help you?”
Julian wished he were a people person, but he knew better. Sure, he prided himself on being a good friend, but putting strangers at ease had never been in his wheelhouse. He didn’t have the patience, especially now.
“I’m here about a room,” he stated without any preamble. “What’s going on?”
The deputy looked like a man who very much did not like what was going on. His jaw hardened.
“There’s been an incident that we’re investigating.” He cast a look back at the inn. Jenna, Madi’s friend and employee, shut the front door behind her with enough vigor to draw the attention of everyone outside. She didn’t look sorry for the force. Though when she swept her gaze across her onlookers as she stepped off the porch, she stopped with obvious surprise at Julian.
Neither had a chance to explain.
The door behind Jenna opened. A dark-skinned woman with a badge swinging against her chest came out. Her face was impassive, frown set so deep that Julian tensed even more than he thought was possible.
That was when he saw Madi.
In the distance between them the glow of moonlight mixed with the whirls of blue and red. It was unsettling.
But what put fire in Julian’s gut the most?
Madi’s hands were handcuffed in front of her.
A uniform led her out, hand against her back. Her eyes stayed on the porch as she walked to the steps.
“What’s going on?” Julian asked, his voice becoming an octave too low. The deputy tensed in return. His hand moved near the butt of his service weapon. Julian made sure not to move another inch, but couldn’t stop himself from yelling when she was waiting for her escort to open the back of the closest cruiser. “Madi?”
For a moment Julian was worried she hadn’t heard him. But then she turned, first her face and then her entire body. From the side Julian noticed something he hadn’t seen when she’d first walked through the front door.
Her stomach.
Her pregnant stomach.
Part of Julian’s mind went into overdrive; the other, cool-under-pressure part gave him the patience to stay still.
Madi’s eyes widened in surprise, just as Jenna’s had.
“I didn’t do it,” she yelled. “I swear!”
Then, in a movement that was neither harsh nor easy to watch, Madi was ushered into the back seat. When the door closed behind her, all Julian could do was stare.
* * *
GRANDMA MADELINE NASH had always said a person was never given more than they could handle in life. She’d said it when their house was destroyed in a flood, when the ranch fell on hard times, after her husband passed away, when the triplets were abducted and right through the aftermath of the attack, leading up to her only son’s death.
Madi put her head in her hands. She had a hard time believing she could handle everything like her namesake had. She’d been at the Wildman County Sheriff’s Department for almost five hours. In that time she’d been handcuffed to a metal table in the interrogation room before being uncuffed and brought a rolling office chair because it had more padding. During those five hours she’d only spoken to three people.
The first had been Detective Santiago, her brother’s partner. Jazz was a family friend but treated Madi with short, clipped questions. Where had Madi been in the hours leading up to dinner? Why had she called Loraine? If she hadn’t done it, then why did the call log on her phone say she had? Where did she get the shotgun?
How badly had she hated the woman?
Madi had gone over her afternoon and night several times before Jazz excused herself. Her brother Caleb never came in.
Declan, the sheriff and Madi’s eldest brother, eventually did and explained why.
“Caleb can’t work this case because he can’t get his emotions in check,” Declan had said. He hadn’t sat down across from her. His body was riddled with tension, his face pulled down in a frown. Madi didn’t need any triplet connection to know he was trying his best to keep his own emotions in check. “Him working this case is a big-time conflict of interest. Jazz will take over as well as a detective from the local PD in Kilwin down the road.”
“She’s teaming up with the police department?” Madi had been stunned at the news. The two only ever worked together on emergencies like high-speed chases that crossed the town limits or manhunts that spanned the county. Now they were doing the same with her?
It made her already-knotted stomach quake.
Declan had sighed.
“It was at Mayor Harding’s suggestion, and honestly, it took all I had to convince him to keep us on the case. You have two brothers on the force. Our family history doesn’t help. This is only going to rock the boat on public perception of us.”
“Family history? Do you mean the abduction?” she had nearly shrieked. “We were eight! How is that our fault?”
“I’m not blaming any of you for that, and you know that. I meant what happened with Caleb last year. I think the mayor would like the Nashes out of the spotlight for a while. Even though you know as well as I do that the town has never really let go of what happened when you were kids.”
Madi did know that Overlook was incapable of forgetting one of its biggest unsolved mysteries. It wasn’t every day that three children were attacked, abducted and held for three days before escaping on their own...and that, to this day, no one had ever been able to ID the man responsible. Never mind understanding his motive.
As far as what had happened with Caleb, talk had gotten out of hand quickly but had died down.
Or so Madi had thought.
“The mayor thinks it’s best for you, the department and the town if we’re extra careful with how we move forward,” he continued, as if his words were scripted.
“And that means what exactly?”
Declan let out another long sigh. This time Madi saw the defeat in it.
“That means that my chief deputy will run point on this case while I handle the rest of the department and try to keep this in-house as much as I can. Past that, Caleb and I will have nothing to do with this case. We can’t afford anyone blaming us for favoritism or being impartial.”
Madi felt the tears spring to her eyes before they ever fell down her cheeks. She was angry. She was scared. Caleb being taken off the case made sense. Declan stepping away hadn’t crossed her mind as a possibility.
Pain twisted his expression. His face softened.
“I know you didn’t do it, Madi,” he said, voice low. “But the evidence against you is pretty damning. I can’t dismiss it, even though I know you’re innocent. Hell, I think everyone in this department knows it, too. We just have to do our jobs and do them carefully, or we could end up hurting your cause instead of helping it.” He reached out
