Her Grave Secrets (Rogue River Novella Book 3) by Kendra Elliot Page A

able to sit beside the man she loved and look forward to the next day.
    She leaned to the side and kissed him, feeling the odd roughness on his face against her skin.
    Zane had five stitches in his chin, three in his ear, and another dozen in his scalp from Walt’s blows with the level yesterday. The ER doctor had pronounced that he had a concussion and sent him home with Stevie to keep an eye on him.
    The dog on her lap stirred. Her mother had been waiting with Magic at Stevie’s apartment when she arrived with Zane, claiming the dog would help him heal faster. The dog had slept between them on the bed and spent the rest of the day curled up against Zane. Apart from a splitting headache, Zane claimed he felt fine.
    “You’re sure you’re okay with how things went this morning?” Zane asked. The two of them had brought low beach chairs to the park at the river, placing them as close to each other as possible. He kept her hand tight in his, but reached out often to stroke Magic.
    “How can I not be okay with being cleared for a shooting?”
    “They grilled you pretty hard.”
    “I told the truth. You were covered in blood, and he was going in for a final blow.”
    “How are you feeling?” he asked.
    “Stop asking me that!”
    The truth was she had no clue how she felt. Walt had died from her shots to his chest.
    She’d taken one man’s life but saved Zane’s.
    Could she have done anything differently? What if her first shot had hit Walt and made him stand down? What if Zane hadn’t dropped the sledgehammer? She buried her fingers in Magic’s fur.
    She had to stop asking what if .
    It was over.
    “You know one of his handguns will be linked to Roy and JD’s shootings,” Zane said. “I’m willing to place a lot of money on it. We’ll know in a few days.”
    Stevie nodded against his shoulder. She believed it too. They’d found JD’s clear fingerprints inside Walt’s truck on the passenger door handle. Walt had driven him somewhere, presumably to his death at the rest stop. Seth said they’d found a pair of boots he was certain would match the footprints at JD’s scene.
    “He didn’t deny killing them,” Zane said. “We both asked if he killed Bill, and he denied it twice. But he didn’t give a clear answer on Roy and JD. And the bullets from Roy’s body were already tied to that one death at the coast. Someone’s been very busy cleaning house.”
    “They haven’t found any drugs at his place,” Stevie added.
    “That just shows he had half a brain. He was up to his neck in this drug ring. I can feel it.”
    “But what was his role?”
    “I don’t know, but he wasn’t at the top. He was on the phone when I woke up, taking orders from someone to kill me. Too bad his last call went to one of those burner cell phones. It’s already been dumped. I hope we find something in his home that leads us to the source.”
    Stevie hoped so too. She wanted her quiet town back. She wanted dull work days of chasing cows and helping senior citizens with broken windows.
    Not drug deaths.
    Shock waves had shot through her core as she saw Zane on the ground with his head bleeding and a killer about to strike. She’d almost lost him.
    If he asked her to move in again, she knew what her answer would be. She wanted a home and family with Zane.
    “I made a phone call this morning,” Zane said.
    She met his gaze in the dim light.
    “I called my father.”
    Stevie smiled, her heart warming. “Good for you.”
    “I asked him to come out for a few days. Told him I need some help on a remodeling project. He’s pretty handy at that sort of thing.”
    “And?”
    “He sounded surprised but said he’d come next month.” Zane smiled. “You were right as usual.”
    “Did you tell him about last night?”
    “I might have mentioned it.”
    “Did you say you were nearly killed by a level to your brain? That story has now made you notorious in Solitude.”
    “No, I mainly talked about the woman I wanted him to