“Dearly beloved. We are gathered here in the foothills of the mountainous region of Montana to freeze our asses off in the middle of winter.”
“It’s not winter yet, you moron,” Derek snapped.
“Whatever,” Hunter retorted. “It’s fucking cold out.”
“Hey!” I hissed, earning me an eye roll.
“Anyway, we’re here to celebrate the love and greatness that is…love. For when there are two people who love each other as much as Blake and Parker love each other, there can be no greater love than this.”
I glanced over at Blake, but she seemed just as worried about the direction of this as I was.
“Today, we join these two in holy matrimony in the name of love. With both of them agreeing to love and cherish each other as much as they love and cherish…” Hunter frowned. “Each other.”
“So…do you have the rings?” he called out to no one in particular.
I turned and took the rings from Liam, who shot me an irritated look. He could take it up with someone else. I didn’t ask Hunter to perform the ceremony.
“Oh, right. Before I marry these two, is there anyone who would like to stop the ceremony?” He waited, his eyes sweeping over the crowd. “No one? Cuz, this is your last shot.”
I stomped on his foot, pissed that he was doing such a terrible job. “I thought you were ordained to do this!” I hissed.
“I am. I’m just making sure there are no takers.”
“It’s not a fucking auction,” I retorted.
“Fine. There are no takers. We’ll move on,” Hunter muttered.
“Wait!” Blake gasped, her eyes wide.
The crowd gasped. Hell, the whole town had shown up, and now she was backing out?
Frozen, I didn’t know what to do. Was she seriously stopping the wedding? Had she changed her mind? Because I was pretty sure we had worked this all out.
“That’s it!” she beamed.
“What’s it?”
Lowering her voice, she leaned in closer. “Your mom said something to me about how the land across the river used to belong to John Callahan.”
Confused, I nodded. “Right. And then a portion was sold to my father.”
“Exactly! But it didn’t all belong to him. I mean, she said at one point, it belonged to his twin, Jim.”
“Okay,” I said slowly, unsure of where this was going.
“She also said the land on top of the falls belonged to Jim, and quite a bit of it stretched around to the outskirts of town.”
Chuckling, I kept my voice low. “Blake, I’m not sure if you realize this, but we’re getting married, and you’re talking about land.”
“I know, but don’t you see? Jim was the one who owned the property atMurky Falls where Dakota’s body was found. And if that land went all the way to town?—”
“Then it’s possible someone who knew Jim had access to the land.”
“Exactly,” she beamed. “Or Jim himself. Not that we can question him since he died seventeen years ago.”
I nodded, seeing where she was going with this. “Perhaps it wasn’t really an overdose.”
“Maybe someone else in town knew about what happened at Murky Falls and killed him.”
