by Dani Pettrey
He took in her attire—yellow down jacket, mukluks, and jean miniskirt. She was nothing if not unique. “Cold?”
“Freezing. Guess you best let me in.”
“That’s not a good idea.” It was a downright awful idea.
“Stop being such a stickler and let me in.” She reached for the door handle, and he covered her hand with his.
“Mmm,” she purred, “you’re warm.”
“Look, I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression the other night, but—”
“Again with the buts.” She smiled. “Don’t you want to have a little fun?”
“I’m afraid not.” He didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but he had to be clear.
“Fine.” She pouted. “Then can I at least use your can before I go? I’ve been waiting awhile.”
“Sure. Just make it quick.” He wanted her gone as quickly as possible.
“No problem. I don’t need to hang around where I’m not wanted when there are plenty of places I am.”
He felt bad at the slight quiver in her jaw. He really hadn’t meant to hurt her feelings. He just needed to give it to her straight. Nothing would happen between them.
He opened the door, and Harvey greeted them with a look of disapproval.
“So this is home.” She pulled a half-empty bottle of rum from her jacket pocket before shedding her coat.
Great. She wasn’t in any condition to be driving. “Why don’t I make you a cup of coffee while you use the facilities?”
She gave a saucy salute. “Whatever you say, Officer.” She glanced around. “Nice place you’ve got here.”
Piper’s doing. She’d insisted on adding some life to the place. The leaf-patterned curtains and matching throw pillows, the candles lining the mantel, and the pictures on the wall were all her additions. “Bathroom is second door on your right.” He pointed.
“Gotcha.” Becky slunk down the hall, the scent of rum trailing after her.
He started on her coffee, popping a filter in and grabbing the bag of coffee grounds.
“Nice bed,” she called, her voice soft and sultry.
He paused midscoop. “I said the second door, Becky.”
“Second, third, what does it matter? Come join me.”
He knew he should never have let her in. Quickly finishing the coffee prep, he started the maker and headed down the hall. Harvey grumbled as he passed.
Rounding the corner, he found Becky stretched out on his bed, her mukluks tossed aside. Her skirt and top, what little there was to them, remained.
“Nice sheets.” She trailed her hand across the surface. “Let’s put them to good use.”
“Becky, I—”
“Need a little convincing?” She got to her feet and prowled toward him, unbuttoning his shirt as she drew close. Her lithe fingers danced down his chest, and then she kissed him. The overpowering taste of rum assaulted his mouth.
Bracing his hands on her upper arms, he gently but firmly pushed her back. “This isn’t going to happen.”
Harvey barked as headlights bounced across the windowpanes.
Landon glanced at the clock. One o’clock? Who on earth?
“Probably got the wrong drive,” Becky said, trying to close the space between them.
A car door shut.
“I’ll check it out while you get put back together.” He extricated himself from the room and headed for the front door. He placed his right hand on his gun as he swung the door open with his left.
His breath caught. “Piper. W-w-w-what are you doing here? Is something wrong?”
“I know you think I messed your case all up, but I’ve got something to tell you about a new lead.” She pushed past him into the house and wrinkled her nose. “Do I smell coffee?”
He was thankful that’s all she smelled. “This isn’t a good time.”
“Why?” Her wide brown eyes searched him and her cheeks flushed. “Sorry. Did I wake you?”
He followed her embarrassed gaze down his bare chest. He turned with a start and refastened himself. Becky had quick fingers.
“Landon?” Becky’s voice held a new level of seductiveness. “Aren’t you coming back to bed?”
His muscles stiffened as confusion flitted across Piper’s angelic face. Her eyes narrowed. “Do you have . . . ?” She stepped toward the hall. “Is somebody here?”
Adrenaline surged through his limbs, and he lunged to intercept her, but he was too late.
Piper froze, her gaze fixed on Becky.
“Well, who have we here?” Becky’s voice was sweet, but there was venom lurking in every word. She leaned against the doorjamb, not bothering to cover up.
“Piper.” He reached for her, but she pulled away. “I . . .” How did he explain?
Her eyes radiated an agonizing disappointment. “Sorry I bothered you.” Turning, she bolted for the door.
He raced after her. “It’s not what you think,” he said, catching up with her in the drive.
She spun around so fast she nearly bowled him over. “Just tell me one thing . . . Is she the reason you’ve been so distracted lately?”
“What?”
“You haven’t been yourself in months. You’re grumpier than usual, distant, and now . . .” Her eyes full of fire fixed on Becky standing in the doorway.
“This has nothing to do with that.”
“This?” Her jaw stiffened. Were those tears shining in her eyes?
“Piper.” He clasped her hand. She was so cold.
She yanked it back. “To think I defended you to Denny. . . .”
“Denny? What does he have to do with any of this?”
“He said you were fooling around with Becky Malone, and I told him no way.” She let out a sickened sigh. “I’m such a fool.”
“You’re not a fool.”
“The evidence would suggest otherwise.” She climbed in her Jeep and slid the key in the ignition as snow fluttered down.
17
Unable to sleep, Piper pulled a plate from the dishwasher and shoved it onto the shelf. Adrenaline still surged through her limbs. Becky Malone and Landon? It was all wrong. This wasn’t Landon. Not her Landon.
She lifted another plate and clanged it on top of the other.
Landon was so rigid, so by the book. She bit her lip. Maybe Denny was right. Maybe she didn’t know Landon as well as she thought, and the idea left her feeling horribly off-kilter.
She tossed the last of the plates on the stack.
“Do you know what time it is?” Kayden asked, entering the kitchen, half asleep and in her pj’s. “Who ticked you off?”
Piper reached for a glass.
Kayden halted her. “Let me get that.”
“Fine.” Piper stepped back with a huff.
“So, who’s got you this riled up?”
Piper sank against the counter. “Landon.”
“Well, there’s a shock.” Kayden smiled.
“Actually it is.” She wasn’t sure which had been a bigger shock, Reef falsely accused of murder or finding Becky at Landon’s.
“Reef’s case?” Kayden asked as she gently placed the glass in the cupboard.
“No. Not exactly.” Though Becky could explain Landon’s distraction—his standoffishness.
“Then what?”
She hated to even say it, but if she didn’t talk to somebody, she feared the weight bearing down on her chest would crush her. “I went to tell him something I found out, and . . .”
“He wasn’t happy about it?”
“I didn’t even get the chance to tell him. I was too, too shocked.” Pain quickened in her chest, as it had when she’d spotted Becky.
Kayden shut the empty dishwasher. “By what?”
“By who, actually.”
Kayden’s dark brows furrowed.
“Becky Malone.”
“At Landon’s?” Kayden nearly laughed.
Piper nodded.
Kayden’s mouth slackened. “Was she . . . ? Were they . . .
?”
“It sure looked like it.”
“I don’t believe it.” Kayden leaned against the counter beside her.
Neither did she. Landon had always been so upstanding and uptight. Seeing him like that, with his shirt open, his hard stomach . . .
“What did you say?” Kayden asked, hopping up on the counter, her long legs dangling.
“I don’t even remember.” Her heart had thumped so hard, shock ringing in her ears, the memory seemed far off and distant—not something she’d personally experienced.
“Yeah, I really don’t believe he’s sleeping with her, but they could be an item. . . . I wonder if Cole knows.” Kayden popped a pistachio in her mouth from the bowl Piper had left on the counter.
She hadn’t even thought of that. Denny knew. How many others?
No wonder Landon thought her naïve. And no wonder Landon had balked at her matchmaking attempts for him and Nancy Bowen, if he preferred women like Becky Malone.
The thought alone strangled her. She felt sick in the pit of her stomach—that horrible homesick feeling that gnawed at her gut and made her feel lost. “How could he . . . ? Becky Malone? What would make him choose her?”
“Yeah. She doesn’t really seem like the relationship type.”
Relationship. How long had it been going on? Was Becky the reason he’d been pulling away from her? Would he pull even further away now that she knew about them?
Her throat tightened. She couldn’t lose Landon.
Kayden narrowed her eyes. “Why are you taking this so personally?”
“I’m not.” She started wiping the counter.
“Yes you are.”
“Well . . . sleeping with someone outside of marriage is wrong.”
“Of course it is. Completely wrong. . . . Piper, I’m pretty sure you misunderstood what was going on, but even if they are, I don’t feel personally betrayed by Landon.” Kayden hopped down from the counter. “You obviously do.” She grabbed another pistachio. “The question you need to ask yourself is why.”
Landon stood outside of Piper’s house, leaning against the giant spruce beside her window. He’d seen Becky safely home and found himself drawn here, longing to climb the spruce’s sturdy branches to Piper’s window overhead, longing to wake her and explain. Even if Piper never viewed him as anything more than a friend, he needed her to know he hadn’t slept with Becky.
He needed to tell Piper how he felt so she’d understand his “distance and distraction” had nothing to do with Becky Malone and everything to do with her. But the thought of Piper looking him in the eye, telling him she could never love him like that, tore the breath from his lungs. He just wasn’t strong enough.
Cole and Piper said Jesus was the source of their strength. Pastor Braden spoke often about finding strength in weakness, but he didn’t know. . . .
He scuffed the snow with his boot.
He’d prayed before, and his worst fears had come true. How would this be any different? What was the point in praying if God chose not to fix the hurtful things in life?
Piper would say God was there through it all, that God had a plan and purpose, but that purpose was often hard to see.
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Cole had shared that verse with the teens in his youth group not long ago. Hebrews, if he remembered right.
Taking one last glance at Piper’s dark window, he turned and headed for home.
Could God really fill the hole eating away inside of him? Could He give him the strength he needed?
He gazed up at the night sky.
If you’re really there, like Cole and Piper say, could you show me?
Just like on the job, he needed evidence. Blind faith wasn’t an option.
18
Gage cut through the water, his fervent paddling propelling the kayak across the chilly predawn bay. No sooner had he returned to his sister’s place last night than Darcy had shown up holding the signed nondisclosure agreement. While he wanted nothing to do with her, his family wasn’t ready to proceed without her help. Not unless he produced another reporter. As far as he was concerned, swapping her for another reporter was simply swapping trouble for trouble.
Darcy was bright and quick, and if harnessed for their purposes, she could probably be of great help. With the paper work signed, she couldn’t legally print a word about him and Meredith, but that provided little comfort. Meredith had talked to Darcy about them, and Darcy wasn’t the sort to leave things be. She was too much like his sisters in that way. Always digging. Always curious.
The sun crested over the mountains, rising in the sky, its radiant beams swathing the deep blue waters. Gage increased his pace, letting the heat spread through his arms with each stroke. He’d let Darcy work the case, but he’d be right at her side, making sure she held to her end of the agreement.
Piper approached the upper ski lift at Kaner Mountain Resort exactly at noon, as instructed. Kaner Resort sat directly across the mountain from Yancey on the north and otherwise barren side of Tariuk Island. Only those interested in more extreme trails made the potentially hazardous drive. The road, rather than cutting through the treacherous mountain pass, wound around the outer edge of Tariuk Island and consisted of remote stretches prone to ice and avalanches.
The resort consisted of a rustic lodge, a few groomed trails, and an open wilderness ripe for heli-skiing. Kayden ran many of Last Frontier Adventures’s heli-skiing excursions out of Kaner.
“Single rider?” the lift operator called.
Piper raised her hand.
“Move forward,” he instructed.
She shuffled her snowboard the few remaining feet to the open slot on the line and pushed forward as the chair swung behind her and the other single rider.
Once they lifted off, Megan Whitaker smiled and ran a hand through her shoulder-length blond hair. “Well done,” she said, pulling the safety bar down in front of them.
“Thanks, but I’m not really sure why we had to be so secretive.”
“After the flack Ashley got for talking to that cop?” Megan slid her pink fleece headband over her ears. “No way do I want to be known as a snitch.”
“Don’t people want Karli’s killer to be found?”
“Most believe he already has been.”
“They really believe Reef killed her?” Didn’t they know her brother at all?
“Not all of us,” Megan said, “and that is why I agreed to meet you.”
“Thank you so much.” She’d been so ecstatic with the possibility of a new lead that she’d rushed straight to tell Landon. Finding him with Becky had squelched her excitement but not her desire to find the truth.
“No problem,” Megan said. “But you’ve only got a couple minutes before we reach the top, so I’d get to it if I were you.”
“Right.” She refocused her thoughts. “I know the evidence doesn’t look good for Reef, but I also know my brother, and he couldn’t have killed Karli. Is there anyone else you can think of who might have wanted to harm her, someone capable of such a thing?”
Megan smiled, and her striking blue eyes twinkled. “You obviously didn’t know Karli.”
“No, why?”
“I’m surprised Reef didn’t tell you.”
“Tell me what?” They’d been too upset to discuss anything other than how they were going to get his name cleared.
“Karli wasn’t well liked.”
“By who?”
“Just about everyone.”
“Why?”
“Karli was . . . a world unto herself. She liked to drink, party, sleep around—and didn’t much care who with.”
“Meaning guys that were already taken?”
“Exactly.”
“So that’s why the ladies didn’t like her, but what about the guys?”
“Karli tended to stir up trouble wherever she went. Probably why she moved around so much.”
“But you roomed
with her.”
“No one else would take her.”
“That was nice of you.”
Megan shrugged. “Karli knew my cousin Tess. She said there was a kinder side to Karli, so I took her at her word.”
“And was your cousin right?”
“It’s hard to say. Karli and I had only been at the lodge a couple days when . . .” Megan swallowed. “Well, you know.”
“You mentioned last night that you might know where Karli was living prior to the circuit.”
“Yeah, she and Tess were bunkmates.”
“You know where?”
“In British Columbia—a couple different places. I think they were at Wolf Creek Lodge a while back, and Tess is working there again.”
“Is Karli from Canada?”
“Originally?” Megan shrugged. “No idea. Karli kept to herself.”
“You said your cousin knew Karli better than most?”
“Yeah, but that’s not saying much. Karli was really guarded.”
“Any idea why?”
“No, I couldn’t tell if she was just abrasive or if she was . . .”
“What?” Piper prodded.
The lift reached the end, and they both scooted off.
Megan waited until a pair of skiers exited the lift behind them and skied away before speaking. “It probably sounds melodramatic, especially considering the circumstances, but Tess told me she thought Karli was scared.”
“Of what?”
Megan paused while another group skied off the lift.
“Tess said it was like Karli was always looking over her shoulder. She moved around a lot. Never stayed long in any one place.” Megan’s gaze darted to the lift. “Look, I better go.”
“Who are you worried about seeing us together?”
“Anyone from the circuit.” She slid her goggles in place. “You’ve got to understand, the extreme sports circuit is a tight-knit community. We keep things ‘in house,’ if you know what I mean.”
“What kind of things?”
“Whatever happens off the slopes stays private.”
“And a lot of that private stuff involved Karli?”
Megan nodded.
“Any of it cause for murder?”
Megan shrugged as she pushed off. “Depends on what you’ve got to lose.”