The car bulleted for the next hairpin turn.
She had to get Seth’s foot off the gas, but how? With her hands bound, it was all she could do to steer.
They screeched around the second turn, the back end whipping almost into a spin. Something crashed behind them. The guardrail.
Oh, God.
Seth’s blows grew weaker. The car started to slow.
As Melissa piloted them around one more turn, the acceleration and Seth’s fists stopped. Using both hands, she shifted the car manually into second gear, into first. Finally she guided the car into an overlook and jammed it into Park. They jolted to a stop.
She sat up, panting, and looked at Seth’s purple face.
Nick released the ends of Seth’s red tie and slumped forward against the back of her seat.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
AS MUCH AS NICK HAD wanted to kill Seth Wallace when he threatened Jason’s life, he was relieved the man wasn’t dead. After Melissa stopped the car and Nick released the necktie, they’d located the handcuff keys in his pocket. They released themselves and cuffed him, getting both wrists and ankles for good measure.
It was right, seeing Seth Wallace trussed up like a rodeo calf. It was right he was still alive and on his way to prison. Death would be too easy for a slime like him. No, he deserved the humiliation of going through the system he’d tried to manipulate. He deserved the headlines exposing the sleazy underbelly of his life. He deserved to be locked away with all the scumbags he’d put there before him.
He deserved justice.
And lucky for them, he had a GPS service in his fancy car.
They didn’t have to wait long before the narrow overlook was flashing with lights from sheriffs’ cars and an ambulance. Just a short time later, detectives rolled in. People he didn’t know, but Melissa did. People who did the job because it was important, because it helped others.
People like her.
Nick pulled the tape recorder from his pocket and handed it to the first detective on the scene. “It’s all there. Seth Wallace telling us what he did in his own words.”
Melissa’s eyebrows arched. A hint of a smile touched her lips for the first time since they’d said goodbye last night. “You recorded it? All of it?”
“Tammy’s idea. If it was up to me, I would have just borrowed her gun and rushed in like a bull.”
“I knew I recognized that gun.”
The detective left them with strict instructions to stay and wait for more questions. Nick nodded dutifully. Lovely.
He lifted his hat, forgetting he had no functioning second hand to rake through his hair. With nothing left to do, he plopped it back on his head and looked down at Melissa.
Nick had so much to say to her. So much he wanted her to know. But now, standing here, her beautiful eyes peering up at him, he had no clue where to start. He didn’t remember any words. Not a single one.
She was the one who spoke first.
“I’m so stupid. You saved me. I’m so stupid, and you saved me.” Tears filled her eyes, spilled over and trickled in little rivers down her cheeks.
He had to smile, his own eyes getting a little watery. “You’re as tongue-tied as me? This is one for the books.”
“You’re laughing at me?”
“Laughing with you, sweetheart.” He reached out for her with his good arm and gathered her close. “Laughing with you. That’s all I want.”
He wanted to say more, to explain his change of heart, to make his case. But he could sense this wasn’t the time for making decisions about the rest of their lives. It was the time for holding each other. For being grateful they were alive. For counting all the blessings of this world.
She craned her neck and looked up at him, and he brought his lips down to hers. Salt and warmth and Melissa. If he could kiss these lips forever, he’d be happy to the end of his days.
He just had to find a way to convince her of that.
______
After all the questioning and the follow-up and all the other details Melissa had had to tend to, two days passed before she was able to spend some real time with Jason and Nick. Tammy had insisted on putting them up at her house, and Nick had given in. The arrangement had been good for all three of them. Melissa could see it in their faces when she’d come to dinner the second night. Nick and Jason had someone to dote on them after all they’d been through, and Tammy had someone to serve. All three looked happy. At peace for the first time since this mess had begun.
Melissa only wished she was in such good shape.
She’d spent most of the night playing with Jason, and all of them had gotten so wrapped up in the fun that they’d almost forgotten to eat. Jason settled for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and was now getting pajama-ed with Nick and reading with Tammy, whom he now called Mee-Maw. Their nightly routine, two nights old. Melissa had set to grilling three steaks for the adults’ dinner.
“You’d make a great cowboy.”
Nick’s voice startled her. She hadn’t heard the door slide open.
“A cowboy? How so?”
He walked across the deck, his boots ringing hollow on the wood. “Lots of grilling under the stars in the guest-ranch business.”
“Nick, I wanted to talk—”
“Kidding. I know you love your job, that you love it here in the city.”
She glanced around. The buildings of downtown glowed in the distance, the shadows of mountains looming beyond. But up above them, the sky stretched like a blank slate, waiting for the stars to write something new.
“So Jason and I have talked about another possibility.” He stopped next to her and pulled his hat off by the crown with his good hand, his good arm, the other now properly set in a cast. He fidgeted with the brim, then adjusted it back on his head. “I want you to take a second to just hear me out, if you would.”
She watched him closely, a hum settling over her nerves. “Sure. What is it?”
“We’re talking about moving. Here.”
“To Denver?” She squinted up at him. She couldn’t have heard him right.
“Is that a problem?”
“Yes.”
“Yes? Why?”
“You’re a rancher. You love the Circle J. You’d be miserable living in the city.”
“I’d be more miserable without you.”
She blinked, chasing back the surge of tears.
“So that’s settled?”
“Oh, Nick. There is nothing in the world more romantic than a man willing to give up everything he owns, everything he is, so he can be with you.”
“I sense a but coming.”
But as lovely as the feeling was, it wasn’t what she wanted. She’d fallen in love with him. Nick Raymond, the man. And if she took the ranch out of Nick, eventually there’d be nothing left of that man he was.
Besides, she had other plans. “You can’t give up the Circle J.”
“If I’ve figured out anything throughout this whole mess, it’s that people are a lot more important to me than places. And I’m never going to get that mixed up again.”
He brought his lips down to hers, tasting, caressing. A short little kiss that left her hungry for more.
She smiled up at him. “There’s another reason you can’t give up the ranch and move to the city.”
“What’s that?”
“Because I have a job interview with a sheriff’s department up in Wyoming. Teton County.”
“What?”
“I want to go back to what is important to me. Helping people. Protecting people. The hands on part of justice. Not running down details for the D.A.”
He let out a chuckle. “So that’s what your job is about? Running down details?”
“Not is, was. I quit.”
His eyes rounded. “You quit your job?”
“I couldn’t go back there. Not after all that’s happened. There’s no part of me that even wants to. I need a change of scenery.”
The smile started with his eyes then spread
to his whole face. “I know a place that has great scenery. Or at least it will once you’re there.”
Oh, God. If he threw a tilt of the hat or a “Howdy, ma’am” in there, she was toast. As it was, she felt as if she might just swoon.
“You okay?” He cupped her elbow with his hand.
“Yeah. I’m more than okay, as long as I can catch my breath. This is all happening a little fast.”
He nodded. “I have guest cabins. I’ve never rented one out on more than a weekly basis, but I’m sure it can be arranged. I’m pretty close with the boss.”
“You would do that?”
“Let you get your feet wet, decide if it’s what you really want? Absolutely. And the rest…the rest we’ll just take day by day, okay?”
She shot him a teasing smile. “One day is all you can handle?”
His eyes darkened a shade, deepened. “No. That’s not all I can handle. It’s not all I want. I’m sure of that even now. I want the rings and the wedding vows, and I want the promises of forever. But before any of that, I want you to be sure that you want it, too. And I’m willing to wait as long as it takes—’til I’m as old as those mountains, if need be—for you to be sure. For us to be sure.”
“You’d do that?”
“Only for you, Melissa. Only for you.”
He kissed her again, this time slow and deep. And for the first time in her life she knew she had found what she wanted. What she needed. What she never even really knew existed before, at least not for her. She’d found a home. She’d found a family. And she’d found someone she could trust to be there whenever she needed to reach out her hand.
______
THANK YOU
THANK YOU FOR READING JUSTICE, the third book in the Rocky Mountain Thriller series. If you enjoyed the book, please consider writing a review on Amazon.com and Goodreads to let other readers know about the series. Authors are nothing without readers, so if you like the books, please help spread the word!
To find out about each new Ann Voss Peterson story as they are released, sign up for her newsletter here. Visit her at http://annvosspeterson.com, or follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN THRILLERS are fast-paced novels with a dangerous edge. Each stand-alone story is set in the brutal and beautiful Rocky Mountains and contains intrigue, romance, and break-neck action. Read all three!
Manhunt
Fugitive
Justice
IF YOU LIKED ROCKY MOUNTAIN THRILLERS, YOU MIGHT LIKE THE SMALL TOWN SECRETS SERIES FROM ANN VOSS PETERSON.
LETHAL
Book One in Small Town Secrets series
A Prison Wedding
Psychology professor Risa Madsen was too late to stop her little sister from marrying incarcerated serial killer Ed Dryden. But it wasn’t until he escaped, and took sister Nikki with him, that the horror really began…
A Promise Broken
Years ago, FBI profiler Trent Burnell gave up a life with Risa to focus on stopping psychopaths. Now a killer Trent helped convict is stalking Risa and terrorizing her sister, and it’s up to Trent to take him out. But he can’t do it alone...
From nationally bestselling and award-winning romantic suspense author, Ann Voss Peterson, comes the first in a series of ten standalone novels exploring the world surrounding her popular character Police Chief Val Ryker (Pushed Too Far, Burned Too Hot, Dead Too Soon).
A young woman searching for love.
A sister hoping for a second chance.
A FBI agent who’s seen it all before.
A sadistic killer bent on revenge.
Buy LETHAL by Ann Voss Peterson
Love, sex, revenge, murder... welcome to Lake Loyal, Wisconsin.
BOOKS BY ANN VOSS PETERSON:
VAL RYKER SERIES
Pushed Too Far
Burned Too Hot
Dead Too Soon
Watched Too Long (A Val Ryker short novel with J.A. Konrath)
Buried Too Deep (release date TBA)
CODENAME: CHANDLER thrillers, by Ann Voss Peterson and J.A. Konrath!
Hit
Exposed
Fix (with F. Paul Wilson)
Naughty
Flee
Spree
Three
Rescue
SMALL TOWN SECRETS (to be released in 2017 and 2018)
The smallest towns have the most to hide…
Lethal
Witness
Forbidden
Kidnapped
Guilty
Stolen
Malice
Captive
Frantic
Vicious
The School (A Small Town Secrets short novel)
ROCKY MOUNTAIN THRILLERS
Manhunt
Fugitive
Justice
PARANORMAL ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
GYPSY MAGIC
Part 1: Wyatt (Justice is Blind)
Part 2: Garner (Love is Death)
Part 3: Andrei (The Law is Impotent)
RENEGADE MAGIC
Part 1: Luke by Rebecca York
Part 2: Tom by Ann Voss Peterson
Part 3: Rico by Patricia Rosemoor
NEW ORLEANS MAGIC
Part 1: Jordan by Rebecca York
Part 2: Liam by Ann Voss Peterson
Part 3: Zachary by Patricia Rosemoor
SECURITY BREACH
Book 1: Chain Reaction by Rebecca York
Book 2: Critical Exposure by Ann Voss Peterson
Book 3: Triggered Response by Patricia Rosemoor
CHRISTMAS IN JENKINS COVE
Book 1: Christmas Spirit by Rebecca York
Book 2: Christmas Awakening by Ann Voss Peterson
Book 3: Christmas Delivery by Patricia Rosemoor
Short Stories:
Babe On Board (with J.A. Konrath)
Wild Night Is Calling (with J.A. Konrath)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ANN VOSS PETERSON IS THE author of over thirty novels and has millions of books in print all over the globe. Winner of the prestigious Daphne du Maurier Award, a Rita finalist, and a Romance Writers of America Honor Roll author, Ann is known for her adrenaline-fueled thrillers and romantic suspense novels, including the Codename: Chandler spy thrillers she writes with J.A. Konrath and her own thriller series featuring small town Wisconsin police chief Val Ryker.
A creative writing major in college, Ann worked all manner of jobs after graduation, ranging from grooming show horses to washing windows, and now she draws on her wide variety of life experiences to fill her fictional worlds with compelling energy and undeniable emotion.
She lives near Madison, Wisconsin with her family and their border collie. Visit Ann at www.AnnVossPeterson.com, and check out the behind-the-scenes research that goes into her books. To hear about new releases and discounted books, and win the occasional prize, sign up to receive Ann’s newsletter and follow her on Facebook.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
Justice
An earlier edition of this novel was previously published under the title A Rancher’s Brand of Justice.
Copyright © 2010, 2017 by Ann Voss Peterson
Cover and art copyright © 2016 by Carl Graves
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author.
June, 2017
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Justice (A Rocky Mountain Thriller Book 3) Page 16
