The frigid Montana wind whipped at my face as I stood my ground near Levi’s cruiser, my back resting against the closed trunk. He walked toward me, his boots crunching in the gravel of the parking lot with each step. When our eyes met, his mouth turned into a scowl.
“This is starting to get old, Ivy,” he said as he passed me and moved toward the driver’s-side door.
Instantly, I smarted. The day after I’d spent three and a half hours watching him turn himself into a drunken shell of a human being, hauled him to my car, dragged him into my house, and taken care of his basic needs as he’d passed out, I’d been understanding. The memory of his eerie conversation with me as Grace was still fresh in my mind and heart, and I knew I had to give him some time.
But it’d been seven fucking days since then, and enough was finally enough. Something had to give, and evidently, Levi Fox was only equipped to take.
He wasn’t the only one who’d lost Grace, but he was the only one who couldn’t seem to stop blaming me for it. Over the last week, I’d gotten a call from Grace’s mother, Mary, welcoming me to town, and a series of sweet text messages from her grandpa Sam that gave me hope. They wanted me here. They were kind and open, and they understood I would do my best to give Grace the closure she deserved.
Why couldn’t Levi see that?
“You ignoring me is getting old. We have to work together. Grace deserves a well-developed depiction of her character, and the two of us are going to have to talk in order to make that happen. Apparently, only one of us can see that.”
He pulled up short, spun on his heel, and got directly in my face. The downturn of his mouth was severe, and the light in his eyes was chilling. “There’s something you need to understand right fucking now.” His voice dropped, lower, deeper, harsher, and I fought the urge to grimace. “I don’t owe you anything, and you don’t know a goddamn thing about me or Grace or what I care about.”
I found the mark in the sand and immediately jumped back a step. The goal of showing up here every day, at the police station, wasn’t to fight. I’d clearly let my mouth get ahead of me. “I’m…I’m sorry. You’re right. That was completely out of line.”
He stared at me for a long moment, his eyes practically burning me with rage.
“I’m really sorry, Levi,” I apologized again. “I just want—”
“I don’t care about what you want,” he cut me off. “If it were up to me, this film would not be happening, and you sure as fuck wouldn’t be here.”
Slack-jawed and completely shocked, I watched as he stalked away from me, his black boots pounding against the gravel until he reached the driver’s door and hopped in.
I moved away from his cruiser, knowing I’d more than lost today’s battle and a little fearful he’d run me over if he had to, and headed toward the warmth of the station to fight off the cold.
The engine of his cruiser revved to life behind me, and moments later, he was gone.
Good Lord, exhaustion was just around the corner if he kept it up with the anger and irritation. It seemed like we couldn’t go one fucking round without someone aiming for a knockout.
Don’t get me wrong, I understood the fragility of the situation. I wasn’t oblivious to the fact that Grace had been important to him. She was his partner. Someone he had grown up with. And from what I’d gathered, a very close friend.
But the ire of his wrath felt unwarranted and directed solely at me.
I was merely asking him to tell me more about her. Not because I was selfish or nosy or wanted to railroad through territory I knew was very sensitive, but because I wanted to make sure when I got in front of the camera, I was doing Grace justice.
To me, this film wasn’t just about the money. It was about a woman who had the strength to stop a sociopath. A man who, had he not been stopped, would’ve no doubt taken more lives.
But fuck, Levi Fox sure was making it hard.
I looked around the otherwise quiet station until my gaze caught sight of Officer Glen, dressed head to toe in his Cold Police uniform and filling a small Styrofoam cup with coffee. With thick fingers and unassuming eyes, he added two packets of sugar and one small creamer to his brew before snapping it closed with a plastic lid. By the time he’d started to head for the door, I made my move.
“Hey, Glen,” I greeted, sidling up to him with a soft smile. “Mind if I ride with you today?”
“Uh…” He stopped in his tracks, and the wrinkles around his gray eyes crinkled at the corners as he looked down at me. “The chief put you with Levi…” he said, but it was more of a question than a statement.
“Well, it looks like I’ll be riding with you now.”
It still wasn’t what I really needed to happen, but surely Officer Glen Chase had useful information about Grace. He’d worked with her. He was active when the Cold-Hearted Killer situation had gone down.
“Nuh-uh.” He shook his head and raised both hands in the air like I was holding him hostage. Coffee sloshed out of the small hole in the lid of his cup, and droplets spattered onto the worn tile floor. “I’m not getting in the middle of this.”
“What?” I questioned, acting completely confused. “Trust me, Glen, there isn’t anything to get in the middle of. This is simply an adjustment of schedule. I’m sure the chief won’t mind.”
“You’re a good actress, Ivy Stone,” he said, and an amused chuckle escaped his lips. “But it’s not the chief I’m worried about.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“We both know exactly what that means,” he added, and without giving me any more time to plead my case, he strode out the door with his gun securely in its holster, coffee in his right hand, and an amused smile still etched across his lips.
Dammit. I really thought it would’ve worked…
I hitched my hip against one of the empty desks inside the station and weighed out my options. It was a remarkably quick process because there were none.
Levi had made it pretty damn clear he wanted nothing to do with me. Glen didn’t want to get in the middle of whatever he felt he would be getting in the middle of. And I was pretty sure there weren’t any Cold cops left in the station to help me.
Well, there is one…
Dane Marx. I’d learned pretty quickly everyone called him “the rookie,” and from what I’d seen so far, he lived up to the nickname. Twenty-four, fresh out of the police academy, and rarely given the opportunity to go on the “serious” police calls, to say he was still learning the ropes would’ve been an understatement.
But he was working today, and although I wasn’t sure if he even knew Grace, I was certain he could provide me with some insight into Levi. And with blond hair, bright green eyes, and a nearly constant boyish grin, he was also real easy on the eyes.
But will he let me ride along?
There was only one way to find out.
By the time I reached his desk, he was standing up from his chair and pulling his jacket over his arms.
“There you are,” I said. Immediately, his eyes met mine and his brow furrowed. He looked over his shoulder and then back at me before finally asking, “Are you talking to me?”
I almost laughed. Besides Mona and a few stragglers who worked on the administrative end, we were practically the only two in the station.
“Of course I’m talking to you, silly.” I wasn’t proud of it, but I flashed him my movie-star smile in a shameless attempt to butter him up. “Chief Pulse instructed me to ride along with you today.”
“With me?”
Cute and maybe a little slow on the uptake sometimes.
“Yep.” I nodded.
“But I thought Levi was—”
“Is it time to head out?” I chimed in before he asked me a question that would require another lie. Even though acting could be misconstrued as a form of lying, I wasn’t a fan of actual lying, especially to handsome, unsuspecting twenty-four-year-olds with boy-next-door smiles.
Dane looked at me closely for a quiet moment, but to my surprise, no forms of questioning or police interrogation left his lips. Like a true rookie, he took my word as Gospel.
“Well, okay then,” he said, and two small dimples formed in his cheeks. “I’d be honored to have you ride along with me, Ms. Stone.”
“Oh God,” I muttered on a laugh. “No need to be so formal. Please, call me Ivy.”
“Okay, Ivy,” he said and flashed that familiar boyish grin once more. I had a feeling most women had a hard time saying no to it. “Let’s go.”
We were out the door and inside his cruiser a few minutes later. With a turn of a key, the engine roared to life and we were off, heading out of the parking lot and roaming the currently action-less city streets of Cold.
There wasn’t much to see, or do, for that matter, but I tried to make the best of it by mentally calculating how to steer a conversation toward Levi without making it too obvious.
A few minutes into our drive, he glanced toward me out of his periphery, and the biggest smile consumed his face. “I can’t believe I’m driving famous Ivy Stone around Cold, Montana in my cruiser today.” He looked at me once more before gently flexing his fingers against the leather of the steering wheel. “I am one lucky son of a bitch.”
“No way.” I waggled my index finger at him. “I’m the lucky one today.”
He chuckled, and his cheeks flushed a little at my words. “Drop-dead gorgeous and a sweet-talker, you’re a dangerous woman, Ivy.”
God, he was adorable. And, if I was being honest, pretty damn hot.
Not only did he have that boy-next-door look, but underneath his police uniform, it appeared he also had a pretty damn good body.
I knew for a fact that I wasn’t the only one inside this small town who had come to that conclusion, though. Dane Marx was quite the ladies’ man. The last and only time I was at Ruby Jane’s, I’d managed to catch a glimpse of him in all of his smooth-talking, charming glory.
“Like you should talk. I’ve seen you in action before, you know.”
“In action?”
“Uh-huh.” I grinned. “Ruby Jane’s about a week ago. You were sitting near the pool tables in the back surrounded by a bunch of women who were batting their eyelashes and giggling at anything and everything you said.”
A soft chuckle left his full lips. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Liar. Liar. Pants on fire.
It was my turn to laugh. “Unless you’ve got a doppelgänger in this small town, you know exactly what I’m talking about.”
My mind, the devious fucking thing, decided now was a good time to compare the way the women of Cold responded to Dane versus Levi.
Dane was charming, always smiling, and the women who had flocked around him at the bar had looked like they were at ease in his presence, nothing more on their agenda than laughing and having a good time.
Levi Fox was a whole different animal.
Brooding and moody with a face that gave nothing away, he was an enigma. But, God, I’d seen the way the women at Ruby Jane’s had looked at him with erotic interest. It was like he was the James Dean to their quest to find a bad boy to take to bed.
Even the ones who’d been chatting up Dane couldn’t stop themselves from glancing in Levi’s direction. While he’d drunk himself into a stupor, the interest and intrigue shining within their eyes had only grown. A tortured man held a power over the part of a woman that wanted to heal hurts—the innate drive to nurture.
Yeah, and you’re no different…
I shook off that thought and focused back on Dane. He smirked softly as he glanced at me out of the corner of his eyes.
“It was just a few friends,” he said, referring to the very women who’d been swooning over him.
“A few friends who all happened to be of the female variety.”
“Mere coincidence.” He chuckled softly again.
“Sure, it was.”
He smirked and shrugged his shoulders, but he kept his eyes firmly on the road this time.
“So, tell me, Officer Marx, how long have you been charming the ladies in Cold, Montana?”
“If you’re wondering how long I’ve lived here,” he responded, a sly grin reaching his firm cheekbones, “I’m a Cold native. Born and raised here.”
“So, you were here when everything with the Cold-Hearted Killer went down?”
“When the first girl went missing, I was still living at home while taking Criminal Justice courses at Montana Tech. But I wasn’t here when…” He trailed off for a moment, and I had a feeling his silent thoughts revolved around Grace’s death. “I had just started the Police Academy when everything went down,” he added.
“Were you close with anyone involved?”
He nodded, but his voice was otherwise silent.
“I’m so sorry, Dane.”
“Me too.”
The car grew quiet, and I gave him his space. Obviously, I wanted as much information as he was willing to give, but I wasn’t going to be a pushy, insensitive bitch about it. I understood the tragic events that had led to Grace’s death had left quite the scar on the entire Cold community.
“I knew nearly everyone involved,” he stated, breaking the silence with his quiet yet firm voice. “The victims, two of the girls, I went to high school with, and I knew Grace Murphy. Hell, I even knew Dr. Gaskins. He’d been my family’s physician since I was a little boy.”
“I still can’t believe a man everyone trusted, essentially the entire town’s doctor, ended up being the Cold-Hearted Killer.”
A humorless laugh left his lips. “Don’t forget, he was also our coroner at the time.”
Immediately, my mind flashed back to the script.
INT: Cold Police Station, two days after the bodies of Carly Best and Victoria Carson are discovered. Grace walks into Chief Pulse’s office.
GRACE
Have we received the autopsy reports yet, Chief?
CHIEF PULSE
Dr. Gaskins said to be patient. It might take seventy-two hours before we hear anything.
GRACE
Patient? He wants me to be fucking patient? Two of our girls are dead. I won’t be patient until I figure out who did this.
Nausea clenched my gut. Not only had the serial killer been a trusted member of the community, he’d been the one examining the bodies of his own fucking victims.
“That’s probably one of the most disturbing details of the case.” Supposedly at peace, when in reality, they were actually still vulnerable.
“Yeah.” Dane nodded in agreement. “The most twisted irony of all, the entire city voted him into that position, practically unanimously, about a year before he went on a goddamn killing spree.”
“That is so fucked up.”
“I guess that’s why Hollywood decided they needed to make a movie about it, huh?”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” I shrugged nonchalantly, but on the inside, I felt like vomiting.
I felt nauseous for the women he’d murdered and then violated again while doing a goddamn autopsy on their bodies. I felt sad for the victims’ families who’d lost their loved ones too soon. I felt sad for Grace and her family. I felt sad for the entire community of Cold. Even though it’d happened nearly six years ago, that tragedy had left a permanent wound. Their trust had been compromised.
And, like a train cycling back into the station, I once again felt sad for Levi.
I mean, I hated that getting him to talk to me about Grace felt harder than attempting a root canal on a drunk monkey, but at the same time, the more information I learned about the case, the more I understood this was fragile territory for everyone involved.
“Levi and Grace had known each other since they were kids,” Dane said as he took a right at a stoplight that switched to green. “There were thick as thieves. And if I’d been Levi, I would’ve been tempted to quit the force and retire my badge. Lord knows he has enough money to live off of for the rest of his life.”
I quirked my brow, and Dane glanced out of his periphery to find my confused expression.
“You don’t know anything about Levi or his family?”
“Um, no.” I shook my head. “It’s safe to say our interactions are purely business-related. Anything we’ve discussed has mostly been about Grace and what happened with the Cold-Hearted Killer.”
More lies. Soon, I feared my nose would start growing.
Levi still hadn’t told me any-fucking-thing, but Dane didn’t need to know that. Deep down, I hated lying to him, but I also needed him to keep talking.
“Levi’s father owned half the damn town before he passed away two years ago,” he said and pulled the cruiser to a stop at a red light. “Levi sold most of the land and the businesses back to the town for dirt-cheap prices, but it didn’t matter. His inheritance is basically enough to buy Cold, Montana three times over and still have money left over. Hell, besides land, the only thing the Fox family still technically owns is Ruby Jane’s, but…” He trailed off before adding an explanation.
My mind flicked back to the script.
INT: Walter Gaskins, sitting at the bar inside Ruby Jane’s, drinking a beer, while people around him drink and chat. He notices two young lovers kissing at the back of the bar, and his fist clenches around his beer. The bartender, Lou, stops in front of him with a smile.
LOU
Thanks for fitting Celia in the other day, Doc.
WALTER
[nods]
Is she feeling better?
LOU
[flips a bar towel over his shoulder and smiles]
Yep. Tomorrow night, we’ll be celebrating her being five years cancer-free.
WALTER
I’m glad for you guys, Lou. And I know, if Betty were still alive, she’d be celebrating with you.
LOU
[frowns over the memories of Walter’s late wife, Betty]
Celia loved Betty like a sister. You know if you ever need anything, you just give us a call.
WALTER
Thanks, Lou. Means a lot.
LOU
[leans closer]
So, any news on the autopsy reports on Carly and Victoria?
WALTER
[laughs softly]
C’mon, Lou. You know I can’t give you any of that information until Chief Pulse releases it to the public.
“Anyway,” Dane said, pulling me from my thoughts. “It’s safe to say Levi isn’t a cop for the money.”
I glanced at him and nodded, but my mind started spinning again with new questions.
For one, why was Levi still a cop?
I mean, he never seemed happy, that was for fucking sure. And according to Dane, Levi had more money than he knew what to do with.
Not only did his many moods give me whiplash, even the small tidbits about his life did.
I wanted to ask Dane more questions about Levi. For starters, was he a dick to everyone, or was it just me? Yeah, that question was definitely at the top of my list.
But the police radio crackled to life. “Officer Marx, are you ready to roll yet?”
Dane responded. “I’m ready, Dispatch.”
“We have a possible burglary call from an eighty-five-year-old female located at 77 Lily Drive. 7-7 Lily Drive.”
“10-4, Dispatch. I’m en route. ETA three minutes.” Dane flipped on his lights and sirens and did a U-turn in the road, switching directions and heading southbound on one of the main roads within Cold.
“Hold on tight, Ivy,” he said. “It might get a little bumpy.”
I nodded and reached for the “oh shit” handle to steady myself.
Dane weaved us in and out of traffic, and once our tires hit snow-covered back roads, he flipped off his lights and sirens. Another minute or two, and he took a left onto a dirt road with a hand-painted sign that read Lily Drive.
Once he pulled the car to a stop in front of a small white house with beige shutters, he switched the engine off and hopped out of the driver’s seat. Before shutting the door, he added, “Stay put, Ivy.”
This time, I stayed inside and watched from the passenger seat as Dane walked in the direction of the house. He reached his fingers toward his belt, unclipped the stop snap of his holster, and left his right hand resting at the top of his gun.
Before Dane reached the front door of the house, another cruiser pulled up.
When Levi hopped out of the driver’s seat, the word fuck fell from my lips on a mutter. I had the insane urge to slide beneath the dashboard so he couldn’t see me, but it was too late. Our eyes locked as he walked in front of Dane’s cruiser, and a scowl turned his lips down at the corners.
Oh, shit. He does not look happy.