Lethal Temptation

by Kaylea Cross

  The woman stared suspiciously at Shannon from under the brim of her floppy hat, gardening shears poised above the neatly-trimmed hedge.

  Hell. Freaking small towns and their freaking nosy neighbors who noticed anything out of place. Like her and the rental car. The woman would know Shannon wasn’t a local, and the way the lady stared was starting to make her nervous.

  Looking away, she continued on up the street at a leisurely pace, watching the old lady in the rearview mirror. The woman stared after her for a few moments, and Shannon had a moment’s unease that the old busybody might have memorized her plate number.

  Another meeting with Ray was in order. She would tease more intel out of him while she formulated a plan for her next move. Targeting Avery was tricky, and much easier if she was alone, without her lover around. But Shannon had to be prepared to do it no matter what.

  Whatever it took to even the score. If Mike wasn’t being released then she had nothing left to lose.

  ****

  It was just after noon when Avery finally got the call from the Billings PD about the incident at the guest ranch. “Any new evidence?” she asked.

  “Unfortunately, no,” the woman answered. “I’m sending you the security feed as requested, so you’re welcome to have your own people look at it. The angle of the suspect’s face makes it impossible for the camera to get a good look, but we believe it’s a female.”

  “A pregnant female?”

  “That wasn’t noted during the analysis.”

  So it definitely wasn’t Keely, because she had a pronounced baby bump. Not that Avery had really thought it could be her. “Did anyone on staff have any further information?”

  “No, and none of them could identify the suspect on the video. Although officers did find a wig along with a staff uniform in a Dumpster a block from the hotel. Unfortunately, the resort management and security could not identify anyone in uniform that night as an imposter.”

  “Can you send me pictures of the wig, so I can look for it in the security footage?”

  “Of course. But as this was an isolated, small incident and no one was harmed, with our limited budget we won’t be able to follow up with any DNA testing.”

  “I understand.”

  “If anything else comes to light, we will alert you immediately.”

  “All right, thank you.” She ended the call with a sigh, thinking. The wig wasn’t much to go on, but it was better than nothing.

  She’d been hoping the Billings PD would be able to find at least a few leads to narrow things down, but she knew all too well about what it meant to work with a limited department budget. Only priority cases warranted that kind of money being spent, and she was okay with that.

  However, since the damage in the cabin had seemed like a pointed and personal attack, Avery would continue to do some digging on her own.

  She leaned forward to shift her keyboard closer to her and pulled up her email. The attachment containing the security feed and the image of the wig came through. She opened them, then watched the footage several times looking for the wig and other things. A few female employees had similar hair color to the wig, but they all wore their hair up or in a braid, so it was impossible to tell if any of them had the wig on.

  So much for that.

  She went back to analyzing other things. The suspect’s build definitely appeared to be female, and Avery agreed that the woman wasn’t visibly pregnant. But that somehow made this worse. If it hadn’t been Keely lashing out in a kind of jealous rage the other night, then who was it? Unless this had been a case of mistaken identity.

  Avery’s gut said that it wasn’t. And she’d already asked Mason, ruling out the possibility of this being an ex of his, targeting her because Avery was with him now.

  She looked up at a rap on her door. Tate walked in carrying a takeout box. “Brought you lunch.”

  “You’re awesome.” She inhaled the familiar scent. “Oooh, Poultrygeist?” Rifle Creek’s supposedly haunted restaurant that specialized in all kinds of chicken dishes. But their fried chicken was the best.

  “Yep. Here.” He slid a container of fried chicken across her desk and parked himself in the chair opposite her. “So, you hear anything from the Billings guys yet?”

  “Yep, just. Nothing helpful, but they’ve got a wig and a uniform we can analyze with our unlimited forensics budget.”

  He grinned and bit into his sandwich. “I’ll get right on that.” Reaching for the coffee cup in front of him, he eyed her as he chewed.

  “What?” she demanded, frowning at him.

  “Nothin’.”

  Avery eyed him a second, then got busy diving into her fried chicken. Seriously, Poultrygeist fried chicken was the best in the whole universe. Crispy and flavorful on the outside, and tender and juicy on the inside. “Aww, you even sprung for an extra breast instead of the usual breast and thigh.”

  “Yeah, so don’t say I never do anything for you.”

  “I would never say that,” she professed and took another bite of chicken.

  “So how’re things working out with Mason?”

  She paused to look at him, his casual tone belying the frank interest in his gaze. “Why, did he say something?” She couldn’t help the slight defensive edge to her tone. If Mason had bragged to Tate, she’d kill him.

  “No.”

  Wait. “Did Nina tell you about…”

  “Sort of.”

  Shit. “Seriously?” Whatever happened to the best friend code?

  He was still watching her. “Are we going to talk about it, or…?”

  “Nope.”

  “Okay.” He opened his mouth to say something else, but his phone rang. He dug it out of his pocket, glanced at it, then answered. “Detective Baldwin.”

  He held Avery’s gaze as he spoke to whoever it was on the other end. “Okay. We can be there in about twenty minutes.”

  Avery quickly polished off her piece of chicken and wiped her hands on the wet wipe. “What’s up?”

  “Remember the stolen ATVs reported last week? Patrol officer may have found a witness.”

  Perfect. No more talking about Mason. She stood, chucking the wipe in the trash bin beneath her desk. “Let’s go. We’ll take my vehicle.”

  She drove to the address, a remote cabin high up in the hills above Rifle Creek. “This witness saw the theft happen?”

  “Guess we’ll find out.”

  A patrol car was parked out front. Avery got out and walked beside Tate up the front steps to the door where the officer was there to greet them. “Mother called in saying she thinks it might be her son, or his friends.”

  Avery and Tate went inside to speak to her. Mrs. Steiner was upset, her eyes red-rimmed from crying as she sat on her sofa and told them her suspicions. “He’s still a good boy in a lot of ways,” she said of her fourteen-year-old son, Trevor. “He’s just become mixed up with the wrong crowd. You understand how hard high school can be on kids. And ever since his father left, he… We’ve been…struggling.” She wadded up the tissue in her hands, looking ready to cry at any moment.

  Avery jotted down a couple of notes before continuing. Tate was busy looking around for evidence. “Did you see him or the others with the ATVs? Or just hear about it?”

  “A friend of his showed up the other day with one. The family is struggling financially. The father’s a real drinker, and hasn’t had a job in a long while. Anyway, the son came here to show Trevor his ‘new toy,’ and I couldn’t help but notice how new and expensive it looked.”

  “Did you ask him where he got it?”

  “Trevor did. The boy said he’d borrowed it from a friend, and that he had others if Trevor wanted one. I didn’t realize they were stolen, but then I saw the article in the paper this morning and thought it might be…”

  “Where is Trevor now?”

  “I don’t know. He left for school at the usual time and then they called to say he was absent.” She sniffed and ran the soggy tissue through
her hands. “I think he must have heard about it on social media and is trying to hide.”

  Tate came back into the room and gave her a subtle shake of his head to indicate he hadn’t found anything useful. Avery gave Mrs. Steiner a polite smile. “We appreciate you calling this in.”

  She nodded. “I don’t want my boy to be in any trouble. If he’s done wrong, then I want him to take responsibility and make it right.”

  That was so refreshing, to hear a parent say that. “I understand. If you don’t mind, we’re going to have a look around the premises now to see if we can find any sign of the missing ATVs here. If you hear from Trevor, please let us know.”

  Mrs. Steiner escorted them to the front door. Halfway down the steps, Avery glanced over at her vehicle and froze. “Are you kidding me?”

  “What?” Tate said, but Avery was already rushing down the stairs.

  “Shit,” she muttered, quickly circling around to check the back. All four tires had been slashed, the rims sitting on the pine-needle-strewn ground.

  Tate looked, turned around and headed right back up the steps without a word. Avery loped after him, fuming. The mother answered the door, her expression blank. “Is something wrong?”

  “Yeah, someone just slashed all my tires while we were inside talking to you,” Avery said.

  The woman gasped. “Oh, no…” She glanced past Avery to look at the vehicle.

  “Mrs. Steiner, we’re going to need to talk to your son. Immediately,” Tate said in a low voice.

  The woman wrung her hands, distress clear on her face. “I’ve already called him twice and texted him. He won’t answer.”

  “Well, he’s gotta be close by,” Avery muttered, and went back down the steps. Tate followed, and just as they got close to the side of the house, the sound of a small engine starting up caught their attention.

  “I see him,” Avery said, and broke into a sprint as a flash of red appeared between the house and the shed. She raced for the ATV, the rider’s face hidden by a black helmet. Tate darted past her and cut left as Avery angled to get in front of the ATV.

  She ran through the trees, then veered right, stopped directly in front of the vehicle’s path. The kid shot out from behind another outbuilding, saw her, and swung a hard right to avoid hitting her.

  Dirt kicked up from under its tires, and the driver eased back on the throttle. Giving Tate just enough time to act.

  He caught the kid around the ribs in a flying tackle and knocked him clear off the vehicle, which stopped suddenly. They hit the ground with a thud and rolled.

  Avery raced toward them, knelt down and grabbed one of the kid’s arms as Tate eased off him into a kneeling position. She straddled the kid’s hips and pinned his arms behind his back, pushing back her temper as Tate reached down to remove the helmet.

  A pair of frightened, hostile brown eyes glared up at them both. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he snarled.

  “Watch your mouth,” Avery snapped, and yanked him to his knees. “Where’d you get this shiny new ATV from, Trevor?”

  “A friend lent it to me. Get off!”

  “Hey.” Tate got in the kid’s face as Avery put the cuffs on him. “Settle down. You’ve been caught with stolen property, and my partner’s tires were just slashed. Know anything about that?”

  “I didn’t slash any damn tires!”

  A door slapped shut behind them. Mrs. Steiner appeared on the side of the porch, her hands over her mouth in distress, eyes wide.

  “He’s all right, Mrs. Steiner,” Avery called up as she stood and hauled Trevor to his feet. “But we’re going to take him into the station now for questioning, if you’d like to come.”

  “Yes, of course.” She rushed to the stairs.

  “As soon as we get a ride,” Tate muttered under his breath.

  Trevor twisted his head around to glare at his mother. “You did this? You narced on me?”

  “Trevor—”

  Avery gave him a shake. “Quiet. You’ve put your mother through enough already.”

  “I didn’t slash anyone’s tires,” he insisted, mouth pinched.

  Tate was on his phone. He took hold of Trevor’s elbow and walked him toward the driveway. While they waited for their ride, Avery called for a tow truck. Minutes later the same patrol car from before pulled up.

  Avery opened up the back passenger door, giving Trevor a quelling glare as Tate put him in the back. She slammed the door and marched around to the front passenger seat, fuming inside. First the cabin and her stuff burned, now this. It pissed her off to be someone’s target. She wasn’t a fucking victim, and wasn’t going to just take whatever this person dished out.

  Avery was going to find out who it was, and end this.

  “I’ll drive you home after work,” Tate said from the back.

  “Thanks.” Trevor seemed guilty enough to her.

  But at the station, he held firm during the questioning. He admitted he’d been part of the theft ring, but swore up, down and sideways that he’d never been anywhere near her vehicle.

  Avery’s irritation turned to unease as she shared a look with Tate. If Trevor hadn’t slashed her tires, then it meant she had a faceless enemy watching her every move.

  Chapter Thirteen

  When Mason saw Tate’s truck pull into the driveway that evening and Avery climbing out of it, he knew instantly that something was wrong.

  He dropped the Frisbee on the front lawn, gave Ric the command to stay and hurried to the driveway. “What’s happened?” he demanded.

  She shot him a look that warned him to keep his distance. “Nothing, I’m fine.”

  Bullshit. Her face was drawn. Something had definitely happened. “Then where’s your vehicle?”

  “In the shop getting new tires.”

  Mason glanced away from her to Tate, who gave him a wave and started reversing out of the driveway. Mason absently waved back and returned his attention to Avery. “What happened?” he repeated in a less demanding tone.

  She sighed and strode for the brick walkway that led to the front door, briefcase in hand. “Someone slashed my tires while I was conducting an interview.”

  He frowned. “Where?”

  “Up in the hills at a suspect’s house.” She started to pass him, but he caught her elbow, bringing that irritated, golden gaze to his.

  Mason wasn’t fazed. She could be annoyed all she wanted, but if her safety was in question, he wanted to know what was going on. “Did you catch whoever did it?”

  “No.” She looked frustrated and tired, as though she hadn’t been sleeping well.

  He’d love to think it was because she couldn’t stop thinking about him, but he had a feeling the incident at the cabin was weighing heavier on her mind than she would ever let on, and now someone had slashed her tires. The behavior was escalating and had now followed her home.

  “We were up there to talk to a teenage kid about some stolen property. I was interviewing the mother, and when we came back outside, I saw my tires were slashed. Tate and I caught the kid and took him into the station for questioning. He confessed to his part in the theft, but was adamant that he had nothing to do with my tires. And he says if one of his friends did it, he wasn’t aware.” She didn’t sound convinced.

  Yeah, given the timing, it was too much of a coincidence for the incident at the cabin and the tires not to be related. This was definitely personal, and whoever was responsible had a fondness for blades or sharp objects. That bothered him. This was a definite escalation and it made him even more protective of her.

  Avery would never admit to being upset. So Mason stepped forward and drew her into a hug.

  She stiffened a little and opened her mouth to no doubt tell him she was fine. He cut it off with a kiss. Nothing like the one from last night. This was soft, tender. All about comfort and protectiveness instead of dominance and seduction. It was just…real and heartfelt.

  When he lifted his head, she stared up at him, her amazing eyes se
arching his. He’d missed her today. Wanted to spend more time with her, take her mind off everything. “You hungry?”

  “No, not really. I had a sandwich about an hour ago.”

  “I didn’t get Ric out for his hike yet today. Want to join us?”

  She seemed skeptical of the offer. “Really?”

  He brushed a lock of hair off her cheek. It was shiny and soft and smelled good. He loved the feel of it between his fingers. “Yeah.”

  “All right. Gimme two minutes.” She stepped around him and headed inside, reappearing shortly after wearing jeans, a dark green sweater and a light jacket. “Ready.”

  He put her in the front of the Jeep and made Ric get in the back. Ric immediately stuck his head between the front seats to rest his chin on Avery’s left shoulder. She grinned and reached up to scratch his ears. “You’re such a lovebug.”

  Mason smiled. “He’s a suck.”

  “And you love it.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So where do you usually go hiking?” she asked as he pulled onto the street. They waved at Bev and Pat across the street, out working in their front garden.

  “Up near the property we’re closing on. There are some great trails, and I want to know the lay of the land there better.”

  “All right.”

  They didn’t talk much on the drive up. He parked at the side of the dirt road near one of the trail entrances. When he opened the back, Ric bounded out and darted into the trees, then stopped to watch them, waiting.

  “He’s so well trained,” Avery said.

  “He’s smart. Sometimes I think his IQ is higher than mine.”

  One side of her mouth curled upward. “Nah, I think your IQ is pretty high.”

  Mason reached for her hand. She glanced at him questioningly but didn’t argue or pull away. He considered that progress.

  They fell into a comfortable pace together, her long legs meaning he didn’t have to shorten his stride. Ric trotted up the trail a ways, scouting things out, then stopped and circled back.

  Mason patted him and Ric was off again. “He does awesome recon patrols.”