Free BIG SKY SECRETS 03: End Game by Roxanne Rustand

“Don’t kid yourself.”
    “Well…just in case you need backup sometime—” He grinned at her. “Or you want to check up on my latest nefarious pursuits, here’s my cell number.” He pulled a pen and scrap of paper from the breast pocket of his denim jacket, and wrote down his phone number. “I don’t use a landline here.”
    She took it and punched it into her Contacts directory, then pocketed the slip of paper. “Thanks.”
    “So we’re making some progress, I take it?”
    She looked up. “What?”
    “This is the first time you’ve actually suspected me of something good .”
    She laughed, a soft, silvery sound, as she slipped her sunglasses back into place and opened her car door. “My mistake. Make sure you toe the line, mister—because I’ll be keeping an eye on you.”

SEVEN
    S cott paced the floor, then growled in frustration and settled down in front of his computer monitor, staring at the blank screen that had been mocking him since five in the morning.
    Last night he’d tried staying up late, forcing himself to sit at his desk with his hands poised over the keyboard until he’d finally dredged up enough words to fill a page.
    This morning he’d gotten up early to get the article done…but the words from the night before had all looked like drivel, and he’d erased the lot…only to discover that looking at a page of nonsense meant there was something to fix, but a blank page was worse—especially with a deadline of five o’clock on Monday and an auction he needed to attend this afternoon.
    Back home in Chicago he’d written a couple of salable articles each month despite his fourteen-hour days on the job, his cramped home office and the high drama Olivia had brought into his life.
    Here, he had a perfect office looking out at the mountains, all the time in the world, and the words just wouldn’t come, even though rainy Sunday mornings had always seemed liked an ideal time for writing. His gaze settled on the barn, where just the tip of Attila’s good ear was visible over the corral fence.
    Fencing would be a good project for this weekend—if he went to town and picked up the fencing materials.
    Though if he went to town, he’d have a good chance of running into Megan, because she seemed to turn up everywhere he went. And thinking about her was already occupying entirely too much of his thoughts already.
    He stood, grabbed his keys and jacket, and headed out the door, whistling. Maybe if he did run into her, he’d see that she was perfectly fine, in no obvious trouble, and he could go back to his routine. He’d be able to concentrate, and get his writing done.
    And then his life would go back to being exactly as he’d planned.
     
    Megan settled onto one of the counter stools at Hannah’s Pastries ’n’ More. “A day off. Now, this is something to savor.”
    Sue Ann bustled over with a fat stainless steel coffeepot, grabbed a thick china mug from below the counter and poured her a cup. “And it has to be raining. Tough luck.”
    Megan shrugged. “Still, I’m here, and I can linger. I might go down to the bookstore in Lost Falls and just lose myself in those books for a while. Perfect thing for a rainy Sunday.”
    “The place with the tea and classical music?”
    “That’s it. They have a whole room filled with mysteries, thrillers and romantic suspense. By the time I leave, I’ve always bought way too many.” A feeling of bliss came over her, and she smiled. “Just the smell of books and tea and their Irish Cream coffee makes me happy.”
    Sue Ann leaned closer, her eyes wide. “Speaking of mysteries, anything new about those poor women who were murdered?”
    If there were, Sue Ann would be the last person to tell, unless something needed to become common knowledge in a hurry. “We’re working on it, and so is the state DCI unit.”
    Sue Ann lowered her voice. “I saw those guys, when they came to town. Hmm-mmm. They stopped here for lunch, and they were mighty