Page 35 of The Secrets She Keeps

“Is she doing okay? Both of them?” Deputy Tyler asked immediately. “I was also shot—and stabbed—because of this drug. As were other people that I care about, including my husband and some of my closest friends. He nearly died. So did I.”

“My sister is recuperating, at home now. She had a heart attack during surgery, and we almost lost her. Haldyn, the headof our forensics lab, is also home now. They’ll fully recover. Another officer was also shot—he’s more critical, but we think he’ll make a recovery eventually. He was shot in the back. And the people responsible—they are the ones who shot Charlotte Talley, her colleague Madison, and myniece Zoey over fourteen months ago. One of those men stalked and harassedmefor four years. This…this is very personal. For so many of us. We’re only going to stop them if we work together on every end.”

Truth. She meant it, she knew how these kinds of things could escalate. OPJ was bigger than just Finley Creek now.

Gunnar put his hand on her shoulder. She considered it a win in her favor that she didn’t jerk away. There was curiosity on these men’s faces. They wanted to know her story. She’d tell it if she had to. If it just helpedfixall of this, so it ended the pain for the innocent.

“Look, none of us are interested in territoriality here, or posturing or who does what. We just want to stop this. Before any more innocent people are hurt in the crossfire,” Gunnar said.

“Everyone sit down,” the deputy said. Heather liked her, she decided. She was no nonsense—quiet, but not cowed by the giants in the room with them now. “Maybe if weallwork together, we can actually get something done for once.”

It took them three hours to go over the basics of the case from all locations. Heather wasn’t impressed with the DEA agents, that was for sure. She was reserving judgment on the rest. But…if she believed inromance,the Weatherby brothers would be good places to start.

Talk about hot. Too bad Cashlyn couldn’t see them for herself.

Someone knocked on the door, and it pushed open.

Three more men walked in—two she recognized, one she didn’t. And a woman in an FBI polo, followed by a smaller woman wearing a Masterson County sheriff’s deputy polo.

Things just got better and better. Heather took her seat, shifting closer to Gunnar, and waited.

Great.

The Heather-pawn was about to be sacrificed.

The King of Major Crimes had just walked in.

24

This was notwhat Gunnar had expected at all. Daniel and Marcus Deane—governor of Texas—stood there, next to a man in a Mickey Mouse tie, and a tall, pretty woman Gunnar thought he had seen around the inn a few times before. One of Charlotte’s cousins, he thought.

“Great. Time to party now,” Heather said a bit too sarcastically. Her patience had obviously been wearing thin a few hours ago. “Gang’s all here.”

Daniel shot her a look. One Heather challenged.

Gunnar wasn’t stupid. He’d seen how she had subtly shifted her chair closer to his earlier. How she had kept the female deputy on her other side. He’d watched her around the inn the night before too.

He was figuring the woman next to him out.

She’d kept Gunnar between her and any threats. At all times. Instinctively. She had also kept Cara by Alex, no matter what. She was in fear mode right now. He hadn’t missed that at all.

“Dan, we didn’t know you were on your way up.” The man should have at least texted. Given Gunnar some warning. So he could have prepared Heather. Something odd was definitelygoing on between those two. Gunnar wondered exactly what Heather had said that day. What made Daniel look at her like that.

“I thought it was important that I be here,” Marcus said instead. Exuding that presence he had that told everyone around he was used to being in charge. “To impress on everyone the severity of what’s happening.”

“You are?” the blond DEA agent across from Heather asked in an almost cartoonish nasal tone. He was the one who was going to be a problem. He was all about jurisdiction and riding roughshod over the locals, Gunnar suspected. He’d had plenty of experience reading the type.

“I’m the governor of Texas actually.”

Introductions took a moment, but then they were ready to get started.

Daniel stepped over to the chair next to Heather’s and just made himself at home. Gunnar had to wonder what the idiot was up to. And why Daniel had that look on his face right now.

Gunnar took his seat on the other side of Heather. She shifted away from Daniel. Tried to pull back from the table. Daniel reached out, put one hand on her chair, keeping her stuck right there.

He leaned closer to her, said something in her ear that Gunnar couldn’t hear. Heather’s eyes narrowed. Her hands clenched on the table. If she could, Gunnar suspected she’d slug Daniel right now.

Gunnar would let her. Daniel was up to something. He knew it. He was just going to have to get the other man alone to find out what. And why.

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