by Becca Van
County Sheriffs 1: Conquering Adversity
Clay Wilton and Spence Nelson know Misha Collette is the woman they have been waiting for as soon as the meet her. But they can’t begin to court her after meeting her under such horrific circumstances.
Misha is devastated when her best friend, Janice Judson, is found dead. She feels responsible. If she hadn’t asked her friend to come visit while on vacation, she would still be alive.
When the two sheriffs ask for Misha’s help in finding her killer, she isn’t about to refuse. She will do whatever it takes to make sure the psychopath who murdered her friend is put behind bars.
The more time she spends with Clay and Spence, the more attracted she becomes, and though she knows she doesn’t deserve to find happiness, she can’t stay away from the two sexy lawmen. Misha quickly falls under Clay’s and Spence’s spell until they have a firm hold of her heart. When she ends up in the hands of the serial killer, will she ever see the loves of her life again?
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Romantic Suspense, Western/Cowboys
Length: 60,648 words
COUNTY SHERIFFS 1:
CONQUERING ADVERSITY
Becca Van
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
COUNTY SHERIFFS 1: CONQUERING ADVERSITY
Copyright © 2016 by Becca Van
E-book ISBN: 978-1-68295-566-6
First E-book Publication: October 2016
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2016 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
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www.SirenPublishing.com
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Prologue
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
About the Author
COUNTY SHERIFFS 1:
CONQUERING ADVERSITY
BECCA VAN
Copyright © 2016
Prologue
Clay Wilton glanced toward his office door when he caught movement from the corner of his eye. When he saw his best friend and fellow sheriff’s face, he knew whatever Spence Nelson was going to say wasn’t going to be something he wanted to hear.
“A body’s been found about half a mile east of the Pahaska Tepee Resort near the North Fork Shoshone River.” Spence rubbed a hand over the back of his neck.
“Female?” Clay asked.
Spence gave a slight nod.
The knot of dread that Clay had been living with over the last few months grew bigger. He didn’t have to tell his deputies that they had a serial killer on their hands. Other than the three deceased women being in their mid-twenties, there were no other similarities as far as he and the other deputies had gleaned so far.
Clay rolled his neck, trying to ease the tension from his muscles but until they had the bastard who was killing innocent women behind bars, he was going to have to live with the stress and unease plaguing him. He just wished they had something to go on, but so far they had nada.
When he stepped out of his office and walked down the short hallway, he was pleased to see that all of his men were sitting at their desks, hard at work. Each and every one of his men had served with him in the Rangers. He trusted them with his life and they trusted him.
“Everyone gear up,” Clay ordered. “We’re heading toward Pahaska Tepee Resort.”
The guys didn’t question him as they all stood, pulled their holstered weapons from their gun belts, checked the clips, and holstered their weapons again.
Dawson Campbell was the first deputy out the front doors. Kent Evans was right behind him. Tanner Collins and Cooper Ellis jogged down the few steps and headed toward their ATV vehicle. Clay didn’t even look at the patrol cars sitting in the side parking lot. Most of the time, he and his deputies only used the sedans when they were patrolling around the town of Cody, but since Park County was rugged, most of the time he and his men drove the ATVs.
Spence climbed into the front passenger seat as Clay started the ignition and then he headed out. It would take almost an hour to reach their destination if they were unhindered by others on the road. He glanced into the back of the vehicle at the two back packs on the rear seat. He and his men were always prepared. They’d learnt to be while in the Rangers. They always carried emergency first aid supplies, a satellite cell phone as well as nutritional bars and bottles of water. No contingency would catch them out. Plus, they were all elite trained soldiers and could live off the land if they had to.
Clay pushed his introsp
ection aside and hoped that this time he and his deputies would find some evidence to lead them to their unsub, but he wasn’t about to hold his breath. So far there hadn’t been any DNA or hint to why their perp was killing young innocent women. There was no rhyme or reason for the killings as far as he could work out other than the bastard was a sick psycho.
Neither he nor Spence spoke while Clay drove to where the body had been found. Spence was so like him he knew his friend was preparing himself before they saw the gruesome crime scene.
Clay sighed with frustration. He’d had Dawson and Kent scouring the archives of cold cases to see if there were any similarities to any other unsolved murder cases. So far they hadn’t found anything, but gut instinct was telling him the unsub had killed before. It was up to him and his men to find the links and go through all the evidence they didn’t have, and put this fucker behind bars where he belonged.
Clay wasn’t going to rest until he achieved that goal. Failing wasn’t an option.
* * * *
Spence swallowed around the lump in his throat as he stared at the dead woman. She’d been stabbed multiple times and from the bruising and blood on her inner thighs, she’d also been sexually assaulted.
What sickened him to his stomach was how damn young she was. Although there was bruising to her face, he could tell she’d been pretty in that girl-next-door kind of way. She couldn’t have been any older than her early to mid-twenties with her life just starting, and now she would never get to realize whatever dreams she had. There was no wedding band on her left ring finger so she hadn’t been married. The poor innocent thing would never know the love of a good man or have the children she may have wanted.
“She was strangled to death,” Tanner murmured.
“Yeah.” Cooper sighed.
“The stab wounds are consistent with the other murder victims,” Kent pointed out.
“This fucker gets off on fear and pain,” Dawson stated the obvious.
“She must have felt untold agony.” Spence drew in a deep breath as the bile roiling in his stomach threatened to come up. It wasn’t seeing the blood and gore that had his belly unsettled, it was the anger and sadness that permeated his soul which had his stomach rebelling.
“You boys seen enough?” Tom Maher, the coroner, asked.
“More than,” Clay replied.
“This bastard is escalating,” Spence murmured.
“Yeah. He started off with one killing a month, but this is the second one in less than thirty days.” Clay sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.
The CSU had already taken hundreds of photos. Spence, Clay, and the other deputies had combed the area leading to the isolated place where the body had been discovered, but hadn’t found anything. Although the body had been off of the hiking trail, the deceased woman had been found when a middle aged man had followed a bird he’d been trying to photograph. If it hadn’t been for the birdwatcher, the woman may have never been found. Most people were smart enough to stay on the path so they didn’t get lost when they went hiking.
Spence had questioned the guy himself and knew as soon as he saw him that he wasn’t the perp. The man had been so shocked his face had been gray.
Spence hated that another woman was dead. He felt so useless. There hadn’t been any signature notes or marks left on the victims and none of the women that had been discovered were locals except for the first victim. No identification had been left on either and the only way the women had been able to be identified was from dental records. Again, except for their first deceased victim.
She’d been reported missing by her boss and a few days later her sister. He’d heard from Cooper how broken up the sister had been and though he hated that poor woman had lost her sibling, Spence was relieved he and Clay had been out at a traffic accident.
The sicko killing them had to have gathered up the women’s clothes and shoes, probably to burn them so they couldn’t be used as evidence. He also suspected that their perp shaved his body because there hadn’t been any sort of body hair found on any of the victims. This bastard was meticulous and the fucker cleaned the women’s bodies down after he’d killed them. Spence had a feeling there were going to be more women losing their lives before they caught the prick.
Clay and Spence had decided to keep the information of the killings from the press. If the paparazzi knew what was going on, they would end up with a media frenzy on their very own doorstep. That was something they were trying to avoid, but he had a feeling they wouldn’t be able to keep the killings quiet for much longer. Plus, they didn’t want to give the sick fuck the fifteen minutes of fame he no doubt wanted. Hopefully, keeping the psycho out of the press would be enough to flip this asshole’s calm demeanor and he would end up making a mistake, but he wasn’t sure that was going to happen soon enough. How many women were going to lose their lives before they found their murderer?
His chest ached as he imagined giving the information of the woman’s death to her loved ones. As an officer of the law, that was one aspect of his job he truly hated, because he could relate to their shock and grief. He and the other men he worked with had experienced loss of friends while on missions for the Rangers. It was something that a person never got used to.
Death was a hard pill to swallow. Some people reacted better than others but the devastation of loss left behind a void in the heart that could never be filled. He’d lost his cousin while he, Clay, and the others had been serving overseas. He and Luke had been more like brothers and the hard part about all of it was that Luke had been home after serving their country. His cousin had been on leave when he’d been taken out by a drunk driver.
That had been one of the reasons he’d decided to follow Clay into law when they’d finished their time in the Rangers. He wanted to make their streets safer for the citizens of America. He was born to protect, as was Clay and his other friends. It was frustrating that he couldn’t change what others did but at least he made a small amount of difference. Or he hoped he did.
Spence turned away as the coroner placed the body in the body bag and zipped it up. With a sigh, Spence headed toward the ATV. It was going to be a long day. He and the others were going to the resort to question the guests. He just hoped that someone had seen something that would give them a clue on where to start looking for their killer.
* * * *
Misha was getting very worried. Janice was supposed to have met her for breakfast but hadn’t turned up. She’d searched the resort and knocked on her friend’s door but hadn’t gotten a response. She was about to go to the reception desk and ask another staff member for a key to open the door to Janice’s room, but when she saw the lawmen walk in the front door, her heart stuttered before pounding in her chest. Her breathing escalated and sweat broke out on her skin and all of a sudden she felt cold to her very bones.
Her legs began to tremble with weakness as fear permeated her to her soul. She leaned against the wall and tried to calm her anxiety by taking deep even breaths before releasing them.
When she saw two of the lawmen stalk toward the receptionist desk, she closed her eyes and tried to tell herself she was being ridiculous. Janice had always liked going for walks and had probably gotten up before Misha and decided to fill in the time until breakfast by exploring. She’d probably lost track of time and didn’t realize they’d missed their appointed meeting.
She and Janice had gotten their college degrees a year ago and since they hadn’t seen each other in twelve months, Misha had invited her friend to the resort where she worked so they could catch up. Janice had jumped at the chance. They’d spent the last week chatting and having fun whenever Misha wasn’t working.
Janice had been at the top of her class and had been fortunate enough to land an accounting job in New York. Her friend had jumped at the opportunity to live in a big city after spending all of her life in the rural part of the States and though Misha had been devastated, she’d also been happy that her friend had gotten her dream job.
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Misha was and always would be a small town girl and though Twin Falls, Idaho had a population into the forty thousands, she’d never wanted to leave. However, after getting her degree in hospitality and not finding employment in her local area, she’d had to expand her search for employment. She’d applied for and gotten the job of assistant resort manager. She loved working at the resort, making sure the employees were doing what they were supposed to and making sure that all the orders went through in a timely manner so the place never ran out of supplies. She’d been working on a project for her boss regarding paid hiking tours and had just hired an experienced wilderness guide. He seemed nice enough and would be great for leading the hikes.
She hadn’t had that many friends since her parents had died but not because others hadn’t tried to get close to her. It had taken her a long time to get over the grief of losing her parents and she’d kept people at a distance because she’d been scared of losing someone else. However, Janice hadn’t let her aloofness bother her and in less than a week of sharing a dorm room, the other woman had smashed through Misha’s defenses.
She’d missed her friend after they’d gone their separate ways after getting their degrees, but they kept in touch by calling each other once a week and by email. Misha sighed as she pushed her inner thoughts aside.
She opened her eyes and glanced back over toward the reception desk to find the two sheriffs looking at her. When they began walking in her direction, a shiver of apprehension raced up her spine and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Misha even felt the blood drain from her face and a loud roaring sounded in her ears.