Page 19 of The Secrets She Keeps

Jake was back from paternity leave fully now. He’d cut it short.

To help. Even though he hadn’t worked with Heather that often. His wife, Shelby, had been threatened, terrorized, and harassed by members of the TSP for years too. With just Zoey to helpher.

It was no wonder Jake was pissed.

Jake was going to be the one digging into what had happened with Heather and the superiors at the IA who should have helped her.

But no one was going to know that.

As far as on paper showed, the investigation into the attacks on Heather wasn’t even going to be assigned to Finley Creek or Wichita Falls.

Investigators from the third largest branch of the TSP out of Fort Worth were being assigned. It was anyone’s guess what would happen.

But Major Crimes was running their own shadow investigation.

On the governor’s orders.

Gunnar was going to help however he could.

He slung his bag over his shoulder and headed into the inn. He had been there before. He’d walked in—and there, one Powell Melissa Barratt had been in the dining room. There to visit with her brother, who had been buying property in Wyoming to add to his holdings.

Gunnar had been up there to work. He hadn’t even intended to stay the night. But Mother Nature had had other plans for Wyoming. His flight home had been canceled.

He’d somehow ended up curled around the woman he wanted more than anything in the world.

For one beautiful night.

Gunnar stepped inside the inn. His eyes immediately scanned the lobby.

And met dark ones. In a beautiful face.

A shocked face.

He just stopped walking, not believing what he was seeing.

Powell Melissa Barratt was staring at him now. All three of her brothers behind her.

14

This was gettingall beyond screwed up now.

It had been spiraling for days.

Since the moment Kimball had changed everything.

Heather was probably never going to forgive him, but Daniel needed her as far from Melvin Stillman and that man's cronies—including Daniel's own father—as he could get her.

Daniel was just trying to figure out how to make that happen. Fast. Like beforenoon,five hours away. He’d come in early to get a jump start on what was happening. It hadn’t been early enough.

Daniel was running out of time.

His father was there, across the desk from him. Waiting. Smirking like the arrogant prick he was. "So is this woman someone you are willing to risk everything you've built for? I mean, I know what she can do to a man when she looks at him like she does?—”

"You know her."Of course, his father did. Why else would he be there now, at seven a.m., demanding to know what was going on? The man was supposedly retired,after all. But there he was,in Daniel’s office, speaking to Daniel for the first time in over a year.

About Heather.Imagine that.Anotherman from the TSP curious about Lieutenant Heather Coleson. What was it about that woman?

"Worked with her before. Can't say she has a great attitude—but damn, she is fun to look at. To imagine—" His father held his hands up in a crude way and gestured the sexual act. And groaned.

---