Dead Giveaway by Nichole Severn

Author:Nichole Severn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-11-25T19:24:57+00:00

* * *

EASTON CLEARED THE CABIN.

With Lieutenant Parrish still in the wind, he couldn’t take any chances. Morsey’s right-hand man had disconnected the GPS on his cruiser and turned off his phone, and the search of his home revealed he’d left his credit cards behind. They’d lost him.

CSU hadn’t been able to come up with anything from the latest scene. Every surface capable of giving them a fingerprint had been wiped down. No DNA or fibers recovered from the tree Genevieve had been hung from or from the zip ties used to secure her wrists. The killer was covering his tracks, making it impossible for them to get a positive ID, and staying one step ahead. Alamosa’s forensics unit had tried running the partial recovered from the package with Laila Ballard’s ear inside a second time, but there still wasn’t enough to match anyone in the system.

“Clear.” He crossed back to the front door and reached for Genevieve to bring her inside. “I’ll get a fire going. We’ll have you warmed up and comfortable in no time.” He tossed in a few logs from the basket beside the stone fireplace and set about feeding the kindling to start. Within a few minutes, heat sped through him and the rest of the cabin.

“Guess you lost out on your deposit for the motel room, huh?” Scanning the space, she looked as though she were stepping into it for the very first time. Cautious. Alert. Strung tight. She hadn’t said a word since her discharge from the hospital or during the three-hour drive back to Battle Mountain. Exhaustion carved deep hollows into her cheeks, and right then, Easton wanted nothing more than to take her pain away. Mentally and physically. “You know you don’t have to stay with me.”

“The last time I left you alone, a killer dragged you out into the middle of the national park and strung you from a tree.” He wrenched open the linen closet door and tugged a stack of pillows and blankets down from the top shelf. Tossing them onto the couch, he spread them out as any man who’d become accustomed to sleeping on the ground using a rock as a pillow would. “I’m not going anywhere.”

He could protect her here. This was his territory. His gut said the killer would try for her again, but next time, Easton would be there. He would be ready.

Long fingers curled around his forearm, forcing him to slow down. “It wasn’t your fault. The killer... He changed his MO. We had no reason to believe he’d use another victim to lure me to that scene, and blaming yourself for something you can’t control will only eat at you until there’s nothing left.”

He memorized the ridges of her knuckles, the scrapes across the backs of her hands. He released his grip on the blankets and turned to face her. Sliding his hand beneath hers, he traced the edge of her bandaged wrists with his thumb. “I should’ve been there.”

“You were,” she said.

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