The “just start shooting” made Felicity flinch, tensing so suddenly that Bennett woke with a quiet grunt. Felicity knew the very second he remembered where he was and realized how he was holding her, because he went rigid. Any other time, she would’ve found his overreaction to their closeness hilarious, but right now they needed to deal with the immediate threat.
Before she could do anything, there was a low thud and then another. Felicity recognized the sound as a gun firing with a suppressor attached. Bennett moved as if to rise, but she grabbed the arm holding her, keeping him in place.
“They’re shooting,” she said, barely audible.
She hadn’t thought he could get any stiffer, but he somehow managed it before rolling his body over hers. This time, it wasn’t a cuddling, cute movement but a protective action. One arm curled around the top of her head, and she felt like she was completely surrounded in Bennett. Although they were muffled, she still could hear the sporadic thuds and then a loud crack that sounded too close for comfort.
Bennett tucked her underneath him even more, so close that she could feel the rhythmic thump of his heart. It wasn’t racing like hers was, and the steady thud, thud, thud gave her something to focus on so the shooting didn’t make her panic.
After what felt like an eternity but was probably actually less than a minute, the muffled shots ceased, and the low muttering of voices came again. This time, covered in her Bennett blanket as she was, Felicity couldn’t make out any of their words. The two voices faded away, and everything was quiet. She strained to hear beyond the rushing of blood through her ears, but there was only silence. Still, Bennett didn’t move, which meant Felicity was trapped in place as well—although she didn’t mind too much. She didn’t have any urge to chase after two armed people who just casually shot up a trailhead parking lot.
Finally, night insects started making sounds again, and Felicity knew the shooters were gone. “You okay?” she asked, keeping her voice to a bare whisper.
“Yeah,” he whisper-grunted. “You?”
“A little squashed but otherwise fine.”
He immediately lifted his bulk off her, moving to his knees, and she swallowed a half-hysterical laugh as she sat up.
“Kidding,” she whispered. “Thank you for the protection, although I get to be on top next time.”
Even in the near darkness, she saw his eyes widen as he stared at her. The double meaning of her words belatedly hit her, and she felt blood warm her cheeks and was glad the concealing darkness would hide her blush.
“Next time we get shot at, I mean,” she quickly said, even as she knew she should keep her mouth shut and stop digging herself deeper. Deciding to change the subject, she cautiously peeked out the side window. No one was visible in the dim pool of illumination around the single streetlight, but the surrounding darkness was as deep and impenetrable as ever.
She pulled out her phone to check the time, but the screen remained black. Making a face, she realized that she hadn’t charged it since before she’d left for the mountains. Charlie had stolen her phone charger yet again, so she needed a wall outlet—like the one she should’ve had at the motel. Shaking off her renewed irritation at getting kicked out, she focused on their immediate situation.
“We should check to make sure no one’s hurt,” she said, sliding her useless phone back in her pocket. “What time is it?”
“Four thirty-six.” He reached for the side door handle. “I’ll check the other cars. Stay here.”
As he silently got out of the SUV, she followed, noting that her wrapped ankle gave a minor twinge of pain, but it was a hundred times better than it had been right after she’d twisted it. “You’re not the boss of me, and I’m not helpless. We’ll both check.”
He looked at her for a long moment, but the dark made it impossible to guess what he was thinking. When he finally turned away, he headed toward the closest car without protesting, so Felicity took that as agreement with both of her points. Pulling a penlight from one of her pants pockets, she moved to the second closest car. She winced when she saw puckered dimples where several bullets had struck the front passenger door, and she hoped that all the vehicles in the lot were as unoccupied as they’d looked when she and Bennett had arrived.
Holding her breath, she peeked through the window, only exhaling when she saw it was indeed empty. Moving to the next car, she did the same thing. Bennett was checking the final three on the other side of the lot, so Felicity pocketed her small flashlight and headed back to his SUV. Despite being glad she hadn’t stayed in the car while Bennett went out alone, she felt relieved to be returning to the safety—as dubious as it was—of the familiar SUV.
“Oh nooo,” she breathed as she got close. From this angle, she could see that a bullet had hit the bottom right corner of the windshield and entered the dash. Cobwebbing cracks turned the glass opaque, making the whole right side of the windshield unusable. She took a quick walk around the vehicle, checking for any more hits, and found a bullet hole in the driver’s door and another in the left fender.
A dark shadow loomed behind her, and she jumped and turned, pressing her back against the SUV as she reached into her pocket for something to use as a weapon. Before she could pull out her knife, she recognized the large shape as Bennett.
“The good news is that all four tires are bullet-hole-free and inflated,” she said, figuring it wouldn’t hurt to start with the positive. “Plus the important half of the windshield is still intact, so that’s good.”
From his grunt, he wasn’t that thrilled with her optimism.
“Are you comfortable driving like that?” she asked, noticing that the night sky was fading to a dark gray as the very first light of morning approached. After he shrugged affirmatively, she headed for the passenger door. “We should probably go before any of the other car owners return and call the cops. Unless you want to be stuck here until noon, answering questions?”
He climbed into the driver’s seat with a grimace that she took as a no. Felicity held her breath as he turned on the SUV, hoping that the engine and all the other important functioning parts still worked. It hadn’t looked like anything vital had been hit, but she could’ve easily missed seeing a hole in the early-morning darkness.
When it roared to life without a protest, Felicity exhaled hard with relief before settling back against the passenger seat. “Those were a couple of our friendly neighborhood militia guys, I’m assuming.”
“Yep.”
She made a face. “So one of our murder ladies snitched on us?”
Bennett made a thoughtful sound. “Possibly.”
Although she knew she was being too trusting because she liked the murder club ladies, she couldn’t help herself from grabbing on to the doubt in his tone. “What’s the alternative?”
“We haven’t been that discreet talking about why we’re here.”
“True.” There could’ve easily been eavesdroppers in the coffee shop or at the barbecue place. “I wasn’t careful enough. But I was more concerned with Dino getting tipped off and running than I was getting shot at.”
“The motel owner…”
Felicity made a face. If it weren’t for her, they both could be tucked up safely in their respective motel rooms, still snoozing away. “What about her?”
“She heard it from someone.”
“Yeah.” With a sigh, Felicity let her head flop back against the headrest. “I think we—I—underestimated the efficiency of a small-town gossip machine.”
Bennett made a sound of agreement. “One good thing.”
“What’s that?” she asked, eager to latch on to any positive at this point.
“Dino likely isn’t skipping town.”
Her huff of laughter petered out at the end. “He just sent his buddies after us instead. Way to see the bright side.”
They fell silent for a long minute as air whistled through the hole in the windshield.
“Where to from here?”
“Let’s check on my car, make sure it survived the night.” She braced herself for a mess but hoped it’d been overlooked by any militia guys.
“Then back to Langston?”
“Are you kidding?” she asked, staring at his profile. He turned his head to glance at her with a raised eyebrow. “No meth dealer and his gun-nut friends are going to run me out of town. I’m going to bring Dino in while having a relaxing vacation in the mountains if it kills me.”
And it just might, her mind warned.
“You don’t have to stay,” she said, her conscience warring with that ridiculous part inside her that would be very sad if he left. “This is my mess. I can deal with it. I’m sure you have PI stuff to do.”
“I’m not leaving you.” The utter conviction in his tone warmed her from the inside out.
Her car hadn’t been touched, thankfully, so they moved both vehicles to the coffee shop parking lot. It was still closed, but Felicity figured it’d be the first place in town to open its doors. After parking, she returned to the warm passenger seat of Bennett’s SUV.
“What’s the plan?” he asked.
She pulled down the sun visor to look in the mirror, made a face at her mussed hair, and then flipped it back up again. “Showers. Then you need a new windshield. I saw a mechanic a few doors down from Levi’s, so let’s see if they can fit your car in. If possible, I’d like to grab the bugs out of the gym. They’re expensive, so Moo yells at me when I lose them.”
“Moo?”
“Molly.”
“Your sister,” he said rather than asked, and she raised her eyebrows at him.
“That’s not the first time you knew details about me. What’d my background check show?”
Ignoring the heavy sarcasm in her voice, he rattled off her basic info. “Felicity Florence Pax, twenty-two years old, five feet two inches tall, one hundred twenty-six pounds. Mother is Jane Pax, father is Lono Hale, sister is Molly, half sisters are Cara, Charlotte, and Norah. Lives in Langston, Colorado, and works for Pax Bond Recovery as a bounty hunter. Never been married, not currently dating anyone, no known close friends—”
“Okay!” She cut him off, the bare bones of her life too depressing to hear out loud, especially after just a few hours of sleep. “And it’s five feet two and a half inches tall. Just for the record.”
He nodded solemnly like he was committing that correction to memory.
Feeling a bit flustered, she decided to change the subject. “You know all my details, but I never did a background check on you.” She was kicking herself for that now. “So tell me about yourself.”
“Bennett Xavier Green, twenty-eight years old, six feet four inches tall, two hundred fifty-two pounds. Mother was Deborah Dover Green, now deceased. Father is unknown. Foster parents from age sixteen to eighteen were Dean and Zena Roman. No known siblings or half siblings. Originally from Fort Collins, Colorado. Now lives in Denver, Colorado, and works as a private investigator. Never been married, not currently dating anyone, no close friends.”
Felicity was torn between fascination and wishing she’d never asked. Somehow, the way he laid out the raw details of his life so starkly made her want to hug him forever. She sat on her hands in order to resist the urge.
When he took a breath as if to continue listing the brutal facts of what sounded like a painfully lonely existence, she was relieved to see the headlights of a pickup cut through the lingering dimness of dawn.
“Oh, that must be Lou,” she said, again divided between disappointment that their revealing talk was over and relief that her confusing emotions could once again be stuffed in a dark corner to be dealt with later. “Unless she’s not working this morning.”
Bennett pulled something up on his phone as the pickup turned into the alley behind the coffee shop and parked in a small lot there. “That’s her. That truck is registered to Louise Sparks.”
Felicity eyed his phone, thinking of all the times she could’ve used instant vehicle registration information. “You’re very handy to have around, do you know that?”
With his gaze still focused on his phone screen, he smiled, looking so sweetly pleased that Felicity felt a squirmy warmth she definitely shouldn’t be feeling.
Her emotion-induced panic was interrupted by Lou, who’d opened the shop door and was waving them inside. Grabbing her computer bag, Felicity hopped out of the SUV.
“We’re not open for another half hour, but come inside and tell me all about your adventures last night,” Lou said.
“Sorry if we stink,” Felicity said, stepping into the coffee shop with Bennett close behind. “The motel owner kicked us out.”
Lou’s mouth fell open. “Whaaat? Marian did that? Why? Were you rowdy? I can’t imagine you two acting all eighties rock star, but sometimes people surprise you.”
“Is Marian a little old lady who looks super sweet until she chucks you out at midnight because her grandnephew is a piece of trash meth dealer who won’t accept the consequences of his actions?” Felicity made a beeline to the bathroom.
“Well, yes to the first part, but I was today years old when I learned about the other bit.”
Lou’s voice faded as Felicity closed the door. The bathroom was tiny, but it didn’t matter—Felicity was just relieved to have indoor plumbing after their night in the car.
Once she was out and Bennett took her place in the bathroom, Felicity collapsed in one of the chairs as Lou bustled around, performing all the opening tasks automatically as she shot questions and demands at Felicity.
“Tell me everything. Did you go to the militia’s compound last night? What’d you find out? Why are you limping? What’d Marian say? Where’d you sleep? You’re staying at my house tonight. We have a guest room and everything, so we won’t have to sleep four to the bed.”
Bennett emerged from the bathroom just in time to hear the “four to the bed” part, and he gave Felicity such a wide-eyed look that she had to laugh.
“I said we won’t have to sleep four to a bed.” Lou must’ve interpreted his panicked look correctly. “You really need to meet Ellie’s husband, George. He’s your brother from another mother.”
Bennett didn’t respond. He just blinked a few times while backing toward Felicity. Pulling out another chair, he plopped down next to her, close enough that their shoulders touched. It seemed to be becoming their usual position.
“Back to Marian,” Lou said without taking a breath as she poured coffee beans into a grinder. She didn’t seemed fazed at Bennett’s lack of response. “Tell me everything. No! Go back to your stakeout. Did you find Dino?” She started the loud grinder, making conversation impossible.
“The stakeout was a bust,” Felicity admitted once the grinder had fallen silent. She leaned back in her chair, Bennett’s shoulder rubbing against hers, giving her that familiar sense of security she was beginning to associate with him. “We couldn’t drive close enough to see anything, and when we approached on foot, my phone lit up, so someone in the guard tower shot at us.”
Lou stared at her, apparently shocked speechless. It only lasted a few seconds, but Felicity was certain that it was rare for Lou to be silent for any length of time, so she still took it as a victory. “You were shot at? Are you okay? Were you hit? Is that why you’re limping?”
“We’re fine. I just twisted my ankle running away.”
Lou finally broke out of her shock-induced paralysis and started filling the first coffee maker. “That’s good. I mean, not good about the ankle, but good that you don’t have any bloody holes in you.”
“Only holes are in the cars,” Bennett muttered, but Lou must’ve had ears like a bat, because she immediately latched on to that.
“What cars? Cars were shot? That’s so weird. Who shoots at cars, of all things? Hang on. Callum really needs to hear this directly. This is grade A, prime gossip. The fire station guys are going to be livid they didn’t know about this once it all eventually comes out.” She tapped out a text as Felicity met Bennett’s meaningful gaze. She gave a small nod and turned back to Lou.
“Speaking of gossip,” Felicity said, trying to think of a way to ask Lou if she or one of the other murder ladies squealed without sounding accusatory. “Marian heard from someone that we planned to bring Dino in, so she wasn’t feeling all that hospitable toward us.”
Lou groaned loudly, her head dropping back as she swore creatively at the ceiling. “This town. No one can keep a secret to save their lives. I’m positive it wasn’t any of the murder club ladies, but I can ask them if they know anything about who may have overheard and spilled the beans to his auntie.”
“Sure, although the damage is done on that end,” Felicity said. Maybe it was naive of her, but she believed Lou. Her instincts told her that none of the murder ladies was the loose-lipped culprit, and her gut had proven to be pretty reliable in the past. Besides, she was battling a militia in a strange town with no local sources and only one ally. She needed all the help she could get. “Dino knows we’re here for him. Maybe just remind the others of the importance of being discreet when discussing whatever they discover or hear in the future. Less chance of me getting shot at that way.” Felicity knew this was good advice for herself too. Who knew who’d been listening in at the coffee shop or Levi’s yesterday?
“Definitely.” Lou began stocking the pastry case. “Where’d you end up sleeping last night? You should’ve texted me.”
“It was late, and we managed to get a few hours of sleep in the car,” Felicity said, even as her hip gave a throb that echoed the one in her ankle. The floor had been rather hard, especially with Bennett half on top of her. The memory made her cheeks burn again. “A couple of guys shot up the trailhead parking lot where we’d parked this morning, so that wasn’t a fun wake-up call.”
“Wait, wait, wait!” Lou waved her hands, a paper-wrapped croissant in each. “You were shot at twice in twelve hours?”
“More like six hours, but yeah.” Felicity knew she was punchy from lack of sleep, because the conversation was making her want to laugh. “Speaking of bullet holes in cars, is the auto shop in town any good? Bennett has a windshield that needs replacing.”
“Yeah, Donnie’s good.” Still clutching the croissants, Lou stared at her. “But how are you so calm? I’d be screaming hysterically if I were you.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” Callum said as he walked in. “Your place was burned to the ground, and you barely missed a beat.”
Leaning over to kiss him quickly on the lips, Lou said, “I think your memory is faulty. There was a lot of crying, some screaming, and I threatened to move in with a pack rat.” She turned to look at Felicity and Bennett. “Not a euphemistic human pack rat. The literal small, fuzzy, disease-carrying animal.”
Felicity blinked, unsure what to do with that piece of information, so she just gave Callum a nod of greeting instead.
“Is that a bullet hole in your windshield?” Callum asked.
“It is,” Felicity said.
“Any connection to the damage-to-vehicles call at the Blue Hook trailhead the sheriff’s department got this morning?”
She met Bennett’s gaze before turning back to Callum and giving him a small shrug. “Maybe?”
“Maybe.”
“Probably?” For some reason, she felt like a teenager being interrogated by her father, even though Callum couldn’t be much more than ten years older than her. He just had that stern-dad stare down. “We didn’t call the sheriff.”
“What happened?”
Lou gave him an affectionate bump with her elbow. “I was just asking that. This wasn’t the only shooting last night, by the way.”
Callum’s brows shot up as he turned his attention back on Felicity, and she opened her mouth to speak.
“Hang on!” Lou interrupted, tapping at her phone, and Felicity closed her mouth. “Let’s get the murder club ladies over here while I finish setting up for my shift. Only a few people come in before seven, and we can all just stare at them until they get uncomfortable and leave.”
“That seems like a terrible business model,” Felicity said, resisting the urge to laugh.
Lou shrugged as she headed for the back, emerging soon after with a register tray. “Just for today. Usually I’m a star employee, so I feel like I’m due a few creepy-stare days.”
Felicity couldn’t really argue with that, so she just exchanged a what-a-weird-place-this-is look with Bennett and settled in to wait for the rest of the murder club ladies. Lou got them all coffee before unlocking the door and lighting up the Open sign.
Ellie was the first to arrive, holding the hand of an adorable, serious-faced toddler.
“Mila!” Lou immediately swooped the baby up, peppering kisses all over her face and eventually getting a tiny giggle before setting her back on her feet. The little girl reached up to Callum, and he picked her up, placing her on his lap with a faint hint of smugness ruining his usually excellent poker face.
Lou shook her head in mock disappointment even as she smiled at the pair. “Why does she like you so much more than me? I provide all the best bribes—candy, puppies, toys—and she still picks you. I don’t get it.”
“Hey, Felicity,” Ellie greeted her with concern. “You okay?”
Before Felicity could answer, Lou spoke up. “They’re looking rough because they got shot at twice and had to sleep in their car.”
Ellie’s eyes widened, her gaze bouncing from Felicity to Bennett and back again as her hand rose to rub at her breastbone. “You were shot at? Were you hit?”
“Nope. Just twisted my ankle running away,” Felicity assured her. “Bennett’s windshield, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky.”
“Your skip?” Ellie asked, taking a seat at the counter a few stools down from Callum.
Felicity raised her hands in a shrug. “The militia guys at least. I haven’t seen Dino yet though.”
Rory and Daisy arrived in quick succession, and the round of hellos and baby kisses interrupted the talk of shooting until everyone was settled with a coffee.
One unfamiliar twentysomething man came in, but Lou put her creepy stare into action—which Felicity had to admit was truly one of the creepiest she’d ever seen—and the customer decided to take his muffin and cappuccino to go.
“Okay!” Lou announced when the door had closed behind the fleeing customer. “We don’t have a whiteboard this morning, but we’ll add any pertinent facts to it later. Felicity, why don’t you give a rundown of what happened after you left the gym last night?”
Felicity did just that, although she left out the part about bugging the office and listening to the murder club’s conversation after she and Bennett left the previous evening. Otherwise, she stuck to the truth, telling her rapt audience about the stakeout, the attempted shooting, Marian’s tirade, and the interruption of their short sleep by the shooters at the trailhead. She skimmed over the part about sleeping in the SUV and didn’t mention the only-one-blanket issue, even though she was pretty sure the murder ladies would’ve been enthralled by those juicy details.
“Why didn’t you call the sheriff’s office?” Callum asked when she’d finished.
All the women stared at him.
“I’m married to a deputy, and I still wouldn’t have called them if I’d been in that parking lot,” Daisy said. “Well, maybe I would’ve texted Chris to let him know I was fine when he heard the call come in, but other than that, nope.”
“Hard agree,” Ellie said.
Rory nodded.
Callum frowned as the toddler played with his shirt buttons. “Going through the proper channels—”
“Usually wastes a lot of time,” Lou finished for him, although she gave him an affectionate pat on the arm as she said it. “No one was injured, and the other people parked in the lot called it in soon enough. If Felicity and Bennett get involved in the cops’ investigation into the militia, it’ll just make things messy.”
“Or they’ll think Felicity’s a suspect,” Rory chimed in.
“Exactly,” Felicity said, relieved that the murder ladies were on the same page as her as far as involving the police. She already had one detective in Langston dogging her steps. She didn’t need a bored sheriff’s department in her business as well.
Although Callum let it drop, he still looked unconvinced. Little Mila grabbed a handful of his shirt, and he glanced down at her with a small smile.
Taking advantage of Callum’s distraction, Felicity changed the subject. “We need to find a better vantage point to watch the compound—we meaning me and Bennett,” she clarified firmly, not wanting any of the murder ladies to take that as an invitation. “Dino might not even be there.”
“Didn’t Marian say that he was?” Rory asked.
Felicity thought back to the confrontation with the motel owner. “Not directly, but she definitely implied it.”
“You sure you want to keep pursuing this?” Ellie asked. “The situation seems to have a high risk of flying bullets. Aren’t there less risky bail jumpers you could go after?”
“Well, sure,” Felicity said. “But now I’m annoyed.”
Bennett gave a snort of laughter but sobered quickly when he saw he’d drawn everyone’s attention.
“Why don’t—” Lou cut herself off as the door opened and an enormous bear of a bearded man walked into the shop. The guy was even bigger than Bennett, and Bennett was huge.
Felicity looked at Lou, expecting a repeat of her creepy, customer-repelling look, but instead she was smiling. Mila gave a happy shriek—the first loud noise Felicity had heard from her—and wiggled to get down. Once Callum placed her on the floor, she toddled over to the newcomer, her arms outstretched in welcome.
The big man scooped up Mila and crossed the room to give Ellie a kiss. From this, Felicity deducted that this must be George.
“George!” Lou called, confirming Felicity’s assumption. “You have to meet Bennett Green. We all think he’s your long-lost brother you never knew about.”
George blinked impassively at this, one arm holding his baby and his other hand resting on the back of Ellie’s neck.
Felicity studied him, her head cocked to the side. Big, burly, silent, most likely socially awkward… “I can see it.” She felt Bennett’s gaze on the side of her face, so she turned to see him raising his eyebrows at her. Felicity just shrugged. “I’m not saying you’re twins separated at birth, but I’m not not saying it.”
Lou laughed with delight. “I knew the first time I met you, Felicity Pax, that you’d fit right in around here.”
I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, Felicity thought, looking around at the quirky denizens of this weird, sometimes creepy little town. She had to admit, though, that she indeed felt like she belonged here.