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  She gave half-hearted greetings and assurances to her coworkers that Shane was on the Nico case as she arrowed toward her office. Having been ambushed, they had no real lead on her attacker. She remembered only the feel of a hairy forearm and a body much bigger than hers. That hardly whittled it down. Most everyone in town was taller than her. If she couldn’t identify the attacker, they couldn’t make the subsequent links to Nico’s theft and then to the Larsons having the dog.

  While Shane grilled the training center staff, Danica would find a way to contribute to the case. The Larson twins had a vet working with them. There was no other explanation for only one microchip in Nico. At least researching vets gave her something to do.

  She pulled up a directory of veterinarians in the county and grumbled at the idea of any of them working with the Larsons.

  “Problem?” Hayley asked, rapping on Danica’s open door.

  “Too many to list,” Danica admitted. She clicked over to her screen saver to hide her search and groaned when a snapshot of Nico was the first in the rotation.

  “Are you feeling all right?”

  “Yes.” She pushed her hands into her hair and rested her elbows on the desk. “I want Nico back.”

  “We all do.” Hayley walked in and sat down. “No one blames you, sweetie.”

  The pat reassurance made Danica want to laugh. Bitterly. Hayley wasn’t being snide or even passive-aggressive, but the words added to Danica’s guilt. “I blame me.”

  “You’re sure it was Nico at the Larson office?”

  “Absolutely.” Giving up, she folded her arms and rested her forehead on them. Was there any legal way to dig through a vet’s client records? Who could she ask? Although vet records weren’t protected like personal health records, it seemed like the wrong thing to do without permission.

  “I’m sure Shane will find a way to get Nico back,” Hayley stated confidently. “Do you think he’s seeing anyone?”

  The non sequitur had Danica sitting up. “Shane?” The woman had nearly been her sister-in-law. She couldn’t be interested in Shane. Men flocked to Hayley every day of the week, all day long. It was part of life in Red Ridge. “I really don’t know,” she managed to reply.

  And why was she getting so riled about it? She and Shane weren’t anything to each other but wary acquaintances, if not outright enemies. She was merely a useless witness on one of his cases. Cocking her head, she tried to picture them together. They’d be gorgeous. She could see them lighting up Red Ridge like some celebrity couple, all that blond hair and big smiles, both fit and tall.

  She wasn’t up for this conversation. Covering her face with her hands, she worked to smother the imminent threat of both tears and growling curses. Maybe she should go home.

  “Oh.”

  Danica dropped her hands. “Oh?” she echoed. “What does that mean?”

  Hayley flicked away the question with a long-fingered, manicured hand. Danica always wondered how she managed to maintain such lovely nails in their profession. It was another mystery of Hayley’s unfailing perfection.

  “You should never play poker, Dani.” Hayley smiled indulgently, as if she was so much older and wiser. They were the same age. “It’s obvious you have feelings for him. That’s great news. You haven’t gone out with anyone in a long time.”

  Great news? Danica’s cheeks flamed with embarrassment. There were times she hated being a redhead. “Feelings?” Her voice cracked and she plucked a pencil from her desk, twirling it in her fingers. “Well, sure. I’m grateful he found me when he did. That’s all.”

  “Mmm-hmm.”

  “Please stop,” Danica said. “Every girl in Red Ridge has crushed on Shane Colton at some point.”

  Hayley’s lips curled with fond memories. “It was that smile and singular focus. He was such a charmer back in high school. Do you remember?”

  Danica remembered all that charm fading out of him through the course of a murder investigation and trial that ended with a life sentence. Since his return to Red Ridge, exonerated and a free man, he had a hard edge in both his smile and his eyes that kept people at arm’s length.

  “Add in the bad-boy factor,” Hayley continued, “and it’s no wonder you’re crushing on him again.”

  “Not me.” Infatuation sparked by associative guilt did not a crush make. It was a recipe for disaster in a relationship.

  Hayley’s lovely eyes filled with tears, yet miraculously none spilled over her lashes to mar her makeup. “Take it from me, Dani, don’t wait on love.”

  Love? That escalated quickly. “You’re reading too much into it,” she said. Shane was the last man on the planet she could or should love.

  Hayley stood, a fragile smile wobbling on her glossy lips. “I mean it.” She sniffled delicately. “None of us know how long we have. I loved your brother and as much as I miss Bo—” she laid a hand over her heart “—as hard as each day is without him, I don’t regret a moment. If you care for Shane at all, don’t waste a minute. Love is a gift, Danica. Make time to find out if it’s mutual.”

  Before she could ask for advice on how best to do that, Hayley walked out.

  Danica appreciated the sentimental speech, but there were bigger obstacles between her and Shane than how best to express any feelings. There were things she’d wanted to say to him from the moment he’d returned to Red Ridge. Things she kept locked deep inside because she was a Gage and he was a Colton. She’d let prime opportunities slide when he was initially training with Stumps. And there had been more casual moments since. She chickened out every time.

  Contrary to Hayley’s theory, she didn’t want to tell him she had a crush or wanted to go out. She wanted to tell him how the worst time in his life had irrevocably changed her, too.

  More frustrated than ever, Danica pushed all of her cluttered thoughts about the past out of her mind and resumed her computer search for the vet who had changed that microchip for the Larson brothers.

  After an hour or so, she had a short list of the nearest vets in the county and a raging headache. She printed out her findings for Shane to investigate further and planned to grab a bottle of water from the break room before paying a visit to the puppies.

  She stepped out of her office and nearly ran headlong into Shane and Hayley, blond heads close, voices friendly as they chatted about something. Shane scowled at her and Stumps wagged his whole body happily. The corgi was definitely her favorite half of this particular K9 team.

  With a smile for the corgi, Danica handed the printout to Shane.

  Changing her mind about staying, she decided what she needed more than another conversation disguised as an argument or unwelcome advice was a nap, even if that meant going home alone. Let him do his interviews. It was the only way to prove she was right about the training center staff.

  * * *

  Shane extracted himself from Hayley and caught up with Danica in three quick strides. “What am I supposed to do with this?” He skimmed the list of names, phone numbers and addresses. Veterinarians, he noticed, every last one of them.

  “Hopefully you’ll find a real lead,” she said. “Enjoy your interviews.”

  “You can’t leave,” he said as she walked through the front door. He and Stumps hurried after her. She wasn’t going to talk to these vets, was she?

  She glanced back and cocked an auburn eyebrow. “I am leaving. If you need me, I’ll be at home.”

  The glint in her eyes dared him to follow, to stop her. He wouldn’t. Recognizing her bravado was a thin, brittle shell, he let her walk away. He’d been there, unsure if he could recover from a harsh surprise attack in a place he’d always considered safe. No one could make this easier for her.

  Shedding the shock and betrayal were only the beginning. He’d rebuilt his life after prison with little outside help. Stubbornness and perseverance were the cornerstones of his reputation a
s a private investigator. Through it all, the bigger challenge had been rebuilding his self-confidence and those shattered pieces of his soul he kept hidden from the world.

  CHAPTER 7

  Danica gripped her keys in trembling hands. No one was behind her. No one had been hiding in the back of her car or in the elevator or lurking to jump her at her front door. Despite the voice in her head screaming to the contrary, she was not in danger here.

  She shoved the key in the lock and got herself inside. Leaning back against the door, she heard a deep, heartwarming rumble. Her cat, Oscar, a Maine coon shelter rescue, peered down at her from his favorite perch on top of the kitchen cabinets. Grumpy with almost everyone else, he doted on Danica. It was mutual.

  She needed the unconditional acceptance right now. He came down to the counter and she scooped him into her arms, rubbing at his ear while his purr got louder and louder. She gave him the quick version of events since she’d left for work last night, apologizing for not being home overnight. He butted his head against her jaw and she set him down. At the pantry, she unlocked the treat jar, rewarding his patience.

  Appeased, he padded out toward the main room. Danica turned off her phone and set the kitchen timer for half an hour. Everything would look better after a power nap. She flopped onto the couch and Oscar joined her, stalking over her legs and nuzzling her hands. When he settled, rumbling contentedly on her chest, she finally dozed off.

  She dreamed of a man with clear blue eyes so cold she got a chill when he glanced her way. Shane. Her dream propelled her into his strong arms and she watched that chilly gaze heat when she dared to kiss him. It was a perfect dream-kiss on a perfect dream-day as they walked happily hand in hand along the trails outside town.

  The view changed, a summer storm rolled down from the mountain and crashed over them. He shoved her away and she stood apart, drenched by the cold rain, pinned by that colder gaze.

  An alarm clanged, breaking through the dream turned nightmare. She sat up suddenly and Oscar complained as he leaped to the floor. She felt as if gravity had magnified exponentially in thirty minutes. Scrubbing at her face, she considered resetting the timer for another half hour.

  No, naps like that were worse than no sleep at all. Dream-kisses aside, spending time with Shane was clearly dredging up a past she wanted to leave buried. She got up and walked to the kitchen for a glass of water. At least her headache had dulled to a nearly imperceptible throb at her temples. That would make the inevitable volume of game night easier to bear.

  She fixed a peanut butter sandwich and took it out onto her small balcony overlooking the western horizon to think. Or not think. She couldn’t make up her mind which might be better. Her thoughts tossed and turned with ideas to rescue Nico and various impossible scenarios in which Shane didn’t look at her with disdain because of her last name.

  Shane had better reasons than the bad blood of the original Red Ridge founders to hate the Gage family, but for some reason she’d never quite lost hope that he would eventually forgive her grandfather. It was an outrageous premise. In Shane’s shoes, she wouldn’t be able to let it go, either.

  So much had been stolen from him and yet she’d give anything to ease that hard, suspicious glint in his eyes. It wasn’t like her to fixate on things that could never happen. Things like kissing Shane Colton or even just making him smile. Hayley had been right about his charismatic smile, the one that drew people in and made them feel special. The smile he’d been so generous with before his life had been torn apart.

  At fourteen and fifteen, she’d been too young to be noticed by Shane. She wouldn’t have known how to react if he had noticed her. Still, like most of her friends, she enjoyed casting him as the ideal dream date in her imagination.

  When he’d been charged with a local girl’s murder, she hadn’t wanted to believe it. The rumors and conjecture and community judgment against him had been terrible. She’d struggled to reconcile how a guy who’d seemed so nice and fun could kill someone.

  It had been little more than a year later when a witness who had testified against Shane recanted. The new information had blown the case open and Danica’s worldview shattered when it came out that her grandfather had deliberately ignored standard investigation protocol and framed an innocent young man to swiftly close the case.

  Community conjecture and judgment had landed squarely on Sergeant Gage and the RRPD. The old feud between the Gage and Colton families roared back to life. All eyes in Red Ridge were on her Grandpa Gage, waiting for him to do the right thing, though several people disagreed about exactly what the right thing was. When he died suddenly, her friends and neighbors whispered that he’d gotten off easy.

  To this day, she marveled that any of her siblings had gone into local law enforcement. Though she’d been on that track herself, she couldn’t bring herself to follow through. In the days after Shane’s conviction was overturned, she’d hated her grandfather with an anger that blazed like a forest fire out of control. In the grip of that dreadful anger she’d made an irreparable mistake, discovering firsthand that no one was perfectly righteous.

  Shane had returned to Red Ridge and made the most of his second chance, distancing himself from his crotchety, negligent father and starting fresh in a new direction. He’d done a tremendous job as both a K9 handler and a private investigator. She couldn’t help comparing Shane then to Tyler now. The fourteen-year-old needed healthy, strong examples to overcome the hindrances of parents who were, at best, disinterested in his future.

  Danica closed her eyes tight against the sting of tears. Crying didn’t change anything. She would never have an opportunity to correct the biggest mistake of her life. Being young and idealistic would haunt her the rest of her days. The terrible accusations she’d shouted at her grandfather would always be the last words between them. Not words of love or joy. None of the corny jokes they’d shared all her life.

  She’d verbally assaulted him, demanding an explanation for his appalling mishandling of the murder case. He’d cried. The only other time she’d seen him cry was when her grandmother had died. He’d promised to beg Shane’s forgiveness. Riding that fury, she hadn’t been moved, claiming she’d never forgive him. Hours later, her father had found Grandpa Gage dead in his bedroom, a victim of a massive heart attack. Days, months and years passed, but Danica had accepted that the guilt never went away.

  On that point, Hayley was right. Love was too important to ignore and far too valuable to throw away as she’d done nearly a decade ago. Everyone had looked at Shane suspiciously when he’d returned, wondering if he was a killer despite the new evidence, and she was the one who’d managed to kill a man, however indirectly.

  She swiped away the tear rolling down her cheek. She didn’t want to work with Shane any more than he wanted to work with her. For her it was the burden of the old guilt. He would never have the closure he deserved from her grandfather because of her. For him, she figured it was akin to getting in bed with the enemy.

  She had no illusions that working with Shane would ease the strain of the age-old distrust between the Gages and Coltons. Building a bridge between the feuding families was better left to her little brother and his devotion to Valeria Colton. They were young, yes, but who was she to judge whether or not he’d met his soul mate? Better to be young, idealistic and in love instead of young, idealistic and full of hate and anger as she’d been. As long their relationship didn’t make Vincent a victim of the Groom Killer.

  Her thoughts quashed her appetite. After taking the remains of her sandwich back inside, she tossed it in the trash and went to get ready for the evening ahead at the youth center. She couldn’t let any of this old stuff cloud her focus while she was there to help the kids.

  She showered, washing her hair and scrubbing all the places she knew the attacker had touched her. With deliberation and care, she dried her hair and left it down. Dressed in a casual lavender tun
ic over black cropped leggings, she felt feminine and strong. Hopefully the feeling would last. She fed Oscar and promised him she wouldn’t be out all night and then left her apartment with her head held high.

  It took more effort than she’d ever admit to keep her head high as she stopped to fill up the car with gas. Sweat popped on her palms and she caught herself looking over her shoulder too often. Sheer determination had her driving to the grocery store for supplies to make treat bags for the kids on her way to the youth center.

  The only way she knew to get over this irrational fear dogging her heels was to simply keep moving forward. This was her home. Her home. She wasn’t going to let a lousy thief dictate her feelings and reactions.

  Even with the stop at the store, she walked into the youth center quite early. It gave her some time to put the treat bags together without jumping at every noise and shadow. She didn’t bring treats every week, but whenever she did, the kids got a kick out of it.

  No, a small treat wouldn’t suddenly improve tough circumstances, but it usually brought out a smile. Setting an example of small, kind gestures also went a long way, in Danica’s opinion. The kids who frequented the youth center were often generally ignored—or worse—in their homes, the one place every child deserved to feel safe.

  Grandpa Gage had often said stability and a sturdy roof could change everything for a kid. Shane’s mom had been his stabilizing force. She’d been the one who kept a sturdy roof over Shane’s head. She’d died unexpectedly during Shane’s incarceration, believing her son was a killer. Though Danica tried repeatedly, she couldn’t reconcile her grandfather’s wisdom with the way he’d railroaded Shane. What had he been thinking to knowingly send an innocent kid to prison?

  Some questions weren’t meant to be answered.

  As preteens and teenagers trickled in, she greeted most of them by name. Soon volunteers arrived with coolers of drinks and stacks of hot pizzas. After helping set up the serving table, she sat in on a couple of card games and laughed as she watched a spirited board game involving plenty of bargaining. She conceded to a video dance game when she was breathless and clearly outclassed by the younger players. While it all helped her feel more normal, none of it was enough to distract her from Tyler’s absence.