Carla Neggers - Cold Pursuit

Elijah shut the cash box. “You need to level with me. Soon.”

Jo’s throat felt tight. Maintaining professional distance and objectivity in her hometown was difficult. With Elijah, she didn’t even know why she tried.

He returned the cash box to the back room and walked out from behind the counter. “I have a fair amount of experience with people who don’t want to talk.” He got very close to her. “What are you hiding from me, Jo?”

She had to tell him about his father’s trip to Washington. What he’d said among the cherry blossoms about his fears for the second-born son, about his regrets. But not now. Not while Elijah was staring into her eyes. She could feel his tension and her own as she noticed a small scar on his jaw. It hadn’t been there when he was nineteen. What did she know about Elijah Cameron anymore? What had made her think she knew anything?

“Jo.” He tucked a finger under her chin, nothing about him less intense. “Hell.”

She could have done something to break the tension between them. Smiled, laughed, kicked him, started talking about hypothermia. Anything. But she didn’t, and when his mouth dipped to hers, her lips were already parted. This time it wasn’t a light kiss. It was fierce, hungry, his arms going around her as he drew her hard against him. Even through his jacket she could feel his muscles, the ruggedness of him as they gave, took, fired each other with their kiss.

He caught her around the hips and lifted her, pressed her against him, and she could have stripped off every stitch on her-on him-right then and there.

But he’d had that effect on her forever, and even as she moaned with wanting him, she knew it would be madness to give in to it.

“Elijah,” she said.

“I know.”

He set her down, kissed her on the lips and walked out of the shop without so much as a glance back at her.

Jo ended up helping herself to a pair of wool socks after all-she’d pay for them later-and tucked them into her jacket pocket as she left the shop, locking the door on her way out.

The sky had darkened, just a hint of orange now on the western horizon. The air was still, very cold.

She didn’t see her hawk.

Elijah stood on the walk with his hands shoved into the pockets of his canvas jacket. “You’re a complication, Jo.” There was no desire or humor in his expression now, but no bitterness or anger, either. “You always have been.”

“Does that mean you’d have kicked in Devin’s door if I hadn’t been standing there?”

His gaze fell on her and the corners of his mouth twitched. “I was more tempted with you there.”

He didn’t have to explain further. Devin’s room, Jo thought, had a bed. Not so cold now, she changed the subject. “It looks as if Devin’s spending the night on the mountain.”

“If he is, he’ll need gear. He didn’t have a pack on him.”

“Maybe he has one in his truck. Where is it?”

“Not here-neither is Nora’s car. I’ll check up the road and see if they parked at any of the trailheads.” He looked out across the road toward Cameron Mountain. “Camping in these conditions is a serious business. Devin’s done it before. Nora hasn’t.”

“They could both show up back here in time for dinner-”

“A.J. will let me know if they do.”

Jo gave an exaggerated shiver. “I’d be on my way by now. Just the thought of a bowl of hot beef stew in front of the fire would get me back down here. It’s freezing.”

With his thumb and forefinger, Elijah took hold of the zipper tab to her fleece and zipped it all the way up to her chin. “It’s easier to stay warm than to warm back up.” His fingers lingered along the line of her jaw. “Go find yourself that stew and fire, Jo. Whatever’s going on with Devin isn’t your fight.”

“Stay out of your way, you mean?”

He stepped back from her and started across the frozen grass to the parking lot. “Be careful driving in the dark,” he said. “There’s not much ambient light up here at night. You’re used to the city.”

He continued on to his truck, and Jo didn’t try to stop him or come up with a retort. She walked up to the lodge, and A.J., who must have been watching for her, joined her on the terrace. He had on a jacket this time, but his big shoulders were hunched against the cold-or more likely, with tension.

“You and Elijah make a good team,” she said.

He shrugged. “On certain things.”

She noticed a light come on in a window above the terrace. The shades were pulled, softening the effect. “Many guests tonight?”

“Six. They appreciate having the place to themselves.”

“Is Lauren-”

“She’s gone back to the house with the kids.” He and his wife were renovating an old farmhouse at the four corners up the ridge road. But A.J. obviously hadn’t joined Jo in the cold for small talk and moved right to the point. “Elijah told you about the money?”

“Finally, yes. He should have said something sooner.”

“Don’t blame him. I asked him not to. The lodge doesn’t need that kind of publicity. We’re being more careful.”

“Does Lauren know?”

“No.”

“You should tell her. And tell her Elijah thinks your father was murdered.”

“Thank you for the unsolicited advice, Jo,” A.J. said coolly. “I’ll tell Lauren everything tonight when I get home. As for Elijah, he went through hell earlier this year. If he needs to ask questions, he can ask away as far as I’m concerned.”

“Do you believe your father was murdered, A.J.?”

He inhaled through his nose but otherwise showed no emotion. “You’re blunt, aren’t you?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “He died of hypothermia, that much we know. The rest…” He looked down as he ran the toe of his boot across the stone. “I’m not used to the world you and Elijah live in, Jo. Lauren isn’t, either. Our kids are little.”

“Take care of your family. Let the police worry about anything else. Elijah needs to back off.” She hesitated, her eyes narrowed on Cameron Mountain, a dark, forbidding presence against the blackening sky. “I’m not in Elijah’s world, A.J. Your brother’s a warrior and a hero. I’m neither.”

Her words seemed to take A.J. by surprise, but he was a man of supreme self-control. He raised his eyes to her. “A lot of people around here are proud of you, Jo.”

“Not this week,” she said with a quick, light smile to cut the tension.

“Maybe especially this week.” He seemed to try to return her smile but his didn’t quite take hold. “Elijah is fighting some tough demons. He could use an ally.”

“You’re his brother-”

“I’m not you.” A.J. spared her having to respond by muttering a good-night and heading back inside. When the door was safely shut behind him, Jo exhaled and shivered for real this time. “Yikes, it’s cold,” she said out loud, then bolted for her car. Time to get off Cameron land before she really lost her bearings.

As she drove out along the ridge, the centuries-old sugar maples that lined the road stood out against the still, quiet landscape. She came to what everyone in Black Falls called the four corners, where the ridge road intersected narrow, twisting Cameron Mountain Road. It was the oldest settlement in town. An early-nineteenth-century, white-steepled church stood on one corner; on the corner across from it was a cemetery marked off by a stone wall. A stately, now weathered, clapboard building once used as a tavern occupied a third corner. It was owned by an elderly couple in town, but rumor had it Sean Cameron had his eyes on it. What he’d do with the place, Jo couldn’t imagine. As kids, she and her brother and sister had been convinced it was haunted.