Bella Books, Inc.

P.O. Box 10543

Tallahassee, FL 32302

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the publisher.

First Bella Books Edition 2014

eBook released 2014

Editor: Medora MacDougall

Cover Designer: Judith Fellows

ISBN: 978-1-59493-429-2

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.




Other Bella Books by Gerri Hill



Artist’s Dream

At Seventeen

Behind the Pine Curtain

The Cottage

Coyote Sky

Dawn of Change

Devil’s Rock

Gulf Breeze

Hell’s Highway

Hunter’s Way

In the Name of the Father

Keepers of the Cave

The Killing Room

Love Waits

The Midnight Moon

No Strings

One Summer Night

Partners

The Rainbow Cedar

The Scorpion

Sierra City

Snow Falls

Storms

The Target

Weeping Walls




About the Author



Gerri Hill has twenty-six published works, including the 2013 GCLS winner Snow Falls, 2011 and 2012 GCLS winners Devil’s Rock and Hell’s Highway, and the 2009 GCLS winner Partners, the last book in the popular Hunter Series, as well as the 2012 Lambda finalist Storms. Hill’s love of nature and of being outdoors usually makes its way into her stories as her characters often find themselves in beautiful natural settings. When she isn’t writing, Gerri and her longtime partner, Diane, keep busy at their log cabin in East Texas tending to their two vegetable gardens, orchard and five acres of piney woods. They share their lives with two Australian shepherds and an assortment of furry felines.




Chapter One



Tori Hunter leaned back in her camp chair and watched with amusement as her best friend attempted to get the fire going.

“O’Connor, what the hell are you doing?”

“Lighter fluid.” Casey paused. “Unless you want to get your ass up and help.”

“No, no. I’m fine. But after you blow that thing up, would you bring me a beer?”

Casey turned to her. “Are you going to get up and do anything?”

“I’m on vacation. I think that’s what you promised me when I agreed to come out here, wasn’t it? That you’d take care of everything and I could relax,” Tori reminded her.

“Yeah, but as bossy as you are, I didn’t think you could stand it.”

“Bossy? Me?”

Casey gave her a crooked smile. “Oh, yeah, Hunter. You.”

“Come on. I’ve mellowed in the last few years. That’s what Sam says. Some people might even say I’m nice now.”

Casey laughed. “Name me one of your colleagues who would use that word. And I mean current colleagues. You can’t use John. You saved his life. He’s got to say that.”

Her current team flashed through her mind quickly and…okay. So maybe Casey had a point.

“Yeah. Thought so,” Casey teased as she headed toward their rented RV, presumably to fetch the beer she’d requested.

Tori smiled at her, then took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air, so different from the city air she was used to. She had to admit, it was relaxing, this camping trip that Casey and Leslie had talked them into. She’d balked at first. A trip to New Mexico? In a rented motor home? For a whole damn week? No, not her thing. But Sam had thought it would be fun and Casey had badgered her enough that she finally agreed. Back in Dallas, the four of them hung out whenever their schedules allowed, which seemed to be less and less lately. Casey and Leslie still worked Homicide and Sam was still at CIU. Tori had moved on to the FBI a few years ago now. She would like to say she loved it, but the truth was, she missed Homicide and she missed working with Casey. But after what had happened to John Sikes, after the whole Patrick Doe thing, she needed a change. She hadn’t even told Sam yet, but she was thinking about going back to the Dallas Police Department. That was one reason she’d agreed to this trip. She wanted time away to think things over and decide if she was ready to go back. She didn’t want to get Sam’s hopes up if she wasn’t sure.

“Here you go, princess,” Casey said as she handed Tori a bottle of beer.

“Thanks.” Tori glanced toward the RV. “What are they doing in there?”

“Sam is making some sort of rice dish and Leslie is seasoning the chicken.” Casey pulled her chair closer. “This is great, isn’t it? We could be back home sweltering in the heat. September and it’s still in the upper 90s there. That’s crazy.” She took a deep breath. “Instead, we’re up here in the mountains. No humidity. It’s nice and cool. And we’re getting to see a little early fall color.” She clanked her beer bottle against Tori’s in a silent salute. “It’s great up here, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is.” Tori took a swallow from her beer. “Thanks for making me do this.”

“Yeah.” Casey took a swallow of beer too. “You know, they want to go into Taos tomorrow. How about we let them go and you and I hike down to that trout stream the ranger was telling us about?”

Tori raised her eyebrows. “You think they’ll go for it?”

Casey nodded and grinned. “Yeah. We’ll just whine enough. They’ll be glad to get rid of us.”

“Well, it’s been a while since we’ve been fishing.”

“It’s been a while since we’ve hung out,” Casey reminded her. “That’s why I thought this vacation would do us all good. You’ve been a little, well, cranky lately.”

Tori laughed. “Cranky? Me?”

“You need to talk about something?” Casey offered.

Tori nodded. She’d met Casey by chance. Casey was still with Special Victims Unit back when they’d assigned her to Homicide to work a case. They’d hit it off immediately, something very rare for Tori. Back then, she didn’t have any friends, only Sam. But she and Casey had clicked right away. She found it was as easy to talk to Casey as it was to Sam.

“I’m thinking of leaving the FBI,” she said.

“Really? I thought you loved it.”

Tori shrugged. “It was a nice change. I needed it.”

“And now?”

“It’s just goddamn politics all the time. I hate that part of it.” She looked over at her. “Truth is, I miss Homicide. I miss the team.”

“You want to come back?”

“Maybe. What do you think?”

“Oh, hell yeah, Hunter, that’d be great. You know Lieutenant Malone would find a spot for you, no problem. Maybe me and you, you know.”

“You recently got a new partner though.”

“Yeah, and I like him okay. I mean, he’s not Leslie, don’t get me wrong,” she said with smile. “But I’m not really attached to him or anything. Besides, he thinks I talk too much.”

Tori laughed. “Now that’s a surprise.”

“No. Seriously. You going to come back?”

“It’s been on my mind a lot lately.”

“What does Sam think?”

“I haven’t told her. I wanted to be sure.” She took another swallow of her beer. “Our schedules are so off, we don’t have nearly as much time together anymore. I know she’d be thrilled if I went back.”

“Yeah, we all would.”

“We’ll see. Career-wise, that’d be taking a step back, you know.”

“Oh, please. You FBI types always think you’re on the top of the world,” Casey said with a laugh.

“That’s because we are, O’Connor.”

They looked up as a truck sped their way, then slammed to a stop. It was a dusty green Forest Service truck and a ranger got out, practically running toward them.

“You’re law enforcement, right?” he asked quickly. “They told me you were. I got a situation.”

“A situation?” Casey asked. “We’re kinda out of our jurisdiction, you know. I’m Dallas PD.” Casey pointed at Tori. “Hunter here is FBI. I guess maybe that would fly.”

“What’s going on?” Tori asked.

“I got a distress call from the wife of one of my rangers,” he said as he twisted his hands together nervously. “This is his day off. She said someone was in their house, that he had a gun. I heard shots and the line went dead.”

“Sheriff’s department?”

“Yeah, I called them, but they got a huge mess down on Highway 64. They got five cars involved, but they got gunshot victims too,” he explained. “They’re sending someone up here as soon as they can, but I got a bad feeling. I mean, I heard shots on the phone. I need somebody right now.”

Tori looked at Casey. “I guess we could go take a look.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Casey got up. “I’ll get our weapons and tell Sam and Les.”

But they had already come outside. Sam walked up to her, her eyes questioning. “Everything okay?”

“I think so. He wants us to check out something. Possible home invasion,” she said. “It’s going to be a little while before the sheriff’s department gets here. Thought we’d go take a look.”

“Okay. We’ll hold off dinner then.”

“We’ll be right back.” She hesitated a second as she looked at Sam, her gut telling her not to leave for some reason. She felt a bit embarrassed with the ranger watching, so she shook it off and pulled Sam into a quick hug. “Be right back,” she whispered into her ear.