by Kat Martin
Kade set a hand on her waist as Ellie made her way through the crush of customers seated at wooden tables. The place was noisy, people in jeans, sweaters, and winter boots laughing and talking, but the late-October crowd was probably minimal compared to the throng that showed up after the mountain opened for the season.
“Do you know any of the bartenders?” Ellie asked.
Kade glanced toward the two guys working behind the big rectangular bar in the middle of the room. Then his gaze traveled to the sexy young women serving food and drinks. In a town like Vail with so much to offer, the competition for jobs was fierce. Businesses had their choice of the best-looking, most competent employees.
“I might know some of the servers.”
She frowned, catching a faint note of that same something she had heard earlier in his voice. “How long since you’ve been here?”
Kade looked at her, then away. “I was here in August, a month or so before they found Heather’s car.”
“Why do I have a feeling there’s something you’re not telling me?”
“Hey, Kade!” One of the female servers with a tray flat on her palm sashayed toward him. She slid an arm around Kade’s neck and pressed a quick kiss on his mouth. “I wondered when you’d get around to coming back.”
A flush rose in his lean cheeks. He glanced down and read the name badge pinned to the twenty-something’s impressive chest. “Savannah, this is Ellie. Ellie, meet Savannah.”
Savannah’s assessing glance swung from Kade to Ellie and back. She flashed him an unrepentant grin. “I thought you said it was like bringing sand to the beach.”
The flush deepened. “Yeah, well, I guess in this case that doesn’t apply.”
Savannah shrugged, lifting the high, round globes beneath her tight white sweater. A pair of black stretch pants were tucked into her tall black boots, and a silver-studded belt rode low on her waist.
Savannah flashed him a sexy smile. “Well, that’s too bad.”
Kade ignored the comment. “Ellie’s a private detective, Savannah. If you get a minute, maybe you could help us.”
Savannah seemed intrigued. “Sure. I have a break in about fifteen minutes.”
“We’ll wait,” Ellie said.
As the female server hip-swayed toward the bar to refill her drink tray, Kade led Ellie over to a wooden table, and they sat down.
“Pretty girl,” Ellie said. “I get the impression you two are more than just friends.”
Kade’s gaze found hers across the table. “Depends how you look at it. I barely remember her. I know I had sex with her. If I’d seen her somewhere else, I might not have recognized her.”
Ellie glanced at the long blond ponytail swishing back and forth above Savannah’s sexy behind. “Seriously?”
“Yeah.” His gaze settled on Ellie’s mouth, leaving no doubt as to what he was thinking. “I’d remember you if I saw you twenty years from now.”
Some of the awkwardness she was feeling slipped away.
They ordered local beers from a different server and sipped them as they watched the crowd.
Fifteen minutes slipped past, and Savannah returned. Kade rose and pulled out a chair for her, gallant as always. Ellie ignored a thread of irritation.
Savannah smiled. “So what can I do for you?”
One look at those plump, pink lips, and Ellie could guess what Kade would like her to do. Forcing herself to concentrate, she pulled out the photo of Barbara Meeks she had printed off the internet.
“We think this woman may have come in here a few weeks back, a little less than a month ago. Does she look familiar?”
“A lot of people come in here,” Savannah said. “Not sure I would remember her if I saw her. Any reason I should?”
“Because she was murdered,” Kade said darkly.
Savannah’s heavily mascaraed blue eyes widened.
“She would have come in on a weekend,” Ellie continued. “Sometimes she was with a friend, a woman who owns a place here in Vail. That weekend, she came in by herself.”
Savannah took the photo from Ellie’s hand and studied it more closely. “I might have seen her . . . she looks kind of familiar.”
“If she was here by herself, she would have been trolling,” Ellie said. “Looking for a hookup.”
Savannah ran a finger over the photo. “Was she as pretty as she looks in the picture?”
“According to people who knew her, she was beautiful,” Kade said.
Savannah looked up. “I think I remember her. Sometimes, I . . . umm . . . like to do something a little different. You know, with a guy and another woman.” She didn’t glance at Kade, thank God. Ellie was feeling insecure enough without imagining Kade having sex with two women at the same time.
“It was a while back,” Savannah added. “Close to a month, I’d say. She sat down at the bar, and I remember thinking how sexy she was.”
“Did she leave with a man?” Kade asked.
Savannah nodded. “I remember watching them walk out the door. I remember wishing I had said something to her myself.”
“Do you remember the man?” Ellie asked.
“I remember he was a nice-looking guy. Dark hair, athletic build, designer jeans. You know the type.”
“So, not fat,” Kade said. “Tall or short?”
“I don’t remember him being either, so I’d say he was probably average or a little above.”
“Any tats?” Ellie asked. “Any scars, anything like that?”
“Not that I recall.”
She looked back down at the photo. “I know he had to be attractive. A woman that beautiful can have her pick.” This time she did look at Kade. “I don’t recall seeing him in here after that, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been in.”
“Would you be willing to talk to a police artist?” Kade asked. “Let him do a sketch of the guy?”
It was a good idea. Ellie should have thought of it, would have if she hadn’t been sidetracked by the green-eyed monster. Kade was the only man who’d ever affected her that way, and she definitely didn’t like it.
Savannah bit her full bottom lip. “I don’t remember the guy well enough to describe him.”
“A sketch artist knows the right questions to ask,” Ellie said. “You’ll be surprised what you’ll be able to recall.”
“I don’t know. I’m not crazy about police.”
Ellie finished the last of her beer and set the glass back down on the table. “Maybe not, but until they catch this guy, you and any other woman in the area could wind up dead.”
Savannah’s blue eyes flashed with understanding. “Oh, my God, you’re right. I’ll do it,” she said.
* * *
Kade climbed in behind the wheel of the pickup and fastened his seat belt. Ellie hadn’t looked at him since they’d left the building. Sitting stiffly in her seat, she stared out the window into the dark beyond the parking lot.
“I met her at the bar, okay? I took her back to my hotel room. She spent the night and was gone when I woke up in the morning. That was the end of it.”
When he didn’t start the truck, she turned to look at him.
“I won’t apologize, Ellie. I’m a man. I’ve been alone for eight years. Aside from the time I spent with Grace, and a few one-night stands here and there, I haven’t dated all that much. And I’m not into threesomes, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
The stiffness went out of her shoulders. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I shouldn’t have let it bother me.”
Kade leaned over, caught her shoulders, dragged her toward him and kissed her, kept kissing her until she grabbed the front of his shirt and kissed him back.
“Neither of us can change what we’ve done in the past. But dammit, I don’t want Savannah or some other one-night hookup. You mean something to me, Ellie. You’re the woman I want in my bed.” Kade kissed her again, more softly this time, coaxing a response from her, then deepening the kiss until she was clinging to his shoulders, making
erotic little sounds in her throat.
He was hard, aching to have her. The hour drive back to the ranch sounded like forever. He ran a finger down her cheek. “I want you, darlin’. You and nobody else. Let’s go home, and I’ll show you.”
Her features softened. She released a slow breath and nodded. It didn’t take long to reach the city limits and start winding through the hills. Deer were a constant hazard, so he focused on the road, let the miles unfold ahead of him.
“We need to call the police,” Ellie said, returning the conversation to where it belonged as the truck rolled through the darkness. “We need to fill them in on everything we’ve learned.”
“You got Savannah’s contact info, right?” The blonde had been more than happy to cooperate once she realized the threat the killer still posed.
“I’ve got it. Savannah Nightingale. Can you believe it?”
Kade fought not to grin. Now was definitely not a good time.
“The police will want to interview other employees,” Ellie said. “Anyone who might have information.”
“Maybe they’ll come up with something,” Kade said.
“Setting up a session with a sketch artist was a good idea. I should have thought of it myself.”
He cast her a glance. “You were sidetracked. My fault. I should have warned you.”
“True,” she said, not cutting him any slack.
Kade smiled. “I was playing the odds. It was kind of a long shot that she would be there.”
“Even more of a long shot that she would remember Barbara.” Ellie pulled the photo out of her purse. “Or maybe not, considering how spectacularly beautiful she was.”
“Like Heather,” Kade said darkly, his mind dredging up a memory of the day he had married her. Like a blond, blue-eyed angel, he’d thought when she’d started toward him down the aisle, her beautiful face framed in exquisite Belgian lace. When her body was found, he refused to look at the crime-scene photos. He never would.
He felt Ellie’s hand on his thigh, the warmth penetrating his jeans and his morbid thoughts. “She’s always there, isn’t she? In the back of your mind.”
For an instant, Kade’s eyes left the road and swung to Ellie. “Not when I’m with you.”
Ellie said nothing.
Kade wondered if she believed him. He hoped she did, because it was true. Heather’s death still haunted him and would until the bastard who’d killed her paid for what he had done. But the woman who was his wife had been erased from his heart long ago.
He was free of her, he realized, and found his gaze straying back to Ellie. Maybe it was time to reconsider the future he had once wanted and figured he could never have.
Maybe with the right woman, it wasn’t too late.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
IT WAS MONDAY AFTERNOON, THE SKY OVERCAST AND CLOUDY. IN A grove of leafless aspens on a hillside overlooking the Diamond Bar Ranch, he studied the activity in the valley below.
His dark green Hummer had made the trip up the muddy, rocky back road without a hitch. A loose stone had put a ding in the lower panel on the driver’s side door, which pissed him off, but the vehicle had done its job, and the thrill of looking down on his prey was worth the cost of the repair.
Focusing the lenses of his two-thousand dollars a pair, crystal-clear Swarovski binoculars—worth every dime—he studied the flow of men moving between the barn, the outbuildings, and the sprawling, log-and-stone ranch house.
He followed the progress of a man exercising a palomino horse in an arena next to the barn, lanky, with sandy brown hair escaping beneath the brim of a battered felt cowboy hat. Not a man, he realized, grateful again for the high-quality lenses. More like a teenage boy.
He panned the glasses, saw the back door open and a woman walk out, wearing tight jeans, battered cowboy boots, and a blue flannel shirt. The thick auburn hair pulled into a single braid was a dead giveaway. Logan’s woman. He had noticed the possessive gleam in the man’s dark eyes the minute he had seen the two together.
His groin pulsed as anticipation poured through him. In the back of his mind, he saw the scene unfold like a rerun of his favorite movie.
Through the lenses, he watched Ellie cross the yard to the arena and step up on the bottom rail. The kid led the horse over, and the two of them started talking. They laughed together at something he said.
The kid could be useful, he thought, his mind racing ahead as a plan began to formulate in his head.
His thoughts went to the memories that had plagued him, nightmares that shifted between ecstasy and horror. He’d told himself he just needed to take back control, needed some kind of payback, a way to put things on an even keel again.
Frank Keller’s name had popped into his head, a man who worked for Mountain Ore; he had used him before to resolve unforeseen problems. Keller was a conscienceless SOB willing to do just about anything if enough money was involved.
Harassing Logan after all these years returned some of his sense of control. When Keller suggested blowing up a tunnel in the Red Hawk Mine, which sat on Diamond Bar property, he had jumped at the chance to cause trouble for Logan and at the same time shove a little dirt in the old man’s face.
Then Keller had gotten sloppy and begun to worry about getting caught. He’d demanded more money and a job at a company-owned mine in South America, threatened to tell Logan the truth. In the end, he’d had no choice but to deal with Keller himself—Keller and his hillbilly cousin.
His back teeth clenched together so hard it hurt. He’d hoped the anger inside him would disappear, but the trouble Keller had caused was a pittance, not nearly enough to settle his debt with Logan.
He watched Ellie Bowman with the kid and the horse. He had time, he reminded himself. He’d taken a week off from work for a backpacking trip. He’d be out of phone range for a while, not unusual, since he hiked into the high country at least once a year. Everyone understood that in a stressful job like his, he needed a break.
He looked back down the hill to the woman with the fiery, dark red hair. There was no need to hurry.
The longer it took, the more he could savor the rush.
* * *
Ellie leaned over the top of the arena fence. The wind was picking up, the sky turning dark. Rain was predicted tonight, but tomorrow was supposed to be sunny.
She smiled as she watched Billy exercising the six-month-old palomino filly Kade planned to start training. The horse was a beauty, and Billy was obviously in love. He was such a good kid, always so ready to lend a hand.
Lately Billy had been spending more and more time at the ranch, often staying overnight in the bunkhouse. Today he’d confided that his dream was to own his own place one day.
“I’m gonna finish high school, then go to City College,” he’d said. “Kade says I’ll make a better rancher if I understand business. I also gotta know how to grow hay for the livestock, so that’s what I want to study, business and agriculture.”
“You talked to Kade about it?”
He nodded. “Kade said he’d help me get through school, long as I keep up my grades.”
It didn’t surprise her. Kade had a soft spot for Billy, whose family life was pretty grim: a deadbeat dad who had disappeared years ago and a working mom who never seemed to have time for him. Ellie was glad he had Kade.
“I think you’ll make a great rancher, Billy.”
The boy grinned. “Thanks.” He was a good-looking kid, almost six feet tall, with a lean, rangy build. The work he did built solid muscle. Once he had a little more self-confidence, the girls were going to love him.
Ellie watched him work the horse a few minutes more, then climbed down from the fence. Smoke gave a yip, rose from his place at her feet, and nuzzled her hand. Ellie gave him a rub, and they set off for the house.
It was Monday afternoon. Yesterday Kade had phoned Denver Police Detective Clay Meadows and brought him up to speed on Barbara Meeks, her trip to Vail just before she was killed, and the man Sa
vannah Nightingale had seen Barbara with at Bullwinkle’s. The police were moving forward. They planned to question employees and set up an appointment for Savannah with a sketch artist.
The sound of an engine caught her attention, and Ellie’s gaze swung toward the gate to see an Eagle County Sheriff’s black-and-white SUV driving up the hill toward the house.
The vehicle stopped in front of the back door, the engine went silent, and Sheriff Glen Carver stepped out. A tall, broad-shouldered man, even with his thinning dark hair, Carver was good-looking. Ellie thought of Heather and the handsome man Carver must have been eight years ago.
He started walking toward her, and Ellie met him halfway.
“Ms. Bowman,” he said.
“Sheriff Carver. If you’re looking for Kade, he’s out with the men. If there’s cell service, I might be able to reach him.”
“I’m here about the Barbara Meeks case. I gather you have pertinent information you shared with the Denver PD.”
“That’s right. There’s a chance whoever killed Barbara may have also murdered Heather Logan.”
He nodded. “I got a call from a detective named Meadows. He filled me in, but I thought it might be worth a follow-up call.”
“Why don’t we go inside and I’ll buy you a cup of coffee,” Ellie suggested.
Carver followed her in. She poured two mugs from the big stainless pot that was a permanent fixture on the kitchen counter, and they carried them over to the long rectangular table in the corner. Ellie sat on the bench on one side; Carver sat down on the other.
He took a drink of coffee. “How did this lead come about?”
“I imagine by now you know I’m a private investigator. Kade hired me to look into his wife’s murder.”
Carver nodded, looking uneasy. “I ran your name a while back when I heard you’d been talking to some of Heather’s friends. Any reason you didn’t tell me you worked private when we met?”
She cupped the mug in her hands. “A couple of reasons. Mostly, I wanted to keep my involvement as quiet as possible. I was questioning people in the area, hoping I might come up with something useful.”
