“You’re both murdering bastards!” Katie said lunging at Kurt, anger making her lose control. She didn’t see Brady raise his gun, and then she knew only darkness after he’d brought it down on the back of her head.
Chapter Eighteen
Cubby stood at the finish line and watched the runners come home. He hadn’t seen Katie yet and may have missed her. It was amazing how light he felt inside. Unburdened somehow, as if a weight he’d been carrying had been lifted off him by telling her how he felt.
After leaving the Howler last night he’d gone home to think. At two in the morning, he’d realized that he couldn’t let her leave Howling, because he loved her. This thing he’d always carried inside him about his father was not going to happen, because as people had been trying to tell him, it would have shown itself by now if it was.
He’d tried to find her at the start line, but she’d gone before he could reach her, so he’d tracked her progress and pulled her off the trail, desperate to tell her what was in his heart. Her eyes had come alive when he’d told her how he felt, and all that passion and strength would be his now, for a long, long time. He’d make sure of it.
“You look pleased with yourself, Sheriff.”
“I told your sister I love her.”
Jake’s smile was as big as his. “When? She didn’t know before the race started.”
“I saw her on the trails.”
“And how did this change come about, because when we last spoke you were not the type to ever fall in love.”
“It was after she punched me in the gut and I left Tex’s party that everything started to make sense.” Cubby laughed at his friend’s expression.
“Yeah, a punch in the stomach can do that to a man.”
“I realized that night, after seeing her dance with everyone but me, that I love Katie.”
“Not a hell of a shock, surely.”
“No, but the realization of what a jerk I’ve been was not pleasant.” Cubby nodded to a runner who was stumbling over the finish line.
He’d realized that what he felt for Katie wasn’t a soft sweet love, but a burning consuming one. He wanted every part of her, the good and the bad. What he had also realized in that cold lonely bed was just what an idiot he’d been to deny it, to deny them, and that he had hurt her through his fear of commitment.
Cubby knew she’d still want to talk, and he also knew he wasn’t good at baring his soul. But he’d do it for her, and he’d do it today, after the race, because she wasn’t leaving him, not ever again.
“Sheriff, can I have a word?”
“Sure, Mitch. Excuse me a minute, Jake.”
“You got something for me?” he said to the eldest Finlay brother. His eyes seemed clear and not bloodshot today, and his clothes were clean.
“That area up where the old Pearson hut is, high up on the ridge. We looked that over yesterday.”
“I had that searched already, Mitch.”
“I know you have, but we figured it wouldn’t hurt to look it over again while we’re in the area.”
Cubby worked on cop intuition a lot and right at that moment, his was sending out loud signals that something wasn’t right.
“What did you find, Mitch?”
“Dried blood up there, and signs of something struggling, plus there’s tracks where a body or animal has been dragged. Someone has gone to the trouble of putting three new locks on the hut, and the window’s been blacked out too.”
“You’re not shitting me, are you, Mitch?”
“Nope.” The man shook his head. “God’s truth.”
“Well hell.” Cubby looked around for his deputies, but couldn’t find a single one.
“We just came back, so heading for some food, Sheriff. Holler if you need anything.”
