston’s arrival in the small cabin they used as an office a few minutes later an opportunity to regroup.

  “Brother Jasper...” Winston bent his head. “Hello.”

  Jasper nodded. “It is done, Brother.”

  Done?

  Markus watched the exchange between the two men, increasingly connecting what they were talking about. He’d understood that Jasper had acted, but had believed it the man’s inability to control his more violent impulses.

  But to discover it was at Winston’s direction? “What is done?”

  “My son was poking into our work. He met with one of Jessie’s family after my computer was hacked. He was a problem.”

  Markus struggled to keep himself in line. Although he’d been more than willing to show Winston his temper over the years, it was a display he avoided in front of his followers except in extreme circumstances.

  People talked and they remembered when a person administered harsh words.

  So he fought to keep himself in control, his words careful. “He’s kept his distance from us for all these years. Surely you overreacted with this course of action?”

  “I don’t think so.” Winston’s gaze was challenging to read, as if the reality of his son’s death was finally sinking in. What Markus didn’t miss was the subtle sense of satisfaction that broke through. “And it was Brother Jasper’s quick thinking that ensured we didn’t have a bad situation on our hands.”

  “Computer hackers.” Jasper shook his head. “It’s devilish, invading others’ privacy with those devices.”

  Markus nodded, adding his reflections to Jasper’s, even as he kept a steady eye on Winston.

  His right hand had acted alone, and it left him with a bothersome problem. Should he address it? Or take heart that the man stepped in and solved a situation before it became a problem.

  If he was convinced that was all, perhaps he could have settled himself, but this was a bit much to take in.

  The man had seen to it that his own son was killed.

  He hadn’t plotted or planned, but he’d taken swift action the moment he’d felt threatened. The two of them had worked well together for a long time, but this would take some reflection and review.

  “Brother Jasper, you’ve earned a quiet night in private quarters. Why don’t you go lie down in the Ever Rest hut and I’ll see to it that a nourishing and restorative steak dinner is brought to you.”

  Jasper’s smile was eager as he took in Markus’s direction, and he was gone shortly after, on his way to the small, richly furnished hut they kept for special rewards. Markus waited until the man was fully out of hearing range before he turned on Winston.

  “What the hell? Your son! Are you insane?”

  “It needed to be done.”

  “Needed to be? Do you hear yourself? Do you have any idea what a mess you’re going to bring down on us with this? Your do-gooder boy has a reputation and friends in connected places.”

  “Which is why he was dealt with. It’s a Colton nosing around in our business, Markus. One more freaking Colton.”

  “That’s who hacked you?”

  “A woman Robert’s son hired, who has the skills, is the one who did it. I nearly overlooked it. But I found a small signature she likely doesn’t realize she left and it was enough for me to circle back and find her. She’s been digging in places she has no right to.”

  “Why?”

  “I haven’t figured that out yet. Did Jessie talk to them? Say something that might make them start wondering why she wants Robert’s money so bad?”

  “Jessie hasn’t left the property in days.”

  “No calls then?”

  “Nothing. I’ve gently asked if she’s spoken to her children, and she’s maintained that they’re ungrateful and she needs to regroup before she tries to deal with them again.”

  “The Coltons are a problem.”

  “They’re the big fish we need before we pull up stakes here.”

  Winston’s mulish expression suggested he didn’t agree, but he held back.

  “I want the Colton money and then we poof. We have our normal exit plan in place. It’ll be a simple matter of quickly executing it once Jessie gets the money.”

  “And if they find us first?”

  “Clearly, you’re quite adept at quick thinking and getting rid of threats, Brother Winston. I have every confidence you’ll handle any nuisances from Colton quarters, too.”

  * * *

  “Mike Arnold is dead?” Greg sat at the table at the Colton Ranch as he ran his fingers through his hair. “The guy who got into the accident with Rick and Wendy?”

  He’d asked a series of similar questions, about what they knew, who the guy was and how it came to be that he could have died so quickly after the accident, especially since he’d walked away unscathed.

  “I keep pressing my contacts at the Owl Creek PD, but they don’t have a lot of details yet.” Max sat next to his brother, an encouraging voice in the midst of the chaos that seemed to have descended in the middle of their lives. “The situation’s still developing.”

  “But you think it’s all related to the group Mom’s involved with?” Greg asked. “The one Rick’s dad is a part of?”

  “It all seems to stem from the same.”

  “There are two children at Briony’s house right now who’ve lost their parents. Increasingly, it’s looking like they were murdered. By their grandfather?”

  “That’s the connection we don’t have,” Chase interjected, happy to have something to contribute. “All Sloan found is the strange link in social-media posts between Mike Arnold and a man she believes is part of the Ever After Church. It doesn’t mean Rick’s father was responsible.”

  “But he’s the link. He has to be.”

  While Chase had long stopped believing in coincidences when it came to this situation. A man had his son killed? One he’d left alone for the man’s entire adulthood?

  It seemed...extreme.

  Yet the more they uncovered, the more it seemed the Ever After group operated at the very edge of extreme.

  “There has to be enough evidence to take Winston Kraft into custody,” Greg said.

  “I’ve asked.” Max’s jaw set in a hard line, a match for his brother. “There’s not a single thing linking Winston Kraft to Rick and Wendy’s deaths.”

  “But he did it.”

  “Not according to the law.”

  Chase watched as Max tried to explain it, step by step, even as it was clear Greg was having none of it.

  And how could Chase blame him?

  Everything about this situation suggested the Ever After Church—and by extension one of its heads, Winston Kraft—was involved.

  But the person who’d actually killed Rick and Wendy was now dead and unable to reveal secrets, no matter how badly they wanted them.

  “So who killed Mike Arnold?”

  They’d circled around it earlier. But it suddenly dawned on Chase that uncovering that piece might get them what they needed.

  “Owl Creek PD’s digging in but nothing’s popping on the prison cameras. One minute Mike Arnold is alive and well in his cell, and the next an alert’s going out and the ambulance is getting called.”

  “He didn’t just die, Max,” Chase argued. “Something happened.”

  “Which is why I keep telling you to give the police the time to do their work.”

  It felt so useless to argue and so endlessly depressing to just sit there.

  Helpless.

  Which shifted his attention to even darker, more dismal places.

  “How are the children?” Chase asked.

  “Briony’s very good with them, but Justin is really confused and keeps asking for his mom and dad. Jane’s too small to fully understand, but she gets upset each time her brother gets upset. It’s heartbreaking.”

  One more sin to place at his feet, Chase thought. Guilt, anger and utter sadness for the Kraft family became a noxious brew in his blood.

  But he knew the truth. Max could argue all he wanted about the person responsible for Rick and Wendy’s deaths, but Chase had been an unwitting accomplice.

  He’d pushed this course of action, desperate for answers.

  And got several he never could have imagined.

  * * *

  Sloan pulled item after item out of her closet, folding each piece of clothing into a neat pile on the bed. The room still held Chase’s scent, a lingering reminder of what they’d shared.

  She didn’t have much, just what had fit in her suitcase, and the exercise didn’t take overly long to complete.

  But it was done.

  It was time she left Owl Creek.

  She’d known this was coming from the first day of her arrival, a return ticket—albeit open-ended—in her possession.

  This was a job and while she’d fought to remember that specific point, she’d still managed to lose her head, anyway.

  A small glint of metal reflected off the bed and she realized it was one of her many GPS tags. She’d learned after losing one of her electronics to put the tags with her equipment, and even her luggage, to ensure she could find them should they go missing.

  The flash of a message floated over her cell-phone screen, alerting her to the tag’s proximity and still-active status, and she turned to slip it back into her luggage when a small form slipped into the room. She dropped it into her pocket, then bent down and picked up the cat instead.

  The rest of the packing could wait.

  “I’ve made a mess of this, Waffles.”

  The cat’s only reaction was a small meow and Sloan rubbed her cheek against his head.

  She’d spent the better part of the afternoon thinking about her next move. But now, as she looked over the bed, her sense of action faded, her spirits plummeting.

  Why hadn’t she protected herself? She was a smart woman. She ran a successful business. Would it have been that hard to resist the abundant charms of Chase Colton?

  “If he’d simply been charming, yeah, it would have.” She murmured the words against the cat’s soft fur, realizing it for the truth. “But he is so much more than that. He’s...everything.”

  If this had only been about simple attraction, it would have been so much easier. Either ignore it for the duration of the job or give in, but the outcome would have been a still-whole heart and a readiness to go home at the end of the job.

  Instead, she’d fallen for the man, hook, line, sinker, heart and soul.

  “What other dumb clichés can I come up with?” she muttered to Waffles as the heavy knock came from the front of the apartment.

  After gently setting the cat back on the bed, she headed for the front door. It was probably Chase, which meant it was time to tell him that she was leaving.

  She had the door open, words nearly spilling out of her mouth to that effect, when she realized it was a man standing on the other side of her door in maintenance clothing.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Can I help you?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I’m here to fix things.”

  The man had a sweet if dull look about him, his salt-and-pepper hair wisping out over his ears from beneath his navy blue cap, a small tool belt slung about his hips.

  “Fix what?”

  “You.”

  The swift strike against her shoulder was the first clue she was in trouble. He’d been prepared for her response and his arms were surprisingly strong as they wrapped around her.

  Despite her struggles, she was no match for his hold or the obviously practiced movement that had a cloth going over her face.

  Sloan fought to hang on.

  Fought to hold her breath.

  But the natural, desperate need to take in air took over and as she breathed deep, she felt her world go black.

  * * *

  Chase was still thinking about Rick Kraft’s small children an hour later as he paid the delivery service for several large pizzas.

  How were they going to get by?

  Greg had suggested he and Briony had some sort of guardian status but what did that really mean? Rick’s estranged relationship with his father meant there wasn’t support in the form of grandparents and Greg had confirmed Rick’s mother was long gone. Wendy’s parents were both dead as well.

  One more layer of circumstance that felt so sad.

  And terribly, horrifically bleak.

  Pushing away the sadness and vowing to talk to Greg later about what he might need and how he could help, Chase set the pizzas on the kitchen counter. Then he checked his phone. He’d texted Sloan a while ago, expecting she’d beat the pizza over to the ranch, but hadn’t heard back yet.

  Greg stepped into the kitchen as he was wrapping up a phone call. Della had arrived a short while before, her arm now wrapped around Max’s waist.