Sarah Varland - Silent Night Shadows

Dating Justin had been a risk in more than one way. A risk taken lightly that had ended badly.

Claire had learned her lesson, had matured past the attraction to charming bad boys since then. What she was looking for now was more along the lines of a steady, predictable man with a stable job. Someone mature, who realized that adventures were for kids, and adults had to settle down. Be dependable. Stay committed.

Though to be fair, a sensible, unadventurous guy wouldn’t have been any use to her tonight. If someone steady and unexcitable had seen her getting attacked in the street, he’d have called the police or gone for help. He never would have directly charged her attacker to force him to release her. And breaking into her apartment to protect her from a dangerous intruder? Forget about it. For better or for worse, Nate was exactly what she’d needed tonight, and she was grateful that he’d been there for her—not just once, but twice.

And if he happened to look particularly handsome and heroic just now, she was just going to have to ignore it. Never again was she going to let attraction overpower her good sense.

Nate was the epitome of everything she’d never fall for again. But while he was the last man on earth she’d get involved with, he was someone she trusted.

Claire swallowed hard. “Nate,” she repeated. “Do you want to tell me what you’re doing in Treasure Point?”

“I’m here as a photographer.”

“You’re a photographer now?”

“It’s one of the things I do, yes.”

“And the others? Legal? Not legal?”

“Claire, you can trust me.”

“Oddly enough, I know that. But I also know that it’s too much of a coincidence that someone tried to kill me right after you came to town—and that you just happened to be in the right position to save me. Twice. There’s something more going on here, isn’t there?”

He didn’t seem to see those words coming, and for a minute he didn’t say anything, just stood there. Still and speechless.

“Yes, there’s more going on here. But as for who wants you dead... I don’t know why anyone would be after you.”

“But I do.”

Claire swung her gaze to the door, where two uniformed officers stood. Her brother-in-law, Matt, and his friend Clay.

“What do you mean?” she asked Matt.

He pulled out his phone, tapped the screen a few times and then held it up to show her a picture.

“That’s my business card. For the shop.” Claire shook her head. “You think someone wanted me dead because...”

“Wait, I wasn’t done.” Another few taps. He held up the phone again. “This is the back of the same business card.”

Scrawled on the plain white card stock in a handwriting that she didn’t recognize were two words. “What do these mean to you?”

Ocean Lights.

“It’s the painting I just finished last week.”

“What was it of, Claire?”

“Just...just landscape, like all my paintings. You think that’s why someone wants me dead? That doesn’t make any sense. It’s a painting, Matt, not anything important.” The words felt multilayered to Claire, like a betrayal of her true self even as they came out of her mouth. She’d like to think her paintings did have meaning, but for now they were a hobby. The coffee shop was her real business. And besides, what she’d really meant was that her paintings weren’t anything to kill over.

That much she was sure of.

“This business card was found in the hands of a woman who was murdered here in Treasure Point earlier this evening.”

The thought of a murder was horrifying—and more horrifying that it had been in Treasure Point. She’d heard about it on the police radio at the station, but it was fully sinking in now. What if it was someone she knew? Out of the corner of her eye, Claire noticed that Nate winced almost as much as she did. A visceral reaction...except his wasn’t surprise.

Nate had already known about that murder?

She looked back at her brother-in-law. Looked back at Nate. She’d almost say from the way he had a habit of showing up and rescuing her, from the way he was hyperfocused on the crimes that had happened earlier, that he was law enforcement himself, but the black leather certainly didn’t fit the clean-cut image she associated with the police in Treasure Point.

“Claire is going to need protection on her at all times,” Nate stated.

“There’s no need,” Matt said. “They should have the guy by now. I got the call that he’d been found just after I received orders to come here.”

Claire watched Nate for a reaction, but this time she got nothing but solid poker face.

“Who are they bringing in?”

“Trace Johnson, Jenni’s ex-boyfriend. He’d been threatening her—she filed a complaint, was trying to get a restraining order.”

“And you think he killed her and then came over here to kill Claire?”

Matt shook his head. “Listen, I’m not saying it makes complete sense yet. We’re still working everything out. But it’s possible. Who else would have a reason to be after Jenni?”

“The better question is, what reason would Jenni’s ex-boyfriend have to go after Claire, just because Jenni had her business card?”

“We’re going to be working the next few days on establishing motive as well as collecting more evidence. You know how this works, Torres. How about you do your job and let us do our jobs?”

Nate shook his head, and Claire recognized that stubborn set to his jaw. He was usually easygoing, but when he dug in his heels, he was unmovable. “I think she needs protection until you can prove he was behind both crimes. Or either crime, for that matter.”

“She’s my sister-in-law. I want her safe, too, but we have no reason to think Trace isn’t our guy.”

“We’ll talk more about this later.” Nate’s voice left no doubt that he meant it. The conversation wasn’t over.

Claire’s gaze bounced between the two men, one who she knew cared about her like family, and the other who should have just been part of a past she’d almost forgotten about, but had turned up back in her life and was now making it very clear that he would fight for her safety.

But why did he care so much? And why was he so convinced she was still in danger from her attacker when Matt and Clay seemed to think she wasn’t?

Nate Torres knew more than he was letting on.

She thought of Matt’s words just now. “You do your job and let us do our jobs...” Was he talking about the photography business? Somehow Claire didn’t think so. She needed answers. And it seemed like Nate might be the one who could give them to her.

* * *

“You’re not staying here for the rest of the night,” Nate said to Claire once the officers had moved into the bedroom to see if the intruder had left behind any evidence.

“Excuse me?” She raised her eyebrows. “I don’t think that a few years of friendship nearly a decade ago entitles you to tell me how to live my life. If the police don’t think it’s safe for me to stay, then that’s one thing, but who are you to tell me it’s not?”

Something in her eyes... This wasn’t just bravado. She was genuinely asking, challenging him to give her an answer—to explain what he was doing in town, and what his connection was to the attacks against her.

He’d known when it became apparent that the Carson brothers were using Treasure Point for some of their operations that coming to town and using it as his base to investigate meant running into Claire was inevitable. Thankfully, for the last couple of weeks she hadn’t recognized him, and he didn’t blame her. He’d changed since college, a transformation that had begun his senior year when his younger sister died, and that had continued until he was the guy he was now.