A Matter of Trust(20)

A concept Ty still had to get his brain around, because Pete had never-settle-down written all over him. Until Jess, apparently.

However, their romance was a well-kept secret, as were all things Jess.

Including the reason she went running into Ty’s embrace when Pete tried to turn the limelight on her after their recovery of a group of missing kids last summer.

Only Ty knew why she’d dodged the interview with Tallie Kennedy and channel 11, a secret he couldn’t share with anyone, not if he didn’t want to betray Jess and her painful secret.

Besides, Ty wasn’t all that sure that Jess didn’t have feelings for him lately. Not with the way she sat next to him during team muster or occasionally called him up, asking him over to her fixer-upper. Sure, usually the invitation accompanied a request to sand or paint something, but still. She didn’t seem in any rush to clear up the rumors . . . which meant what? That she wanted him to go from showing up at her house with his DYI tool belt on to asking her out on a real date?

Sure, she was pretty, with her long blonde hair, and around her he almost felt normal, as if he wasn’t the team joke. But he wasn’t a fool.

Jess pined for Pete so much that any other man would have to pry his way into her heart and jockey for space. Thankfully, Ty had never seen Jess as more than a sister.

Still, as a pseudo brother to her, he had a responsibility to keep her secrets—and according to Jess, that meant keeping her away from Pete. Which meant playing the game, for now.

“Do you know where Pete and Jess are?” Ty asked, keeping it casual as he dished himself up a piece of pizza.

“I dropped her at her house.”

The voice came from behind him, and Ty turned and caught sight of Pete coming in the door. He wore his blond hair pulled back in a man bun, and he eyed Ty as he shucked off his jacket. “Why?”

Pete put just a little too much snap in his voice, and Ty chose to ignore it. “Is she coming over?”

Pete’s eyes glinted, his mouth tight as he considered Ty. “I don’t know. She didn’t tell me.” He brushed past him and headed for a plate of lasagna.

Ty couldn’t exactly blame him. All of Pete’s efforts to patch his mistakes with Jess fell on deaf ears. According to Jess, she simply couldn’t risk Pete finding out what had happened back in New York.

Then again, given Pete’s history with betrayal, yeah, maybe Jess had a point.

Leave well enough alone.

Ty walked over to the sofa, stood behind it, and folded his pizza in half like a sandwich as he ate it.

The show had started, and the host was giving a rundown of the facts of the case. The girl found in the creek, her approximate age, estimated date of death, and then, the likeness of her created by the forensic artist.

For a second, the room went quiet, perfectly still.

Long dark hair, a regal nose, high cheekbones, the woman looked almost European, maybe Spanish or Portuguese. Dark brown eyes and full lips, although that was just the sketcher’s interpretation.

“She was pretty,” Pete said.

The announcer gave her height, weight, and what she’d been wearing the day of her disappearance. Shorts, hiking boots, a T-shirt.

She’d also been found wearing a gold necklace, identical to the one Ian gave his niece Esme on her eighteenth birthday.

Either that, or somehow the woman ended up with Esme’s necklace in her possession. That mystery, perhaps, was the precise thing that fueled Ian’s search. The gut feeling that the necklace connected the two, something that would lead to Esme’s return.

Hence deputy Sam, listening for calls on his headset.

A number flashed on the screen, and everyone jumped when a phone buzzed.

“It’s mine,” Gage said and pulled it out. “Sorry.”

He got up from the stool and walked over to the window, cutting his voice low, under the volume of the television.

Still, Ty could hear him, especially as his voice raised.

“Are you kidding me? Oliver—no. It’s not safe!”

Ty glanced at Gage. He had his eyes closed, his finger and thumb rubbing the stress—or perhaps disbelief—out of them.

Ty perked up, listening.

“Listen—people get killed trying to ski down Heaven’s Peak. It’s not—yeah, I know I did it but—what? No, that’s insane. It’s a two-day trip at best and—”

Ty wasn’t sure when he’d taken the step toward Gage, but he found himself near the counter, standing closer to Gage than the group.

Which meant he heard him loud and clear when Gage’s voice dropped. “Please don’t do this. There’s a weather front coming in tomorrow, and with the recent snowfall, the avalanche danger is extreme, plus—I’m sure you’re an amazing boarder, but—”