Page 4 of Outlaw Ridge: Griff
Lily found herself staring at them for a second longer than necessary. A part of her wished they were just wrapping up a late shift in a town where the biggest problem was a drunk-and-disorderly at closing time.
But Outlaw Ridge hadn’t been that kind of town for a long time.
She turned toward her SUV, parked in the same row as it always was—only now, something was off. Too quiet. Too still. As she got closer, her boots crunching softly on the gravel, her stomach sank.
Both driver’s side tires were flat. No, not flat. Slashed. Jagged cuts across the rubber, deep and deliberate.
“Hell,” she muttered, already crouching to get a better look.
Griff came up behind her. “Stay back,” he said, not harsh, just measured, already scanning the area. His hand moved instinctively toward his holster.
That’s when she saw it.
A folded piece of paper tucked under her windshield wiper. She reached for it slowly, heart thudding, and unfolded it with numb fingers.
There was no signature. No name. Just two lines printed in block letters.
Stop looking or you’ll end up like this.
Her throat tightened as she turned the note over where a photograph had been paper-clipped to the back.
Hannah Cole.
Dead. Face bruised. Lifeless eyes open.
Lily’s breath caught. She’d seen the crime scene photos before, but this wasn’t one from the official file. This one had been taken at a different angle—closer, more intimate, like the person behind the lens had been there. Watching her die.
Griff stepped forward and looked over her shoulder. His voice dropped, steel-hard. “We need to get this logged. Right now.”
Lily didn’t answer right away. She just stood there, staring at Hannah’s lifeless face, the icy wind cutting through the moment.
The warning had just become a promise.
And someone in Outlaw Ridge wasn’t just afraid of what she’d find. They were willing to kill to stop her.
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Chapter Two
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The cold hit Griff harder on the way back inside. Or maybe it was the burn of anger under his skin that made the January air feel colder than it was. He kept his hand near his weapon, scanning the parking lot before stepping through the front door of the station.
Lily walked beside him, silent now, but he could feel the tension rolling off her. Her shoulders were squared, her pace steady, but he’d seen the way her hands shook when she’d taken an evidence bag from her pocket and dropped the note and photo into it. She was rattled. But then, she should be.
Inside, the heat slapped against Griff’s face, and their return had Mickey and Jacob look up from their desks.
“We’ve got a problem,” Griff said. “Someone slashed both tires on Lily’s SUV. They also left a message.”
Jacob straightened, his eyes darting to Lily.
She held up the sealed evidence bag, the note and photo pressed flat inside. “It was left under my wiper.”
Griff turned to the monitor near the back wall and began pulling up the external camera feed. “I’m checking the footage.”
Mickey leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. “Probably just kids messing around. Trying to get a rise out of you.”
Griff didn’t look away from the screen. “You see the picture?” he asked.
