Harlequin Romantic Suspense April 2021 Karen Whiddon (best fiction books to read TXT) 📖

my mom will hang herself from grief. I can’t believe that this will work, but I hope. I want the nightmare to end.

Luis looked over his shoulder and into the hallway. “Julia,” he shouted. “You have to come and see this.”

Nothing.

“Julia?”

Luis consulted his phone for the time. How long had she been gone? True, he hadn’t noted the time she’d left, yet to him, it seemed like she’d been gone longer than a quick trip to the truck. Which meant what?

“Julia?” he called out again.

Hobbling from the bedroom, Luis carried the note by the nose of the tweezers and crossed the hallway. He entered what had been the master bedroom, which faced the front of the house. He moved to the window and looked down. The pickup truck sat in the drive, with the passenger door open. A first-aid kit was lying on the ground.

But what had happened to Julia? And where had she gone?

* * *

Julia’s heart hammered hard against her chest. Despite the fact that she knew it to be an impossibility, she feared that her ribs might crack. Her breath came in shallow gasps and her middle ached with each inhalation.

“Where are you?” she whispered. “Show yourself, you coward.”

A rustling came from behind. She spun and aimed the revolver. A bird erupted from the scrub and soared to the upper branches of a scraggly pine. Julia tried to laugh. The noise came out as a strangled cry.

She let her shoulder relax and her arm hung at her side. Julia took a step forward and stopped. Tall trees surrounded her on all sides. The undergrowth was thick, obscuring the forest floor. Her slowing pulse resonated in her skull, and the call of birds filled the air. She searched for something that looked familiar. It was all the same. Trees. Brush. Peeks of blue sky.

“Get a grip, McCloud,” she said out loud. Somehow, the sound of her own voice slowed her pulse and cleared her thinking.

Julia knew one thing: she had to save herself. After all, she’d gone through Ranger School. She was now sheriff of Pleasant Pines. She could do this.

With another inhale, she focused and found a set of vines that had been pulled aside at the base of a tree. A scuff mark on the dirt was visible from where she stood. Julia moved to the spot. From there, she looked for another clue to follow. A low branch, broken. She walked toward it. Saw that the broken branch was still damp with sap and knew that the break was recent.

Her heart rate lowered and she scanned the woods once more. There was a felled tree, covered in lichen, that had been kicked loose by a boot heel.

Like a modern-day Gretel from the fairy tale, she picked her way through the woods, moving from one mark to the next. All the while, she thought of what had lured her into the woods. A person. No, not any person. It was whoever’d been following her since Tom Dolan turned up dead in the park.

Julia was the one who found the body.

Was the discovery of the body completely random? Or had Tom Dolan been left there for Julia to find?

And if so, why?

She had to admit she didn’t have a single idea. And the implications were too terrifying to consider.

CHAPTER 11

“Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.” Luis cursed with each painful step as he hustled from the house and down the stairs, making sure to avoid the step that had broken.

Bursting through the front door, he placed his hands on either side of his mouth. “Julia?” he called out. “Where are you? Julia!”

Standing still, he held his breath and listened.

There was no answer.

He made his way to the truck. The first-aid kit he’d seen from the second-story window was still lying on the ground. The latch was open, but the box was empty. He peered inside the truck. The contents of the first-aid kit were scattered behind the back seat.

Luis immediately catalogued all of the things that might’ve happened to Julia. Then again, this was a woman who’d served in a combat zone and graduated from Ranger School.

If anyone could handle themselves, it was Julia.

Except, she’d been off since her attack at home. Maybe even before then. Perhaps embroiling herself in the newest murder investigation hadn’t been the best idea.

The murder investigation.

Looking at his hand, Luis realized that he still held the diary entry by a set of tweezers. After taking a moment to retrieve a plastic evidence bag from the glove box, Luis slipped both items inside. He tucked the bag into the first-aid kit and set it on the driver’s seat.

Stepping away from the truck, he yelled again. “Julia? Can you hear me?”

Nothing.

“Julia?”

His pulse raced as he stepped off the gravel drive and onto the lawn. There, a tree trunk was broken and splintered. He walked to the tree and touched the scarring. Was that a bullet hole?

Who had been shooting? And what had been the intended target?

* * *

The woods lightened, and Julia noted that the trees were farther apart. She paused, straining her vision, as she looked for a clearing that might lead to the road...or, better yet, the house.

A beam of light cut through the gloom. A figure moved out of the shadows, skirting the light before disappearing behind another tree.

Sucking in a breath, she dropped to her knee. Certainly, her drab clothes blended with the trees and foliage, yet it was hardly enough to keep her hidden. Lifting the gun, she looked down the sight and tracked the person as they walked away from where she was kneeling. Sweat collected at her hairline and dripped into her eyes. She blinked. It made no difference.

In the army, she’d been trained to take the shot, but only if absolutely certain. The person walked slowly, looking left and right. From where she hid, behind the bushes, the figure had no distinct features. So really, it could be anyone. Yet, who else would it be