Have I broken a law,Detective?
She held her ground and his gaze.
He half smiled. Tell you what. You take my truck into Painters Bluff.
Im staying at the hotel.
Which one? Theres Skye Painters Mountain House, the Hollowback Inn and Annies Barn on the edge of town.
For a moment Sasha forgot to be cold, and laughed. Let me guess Annie ran a bordello?
Rumour has it Butch and Sundance were regulars.
Spoken like a proud local. She tipped her head. And yet your badge says Denver PD. Are you a man of mystery, Nick Law?
His eyes caught hers and held. Sasha shivered. She had the ridiculous feeling that he was stripping away her clothing piece by piece. It felt exciting in a kinky sort of way, but unnerving at the same time.
He pulled off his glove and caught her chin between his thumb and finger. I have my moments.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jenna Ryan loves creating dark-haired heroes, heroines with strength and good murder mysteries. Ever since she was young, she has had an extremely active imagination. She considered various careers over the years and dabbled in several of them, until the day her sister Kathy suggested she put her imagination to work and write a book. She enjoys working with intriguing characters and feels she is at her best writing romantic suspense. When people ask her how she writes, she tells them by instinct. Clearly its worked, since shes received numerous awards from Romantic Times BOOKreviews. She lives in Canada and travels as much as she can when shes not writing.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Sasha Myer An architect hired to design a Colorado resort. Is she marked for death?
Nick Law A cold-case detective on the trail of a serial killer.
Anthony Rush He is suspected of being the infamous Snow Globe Killer.
Kristiana Felgard The eighth victim of the Snow Globe Killer.
Skye Painter She hired Sasha to design a resort, but was she set up, as well?
Sheriff Will Pyle This former state police officer doesnt like problems in his town.
Dana Hollander The towns mayor contacted Nick when murder was committed.
Max Macallum A road systems engineer who was in town when the eighth victim died.
Bo Sickerbie The local baddie. Hes a thief and possibly something much more sinister.
Cold Case Cowboy
JENNA RYAN
www.millsandboon.co.uk
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For Kathy and for the mum we still miss so much.
I love you.
Prologue
Hed made a mistake, a big one. Theyd catch him now for sure, lock him in a cell and throw away the key. His mother had warned him not to let his emotions get the better of him. Truthfully, shed nagged him half to death on the subject, but hed stopped listening to her a long time ago. Unless he counted the echo of her whiney voice that popped into his head at random moments and made him want to break things.
Hed broken something tonight. The blood on his hands was proof of that. Now, back in his hotel room, fear as dry as Colorado dust was setting in.
He opened and closed his mouth several times to loosen his jaw.
Shut up! he ordered, when his mothers voice threatened to intrude. Its done, and there were no witnesses. Im here. Im safe. Ill deal with the problem, talk to my idiot cousin and get out of this rat-hole town.
Unless he got caught first.
He balled his hotel room key in a bloody fist.
The woman at the front desk had been flirting with him for the past two days. Hed pitched himself as Anthony Rush, a loner from Telluride, Colorado, looking to buy a small ranch here in the northern part of the state. Shed swallowed the lie whole and popped open another button on her shirt. Hed smiled and winked at her.
Shed vouch for him. He was a nice man who only drank beer and didnt like to be disturbed after 10:00 p.m.
It would be fine.
He continued to flex his jaw as he turned on the radio. The announcer was droning on about some bigshot local landowner. He spun an Eagles song while Anthony went into the bathroom to deal with the blood.
One thing Anthony Rush knew how to do was cover his tracks. Oh yes, Mother had taught him to be thorough in all things, large and small.
Cleanup accomplished, he switched off the lights and collapsed on his bed.
He must have slept, didnt know how with so many thoughts chattering in his mind, but it was full morning when his eyes opened and he sat up, fuzzy headed and blinking.
He groaned when he saw the blizzard outside. It was the second in two days. Then he heard the radio newscaster and froze.
The liquor store had been robbed last night. An hour later, someone had done a gas and dash at the filling station on Center Street. A 4x4 had hit a lamppost on Wilmot, and there was a big commotion brewing out near Painters Bluff. The sheriff would be a very busy man today.
Anthony absorbed the details of the broadcast through a haze. His head swam. He pictured the blood on his hands and worked his jaw open and shut, open and shut.
Cant get caught, a voice in his head whispered. Have toget away. No more time to wait. Prisons were hell for people like him.
But first
Fingers curled, teeth grinding, he bolted for the bathroom. And threw up everything in his stomach except the icy ball of fear.
Chapter One
Skye Painter is a hard-nosed perfectionist, Sasha. Ive read about her. Shell expect you to do your best and more. Dont disappoint her, or me.
Inside her Land Rover on an icy Colorado back road, Sasha Myer set her cell phone on the dash and squinted through the windshield at the blowing snow. The prediction that Sashas architectural skills would be a strong reflection on her mothers success as a parent became a buzz in her ears. Sasha had lost track of how many similar conversations theyd had, but it must be in the thousands by now. Barbara Leedss life had not gone according to plan, so it was up to her childrenSasha and her half brother, Angusto fill in the blanks.
Skye is a direct descendant of the towns founder, George Painter, Barbara continued. She has money, social standing and more business savvy than any of her late husbands. Do me proud and design a stunning resort for her.
Careful not to let her amusement show, Sasha asked, What kind of social whirl do you think Ill find in Painters Bluff?
Dont be smart, Alexandra. Youre three days late arriving. Its not a promising start.
Sasha hated when her mother used her formal name. Ive been through this with Skye, Mother. She and I have worked out a number of details already, over the phone and through e-mail. Ive explained why Im late for the site inspection.
You dont explain, you apologize. And you dont call her Skye.
She told me to, and I did apologize. Shes not upset.
Of course she isnt. Why would she be? Contrary as always, Barbara huffed out a breath. Her sons an attorney with the Justice Department. Lucky woman. Mines a college dropout who plays on his charm and is forever giving in to his itchy feet. Speaking of which, have you seen Angus lately?
Not since Christmas.
He should be in school.
Hes twenty, Mother. And backpacking through Europe never hurt anyone.
Stop making excuses for him.
Im not.
Yes, you are. You do it all the time, for Angus and for yourself. She sighed. Youre twenty-nine, Sasha. You should be settled.
Sasha considered breaking the connection and blaming it on the weather, but that never worked. Barbara would simply call the hotel tonight and harangue her untilwell, until she got tired of it, Sasha supposed. Unfortunately, her mother seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of energy for haranguing.
You could have married that cosmetic surgeon in Philadelphia, Barbara stated. Youd have been set for life.
Well, one of us would have.
She imagined her mothers neck turning pink. He only did one small lift for me.
On the house, Sasha reminded her. We werent compatible, okay? You got your lift, I got out. Everyones happy. Not entirely true, but Sasha really wanted this conversation over. I enjoy living in Denver. I like being near Dad and Uncle Paul.
You like being away from me.
Sorely tempted now to toss her phone out the window, Sasha made a face at it instead. My new firms doing well, Mother, and Denvers always felt like home to me.
Yes, as I recall, I wasted seven years of my life there once.
Eight, and to date it was your longest marriage.
Also my longest and, I might add, least satisfying teaching assignment. Eight fruitless years spent trying to instruct teenagers on how to speak, read and write the English language, appreciate poetry and recognize literary genius. If nothing else, my private school students here in Boston know how to listen. Its an art you and Angus never quite mastered.
Wind swooped down to batter Sashas SUV. The weathers really bad here, Mother. I need to concentrate on the road.
You need to concentrate on the job youve been hired to do.
Does that mean youre going to hang up?
Sasha, Skye Painter
Is an important woman, and you want me to impress her. Got it. Ill do my best. Determined to end the call, Sasha crinkled a food wrapper. You re breaking up. Ill talk to you later. Love to Hans.
His name is Richard.
I know. I liked Hans better.
A note of anger crept in. My personal life
Is none of my business. Youre right. Im sorry.
Say that to Skye Painter, not me. And
Breaking up, Mom. Bye.
Flipping her phone shut, Sasha switched off. She spent the next few seconds shuddering away the antlike prickles that invariably lingered after a conversation with her mother.
Not even by the most generous emotional gauge could her relationship with Barbara be considered good. Tolerable perhaps, regrettable definitely, but not pleasant, not warm and not remotely close to what Sasha had spent much of her life wishing for.
Didnt matter, she reminded herself. Her father, her uncle and her half brother, Angus, lived in Denver. She had partners and friends and a reputation that people in the western states were beginning to notice. It was enough.
With the prickles receding, she turned her mind to the job Skye Painter, president and CEO of the Painter Development Corporation, had commissioned her to do.
It was a straightforward and potentially lucrative task: design a resort for all seasons. Not solely for skiing, although people would be eager to shush down the formidable slopes of Hollowback Mountain, but for year-round outdoor activities. Keep it clean and simple, incorporate a strong Western flavor, bring the outside in and connect the entire complex to the land.
Skye had made it clear to Sasha from the outset that her architectural firm had not been at the top of her contact list. Beat, Streete and Myer had been recommended by an associate whose private retreat in Colorado Springs had, quote, blown the boulders out from under him. To Sashas mind, that said Skye Painter wanted a fresh perspective and a unique design for her project. Anything short of that, and she would be taking her business elsewhere.
Roads asideand access was a problem that needed to be addressedSasha was looking forward to the challenge. She wouldnt allow a case of nerves to disrupt her. Failure wasnt an option. Her company was new and fragile for that reason. Plus, her partners were depending on her, and God knew her mother would never let her live it down. Heaven help anyone who disappointed Barbara Leeds.
Twilight approached early in mid-January. Snow clouds hung low and threatening over Hollowback Mountain. The ruts were so deep in places that Sasha had to slow her vehicle to a crawl to get over them.
Really need a wider road, she decided, then bounced so hard she bit her tongue.
She spied headlights approaching, but it was difficult to judge the distance in near whiteout conditions. Refocusing, she blinked, did a disbelieving double take and hissed out a breath.
She had to be seeing things. There couldnt possibly be a huge pickup bearing down on her.
She swung the wheel to the right. The halogen lights ahead danced like lanterns in a high wind. As shed somehow known it would, the approaching vehicle lost traction and went into a full three-hundred-sixty-degree spin.
The back end of the truck whipped around to tag her front fender. It struck her again near the tire well, slowed briefly, then spun its wheels and fishtailed away. The best Sasha could doand shed been driving in the snow since her sixteenth birthdaywas steer into the skid and pray the ravine beside her wasnt a sheer drop.
An eternity later, she felt something catch on the undercarriage, and her Land Rover jolted to a halt. If she hadnt been belted in, she would have been flung into the passenger seat. Peering out, she saw nothing, just emptiness, and realized that one good blast of wind would send her tumbling over the side of the cliff.
Need guardrails, she reflected through a jittery blur. Big heavy suckers to embrace the soon-to-be-widened road.
She took a precious moment to catch her breath and calm her racing heart. Breathe in, breathe out, she told herself. Dont make any sudden moves.