Justine Davis - Colton's Secret Investigation

As she digs into her history

Her own future hangs in the balance

Deputy Daria Bloom is conducting a covert investigation into her past. At the same time, she and FBI agent Stefan Roberts are closing in on the deadly Avalanche Killer. When sparks fly between Daria and Stefan, their mutual attraction soon complicates their manhunt. With two cases to crack, Daria must find her own killer truths within.

JUSTINE DAVISlives on Puget Sound in Washington State, watching big ships and the occasional submarine go by and sharing the neighbourhood with assorted wildlife, including a pair of bald eagles, deer, a bear or two and a tailless raccoon. In the few hours when she’s not planning, plotting or writing her next book, her favourite things are photography, knitting her way through a huge yarn stash and driving her restored 1967 Corvette roadster—top down, of course.

Connect with Justine on her website, justinedavis.com, at Twitter.com/justine_d_davisor on Facebook at Facebook.com/justinedaredavis

Also by Justine Davis

Operation Midnight

Operation Reunion

Operation Blind Date Operation

Unleashed

Operation Power Play Operation

Homecoming Operation Soldier

Next Door Operation Alpha

Operation Notorious

Operation Hero’s Watch

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Colton’s Secret Investigation

Justine Davis

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09452-8

COLTON’S SECRET INVESTIGATION

© 2019 Harlequin Books S.A.

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 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.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

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Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

About the Publisher

She’d only capped off a few rounds, but Deputy Daria Bloom already knew her range score was going to suck. But she kept firing.

Fire.

A new missing girl.

Fire.

Bodies. Too many.

Fire.

Idiot media nicknames for monsters.

Fire.

Blue Eyes.

Fire.

Deputy Gates.

Fire.

Her mother.

Fire.

Stefan.

Fire. Fire. Fire.

She set down the Glock 19, still undecided whether the purchase had been worth it. She preferred her Springfield XD(M) because it fit her hands better. Her boss cut her some slack and let her carry the XD(M), since with it she was the best shot in the department. But the Glock was the official weapon of the sheriff’s office, and so she had to qualify with it, as well.

At the thought of her boss, she would have fired another round if she hadn’t already emptied the magazine. What if Trey Colton lost the election that was less than a week away now? She couldn’t imagine working for someone else. Not to mention that if he didn’t win, it would be so egregiously unfair. He was the best sheriff this county had ever had. But there was a serial killer still on the loose nearly ten months after the first body had been found, and the outcry was mounting. And while it was hardly Trey’s fault, he was the public face of the department, so all the blowback hit him.

Daria pushed the button that brought the target silhouette back to her. She studied the pattern of holes. It wasn’t as bad as she’d feared, but it wasn’t pretty. She’d visited the ten ring a time or two, but otherwise she’d been wide and high. She smothered a sigh.

For a moment she went through the postshooting routine, focusing on every step as if she’d never done it before. She knew she was trying to stop thinking about everything that had crowded into her mind, throwing off her concentration. Her frustration about this case was uppermost, but a certain FBI agent was nearing the top of the list, as well.

And to think she’d been pleased when Trey had selected her to be the local liaison with the Bureau. But that was before she’d laid eyes on Stefan Roberts. In all his tall, broad-shouldered, hard-muscled glory. She’d never really thought of herself as a woman who would go for a younger man, but that guy would give any breathing woman pause. In a twisted sort of way that made her not particularly happy with herself, she was glad his domestic situation was a mess, because it had enabled her to get over the initial shock of this gorgeous creature and put him where he belonged.