From the Shadows (Buckhorn, Montana #2) - B.J. Daniels Page 0,11

he was supposed to meet with his lawyer and sign the papers ending their marriage. He didn’t feel up to arguing about it. That was why he couldn’t tell her about the invitation. Or that he was going. Megan had been his kryptonite. Crystal was the only person who knew firsthand the damage Megan had done.

If Crystal still loved him at all, she would beg him not to go back to Buckhorn, back to the Crenshaw, for any reason, especially this one. As he saw the hotel rise out of the horizon ahead of his rental car, he wished he’d loved his ex enough to have let her talk him out of coming here.

* * *

CASEY COULDN’T BELIEVE this was happening. The nightmare just kept getting worse. A murder reunion? Someone had sent out these ridiculous invitations, and now everyone was showing up here, intending to stay in the hotel?

“You can’t—” Belatedly, she remembered that there was no place to stay in town. The closest other accommodations were a hundred miles away. As desperately as she wanted to, she couldn’t turn them all away this late in the day when there probably wouldn’t be rooms in the next town, either. She told herself it was just for one night. She’d put an end to this first thing in the morning.

Jason was calling greetings to the others on the floor below her. “You do realize that the hotel isn’t open to guests?” she called down to him before this could go any further.

“That’s what makes it so creepy cool,” he replied, as if he was still a teen. “Don’t worry. Everyone knows we have to make do for ourselves. It’s all going to be great.” He glanced back toward the rear entrance to the hotel again. “Hey, Claude. Or should I call you Doc?” Then Jason disappeared from view.

She turned to Finn again. “You knew Megan?”

“Let’s get out of here,” he said quickly. “I promise I’ll tell you everything. We’ll go to the café and get something to eat.”

“You have to be kidding if you think I’m going anywhere with you.”

“I’m hungry, and we both have to eat, and I could use the company. I’ve been eating alone for months. Also, I can tell you aren’t anxious to see the old gang.” He motioned to the floor below, where they could both hear voices.

She groaned. The man did know her. How was that possible? “Thank you but—”

“Not to mention, I’m interested.” He must have seen her moment of bewilderment and quickly added, “In the hotel. I might want to buy it. You haven’t signed any papers yet, right?” He nodded as if the idea had just come to him. “At the very least, another offer could get you an even better price from Devlin Wright. Now, about dinner—”

She stared at him. “Are you serious?”

“I’m always serious when it comes to food when I’m hungry,” he said.

“About making me an offer on the hotel?”

“We can talk about it at dinner.”

She felt on spin cycle. Her sunburn was tightening her skin, and exhaustion was pulling at her after the miles she’d put on earlier today. She just wanted to go to her room, take a hot bath and lie down for a while. But she hadn’t eaten since buying some junk food on the trip, and Finn was right: she wasn’t anxious to see the staff from that horrible summer and whom she’d tried to forget for the past ten years.

Finn must have seen her weaken because he charged ahead as if he was closing a business deal. “Another reason we should have dinner is that I know you’re also anxious about seeing the townspeople for the first time after word got out about your plans for the hotel. Your ears must have been burning when they found out. There was even a group led by Vi Mullen to try to get the hotel into a historical register to stop you.”

She felt a moment of alarm. Nothing could hold up the sale. She’d been counting on this.

“Don’t worry. They failed. But I would make a great buffer the first time you go into town since some of the residents act like they’re afraid of me, except for Earl Ray.” He shrugged. “Earl Ray likes me, but I suspect he likes everyone.”

“He does.” She felt herself giving in. Maybe Finn wasn’t as delusional as she’d thought. He’d certainly summarized her situation quite quickly and easily. But then again, she reminded herself, he’d spent months