“I’d better get to work,” she said instead.
Steel was standing in line at the Burger Shack to grab a late lunch, thumbing through a social media feed on his phone when he got a text from Olivia forwarding a post asking for volunteers to help with a fundraiser at Runaway Lake Lodge. Curious, he clicked on it and read more. Last he’d heard, Stella was the one raising money for a detox and recovery program for teenagers. What was Olivia’s part in this?
“Please join us tonight to help make our Water Olympics Day at Runaway Lake Lodge a success,” the post read. “We need people to run contests, lifeguards, food preparation, set up and clean crews and more.”
Sounded like it was going to be a great time—and as usual he’d be stuck on the outside looking in. Would Stella still be involved somehow? She hadn’t been happy with him for telling Liz about the killer, but to his way of thinking he’d done her a favor. Maybe he’d scared Liz away from making the kinds of mistakes Sue Hill had.
Still, that wasn’t the way he wanted to leave things between them. He hadn’t made any progress investigating Sue’s death. It was like everything in Silver Falls remained in suspended animation. Dealers were laying low. The pit was empty most of the time. Maybe that would be the last of the killings.
Somehow Steel doubted it.
“Rehab for teens? What a crock of shit,” a man’s voice said close by. Steel turned and craned his neck to see Eric Holden in one of the booths with a man he didn’t know. “Those kids don’t need a recovery program; they need a good ass-whupping. That’d set them straight in a hurry.”
This was the man who kept trying to date Stella? Eric had always been an arrogant prick to Steel’s way of thinking. He shuffled forward with the line, but there were two people ahead of him, and he kept an ear cocked toward where the deputy was pontificating about kids, drugs and getting what they deserved.
This wasn’t the first time Steel had run into an attitude like Eric’s. Law enforcement could make the best man callous and the worst man a downright power junkie. He hoped Eric wouldn’t go down that road.
“Yeah, I’ll go,” Eric said in response to a question the other man asked. “Stella’s involved with it. I could care less about raising money for a bunch of parasites, though.”
Steel forced himself to relax. Eric was spouting off, trying to impress his friend with his hard-ass attitude, no doubt. At least he was going to help Stella with her fundraiser.
If it still was her fundraiser.
You should come, Olivia texted, right on cue.
Who’s running this event—you or Stella?
Me, now. She nearly got away with stealing it, but I was too quick for her. She added a smile emoji.
Look at you, facing off with the enemy.
I’ve seen you dancing with the enemy more than once, she texted back.
Hell. She had him there.
I still think you should come, she added. Stella’s helping me, actually. No hard feelings.
Maybe I will.
More and more lately, Steel had been thinking about what his life would look like after all this was over. If he could put it all behind him and go back to normal ranching life with the rest of his family. Lance, Tory and Olivia could use his help with Thorn Hill, especially after the strain the drought had put on their finances this summer. From what he could gather, the Turners were struggling, too. They put on a good facade, but Steel knew they weren’t any better off financially than his family.
Whatever it takes to win the Ridley property, he added.
No worries there; we’ll win it one way or the other, she replied back.
How do you figure that?
Olivia answered his text swiftly. Do the math, big brother. When you marry Stella, what’s theirs is ours and what’s ours is theirs.
Steel guffawed, but a shot of desire coursed through him at the thought of marrying Stella—standing up in front of their families. Pledging himself to her. Whisking her away for their wedding night.
He shoved his phone in his pocket when he realized it was his turn to order. A few minutes later, he was back on the street without Eric having seen him, which was probably good. He was crossing the parking lot to his truck, still chuckling over Olivia’s text, when he spotted a girl slouched against a lamppost, her shoulders drawn in as if she was trying to make herself invisible.
Lily Barnes.
Steel slowed down, all thought of lunch, Olivia and Stella erased from his mind. Lily had to know who Sue was with when she died, even if she’d refused to tell the deputies who’d questioned her.
He approached her cautiously. She was so hunched in on herself he didn’t think she’d seen him.
“Hey—you all right?” he asked softly when he drew near.
Lily jumped, scrambling away from him. “Don’t touch me!”
“Hey, hey, I’m not anywhere near you, okay? You just looked a little rough. You need a ride somewhere?”
She laughed, a bitter and utterly humorless sound. “I’m not stupid, you know. I’m not going anywhere with anyone.”
“Why are you hanging around a parking lot, then?”
“I’m waiting for my mom.”
“Exactly what Sue said last time you were with her,” Steel pointed out.
Lily’s eyes flared wide. “I’m telling the truth. I just came to tell Lara not to go back to the pit. She’s not answering my calls, but her brother posted a photo—they were here earlier getting lunch. I didn’t get here fast enough to catch her.”
“Why isn’t Lara answering your calls?”
“I don’t know.” She looked down. “She thinks it’s my fault that—”
“That your friend
