Nothing can stop her
…from saving two lives.
When she arrives at a murder scene, Deputy
Della Howell is not pleased to find her recent ex already on the
job. She’ll work the case with Sheriff Barrett Logan but will keep the secret
she’s certain Barrett isn’t ready for—she’s pregnant with his child. But as the
dueling cops investigate, familiar sparks reignite between them…just as they
fall prey to a very tenacious killer.
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Sheriff
Barrett Logan aimed his flashlight in the ditch and looked for a dead man.
There
were no signs of him, but then Barrett hadn’t believed there would be. That was
the problem with getting an anonymous tip. It could be a hoax. However, since
he was the sheriff of Mercy Ridge, Texas, checking out hoaxes was part of his
job description.
Especially
this one, which had come in the text he’d gotten from an unknown number.
There’s
blood near the county marker. She finally did it. She murdered him.
Barrett
didn’t know who this she was, but that wasn’t the only word that had stood out
for him. Blood, finally and murdered had also grabbed his attention. If this
was indeed some kind of prank, then the person who’d sent the text had clearly
wanted to embellish the details in such a way to make him jump right in and
investigate.
Keeping
watch around him, Barrett moved away from his truck that he’d left parked on
the road. He’d put on his emergency flashers and kept on his high beams in case
someone was out this time of night. Not likely, though. This was a rural road
with a mile or more separating the sprawling ranches that dot- ted the area.
Plus, it was nearly one in the morning, and most folks had long gone to bed.
Mercy Ridge wasn’t exactly a hotbed of partying and such.
Barrett
fanned the flashlight over the sign that the texter had mentioned. The sign
wasn’t just to let drivers know they were entering another county but also to
mark the lines of jurisdiction. Barrett and his deputies policed this side, but
if the supposed body was beyond the sign, then that would fall under the
jurisdiction of the Culver Crossing PD.
The
cool spring rain spat at him, soaking the back of his shirt and his jeans.
Thankfully, though, his Stetson was keeping the water out of his eyes, making
it easier for him to see a long stretch of the ditch. Definitely no body and no
blood in there, but he did see something else.
Footprints,
maybe.
Someone
or something had trampled down the weeds on the other side of the ditch. Weeds
that practically arrowed toward a thick cluster of trees and underbrush.
Avoiding
the trampled down parts, Barrett jumped across the ditch, his boots sinking
into the wet ground, and he adjusted his flashlight again. However, before he
could follow the trail, he heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. One that
braked to a screeching stop right behind his truck. It was a Culver Crossing
cruiser, and Barrett started muttering some profanity before the deputy stepped
out.
She
was definitely someone he hadn’t wanted to see tonight. Or any other night for
that matter. The last time they’d spoken nearly two months ago, she had made it
crystal clear that she hadn’t wanted to see him, either. Yet, here she was.
Barrett
hadn’t expected her to have changed much in these two months, and she hadn’t.
Well, except for that troubled look she was giving him. Then again, Della often
looked troubled, and there was often plenty of wariness in her crystal blue
eyes.
The
rain had already gotten to her, he noticed. There were strands of her
shoulder-length dark brown hair clinging to the sides of her face and neck. Her
shirt was doing some clinging, too. Definitely something he hadn’t wanted to
notice.
Della
pulled in her breath and released it slowly, the kind of thing someone would do
when steeling themselves up. It didn’t seem to help, though, be- cause at the
end of it, there wasn’t much change in her expression.
“Did
you get a text telling you that a body was out here?” she asked.
Her
voice and expression were as cool as the night rain, and it reminded Barrett
that it hadn’t always been that way. Of course, the noncool times had happened
when she’d been in his bed. Since that was another reminder he didn’t want or
need, he pushed the thought aside.
“Yeah,”
he verified, and purposely turned back to his search.
He
tried to look unruffled by all of this, but his thoughts were going a mile a
minute. Why had someone texted both of them? Was this some kind of sick ploy to
get them back together? If so, heads were going to roll.
From Harlequin Intrigue: Seek thrills.
Solve crimes. Justice served.
For more action-packed stories, check out the other books in the Mercy Ridge Lawmen series by Delores Fossen:
Heartfelt or thrilling, passionate or uplifting—our romances have it all. Visit TryHarlequin.com to sample FREE books from among 12 different series. It’s just a taste of the new books published each month—every story a journey guaranteed to leave you with That Harlequin Feeling.
Author Bio
USA Today bestselling author, Delores Fossen, has sold over 70 novels with millions of copies of her books in print worldwide. She's received the Booksellers' Best Award, the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award and was a finalist for the prestigious Rita ®. In addition, she's had nearly a hundred short stories and articles published in national magazines. You can contact the author through her webpage at www.deloresfossen.com
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