Mountain Secrets Elizabeth Goddard (life changing books to read .txt) 📖

with or without her. Jewel couldn’t let her time with Meral slip away so fast. Colin had suggested she leave, get out of town, and this could be the answer. She could also keep an eye on Buck for Meral’s sake. She still had the feeling Buck was using Meral.

As if she could protect Meral, given she’d done such a great job protecting herself.

Why hadn’t Meral seen through Buck before she’d married him? But then, maybe that was how Jewel’s parents had felt when Jewel had chosen Silas. Except they had been wrong about him.

Could she be wrong about Buck?

She looked up. Everyone was still waiting. “I need to think about it.”

“You have a day. We’ll need time to get you ready for the trip. But I really don’t see you have a choice,” Meral said.

Jewel locked eyes with Colin. Why wasn’t he saying anything? But he’d already told her to go. Maybe that was enough.

It would mean she couldn’t stick close to the man who wanted to protect her, like Doc Harland said. Doc seemed to believe God had put Colin in her life to protect her, but what happened now if she left that protection behind in search of a safe place?

Colin sat in the chair across the antique mahogany desk from Mayor Judy Conroy. A driven woman in her early fifties, she liked to dress the part of a politician. Had a stylish hairdo and ordered her suits from some fancy place out of Seattle. No matter the weather, she would always wear matching pumps. And she liked to control and intimidate.

But she hadn’t called him into her office today. No. He’d come here of his own volition, needing to detail his plans and ask permission, something he never liked to do. Especially since he could see in her eyes she had plans of her own—to berate Colin.

She sucked in a breath, opened her mouth and her cell buzzed on her desk. After a glance down she released that breath, then looked back at him. “Sorry, Chief. Gotta take this. It won’t be but a second.”

“No problem.”

She was on the cell before he responded. He released a pent-up sigh and tried to calm himself. The call would give him a few seconds, hopefully minutes, to regain his nerve. He tapped his fingers on her desk while he waited for her to end the phone call.

Where did he start? How did he present his case?

She jabbered on with her niece, Taney Westmore, while Colin tried to ignore the conversation. He got up to pace the room. What he wanted to do was put his fist through the wall. He’d never been so frustrated.

He’d been the one to suggest that Jewel get out of town, and now he was incredibly bothered by the idea that she was taking his advice. He should have considered that if Jewel left town, Buck would be with her because Meral would be with her.

But Colin hadn’t thought that through very well. “Idiot,” he mumbled under his breath with a quick glance at the mayor. Wouldn’t do for her to think he had just called her a name.

No, he needed her in a good mood. Problem was he had been the one to put her in a perpetually bad mood lately. Now add that one of his officers had been murdered and another one injured, and the mayor would likely tear into him before he got a word in edgewise.

The pressure was on and seemed to be measured by the pounding in his head.

Finally, he plopped in the chair again, afraid that if he kept pacing he would, in fact, put a fist through the wall in the mayor’s office, and that wouldn’t go over well. He noticed a Holy Bible sitting at the corner of her desk and took a minute to seek some guidance. Closing his eyes, he drew in a calming breath.

God, I could use a little help here. I’m in a serious predicament. Help me to do what needs to be done. Help me get Jed’s killer before he kills again. Help me keep Jewel safe.

“Sleeping on the job?”

He opened his eyes to see that she had ended her call. “No, just saying a little prayer.”

“That bad, huh?” Her brows drew together. “Sorry about the call, but I had to take it.”

“No problem.” He should ask if everything was all right with Taney, but that would send them down a road he didn’t want to go right now.

She pressed her elbows on her desk and rested her chin in her clasped hands. “What can I do for you?”

Colin could see it in her eyes. That was a trick question—she was waiting for him to say something she could criticize. Everything he was about to say went against his personal policy, his resolve to act only on the cold hard facts. He pulled in a breath.

Here goes nothing or everything.

“I have a possible lead on Jed’s murder and on who attacked Jewel Caraway.”

“Is that so?”

“But I need to follow it up.”

The mayor dropped her hands and pushed from the chair. Now she was the one pacing. Building up steam to blast him with, no doubt. “And by follow up you mean what?”

Colin scratched his chin. Explaining this wasn’t going to be easy. “This all started when Jewel’s sister and husband, Meral and Buck, arrived. I checked on him, but he came back clean. He’s some sort of import and export consultant.”

“What aren’t you telling me, Colin?” Now the mayor had gone personal with his name. Never a good sign.

“I need to leave. Jewel, Meral and Buck are going on a short cruise, a tour of Alaska. A week or two. I need to be there with her to protect her and to find out if Buck is the man who killed Jed.”

There. He’d spoken his mind.

“It would mean you wouldn’t be here for Jed’s funeral.”

He nodded, hating the timing. “What’s more important? Getting Jed’s killer or attending his funeral?”

“What reason