They want the same thing—

To bring a murderer to justice.

Major Daniel Duke doesn’t care that the Conard County sheriff’s office doesn’t want his help tracking down his brother’s killer. He refuses to be left out of the search. But Deputy Cat Jansen has her marching orders: keep the decorated army ranger from hindering their investigation. As the search heats up, Daniel and Cat discover they share more than a relentless pursuit of justice. But would they have to pay with their lives to find the truth?

New York Times Bestselling Author

RACHEL LEE was hooked on writing by the age of twelve and practiced her craft as she moved from place to place all over the United States. This New York Times best-selling author now resides in Florida and has the joy of writing full-time.

Also by Rachel Lee

Cornered in Conard County

Missing in Conard County

Murdered in Conard County

Guardian in Disguise

The Widow’s Protector Rancher’s

Deadly Risk

What She Saw

Rocky Mountain Lawman Killer’s

Prey

Deadly Hunter

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Conard County Justice

Rachel Lee

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-0-008-90520-0

CONARD COUNTY JUSTICE

© 2020 Susan Civil Brown

Published in Great Britain 2020

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

About the Publisher

Chapter One

Cat Jansen was sitting at the front desk in the Conard County Sheriff’s Office when trouble came through the door.

Rotation had brought her to this day of desk duty in the office. She wasn’t expecting to be too busy, which was one of the reasons she had decided to stay in this county after her mother’s death two years ago.

She had previously worked for a sheriff in Colorado but had left the job to come to Conard City to care for her ailing mother. Cancer was a brutal disease, and all Cat could say for the months she’d spent nursing her was that her mother hadn’t been alone. Then she’d taken a job as a deputy to the sheriff here. Today she busied herself with a day of paperwork and a few relatively minor complaints.

Until the big guy in an Army uniform walked through the door. She took a rapid inventory as best she could. Major’s oak leaves, a stack of colorful ribbons. He pulled off a tan beret as he entered.

His dark eyes reflected cold anger. More worrisome than rage, the coldness suggested a determination that wouldn’t quit. Oh heck, she thought. What had made this guy look like this?

“Are you the desk officer?” he asked in a deep voice, suggesting a rumble of thunder in the distance.

“Yes, I am.” An imposing man. And whatever had brought him so far out of his way was likely a serious problem.

“I’m Major Daniel Duke. My brother, Larry, was murdered a week ago.”

Well, that explained the steel in his dark eyes. “I’m so sorry,” she replied. “How can we help you?” But she had an idea. Definitely trouble. She could feel it brewing like a building storm.

“I want to know how the investigation is going.”

“It’s going.” She wasn’t permitted to give him confidential details of an ongoing investigation.

“Are you checking into the possibility of a hate crime? My brother was gay.”

A bald accusation phrased as a question. If she hadn’t felt so disturbed and chilled by the look in his eyes, she might have done more than sigh.

“Of course we are,” she answered. “I knew Larry. We’re not overlooking anything, believe me. But in all honesty, we’ve never had a crime of that type in this county.”

“Not yet,” he said flatly.

Which was a point she couldn’t argue. This county evidently always seemed peaceful until something blew up. It wasn’t as frequent as in heavily populated areas, but it still happened.

The major was framed against the front windows, the bright spring sunlight now casting him in silhouette. Not comfortable for her to look at.

She pointed to the metal chair beside her desk. “Sit, please. I’m having trouble seeing you.”

He came around immediately and sat. Now she had a clear view of his face. It had the chiseled appearance of someone in prime physical condition, and sun had put some slight lines at the corners of his eyes. He looked as unyielding as the concrete she suddenly imagined him walking through. She suspected he wasn’t going to hang around just to identify Larry’s body, which hadn’t yet come back from the medical examiner, and arrange a funeral. No, he had other things on his mind.

“I’m not going to leave this town until the murderer is caught.”

“We’ll find him,” she said with more confidence than she felt. So far they hadn’t uncovered any clues. At least none they could yet recognize. Maybe the ME would find something.

“You find him, or I will.”

Whoa. She felt her first stirrings of sympathy sliding away into apprehension. “Let us do our job. You do realize that anything you find probably won’t be usable in court, because you won’t have a warrant. You certainly don’t want to get in our way or get yourself in trouble with the law.”

He didn’t answer immediately. When at last he spoke, his voice was clear, flat, hard. “I don’t care what happens to me. This is about my brother. He deserves justice. The dead should get that. Justice. That’s one of the things Larry believed.”

She saw pain pass over his face, quickly erased, and she sensed that this wasn’t about his brother’s death. Not exactly. Something else was going on here.

She also wondered what could be done about this man. He’d only said he wanted to find the murderer. He hadn’t said he was going to do anything illegal in the process. What were they to do to prevent him? Jail him without a charge?

Never. So they were stuck with this cannon. Whether it was a loose one or not, she had no idea. She did suspect that a Ranger could probably cause more trouble than a typical man on the street.

“You need to talk to the sheriff,” she said, ticking possibilities over in her mind. “If you coordinate your efforts with ours, there may be a way for you to satisfy yourself.”

“Is he here?”

“He’s at a county board meeting.” To discuss funding for expanding the department by a couple more cops, hoping to get funding for a better dispatch situation. Sticking communications over in the corner with the coffee machines was becoming a problem. They needed better equipment, a place to put dispatch out of the line of fire and noise in the front office. She’d been kind of startled when she began working here to realize that the department had been so small for so long they were stacking most duties all in one room. Time to move into the twenty-first century.

But that didn’t answer her immediate problem. She tried to lighten things a bit. “He said he’d be gone an hour nearly an hour ago. Given it’s the supervisors and it’s about money, it may become a longer wrangle.”

His nod was short, sharp. The cold steel in his gaze hadn’t lessened a bit. Okay, then…

“I’ll wait.”

She figured determination was bone-deep in this man. He had come here on a mission, one he considered righteous. Short of being given official orders, he wasn’t going to be derailed. She hoped the sheriff would be able to find a way to steer him. From her position, there was little she could do or say without her boss’s approval anyway.

“Larry,” she said finally.

Those eyes became even sharper. “What about him?”

“I knew him. Only for the couple of months he was here, but we met in Mahoney’s bar one night. He was enjoying a scotch, and I went in there to eat a ham sandwich, maybe have a beer. I sat at the bar near him, and we fell into conversation.”

He waited.

“I liked him immediately. Nice man, but I probably wouldn’t want to be the target of one of his investigative pieces.”

The faintest of frowns flickered over the major’s face. “No one would.”

“Anyway, we hit it off. He told me he was a journalist and that he was here on sabbatical to write a book. He even laughed, saying every reporter had a book in their bottom desk drawer. He never said what he was writing about. Did he tell you why he came to the back of beyond?”

“No.” His expression shut down again.

“I saw him a lot while he was here. He liked Mahoney’s—said it was his nod to Hemingway, whatever that meant. Do you know?”

He shook his head. “Probably a literary reference. A few years ago, he joked to me that you couldn’t drink your way into a novel.”

She felt a smile ease the tension in her face. “Well, he wasn’t trying to drink his way into anything. He appeared to like the atmosphere, even played darts with some of the regulars. Never a heavy drinker. We talked whenever we ran into each other, sometimes meeting at the diner for lunch. I’ve known a few reporters, and they’re never wallflowers. He’d started making friends around here.”

“That’s Larry, all right.”

She suspected this man didn’t find it easy to make friends. But maybe she was wrong. Too soon to know, except that while she wouldn’t like being the subject of Larry’s investigation, she would hate being the subject of this man’s ire.

“He started having card games at his place once a week,” she went on. “He invited me, but I’m not into cards, so I didn’t go. Maybe six or seven guys attended. Never any problem from our perspective. Which I suppose means they were reasonably quiet and didn’t get disorderly. Not much of an analysis on my part.” She tried another smile. “We’re looking into those friends.”

“Good.”

“You never know what kind of resentments might come out of a card game. Especially if they were gambling, but since Larry invited me, I doubt it.”

“He was never a gambler that I know of. At least not that way. He gambled a whole lot in other ways.”

Cat wondered if she’d just told him too much about the friends. About the card games. Dang, this man’s mere presence was making her talk too much, maybe reveal too much. Everything about him demanded answers.

She had just decided to pick up some paperwork in order to truncate this conversation by comparing written reports to digital. Gage hated the duplicate work, both on computer and paper, but like it or not, the duplication was useful. Papers couldn’t be manipulated as easily as a computer file, but a computer file was more readily accessible.

Just as she was probably about to mortally offend the major, the sheriff walked through the door.

“How’d it go, Sheriff?”

“High school wrestling match. Partial success.” Gage Dalton was a tall man with a face scarred by burns. Long ago, when he was a DEA agent, he’d been the target of a car bomb. He still limped from his injuries, and even now some of his movements exhibited pain.

She spoke again before he could pass. Major Duke was already rising from his chair. Gage wasn’t going to escape this, either.

“Sheriff, this is Major Daniel Duke, Larry Duke’s brother. You need to speak with him.”

Gage raised a brow on the unscarred side of his face. “Come with me, Major. My office is open.”

The two men disappeared down the corridor, and Cat expelled a long breath, only just then realizing she’d been holding it. Tense. Lots of tension surrounded the major.

The dispatch desk crackled to life with a call. “Burglary at 1095 Elm Street. Need backup and forensics.”

Cat wished she were able to answer the call. She had a strong feeling she wouldn’t escape the major.

A HALF HOUR LATER, as she finished up comparing reports, Gage called from the hallway.

“Cat, could you come in here, please?”

Oh God, she thought. She glanced at the dispatcher, an elderly crone who smoked like a chimney under the No Smoking sign. She had learned quickly that Velma was a fixture who must be respected. A couple of deputies had told her that the only way Velma was going to leave her job was toes first. Cat had learned that Velma mothered them all.

“Good luck,” Velma said in her smoke-roughened voice.

Apparently, Velma had gotten the same kind of impression from their visitor.

Cat squared her shoulders and marched back to Gage’s office. Maybe, just maybe, he’d found a way to contain this man. It wouldn’t help anything to have the major interfering with the investigation. He could jeopardize the case.

“Hey, Cat,” Gage said when she reached his office. “Come on in, close the door and grab a seat.”

Close the door? Gage almost never did that. She followed his request, sitting only a foot away from Daniel Duke. Who, she had to admit, was attractive. He would have been more so if she hadn’t seen the subzero chill in his gaze.

She turned her attention to Gage, hoping he had a solution.

“It seems,” he said, “that Major Duke is determined to assist our investigation.”

Oh boy. Gage describing it as assistance probably didn’t bode well.

“I can understand the major’s concerns,” Gage continued. “If he wants to talk to people around the county, I can’t prevent him. There’s nothing illicit in that. But I’ve also made it clear that he’s going to have to stay within the law so he doesn’t destroy any case against a murderer. I’ve also made it clear that we will enforce the law, so he’d better not interfere in any way with our investigation. He won’t be helping if we have to arrest him.”

Cat nodded, glad Gage had made those points. Unfortunately, she sensed there was a big but on the way. Worse, her presence in this room probably pointed to involving her in some capacity.

She couldn’t zip her lips any longer. “Is Major Duke suggesting we can’t do our job?”

She knew that wasn’t it. This was a man who needed to take up his lance for the sake of his brother. He needed to be involved. Still, she wanted to make her disapproval clear.

“I don’t think that’s it,” Gage answered. “He’s just not constitutionally capable of sitting on the sidelines, are you, Major?”

“No.” A single syllable saying more than a page full of words.

“Anyway,” Gage went on, “I can’t prevent him from walking around asking questions or looking for some obvious clue that we need brought to our attention. Within the law, of course. So, we need to coordinate. You have a background in homicide investigations, Cat. You’ll be our liaison, keeping me informed at all times. And, Major, if Deputy Jansen says we need a warrant for something, listen to her. We can get a warrant fast enough from Judge Carter if there’s probable cause.”

Oh man, Cat thought, feeling everything inside her become as taut as a guitar string. A brick wall and a concrete one had just met, and she couldn’t tell which one of them had won. At least it appeared that Gage had gotten a few concessions.

But playing liaison on this? While she’d be glad of the change of pace, being more deeply involved with a murder investigation, she didn’t want to do it this way. What was more, she’d known Larry, and that had been the primary reason she wasn’t on the case. Why had Gage chosen her? Just because she had some experience?

She looked at Major Duke, fearing that trying to keep him in line would be like bull riding. Then she accepted the inevitable. This was her assignment, and even though it might put her on the wrong side of the investigation, in terms of her involvement, it was still important, and Gage thought it necessary. She had one burning question, however.

“How much information from our investigation should I share?”

“Whatever you deem necessary.”

On her shoulders, then. Lovely.

GAGE HAD VELMA call another officer in to take over desk duty. “Seems like you two may need a bit of discussion. Get yourselves over to the diner for coffee, maybe lunch.”

Cat smothered a sigh, figuring she was going to have to reinforce Gage’s limits over coffee, and probably endure a brain picking by Major Duke.

They crossed the street together and walked halfway down the block to the City Diner, known to everyone as Maude’s diner because of its cantankerous owner. Cantankerous or not, Maude was another of those people around here who was both a fixture and well loved. This kind of thing was also a part of the charm of living here.

For the first time, she faced the seated major across a table. She had a clear view in the light from the diner’s front windows. Mavis, Maude’s daughter, appeared in lieu of Maude but slammed down the coffee cups with similar disdain. She’d learned well.

They took their menus, and Cat remarked, “Everything is good, but everyone raves about the steak sandwich.”

Cat ordered the chef salad. A light lunch seemed best when she didn’t know how the conversation would go. Her stomach was already trying to knot. As she expected, Duke ordered the steak sandwich.

While they waited, he looked unflinchingly at her across the table. “You’d much rather volunteer to hike up and down Mount McKinley than be sitting here.”

Actually, she would. She loved the mountains. “That obvious, huh?” Might as well be blunt, although she was bothered by being so readable. She’d tried for years to suppress that tendency in herself.

“I can’t say I blame you.”

Well, well. The admission surprised her. “Then you get it?”

“Yes.” Their lunches arrived, and he sat back to allow the plates to be banged down in front of them. Coffee, dark and aromatic, filled their cups. She reached for one of the small creamers and dumped it in hers. Ordinarily she preferred her coffee black, but the way her stomach was feeling…

He glanced at his sandwich, then lifted half of it as though reluctant. He raised it partway to his mouth and looked at her over it. “I didn’t ever not get it,” he said before biting off a mouthful.

She paused with a container of blue cheese dressing hovering over her salad. “Then what was this all about?”

“Informing your office. Making a few things clear. Setting the boundaries I need to stay inside. Regardless, if you don’t get the murderer, I will.”

She believed him. She also feared what he might do if driven by rage. This man was trained to kill. “Then why do you want to know the boundaries? Isn’t this a pointless exercise if you just want to shoot someone?”

“I might like to prevent this bastard from ever breathing again, but I’d prefer to see him locked up for life.” He looked down a moment. “In my opinion, life in prison is a far worse sentence than a quick death.”

She nodded, stabbing her fork into a swirl of chef’s roll and salad. “I’d agree with that.”

“But I’m not leaving here without finding him. I have three weeks.”

“Now we’ve got a time limit?” She arched a brow.

“It’s good to know the boundaries,” he said, echoing himself and Gage’s earlier remarks. “For both you and me.”

She supposed it was. And now her favorite salad and dressing had become flavorless. It was then she faced needing to get a handle on herself. Most of what was going on was in her imagination. Maybe he hadn’t pressed as many buttons as she’d thought. Maybe he wasn’t here to rip up half the county in his search for his brother’s killer. Maybe he didn’t want to barge through this place like a furious bull.

It was time to find the common ground where they could work together. Because that was basically what Gage had handed her. A job that required finding that ground. With the major. She wondered how much of an eye she’d need to keep on him and if it was going to be full-time. She supposed she’d find out, but it would be a heck of a lot easier if she didn’t start out in complete opposition.

He amazed her by saying, “I guess I didn’t create a very good first impression with you.”

“No. You didn’t. You had death in your eyes.”

“Hardly surprising,” he retorted. He was already finishing the first half of his sandwich.

Cat had hardly made a dent in her lunch. She forced herself to take another bite before speaking. “Look, we’ve got to work together now. We need to find some mutual understanding.”

“I thought the sheriff had made that clear.”

“He set the rules. Repeatedly, if I know Gage. But this is about more than rules. You’re going to have to work with me on this. I can’t have you doing things and telling me about them later.”

“Understood.”

Oh really? she wondered.

“Let me make something clear, Deputy. I’m a military officer. I follow rules all the time, some of them quite restrictive. My own judgment generally comes into play only in combat and tactical operations where the situation is constantly shifting. I have to stay within the Uniform Code of Military Justice. On the other hand, when my superior tells me something like Go take that hill, I have to figure out how. There’s a lot in the balance, not the least the safety of my soldiers.”

“Okay,” she answered, willing to listen.

“There’s not really a conflict here.”

Time would tell, she thought. At least now she could taste her salad. “How do you want to set this up?”

Which was giving him a lot of leeway. Still, she wanted to know how he envisioned what they were going to do together, then decide how much of it was possible. She could still try to be the rein on him. Try probably being the operative word.

He glanced away, ruminating as he finished his sandwich. “I want to get to know people who knew Larry. Try to figure out if they know anything or sensed anything. Sometimes people find it easier to talk to a grieving relative than a cop. Or am I wrong?” His gaze snapped back to her.

“I’ve been a cop since I started dealing with cases like this. I can’t say for certain. One thing I do know is that friends and family try to avoid saying anything disparaging about the deceased.” She almost winced as the word came out, knowing that it sounded cold. He was probably far from wanting to call his brother deceased.

“Never speak ill of the dead,” he remarked. “Thing is, Larry wasn’t perfect. Nobody is. Do I think it was impossible for him to have an enemy? Absolutely not. His job often made people furious at him. He could just as well have affected others around him the same way. I know he wasn’t here long, but it doesn’t always take long to make someone hate you. An ill-considered comment can be enough.”

“Larry used words like a master.”

“Exactly. And he could slice like a knife in very few words when he saw or heard something he didn’t like. Anyway, people might find it easier to talk with me because I know Larry wasn’t perfect. I hope.”

That was a good point. Maybe. She ate another forkful of salad, getting a mouthful of delightful blue cheese, along with meat rolls. The knot in her stomach was easing, and her taste buds were evidently waking up.

He just wanted to speak to people who’d known his brother? Sounded innocuous enough. But there were other possibilities looming in the shadows. She stared down at her salad, suspecting that she’d let her tension leave too soon.

DANIEL DUKE STUDIED the woman with whom he’d been partnered. She clearly didn’t like it any more than he did. He was a man used to going on missions and making his own decisions within the confines of what was legal. Things were different in a war, of course, but he knew where the bright lines were, and he kept himself within them.

He didn’t like the idea of someone peering over his shoulder and trying to control him. She had been chosen to be his watchdog. He was already chafing at the idea. He could move more freely on his own.

The Ranger in him, he supposed. There had been a few times when he’d air-dropped into enemy territory with nothing to rely on but himself. He had always accomplished his mission.

He’d also seen enough of the expressions crossing Cat Jansen’s face to guess that she didn’t like this, either.

He’d managed to set her back up. In the long run, that wouldn’t matter. He’d come here for two purposes only: to bury his brother and to find a killer. If the sheriff’s people succeeded, he’d be content, although it wouldn’t be as satisfying. But this wasn’t about satisfying himself.

He glanced toward Cat as he finished his sandwich. It seemed she was eating without a whole lot of pleasure. Uncomfortable situation.

But he noticed again the arresting combination of black hair and brilliant blue eyes, a combination that would make anyone look twice. It had been the first thing he had noticed about her when he walked through the door of the office. And while uniforms seldom enhanced a woman’s attractions, he still felt hers from across the table. When she moved, he could tell that she was fit, maybe even athletic.

But he wasn’t here to notice a woman’s beauty or anything else. They needed to forge a working relationship somehow, although he’d have been satisfied to tell her to continue her other duties and he’d keep her informed.

She didn’t strike him as the type who was going to give him a leash that long.

Oh hell, he thought and reached for a potato wedge. He’d begun all wrong, but he didn’t know how he could have begun better. He was furious beyond words over his brother’s murder. He wanted the killer to face trial at the very least, and when he returned to his battalion, he wanted to know the guy was in jail. Caught. Going up the river as fast as possible.

Only when justice lay within reach would he be able to properly grieve for Larry. Because justice had indeed been important to Larry, something he’d been willing to risk his neck over. Then there was Duke’s own guilt. He’d never be able to overcome that now, but he could deal with finding justice. Finding peace for Larry.

He spoke at last, trying to discover a way to meet this woman somewhere in the middle. Neither of them was happy to be here.

“Larry always used to say that the dead can’t rest without justice.”

Her head lifted from her salad, and he felt again the impact of her eyes. “You said he believed in it.”

“The thing is, my brother was a realist, hardheaded and fact oriented. Then he’d say something like that. It was one of the things that drove his reporting.”

“While I only knew him a short time, I didn’t see anything remotely fanciful in him.” She paused. “So you think Larry won’t rest?”

“I don’t know what comes after we die. It’s all a mystery, and I tend to rely on facts, too. But since I don’t know, I want Larry to get his justice. And frankly, I want justice, too.”

She nodded. “I understand.”

She sounded as if she did. Well, maybe that was a step in the right direction. He certainly needed to find one, since he’d started wrong, at least as far as Cat was concerned.

Parsing through the problem, trying to come up with a strategy, he slowly ate potato wedges and gave Cat space to enjoy her salad while he looked out the window. Spring sunshine drenched the street, and all the buildings appeared to have arisen early in the last century. He suspected renovations in this town tried to preserve the past, not erase it.

Maybe she needed to understand that he hadn’t had to come to the police. He’d done so because he didn’t want to get in a war with the cops here. That could mess everything up. And while he’d tried to make that clear, he wasn’t sure he had.

There was Cat’s reaction. He had to figure out how to persuade her before this became a bigger problem.

NEARLY TWENTY MILES AWAY, in a fold in the earth that cradled them in secrecy, three men sat around a small fire. The stream that trickled beside them, clearly runoff from the remaining snow high above in the mountains, made a pleasant sound as the afternoon began to wane.

It was far nicer than many of the places where they’d made a surreptitious camp. They all dressed casually, like campers or hikers, in jeans and long-sleeved shirts of varying plaids. Hiking boots finished off the unimpressive ensembles.

“You getting anywhere?” asked Man One.

“I hate these new phones,” Man Two remarked. He held a smartphone in his hand. “The only contacts I can find are in recent text messages. The rest must be in the cloud somewhere, and we can’t even get cell coverage here.”

“What’s a cloud?” Man Three asked. “And how can you be sure those aren’t his only contacts?”

“Oh hell,” said the first man. “He was a reporter. He probably had hundreds of contacts.”

“No help to us,” said the third man. “Hundreds of contacts? How do we weed through that?”

“We look at only the ones around here,” said Man Two. “But I need his cloud access, and he’s got it protected. When he said he’d put a copy in a place we’d never find, he might have meant that. And breaking into the house of one of his poker buddies last night turned up zilch.”

“Clouds aren’t that safe,” the first man said. “Remember when that motion picture company got hacked? He probably wanted a copy he could reach that would be safe. Maybe an external hard drive or flash drive.”

“Or,” said the second man, “he might have kept notebooks and files. You know, old-fashioned paper. I dated a reporter a few years ago. She always kept her notes on paper. In those reporter notebooks, for one, and she had drawers full of files.”

The first man looked at him. “Any reason?”

“She said it was the best way to protect her sources. She said that too many people could get into her computer.”

If a breeze hadn’t been wending its way down the narrow gully, ruffling grasses and the just-grown leaves of spring, they might have heard a pin drop.

“Why didn’t you mention this before?” the third man demanded. “We didn’t know to look for that kind of stuff last night.”

The second man shrugged. “Who thinks of paper files these days? I sure as hell don’t. That just popped up from memory.”

Their search had just gotten bigger.

“We can’t break into that house again,” said the second man.

“Nope,” agreed the first man. “We may have screwed that up. But I’m still not sure about his poker buddies and other friends here. Did he know any of them well enough to turn over serious information to them? We don’t know.”

“There’s no way to find out,” said the second man. “Maybe the most important thing we can do is find out where he stashed the information.”

“There’s another team working on his contacts back in Baltimore,” the first man reminded him. “Maybe they’ll find out.”

“I hope so,” said Man Three. “Because I sure as hell don’t want to go back without finding something.”

The three exchanged looks.

“Why,” asked the second man, “do I feel like we’re Curly, Larry and Moe?”

“Because,” said the first man, “we weren’t given decent intel. We have to do that as well as find the stuff.”

They all fell silent again. Each of them was thinking of events in Afghanistan.

Then Man Three stirred. “Hey, One? Did you know Larry Duke?”

“Why?”

“Because when you were…interrogating him, I got the feeling you did.”

“Never met him,” came the clipped response from the first man.

The other two exchanged glances. Neither was quite sure they believed it. They knew they’d come for the money. What if Man One had a different agenda?

Chapter Two

Daniel Duke made his way to the town’s only motel, the La-Z-Rest. It didn’t take him long to recognize the place had probably been here since long before he was born, but it was clean. Compared to a lot of places he’d slept, he wouldn’t have complained regardless.

He doffed his uniform, putting it into a garment bag and hanging it in the closet. The shirt went into a laundry bag the motel provided. He’d chosen to wear the uniform for his arrival because it acted like a credential all on its own. Now he shed it so he wouldn’t stand out.

Then he pulled on regular clothes, jeans and a chambray shirt, pretty much what he wore at home. Blending in with the locals was something he’d needed to do at times during his career, and sometimes that blending had required clothes he wasn’t used to wearing. This was easy by comparison.

He felt he’d gotten a reasonable first concession from the sheriff. He hadn’t expected to take part in the official case, but he hadn’t wanted to be totally hampered, either. He might have a minder in Cat, and yet as annoyed as she was with the situation—he couldn’t blame her for that—she’d shown signs of coming down off her high horse.

Looking back over their initial meeting, in retrospect he saw that he had probably come across as critical of her department. He was a naturally blunt man because he needed things to be clear when managing his own troops. On the other hand, he knew how to play political games when required. Until recently he’d been on an accelerated path up the command ladder, probably destined for a star on his shoulder one day.

Not anymore.

The simmering anger over that tried to surge, but he battled it down. There was one thing and one thing only he wanted to focus on right now—finding Larry’s killer.

All right, he’d been impolitic. He needed to find a way to correct that so he and Cat Jansen could jolt along. He’d walked in and talked to her like one of his troops, making it perfectly clear what he expected, both of her office and of himself.

He’d looked down instead of up. The sheriff was like his superior officer in these circumstances. That meant Cat was, too.

Ah, hell. Talk about getting off on the wrong foot.

Her face swam before his eyes, and he felt the whisper of attraction once again. She was pretty, all right, with delicate features and those amazing blue eyes.

He brushed that feeling aside, too. Wrong time. Worse, he suspected Cat would be furious if she suspected she’d aroused his interest for that reason.

Judging by the few things Gage had indicated about her during their conversation, Cat must be very competent as a law officer, and that was how she’d want to be evaluated. The only way. She hadn’t worked hard to get here only to be treated like she was a woman first.

He’d seen enough of that problem since women had started completing the arduous Ranger training. They were surrounded by a sea of men, all too many of whom believed the Rangers were a man-only territory. Considering what those women could have done to any guy who got out of line, that had always struck Duke as a stupid attitude to have.

Those women were Rangers first. Cat was a law officer first.

That settled, he paced the motel room. He was a man used to being physically active, to training every day for the next assignment. He’d spent too much time bottled inside a plane and then a car. He needed to work out some kinks.

He did some push-ups, some crunches, some squats. They weren’t enough. What he needed was a ten-mile run. Some of it uphill.

He’d brought workout clothes with him, but they’d been used primarily on station. Not the kind of thing to wear around here if he wanted a low profile.

Damn. He’d seen what looked like a department store on the other side of town on the main drag. He decided to walk there to stretch his legs and get some new clothes. It would give him some time to get the lay of the land.

He always wanted to know where he was, if there were any obstructions to escape, what the shortest routes were between points. Recon. Basic, simple recon. It would be a good use of his time, if not all his energy.

He’d feel more comfortable, too. This might not be a very dangerous place, but that wouldn’t change the habits of most of his adult life.

WHEN CAT RETURNED to the office, hoping Gage might put her on the burglary case, the sheriff called her back to his office.

“Door?” she asked, resigned to an inquisition.

“Please.”

For the second time that day, she closed it, then sat across the desk from him. “And the winner is…”

Gage flashed one of his crooked smiles. “How’d it go?”

“I suppose you mean with Major Duke.”

He shook his head a bit. “So, are you being difficult?”

“I suppose I am. I don’t know if you saw it, but the man who came through that door earlier had death in his eye. Cold. Furious. And more than capable of carrying out any threat.”

Gage sighed, leaning forward to rest his forearms on his desk. His chair squeaked, and she guessed from his faint grimace that some part of him was objecting to the simple movement.

“He’s a Ranger,” Gage said. “And from what I know of them, which admittedly isn’t a whole lot, he’s been to war more than once, he’s gone undercover in enemy territory and he might even have gone on a few solo missions. You don’t get to be a major at his age unless you’re being fast-tracked, and you need that kind of experience to rise in the officers’ ranks if you’re in special ops.”

“All of which is to say you saw the look, too.”

“It didn’t surprise me. Add to that the fact he’d probably love to get his hands around the throat of the guy who killed his brother, and you’ve got a man who’s exercising some serious restraint. Yeah, he’s a pressure cooker right now.”

“How comforting,” she said dryly.

“Anyway, I don’t expect you to be able to stop him if he gets set on something. I just want to know what he’s doing. It may sound like babysitting, but it’s not. You know the stakes.”

Cat did indeed. She’d tried to make them clear to Duke herself, and she’d heard enough of what Gage had said to know he had as well.

“I guess he set my back up,” she admitted.

“Can’t imagine why.” A bit of sarcasm crept into his voice. “Just keep in mind that he’s a military officer. He’s used to commanding and to taking charge. Neither of which we can have him safely doing, but as long as he knows you’re watching, he’ll control himself.”

“He said he’s used to staying within the lines.”

“Another thing he’s had to do to achieve his rank. Do I think he will? Most likely, unless fury overtakes him. No guarantees about that. Cat, I can’t emphasize enough that he’s been to war. Basically left civilization behind. Some of that always stays with you.”

“I know.” Springing to memory were a number of vets she’d had to deal with when they lost themselves in depression, alcohol and drugs, or when memory or ungovernable rage had taken over. War inflicted indelible scars. “Okay, I’ll keep all that in mind. But I guess it tells me why the military have their own special bases.”

Gage cracked a laugh. “Caged up, you mean?”

Cat finally relaxed enough to laugh, too. “That was unkind. Okay, I’ll do the best I can, but I make no promises. I was thinking earlier that this is going to be like riding a bull.”

“You ever done that?” Gage asked as she stood up.

“Hell, no. Do I look crazy?”

His laugh followed her as she walked down the hall.

Guy Redwing had assumed her position at the front desk. He looked bored. “Need a little excitement?” she asked him.

“Depends on what kind.” He grinned. “I’m starting to think about a beer at Mahoney’s after work. Come with?”

She’d have liked to go with him, but before the words slipped out, she remembered she had a task with no punch-out time. And just then she saw Major Duke striding purposefully down the street. Hadn’t he gone to the motel?

Wondering what he was up to, she said, “Sorry, Guy. Much as I’d like to, I just saw my current assignment walking down the street. Later.”

She darted out the door and saw Major Duke looking across the street at Freitag’s Mercantile. She quickened her pace, wanting to catch up. He must have heard her footfalls, because he turned swiftly. The speed of a striking cobra. Okay, this man was wired.

When he saw her, he relaxed and waited, so she adopted a more reasonable pace. She didn’t want any passersby to think she was chasing the man. Even if she was.

She nodded and smiled at the greetings from other residents who appeared to be on errands. One woman in particular was trying to wrangle twin boys, who were just of an age to slip her grip and make her look harried.

“Hi, Joan,” she said as she passed.

“Hi, Cat. Boys!” She dashed off after them.

Cat was grinning by the time she reached Duke. “That’s a handful.”

“Those boys? Plenty of energy.”

Then she faced him. “Looking for something?”

“Workout clothes that aren’t stamped with Army logos all over. This is the place, right?”

She nodded. “Old-timey, with creaky wooden floors that have probably been there for at least a century. However, now that we have an influx of students at the community college, you’ll find all the latest and greatest in some items. You want superhero shorts? I think they have some.”

He surprised her with a short chuckle. “I don’t think I’m ready to go that far. So are you my armed escort now?”

To her horror, she felt her cheeks heat. How had he done that? It had been a long time since she’d blushed. “I’m kinda over-the-top, huh?”

“No, you’re in uniform, is all. Are you planning to join me in the store? Or later after I change and go for a run around town? You might find it hard in that utility belt.”

Her cheeks grew even warmer. “Point taken.”

He shook his head slightly. “How were you supposed to know what I was doing? This is going to be impossible for both of us if you have to be the principal and me the student reporting my every activity. Tell you what. I’ll let you know if I’m doing anything that approaches the case. Then you can relax and I can go running.”

Her cheeks didn’t cool any, but she was just trying to do this job. An unfamiliar job. New rules and groundwork were needed. On the other hand, he was lengthening his leash and asking her to trust him. Having known his brother, she was inclined to, but the simple fact was that Major Duke was a stranger to her. Plus, she’d seen the icy fury in his eyes. He wasn’t going to make this easy for either of them.

“I understand your point, Major.”

“Duke. Just call me Duke.”

“Okay, Duke. You can call me Cat. But you were walking down the street a few hours after having expressed your intention to interview people who knew Larry while he was here.” As she mentally reviewed what he’d said when she’d first reached him, she started to get seriously irritated. How dare he talk to her that way? He’d scolded her as if she were a thoughtless kid.

He nodded slowly, glanced across the street and said, “Give me your cell number. I promise to tell you before I talk to anyone, okay?”

“Or anything else to do with your brother’s murder.”

“On my honor.”

She relaxed a bit. She suspected honor was very important to this man. “All right. I’ll trust you. But if I find you’ve crossed the line, you’re going to be in trouble. I won’t stand for it, nor will the sheriff.”

“We’ll get it sorted. Your number?”

“I want yours, too.”

“Of course.”

“Keep in mind, though, the farther you get out of town, the spottier cell reception will be. Out there in the ranch land, there aren’t a whole lot of cell towers. Not enough people to justify them. And the mountains are pretty much the same.”

“I’ve operated in much tougher conditions.”

Yeah, he had, she thought as she walked back to the office after they’d exchanged numbers. That was part of what worried her.

CAT WAS A FIREBRAND, Duke thought as he crossed to the mercantile. He had no doubt she’d try to call him to heel if she didn’t like something. He’d only promised to let her know what he was up to, but she’d have to give him reasons if he objected.

While he was looking at shorts, a memory of Larry popped up. They’d often run together while they were growing up, but when Duke had returned from Ranger training, Larry had wanted to run with him again. The two of them had wound up laughing because Larry could no longer keep up the distances or the pace Duke used. He’d never forgotten his brother’s grin as he asked, “What did they do? Replace you with bionics?”

God, he missed his brother, even though they’d been estranged for a while. Which made him ponder yet again how he—or anyone else, for that matter—allowed such rifts to grow when life was so short. You never knew…

He should have learned that after so much time in deadly environments. Life could often be too short, truncated by unexpected events.

Shaking himself out of impending gloom, he focused instead on rage. He’d have time to grieve later, once Larry had his justice.

He found a couple of pairs of shorts and some shirts and walked back to the motel. Man, he needed to run. A long, fast run.

Then he’d figure out what to do next.

WELL, THAT HAD gone well, Cat thought as she walked back to the office. Not. He’d managed to embarrass her, which wasn’t easy in her line of work. Or maybe anger had heated her cheeks, not embarrassment. Regardless, after that she could easily dislike him.

It wouldn’t help anything to dislike him, though. Not one thing. Besides, she could understand his thirst to find his brother’s killer. She’d known more than one family who had been pursuing justice for a dead relative decades after the killing. Not unusual. Some called it closure, some referred to it as justice, but there was no escaping the fact that people needed a resolution. That need could consume them, and possibly their lives.

Cops understood that. They understood it so well that departments with sufficient resources ran a cold case unit. No one wanted to forget the dead.

A few cops even investigated cold cases after they retired, so haunted were they by some crimes.

So yeah, she got it. Totally. Which meant she needed to quell her reactions to Duke. They were too strong. Too reactive. She’d dealt with worse than a difficult relative before.

And that was what he was. However intimidating, however angry, he was still a grieving brother who needed his resolution.

Needing it in three weeks was the only unreasonable part. Larry hadn’t been here long enough to create a big list of persons of interest. A poker group, eight people max? Not much to go on.

Nor were the regulars he’d met at Mahoney’s, although they wouldn’t be overlooked as the department worked to peel back the layers on this case. If there’d been an argument or altercation, Mahoney would know. If it had been bad enough, he’d have reported it. Nothing had seeped out of that bar.

When she returned to a desk she shared with other officers, she realized she was at loose ends. Her assignment to keep an eye on the major made it impractical to follow any kind of duty that she couldn’t quit immediately.

Damn it. She liked to work. In fact, she liked it so much she averaged about sixty hours a week. That curtailed her social life, but that was okay. She was an introvert in an extrovert’s job. Interacting with people all day made her crave solitude with a book or a movie. Recharging.

Or maybe she could work out in her tiny gym in her basement. The house her mother had left her on Poplar had made it possible, which was good because this town had one gym open to the public: at the college. Public hours were limited, of course, making its use more difficult.

The house was cozy, which suited her. Just two bedrooms and a dine-in kitchen, no dining room. One full bath. The extra bedroom served as her home office and contained the daybed she’d slept in while caring for her mother.

It was a newer house than many neighboring ones that had been built during the waning days of the Victorian era, but it displayed nice touches with dark woodwork and matching solid-core oak doors. Over the time since her mother’s death, she’d started repainting the interior and had indulged her love of color, such as the Wedgwood blue in the living room and sunshine yellow in the kitchen.

When she walked through the door, she initially felt sorrow. Despite having many good memories here, she also had a lot of sad ones, and every time she entered the house, she missed hearing her mom call out, Hi, honey.

Sometimes she was almost sure she’d heard the greeting. Each time it happened, it arrested her. Even in midstep, she’d pause, listening.

She changed quickly into her workout clothes and headed down into the basement. There her weights, her exercise bike and her treadmill awaited her. This wasn’t her favorite part of the house, but it was a necessary one, holding the washer and dryer, a utility sink and various boxes of stored items.

Items that she kept thinking she should give away. She had no use for her mother’s clothes, for one thing. She’d already saved what she cared about.

An hour later, wishing for a TV so she’d have something other than her own rambling thoughts to keep her company while she exercised, she took her sweat-soaked body upstairs for a shower.

Then it was time to consider dinner. Dang, her life outside of her job had become a totally predictable routine. Exercise, dinner, book or DVD, or sometimes some browsing on the internet.

Occasionally she wondered if that was a reaction to all the many months she’d spent looking after her mother. A time to heal, maybe a time to hide from personal cares.

Whatever. She was in no mood to do anything about it just then. Major Daniel Duke was probably going to invade her entire life with his quest. He’d taken over the job part of it. Now she could live in expectation of getting a phone call even at night as he told her what harebrained thing he was planning to do.

She caught herself. “Not fair,” she said aloud to the empty house. She had to stop ascribing things to him she couldn’t yet know.

He’d really set her back up, right from the time he’d first walked into the office.

Why?

When it came, the answer annoyed her no end. He was attractive. Very attractive. A trickle of warmth passed through her as she visualized him. Oh yeah.

She needed that like a hole in her head.

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