Page 115 of Moonlit Colorado

“Because you made some manly promise to my brothers?”

“No, because you’re the best thing in my life. I would rather die than lose you.”

“When you put it that way…” It was impossible to be annoyed at a man when he made declarations like that.

We got out of the car, closing the doors softly. Dane walked in front of me as we approached number 12. The curtains in the window didn’t twitch.

The whole motel was so quiet. Unnervingly so.

But as we got closer, I heard the low murmur of voices along with music. A television.

Dane paused, keeping me behind him. “You ready?”

I nodded.

We stepped in front of the door together, so when Nina looked through the peephole, she would see us both. He started to reach out to knock.

Then I saw the scratches around the lock plate, and I grabbed his arm. “Dane,look.” It was like my brain had flashed back in time by several weeks, to the night I had walked up to my house and realized someone had broken in.

“Fuck,” he muttered. “Stay back, Grace. We need to call the police. If we don’t have cell service, the front desk will have a landline.”

But my safety was the least of my concerns at this moment. “Nina could be hurt!”

Dane rapped hard on the door. “Nina? You okay?” The door swung inward. It hadn’t been latched.

Someone with red hair was sprawled on the carpet. A dark pool spread out beneath her.

No.

“Stay out of here,” Dane barked. “Call 911.” He lunged forward to check for vital signs. I couldn’t move, my limbs frozen as I stood in the doorway.

There was no way Nina could lose that much blood and still be alive.

* * *

“I’m Sheriff Owen Douglas.” He held out his hand to Dane, then to me. “Thanks for waiting.”

“Took long enough,” Dane grumbled.

“I assume you have questions for us,” I said.

We were in the tiny lobby of the Spring Valley Motel. The plastic chair I was sitting on was possibly the least comfortable in existence. Outside, the motel parking lot was crawling with sheriff’s department vehicles. The front desk clerk had nearly gotten hysterical when he heard one of his guests had been attacked. I was pretty sure he was being interviewed by a deputy.

Nina was dead, and I felt sick wondering if there was some way we could’ve helped her. If we had gotten here yesterday instead of today…

I had no idea how long she’d been lying there, but Dane and I both guessed no more than several hours. She’d probably been killed overnight.

Sheriff Douglas nodded. “I do. Alotof questions. I trust you’ll both be cooperative.”

I had never met the sheriff of Hart County in person before, though of course I knew Douglas by reputation. I had voted for him in the last election. He was around Ashford and Dane’s age, mid-thirties, wearing a white cowboy hat with his uniform.

My brother had spoken well of Sheriff Douglas in the past. Ashford had led some martial arts trainings for the department. But the deputies had kept us waiting in here for a while, even trying to separate us until Dane threatened to have his lawyer on the next flight out.

The sheriff dragged over one of the uncomfortable chairs. “I really should be questioning you separately.” He held up a hand like he was trying to head off our protests. “But, I understand you’ve already raised objections to that. So I’ll make an exception just to speed this along. Last I spoke to your brother, Miss O’Neal, Ashford mentioned you were staying in New York for a while. Yet here you are.”

“We flew in today to find Nina Badowski.”

“Do you know when exactly she was attacked, Sheriff?” Dane asked.

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