by LENA DIAZ,
But she’d decided not to go through with the trust’s lump sum payment.
Not without some stipulations, at least. Stipulations that she’d told Chris, but hadn’t yet told her granddaughter. Julie was going to find out the terms for herself very soon. And there were about a billion reasons for Julie not to go back to Destiny. Or to Chris.
She just didn’t know them yet.
When she saw him, her face lit up and she smiled, as she always did. He watched with a heavy heart as she approached his table. She gave him a quick kiss as he held out her chair for her, a kiss that nearly killed him.
He sat across from her while a waitress took her order. As soon as the waitress moved away from the table, he pulled the envelope out of his pocket and handed it to her.
“What’s this?” she asked.
He pushed his chair back and stood. “It’s a letter from your grandmother. I wanted to deliver it in person, make sure that you got it. My cab’s waiting out front. I’ve got to go now. The chief is anxious for me to start a new case.”
She frowned. “You’re leaving Nashville? Right this minute?”
“Right this minute.” Unable to stop himself, he leaned down and kissed her. “Goodbye, Julie.”
And then he walked out of the coffee shop, and out of Julie’s life forever.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Steaks sizzled on the double-decker grill on Chris’s back deck. Once again, Max presided over the cooking. And once again, another young intern from the Destiny Police Department helped him load potatoes and foil-wrapped corncobs onto another section of the grill.
“One week.” Dillon grabbed a beer from the cooler at Chris’s feet.
Since Dillon was watching Ashley show off her and Dillon’s new baby girl, Letha Mae, to half the police force crowding the deck, he wasn’t sure what his friend meant.
“One week until what?”
Dillon used his bottle to indicate the intern. “I give this new intern and Max one week. I said two weeks last time and lost the bet.”
Chris shrugged and snagged himself a beer. “Looks like we need more ice. I’ll get some from the freezer in the garage.”
Dillon stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “Why don’t you just get a ticket and fly to London and sweep Julie off her feet? We’re all tired of you moping around like a lovesick calf. It’s depressing.”
Chris shoved his hand off his shoulder. “A billion dollars, Dillon. Julie’s grandmother offered her a billion dollars if she’d agree to live in London with her. And the cherry on top is the old woman wants to pick Julie’s next husband. If Julie refuses, she loses all that money. Now you tell me. What woman would give up a billion dollars to marry some redneck cop in Nowhere, Tennessee?”
“This woman would.”
Chris froze, then slowly turned. Julie stood at the bottom of the deck stairs, staring up at him. She looked so...damn...good. He hadn’t seen her in well over a month, and he couldn’t quit drinking her in. God, how he loved her. But, wait, what had she said?
He took a step toward her, then stopped. “What are you doing here?”
She rolled her eyes and marched to the top of the deck. “If that’s a proposal, I’ve heard better. And considering my first husband, that’s saying something.” She crossed her arms and tapped her shoe.
He took another step toward her, then another, until he was standing right in front of her.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”
“Why not?” she asked. “Because you thought I loved money more than I loved you? Seriously? I would think you knew me better than that after everything we’ve been through. And you should also know that I thought it was wonderfully romantic that my mother and father gave up everything for a future together, and didn’t let my grandmother choose who they should love. So why would I, for even one minute, consider letting her choose who I should love?”
By the end of her speech, the deck had fallen silent and she was jabbing him in the chest with her pointer finger.
Chris winced and pulled her hand down. But instead of letting go, he entwined his fingers with hers.
“Can you say that again, please?”
She frowned. “My entire speech? I didn’t memorize the darn thing.”
“No, just the part where you said you loved me.”
Her frown faded, and a smile slowly grew in its place. Then she frowned again. “Wait, that came out all wrong. You’re supposed to tell me you love me first. Forget I said that. What I meant to say is that you’re too stubborn for your own good and you shouldn’t have walked away in that coffee shop. You should have known that, of course, I’d go visit my grandmother, because she is family, after all, and old, and deserved to know about what kind of person Naomi was and—”
“I love you.”
She sputtered to a stop in the middle of her sentence. “What did you say?”
“I love you.” He framed her face in his hands. “I’m stubborn, stupid and shouldn’t have doubted you. I’m sorry. And I love you. And I want to marry you.”
He dropped to one knee.
Her mouth fell open and she pressed her hands against her chest.
“No, wait.” He stood up. “Wait right here.”
He turned around and ran into the house.
* * *
JULIE BLINKED AND looked around the deck. What had just happened? Everyone was staring at her, looking just as shocked as she felt. She’d flown from half the world away to get here, fully expecting Chris to beg her forgiveness and ask her to marry him. A little groveling might have been nice, too. Instead, he’d dropped to his knee, then ran away.
Her cheeks flushed hot with embarrassment.
She was about to turn around and slink back to her car when Chris ran out of the house. He stumbled to a halt in front of her and once again dropped to one knee. His face was red and he seemed out of breath, as if he’d run up and down the stairs a few times.
“Julie,” he said, between deep breaths, “I need your left hand for this.”
She crossed her arms. “I’m not sure I trust you now.”
He gave her that irresistible half smile. “Yes, you do. You’ve always trusted me.”
“Well, almost always,” she said.
He pulled a black velvet box out from behind his back and opened the lid. A solitaire diamond ring sat in the middle of the plush velvet, sparkling in the sunlight.
She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands.
“It’s not very big,” he apologized. “But it’s the best I could do for now on a cop’s salary.”
She cleared her throat and lowered her hands. “When...when did you buy that?”
“The day I got out of the hospital. But I wanted all of the loose ends tied up so nothing would stand in our way when I proposed. Then your grandma sent that letter and I thought—”
“You thought wrong.”
“I know, I know. I’m trying to fix that now. Julie Elizabeth Webb—”
“Linwood. Julie Elizabeth Linwood. I changed it back to my maiden name.”
“Julie Elizabeth Linwood, I love you. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
In answer, she held out her left hand and smiled so hard her face hurt.
Chris slid the ring onto her finger and stood. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
He swooped down and kissed her.
The deck erupted in applause and laughter as everyone rushed forward to congratulate them.
It was impossible to kiss Chris the way she really wanted to with everyone slapping their backs and telling them how happy they were for them. She broke the kiss, laughing and beaming up at him.
He framed her face in his hands, staring at her in wonder. “
I can’t believe you gave up all that money to be with me.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” she teased.
“You didn’t?”
She shook her head. “It all came down to destiny.”
His answering smile filled her heart and soul with happiness. And then he kissed her again, the way a man kisses a woman when he loves her more than life itself, the way a man kisses a woman...when he’s found his destiny.
* * * * *
Look for more books in Lena Diaz’s miniseries
TENNESSEE SWAT throughout 2017.
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An explosive new case...
A suspect with a hidden agenda...
and a Special Agent whose past could cost her everything!
Turn the page for a sneak peek at the first episode of
TOUGH JUSTICE: COUNTDOWN (Part 1 of 8)
by New York Times bestselling author Carla Cassidy.
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Tough Justice: Countdown (Part 1 of 8)
by Carla Cassidy
Episode One
A year after FBI Agent Lara Grant put her past—in the form of a very personal manhunt—behind her, the Crisis Management Unit is called in to take lead on a shocking new assignment. A serial bomber is targeting some of the most powerful people in in the city, threatening to expose their deepest secrets.
And soon Lara will face a deadly foe—with an army of skeletons just waiting to fall out of her own closet…
Prologue
Dammit, he’d been so careful. And now this.
A trickle of sweat worked down the side of his face and he closed his eyes as fear tightened his lungs and squeezed his throat. He’d been in a simmering panic since he’d received the email.
He opened his eyes and reread the damned thing.
12:01a.m., from [email protected]:
I know what you did with all that money. I’ll keep your secret but it will cost the lives of innocent people. Or confess to the press and nobody gets hurt. The choice is yours. You have until noon tomorrow.
The lives of innocent people? What did that mean? His gut tightened as nausea overcame him.
Things like this weren’t supposed to happen to him. He’d done everything right in his life. He’d had high hopes. He had big ambitions. The New York Times was running a cover story on him next week that he hoped would launch him to a new level of success. Everything was in place and now this.
Somebody knew his secret.
He twisted his gold wedding band around and around his finger as he stared at the grandfather clock across the room. He had to make a decision fast. Time was running out.
Coming clean would destroy everything he’d worked for. Hell, it wouldn’t only destroy him, it would also destroy his wife.
How much could this anonymous person know? Did the emailer know about all the gifts, the secret hotel visits and the faux business expenses?
Just last weekend they had spent two days together at a luxury hotel upstate, ultimately paid for by taxpayer dollars.
Four minutes…he had four minutes left to make a decision. He should have contacted his brother when he’d received the email. But what could he have done to help? What could anyone do?
Three minutes. A rivulet of sweat rolled down the center of his back while his fingers poised over his computer keyboard. It was too late to call for a press conference. But it wasn’t too late for him to type something up on social media…confess to the affair and to the misuse of public funds.
If he didn’t do that innocent people would die. Jesus, what kind of a choice was this? What kind of a monster asked someone to make such a decision.
The back of his throat closed up again. He didn’t want to be responsible for anyone dying. He blew out several short breaths in an effort to calm himself.
Two minutes to go. Surely it was a hoax. It had to be some sort of an outrageous bluff. How could he take this seriously? More sweat dampened him as the acrid scent of his fear wafted in the air. His fingers trembled with indecision.
One minute…oh, God, what should he do? Was this real? Would something bad really happen?
Thirty seconds. His phone dinged with a text message. Quickly he grabbed it up and stared at the text.
Ticktock.
A sharp pain shot through his chest. This couldn’t be real. It couldn’t be…could it? The grandfather clock ticked off the seconds.
Five.
Four. His fingers hovered over his keyboard.
Three.
Two. Oh God. He hesitated. It was too late to type something now.
One.
As the clock began to chime, a ding indicated another text message.
With dread he looked at it.
Boom.
Don’t miss a single exciting installment of the new FBI thriller
TOUGH JUSTICE: COUNTDOWN
by New York Times bestselling author Carla Cassidy,
Tyler Anne Snell, Emmy Curtis and Janie Crouch
On sale February 2017 wherever Harlequin ebooks are sold.
Keep reading for an excerpt from WILD MONTANA by Danica Winters.
Copyright © 2017 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Wild Montana
by Danica Winters
Prologue
Seven. Most people thought the number was lucky. He’d even thought it had been lucky. This was supposed to be his seventh trip, the last run of the season, the last cleanup before he could head to Mexico and lie on the beach for the winter. Señoritas, sunshine, cervezas...everything he needed to be happy.
Yet now as he stared down the predator, he could have sworn seven was a curse.
The grizzly hopped on its front legs like a dog ready to play, but from what little he knew about bears, it wasn’t an action that meant fun and games...no, that was an action that meant danger.
He eased back a step as he held the bear’s gaze. Its beady black eyes bore into him, sizing him up.
Not for the first time in his life, he wished he were eight feet tall.
“Good bear,” he said, putting his hands up. “Good bear.” He turned to look over his shoulder, but the man he’d been sent there to meet was gone. “Damn him.”
&
nbsp; Without warning, the bear charged. The fur on its shoulders rippled, its gold tips harsh against the white snow. He screamed, the sound echoing through the high mountain valley.
The beast didn’t slow down.
He turned to run, but it was too late. The griz hit him like no force he had ever experienced. Its putrid, hot breath seared the back of his neck as he fell to the ground. Heat and pain spread through his body as the predator’s teeth met bone.
He closed his eyes, pain burning through him as the gunshot rang out.
The world, the pain, the fear—everything stopped.
Chapter One
Alexis Finch forced her body up the steep trail and toward the location the hikers had described. Ravens swooped through the air above her, calling out secrets to their comrades as they flew west. Even though she hiked nearly every day through the backcountry of Glacier National Park, each step was torturous. The altitude made her breath come faster, but she focused her attention on the thick pines that surrounded them, and she ignored the pain that shot up from her tired calves.
“Ranger Finch,” the Customs and Border Protection agent called from behind her.
She was thankful as she stopped and turned back, taking the moment to catch her breath and shift the straps of her backpack, as they had started to cut into her shoulders. “Hmm?”
Casper Lawrence stopped beside her, his cheeks pink and a sheen of sweat covering his tanned face. She found comfort in the fact that after more than three miles of this uphill battle, the handsome agent was hurting just as badly as she was. “According to the GPS, this should be the spot.” He motioned around them.
The hillside was covered with thick, frost-bitten grasses, timber and patches of snow that hid in the shadows. No evidence of a struggle. No blood. No fresh tracks.
“Look,” she said, pointing toward the ravens overhead. “No matter what the GPS says, we follow the birds. Listen to nature. It’ll give us all the information we need.” She cringed as she realized how much she sounded like a bumper sticker, but as she spoke the words she knew they were true, especially when it came to finding a body.