LITMIR.BIZ

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was also engaged to Court. That likely meant the woman had already moved to the ranch, and Jordan figured she could use that to win the argument she was about to have with Egan. An argument that started the moment he finished the call with Court.

      “I don’t want to go to the McCall Ranch,” she repeated. “Your family will be there. Your father, your sister and apparently Rayna, too. My being there could put them in danger. Not to mention that none of them will want me there after what happened to Shanna.”

      “No, my family won’t be there. Court and Rayna have their own place on the back of the property. My sister, Rachel, lives with her soon-to-be husband in a house near town. And my dad has been staying at his fishing cabin down by the river.”

      Even though she wasn’t ready to give up her argument, that did give her a new reason for alarm. That was because the fishing cabin was a good mile from the main ranch house.

      “Is it safe for your father to be there?” she asked. “I mean since someone tried to kill him just two months ago.”

      Egan lifted his shoulder. “Some people ignore the danger and hope that it doesn’t come back to bite them.”

      “You mean me.”

      “Yeah,” he readily admitted. “Just because you didn’t die with Shanna doesn’t mean you have to choose to die now.”

      Surprised, Jordan pulled back her shoulders. Egan didn’t usually bring up Shanna’s name around her. Nor did he usually show any kind of concern for her. Of course, maybe the concern was because of the danger she might have brought to his doorstep.

      “You blame me for what happened tonight?” she came out and asked.

      “No,” he snapped, but it certainly sounded as if he meant yes. “It was beyond risky, though, for you to investigate those other deaths on your own. You should have turned all of this over to the cops before things got this far.”

      She heard the words and was certain that they were true, but there was another angle to this. “You didn’t believe me when I told you about the other deaths. You thought I’d gone off the deep end.”

      And maybe he still did think that, but Egan managed to give her a flat stare. “You really want whoever’s behind this to get his hands on you?”

      “No. Of course not.” It put an icy chill through her just thinking about it. This person had likely killed three people, and she didn’t want her or anyone else to be his next victim. “The same goes for you, though. We need a safe house, not your family’s ranch.”

      “That’s probably true, but it’s nearly midnight and too late to come up with an alternative.”

      She tipped her head toward the back of the building. “How about the break room? There used to be a shower and a sofa back there.”

      The last time she’d seen it, it had definitely qualified as bare-bones. Nothing more than a flop room for cops pulling double shifts. Still, it beat going back outside. She didn’t want to run from a killer, but Jordan wasn’t sure she could face him head-on right now.

      Egan stared at her, and she saw the fatigue and weariness in not only his eyes but in every part of his body. He probably needed to crash for at least a nap anyway. Still, she doubted either of them would get much sleep no matter where they were.

      He took out his phone again, and he fired off a text. “I’ll have one of the hands bring us a change of clothes and some toiletries. Some dinner, too.” He motioned for her to follow him.

      And that was when Jordan realized she had actually won the argument with Egan. Too bad it didn’t exactly feel like a win. Every part of her was on edge, and apparently it was the same for Egan because when the front door opened, he reached for his gun. So did Ian Meade, the deputy who was at his desk in the squad room. But their visitor wasn’t the killer. Or if it was, he was wearing a white lab coat.

      Jordan didn’t recognize him, but Egan and Ian must have because they both huffed and reholstered their weapons.

      “It’s okay,” Egan said to her, and he blew out a quick breath. “That’s Billy Watson. He works at the pharmacy.”

      Billy nodded and volleyed uneasy glances at all three of them. “Uh, Dr. Madison asked me to bring over these meds.” Billy handed Egan the small white bag, and he in turn gave it to Jordan.

      Jordan thanked him, but Billy didn’t hang around. He got out of there, fast, probably because he’d figured there must be some potential trouble for Egan and Ian to have drawn so fast.

      Egan took a laptop from one of the desks and got her moving again toward the break room, but this time it was Ian who stopped them. He gave Egan a thick file. “You said you wanted to go through that,” Ian commented. “I can do it for you. I mean, you need to get some rest.”

      Jordan didn’t know what was in that file, but Egan didn’t take Ian up on his offer. He simply told the deputy to come and get him if there was any hint of a problem, and he led Jordan to the break room.

      Yes, it was as bare-bones as she had remembered with a kitchenette, sofa and chair. The attached bathroom wasn’t much bigger than a storage closet. Egan put the file and laptop on a small table next to the chair.

      “You can take the couch,” she said when he took several blankets and pillows from one of the lockers.

      “I’m not the one who got shot tonight.” He motioned to the bag that the medic had brought and dropped the bedding on the sofa. “Take your meds and get some rest.” Egan immediately poured himself a cup of coffee, took it to the chair and opened the file.

      “If you’re drinking coffee, you must not be planning on getting any sleep,” she pointed out.

      He made a sound of agreement and started thumbing through the papers in the file. Since he obviously wasn’t in a chatting mood, Jordan grabbed a bottle of water so she could take the pills, but instead of heading straight to the sofa, she walked in Egan’s direction to get a look at what had captured his attention.

      And her stomach went to her knees.

      Because the first thing she saw was a picture of a dead woman. Even though it was impossible to tell the woman’s identity from the photo alone, the name was beneath the grisly image.

      Breanna Culver.

      The woman who’d gotten Shanna’s liver. Receiving that organ had saved Breanna’s life, but she certainly wasn’t alive in the photo. The shot had been taken after the horrific car wreck that had killed her.

      Egan looked up at her, and while he didn’t look especially pleased about her looming over him, he didn’t close the file or tell her to move away.

      “When the doctor was examining you, I texted Ian to print out everything on the other two dead women,” Egan explained.

      Yes, but there seemed to be more in that file than just that. When he moved aside another page, she saw the police report on Shanna’s murder.

      Jordan had read it, of course. Actually, she could probably tell him word for word everything that was in it. But she couldn’t figure out why Egan was looking at it now. Certainly, he didn’t want all those painful memories brought to the surface at a time like this. Maybe, though, the memories were always with him.

      They were always with her.

      “I have to look at all the angles,” he said. “What happened tonight and what happened to those other two women might be linked to Shanna. Or someone could just want it to appear as if it is.”

      She thought about that a moment. “You’re talking about Christian now.”

      He didn’t need to confirm that, but since they were on the subject of the possibly dirty cop, she opened up the laptop and made her way to the online files.

      “I don’t like that Christian went to visit Leeroy,” Egan added a moment later.

      Neither

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