“Anything in any of the interviews to suggest our suspects partnered with the doc or have a grudge against him?” Gavin asked.

  “Not so far. Earl Clark wasn’t at home or answering his phone. Checked a couple of times. Then I called the garage and Clem told me Earl works tomorrow. So I plan to pop in on him unannounced in the morning.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Gavin said.

  Walt raised his brow, and Lexie wasn’t surprised to see father and son duke it out without saying a word.

  “Wouldn’t two investigators be better than one?” she said before Walt said no. “You might pick up on something the other one misses.”

  “Good point,” Walt conceded. “But I’m taking lead.”

  “No problem,” Gavin replied. “Someone will need to stay with Lexie while we go.”

  “I can spare Dylan for the morning, but need him on patrol by noon.”

  Gavin gave a quick nod and explained what they learned from Facebook about Silas Ross. “He’s Dr. Grant’s former patient.”

  “Facebook,” Walt scoffed. “You can’t believe what you read on there. His DMV records still have him listed in Lost Creek.”

  Lexie waited for Gavin to dispute his father’s claim about Facebook, but he simply blew out a breath. “I called the manager for Silas’s last known address. He’s moved on.”

  “No wonder we haven’t seen him in town,” Matt said. “But even if it takes an hour to get to Cumberland from here, it seems kind of drastic to move just because he changed doctors.”

  “His company is up that way, too, right?” Jed said. “So that would make more sense.”

  Gavin nodded. “Whatever the reason for his move, he posted on Facebook that he has a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon, so I’ll stake the place out.”

  “Sounds like a good plan,” Matt said.

  Walt frowned but didn’t say anything else.

  “So if that’s it...” Matt stretched. “I haven’t slept in over twenty-four hours and I need some shut-eye.”

  “Lightweight,” Gavin joked. “Going to bed and it’s not even seven.”

  “Give it a rest,” Walt said. “He works hard and needs to sleep.”

  “I get it, Dad. I was just razzing him.”

  Lexie cringed at Gavin’s sharp tone and waited for Walt to respond.

  “That’s okay, Dad.” Matt winked and punched Gavin in the arm on the way past. “We all know the Feds are slackers.”

  The brothers laughed.

  At one time Lexie would have joined in, but felt like laughing now would send the message that she’d forgiven Gavin when she wasn’t anywhere near doing so.

  She heard the door open. Assuming it was Adam, she went to the foyer. He closed the door and stomped the snow from his boots. His cheeks were apple red and he wore a cute grin she hadn’t seen in years.

  “Looks like you had fun,” she said.

  He shed his boots and jacket in a pile on the rug then started to step away.

  “Um, hello,” Lexie said and pointed at his clothing on the rug.

  He turned, the smile gone, and an exaggerated sigh slipped from his mouth as he hung up his jacket and set his boots off to the side. Then his phone came out and he headed under another archway into the dining room, where his schoolbooks awaited him.

  Though the house had separate rooms, the wide openings made it feel like one big space and Lexie could hear Gavin and Walt arguing.

  She was too hyped up to join them, and they didn’t need a witness to their discord, so she stayed in the entry and prowled around the space, pacing past the big arches a few times. She finally stepped up to the tree and fingered a few ornaments as she heard the argument end.

  “I hate to see you this way,” Gavin said from behind her.

  Startled, she spun. “What way?”

  “Unsettled. Nervous. I understand it, but you have to know you’re safe with us.”

  With the way he’d been trying to ignore her, she kept forgetting how well he knew her and could read her nonverbal signals if he wanted to. “I know but...”

  “Why don’t we go on a trail ride? That always relaxes you and it’ll be beautiful with the fresh snow.”

  Yeah, he knew her, all right. Whenever life got her down, she’d turned to Misty. Too bad she’d insisted Misty be taken home.

  “You can ride Beauty,” he said, preempting her first line of defense.

  “You don’t think Kendall would mind?”

  “She won’t. But if you’d like, I can text her to ask.”

  “That would be great. But only if you think it’s safe.”

  “The killer would be a fool to come here with all the law-enforcement officers in place.” Gavin smiled, one of those crooked boyish ones that always got to her. “And if it’ll make you feel better, we’ll only ride up to the pond.”

  The thought of the pond with snow covering the ground, the skies clear now and the moon shining off the crystals, cinched her agreement. “Text Kendall.”

  He took out his phone and tapped the screen. “I’ll change clothes while we wait for her to respond.”

  Lexie nodded, but her mind had already gone to the upcoming ride. They’d be together. Just the two of them. Heading for the spot where she’d once expected he’d propose under a starlit night. Maybe the ride wasn’t such a good idea. She’d invite Adam, but he didn’t need to be around Gavin. Plus her brother wasn’t much of a horseman. Despite how often she or Ruth had tried to coax him onto a horse, he’d rather sit in the house with a computer or his phone in front of him.

  Winnie entered the foyer.

  “Gavin and I are going for a ride up to the pond,” Lexie said, as she thought someone should know they’d gone out riding.

  “Perfect night for it with the fresh snow.” Winnie’s eyes twinkled.

  Her attempt at matchmaking was far from subtle.

  Walt joined them, his empty coffee cup in hand. “See that Gavin’s mind stays on checking the surroundings and not on how pretty you look under the stars.”

  Adam’s head shot up at that one.

  “Do you want to come with us?” she asked her brother.

  He shook his head and bent over his phone again. Grrr. She needed to help him find an interest other than what he could do with electronics. She appreciated her phone for being able to check email and social media. Catch up on the news. Check the weather. But having it in front of her face nearly every waking moment was beyond her understanding.

  She looked at Walt and Winnie. “Do either of you want to ride with us?”

  She received a shake of heads. “You don’t know what you’ll be missing.”

  “A sore rear end and frostbite, you mean?” Winnie laughed and traded her full mug for Walt’s. “Sit, and I’ll fill yours for you.”

  They departed, and Lexie went to Adam. She put a hand on his shoulder so he would look at her.

  “I have my phone. Call or text me if you need anything. We should be back in an hour or so.”

  “I got it. I’m not a baby.” He was good at pushing boundaries, but he was rarely rude like this.

  “When you’re under my roof, Adam—” Walt’s voice came from the other room “—you’ll respect your elders. Now apologize to your sister.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, real contrition in his tone.

  She squatted next to his chair. “We’re all under a lot of stress. I get it and understand that it can make us short-tempered.”

  “Yeah, well...yeah. Right.”

  She squeezed his hand. “We can head over to the cabin when I get back, okay?”

  He nodded eagerly.

  “See you in a bit.” She stepped back into the foyer to wait for Gavin and turned her attention to the tree.

  She spotted a varnished dough ornament of a pair of snowmen wearing Santa hats. Her name and Gavin’s were painted below the snowmen, along with a date four Christmases ago. Winnie had snowmen ornaments with each child’s birth date. When Lexie and Gavin had gotten serious, she’d added this one so Lexie had a place on their family tree. Lexie searched and found the one Winnie had gotten for Adam, too. She rested the delicate ornament in her hand, her eyes filling with tears. For the McKade kindness. For the loss of her mother. The loss of her father. Of Gavin.

  Father, why? Why put us through all of this? Are You really not there or do You just not care about Adam and me?

  “Ready to go?” Gavin asked.

  Lexie jerked. The ornament went flying.

  He lurched forward and caught it a foot from the floor.

  “You scared me,” she said. “I almost... It would have been horrible to break Adam’s ornament.”

  Gavin studied her face. “Everything will be okay.”

  Not wanting to respond to what she felt was a platitude, she grabbed her jacket from a hook and stepped onto the porch lit by the moon’s bright glow. She took a few deep breaths of the sharp air and sighed out her tension. She heard Gavin say goodbye to his parents as she descended the stairs. Snow covered her boots and she stared at it as she waited at the bottom.

  She looked up to see him step onto the porch, and her thoughts shifted. He was dressed in worn jeans that fit as if custom made for him. He wore scuffed boots and a denim jacket and had settled his favorite cowboy hat on his head. The sight of him standing before her, looking so ruggedly handsome, pulled at her heartstrings.

  And her mind wandered to a place it had no business going.

  His formal agent attire had helped her keep her feelings in check, but seeing him like this? Seeing the old Gavin. The Gavin she used to know, and love, was almost more than she could bear.

  She whipped around and started for the corral. A moment later, she heard him jogging to keep up.

  “I need you to stay closer to me.” He shifted the rifle in his arms.

  “But you said it was safe.”

  “Nothing is one hundred percent safe, Lexie. We can never let our guard down.”

  At the urgency in his tone, she shot him a look. “You’ve changed.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “You’re always on edge.”

  “It’s the situation.”

  “No, it’s more,” she insisted. “Even at Dad’s office, you were tightly wound. Like you’re expecting something bad to happen at any moment and you have to be on guard for it.”

  He shrugged. “That’s the life of a law-enforcement officer.”

  “True, but you weren’t like this when you were a deputy. Sure, you were cautious and carried all the time...but this? This over-the-top need to control. That’s new.”

  He peered at her as if he wanted to say something but thought better of it and then suddenly grabbed the gate and opened it.

  Fine. Be that way. It would be far better on the ride if they kept this wall up between them anyway.

  They saddled the horses and Gavin dropped a pair of binoculars in his saddlebag and his rifle into the holder. She knew he was just taking precautions, but still, her nerves were fried, and she really needed to gallop across the field with Beauty. She mounted the horse and urged her into a slow walk. Gavin rode up beside her, and they galloped toward the lake, the crisp air whipping at Lexie’s face. Each strike of Beauty’s hooves kicked up snow, and Lexie felt like she was in a winter wonderland painting.

  She let go of the stress. Let go of the worry. The fear. A killer may be stalking her, but right now, there was nothing but her and Beauty, the wind and the man she was trying so hard to ignore.

  * * *

  By the pond, Gavin watched as Lexie slipped off Beauty and literally pranced through the snow, throwing her arms out in excitement. She spun in a circle then dropped to the ground and swished her arms and legs over the fluffy powder to create a symmetrical angel. “Isn’t it breathtaking?”

  “Gorgeous,” he said and meant it, but he only had eyes for her.

  Lexie lay for a moment, her smile wide and warming his heart. She suddenly jumped up like a little child and brushed the snow from her clothes then rushed over to a rock at the edge of the pond. Plopping down, she raised her face to the stars, her contented look making Gavin suck in a breath.

  Her smile broadened. “This was such a good idea.”

  Gavin dismounted and moved closer to her, but there was no way he was sitting down. Not with a killer out there. He kept his gaze roving the area. “It must feel good to catch your breath after dealing with the hordes of McKades.”

  “You exaggerate. It’s not a horde until they all show up.” She grinned. “Besides, I love your family. Sunday dinners with them are some of my fondest memories of when we were together.”

  “Ouch.” He faked pulling a knife from his chest.

  She tsked. “I’m serious. You’ve always taken them for granted. I mean, sure, you don’t get along with your dad, but for the most part, he’s a good father. Not like my fa—” She pressed a hand over her mouth. “I guess it really hasn’t hit me that he’s gone.”

  “I’m so sorry, Lexie.”

  She shook her head as if shaking away her pain. “Besides passing each other on the street, I only saw him a couple of times a year, but you know... I’m... It’s...” She pulled her feet up on the rock and rested her chin on her knees. “I think it’s the thought that we’ll never have a chance to reconcile that’s hitting me the hardest. Despite years of being ignored and belittled by him, I always hoped a day would come where we could bury the hatchet and go back to the way we were before Mom died.”

  She suddenly jumped to her feet and grabbed Gavin’s hand, her fingers insistent. “You have to let this serve as a lesson to you. Find a way to get along with your dad. Now. Before it’s too late.”

  “I...” he began, but couldn’t even put words to a thought he didn’t believe. Sure, she was right. He didn’t have forever to patch things up with his dad, but a peace accord had to be a two-way street, and the ornery old guy wasn’t likely going to meet him in the middle.

  “Just promise me you’ll try, okay?” She sought his gaze and held it with a tearful one of her own, resurrecting memories of their time together after run-ins with her dad. Times when Gavin would have done most anything to erase those tears and he was helpless to deny her anything.

  “I promise,” he said, wondering how in the world he was going to hold to his promise.

  They were locked in each other’s gazes, tension crackling between them. He didn’t even try to come up with a subject, as he figured anything they might discuss would end awkwardly. They’d been in love. Deeply. And yet he’d had to walk away, leaving her hurt and confused.

  Maybe he’d been confused, too, as he’d chosen to leave town, and yet, as she stood before him, looking so beautiful and achingly vulnerable, he realized how very much he missed her. He hadn’t met another woman who compared to her. Not that he’d been looking. Not with his heart still raw years after their breakup.

  But despite the pain, he couldn’t move back here. He just couldn’t. Being a lawman was in his blood. From generation to generation, and he couldn’t bear the thought of doing anything else. Working for his father was the only law-enforcement gig in the area, and that he couldn’t abide. So he had to stay away. Even if it meant never being with Lexie.

  Gavin scrubbed a hand across his jaw and released a long, frustrated breath. He couldn’t stand there in limbo—wanting her and yet knowing he couldn’t have her. “Do you want to ride again?”

  Looking forlorn now, she nodded, and he boosted her onto Beauty’s back. She didn’t argue or frown at his assistance, which was a huge improvement over yesterday, as far as he was concerned. He wouldn’t put any stock in it, though, as he was sure her sudden compliance stemmed from being distraught over her father.

  He got Lightning moving and they meandered along the trail toward the ranch. Taking it slower on the return trip gave him time to look around at the ground covered in a pristine white blanket. Why couldn’t he find a way to cover his life this way? To forget his issues with his father and make a fresh start?

  Because life didn’t work that way, that was why. You couldn’t simply lay a blanket over it and—presto—have all your problems solved. It simply hid them for another day, and when that blanket of snow melted, they were still there.

  He heard a branch snap in the distance and would have thought he’d imagined the sound except Lightning’s head picked up at the noise. Could be related to the snow clinging to the branches, but Gavin wouldn’t take any chances.

  Grabbing his binoculars and rising up in his stirrups, he scanned the area. At a scenic overlook on a nearby road, he saw movement and stilled Lightning so he could zoom in. He scanned again.

  His heart rate kicked up and he dropped into his saddle. “We need to go, now!”

  Lexie’s eyes widened. “What’s wrong?”

  “There’s a man at the scenic overlook watching us.”

  ELEVEN

  Lexie kicked Beauty faster, the wind biting into her face. Why had she sent Misty home? She knew how to handle and communicate with her. Sure, Beauty was usually a gentle ride, but the sudden change in movement left her unsettled and her hooves pummeled over the ground in wild abandon. The last thing Lexie needed was to fall from the horse. Actually, the last thing she needed was for the man watching them to come after them.

  She glanced over her shoulder. No one was chasing them. Had they gone far enough so if this guy fired a gun that a bullet wouldn’t reach them? She wasn’t familiar with weapons, so she had no idea. Which meant keeping Beauty racing fast.

  At the house, Gavin dropped from Lightning before fully stopping. He looped the horse’s reins on a rough wooden fence and then jerked Lexie from Beauty’s back. Her feet had barely hit the ground when he grabbed her hand and flew toward the steps, pulling her behind him. She tripped on the bottom stair, so he scooped her into his arms and kept moving in one seamless motion.