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When Rafe nodded, Tripp knew this couldn’t be good. “She says there will be pumpkin spice marshmallows on the shelves in the fall. And if you buy enough of them to last all year long for my beautiful fiancée to enjoy, then I’ll knock down your three months of cleaning toilets to two.”
Zoe threw him a sweet smile with a flutter of eyelashes.
Tripp let out a grunt. “I can’t believe you’re in love with one of those women who loves pumpkin spice. Fine. I’ll buy all the marshmallows and take two months of toilets.”
An arm banded around Tripp from behind. He caught Alexia’s sweet perfume and leaned into her so their bodies brushed.
“Aww, did my poor Tripp get in trouble for shirking his duty?”
He pulled Alexia around in front of him. “Because of you!”
She tossed her head on a carefree laugh, and he couldn’t deny his urge to kiss her open mouth.
“Okay, I see what you guys are all talking about now.”
Tripp broke from the kiss before he wanted to. “What are you all talking about?”
Rafe pointed the hot dog stick at him and Alexia. The hot dog on the tip flopped. “You two are pretty cute together.”
“What? I’m not cute. I’m badass. Terrifying. You saw how that killer ran away back on the mountain.”
While it was no joking matter, they all used humor to cover things. Tripp admitted to being the guiltiest on the team.
Tripp grabbed a lawn chair and moved it closer to the fire for Alexia to sit down. She was healed, but he still liked to baby her. He didn’t want her getting worn out too soon either, not when they had a long weekend together planned.
When she accepted the hot dog stick from Guns, Tripp plucked it from her hand. “Don’t let Alexia cook. Her eyelashes just grew back.”
She threw him the middle finger, which had all the team and Zoe laughing.
When he settled in a chair beside her, he took care in placing a marshmallow on the stick for her and passing it to her to toast herself.
She gave him such a long look of love and longing that it took him a minute to get his head back into the discussion going on around them.
“We don’t have a name on the guy yet,” Rafe was saying. “Only a profile, and that’s only narrowed down to a few things.”
Tripp focused on the information, resting a hand on Alexia’s thigh.
“The DNA from the snow showed Alexia’s blood and the killer’s. He’s got the most common blood type. The most hair and eye colors. The most common boots. He could have been any branch of the military, which equals a huge pool of people.”
Alexia nodded to confirm this. Tripp wasn’t surprised she knew and hadn’t yet disclosed it to him. He knew she’d get around to it in time, and when it was important for him to know.
She spoke up to tell the team that the knife she’d been stabbed with had been rushed through forensics.
They all waited to hear what the findings were.
She looked to Tripp first. “There’s blood on it that matches multiple crime scenes. Not just Kelsey and Caden, but the couple Rafe found in the cabin.”
Zoe sucked in a breath, and Rafe wound his arm around her, tugging her against his side.
The rest of them exchanged looks. All of them were thinking the same thing—how many more victims would they find in these mountains?
“Some of the information from our investigation and what the police had in that file they withheld suggests that this man really was military. That makes me question whether or not the police didn’t bungle the case on purpose,” Alexia said.
Everyone stared at her in shock.
“It’s been known to happen. You military heroes feel strongly about men you served with. What if one of the former cops served with the killer? Or knew about him somehow?” She shrugged. “We don’t have all the pieces yet…but I’m going to find them.”
Talk slowly edged from the cases in question to sports and skiing, which Zoe enthusiastically got in on. Alexia’s hand rested in Tripp’s, and she slipped a sideways glance at him.
