Page 37 of All the Missing Pieces

A figure stepped between us. The way the sun was angled in the sky, he was pure shadow to me. But somehow I still recognized him. The broad shoulders and dark hair. But more, the aura that radiated around him. That aura had turned to pissed-the-hell-off as he glared down at Grady.

“Don’t even think of laying hands on her.”

15

COLT

I could feelthe fury coming off Grady in waves. But that rage only stoked the anger reaching a boiling point in me. I’d seen his fuse catch from across the park, watched as he stalked toward Ridley, looming over her. It flipped something inside me, igniting a protectiveness that made no damn sense.

“She’s interviewing me,” Grady spat. “What? Now I’m not allowed to speak my mind? That’s protected under the First Amendment.”

“Not when those words are threats,” I ground out.

He grabbed at the small microphone clipped to his T-shirt and tossed it on the ground. “I don’t need this shit.” His gaze snapped to Ridley. “You try to bury me, and I’ll come for you. That’s a promise,” he said, stalking away.

Fucking hell.

I turned slowly, trying to keep my temper in check but struggling.

Ridley stared after him, no fear in her expression, only curiosity. As if she were trying to put the pieces of a puzzle together.

“What were you thinking?” I ground out.

Ridley’s gaze flew to me, eyes widening. “You’re blaming that on me?”

“You were the one asking the questions. Stirring up trouble.”

Her jaw hardened, chin tipping up. “Searching for the truth isn’t stirring up trouble.”

That’s where she was wrong. “What would’ve happened if I hadn’t been here, huh?” I pressed.

“He would’ve tried to touch me, and I would’ve tased his ass before he could blink.” Ridley pulled a small pink Taser out of her pocket. It looked more like a flashlight than a device that could bring a man to his knees.

“What you’re doing is reckless. You think there aren’t consequences to this sort of thing. And it’s more than just you who’s affected. Grady might be an ass, but his life got turned upside down just as much as the next guy. You think that suggesting he could be guilty on a podcast won’t do him a tremendous amount of harm?”

Ridley blinked up at me, something shifting in those blue eyes. “You don’t think he did it.”

I didn’t want to give her a damned thing. Not now. I sent a pointed look to the microphone pinned to her shirt.

Ridley sighed and pulled out her phone. She made a grand gesture of unlocking the device and stopping the recording.

“No. I’ve looked at him hard,” I began. “But there’s no sign of him doing anything other than working, drinking, and sleeping with any woman dumb enough to take him on.”

Her shoulders slumped. “Knew he was too obvious.”

I frowned down at her, brows pulled together.

Ridley glanced back at the tennis courts, as if she saw people playing there now even though there was no one. “Whoever this is, they’ve stayed under the radar for a decade. That means they blend in.”

The wind picked up, lifting those strands of blond and carrying with them that burnt-orange scent. I hated to admit, even to myself, that she had good instincts. The kind that came from years on the job in law enforcement.

And I guessed she had been, in a way, working her own sort of cases. I’d spent hours that day looking into that damned podcast of hers and all the social media accounts that went with it.

She'd had some successes for sure, but when I’d called a detective in Iowa to get his take on her since she’d covered a case he’d led, he hadn’t had good things to say. He’d used words likeinterfering,bulldog, andnothing but trouble.

“Maybe, maybe not,” I said, voice going rough. “But you could start a chain of dominos you’re not ready to tip. And more than that, you could get yourself hurt or killed. What if Gradywasthe guy? You think he wouldn’t do everything in his power to stop you from making that public?”

Anger flashed in those blue depths. “I know how to be careful. How to take care of myself.”

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