If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense

was pulling out of his spot by the time he reached the sidewalk.
    Swearing, Remy headed for his car. He wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing now. He didn’t have anything else going on today—he’d expected to be in court this afternoon, but thanks to an unexpected offer from the court-appointed attorney, that wasn’t going to happen. He could get some lunch, could call Hope. And he needed to do that, soon. She was supposed to be out at Law’s and he wanted to make sure she was.
    But he could make that call while he was trailing Ezra.
    Trailing a cop—hell, could he do that without being seen?
    Not likely. But he was doing it anyway.
    He couldn’t quite understand what instinct pushed him to do it, either.
    Hope checked her phone. No calls. No messages from Remy. Sighing, she slipped it back into her pocket and got up from the kitchen table.
    It was already almost two and Lena was working on a late lunch, not that any of them were really hungry. It was more to give the other woman something to do than anything, Hope suspected.
    She could sympathize. She desperately wished she had some of her work from Law’s. But she wasn’t about to suggest one of them make a trip over there.
    “You know, a lot of my books are audio,” Lena said over her shoulder. “You’re welcome to pick one out.”
    Hope winced. “Am I being that obvious?”
    “No more than the rest of us,” Lena said, shrugging. She slid a pan into the oven and closed it before stripping off the gloves she wore. “I can just hear you pacing and I know I’d be bored stiff if I was over at Law’s place with nothing to do for hours on end.”
    Hope scowled. “I just hate not knowing what’s going on.”
    “Me, too.” Lena started her way, one hand outstretched.
    Hope caught it and when the taller woman wrapped an arm around her, Hope sighed and leaned into her hug. “Life was supposed to get easier, right? Now that Joe’s gone. Everything was supposed to be smooth sailing.”
    Lena chuckled. “I guess we forgot to inform
life
of that fact.” She squeezed Hope gently and then eased back. “Life is just life, Hope. We get through this and things will be fine. You’ll see.”
    “Don’t see how things couldn’t
not
get better, that’s for sure,” she muttered. Sighing, she pushed a hand through her hair and moved to stand by the door. The buzzing of the phone in her pocket had her jumping, muffling a shriek. “Damn it, I’m so on edge.”
    “We all are,” Lena said, her voice wry. “I’ll leave you to talk with your sweetheart. But … ah … maybe you shouldn’t say anything about this. Not yet. He’s pretty close to Carter.”
    Hope frowned and glanced at the readout. Yeah, sure enough it was Remy.
    Don’t say anything …? But what do we talk about? “Hi, honey, how was your day? I went by the Inn and had to leave, but I can’t tell you why …”
    Normally, talking to Hope soothed him. Even as it turned him on.
    But as he disconnected, Remy was anything but soothed.
    She wasn’t at Law’s. She was at Lena’s. With Law, Lena, and Nia. She’d been at the Inn earlier. That wouldn’t bother him so much, except that was where Remy was sitting now. He’d seen Ezra turn in, but insteadof taking the main entrance, Remy had driven on past and taken the second, more concealed employee entrance, parking in the back. He could see Ezra’s car, see the sheriff climbing out, see the grim look on his friend’s face.
    What in the hell …
    Remy would like to dismiss it. He wanted to. There was no evidence of anything weird, and if Ezra was here on serious official business, he’d have a couple of deputies with him. But he was here alone. That had to mean something.
    But the sinking, crawling sensation wasn’t
letting
him dismiss it.
    That same sinking sensation had him climbing out of the car and moving toward the house.
    He’d head off Ezra, find out what was wrong.
    If that didn’t work, he’d find Roz or Carter.
    Because something was up.
    He knew it.
    Then Ezra shifted his head and looked at him, dead on.
    The sinking sensation, that icy-cold feeling of dread hit, spreading through him like an insidious wave. Slowly, he started across the grounds, not bothering with the paths that Roz had carefully laid out—she worked damned hard on the grounds, but Remy didn’t care. Tension had his muscles strung so tight, he felt he might shatter.
    As he drew even with the sheriff, the look in Ezra’s eyes had him