On His Watch by Katie Ruggle

Author:Katie Ruggle [Ruggle, Katie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2016-01-09T05:00:00+00:00

Read on for an excerpt from Hold Your Breath, also by Katie Ruggle

Jumping into a hole cut in the frozen reservoir was a stupid idea. In fact, of all the questionable decisions she’d made since abandoning civilization for her tiny mountain cabin seven months ago, this was probably the worst.

At least, Lou mused wryly, it was a beautiful place in which to do a dumb thing. The sun lit the snowcapped mountains circling like sleepy sentinels around them, and the wind chased powdery snow across the frozen reservoir. Despite the cold, it still smelled strongly of fish.

“Ready for some ice-rescue training?” Derek bumped his neoprene-covered arm against hers. He seemed much too cheerful for a guy about to dive into glacial water.

“No.”

“Aww, Lou.” When he tried to pat her head with one of his bright blue gloves, she ducked out of reach. “Nervous?”

“Of course not. Why would I be nervous about jumping into a hole in the ice and swimming around in thirty-two-and-a-half-degree water? Why did I join the Field County Rescue Dive Team and not the Jamaican Whatever again?”

“Because I would not be on the Jamaican Dive Team,” Derek answered. “And I make it worth the cold.”

“Yeah, not really.”

“Hey!” He smacked her arm, she laughed and whacked him back, and then it evolved into a full-fledged slap fight. The blue-nitrile shade of their gloves made them look like life-size cartoons, and Lou couldn’t hold back another laugh.

“Sparks!”

Callum’s bellow froze her in place. She shot Derek a wry glance before turning to face their team leader. She took careful, deliberate steps in the clumsy dry suit boots, as humiliation was better served in small doses. Being caught goofing off was bad enough. She didn’t need to fall on her ass, as well.

“Yes?” She eyed his scowling face. It was too bad about his surliness, since Callum was a joy to look upon otherwise, in a gladiator-meets-drill-sergeant kind of way. His blond hair was military short, and his eyes were a startling and beautiful blue against tan skin. His jaw was square, and his body… Taking a deep breath, she carefully did not check out the neoprene-wrapped perfection below his neck.

Because…damn.

“What are you doing?”

Somehow, answering “Fooling around with Derek,” did not seem like the best idea. “Uh…nothing.”

He stared at her, heavy frown still in place. “It didn’t—Never mind. You’re like a terrier with ADD. Why can’t you stand still for five minutes?”

“Because…” She shot a glance at Derek. The traitor had taken several steps back and was pretending to examine a seam on his dry-suit sleeve. “He… I just…um, the gloves…”

Callum let the silence hang for several seconds. When he eventually turned away from Lou, she let out the breath she’d been holding and shuffled over to rejoin Derek. Once there, she punched him lightly—well, sort of lightly—in the kidney.

“Ouch.” He gave her an injured look. “What was that for?”

“Why am I always the one who gets in trouble?”

“Because you’re the one who starts it.”

“Do not,” she protested, realizing she’d gotten a little loud only when Callum’s eyes focused on her again.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.