They trudged back toward the inn.
The snow had deepened in just the few minutes they’d been outside. Olive’s boots broke through the crust with each step. Her breaths came in visible puffs, matching the rhythm of Jason’s as he carried JJ.
From this angle, the inn looked even more like a postcard—warm light glowing in the windows, smoke curling from the chimney, giant wreaths adorning the doors, and strings of white Christmas lights outlining the roof. Like Tevin had said—a Hallmark movie setting.
But the weight of the body over Jason’s shoulder told a different story.
Olive tried to piece together possibilities as they climbed the front steps.
Hypothermia? Accident? Had JJ slipped on the ice and hit his head? Maybe no one had known he’d gone outside.
Except . . .
She glanced back over her shoulder at the trail they’d left. Based on the other footprints she’d seen, someone had been out here with JJ.
Her pulse pounded harder.
JJ’s death was no accident.
Jason pushed the front door open and stepped inside.
A wall of heat and the scent of woodsmoke hit them. Then she heard voices.
Tevin stood near the entryway talking to Mitzi and Nova.
Mitzi McGraw, Aegis senior agent. In her early thirties, the former CIA operative was beautiful, blonde, and bodacious. Her appearance and extroverted personality made men flock to her, and she was often assigned to cases where “female wiles” were required. The hard cast on her left arm looked out of place for the seemingly invincible woman.
Nova Levington, another of Aegis’s tech geniuses, was petite and curvy, with a small waist. Her dark hair was cut into a wedge, complete with purple streaks touching the edges, and she wore bright-blue glasses.
Instantly, everyone’s gazes went to JJ, and their eyes widened.
“Please tell me that is not what it looks like . . .” Tevin murmured, his hands going to his hips.
“It’s exactly what it looks like.” Olive closed the door behind them to ward off the cold. “We found JJ near the shed. He’s been out there awhile.”
Mitzi stepped aside, gesturing toward the wide space beyond. “Put him down here.”
As Jason carried JJ across the inn’s polished floor toward an area rug, Olive shrugged out of her gloves and coat, her pulse still thudding in her ears.
This retreat had just become an investigation. She’d tried to convince herself this could be an accident. But she knew it wasn’t.
People didn’t just wander off and die in the snow for no reason.
Someone at this mountain inn had answers.
And she intended to find out who.
CHAPTER
THREE
The fire crackledin the fireplace, filling the silence that followed.
Olive stared at JJ again as he lay sprawled on the burgundy rug. His body looked too still, too small. The blue tint hadn’t faded from his lips. His hair, still crusted with frost, made him look younger than he was—barely more than a kid.
She folded her arms tight across her chest, trying to keep her thoughts from spinning out.
Olive had seen death before—more times than she wanted to count—but this one hit differently.
