Page 122 of Moonlit Colorado

Then my heart fell, all that anticipation fizzling out.

There was nothing but a keycard for the hotel inside. The one Dane had given me that night.Shit.

“Well, are you going to tell me what this is about? Did you find what you were looking for?”

I slumped down on the edge of Piper’s bed. “It’s not here. I can tell you, though.” I owed her an explanation. Even if I’d been wrong. “You already know about Nina Jamison.”

“Sure, the woman with the red mask who disappeared. You met her the night of the grand opening.”

When Piper and my brothers had been in New York, I’d shared everything I knew about what led to Vincent attacking me. Which, at that time, wasn’t all that much. Now, I told Piper the rest of what we knew. Including the fact that Nina had been murdered.

“That’s horrifying. But what does that have to do with the purse?”

“We learned Nina had sensitive information she was going to turn over to a reporter. Something that could implicate Knightly Global in a high-class escort ring.”

Piper whistled. “Dang.”

“And I thought maybe Nina got spooked and passed that data over tomeat the ski resort hotel. When we were in the bathroom, I almost forgot my purse. She handed it to me. Today, I remembered that and thought she might’ve slipped something inside. But there’s just this hotel key. “

“She didn’t give that to you?”

“No, that was Dane. After he invited me up to his hotel suite that night to sleep with him.”

“Uh, hewhat?”

Had I not told my best friend that part? Oops.

I started to laugh, which felt good. It pushed away the disappointment a little. “I didn’t even know who he was then, and I didn’t go through with it. Obviously. Since you and I left together that night.” I took the keycard out of the purse, feeling nostalgic. “But I was tempted.”

“And now?” she asked. “Last time we spoke, you were still worried about moving too fast with Dane.”

I slowly shook my head, staring at the keycard on my palm. “No more doubts about him. He’s amazing. He told me he’s in love with me, and he’s willing to move to Silver Ridge to be with me.”

She gasped, a delighted smile brightening her face. “Oh, Grace. What about howyoufeel? What did you tell him?”

“I—” The words evaporated from my head as I noticed what I held in my hand. Not just a single keycard for the ski resort.Two. There were two keycards here. They’d gotten stuck together. But where had the second come from?

“What’s up?” Piper asked.

I separated the two cards, examining each one closely. There was a little square of plastic taped to the back of one, about the size of my thumbnail.

A tiny data storage card.

“Holy crap,” I whispered. “I think this is it.”

“What iswhat? I can’t keep up with you today.”

I pointed at the data storage card. “The secret info Nina wanted to give to the reporter. The reason she was murdered.”

Piper inhaled. “Holy crap is right. People use these in digital cameras, don’t they? I think I have a way to read this. We can see what’s on it.”

“Are you serious? Piper, I will love you forever.”

She winked at me. “Save it for the amazing Mr. Knightly.”

While Piper looked for her digital camera, I went to the living room and filled in Dane about what I’d found. A few minutes later, we were gathered around Piper. She’d managed to transfer the info from that tiny data storage card to her laptop.

“Take a look,” she said.

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