Page 72 of Mountain Man’s Mystic Touch

“Male or female?”

“The sleeve was dark. The hand may have been gloved.”

“Which direction did it enter from?”

“I was facing the case. The arm came from my right.”

He turns toward the lodge and positions himself where I must have been standing. His gaze follows the angle to the right side of the display, near the exterior door.

“If the case remained here, the person could break the side panel from the doorway, reach inside, and be outside again within seconds.”

“The glass exploded toward me.”

“Then you were on the interior side.”

The understanding arrives with a chill.

I walk through the open door and stop inside the lodge. The case remains visible from this angle, though Wade’s team has begun preparing to move it. Reflections move across the glass. The red banner becomes a distorted streak above it.

Rocco joins me.

“Here,” I say. “I was standing here.”

He looks toward the case, then beyond it to the lawn. “And I was between you and the exterior door.”

Blood on my hands.

My breath shortens.

Rocco turns away from the display. “Loralee.”

“I’m all right.”

“You stopped breathing.”

“I remembered where you were.”

“Where?”

“In front of me.”

He watches my face.

“You were between me and whoever broke the glass,” I continue. “That’s why your blood was on my hands.”

The lodge noise fades beneath the pounding of my pulse. Rocco places both hands around mine, enclosing them completely.

“Look at me.”

I do.

“I know more now,” he says. “That makes the warning useful.”

“It means you were close enough to be hurt.”

“It also means the event can be changed.”

“But you’re still going to stand between me and the threat.”