Run to Ground(75)

Everyone enthusiastically chorused their requests, except for Theo, who just smiled at her before turning back to discuss details with Sam. Her heart warmed at the rare sight. Despite his profession and his usual antisocial attitude and his friend’s overprotectiveness, Jules was glad he was there. Paying two dollars for an extra chair at the thrift store had been worth it to have a place for Theo. He belonged there, belonged to their family.

Overcome with sudden joy, she got up to get the ice cream. As she passed behind Theo, she couldn’t resist running a hand from one shoulder to another. It was yet another memory she could cling to after they had to run again—run and leave Theo behind.





Chapter 16


Bullet wound or no bullet wound, Theo was ready to punch Hugh in the head. No, in the throat. That way, his partner would have to stop talking.

“Nothing? Not even running her license?”

Theo’s jaw ached with the effort it took to unclamp his molars enough to speak. “Drop it.”

“I’m not dropping it.” Of course he wasn’t. Theo stood and started to pace Hugh’s deck. The rock fell away beneath them, exposing a startling view of the evergreen-studded cliffs that rose from where Lion Creek had worn a fold in the mountain. The rest of Hugh’s house wasn’t much, but that view from the back deck made developers and real estate agents from all over Colorado knock on his door with offers. Hugh had grown up in that house, and he’d inherited it when his grandparents died. Theo couldn’t see him ever selling it. “Are you listening to me?”

At Hugh’s demand, Theo turned to face him. “No.”

“No, you’re not listening to me, or no, you won’t run a background check?”

“Both.”

Hugh looked ready to hurl a crutch at him like a javelin. “Why not? Why not protect yourself? The woman is running from something; that’s obvious. Who knows what she’s done? She could be one of those black widows, who marry men for their money and then kill them.”

Theo actually laughed out loud at that. “So she picked blue-collar Monroe, rather than Breckenridge or Aspen or Vail, to find her next victim, and a cop, rather than someone who actually has money? If she’s a black widow, she’s not very good at it.”

Although Hugh made a frustrated sound, a grudging smile broke through his scowl. “Fine. So she’s probably not planning on killing you for your money. The point is that she’s running. Don’t you want to know who’s chasing her before you get trampled?”

A part of Theo, the cop part, was still almost unbearably curious about Jules’s past. It was overwhelmed by the much-stronger urge to bury his head in the sand and pretend there wasn’t a huge, blinking neon sign telling him something was very wrong. If he dug into it and found it was something bad, something he couldn’t ignore, he’d be forced to act. And he didn’t want to act. He wanted to keep visiting that dilapidated shithole of a house because he was actually starting to like the place. He liked her brothers and sister, liked the way Viggy became his normal dog-self around them, and Jules…he more than liked Jules.

“You’re ignoring me again.”

“I’m trying,” Theo grunted, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Why?” True frustration filled the word. “I don’t get it. You hate not knowing shit. And now you’re living happily in la-la land, playing house with this woman who’s obviously lying to you. Why aren’t you protecting yourself?”

Silence hung over them, the only sound the lingering echo of Hugh’s words bouncing off the cliff faces as Theo looked at his partner, trying to sort out a rational response in his mind. It was hard to explain—even to himself—this bone-deep assurance that Jules was a basically honest person, that her reasons for whatever she had to do in her past were solid. He didn’t need to hear the entire story. Jules was good. There was no doubt in Theo’s mind.

“It’s true that I don’t know the specifics of her past, but I’m starting to know Jules. She’s kind, and she loves her brothers and sister. I’m not ignoring my gut. It’s telling me she doesn’t have it in her to hurt me or anyone else—intentionally, at least.”

It was Hugh’s turn to study Theo. Finally, Hugh sighed. “I hope you’re right, buddy. I really do.”

Theo hoped so, too.

* * *

Something was out there.

It was something that had woken her, a forgotten sound or feeling or instinct that had made her eyes snap open at two in the morning. It was something that had forced her to check all the scary, dark corners of the house until she ended up in the kitchen, peering out into the darkness, watching shadows where shadows shouldn’t be.