Grace looked down at the concrete, as if convinced there was a rolled oat or bit of hay she’d missed.
“We don’t have enough manpower to guard the humans who are in danger I don’t want to leave the horses without protection, do you?”
“No.”
“And you’d worry about them if we shipped them off alone to that stable Jack found for us, wouldn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“So?”
Lund had to admit it was an amazing bit of logic that he doubted even Grace could get around.
The teen leaned her push broom against the wall of the wash stall. “I’ll go with them.”
“It’s for the best, sweetheart.”
“Yeah.” Grace plunked herself on the bale of hay next to Lund and looked down at her hands folded in her lap. The area around each nail was bleeding, the result of picking at her cuticles. Just what Val had said Grace did when she was stressed.
“If I had horses, Val would ship me off, too,” he said.
Grace gave him a non-committal smile.
“As it is, I’m an ass all on my own.”
“Not funny,” Val said.
“Really?”
Grace nodded. “Horses, asses, they’re not the same thing.”
“So maybe that makes me a horse’s ass?” he teased.
Grace rolled her eyes.
Lund glanced Val’s way, and she threw him a smile, half-exasperated, half-grateful.
Apparently he couldn’t win.
Good thing he already had.
And he’d give everything he had to keep his women safe.
Val had waited until he’d been released from the hospital to tell him about the man who’d claimed to be Grace’s father. Probably a good thing. In this condition, Lund would be hard pressed to have enough strength to break Hess’s neck, let alone Mark’s, too.
Grace had taken the news much better. In true Grace form, she’d decided he’d missed Val and longed for a family, otherwise he would never have accepted Carla Tiedemann’s bribe to take Grace to the casino.
Lund wished he had something stiff to drink to wash away the bad taste in his mouth when he thought about Carla Tiedemann. That the woman who’d adopted Ethan did it with the goal of returning him to Hess was unreal, but Lund couldn’t argue with the facts.
After some basic police work, Val had discovered the vacationing veterinarian Carla worked for lived next to the boat landing where Emily Lang was found. Contacting the homeowner in the wilds of Wyoming was a little more difficult, but he’d given the LLPD permission to search the property, and they’d found child-sized fingerprints all over the home’s lower level.
They’d also found a deficit of Ketamine at Lake Loyal animal hospital. It seemed in order to use the substance as an anesthesia for surgeries, veterinarians had to pay for a DEA license and sign for every bottle that came into their clinic. After that, every drop used was entered into a controlled substance log and vouched for by one of the vets.
Add the shortage to the drug screen results for Scott Tiedemann, Grace’s description of her abduction, Harlan Runk’s confirmation of her frequent visits to the morgue, and the many messages they’d found penciled into the library books Carla delivered to the jail in addition to other circumstantial evidence, and what was left was a damning case against Carla Tiedemann.
And since Jimmy’s report, there had been no sign of her. No sign of Hess.
Lund stood, eager to get away from his own thoughts. “Tomorrow morning is going to come fast enough. Let’s get inside.”
He almost added and sleep. God knew, they all needed it. But he didn’t want to pass these last few hours together unconscious. If he’d learned anything, it was that life was unpredictable.
You try to save someone, and they die.
You try to sacrifice yourself for the greater good, and you become the element that might bring everyone you love to their knees.
You take the strength of your body for granted—hell anything for granted—and you never know when it will be taken away.
He wasn’t about to take Val and Grace for granted. He wanted to soak in every second, to savor it. Because that’s how you prepared for war. You remembered what you were fighting for.
You remembered what you loved most.
About the Author
Ann Voss Peterson is the author of over thirty novels and has millions of books in print all over the globe. Winner of the prestigious Daphne du Maurier Award and a Rita finalist, Ann is known for her adrenaline-fueled thrillers, including the Codename: Chandler spy thrillers she writes with J.A. Konrath and her own thriller series featuring small-town Wisconsin police chief Val Ryker. She lives near Madison, Wisconsin, with her family and their border collie.
Visit Ann at www.AnnVossPeterson.com, and check out the behind-the-scenes research that goes into her books. To hear about new releases and win the occasional prize, sign up to receive Ann’s newsletter. And leave a review to let others know how you liked the book.
Ann’s Thrillers
Val Ryker Series
PUSHED TOO FAR
BURNED TOO HOT
DEAD TOO SOON
WATCHED TOO LONG (with J.A. Konrath)
The Codename: Chandler Thrillers
(written with J.A. Konrath)
HIT
EXPOSED
NAUGHTY
FIX (with F. Paul Wilson)
RESCUE
FLEE
SPREE
THREE
Short Stories
BABE ON BOARD (with J.A. Konrath)
WILD NIGHT IS CALLING (with J.A. Konrath)
THE SCHOOL (A Supernatural Thriller)
Keep a lookout for Ann’s upcoming Small Town Secrets series.
Acknowledgments
No book gets written and published without a great deal of help from a team of people, and as always, I owe many thanks to my team.
To my research team, who through citizen academies, allowing me to participate in training exercises, and personally answering my questions, gave me the background to spin these tales (all inaccuracies and poetic license belong to me): Officer Greg Dixon, Officer David Kasdorf, Detective David Haselow, former Middleton Police Chief Brad Keil, current Middleton Police Chief Chuck Foulke, Middleton Fire District Chief Aaron Harris, Battalion Chief / Community Education Specialist Brad Subera, and the Dane County Sheriff’s department.
To my editing team: J.A. Konrath, Blake Crouch, Carol Voss, Maria Konrath, and Chereese Graves at Grammar.RulesAtoZ.
To my production team: Carl Graves at Extended Imagery, and Rob and Amy Siders at 52 Novels.
And most of all, endless thanks to my readers. I hope you enjoyed the story!
—AVP
Cast of Characters
Police Chief Valerie Ryker – Val has had her hands full since becoming the first female police chief of Lake Loyal, Wisconsin. But just as her nemesis Dixon Hess is convicted of murder and about to be sentenced, Val learns her problems are far from over.
Assistant Fire Chief David Lund – Dedicated to saving others, Lund is quickly realizing that sometimes the most you can do is save yourself. Even so, he will never give up on Val or on the town he loves.
Grace Ryker – Val’s niece is a brilliant girl with a bright future, but past trauma at the hands of Dixon Hess has left her shaken.
Dixon Hess – The killer is behind bars, but that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten his vow of vengeance.
Sergeant Pete Olson – Haunted by events of the past, the stoic police sergeant seems to be falling down on the job.
Oneida Perkins – The dispatcher has always hovered like a mama grizzly, but after Dixon Hess’s rampage, she’s grown even more protective.
Carla Tiedemann – The poor woman has lost her husband in a fire. Can Val save her toddler son?
Ethan Tiedemann – Now adopted by the Tiedemann family, the innocent toddler is the son of Dixon Hess.
Fire Chief Jerry Fruehauf – In all h
is considerable experience, the fire chief hasn’t encountered anything as threatening as the Milk Jug Firebug.
Tom Dempsey – After recent traumas, the seasoned fire captain is turning away from the department and focusing on what he loves most.
Bix Johnson – After his day job was outsourced and his wife left him, the fire captain only has one thing left—the fire department—and he’s determined to give it everything he has.
Kyle Blaski – Strong and eager, the young firefighter refuses to let anything interfere with his burgeoning career with the department.
JoAnn Pender – After the Dixon Hess murders, the psychologist started support groups to help first responders deal with the trauma.
Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels – Retired from the Chicago PD and now working as a private investigator, Jack is always there for Val.
Harry McGlade – The private investigator might be more of a public dick, but when Val needs someone to rely on, he always comes through.
Emily Lang – The twelve-year-old habitual runaway tried to escape a bad situation at home, but ended up caught in another.
Mark Sheridan – The doctor was Val’s old flame, so what brings him to Lake Loyal during the epidemic of arson?
Harlan Runk – The grizzled coroner is trying to take his life in a new direction.
Public Servant Cheat Sheet
The Lake Loyal Police Department:
Police Chief Valerie Ryker
Sergeant Pete Olson
Officer Jimmy Weiss
Officer Christopher Edgar
Officer Ginny Jones
Dispatcher Oneida Perkins
The Lake Loyal District Fire Department:
Chief Jerry Fruehauf
Assistant Chief / Community Education Specialist David Lund
Captain Tom Dempsey
Captain Bix Johnson
Firefighter Jorge Sandoval
Firefighter Kyle Blaski
Firefighters Hoffstetter, Vaughan
Lake Loyal EMS:
Jim Baker
Oscar Carruthers
Lake Loyal Village Government:
Village President Haselow
Village Administrator Cheyenne Perkins
County Officials:
Coroner Harlan Runk
Assistant District Attorney Stengel
Deputy Tracy Sharp Johnson
BURNED TOO HOT
Copyright © 2014 by Ann Voss Peterson
Cover and art copyright © 2013 by Carl Graves
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author.
2016
Burned Too Hot: A Thriller (Val Ryker series Book 2) Page 26