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He studied her quickly as Zach Lowell held back a bottleneck of people by the lobby doors. Zach was holding the crowd back—as the EMTs, Fletcher’s cousin Josh and his pal Jake—headed toward the dining room of the inn. Fletcher’s gaze followed them.
“The body will need to stay in place until the state boys get here,” Joel said. Loud enough for several of the crowd to hear. Fletcher turned.
That was when he saw the dead body near the hostess station. Hell.
Fletcher hadn’t known…
The crowd got quiet. Solemn. Fletcher had heard gunshots. He hadn’t known someone had died. Who the hell?
The girl in cuffs had a haunted look on her face. She just kept looking toward the three girls he had never seen before. Twins who looked a lot like sweet little Meyra Talley, and a blonde who looked a lot like a slightly smaller, younger version of Dusty.
Then it clicked just exactlywhothey had to be.
The missing Talley girl. That was who she was. Only…
Dusty had said she’d been told there were more than one.
And this girl was one of them. Well, she was definitely noDusty.She was nowhere near the perfectwoman,that was for sure. He did see the resemblance, though. A little.
There was a look in her eyes he would never forget. One of memories and pain and far too like the looks he’d seen in Nikki, Dusty, and Sage’s faces after the hells they had been through.
She was damned young to look like that.
Ben came to him, pressing a hand towel or napkin to his arm or something. But he kept looking back toward Dusty. Fletcher saw Nikki come up behind Dusty and wrap one arm around her. Hunter was there, too. Staying close to Nikki like he always did.
Fletcher hadn’t known they’d been in there.
He’d just seen his truck in the parking lot when he, Kaece and Reese had driven through town trying to find it. They’d stopped. Made it to the door of the inn just as little Daisy and Meyra had come rushing around the side of the building, frantic about an armed gunman inside. Fletcher and his cousins had headed toward the front entrance in time to help Marin and the rest of her crew get everyone in the building out to the back parking lot and to safety.
“Ben, what in the hell happened?” Fletcher asked, all thoughts of his truck forgotten. His family had been in there—and there had been gunshots. Someone was dead now, too. Itwasmore than just his truck tonight. “You okay? You good?”
“We’re good. Everyone is safe now anyway.” Ben had the memories in his own eyes now. He looked back at Dusty. Watching her like he expected her to just disappear in front of him. “Someone after Dusty’s father took one of her younger sisters. To use her as bait, to draw out Dusty’s parents. Over something her mother saw Morris Preston’s illegitimate son do twenty-three years ago. Apparently, that was why they left Dusty and her sisters behind. The other sister—the tiny one—followed them and interrupted. Crawled under the tables in the dining room and stabbed the man who was after them—with a meat fork—so her sister could get away.”
Seriously? The kid had attacked an armed man with a meat fork? Was she insane?
She had to be. Either that or she seriously needed a keeper.
“And the rest of the people in the dining room?” Kaece asked. “What happened? We heard the shots and tried to get in to help, but the door was barred.”
“You should have gone the other direction. Do we need to do a refresher, when there is gunfire?” Sage asked, pulling the little blond demon closer. The girl was shifting from foot to foot. She just almost seemed to vibrate with energy or something. A girl like that would make a regular guy dizzy. “We’ll fill you in later. But next time there is a hostage situation and gunshots, pleasedon’trun toward them, okay, guys? Run away. Run away and let the cops handle it. It’s what we’re supposed to do.”
“That’s not how a Tyler does things,” Kaece told her. “People were trapped in there. Of course, we were going to help.”
“Is Dusty all right?” He didn’t think his brother would just be walking around like he was if she wasn’t. Fletcher looked for her. She stood with her sisters at her side. They were looking at the younger women. In a weird kind of standoff way.
Right there in the lobby of the Talley Inn. With peopleeverywhere.Watching.
The girl next to Sage made a small sound. Tried to take a step toward them all. Like she wanted to be there, too. With her sisters. All of her sisters. Damn, this had to hurt Dusty and the rest.
Fletcher studied the girl’s face. Woman. Hell, she was almost twenty-three, and shelookedlike a woman not a kid when he really looked close at her, just a very small one. She was older than Junie and Em. She had Dusty’s cheekbones, but they were covered with freckles. Mostly, she looked like Marin. It was the confusion in her big green eyes that stuck with him though. She didn’t know what was going on any more than anyone else did, he suspected.
“Dusty will be fine,” Sage said firmly. “She just has some family things to deal with. And…I think Ben is going to make sure she’s okay forever now.”
“It’s about damned time,” Fletcher said, watching his brother slip an arm around Dusty again. “I thought he would never figure things out where she was concerned.”
“You knew about them?” Sage asked. “I didn’t think anyone else did.”
“Of course, I knew about those two. How could I not? Haven’t you seen how he looks at her? Dusty is theperfectwoman, after all. Well, one of the two most perfect women on earth anyway.” Fletcher meant that. Dusty and Sage, there were no other women out there like them. He was certain of it. “And my brothers grabbed them both first.”
