Colton's Secret Investigation

by Justine Davis

  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.

  “So, when this case is over we just go back to our regular jobs, our regular lives? Forget about...this?”

  Stefan leaned in then. Slowly, giving her a chance to pull away, to dodge.

  Daria did neither.

  And when his mouth, that mouth that could create that smile that melted her, came down on hers, the heat that had been building in her exploded, sending fire along every nerve.

  She felt a moment of stunned shock. She’d lived forty-two years, some of it hard, some of it wonderful, but she had never in her life felt anything like this. Faint echoes of it, yes, and she’d thought that was all there was to it. But this...this was as if those prior feelings had been tiny candles leading to this impossibly deep, impossibly rich explosion of sensation.

  And it was just a kiss...

  * * *

  The Coltons of Roaring Springs:

  Family and true love are under siege

  * * *

  If you’re on Twitter, tell us what you think of Harlequin Romantic Suspense! #harlequinromsuspense

  Dear Reader,

  Some people love the ocean, some love lakes, some prefer wide-open spaces. Me, I love mountains. I don’t have to be on them, but I’m happiest when I can see them. Perhaps it comes from having been born in a very flat place. But I was delighted to be asked to take part in the latest Coltons continuity series, especially when I learned it was set in a fictional Colorado mountain community.

  It’s always challenging, as a writer, to take characters and a story someone else has brainstormed and make them somehow my own. This one was especially so given that my heroine, Daria, is instrumental not just in her own story but in the entire series, and that she also had an already established history in the Colton annals. But as I thought about that history, and her current stressful job and situation, I realized that her home, what she chose to surround herself with, would give me the key. And so, even though it isn’t shown until well into the story, Daria’s home with a view of the mountains was my kick start. It makes her as happy as it would make me, and I was glad to give it to her. She needed that peace while dealing with this case that threatens to destroy the place she loves. And of course, adding sexy Stefan Roberts to her life was the best part!

  I hope you enjoy her story, the penultimate book in the Coltons of Roaring Springs saga.

  Justine

  COLTON’S SECRET INVESTIGATION

  Justine Davis

  Justine Davis lives on Puget Sound in Washington State, watching big ships and the occasional submarine go by and sharing the neighborhood 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 favorite 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_davis or on Facebook at Facebook.com/justinedaredavis.

  Books by Justine Davis

  Harlequin Romantic Suspense

  The Coltons of Roaring Springs

  Colton’s Secret Investigation

  Cutter’s Code

  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

  The Coltons of Red Ridge

  Colton’s Twin Secrets

  The Coltons of Texas

  Colton Family Rescue

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com, or justinedavis.com, for more titles.

  Contents

  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

  Excerpt from Colton 911: Caught in the Crossfire by Linda O. Johnston

  Chapter 1

  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.

  In the “not interested in” category.

  And yet in the three months they had been collaborating together, the man had turned her carefully controlled life upside down. He was as fiercely dedicated to this case as she was, and that made working with him easier than it could have been. He had also done what she’d been trying unsuccessfully to do for years—he’d unraveled the sad conclusion to her mother’s story. She now had the history of Ava Bloom and knew the bravery her mother had shown. Thanks to Stefan.

  He had done it as a favor to her. Without hesitation. And she couldn’t describe how that had made her feel.

  “Well, you qualified, but barely.”

  “I’m not done yet,” Daria told the range master, who had appeared behind her. The man smiled at her. For a rather crusty old guy, Ray Ingersol could be nice sometimes.

  “And with those words, wars are won,” he said.

  She smiled back at that. “I feel as if I’m in a war,” she admitted.

  “Awful stuff going on. Awful stuff.”

  She couldn’t argue that. With a fresh target and a new magazine, she shut everything else out of her mind and imagined having this ruthless Avalanche Killer in her sights. And this time when the target came back, there were four holes in the ten ring—three small individual holes, and one big ragged one.

  Ray gave a low whistle. “Eight through the same hole? That’s some fine shooting, Deputy Bloom. I’m guessing you’ll be wanting that one turned in as your qualifying score?”

  “Turn them both in,” she said as she gathered up her brass.

  Ray’s smile widened, and he gave her an approving nod. “Honesty. I like that. It’s in short supply these days.”

  “Sadly true.”

  “Any closer on finding that maniac?”

  “I think the official phrase is ‘the investigation is ongoing.’”

  Ray snorted inelegantly.

  “My sentiments exactly,” she agreed.

  And she meant it. This case was beyond frustrating, for so many reasons. The obvious, of course—a deranged serial killer was destroying a town, both emotionally and economically, and here she was nearly a year later with no resolution—but also she felt as if she was letting Trey down. The sheriff had trusted her to get the job done when he’d had to recuse himself because the first suspect’s body had been found on his cousin Wyatt’s ranch, and there’d been an uproar about the Coltons getting preferential treatment. Which only made the load heavier, given her own personal history—which she had kept secret.

  And then there was her gut certainty that Sabrina Gilford had not been a victim of their serial killer, which was just the cherry on top of this swirling mix. It was enough to give her nightmares, and in fact on occasion had.

  Straighten up, girl—you didn’t get to where you are by quitting. Whoever, wherever this killer is, he’s going down, and you’re going to do it.

  * * *

  If he hadn’t gone for the shaved head look some time ago, Stefan Roberts figured he’d be tearing his hair out about now.

  “I won’t go! I don’t like it here. I don’t like you!”

  He stared at the five-year-old who was his son, standing there glaring at him with his arms crossed firmly across his small chest. He weighed his options. He could spend some more time trying to talk the child into going to school without a fuss. Except he was already running late for work. He could leave it for Mrs. Crane, the sitter he’d hired, to handle. But that seemed...cowardly somehow. He could pick the kid up and carry him out to the car. And maybe stuff him in the trunk? That’d go over well.

  He sucked in a deep breath and fought for calm. Blowing up at his son would do no good at all, he was sure. He’d snapped at him a few times when he’d hit the end of his patience, and the boy had just closed off further.

  “Look, Samuel, I know this wasn’t your idea. You didn’t want this. But we’re here—we’re stuck with each other. Can’t you make the best of it?”

  The glare only intensified. So once more, he’d apparently said the wrong thing. And his already frayed temper lost another thread. When he spoke it was with the rigidness of an anger barely held at bay.

  “That’s enough. You’re going to school, Samuel. How you go is up to you.”

  Something shifted in the boy’s dark eyes, so like his mother’s. Something that was there and gone so quickly it was hard to pin a name on it. Had he been at work, he would have immediately registered it as fear, but he didn’t want to believe his son was afraid of him. The massive changes in his life, sure. But him? He didn’t like that idea at all.

  But right now, he just had to get the boy out the door and to school. Mrs. Crane would see to him when school was out. He would have to talk to her, see if she had any ideas on how to deal with the rotten attitude Samuel seemed to have arrived with. But he didn’t have time now. He had to get to work. Daria would be wondering where the hell he was. And he didn’t want Daria Bloom mad at him.

  Might be safer if she was.

  He barely acknowledged the wayward thought. He was used to them by now. That day three months ago when he’d first walked into the sheriff’s office and seen the deputy assigned to the case, he’d known this wasn’t going to be routine. Working every day, in close proximity, to that? He’d known the first moment she turned those wide, beautiful, golden-brown eyes on him assessingly that this woman could be trouble. There wasn’t a damned thing about her he didn’t like, from the way that short, sleek haircut of hers bared the nape of her neck when she bent her head, to the way she moved, like a dancer he’d seen once back in Chicago.

  Then again, he’d learned his lesson well; he’d been hot for Leah, too, and look how that had turned out. She hadn’t had whatever it took to be married to an FBI agent, if that even existed. She’d been excited at first, but then the reality of long hours away and the stringent dedication that the job necessitated had settled in. When she’d gotten pregnant with Samuel, things had improved a little, but it hadn’t lasted. By then she had bigger, grander plans for her future than being married to him.

  And then it had fallen apart, and the son he loved so much had become a part-time presence in his life. He hated the fact, but between his work hours, Leah’s lack of cooperation, and then his transfer, that’s what had happened.

  He shook off the thoughts; he needed to focus on the immediate issue, which was getting Samuel to school. In the end it took bribery—the promise of an extra bit of video-game time—but Stefan counted it as a win. At least the kid’s favorite game was a fantasy instead of just blowing stuff up or shooting people. And as he finally headed off to work, he found himself smiling wryly that that was the most optimistic thing he could think of just now.

  He called the field office to check in. It was a formality, since he’d been allocated to this case full-time until it was resolved. When he got to the sheriff’s office and found Daria had not yet arrived, he felt a tiny bit of annoyance mixed with relief.

  “She’s at the range,” the perky secretary they’d been assigned told him. Then, in a tone of confidentiality, she added, “She’s the best shot in the department, you know. Some of the guys won’t admit that, but she’s outscored all of them at one time or another.”

  “Good to know,” Stefan said drolly. “I’ll try not to make her shooting mad at me.” He was only half kidding. There was something about Daria Bloom that made him think she was not a woman to be crossed.

  “Oh, she’d never shoot at you. That’d
be like shooting at one of the local scenic wonders.”

  Stefan blinked. Was she flirting with him? She was, what, maybe twenty? He suddenly felt old.

  “Now you’re a scenic wonder?”

  He nearly groaned aloud as the voice came from behind him. A voice he recognized too well, since the husky timbre of it sent the craziest tingle over his skin. But he put on his best unaffected grin as he turned to see the woman in question approaching.

  “So’s Denver International,” he said, referring to the jaw-dropping airport structure voted the ugliest building in the state by half the population, the most beautiful by the other half. And to his inward delight, she laughed. It was rare enough with all the pressure on her right now that she even smiled, so he counted this as a win.

  “Sorry I’m late. I needed to clean both weapons, so it took longer.”

  “Gotta keep the tools clean,” he agreed. “I was running behind myself.”

  “Problem?”

  “Only personal,” he said with a slight grimace. She let it go without asking, and he appreciated that. He appreciated a lot about Daria.

  She confirmed with the secretary, who was watching them with a little too much interest, that there were no messages she hadn’t already gotten. They were turning to go to the office assigned solely to this case when the door behind them opened and Sheriff Trey Colton stepped through.

  Trey was about Stefan’s own height and had a no-nonsense air about him that Stefan liked. He was also, as far as Stefan could see, a fine sheriff. By the book and honorable and, up until this Avalanche Killer mess, nothing had happened to mar his stellar record. As the first African American to be elected sheriff, not to mention one of the youngest people ever to hold the office, he was clearly determined to keep it that way. And Stefan was glad to help. He’d had his own dragons to slay on his way to where he was now, so he could relate.

  They gave him an update, not that there was much to report. Trey restated his complete faith in them, which made Stefan even more determined, and with a barely concealed grimace the sheriff went off to deal with today’s round of media chaos.