She glanced at Kade, whose hat brim shaded his face, and a sharp pang rose in her chest. She would miss the ranch, but she would miss Kade Logan even more.

She stepped up on the bottom rung of the stall and looked down at the tiny colt nuzzling his mama for breakfast. “He’s beautiful.” A bright sorrel color, shiny as a newly minted penny.

“He’s got great breeding,” Kade said. “Be worth a good price when he’s older.”

“He’s the same color as the horse I had when I was a girl. Rusty was amazing.”

Kade’s gaze found hers. “You mean before the bank took him away,” he said darkly. “Along with everything else your family owned.”

An unexpected jolt of pain rolled through her. She’d thought she was over the loss of her home and family. She’d told Kade about losing the ranch when she’d first arrived. She didn’t think he’d remember.

Kade said nothing more, but for long seconds, his eyes remained on her face.

He glanced away. “We need to call the Springers. Sooner we talk to them the better.”

Ellie nodded. She couldn’t help wondering if he was thinking that the sooner they solved his wife’s murder, the sooner she would be leaving.

A fresh pang returned to her chest.

* * *

Ellie sat behind her laptop on the writing desk in her sitting room. She had phoned the Springers earlier, told Judith Springer she was a private investigator looking into the murder of their friend, Barbara Meeks, and asked if they could meet. Judith had been out shopping when she took the call, but she would be home a little later.

Ellie and Kade were due in Vail at five o’clock that afternoon.

In the meantime, Ellie wanted to look into anything that might connect Frank Keller’s murder with the three Mountain Ore Mining executives who knew him. With his dying breath, Earl Dunstan had said the man who’d hired Frank was connected to the mine. So far, these three were the only people who qualified.

Though Ellie hadn’t been hired to solve Keller’s murder or figure out why Kade had been targeted, she cared about him—way more than she should. She didn’t want Kade or any of his men getting hurt.

Digging around on the internet, she pulled up info on Clive Murphy, Anthony Russo, and Rick Egan.

Murphy was a married man with a family. Nothing exciting about him. Russo was divorced with two kids. He had weekly visitation, but the kids weren’t living with him. No hint of scandal, and lots of praise for his work.

Since nobody was perfect, she dug a little deeper, saw that Russo liked to play poker and he was good at it. Good enough to participate in some fairly big games. Gambling could become an expensive addiction. Interesting.