Page 178

The message ended there.

Trigger read it over my shoulder.

“That looks bad for Evan.”

“Too bad.”

“What do you mean?”

I picked up the phone carefully.

“He dropped it exactly where we could find it. The message names Robert and their father but doesn’t identify the sender.”

“You think it was planted.”

“I think everything here was planted.”

Trigger looked toward the fire.

“Then who was inside the office?”

“I don’t know.”

Judy came running through the trees.

“Mace!”

I turned.

She didn’t slow down until she reached me. Her hands went to my arms, my chest, and then my face as she searched for blood.

“Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“I heard shots.”

“He missed.”

“You don’t know that until you check.”

“I’m fine.”

She kept touching me as if she needed to prove it to herself.

I covered one of her hands with mine.

Her eyes lifted to mine.

Strong feelings were coming back.

I could see them on her face because they had to be written all over mine.

Only they weren’t the feelings we had shared as teenagers.

Those had belonged to two kids who didn’t understand how easily life could pull people apart.

What I felt now was deeper.