Return to Cardwell Ranch for another killer thriller from New York Times bestselling author B.J. Daniels—plus a bonus story!
Double Action Deputy
When Montana deputy marshal Brick Savage asks homicide detective Maureen Mortensen to help him find the person who destroyed her family, she quickly accepts his offer. But as the stakes rise and they get closer to a truth more horrible than they ever expected, can they find the murderer before they become targets?
Hitched!
Following a trail of secrets back to his family ranch, Jack Winchester needs a cover to solve a decades-old mystery. Josey Smith offers him the perfect one—she’ll pose as his wife for a week. Yet while the sparks flying between them are anything but fake, the danger they face is all too real...
“Mo? You’d better come over here.”
She turned to find Brick next to a large pine tree on the mountainside’s edge. As she approached she saw the crude heart carved into the pine’s bark.
There were two sets of initials at the center: her sister, Tricia’s, a plus sign and “JP.” Tricia’s secret lover had used her maiden-name initial. Wishful thinking on his part? Or was that the last name she’d given him?
“Know anyone with those initials?” Brick asked.
Mo shook her head. “I have no idea who JP is.”
The gunshot echoed through the trees, splintering the bark on the tree next to her. Several nearby birds took flight, wings flapping wildly as Brick lunged for Mo, taking them both to the ground.
The second shot ricocheted off the tree where they had been standing, sending bark flying. And then there was nothing but the sound of the breeze in the pines and seemingly hushed roar of the creek. Not even the birds sang...
B.J. Daniels is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author. She wrote her first book after a career as an award-winning newspaper journalist and author of thirty-seven published short stories. She lives in Montana with her husband, Parker, and three springer spaniels. When not writing, she quilts, boats and plays tennis. Contact her at bjdaniels.com, on Facebook or on Twitter, @bjdanielsauthor.
Books by B.J. Daniels
Harlequin Intrigue
Cardwell Ranch: Montana Legacy
Steel Resolve
Iron Will
Ambush Before Sunrise
Double Action Deputy
Whitehorse, Montana: The Clementine Sisters
Hard Rustler
Rogue Gunslinger
Rugged Defender
The Montana Cahills
Cowboy’s Redemption
Whitehorse, Montana: The McGraw Kidnapping
Dark Horse
Dead Ringer
Rough Rider
HQN
Montana Justice
Restless Hearts
Heartbreaker
Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.
New York Times Bestselling Author
B.J. Daniels
Double Action Deputy
&
Hitched!
Table of Contents
Double Action Deputy
Hitched!
Double Action Deputy
This book is for Kay Hould, for all her loving support and encouragement. She is definitely not the gray-haired historical-society woman in my Whitehorse, Montana series. But we first met because of it.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter One
Ghostlike, the woman stumbled out of the dark night and into the glare of his headlights. The tattered bedsheet wrapped around her fluttered in the breeze along with the duct tape that dangled from her wrists and one ankle.
He saw her look up as if she hadn’t heard his pickup bearing down on her until the last moment. The night breeze lifted wisps of her dark hair from an ashen face as she turned her vacant gaze on him an instant before he slammed on his brakes.
The air filled with the smell and squeal of tires burning on the dark pavement as the pickup came to a shuddering halt. He sat for a moment, gripping the wheel and staring in horror into the glow of his headlights and seeing...nothing. Nothing but the empty street ahead just blocks from his apartment.
He threw the truck into Park and jumped out, convinced, even though he hadn’t felt or heard a thud, that he’d hit her and that he’d find her lying bleeding on the pavement. How could he have missed her?
If there’d been a woman at all.
In those few seconds, leaving the driver’s side door gaping open, the engine running, he was terrified of what he would find—and even more terrified of what he wouldn’t.
Could he have just imagined the woman in his headlights? It wouldn’t be the first time he’d had a waking nightmare since he’d come home to recuperate. He felt the cold breeze in his face even though it was June in Montana. The temperature at night dropped this time of year, the mountains still snowcapped. He shivered as he rounded the front of the truck and stopped dead.
His heart dropped to his boots.
The pavement was empty.
His pulse thundered in his ears.
I am losing my mind. I hallucinated the woman.
For months, he’d assured himself he was fine. Except for the nightmares that plagued him, something he’d done his best to keep from his family since returning to Cardwell Ranch.
Doubt sent a stab of alarm through him that made him weak with worry. He leaned against the front of the pickup. Why would he imagine such an image? What was wrong with him? He’d seen her. He’d seen every detail.
He really was losing his mind.
As he glanced around the empty street, he suddenly felt frighteningly all alone as if he was the last person left alive on the earth. This late at night, the new businesses were dark in this neighborhood, some still under construction. The ones that were opened closed early, making the area a ghost town at night. It was one reason he’d taken the apartment over one of the new shops. He’d told his folks that he moved off the ranch for the peace and quiet. He didn’t want them knowing that his nightmares hadn’t stopped. They were getting worse.
A groan from the darkness made him jump. His heart pounded in his throat as he turned to stare into the blackness beyond the edge of the street. The sound definitely hadn’t been his imagination. The night was so dark he couldn’t see anything after the pavement ended. The sidewalks hadn’t been poured yet, some of
