It sounded as weak out loud as it did in her head. Timing was never perfect. Zane was the reason. Zane and his secret.
The second Noah turned away from her, her gaze returned to Zane.
What secrets are you hiding?
The question had flitted through her head so many times in the last week. It had to be big for him to continually pull away from her the way he was.
And if that message had been for him, it meant the secret was a dangerous one.
“There’sno way it was him.”
Zane’s fingers tightened around his beer, the music in the bar loud in his ear. “Are you sure?”
Ethan leaned closer. “He hasn’t left Montana State Prison.”
“He could have paid someone to do it.”
“It’s more likely that it was about her. You said the town doesn’t like her.”
“Yeah, there are a lot of assholes around here who’ve been making her life hell.” Understatement of the century.
“Why?”
“Her boyfriend got behind the wheel drunk. Crashed and killed himself thirteen years ago.”
“How’s that her fault?”
“It’s not. But according to locals, she was supposed to drive him home that night.”
“Small towns.” Ethan’s phone lit up, and he lifted it from the bar before cursing.
Zane frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“They’ve officially ended the search for the woman who went missing in the mountains.”
“That didn’t take long.”
“No. But it was longer than Ward wanted.”
Ward was the town sheriff of Deep River. He’d been useless twenty years ago, when Zane was a teenager, and apparently nothing had changed. “You already searched with the team?”
Ethan scoffed. “Our search and rescue team is made up of retired locals who have no idea what they’re doing. I’m the only one with a scrap of training.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “If my team was there, we’d be scouring those mountains until we found her.”
Well, that was because there was a big damn difference between former Navy SEALs and retired librarians and shopkeepers.
“How’s your team doing?” Zane asked.
“No one really likes their jobs since getting out. And we miss each other. It’s hard to go from living in each other’s pockets to never seeing each other. It feels like I’m missing my left arm.”
“Shame you didn’t all move to the same town.”
Ethan laughed. “Yeah. Would have been nice.”
Someone stepped beside him at the bar. He knew who it was before he turned his head. From her scent. The warmth of her body.
“Bonnie.”
A small smile curved her lips. “Hey. I saw you across the bar and thought I’d come say hi.”
