Page 65 of No Rules

Squeeze the trigger.

Repeat.

A low buzz hummed in Alex’s ears as he breathed to center himself, focusing on the target before him, and then fired his last shot. From this far away, he couldn’t see if it had hit, but he knew. How, he couldn’t explain, but he knew he’d hit the target dead on.

Wander, Ryan, and Connor were waiting for the target sheet to roll forward, faces tense with the anticipation of the outcome. And when Alex saw the sheet, he whooped and hugged Josh.

“We did it, Josh.” Alex had to fight to keep his emotions in check. This mattered, though he couldn’t explain why.

Josh smiled warmly, clapping Alex on the back. “Yeah, we did. Great job, man.”

“Thanks to you. Couldn’t have done this without you helping me.”

“Anytime. You’ve got a real talent for this.”

“As expected, our winners are Josh and Alex,” Wander said. “And I’m sorry to announce it wasn’t even close. You guys annihilated us.”

Ryan sighed. “Thanks to Josh being a sniper.”

“Actually, Alex did almost as well as Josh.” Wander held up two target sheets side by side. “See that? They’re only a few millimeters apart.”

“Damn.” Ryan looked from the target sheets to Alex, wonder filling his eyes. “Good job, baby boy.”

Alex practically floated. When Ryan looked at him like that, he could do anything.

20

Ryan perched on the edge of his desk, staring at the whiteboard where they had plotted out all the evidence they had collected in their investigation. Alex stood beside him, a thoughtful frown creasing his pretty face as he studied the information they had so far. Lines and arrows connected the different people with additional info added in Alex’s neat handwriting, and Alex had attached pictures of each of the players.

“Jeffries has motive…” Ryan played with the whiskey glass in his hand. They’d assisted Wander with a different assignment all day, so they hadn’t been able to focus on their own investigation until after dinner. That warranted a glass of Lagavulin, right? “But everything we have on him is circumstantial at best. We need something more solid if we’re gonna bring him down.”

“I know.” Alex tapped the whiteboard. “But there has to be something we missed. Something that connects him to Sam’s Promise’s death.”

Ryan narrowed his eyes as he studied Jeffries’s picture. He’d been racking his brain, trying to remember where he’d seen the man’s smug, calculating expression before. It annoyed the crap out of him he couldn’t place him. “Gimme his picture again.”

He held out his arm for Alex to hand him the photo. As Ryan’s fingers brushed against Alex’s, a spark of electricity passed between them, and they both faltered. Heat pooled in Ryan’s belly. Would his desire for Alex ever wane? It showed no signs so far, which was unusual.

He refocused, holding the picture at various distances to test if it triggered anything. “Where the hell have I seen this guy before?”

He used an old trick, covering the bottom half of Jeffries’s face, then the top. This could help if a suspect had been wearing a disguise. The eyes often betrayed them.

And then it hit him like a freight train barreling down the tracks. “Son of a bitch! I’ve seen him on the race footage from the day Sam’s Promise went down!”

“Really?” Alex practically bounced. “That would put him at the scene of the crime, right?”

“Sure as shit would.” Ryan downed the rest of his whiskey and slammed the glass on the table. “Let’s go over that footage again. We need to find Jeffries in it and see if we can spot anything else suspicious.”

“All right.” Alex’s fingers were flying across the keyboard as he pulled up the race footage. Ryan sat next to him, and as they watched the video, their shoulders pressed together. His heart raced as hard as the horses thundering down the track, their powerful muscles straining, their hooves pounding the earth. He imagined the adrenaline surging through their veins, the raw determination pushing them to their limits. And then there was Sam’s Promise, a beautiful animal brought down by human greed and cruelty. Only this time, when the poor horse went down, Ryan focused on the spectators.

“Here.” He pointed to the screen. The smug, calculating expression on a man’s face was unmistakable. “That’s Jeffries in the crowd. Son of a bitch was right there. Probably wanted to see everything went according to plan.”

Alex shook his head. “That takes some serious balls to attend the race where you know a horse is gonna get killed.”

“You know how many arsonists can’t resist the opportunity to watch the fire they started? That’s often how they get caught. It’s like a compulsion.”

“It’s sick, is what it is.”

Ryan affectionately brushed Alex’s hair. “I know, baby boy.”