“I don’t have any proof. Yet.”
He stared at her. “Then why would you say something like that?”
“Natalie. She told me it wasn’t suicide.”
“How would Natalie know?” When she said nothing, he continued as if trying to work it out himself. “Tricia didn’t accidentally hang herself. Though Natalie certainly isn’t the most reliable source.” Mo realized that JP hadn’t heard about Natalie’s death. He’d just referred to her in the present. “But if Natalie is telling the truth...” His gaze locked with hers. “I always feared what Thomas would do when he found out.”
“But he wasn’t going to find out—not unless you told him,” Mo said. She thought of what Natalie had written in the note. “After Joey was born, she refused to see you again, didn’t she? Natalie witnessed your argument.”
Mo watched his expression sour. She could see the answer in the hard glint of his blue eyes. He tapped his freshly manicured nails on the edge of the desk for a moment before balling his hands into fists. She could see him fighting to get control again.
“Tricia was a mess. She blamed herself for Joey’s medical problems. She thought it was karma, payback. I tried to reason with her... We were so right for each other. We loved each other. We belonged together.” He looked down, saw his tightly fisted hands and quickly relaxed them.
Mo thought of how stubborn her sister could be. “I take it she wouldn’t listen to reason?”
He scoffed. “She didn’t want to break Thomas’s heart. My heart was another story.” His hands had fisted again and his blue eyes had gone dark. He met her gaze, and in that moment she saw a man capable of murder.
Chapter Fifteen
Back in downtown Billings, Mo went to work to free Brick. She canvassed the neighborhood near the coffee shop until she found what she was looking for—a surveillance camera that had caught everything that happened in the alley.
“I’d prefer to handle this in-house,” the chief of police told her after he’d watched the surveillance video she’d copied to her phone. He’d watched it twice before swearing and handing her phone back. She knew this wasn’t the first time there had been complaints against Shane Danby. “Email me that,” he said gruffly. “We should talk about you coming back to work.”
Mo got to her feet. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me—”
“I’m not accepting your resignation if that’s what you’re about to say. Mo, I know how hard all this has been on you. You need time, so take as much as you want. Please, don’t make a hasty decision.”
She nodded. “Thank you. Can you release Deputy Marshal Brick Savage for me?”
He groaned. “What the hell was Shane thinking? A deputy marshal whose father is the marshal at Big Sky?” Shaking his head, he picked up the phone and called down. Hanging up, he turned to her again. “He’s all yours.”
She smiled at that.
“By the way, I’m not sure what the two of you are up to...” He waited as if he’d hoped she would fill in the blanks.
“We’re just friends enjoying a Montana summer together.”
Her boss groused. “Have it your way.”
Downstairs, Mo was waiting as Brick was brought out. She grimaced at his swollen black eye, the bandaged cut on his temple, a split lip and the bruise on his cheek. She could tell from the way he was moving that his ribs were bruised. She hoped she didn’t run into Shane in a dark alley because she knew it would take a half-dozen men to pull her off him.
Not wanting Brick to see how shocked she was by his injuries or how furious it made her, she joked, “We really have to quit meeting like this.”
He smiled even with his cut lip. “Good to see you, too.”
“This is all my fault,” she said. “If I hadn’t got into it with Shane—”
“Nothing about this is your fault. He’s a bad cop. You already knew he was dangerous and he’s worse when he has two friends with him.”
“Well, all charges against you have been dropped. A surveillance camera on one of the businesses across from the alley caught it all. Shane will be lucky to keep his job, and the other two...” She shook her head. “Fools that they are, hopefully they’ll wise up and put some distance between themselves and Shane. But I have good news.”
“Sounds like you already gave me the good news,” he said as she handed him his keys.
“I found JP,” she said.
“YOU FOUND HIM?” Brick grinned at her as they walked out of the police station. She just kept amazing him. He couldn’t believe how glad he was to see her—and not just because she’d gotten him out of jail. The moment he’d spotted her coming toward him, he’d felt his pulse kick up. When she smiled at him... What was it about this woman? She was often prickly as a cactus, annoyingly stubborn and impossible to reason with much of the time. But just the thought of this being over and never seeing her again...
He tried to concentrate on what she was telling him.
As she finished filling him in on her meeting with JP at the animal shelter, he felt sick. While he was behind bars, she’d risked her life. “You shouldn’t have gone there alone. If there is even a chance that he’s responsible for your sister’s death—”
She laughed at that as they exited the building. “You keep forgetting that I’m a cop. I can take care of myself. Protecting me, well, that’s not why I need you.”
He felt heat rush to his veins and smiled as he stopped to face her. “You need me?” He locked eyes with her for a few breathless moments.
She laughed. “You’re growing on me, okay?”
He’d been fighting the urge to take her in his arms and kiss her for too long. He pulled her to him, his mouth dropping to hers. She melted
