Murder at Sunrise Lake

“I’m going to take you into town, Stella. You and Bailey both. I want you to stay with Shabina until I come for you. I’ve asked her to have all of you stay there, Raine, Harlow, Zahra and Vienna as well.”

She turned her head to look over her shoulder at him. He was back to inscrutable. “Why Shabina’s?”

“She has the best security. I know you’ll be safe there,” Sam said. “And just in case, to err on the side of caution, I’ve asked a few of my friends to help out. They’ll be outside on her grounds, patrolling. No one will get in or out. That means they won’t be bribed by Shabina’s baked goods or seduced by any of your friends’ charms. They’re professionals.”

“Oh my God, Sam, you know where he is, don’t you?” She stepped away from him, forcing him to drop his arms so she could turn around and face him. “You do. You know where he is. You plan on killing him.”

Sam didn’t respond. He kept his gaze steady on hers.

Stella shook her head. “You can’t. Sam, you can’t. Call Griffen. Let Griffen arrest him.”

“For what? You aren’t thinking straight. Griffen can’t arrest him. Denver hasn’t done anything they can prove.”

“Then we should go together. Talk him into a confession. Get it on tape or something. I don’t care. You can’t kill him. I want you to stay with me. If you do this, how can you stay here? You’ll come to regret it and you’ll want to move on.”

“Why would I regret it? Sweetheart, listen to me,” Sam said gently. “I know you’re thinking in terms of protecting me, but think in terms of Denver being family. Being ours. What do you think Raine was trying to tell you? Denver knew he was deteriorating. He didn’t want to be his father or uncle. You were always his last resort, Stella. He knew, ultimately, if he went after you, I would hunt him down and I would end him.”

Stella shook her head, unable to speak past the terrible lump in her throat. “Sam, no.”

“You said it yourself, there was no feeling of triumph, of power, when he was stabbing you in your nightmare. It was different from all the other times. He could barely look at you or Vienna. He killed both of you because in his sick mind it was the only way for him to get me to end this for him.”

“You don’t know that,” she whispered.

“I do know he can’t kill himself, but he’s willing to pit his skills against mine. It’s his game and he’s made the rules. I have to know all of you are safe. He believes he can lure Vienna to him, but he can’t. I’ve made certain of that. The moment you told me about the nightmare, I texted one of my friends and he collected Vienna and took her to Shabina’s. He did remove her cell phone before he left her there.” He sent her a faint grin. “Apparently, she was spitting mad. That girl has a bad temper.”

“Where did all these friends come from all of a sudden?” Stella asked suspiciously, but it was really more to buy time. He’d never seemed to bother with friends, other than Denver.

“When I first became suspicious of Denver, I called a few of my friends who owed me favors and asked them to get out here fast if they could. I was fortunate in that they were between assignments and they came. They’ve just been waiting for me to give them the word on what they needed to do. Keeping Denver from getting to Vienna or any of your friends is number two on my priority list. Keeping him from getting to you is number one on that list.”

“Keeping him from getting to you is number one on my list, Sam,” Stella murmured. “I know you and Raine both think this is some well-thought-out plan by Denver to pit you against him, and that just makes it worse. He has a side to him that thinks he’s intellectually superior. You know he does. All of us know it. That night at the Grill when he’d had too much to drink, when he was warning me about you being a ghost, he had that note in his voice.”

“Meaning?”

“He was an officer, Sam. He came from a background of money. Whether or not he turned his back on that money, he still was raised with it. He was a doctor. He was always in a position of authority. Everyone looked up to him. He might be quiet and seem unassuming, but he was looked up to. He was used to a certain amount of deference, and he would have gotten it in the service just as he did here.”

Sam didn’t interrupt her. He never did. He waited to hear her out. He always did. Stella couldn’t hide her fears for him. “Denver wasn’t a very sexual man, Sam. He didn’t date a lot of women. He would ask someone out now and again, but not really pursue them. But he liked being considered really good at everything. He was falsely modest about it. The first one to volunteer for the most dangerous climbs when it came to the rescues, because he could do them. He shared the meat he could with the elderly. The fish. Everything he did, he was good at. Everyone in town liked him and sang his praises. He was a big deal in Knightly. And then you came along.”