SIX

Bryce’s whole body went still. A tear tracked down Jade’s cheek and she sniffed.

“Jade?” The captain’s voice broke through the shock.

“Yes, sir,” she said. “Give me a moment to regroup and I’ll be right there.”

“You don’t—” Captain Colson sighed. “Of course you’ll go. I understand. Be careful.”

“Of course.”

“I’m so sorry, Jade. I was really hoping for a different outcome.”

“Thank you, sir. We all were.” She hung up, pulled into a grocery store parking lot and put the vehicle in Park.

A sob slipped out. Bryce reached for her, and she gripped his hand then leaned her head against the steering wheel to cry. Her grief mingled with his, and he settled his head back against the seat, closed his eyes, and tried to keep his composure even though his heartbeat pounded in his ears. Not Frank. Please not Frank. But if he’d learned anything from his bout of depression, denial didn’t work.

God, why Frank?

“How am I going to tell Heather?” Jade whispered. She touched her throat and grimaced.

“Sore?”

She nodded. “Hurts worse when I cry.” She sniffed and swiped her eyes. “I need to call my mom. The kids will be so disappointed about putting off the tree again, but it can’t be helped.”

“They’ll understand when you explain.”

“Yes. At least, I hope so.” With another squeeze to his hand, she released him. He wanted to grab her hand back and tell her not to make the call just yet, but he kept silent. The first call to her mother didn’t take long. He heard the woman’s sharp cry, and more tears squeezed out from Jade’s closed eyes. After she hung up, she grabbed several tissues from the center console and wiped her face. “The captain said his wallet was on him. That’s why they believe it’s him.”

“Doesn’t mean someone couldn’t have stolen it and gotten killed and buried with it.”

She shot him a sidelong glance and he sighed, pressed his fingers to his eyes and swallowed hard. “I know, I know. Not likely. Are you up to driving?”

Jade nodded. “Guess I have to be. You can’t drive my vehicle.” She pulled a bottle of ibuprofen out of the glove compartment and popped four.

He held out a hand, and she gave him the bottle. He took four, too, replaced the cap and returned it to the compartment. “All right, then.”

“All right, then,” she echoed.

Ten minutes later found them on an active scene. Floodlights had been set up, and the medical examiner was on site. Bryce limped behind Jade as she ducked under the tape and flashed her badge. She signed the crime scene log and motioned for him to follow her. His eyes landed on the medical examiner, who was bent over a body.

Jade stopped, and Bryce heard her breath hitch. He gripped her elbow, not sure if it was to comfort her or steady himself. Maybe both.

“Hi, Neal,” Jade said to the medical examiner as she pulled the scarf tighter around her neck. He figured she was hiding the marks left by her attacker more than trying to block out the cold.

Neal nodded. “Jade.”

“Is it Frank?”

The man stepped back to give them a better view, and Bryce shuddered.

“Yeah,” she whispered. “It’s him.”

“You were friends?”

She nodded, and Bryce looked away.

“Can you tell the cause of death?” she asked.

“Not at the moment.”

“Lift his shirt up, will you?” she said. “Please?”

Neal raised a brow, but did as Jade requested. His eyes went wide and jerked back to Jade. “Whoa. I guess we know what killed him.”

Two bullet holes in his chest, and Bryce had no doubt they’d line up with the jersey they’d found.

“Someone changed his shirt?” Neal asked.

“Yes.”

“But why?”

“When I find his killer, I’ll be sure to ask,” Jade said. Her voice had gone cold with determination. “I guess we have to tell Heather and his family now.”

Bryce grimaced, and dread filled him. Frank’s sister, Lisa, would be devastated. And Heather—

His hands curled into fists and he forced himself to breathe slow, even breaths as his heart thundered in his chest with grief—and the need to do something.

He waited and watched as Jade spoke to the officers. Finally, she joined him while they loaded Frank’s body into the black bag and placed him in the back of the coroner’s red Yukon.

“Frank!”

He spun to see Heather slam her car door and race toward them.

Bryce stepped forward and caught her before she could pass him.

“Heather, stop.”

“I heard it on the police scanner. Is it him?”

“Yes, it’s him. I’m so sorry.”

“No!” Sobs ripped from her and he felt her knees give out. Holding her nearly rocked him off balance, but then Jade was there, taking her friend and partner into her arms and lowering her to the ground—an action that Bryce would have found very difficult to do. Gratitude and resentment shot through him. He tried to focus on the first and ignore the second. The woman had just lost her fiancé. He and Jade had just lost a friend. Now wasn’t the time to let self-pity rear its head.

“I’m so sorry, Heather,” he said. “So very sorry.” Jade’s dark eyes met his, and his heart lurched at the agony reflected there. “We’ll find who did this,” he said. “We will.”

Heather didn’t seem to hear him, but Jade nodded. “Yes, oh, yes, we will.”

In the back of her cruiser, Jade held Heather while her friend cried, then helped her get herself together. Heather took two deep breaths and let them out slowly. “I want to go with him to the morgue.”

Jade didn’t even bother to try to talk her out of it. “I’ll ride with you.”

“There’s no reason for you to. You need to go home.”

“Right. Like I’d leave you. The kids have my parents there.” She paused. “Should I call your mom?”

Heather’s parents had divorced when she and Jade were still teens, but Heather was very close to her mother—or at least she had been, up until she’d ignored the woman’s warnings about marrying the man who’d wound up leaving her at the altar. “We haven’t talked in forever, but she was happy for me. Glad I’d found Frank and was over the jerk.”

“Of course she was.” Heather had told her all of this months ago. “You want me to call her?”

“I’ll do it.” She hiccupped but made no move to reach for her phone. “I don’t want to go home,” she whispered. “I can’t.”

“I understand. I’ll go by your house and pack a bag for you.”

“No!”

Jade jerked. “Okay.”

Heather sighed and rubbed her eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. It’s just that all of those clothes... Ugh. Frank and I went shopping a lot. He bought me a lot of them and every single stitch will remind me of him. I think I’ll go to a hotel and tell Mom to bring me something to wear for now. I have a few outfits at her house.”

“Okay, whatever you want to do.”

“That’s what I want.”

Two hours later, Jade stepped inside her home and shut the door behind her with a heavy sigh while biting back the tears that wanted to flow. Crying wouldn’t bring Frank back—nor find his killer. And it simply hurt her throat too much to cry anymore. The kitchen nightlight was on and the house smelled like fresh chocolate chip cookies. Bless her mother. She snagged a cookie from the plate someone had thoughtfully set on the foyer table and took a bite. She kicked off her shoes and pulled her weapon from her holster, checked to make sure the safety was engaged, then locked it in the box next to the cookies.

“Hi, Mommy.” Jade looked up to find Mia lying on the couch, blanket pulled to her chin. “I’m sorry about your friend.”

“Little bear, what are you doing up so late?”

“She couldn’t sleep,” Jade’s father said from the kitchen door. “She kept waking Jessica up, so I brought her over here.”

“Couldn’t sleep? Why not?”

Mia patted the couch, and Jade understood that she was to sit next to her daughter. “Lolly told me about your friend. I was sad for you.”

In spite of her resolution not to cry, Jade’s throat tightened once more, and she slid her arm around her child to pull her snug against her side. Mia rested her head on Jade’s shoulder. “Thank you,” Jade said. “I’m sad, too. And I’m sorry I broke my promise to decorate the tree tonight.”

“It’s okay. We can do it tomorrow.”

“You’re the best, kiddo.”

“I know.”

Jade almost smiled at the child’s uncomplicated self-esteem. “But you need to go to bed.”

“I don’t have school tomorrow, you know.”

“That’s a good thing, because you’d fall asleep and bruise your head on your math book.”

“We don’t have math books, silly. We have papers.” Mia yawned. “Jessica’s mad at you, though.”

“Why? Because of the Christmas tree?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’ll talk to Jessica. She’ll be all right.”

“’Kay.”

The girl was almost asleep, her little body relaxing into Jade’s with each passing second. With effort, ignoring her aches and pains, Jade carried Mia to her room and tucked her in with a kiss to her forehead. Then she sighed.

She hated breaking her promise. Most days she was home when she said she was going to be, but every once in a while she had days like today, and it meant changing or postponing plans. Mia had learned to roll with it, but Jessica and Gage hadn’t. If her parents wound up adopting them, they’d learn their big sister sometimes had to change plans. It was disappointing, but not the end of the world. Still, with their background, it might seem like she was just another adult not to be trusted. What a fine line to have to walk.

Back in her small den area, she found her dad scrolling on his phone. He was a handsome man in his midfifties. And while his hair had turned gray around his ears and he had a few wrinkles around his eyes, he still looked much like he had when he’d walked down the aisle with Jade’s mother thirty years ago. He glanced up when she entered and tucked his phone into his pocket. “I’m sorry about Frank, hon.”

“Thank you. Me too.” She rubbed the back of her neck with a groan. “It’s been a very long day.”

He walked over to massage her shoulders. “You’re wound up tighter than a spring, kiddo.”

“I’m sure.” She dropped her chin to her chest. “Mia mentioned my friend. Mom didn’t tell the kids who it was?”

“No.” He dropped his hands. “Just that you had a friend who was hurt and had to go help.”

“I see.” She rubbed her eyes. She’d have to tell them. They knew and loved Frank and would wonder why he wasn’t coming around anymore.

“Heather didn’t want to come stay with you?” he asked. “With us?”

“No. I tried to get her to come and even told her I’d stay at her place, but she said she was going to stay with her mother tonight, and then at Frank’s house—what was supposed to be their house—after the crime scene people do their thing and release it. She said she needed to be with her mom, to process and grieve.” Jade bit her lip and shook her head. “I don’t understand it. I talked to Frank on a weekly basis, sometimes more, and I never knew he was doing something this dangerous.”

“Probably didn’t tell you because he was afraid you’d tell Heather.”

“Maybe.” She shook her head. “He took Mia and the twins to his niece’s birthday party two weeks ago. Were they in danger when they were with him? Would he have risked that?”

Her father took her hands. “No, honey, you know Frank. He wouldn’t have put those kids in danger. Not knowingly.”

She pulled away from him and looked at the ceiling as though she might find the answers written there.

A gasp pulled her gaze back to her father. He was staring at her throat. “What happened to you?”

She touched the area with a grimace. “I got caught in a strand of lights.”

His eyes narrowed. “Caught how?”

“I... Someone at the tree lot attacked me and wrapped a strand of lights around my throat.”

He blanched and his face paled. “Jade,” he whispered. “Did they catch him?”

“No. Not yet. We’re hoping to get some footage from the security cameras there.”

He shook his head. “You’ve had too many life-threatening things happen lately, from getting attacked at the mill to the shooting at the range. Now this? It’s too much.”

“No kidding.”

He paused. “Take a shower and go to bed. I’ll stay here tonight.”

“We have officers watching the place, Dad. We’ll be okay.”

“Are you willing to risk Mia’s life on that? Yours?”

She hesitated. Then sighed. “I’ll get you some blankets and a pillow.”

“And I’m going to get my gun.”

Bryce climbed the stairs to his room with Sasha on his heels. She’d missed him and now didn’t want to leave his side. In his bathroom, with Sasha lying in front of the door to keep an eye on him, he removed the prosthesis with a groan and massaged his stump until the worst of the ache eased.

The ibuprofen had helped, but he considered taking something a little stronger. Then dismissed the idea. He didn’t want to be less than alert while they were looking for Frank’s killer.

Once he’d showered, he grabbed the crutches, made his way to the window and looked out. Even though it appeared the attacks hadn’t been aimed at him, he couldn’t help being on edge, antsy and worried about Jade.

“She’s a cop,” he told Sasha. “She’s trained to take care of herself, right?”

Sasha yawned.

The fact that she had fellow officers watching her house was the only thing that allowed him to go to his bed and collapse on it in an exhausted heap.

Sasha settled herself on her bed next to him.

It was only when he was getting nice and comfortable that he realized he’d left his phone in the bathroom. With a groan, he sat up. Sasha jumped to attention. “Sasha, phone.” He pointed to the bath. She ran to the room and disappeared inside. When she returned, she dropped his phone onto the bed next to him. He wiped the doggie drool off on his sleep pants and scratched her ears. “Good job, girl. Now go get in your bed.”

Sasha obeyed. Sat there for less than three seconds, watching him before she got up and joined him back on the bed with a hopeful look. “Oh, fine,” Bryce said. “You can stay, just don’t tell Kristy.”

He knew Kristy really wouldn’t care, and he was glad for the company. When the dog realized he wasn’t going to make her get down, she rolled to her side with a contented sigh while Bryce stared at the ceiling and let the grief flow over him.

He shifted and closed his eyes. Which brought Jade’s beautiful face front and center in his mind. Someone had tried to kill her tonight and would have succeeded if he and Clay hadn’t finished strapping the tree to the car and gone looking for her.

Jade. What was he going to do about her? She’d always gotten under his skin, even as a teen. He’d stayed away from her, thinking she was too young for him, but when he’d seen her that day at the college...

He sat up and slid his legs to the edge of the bed. Well, leg and a half. The half was a good reminder why he needed to stuff down any feelings he might have for Jade. She deserved better. Someone whole. Someone who wouldn’t be a burden to her.

Sasha raised her head and eyed him. “Sorry, girl. I’m restless tonight.”

If he couldn’t sleep, he might as well work. He sat down at the small desk in the corner and pulled the pad and pen over. He wrote everything he knew about what Frank was working on and names he’d heard the man say. When he finished, he sat back and read over it, disgusted to see it wasn’t much. But he’d give it to Jade, and maybe she could make some sense out of it.

Bryce returned to his bed and lay down. Sasha raised her head once more, and Bryce thought she might very well be frowning at him.

He grabbed his phone and texted Jade. Are you awake?

No answer.

He set the phone back on his end table and shut his eyes, praying he wouldn’t dream, but knowing Sasha would wake him if he did.