Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103665 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Christian gave Dutch a look. “I need to talk to you afterward about another attack on Amka last night. Her brakes were cut.”
Dutch sucked in a breath and leaned in, his gaze scouring her. Concern glowed in his faded brown eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” But was she? The world kept tilting sideways, like her center of gravity had shifted and hadn’t reset.
“I’ll call you,” Christian said, his jaw visibly clenching.
Dutch stepped away from the truck.
Amka rolled up her window and shivered. “I can’t believe somebody killed Jarod.”
“We don’t know that.”
“We don’t know what?” she asked.
Christian turned back down the road toward town. “We don’t know that someone killed him. All we know is his body was found.”
That was true. She looked down at her bare legs and the socks still covering her feet. “May I borrow your phone?”
“Sure.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his cell phone, handing it to her. “I take it yours is in the bottom of the river.”
“Everything. My whole purse is,” she murmured. Her wallet, phone, ID, the bar keys, and even her favorite lip gloss were in that purse. It had probably washed all the way down the river by now. She looked at the phone. It was locked.
“Zero-eight-zero-two,” Christian said. “My code.”
She glanced over at him. “Isn’t that your birthday?”
“How do you know that?”
“I don’t know. I must’ve heard it at some point,” she said, frowning. “Didn’t your brothers try to throw you a party at the tavern a few years back?”
He angled his head to glance up at the somewhat blue sky. “We only lasted inside for about a half hour, and then we took off. Went snowmobiling.”
She studied him, wanting to know more. How did he feel about last night? She couldn’t find the right way to ask him, so she went with the next best question. “How do you know your birthday?”
The legend of how Hank found the young Osprey brothers after an avalanche in some tiny settlement in the middle of nowhere was well known. They all looked like brothers—or cousins, or something—so they were probably related. But no records had ever been found.
“The circus came through when we were kids, and Hank paid a fortune teller to give each of us a birthday. He said it mattered and that we should have something normal.” Christian’s mouth twitched, not quite a smile. “She said that August second should be my birthday because I was quiet, stubborn, and always watching the exits. That I was a Leo. I didn’t argue.”
Amka studied him. “I think that’s kind of sweet.” It made sense, too. Leos were known for protectiveness and strength, and that early August day occurred in the deep of summer where a man like him would be most alive in the wild and wouldn’t want to be boxed in by four walls. “I get that. August is when everything starts to shift. The land, the air, and even the forest feel like they’re holding quietly with calmness above an oncoming wild storm.”
He glanced at her. “Storm?”
“Yeah.” She’d only tapped the edges of that last night. He held back and she knew it. “There’s a lot bubbling under your surface. I always suspected it but now I know.”
“You don’t know. A few hours together doesn’t give you insight. Don’t make me into something I’m not. I’m not a good guy.”
Right. Because good guys didn’t jump into freezing water, risk their own lives, just to save a woman who was engaged to somebody else. She’d argue later. Right now, she typed in the code and then quickly called Daisy.
“Hello?” Daisy answered with a cautious note in her voice.
“Hey, it’s Amka. On Christian’s phone.”
“Oh wow. Why is that?”
Amka shifted her weight, acutely aware of how wrong everything felt, right down to not wearing her own jeans. “That’s definitely a long story. But for now, are you at home?”
“No. I’m at the tavern. You weren’t here to open it.”
Amka’s brain just wasn’t locking in. “Thank you for doing that for me.”
“Of course.”
“I need a favor.”
Glasses clinked. “Anytime.”
Amka needed to start thinking clearly. “Is Nixi around?”
“Yeah. She’s slurping coffee with a bunch of her friends. They’re filming more videos. Why?”
Amka thought through the specials of the day. Rudolph could easily handle the kitchen, and if Nixi would work the tables, they should be okay. “I’ll meet you in the back room of the tavern where I keep an extra change of clothes. Daisy, I need a lawyer.”
Christian insisted on driving them the few blocks from the tavern to the sheriff’s station, his eyes sweeping the rooftops. Only a few nights had passed since someone shot at them, but it already felt like years. He parked right out front and ushered them inside, covering their backs.
Inside, Brock lounged against the counter while Flossy sat behind it, alert as always. The two troopers stood near the hallway leading to the offices and interrogation room.