She froze.
Noah: Did you see the article in The Amber Ridge Chronicle?
Noah: Read this and call me.
There was a link.
She wasn’t sure why, but her heart started to pound, like she was about to read something that would change everything.
She clicked the link.
Zane Merrick: Military Hero Turned UFC Fighter? Or Criminal Who Got Away with Murder?
Air caught in her lungs, making it hard to breathe.
And suddenly, she didn’t want to read it. But she also did. She couldn’t not.
Her gaze shifted over the article.
To many here in Amber Ridge, Zane Merrick is a hero turned small-town gym owner. But according to locals in Billings, he has a past. One he’s tried to bury.
Less than a year ago, Zane Merrick was found standing over the dead body of twenty-two-year-old Amber Levado, the murder weapon in his grip.
Bonnie gasped, the phone almost dropping from her fingers as all the blood drained from her head.
No.
He had a secret, she knew that. Butthis?
Her gaze started to blur, but she forced herself to focus, words like “party” and “drugs” and “blood” standing out like they’d been bolded.
She skimmed down to the next part.
According to neighbors, while Merrick was out on bail, police went to his home to find a thirty-three-year-old man dead in his living room.
The phone dropped from her fingers.
Two? There weretwobodies? One in his home, and the other at a party where he’d been holding the murder weapon?
“Bonnie?”
She screamed and reflexively grabbed a knife from the board, then swung around to him.
He only wore briefs. His brows were drawn together, his gaze going to the knife then back to her. “What’s going on, Bonnie?”
“Who are you?” There was a shake in her voice, and she hated that. She wanted to be strong and brave and firm.
He gave her nothing. She couldn’t read his features at all. “You know who I am.”
“Did you kill two people in Billings?”
His frown deepened, and when he stepped toward her, her fingers tightened on the knife. Somehow, he looked bigger. His shoulders broader. Taller and more…dangerous.
“Bonnie, put down the weapon.”
“Answer my question first. Did you kill two people in Billings?”
“No.”
