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Chapter 1
“Fast game’s a good game, Teddy Bear.”
Ted Hosking closed one eye in an attempt to focus on the cards in his hand. He was fairly confident it was a three of hearts. Too many beers had made his head fuzzy. That was unusual for him, because control was something he never lost. He’d learned long ago what happened when he did.
“I’m growing old here, bud.”
To his left sat Jack, the middle Trainer brother. The one making all the noise.
“I’m out.” Ted lowered his cards to a round of groans. “I’ll tell them we want food.”
The groans turned to cheers.
Across from him sat the reason for the man gathering, Cubby Hawker, sheriff of the town of Lake Howling, Oregon. He’d decided to have his bachelor party in Ryker Falls, at Ted’s lodge. Next to the lawman sat his friends.
“I’m partial to pizza,” said the elder of the two Texans in the party, Ethan and Brad Gelderman. Wealthy, good-looking, they both had the smooth, polished looks of money, but to be fair, seemed like good guys.
“Hot dogs,” Dr. Jake McBride hummed. He wore his father’s faded pink hat for luck. Next to him came Buster, “baker boy,” as his friends called him, Griffin. Lastly was Newman. Paul Newman.
“Tried your Fig Newmans last week, bud,” Buster said. Newman smiled but didn’t add anything. Ted guessed he’d been taking shots like that most of his life and had rolled with them or fought a lot.
“Food,” Joe Trainer said. “Some of that would be excellent, as I can’t feel my toes.”
Jack’s brother, and the eldest of the three Trainers, he was a well-respected man in Ryker Falls. Unlike Ted, he’d been born and raised here. As had the man to his right, Dylan Howard, who’d been brave enough to marry into the Trainer family. Piper was a cousin and fiery as hell. Ted didn’t envy him…. Okay, maybe a little, but not often, and usually only when he was lonely.
As if he knew Ted was thinking about him, Dylan looked at him. The awareness that passed between them was something they’d shared since Ted had told him about his sister, Emily.
Thinking about her knifed pain through him, even twelve years after her death.
She’d been murdered, and an FBI profiler like Dylan had helped find her body.
Shut it out.Ted closed his eyes briefly, his fingers touching the two bands of small wooden beads around his wrist. They’d belonged to her.
“You having a moment there, Hosking?”
“All good, Luke,” he said to the youngest Trainer. This one was softer than the other brothers. “I’ll just get onto that food.”
Ted walked out of the room he’d had set up for the card game and headed down the hall.
Falls Lodge was his baby. Elegant but not uncomfortable, it was something he was extremely proud to have achieved.
He’d brought in the best designers to do what he had no clue about. Decorate. Natural tones had been the key, according to Claudette, the lead designer. Bring the outside in. And they had. Huge fires roared in the winter months, and massive glass windows showed spectacular vistas of the snow-clad mountains locals called Phil and Roxy after the founding fathers, twins.
“Can I help you, Ted?”
“Just ordering some food, Lenny,” he said to one of his managers. “Everything running okay today?”
“No problems anywhere.”
“No way? There’s always a problem.”
Lenny gave him a smile, and Ted wondered if he’d ever been that enthusiastic. He felt like his soul had been stained since birth. That tended to happen when you were raised in the spotlight, and all the other shit he’d had to deal with.
“Not today… well, so far, anyway.”
“Excellent. Well, I’m just going to get some food for the bachelor party.”
“I could do that.”
