by Geri Krotow
They changed the topic to less lethal topics, to include what each planned to do when the case was closed, the killer caught.
“I need some time out in the desert, under the stars.” Holden had a dreamy expression on his face.
“You mean, away from Phoenix?”
“Yes. I enjoy being on my own, backpacking through state and national parks. There’s too much light pollution in Phoenix to enjoy the night sky.”
“I get that. I like to birdwatch, and the desert is a great place to do it. I’m lucky I can watch as much as I do from my back patio. But I hear you on the hiking—it’s great to exercise while soaking up nature.”
“Have you ever camped?”
“Out in the wilderness, like you? No.” She met his gaze and his intent was unmistakable. Holden meant, had she ever made love in the night, under the stars. Heat pooled between her legs as she imagined sharing a sleeping bag with him.
“I’d love to take you with me sometime.”
“Well, that might not be for a bit, considering we have a killer to catch, right?”
Holden didn’t answer but kept his smoldering gaze on her, promising pleasure without even touching her.
She welcomed the arrival of their food, wanting a distraction from the memories. It wasn’t enough that she and the other contestants, save for Becky, had made it out all right. She would not rest until the killer was caught.
“Spencer wants me to get an undercover agent to fill in for you.”
“No way.” She chewed her food, pointed her fork at Holden. “You know me well enough to figure out my body language. If I think I’m in trouble, I’m going to let you know. And this killer is smart, or they wouldn’t have gotten away with two previous murders and all the crimes around them.”
At his stunned look, she grinned. “I’ve been doing my own research, Holden.”
“Clearly.” He took a bite of his sea bass and she watched his Adam’s apple bob with each swallow, saw the stamp of masculinity in his strong jawline. Her lips tingled with the memory of kissing that very line of bone, using her tongue to make him groan with desire.
They’d been incredibly compatible in bed.
“Tell me again about your ex. Why you hate reporters and have never changed your mind about them.”
He set down his cutlery, sipped through the straw for a moment. When his gaze met hers, she noticed the fine lines at the edges of his eyes. Her fingers itched to smooth them. “You tell me, Bella. You’re the one who’s putting her life at stake to get the answers you want to avenge your best friend’s death. A death, I might add, that was the result of her choices over the years.”
“That’s cold. No one chooses to be sick with an eating disorder or any other mental illness.”
“You chose to write about it.” He took a long swig of his soda. “Tell me you’ll write anything other than what you’ve already decided will be the story.”
Indignation rushed over her, and she was grateful for the semi-fancy restaurant or she’d recook his fish right here, with a votive added in for pleasure. “I do not prewrite my stories. That’s the epitome of the worst kind of reporter. It’s not reporting—it’s creative writing.”
“You mean to tell me you’ve never embellished story details to get a better headline?” His derision scraped against the trust she had felt building toward him.
“No, I haven’t. Sure, the Mustang Valley Gabber isn’t the Wall Street Journal, but our, my work ethic and personal ethics have stayed the same.”
“Yet you want to ask me what I know about Selina Barnes Colton.” His lack of empathy was chilling. What had triggered him?
“Of course I do, if you know her or anything about what’s going on with Payne Colton. You can see why I would, don’t you? It could be foul play that landed him in a coma. How do we know it wasn’t Selina behind it?”
“We don’t. But I’ve found the press to be a bit rabid over a man who’s been good to his community his entire life.”
“Many wealthy people’s companies have given lots of money to charity.”
“Answer me this, Bella. If you found out that I knew the story behind Selina but couldn’t tell you about it, what would you do? Would you try to force it out of me?”
“I’d do my journalistic duty to get the information from you, yes. You can’t blame me for trying to do my job!”
“I can if it compromises an active investigation.”
His resolute expression struck a chord with her. What had she been thinking, going to bed with him last night? She didn’t know him. Maybe Spencer vouched for him, and Jarvis thought he was a good guy, but the side she was seeing now wasn’t the man she’d thought she’d known.
How can you really know someone after only a few days?
“I need to use the restroom. Excuse me.” Before he stood up and tried to tell her he needed to follow her, as part of his protection role, she darted into the hall behind the bar, where the rooms were located.
Bella couldn’t believe it but she had to get away from Holden before he saw what his words did to her. This wasn’t like her, to get emotional over something a man said to her. She’d had a rough start in life, and she was thirty-one, not some adolescent being chastised by her first-ever boss. Still, Holden’s words had stung, burrowed under her thick skin and found what she valued most.
Her passion for finding the truth and writing it into a succinct report.
After she splashed some cold water on her face and gave herself time to calm down, she headed toward the dining area. Laughter spilled from a room farther back in the café and she saw a big sign with gilded letters that welcomed a baby shower party.
Standing by the sign were Marlowe and Ainsley Colton, her distant cousins. She couldn’t stop from staring. Marlowe’s stomach was huge, and Bella vaguely remembered that she heard she was pregnant and engaged. But that had been months ago and Marlowe appeared near the end of her pregnancy, or maybe she was having multiples. Each of the women wore springy dresses and sandals—Ainsley’s were high spikes while Marlowe’s were lower and chunkier, offering her more support—and were laughing, their heads close together. A tight pang of exactly how alone she was when it came to the Coltons made her wish she knew them better. Why had her parents disengaged from the family? And why did Aunt Amelia keep up the same type of emotional walls that made Bella, Jarvis and Spencer the estranged cousins?
As if her presence drew their attention, they both looked over, spotted her and turned toward her at the same time. Panic gripped Bella but she found herself walking toward them, smiling.
“Bella! It’s so nice to see you.” Ainsley spoke first, and Bella couldn’t help but notice how all three of them were petite.
“Yes, it’s been so long.” Marlowe’s soft smile showed none of the malice she’d remembered as a kid, from when they’d be at a Colton reunion on Rattlesnake Ridge Ranch. No one had ever played with her or her brothers. Bella had used the time at the picnics to wander through the immense home, imagining she was a princess and it was her private castle. It had always been her, Spencer and Jarvis. Which had served them all well, and she loved her brothers with all her heart. But it would be nice to know more family.
“We were so sorry to hear about your friend Gio.” Marlowe never lacked for grace. As the current CEO of Colton Oil, she was a consummate diplomat. But her sincerity felt genuine.
“You knew?” She let out a nervous laugh. “Of course you did, it’s Mustang Valley, after all.”
“I wanted to go to the funeral, to support you, but I never really knew Gio and it seemed the wrong time to reconnect with you.” Ainsley’s eyes were moist. Was she that concerned about Bella’s loss?
“That’s nice of you to say that.” An unexpected and unusual shyness enveloped her. Maybe the events of the last few days were finally catching up with her. Deciding to run for Ms. Must
ang Valley, meeting Holden, getting attacked, surviving the explosion—how had her life become an action movie instead of the usual steady one she’d built to support her writing routine?
“I mean it.” Marlowe put a hand on her forearm. “We may not see one another very much but we’re all still family.”
“Agreed.” Ainsley nodded. “As a matter of fact, wouldn’t it be nice if we made this happen on purpose? Meeting each other, I mean.”
“It’d be lovely to have you up to the Triple R.” Marlowe pulled out her phone.
“That sounds good.” Bella figured they’d never really want to hang with her. She was from the wrong-side-of-the-track part of the Coltons, the sister of triplets whose parents had left the clan years before their untimely deaths. Still, she went through the motions of exchanging contact information before they said goodbye.
When she slid back into her seat, she discovered Holden’s plate was empty and her food cold.
“You okay?” His gaze was full of concern, and that muscle tic on the side of his jaw was jumping around. “I was about to come knock on the door.”
“I’m good. I ran into two distant cousins.”
“Oh? Did they have some dirt on Selina for you?”
And they were right back where the conversation ended, when she’d needed to leave the table.
“I have no idea. I didn’t ask.” She sipped her water. “I’m not against helping an ongoing investigation. In fact, I think that reporters and LEAs do their best work when it’s together. Take the robberies we had in Mustang Valley a few years back. I usually am assigned to write fluffier lifestyle pieces, about homes and lives of the more affluent residents. But I was able to convince my editor that exposés on the victims of the crimes, detailing how hard they’d worked to get where they were, would be popular to our readers. Everyone wants to know about their neighbors, especially if it’s perceived they’re living the ‘better’ life. While interviewing one particular family, it came to light that the husband had an estranged stepbrother who was actively addicted to opiates. Since two bottles of painkillers were part of the stolen goods, it allowed MVPD to connect the dots and figure out who the thieves were.”
“That’s unusual, Bella. You know better than I do how rare it is for law enforcement to work with the media.”
“You’re wrong, Holden. Maybe with bigger agencies like the FBI it’s not common, but at the local, small-town level, everyone works together to make things happen.”
“You may be right.” He motioned to her plate. “Are you going to finish that?”
She sighed. “I’ve lost my appetite, frankly.”
“You need to eat if you’re going to have another rehearsal later today.”
“I’ll get something at home.” But the thought of returning to her house filled her with anxiety. It was usually her refuge and now, even with police presence and Holden, it was more like a prison. “Don’t take this wrong, Holden, but I’m not keen on going back to the house.”
“I don’t blame you, but you’re safe there, Bella. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“It’s not that. It’s the reality of a serial killer, a monster, being so close to me, to where I live and breathe.”
“We don’t have to go straight back. When’s your next video practice session?”
“Eight tomorrow morning.” Selina had said she’d meet with them again after they had time to rest and study the routines she’d dealt out this morning.
“It’s not even sundown yet. We’ve got some time.”
“For what?”
“It’s a surprise.”
* * *
Holden liked how he’d gotten a smile out of Bella when he’d told her their destination was a surprise. She’d been far too serious when she’d returned to the table. Truth be told, he knew it was his staunch dislike of reporters that had put her in the foul mood.
Would it have killed you to go easier on her?
No, it wouldn’t have killed him but if he wasn’t on that sharp edge of awareness that a case like this necessitated, her life would be at risk.
He glanced at her as he drove onto the highway, heading west. She sat relaxed against the seat, her eyes closed. He hoped the AC and lull of the drive had put her in a decent nap. It was so hard to tell with Bella—her moods and bearing changed with the wind.
And dang it if he didn’t love every bit of the challenge of keeping up with her.
“Why are you staring at me? Keep your eyes on the road,” she murmured in a sleepy voice and he grinned.
“There isn’t much out here but roadrunners and prairie dogs.”
“We don’t want to kill any innocent bystanders.” She stretched and snuggled into the seat more deeply. “Don’t wake me ’til we get there.”
“Okay.” He promised himself he’d keep his gaze on the flat highway, the mountains and blue sky in his peripheral vision.
Holden had never skipped out of an op before. And he wasn’t now, not technically, as keeping Bella safe was his top priority. That, and luring in the killer.
At Bella’s risk.
Guilt sucker punched him for the second time in a day, but it had nothing to do with Spencer or their bond that would last a lifetime. His emotional discomfort had everything to do with the beautiful woman reclined in the passenger seat beside him, trusting him enough to keep her eyes closed and to nap on the way to an unknown destination.
Maybe he needed to learn how to trust, too. He could trust that Bella wasn’t using him for information for her exposé. She hadn’t sought him out, hadn’t even known an FBI agent was undercover at the pageant.
The sun set as he pulled into their destination. He’d driven here without thinking, knowing it was safe as he was certain they hadn’t been followed and he checked in with his Phoenix office and Spencer at MVPD regularly. His phone was connected to both to provide constant GPS location.
He’d reported that Bella needed a break from her house and it was a good security move to get her away from town for the night, until the pageant practice resumed at Mustang Valley High, as determined by Spencer. He’d received zero pushback on taking Bella away from either his boss or Spencer.
“Where are we?” Bella must have felt the road change and was sitting upright, peering through the windshield.
“My favorite getaway.” He waited for her to register the other cars and people milling about with binoculars and cameras, each equipped with a long lens.
“Wait—is this Carr Canyon?”
“Yes. I’m a member of SABO.” The Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory was a favorite amongst locals and tourists alike, and it had provided him with much-needed respite from his heavier cases. He had a feeling he was going to need to escape into his birding after this investigation wrapped up, too.
“I’ve done so many articles on them over the years. Have you ever been to one of the hummingbird bandings?”
“Only once, but I’d like to do more. With the long drive from Phoenix I can’t get here as often as I like, but it’s always great when I do.”
“So what are we going to see tonight?” She followed his lead and got out of the car and walked around to the back with him. He opened his trunk and handed her a ball cap, reflective vest and binoculars. He donned his birding vest over the black T-shirt, and retrieved his favorite camera.
“It’s a long shot that we’ll actually see anything, but we’ll hear the owls. I’m taking my camera but it might be fruitless.”
“I love owls. There’s a family of screech owls in a clump of dead saguaros behind my house. I feel like they’re my personal watchdogs at night—sometimes I hear them fussing when the neighborhood teens are playing flashlight tag.”
“Are you sure that’s all they’re doing?”
“No, but I’m not their mother.” They both laughed and headed toward the top of th
e trail, the walk steep as they were in the mountains.
Holden had tried to hang on to his belief that Bella had to be an opportunist because she was a reporter, just like Nicole, his ex. But as they headed into the canyon’s depths it occurred to him that unlike his ex, Bella was all about grasping all the joy life had to offer. And she wasn’t a martyr about being a serial killer’s target.
Bella was the woman he’d dreamed of finding. Why did it have to be now, during such a dangerous op?
Chapter 18
Bella surprised herself with how easy it was to forget their acrimonious dinner conversation and allow herself to enjoy the nighttime walk with Holden. The moon was full and she was able to make out his features with little trouble. It was always a bonus when she could see a handsome, sexy man as he spent time with her.
“We lucked out with the moon.” She looked at large white cactus blooms on the sides of the path. “The angel blooms are practically glowing.”
“Yeah, they are, aren’t they?” He moved his hand to her lower back, rubbed in soothing circles. It was a peaceful bubble, just the two of them. Until a family with several young children walked by.
“The full moon explains the crowds. I never realized how many folks would show up to hear owls and look at flowering cacti.” She turned away and began to walk farther down the path.
“Birding’s an early-morning and late-night sport during the summer here, as you know. We’re lucky it’s still cooler.” Holden hopped easily over a grouping of rocks and turned to hold her hand as she leaped from the four-foot precipice back to the ground. When her feet hit the sandy, graveled surface, he didn’t let go but instead intertwined their fingers and continued walking.
Bella knew she should pull her hand back, keep up staunch boundaries with Holden. He’d already proven to be the best lover she’d ever known and if she wasn’t careful the end of the pageant was going to mean more to her than losing a crown.
“Tell me why you really signed up for the pageant, Bella.”
“I already have. I want to find out the truth about what happened to Gio. And I believe this pageant board has skeletons in its closet.”