Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense March 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 Dana Mentink (e books free to read TXT) 📖

her memory, a towering monster ready to kill her and everything she held dear. Her bravado faltered. She was suddenly desperate to get back to her room and lock the door and never come out. “I understand. You’re right.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “You remember exactly where you put the drugs, right? Was it back at the last stop?”

She nodded. “I can retrieve it.”

“I’m going to need you to take me there tomorrow morning. We can bring backup,” he added quickly. “For both accountability and safety.” He sighed. “And I’ll make every effort to help you prepare the rest of the sites, but, Nora, I’m not sure you’re going to be able to start the rafting season on time. If we can’t find the gunman, if this leads to something bigger…”

He was trying to prepare her for the worst. The rafting business going under was now a real possibility. She refused to fall apart in front of him. “I won’t let the magazine reporter get on her flight if I can’t take her on the river, but otherwise, I prepare for the best case scenario.” She took a slow breath in to calm her pounding heart. “Do you really think the drugs will help find Dexter’s killer? Or will his death be written off as a drug-related death? Forgotten like Tommy’s?”

His face fell. “I’ll never forget Tommy’s death. You know that.” He cleared his throat and looked away. “We can hope that a recent arrest for one of the mobile meth labs might connect the drugs to the murderer.” His voice and gaze hardened. “It’s a long shot, but we still need to go by the book on this.”

“Hey!” Zach hollered from above. “Perry’s been trying to get hold of you. He says you’ll want to hear what he has to say.”

Henry looked down at his satellite phone. “I got nothing.”

“We’re probably too close to the canyon walls for a signal,” Nora said. “He’s at a better vantage point.” She did her best to pick up the kayak, but her arms were spent from the last hour of hard paddling. Henry grabbed the other end of the boat without her prompting, taking more than his share of the weight as they transported the gear up the hill. The moment they set the kayak on top of the SUV, Henry’s phone buzzed. “Perry texted. Zach was right. He wants me to call immediately.”

The rangers were used to bad phone signals and had the habit of projecting their voices loud enough for a town hall when they were communicating. Perry’s greeting through Henry’s phone was loud enough for Nora to hear while she strapped the kayak to the SUV. Zach stepped out of the vehicle again and tried to help her, though he didn’t seem accustomed to securing a boat and kept waiting for her to give instructions.

She avoided looking Zach in the eye. She still took it personally that he disregarded her witness statement.

“I had a gut feeling that something about those bullet casings looked familiar.” Perry’s voice continued to carry from the speaker of Henry’s phone. “I checked the crime reports. The striations looked similar to the photos I took of other casings. At another crime.”

Henry scratched his head. “But nothing official?”

“No. I have a friend at the ATF office in Boise. They have the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network at their fingertips.”

“You and I both know it’ll take weeks to—”

“Takes them fifteen minutes to run the test, Henry. As long as it’s top of the pile, and since the gunman took a shot at a law enforcement officer, we have your life at risk to thank for a priority rising to the top of the stack. I had the forensics equipment in the office to send them what they needed. They’ll have results back to us in the hour.”

“That’s… Wow. That’s great.”

Zach had stopped helping and was staring at Henry, clearly engrossed in the conversation, as well. Nora tried to move past him to finish tightening the tie-downs, but it was as if she had become invisible to the deputy. Her damp braid clung to the back of her neck and she accidentally hit him with it as she swung it around her shoulder. “Sorry.”

He grumbled but stepped out of her way.

“I know you don’t work in forensics. Do you know what that means?” Perry’s voice came through the static.

Henry rolled his eyes for dramatic effect and Zach laughed, clearly having overheard. “The hammer or firing pin of each rifle has a unique striking pattern,” Henry responded. “I’m fully educated, Perry.”

“I guess you were going to be a lawyer. They probably go nuts over stuff like that.”

Henry unclipped his helmet and scratched his head. He turned to face Nora while he spoke into the phone. “While you wait on your results, I’d like to assemble a team tomorrow. We weren’t able to bring the drugs we found back to land—after the shooting and all. The drugs are in a safe place, but I think we need more hands to make sure we don’t get fired on when we retrieve them.”

“We definitely need a team, Henry, but we’re going to do more than retrieve the drugs.” Perry sighed. “My ATF contact just dinged me with an email. It’s only preliminary and needs to be confirmed, but the bullets that were used to shoot at you today did match a former crime.”

“You don’t sound very happy about that.” Henry approached the SUV and gestured with his thumb that they should probably get going. Zach nodded and got into the driver’s seat while Henry opened the backseat and gestured for Nora to get inside. “What’s the lead? Who shot at us?”

“The striations on the shell casings match the firing marks on the bullets used to kill Tommy Sorenson.”

Nora gasped and spun to Henry. His face drained of all color.

“Whoever wants you two dead also killed your rafting friend, Tommy,” Perry said.

* * *

Henry tightened his holster and checked his ammunition. The morning