Carla Cassidy - Dead Certain

As she watched him get out of his truck and make his way to her front door, Savannah pushed aside all thoughts of her dead husband—including the guilt. Riley looked so handsome, so alive, that she couldn’t keep her heart from racing, her palms from sweating.

Savannah smoothed her hand down her sundress, a flutter of nervous anxiety rippling through her. What did he have planned for the day?

He spied her through the window, and his lips curved into a smile that shot a river of warmth through her. And in that moment she knew she was ready.

For anything.

Dear Reader,

This is a month full of greats: great authors, great miniseries…great books. Start off with award-winning Marie Ferrarella’s Racing Against Time, the first in a new miniseries called CAVANAUGH JUSTICE. This family fights for what’s right—and their reward is lasting love.

The miniseries excitement continues with the second of Carla Cassidy’s CHEROKEE CORNERS trilogy. Dead Certain brings the hero and heroine together to solve a terrible crime, but it keeps them together with love. Candace Irvin’s latest features A Dangerous Engagement, and it’s also the first SISTERS IN ARMS title, introducing a group of military women bonded through friendship and destined to find men worthy of their hearts.

Of course, you won’t want to miss our stand-alone books, either. Marilyn Tracy’s A Warrior’s Vow is built around a suspenseful search for a missing child, and it’s there, in the rugged Southwest, that her hero and heroine find each other. Cindy Dees has an irresistible Special Forces officer for a hero in Line of Fire—and he takes aim right at the heroine’s heart. Finally, welcome new author Loreth Anne White, who came to us via our eHarlequin.com Web site. Melting the Ice is her first book—and we’re all eagerly awaiting her next.

Enjoy—and come back next month for more exciting romantic reading, only from Silhouette Intimate Moments.

Leslie J. Wainger

Executive Editor

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is an award-winning author who has written over fifty books for Silhouette. In 1995, she won Best Silhouette Romance from Romantic Times for Anything for Danny. In 1998, she also won a Career Achievement Award for Best Innovative Series from Romantic Times.

Carla believes the only thing better than curling up with a good book to read is sitting down at the computer with a good story to write. She’s looking forward to writing many more books and bringing hours of pleasure to readers.

Prologue

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

She crouched on a wooden support beam beneath the bridge that spanned the Cherokee River. Although it was after midnight, the full moon overhead splashed down a silvery light that danced on the river water below.

Shiny water, she thought. Shiny, treacherous water. For Cherokee Native Americans water was sacred, used for cleansing and purifying. It had been the presence of this river that had led her people to this area of Oklahoma many years before.

For her, the river no longer signified anything but death. Fourteen months ago, in a freak accident, her husband had lost control of his car and slammed through the wooden guard rail of the old bridge. He’d plunged to his death in the river below. At the moment his life had left his body, all will to live had left hers as well.

Every Saturday night when she got off work she came here. She climbed up the wooden support beams until she was high over the river, and stared at the water below.

Beneath the bridge the river was at its most fierce, with speed and depth and powerful whirlpools that rarely spit up a survivor.

If she released her hold on the support beam over her head and leaned forward just a little bit, she would fall. The river would accept her into its depths, and she would be rejoined with the man she loved.

Jimmy, her heart cried. If she just let go and leaned forward, she and her husband would walk hand in hand through the spirit world for eternity.

“Just let go,” a voice whispered in her head. “That’s all you have to do…let go.” But even as the voice whispered seductively in her ear, her hand tightened its grip on the overhead support.

A sob caught in her throat as she realized she couldn’t release her grip on the beam. Her heart desperately wanted to, but she simply couldn’t let go. She didn’t understand. All her hopes, all her dreams had drowned along with Jimmy. She had no reason to live.

Once again she stared down at the river, finding the moonlit water hypnotic. Jimmy. Jimmy. Tension ebbed away from her body as she continued to gaze at the water below. Her grip on the beam loosened as her fingers began to relax their hold. Just let go. Just let go.

At that moment her cell phone jangled from its resting place inside her pocket. Instantly her fingers tightened once again around the support.

Who would be calling her now? It wouldn’t be anyone from the station; they would use her radio. Who else would be calling at this hour of the night? With her free hand she wrestled the cellular from her pocket and answered.

“Get out to Mom and Dad’s place as fast as you can.” The familiar male voice radiated urgency.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“Just get here.”

Her brother disconnected the call, and a chill of foreboding chased down her spine. What was going on at her parents’ house at this time of night?

Carefully, Homicide Detective Savannah Tallfeather climbed down the wooden beams beneath the bridge. She would not be joining her husband on this night.

She wasn’t sure if she was relieved or devastated by the fact that once again she was walking away. She’d have to wait for another time to join her husband in the water she thought of as the river of no return.

She saw the floodlights before she got to the house. They lit up the night sky as if announcing the arrival of a carnival to the town of Cherokee Corners. Savannah stepped on her gas pedal, knowing it wasn’t carnival lights that strobed the sky over her parents’ ranch house. It was police lights.

What was going on? She groaned, wondering if her parents’ had gotten into one of their legendary fights and some passerby or well-meaning neighbor had called out the entire police force.

Even as the thought flew through her head, she dismissed it as the house came into view. Something had definitely happened, and it wasn’t just a noisy spat between her parents.