“It will if you don’t stop being an idiot,” Royal said, echoing my own thoughts. “Dad is dead. You don’t believe Ford killed him any more than I do. But someone walked into this house and shot him dead in the middle of the afternoon. That person is still out there. As long as we don’t know who it is or why they did it, we don’t know that any of us are safe. Especially you. And if Bryce is what we get if something happens to you, then you’d better fucking start being smart.”
West agreed with him. “No more going running by yourself. Get a treadmill or come to town and I’ll go for a run with you when I’m off shift. Don’t go anywhere without your weapon and your phone. Don’t go anywhere without telling someone where you’ll be and when you’re getting back—”
“You do know what I used to do for a living, right? I don’t need a lecture on personal safety.”
“You do as long as you’re being a dumbass. Just because you used to be a Ranger and security to the stars doesn’t mean you’re invulnerable,” West reminded me.
“Obviously,” I said, gesturing to the scratches and streaks of dirt covering me. I let out a huff of breath, hearing myself and knowing I was being an ass. “I’ll be careful. I know what happened to Dad,” I said to Royal. “I assumed whoever killed him did it because of something isolated to Prentice. A grudge or a business deal gone wrong or something. We all know most of the people who knew him hated him.”
West shook his head. “I think we can throw that theory out the window. If this was about a grudge or business deal, it wasn’t isolated to Prentice. Either the motive was connected to you, or this isn’t about you at all. It’s about your family.”
Royal threw his hands in the air. “Well, that’s not vague. If we’re looking for people who might have a grudge against the Sawyers, that list isn’t any shorter than the list of people who hated Prentice. What are we supposed to do? Just hang around and wait for him to try again?”
“Or her,” Hope added. We all turned to stare at her. She raised an eyebrow. “You guys have tunnel vision. Whoever killed Prentice did it with a gun. They had to have been a good shot because you only recovered one bullet, right?”
West nodded in confirmation.
“Nothing says a woman can’t be just as good a shot as a man. And when you’re looking at the list of people who had a reason to hate Prentice, there are probably more women on it than men, considering. This could have started with Prentice, but now it’s about all of you.”
She turned to West. “You said it this afternoon. Griffen coming home, everyone moving back into the house—if the killer wanted to end the Sawyers, that’s only going to piss them off. And there are just as many people who hated Prentice over his personal life as there are who hated him because of business.”
Royal dropped his head to stare at the carpet. “Fuck. Good point. As far as I know he wasn’t involved with anyone. Not for a while. There was someone a few years ago—I don’t know who—just that he hinted it was getting serious and then he never said anything else about her.”
“You never know,” West added. “People can hold a grudge a long time and then one day—” He made his fingers in the shape of a gun and mimed firing a shot. “I need you to come in tomorrow and make an official report. If anything else happens I want to make sure we have it all on file.”
I nodded and glanced at the clock. “If we’re done, I need to get in the shower. Savannah’s going to call us to dinner any minute, and I don’t want to show up like this.”
“I’ll walk you out,” Royal said to West.
I looked to Hope after they left. “You okay?”
She clenched her teeth, shaking her head. “I’m fine. I’m sorry I lost it, I just—you had blood everywhere and—”
“Don’t apologize. I’m sorry I scared you. I’m sorry I was careless and left my phone and my weapon back here. I won’t do that again.”
“See that you don’t,” she said tartly.
I caught her hand in mine. “Want to join me in the shower? Wash my back?”
Hope bit her lip and glanced at the clock. She stared at the ceiling for a heartbeat before tilting her head to the side. “You can’t get my hair wet.”
“It’s a deal,” I promised. I didn’t get her hair wet in the shower, but I did manage to take her mind off my attempted murder, if only for a few minutes. The shower was quick, but I made the most of every second.