Bodyguard Under the Mistletoe

Bodyguard Under the Mistletoe by Cassie Miles Read Free Book Online Page B

Book: Bodyguard Under the Mistletoe by Cassie Miles Read Free Book Online
Authors: Cassie Miles
Tags: Fiction, General, Romance, Contemporary
He’d already gone through the outbuildings on the widow’s land. And he hadn’t found a damn thing.
    Still, he knew the money was there. Butch didn’t have time to move it. But where? The way Richter figured, the widow had to know. Maybe she’d been working with Butch. Or maybe she found the money and stashed it herself.
    Either way, Pete needed to get his hands on Fiona Grant. He’d make her talk.

Chapter Six
    Sunset painted the December skies in streaks of pink and gold above distant, snowy peaks. For a moment, Jesse watched and marveled. He’d almost died. This might count as the first sunset of the rest of his life. Inborn wisdom told him to take a moment to appreciate this miracle of light.
    He sat on the one-step covered porch outside Fiona’s front door. Beside him was Sheriff Trainer from Delta. His deputies had removed the body and dusted for prints. They were still combing the area—looking for evidence and finding nothing of importance.
    The sheriff took a drag on his cigarette. “I’ve been around a long time. Never been tangled up in anything this complicated, but I’ve dealt with my share of lawbreakers. And it seems to me that when people get in trouble, they’re usually asking for it.”
    â€œNot in my line of work,” Jesse said. “Most of the people I’m hired to protect are victims of circumstance. Like the Carlisles. Like Nicole.”
    â€œMiss Nicole was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” the sheriff conceded. “Those boys from the SOF didn’t set out to kidnap anybody. But you’ve got to admit that theywouldn’t have kept Nicole if she hadn’t been Dylan’s wife. They knew he’d pay any price to get her back.”
    â€œAre you saying that it’s Nicole’s fault that she got kidnapped?”
    â€œHell, no. I’m not blaming her.” His long, narrow face grew even longer when he frowned. “I might be a rural county sheriff, but I’m not an idiot.”
    â€œDidn’t say you were.”
    But he’d thought it. Before the kidnapping and murder, Sheriff Trainer might have been a good-natured, easygoing guy. Now he was as nervous as a squirrel guarding his winter cache of pinecones.
    â€œI’m trying to make a point,” Trainer said. “There’s got to be a reason why the kidnappers are searching here.”
    Jesse knew where the sheriff’s logic was headed. They’d all been asking the same question: why here? Logic pointed toward Fiona. She must have done something to bring trouble upon herself.
    He also knew that those assumptions were dead wrong. His instincts told him that Fiona was completely, entirely innocent.
    The sheriff looked down at the growing ash on his cigarette and asked, “How well do you know Fiona Grant?”
    â€œI met her for the first time today,” he said. “But I knew her husband. A good man who died too young.”
    The sheriff shot a glance toward Jesse. “Do you think she’s got something to hide?”
    â€œHell, no.”
    Not Fiona. Not that sweet, gentle woman with the appealing gray eyes. When they found the opened boxes in her pottery studio, she was genuinely surprised. Until he mentioned the ransom, the thought hadn’t occurred to her.When they discovered the body of Butch Thurgood, he’d seen her terror.
    â€œIt doesn’t make sense, Sheriff. If she knew where the ransom was stashed, why wouldn’t she grab it and run?”
    â€œCould be that Butch hid the ransom before she got her hands on it.”
    â€œThink again,” Jesse said. “If she knew the ransom was here, she’d want to keep it a secret. She wouldn’t call in a search party.”
    â€œUnless she was scared. Pete Richter is still at large,” the sheriff reminded him. “Maybe she decided it was better to hand over the cash than to face Richter’s vengeance.”
    Though he

Similar Books

Bite Me

Donaya Haymond

First Class Menu

Aj Harmon, Christopher Harmon

Tourist Season

Carl Hiaasen

All Good Women

Valerie Miner

Stiff

Mary Roach

Tell Me True

Karpov Kinrade

Edge of Eternity

Ken Follett

Lord of Misrule

Alix Bekins