Mountain Desire (Wild Mountain Men 3)

Each officer had a desk in the large room. Nix and I were the only detectives on the department, and ours were in the corner by the windows. While the mayor scolded us like high schoolers caught out after curfew, the rest of the room was busy with their own cases. Phones rang. A random mix of voices traveled our way. The mayor didn’t care about any of it.

Nix sat at his desk, the chair pushed back so his long legs had lots of room. He was slouched a bit, indicating that while he’d give Nash respect, he wasn’t cowed by the guy.

I leaned a hip against Nix’s desk, and our boss, the chief, rested his shoulder against the entry to his office, which was a few feet away. I’d left the party before Nix, but he didn’t look too rough. I’d never known him to drink hard and assumed he was more inclined to be sober so he and Donovan could take Kit home for a little fun. If he was tired, it would be from that.

As for me, the few hot rum drinks had worn off courtesy of Shane and Finch. I hadn’t driven home—I wasn’t that stupid—but had crashed in Poppy’s guest room. I wasn’t hungover, but I wasn’t eager to be here either. My bad mood wasn’t from the mayor, but from the fact that I’d let two hot cowboys get in my pants. And my head.

I’d tossed and turned thinking about Shane and Finch, about how they’d touched me. How they’d made me come. They’d done everything they said they would, although they’d pushed it at the end. They wanted more. I didn’t. So I walked.

While I listened to the mayor, I wondered if I’d made a terrible mistake.

“You’re well aware Dennis Seaborn took up a week of our time,” Nix said.

I turned my thoughts back to the case. The man had turned himself in, confessing to the crime, but it turned out he hadn’t done it.

“As for Erin’s parents, they might want answers, bu

t they’re the ones who messed with the case,” Nix reminded the mayor. “If they hadn’t paid off Seaborn, we wouldn’t have lost all that time.”

The mayor’s jaw clenched.

“They’re not being charged with obstruction of justice only because you told us not to,” the chief reminded him.

Our boss, fortunately, wasn’t into politics. He was close to retirement age but hadn’t checked out yet. He was all for finding out the truth, not kowtowing to the Cutthroat elite. The Mills were in that camp, and they were the ones who’d paid Dennis Seaborn a lot of cash to admit to the murder of their daughter. We assumed it was because of their son, Lucas, and his thin alibi.

I wasn’t close with my family—hell, my father had run off when I was five, and I hadn’t talked to my mother in years. Lucas Mills, though, had to deal with parents who thought he’d killed his own sister and paid a dying man to take the fall. I wasn’t going to share my opinions on them with the mayor. The chief had said it perfectly.

“They’re grieving,” the mayor replied. “Out of their minds.”

They were out of their minds, all right, but not with grief. Nix and I had met with them many times since the murder. They’d emptied Erin’s house within days of her death, and it was up for sale as if she’d never existed.

“The fingerprints are all back from Erin Mills’s house. Everyone’s either been ruled out or cleared. There was no sign of a break-in. She knew the person or let them in voluntarily. The only thing disturbed was the trophy used to bash her head in.”

The mayor tapped his chin with a finger. “What about the roommate?”

“Kit Lancaster?” I asked.

He nodded.

“She was cleared.”

Nash knew all this. His son, Donovan, was dating Kit. Either father and son didn’t get along or Nash didn’t like Kit. Who brought up his son’s girlfriend as a possible murder suspect if he liked her?

He knew the deal. Knew exactly where we stood in the investigation. Every time he asked, the answers were the same.

“Give me something new,” he said.

Nix leaned forward, set his elbows on his thighs. “There is nothing new.”

“So the case is going to go cold? What am I going to tell the town?”

“It is an ongoing investigation,” I said, giving him the political statement he wanted.

The mayor sighed, slowly shook his head, then walked away.

The chief didn’t say anything until the guy was out of the room. “He’s a decent mayor, but he’s a total asshole.”

I stifled a smile. Nix laughed outright.