Harlequin Intrigue May 2021--Box Set 2 of 2

by Carol Ericson

  She cupped his face with her hands, studying his face very seriously. “That’s a lovely sentiment, but I hope you know we don’t need names for that.”

  “No, but it’ll be nice. It’ll be official. A baby. Our baby. Our family.” He shook his head. Too bowled over to say much more. “I don’t know how...”

  “I know you think we saved you, but you were exactly what we needed, too.” She pressed a kiss to his mouth. “We’re all exactly where we’re supposed to be. All four of us.”

  Exactly where he was supposed to be. Finally.

  * * * * *

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  ISBN-13: 9781488072840

  Summer Stalker

  Copyright © 2021 by Nicole Helm

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  “There’s no reason you’d be a threat to anyone, is there?”

  Gabby’s eyes widened in either shock or outrage. “Of course not! In case you don’t know, I was a complete failure as a witness.”

  Jack said quietly, “I’m sorry. I get used to asking nosy questions. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “I’m not upset.” She walked fast, keeping a distance between them.

  He’d had to park farther away tonight; he could just as well have walked her back to the hotel, but he was glad she hadn’t turned that way. They’d have had no privacy at all. She sure as hell wasn’t going to invite him up to her room.

  In his SUV, he started the engine but didn’t reach to put on his seat belt. “I really am sorry. I was having a good time.”

  “I was, too,” she said softly.

  “Okay.” He hadn’t turned the lights on yet, and the sidewalk was momentarily deserted. He realized she was looking at him, her face a pale oval.

  Before he thought it through, Jack leaned forward and kissed her.

  Cold Case Flashbacks

  USA TODAY Bestselling Author

  Janice Kay Johnson

  An author of more than ninety books for children and adults with more than seventy-five for Harlequin, Janice Kay Johnson writes about love and family, and pens books of gripping romantic suspense. A USA TODAY bestselling author and an eight-time finalist for the Romance Writers of America RITA® Award, she won a RITA® Award in 2008. A former librarian, Janice raised two daughters in a small town north of Seattle, Washington.

  Books by Janice Kay Johnson

  Harlequin Intrigue

  Hide the Child

  Trusting the Sheriff

  Within Range

  Brace for Impact

  The Hunting Season

  The Last Resort

  Cold Case Flashbacks

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Gabriella Ortiz—Childhood witness to murder, Gabby returns to the town she hasn’t seen since she was five years old. Hoping buried memories will resurface, she doesn’t expect attempts on her life—or to fall for a man with a gift for lying.

  Jack Cowan—A homicide detective obsessed with solving a very cold case, Jack is thrilled when the only witness to the murder returns to town twenty-five years later. But falling in love with her wasn’t the plan, especially when keeping her alive becomes his priority.

  Ric Ortiz—Gabby’s brother, Ric, missed her, but also harbors anger toward her because she refuses to talk about what she saw.

  Dean Keller—Now police chief, Dean was a hometown boy and readily okays the cold case investigation, but has secrets of his own.

  Sergeant Rutkowski—Jack’s boss, Rutkowski, knew Colleen Ortiz in high school. Is he too interested in every detail of the investigation?

  Colleen Ortiz—A stay-at-home mother and the unlikeliest of victims, Colleen was brutally murdered in her own home.

  Mark Cowan—A suspect in Colleen’s murder, Mark is the reason for his son’s obsession with the case. If only he’d told Jack everything he knows.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  CHAPTER ONE

  Jack Cowan investigated murderers, rapists and other scumbags on a daily basis, and was glad to snap the cuffs on each and every one of them. Not having it in his power to go after the killer he wanted most to nail...yeah, that ate at him.

  Today Jack walked out of the locker room at the health club and saw Ric Ortiz on a treadmill. The one beside him was empty. Good. Ortiz was Jack’s single remaining connection to the murdered woman and the one witness. That made him Jack’s only hope, too.

  The two men ran into each other often enough, Jack didn’t have to orchestrate meetings. In a city the size of Leclaire, that happened. It was somewhere in the top twenty cities in Washington state by population and needed a significant police department, yet wasn’t so big you didn’t see people you knew at a grocery store or, in this case, a health club. Growing up, he and Ric had been school classmates and soccer and Little League teammates, thus sharing some parental carpools—before, in different ways, their worlds were shattered.

  Even though he wanted to claim that empty treadmill before someone got to it, Jack paused to take a look around the gym with a cop’s typical caution. He’d hit on a good hour to be here, he saw, with the place only half-full. Lots of machines available, weight lifters letting out harsh sounds and clanging the weights back onto the racks as they released them after their reps. He saw more women than men, some in formfitting exercise getups, but no one who caught his eye.

  Unsettled by his complete lack of interest, he scanned some fine-looking female bodies again, but, damn, he just wanted to get in his run and go home. Eat and fall into bed, alone. He’d hook up with some
one one of these days. It had been only... Okay, four or five months since he’d parted ways with Laura. Normally he’d have been getting restless, but he’d been working long hours, as detectives often did.

  Jack reached the treadmill, adjusted the speed and set his water bottle in the holder before stepping onto the track. Ric Ortiz must have been there awhile, because he’d worked up a good sweat and was really moving. Tall and lean, he’d always been a good athlete.

  He glanced at Jack, who started to jog. “How’s it going?”

  “Good.” Jack had closed a big case yesterday and spent today on the paperwork. He’d intended to run at the park or on the high school track, but the sky started spitting out sleet as he left the police station and walked to his car. This was better than nothing. “You?”

  The two men chatted desultorily. Ric’s breath was coming hard and fast. Jack was only half listening when Ric said, out of the blue, “You remember my sister?” Not slowing, he snatched up a towel to wipe sweat from his face.

  This was why Jack always made a point of talking to Ortiz when their paths crossed.

  Still, as he stepped up his own speed, Jack only grunted a response.

  In fact, he knew a hell of a lot more about Gabriella Ortiz than her brother could imagine. In Jack’s most vivid memories of seeing the girl, she’d been riding a hot pink tricycle on the sidewalk outside the Ortiz home when Jack’s mom dropped off Ric after a soccer practice or Little League. He pictured two dark pigtails tied off with pink ribbons. Either they were always pink or he just hadn’t paid attention. Later, there’d been a bike with training wheels and more pink ribbons fluttering from the handlebars. Funny he could remember that, when he couldn’t have cared less about some dumb little sister.

  Not then.

  But now he said with pretended indifference, “I remember you have a sister.”

  “Yeah, once upon a time.” Seemingly brooding, Ric let his pace gradually drop. It was another couple of minutes before he said, “Gabby’s coming home.”

  Gabby’s coming home.

  Jack broke stride, stumbled, cursed and had to do some quick footwork to keep from falling and to regain his pace.

  Fortunately, Ric’s head had turned as he answered a hail from some buddy. Gave Jack a minute to hide his shock and exultation.

  “To stay?” he asked.

  “To stay?” Ortiz glanced his way. “Oh, you mean Gabby. Uh, probably not. This is more of a visit. We haven’t seen each other since, man, she was like eight and I was eleven.”

  “She went to live with an aunt, didn’t she?” And had grown up in a smallish town in Vermont.

  Ric slowed to a cooldown jog. “Dad and I flew back to see her a few times that first year or two, but my great-aunt wasn’t what you’d call welcoming. I guess...even Dad kind of gave up.” His forehead crinkled. “He thought she was better off there.”

  Safer, was what Ric meant. Supposedly, four-year-old Gabby had had a couple of near misses that might have been nothing, just weird things happening, but might instead have been attempts on her life. Gabby Ortiz had witnessed her mother’s murder, so that made sense. Enough, at least, that Jack could see why her dad would have thought an out-of-sight, out-of-mind plan good.

  Gabby now had to be almost thirty...no, she was thirty. Doing his research, Jack had taken note of her September birthday.

  “What inspired the visit?” Jack asked.

  Ric stepped off his treadmill and ran the towel over his head, leaving his dark hair sticking up in spikes.

  “We’ve been emailing more often. With Dad gone now...” He shrugged.

  Given his intense interest in the Ortiz family, Jack had noted the obituary in the local paper, too. He’d even gone to the funeral, wondering if prolonged grief had worn out Raul Ortiz’s heart before its time.

  “Great-Aunt Isabel died, I don’t know, seven or eight years ago, too,” Ric added. “One of Mom’s sisters is still alive, as far as I know, but they were ten years apart in age and never close. I’ve barely met those cousins, and I doubt Gabby has at all. That kind of leaves the two of us.”

  “I know what you mean.” Jack’s sister was married to an army officer, and they were currently stationed in Jordan right now. Really, they were almost complete strangers. That left him and his father, and Dad was in Oregon.

  Dad grieved, too. If his heart gave out, Jack wouldn’t be surprised. Enraged, but not surprised.

  “So... I get pissed at her,” Ric said. “She should have come home years ago. Told the cops what she knows, but she didn’t want to hear it. Buried her head in the sand and won’t pull it out. We’d get friendly, then mad at each other and not be in contact for a year.” His mouth tightened. “Not holding my breath, but I guess I’m hoping that seeing each other will mean something. You know?”

  “I hope it does,” Jack said sincerely, even as he was thinking about whether she’d talk to him.

  “I gotta get going.” Ric seemed to shake off his mood. “Good to see you.”

  “Yeah.” As Ric walked away, Jack called, “Hey, when’s she coming?”

  The guy turned to walk backward. “Next week. Monday. We’ve been planning this for a while.”

  “Good luck.”

  “Yeah.” The grin was kind of weak, and a minute later, Ric disappeared into the locker room.

  Jack kicked up his speed and brooded. Be straight with her and ask for an official interview? That’s what he should do, but what if she declined? Going undercover wasn’t something he’d exactly done before, given the size of this town. Too much chance of being recognized. But she’d have no way of knowing about his obsession with her mother’s murder, so it might not matter if she knew he was a cop. He could sound her out a little, find out what she was like. Why she hadn’t come home, even once she was an adult and her aunt had died.

  Her confused childhood memories might be gone altogether, but if so, wouldn’t you think she’d have told her brother? If they were still there, in her head, why was she refusing to examine them? Maybe knowing what Jack did for a living might be a positive, if she had any desire at all to talk about the stalled investigation and whatever weird stuff surfaced in nightmares.

  Or maybe she barely remembered her mother and figured what was past, was past. She’d moved on with her life.

  Well, there were people who hadn’t, he thought, speared by bitterness and anger, and she owed them something. He had every intention of making sure she paid.

  * * *

  “RIC?” GABBY WOULDN’T have recognized the man pushing himself away from a pillar near baggage claim at the Spokane International Airport if she didn’t follow him on Instagram and a couple of other sites. Not until he smiled did she see the skinny boy she’d worshipped as a kid.

  “Damn.” He grinned at her. “Who’d have thought you’d come out looking so good?”

  She made a face and surrendered her laptop case to him. He leaned over to kiss her cheek.

  “Didn’t grow so much, though, did you?” he added, reminding her how much he had loved irritating her.

  She sniffed. “Doesn’t take mass to make quality.”

  His laugh followed her to the carousel, where bags were appearing. She could have packed enough in a carry-on suitcase...but on the chance she’d decide to extend her stay, Gabby had decided to bring plenty.

  Feeling a certain queasiness at the thought, she reminded herself that, for all her determination to find some answers, she wasn’t stuck here. She could pack up and leave whenever she wanted. Who could stop her? She just...didn’t want to hurt her brother’s feelings. Or close off any possibility of a relationship with him.

  Leclaire was a western suburb of Spokane, almost butting up to the Washington–Idaho border. The drive from the airport shouldn’t take long. Once Ric had loaded her and her bags and they got on the way, she didn’t recognize a thing. Sh
e could have been on the outskirts of any medium-size city in the US, except this one was greener than most. She saw some forests and low mountains in the distance, and that had to be the Spokane River.

  “Look familiar?” Ric asked.

  She shook her head. “I was so young. I wish Mom and Dad had been into camping or something like that, but...” She shrugged. “I remember the house and the neighborhood, sort of, but not much else.”

  His dark eyes rested on her face for a minute, but she resisted meeting them. She knew what he was thinking. Don’t you remember watching Mom get butchered?

  A rush of adrenaline made childish feelings well up in her. I don’t! I don’t! But she kept her mouth clamped shut. That argument never went well. Ric must be trying, and she’d do the same. She had to face the fact that, however hard she tried to recover her memories, she might fail. She’d worked too hard to block those memories. To be a strong woman, how could she build on the shaky foundation of knowing, in the most terrifying way, what true vulnerability felt like?

  Anyway, the murder had happened so many years ago, and she’d seen it as young child, not an adult. Kids didn’t think the same. Plus her mind might have reworked the memories and even her ability to access them in order to allow her to recover and become a functioning person.

  Yes, the visit would bring back memories. Enough to be helpful? She had no idea. And she didn’t plan to tell Ric she was going to try to do as he asked until she found out whether she could get anywhere. Their perspectives were poles apart.

  For starters, she couldn’t understand how Ric had brought himself to stay in their childhood home. Since he wasn’t married, it was too big for him. And Dad. How had he stood living there, where Mom had been murdered? Did he have to clean up her blood himself? Why hadn’t he moved? Wouldn’t that have been healthier for Ric?