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and Reilly couldn’t help the humorless laugh he gave. “I could use a drink.”
    “ You and me both, but I’m here on business. Mind telling me what you’re doing here?”
    The direct switch from personal to professional threw Reilly off, but he recovered and said, “Actually, I’m trying to figure that one out myself.” Reilly’s answer came across more insolent than he’d intended. But why was it Eddie’s business what he was doing there?
    Eddie’s friendliness seemed to fade a bit as he looked past Reilly to Chloe and the others. “You with them?”
    Chloe stepped forward and stopped at Reilly’s side, setting her hands on his arm in a proprietary manner. “Rather, we are with him.”
    “ No,” Reilly said. “You’re not.”
    Chloe smiled. “Nathan is looking for his next story. He thinks he’ll find it here.”
    Eddie’s eyes narrowed at that. “What makes you think so, Reilly?”
    “ Wait a minute. Rewind. They”—he jerked his thumb at the small group—“are the story. I mean, look at them.”
    Only the priest appeared to be offended by the comment.
    “ We have reservations, Officer,” Chloe said, looking concerned and anxious—two things Reilly knew she wasn’t.
    “ That may be, but chances are you’ll need to find another place in the morning. Carolina Beck died tonight. We found her body out by the ruins.”
    Reilly heard the news, but couldn’t quite process it. He looked at Chloe and she stared back, pulling him into the deep wells of her eyes, pulling him into the subtle blackness at their core. She’d known.
    “ That’s not all we found, either,” Eddie said. “I’ll be damned if I can explain it, but that’s not all.”
    Chloe’s eyes glimmered and a sad smile curved her pink lips. The question formed in Reilly’s mind, filling him with an unsettling mix of curiosity and outrage. What else did she know? But before he could ask, the front door swung open with a bang and a burst of rain. A woman rushed through.
    Reilly stared as the night surpassed strange and hit downright unbelievable. It was Gracie Beck.
    She’d always been tiny—even before he’d filled out and shot up to his six-two height, the top of her head had barely reached his chin. She was still small, but age had rounded the sharp angles of her shoulders, added fullness to her breasts, smoothed the slope to her waist. She wore khaki capris that followed the curve of her legs and a black T-shirt. Reilly’s eyes were drawn to the rain-soaked fabric pulled gently across her breasts. He could just make out the faint outline of a lace bra.
    She still didn’t look like she could live off the land for more than a day or two, but there was flesh now, where once there’d been little but skin and bones. Her soft brown hair was drawn back in a ponytail, but a few wisps escaped to frame her face. The eyes were still gray, the color of a turbulent ocean, overflowing with the kind of secrets that would drive a man insane with wanting to know. But gone was the cocky defiance that had marked Gracie Beck from the cradle. Gone was the devil-may-care smile that had teased him into wet dreams as a teen. In its place was a somberness that had no place on a mouth so soft.
    She scanned the room quickly, eyes widening as they moved from one stranger to another. She frowned when she saw Reilly—as if finding him among this group of misfits was the most incredible of all. He knew how she felt.
    “ What… ” she began.
    And then she saw Eddie and dismissed them all without a word.
    She crossed to the sheriff’s side, grabbed his arm, and demanded, “Where is she?”

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Five
     
    IT had felt like the dead of night when Gracie pulled into town. She’d bypassed Diablo Springs’ tiny municipal building, which was dark and still. From the corner she’d seen the Diablo, lit up like Christmas morning, and the patrol car parked in front, bubble light swirling red and blue against the night.