From the Shadows (Buckhorn, Montana #2) - B.J. Daniels Page 0,37

and get out of here? His head hurt. He found himself running scared that Casey was somehow involved. His gut told him that the killer had come back to finish things, and Casey might be at the top of that list.

Two days and three nights. Finn could feel the clock ticking. He looked around the campfire. If he was right, one of them had killed Megan and would kill again. But which one?

* * *

TRUTH OR DARE? Seriously, Jason? Devlin refused to play, even though Jen had taunted him. Jen. She hadn’t changed. He knew that even before she made a move on Claude. Then she’d let Jason take her into the woods. He could guess what the two of them had done.

He mentally shook his head. It was only a matter of time before Jen hit on him—just like ten years ago. Except he wasn’t that desperate anymore, and if she pushed it, he’d let her know right quick.

“Did you hate Megan enough to kill her?” Jason asked Shirley.

Devlin listened to them spewing out the truth about Megan without a second thought to the fact that they were still murder suspects. It was none of their business how he’d felt about Megan. He wasn’t like the others. He’d wanted her beauty, her money, her position in life. He would have done just about anything to be her in male form—even though he couldn’t stand her.

He had dreamed of success—money—since he was a boy lying in bed listening to his parents fight over it. He’d learned early on that money was all that mattered. People who didn’t have it suffered. He’d been determined not to be one of them.

Megan must have seen the burning desire in his eyes. She knew what he wanted, and it wasn’t to grope her in the woods. “Dev,” she said, knowing he hated the nickname, “you need a woman like me on your arm, along with my family connections and their money. You and I could conquer the world because you get it. All the others want love—and, of course, sex with me. But not you.”

She’d played him, teasing him with a picture of what his life could be like with her. He’d felt like a fish on a hook. If he tried to pull away, seeing that she was only teasing him, she’d reel him back in.

Until she didn’t.

She’d dangled the carrot in front of him and then laughed when she’d finally grown tired of the game. “Dev, you’ll never have me or anyone like me. Sorry, but it’s true. I can see your future, and it isn’t pretty.”

It was the last thing she’d said to him the night she died. She’d been laughing. “Did you really think you were good enough for me? I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, but, Dev, you’ll always be a loser who thinks he deserves better.” She’d made a sad face as she’d patted him on the cheek and turned to walk away, leaving him gutted and homicidal.

It had stayed with him the past ten years, her voice mocking him even as he’d tried to become the wealthy man he’d always dreamed of being. He realized now, standing around this campfire, that Megan had been right. He was a loser.

So what was he still doing here? He’d come here to make money on this deal. But he’d blown that, too. He’d been avoiding the investors’ calls and texts all day. They’d been anxious for him to close on the purchase.

He needed this money desperately since he’d already spent most of what he thought he was going to make. When this was over, he’d be worse than broke. He’d be in debt to the wrong people.

What a fool he was. He’d come here thinking he was the one who was going to have the last laugh.

Then again, I kind of did have the last laugh, didn’t I, Megan?

* * *

I KNOW WHAT YOU DID

Casey had scrubbed the words from her bathroom mirror and then taken a hot shower, too impatient to soak in the tub. Her sunburn ached. What had she been thinking?

Now she lay in bed listening to the old hotel moan and groan and creak. She told herself the noises had gotten worse over the past ten years. Either that or she was too aware of who else was here at the hotel. Supposedly they were all still outside. But how easy it would be for one of them to sneak away. Just as they had