Brody pulled up to Millie’s hotel after dark, after a long day of doing rounds in his territory. He’d given tickets to two hunters and three fishermen, but nothing serious like the other day. The fishermen were just tourists standing on the side of the road on their way home to California. The hunters just had the wrong deer tags. It wasn’t as bizarre as finding two men killing a mountain lion to be stuffed as a trophy.

The thought of it still made him grind his teeth. He grabbed the cell phone off the bench in his car and went up to Millie’s room at the lodge. He knocked on the door twice and waited for her to open the door. When she finally did, his jaw nearly dropped to the floor, but he caught himself. Millie stood before him wrapped in a bath towel and nothing else, her dark hair spilling down her shoulders.

“I just got out of the shower.”

“I can come back after you’ve dressed.”

“No. Come in. It’s fine.”

Brody walked into the room inhaling the scent of flowers and Millie’s freshly cleaned skin. He growled as he watched her ass under her towel as she walked to the bathroom. “I’ll just be a minute,” she said, from behind the half-closed door.

Brody cleared his throat, reminding himself that they’d both agreed to take it more slowly. His bear growled and roared to go into the bathroom and throw her over the sink. The thought of her breasts covered in beads of bath water made him rock hard. He couldn’t help but see the outline of her hip as she dropped the towel on the floor. Green fabric slipped over the curve and Brody looked away. She came out a moment later, running a towel through her hair.

“So, you found the phone?”

She sat down beside him as he dug it from his pocket. “It’s cracked and won’t turn on. I already tried to charge it.”

“What do you plan to do?” Millie took it from his hands and pressed the power button then replaced the battery. She shrugged.

“Probably send it to my tech guy. I should probably get going now,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

“You don’t have to go.” She squeezed his thigh and smiled.

“I’ve got an early morning tomorrow. But tomorrow night, I’m going to make you dinner at my place.”

“That sounds nice,” she said, raising next to him as he ambled to the door. “Till then.” She raised up on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on his chin. He turned to her, enfolding her curvy body in his arms. He laced his fingers through her long dark hair and tilted her head back to give her a proper kiss. Her soft body pressed against him; he could feel her heat. He hardened, but let her go.

“I’ll see you tomorrow night, sweetheart,” he said, squeezing her hand goodbye.

“Bye,” she said, as he closed the door behind him.

For the rest of the evening and when he woke up early the next day, he brooded in his anger over Chris’s death. He knew Mathews had done it. Men like that always irked him.

He put on his uniform and drove out to the Mathews’s ranch with the new warrant he had to search inside the buildings. Mathews would be there with his lawyer this time, but he’d have full legal access to the property.

He pulled up to the front of the ranch, through the security gate, and parked in front of the main house.

Brody strode up to the front door, the morning sun just stretching out over the horizon. He knocked and waited. The housekeeper finally opened the door and welcomed him into the house.

It was a massive building with three-story ceilings at the front of the house and in the living room. The walls were gleaming polished wood beams all the way up to the ceiling. Quite the place.

He showed her his warrant and she nodded at him, letting him pass into the front hall. “I’d like to see the mounted trophies,” he said immediately.

“Right this way,” said the housekeeper, her cowboy boots loud on the wooden floor. They went down a hallway and she opened a pair of double doors into a small warehouse-sized space.

As the lights flicked on, going down the room, Brody’s jaw dropped. The room was full of stuffed creatures from all over the world. Entire packs of wolves, elephants, zebras, even birds hung from the ceiling.

“Isn’t it magnificent?” Mathews asked, walking into the room with his lawyer.

“What is this place?” Brody asked, almost unable to speak through the desperate rage building in his gut.

“This is my masterpiece,” Mathews held out his arms and smirked.

“I want to see documents on all of these creatures,” Brody said through clenched teeth.

“We have all of that. We’re emailing it to the sheriff’s department as we speak. I assure you, everything is in order.”

“What about the cougar your men took just a few days ago?”

“Those men were not acting on Mr. Mathews’ orders,” the lawyer said.

“I simply mentioned I’d like to add a new one to the collection and those two dummies went out and shot one out of season. They thought they’d get a bonus. Those men have since been fired.”

“What were you doing the night he was pushed?” Brody demanded.

“There was a party here that night at my house. There were no locals here except for my employees. I have witness statements accounting for every moment of my night.”

“Was the gate open or closed?”

“I don’t know. People were coming and going. Uninvited guests might have gotten in.”

Brody shuffled through the papers. Everything looked legit.

“I’ll have to look over these at the station. But I’d like to see where you keep your ATVs.”

The housekeeper led Brody out to the garage where lines of cars and ATVs were parked. He walked down the line of ATVs and found a wide-bodied version that looked almost like a jeep.

“This is a Quatre,” Brody said, as Mathews and his lawyer entered the garage.

“Yes.”

“Chris Whitney had one of these logos imprinted on this skin when he died.” He circled the ATV and pointed at the wheels. “There’s fresh mud on the wheel.”

“That shouldn’t have been used recently. That’s my personal vehicle.”

“Could someone else have gotten in here?”

“One of the keys is missing,” the housekeeper offered.

“How long?” Brody asked.

“Since the party.”

“Conceivably, anyone could have taken it at the party.”

“Yes, that could have happened,” the housekeeper said.

“Don’t leave town, Mathews,” Brody said, brushing past them all and heading outside. He wanted to get a look at the rest of the property but his entire investigation was going downhill fast. Without Mathews as his main suspect, he didn’t have a single lead.

At the station, he went over the evidence Mathews’ lawyer provided. It was all legit. Anger and frustration boiled in his brain. Placing his fist to his forehead, he stared down at his cell phone. He’d promised Millie a date tonight.

All the work he’d done to find Chris’s killer had come up empty. He’d failed. The pain of losing his best friend darkened his soul. He didn’t know if he could give Millie what she needed tonight.

He hated more than anything that she’d come to him at a time like this. Any other time, it would have been ideal. He would have given her his full attention, his whole heart. He would have shown her his joy for life and filled her world with fun. But now…? He didn’t even know who he was now.