To Die: Chosen To Die Part 8

Nate Santana snapped open his pocketknife, then sliced the twine holding a bale of hay together. The horses were waiting patiently in their stalls, ears p.r.i.c.ked forward, dark, liquid eyes a.s.sessing him, only Lucifer showing impatience by snorting and tossing his dark head.

Daylight was still a couple of hours away but Santana was up even earlier than usual. Restless. His elusive sleep interrupted with dreams of Regan Pescoli.

Either she'd been making love to him, staring up at him with a naughty smile and arched eyebrows as he'd stripped away her clothes and made love to her, or she'd been lost in the darkness and he'd been running through a dark, night-shrouded forest calling her name, catching glimpses of her as she vanished into a thicket of brittle, snow-covered trees.

He'd woken up in a cold sweat, that tingling sensation that warned him of danger, ever present.

Using a pitchfork, he spread hay into the waiting mangers of Brady Long's small herd. He'd already exercised the horses as much as the small arena would allow and now was finishing up with the feed, measuring oats, tossing hay, making sure the water was running into the troughs, that the pipes hadn't frozen in this last arctic blast that had left so much of the state crippled.

Sometimes he wondered why he'd come back to this part of Montana. It wasn't as if he had any family left.

You just had to get the h.e.l.l out of California, that's why, and Brady Long offered you a job and a place to stay.

He opened another bale, smelling the fading scent of summer in the dry gra.s.s, then forked it into the next box where Lucifer waited patiently, as if he were the most well-mannered colt on the ranch.

"I'm not buying it," Santana said to the black devil-horse, but his mind wasn't really on the task at hand. He was just going through the motions, getting through his morning ch.o.r.es, waiting for daybreak and the phone to ring.

He finished up and walked into the predawn darkness. Usually this was his favorite time of day, just before the sun rose, when the stars lit up the sky, the air was clear, and there was a calm to the universe, a quietude and peace that disappeared with daylight.

This morning, however, the stars were obscured and a bitter wind swept through the cl.u.s.ter of buildings that made up the heart of the Lazy L, the sprawling ranch owned by Brady Long.

A single security lamp shed an eerie light onto the snow-covered landscape and for the first time in days no snowflakes danced and swirled in its bluish beam.

Thankfully, the snowstorm that had ripped through the heart of the Bitterroots had stopped. At least for a while. But he still hadn't heard from Regan Pescoli.

And he'd caught the news last night that the police in Spokane had taken a woman into custody, believing her to be responsible for the deaths of several women and possibly even the serial killer who had terrorized this section of the Bitterroots. His first thought was that Regan was in on the bust, but a second later he negated that idea, as Alvarez had phoned him after the arrest.

He locked the door of the stable and hiked across the parking lot, a hundred yards through the drifting snow to his cabin with Nakita at his heels. The husky, full of energy, romped through the drifts, disappearing beneath the mantle of white, his tail all that was visible of him, only to reappear, eager for another foray in a new direction.

"You're an idiot," Santana reminded him, but he did smile as Nakita bounded on the small porch, snow covering his nose, whiskers, and thick gray fur. Nakita's long tongue hung out of his mouth and he scratched at the door.

"I know, I know."

Santana stepped into the cabin, three rooms with a sleeping loft tucked under the eaves of a steep roof. This tiny home was the original house on the Long homestead and well over a hundred years old. That was before copper had been found and mined in some of the surrounding properties and the Long family had gained all their wealth and built the cedar and stone lodge tucked into thickets of pine and spruce and overlooking Milton Creek, homage to Brady's ancestor who first claimed these acres.

Though his cabin was drafty, insulated poorly, Santana preferred it to the suite of attic rooms in one wing of the main house, quarters that had been dedicated to the year-round staff. Living in the big house was fine for Clementine, the housekeeper, and her teenaged son, Ross, but not for Nate. When push came to shove he would pick privacy over grandeur any day of the week. Besides, he needed to be closer to the livestock. And farther away from Brady Long whenever his boss decided to show up.

Heat radiated from the wood stove crouched in a corner of the cabin's living area. Somewhere in the last fifty years the compact s.p.a.ce had been equipped with electric baseboard heat, but Santana liked the old stove with its gla.s.s window to view the fire burning inside. He figured the exercise he got sawing up the fallen trees on the property each spring and splitting the rounds was worth it.

Never once had Regan Pescoli been here. Nor had he spent any time at her house. It was as if they'd had some unspoken pact to stay out of each other's private s.p.a.ce. "Stupid," he muttered under his breath. They'd both tried so hard to deny what was becoming more evident with each pa.s.sing hour: that he'd fallen for her.

He hung his hat and jacket on a peg near the front door as Nakita nosed at his food bowl and lapped water wildly from his dish. Santana skimmed himself out of the weatherproof pants and boots before propping them up on the rock floor in front of the fire. After adding more logs to the stove, he fed the dog, cut a thick slice of brown bread for himself, and, after slathering it with b.u.t.ter, bolted it down, then warmed himself up in a shower.

One thought circled his brain: Regan's missing.

Toweling off briskly, his face a mask of granite, Nate tried not to succ.u.mb to panic. But he couldn't quite convince himself that everything was fine, that she was just busy or even avoiding him.

He threw on his clothes and headed back to the stove, feeling like something sinister was at stake.

Like a gust of wind blowing the stable door open and freaking you out yesterday? Face it, Santana, you're on the edge of paranoia. Because of a woman. Something you swore to yourself you'd never do.

Settling onto the worn arm of his recliner, he found the remote for his television while his dog was already snoring softly on the rag rug in front of the fire. His muscles were tense as he turned on the morning news.

What was it Pescoli's partner had said when she'd called and he'd asked concerning Regan's whereabouts?

"If we knew that, I wouldn't be calling you."

Again that unsettling feeling crept through his guts.

Man, Santana, you've got it bad. You can't get Pescoli out of your mind. What was it she'd said that she wanted? A relationship with no strings attached? Sounded good, didn't it? Except now she's under your skin. You can't shake yourself free from her, and face it, you don't want to.

His jaw tightened. It hadn't been that long ago that he'd sworn no woman would ever get to him again. But Pescoli with her burnished hair that flamed red-gold in the sun and eyes that shimmered from green to gold had caught him off guard. She was athletic, smart as a whip, and had a wicked sense of humor that always surprised him.

And then there was the lovemaking.

Hard and fast.

Or sensual and slow.

But never enough, no matter how sated he'd felt after one of their sessions at a local motel. And never boring. He loved to stare down at her as they made love. It excited him to see her beautiful nipples harden and her eyes grow dark as her pupils dilated with desire.

He couldn't get enough of her.

She was one h.e.l.luva woman, he'd decided long ago, but one he'd never thought he couldn't leave.

Now he wasn't so sure.

Now he was scared to death, and Nate Santana wasn't one to frighten easily. In fact, he'd sometimes wondered if there was something wrong with him. In a case of fight or flight, he always chose fight. And it had landed him in some tough spots. Hadn't always been his smartest option.

Nor was getting involved with Pescoli such a great idea.

Everything about her should have warned him to stay away. She'd been married twice. She had two h.e.l.lions of teenagers. She was a d.a.m.ned homicide detective, for Christ's sake. Yep, he should never have gotten involved with her, and if it hadn't been for the fact that she'd actually challenged him in a bar one night, first to pool, then to arm wrestling, and then to shots of whiskey, he might not have noticed the smell of her, the fire in her eyes that matched the flame in her hair, or the fact that she seemed slightly amused by him. Being attracted to her, playing her game, had been his first mistake.

Ending up in bed had been his second.

And now, his third: actually giving a d.a.m.n about her. Caring about her. Missing her.

"d.a.m.n it all to h.e.l.l."

He drank two cups of black coffee, thought about carving himself a second piece of bread but decided he couldn't force down another bite. Watching the weather report, only half paying attention to "more of the same," he finally surfaced to learn another storm was on the horizon.

Great.

Time was inching by. He glanced at the clock mounted over the sink and scowled. Still an hour until daylight. "Oh, h.e.l.l," he said under his breath. He couldn't stand not doing anything. He whistled to his dog and walked to the door where he began putting on the layers he'd so recently peeled off. "Come on, Nakita," he said, as the dog yawned and stretched. "Let's go into town."

It was well past time to track Pescoli down.

After a miserable night, Alvarez rolled out of bed, stumbled through the shower, and dispensing with makeup, dried her thick hair, snapped a rubber band around a high ponytail, and wound the whole mess into a tight knot on her crown. She checked her image in the mirror, saw her eyes were watery from the d.a.m.ned cold, her skin lacking l.u.s.ter, her nose red.

"No beauty pageant for you today," she told her image before she brushed her teeth and swilled some sharp-tasting antibacterial mouthwash inside her mouth.

She couldn't afford to be sick.

Not now.

After pulling on silky long johns, she dressed in a sweater and department-issued slacks. Soberly, she looked at her reflection in the mirror and wondered what had happened to her. As a teenager, she'd been proud of her good looks, flaunted her slim figure, applied more makeup than she needed to her large eyes, high cheekbones, and full lips.

But that was a lifetime ago.

When life had been filled with laughter and promise.

Frowning, dispelling the image, she found her shoulder holster and snapped it on.

She was no longer all those things that had been important to her in her youth. "Hot." Or "cool." Whichever was in vogue. Even "tight" or "s.e.xy" or "naughty" didn't appeal to her. Probably would never again.

Which was fine.

Except that she was alone.

No husband or lover or boyfriend on the horizon.

"No big deal," she said to herself while warming water for tea in the microwave. After all, she'd been thinking about getting a pet. Why not? Something living to come home to.

A bird would be good...maybe a parakeet or macaw or...who was she kidding? A bird? In a cage? Spreading seeds and c.r.a.pping on newspapers lining the cage floor? Or perching on the curtain rod with its wings clipped?

Fine for someone else.

Just not Selena's style.

She was fine. Alone. Matter of fact, that's just how she liked things.

She glanced at her desk where more images and notes about the series of murders were strewn over the desk in the tiny apartment where she lived alone. No man had ever slept in her bed. She'd been in Grizzly Falls for over three years, ever since leaving San Bernadino. "A loner," she'd been called, or an "ice princess." She'd even heard Pete Watershed, a coworker, suggest to a group of officers that she "probably swings the other way." Even now, feeling rotten, she smiled at that one.

If they only knew.

Not that she gave a d.a.m.n.

Besides, Watershed was a dolt.

Alvarez figured that the less her coworkers and acquaintances knew about her, the better she could do her job. And she was all about her job.

The microwave dinged and she pulled out the cup of near-boiling water, then dunked a bag of tea into it. Her grandmother had insisted that honey and lemon be added to the tea in order for the concoction to "shake the cold loose," but Alvarez had neither item in the small kitchen of her studio.

Orange pekoe would have to do.

"Citrus is citrus," she told herself, blowing over her cup and gingerly tasting the hot tea. It nearly burned her tongue, but did soothe her throat.

Her cell rang and it sounded dull, as her ears were still plugged. She scrounged it out of her pocket and flipped it open. "Alvarez."

"She's not our killer." Sheriff Grayson sounded disgusted. "Nothing adds up. A copycat, it looks like, though how she knew enough about the crimes to try and kill Jillian Rivers in the same manner, we haven't figured out yet." He let out a long, angry breath. "I was really hoping she would be the doer and we could close the case, but that's not gonna happen."

Alvarez wasn't surprised. Last night she'd spent hours double-checking dates, places, and the suspect's whereabouts before finally going to bed. Nothing had matched up. The woman in custody couldn't have committed the murders of Theresa Charleton, Nina Salvadore, Wendy Ito, Rona Anders, and Hannah Estes.

On top of all that, Alvarez was certain they should be looking for a guy. A big guy, one strong enough to carry women out of snow-covered canyons, one smart enough to hide them away without detection, a sharpshooter with incredible accuracy: under sixty, probably, big, athletic.

And then there was the fact of her missing partner.

She shivered as Grayson said, "It sure would have been nice to get the mutt behind bars."

"We will."

"Any word from Pescoli? Brewster said they found her car."

"Nothing."

"s.h.i.t."

Alvarez's sentiments precisely.

"Find her."

"We will."

"Jesus, what a mess."

"We'll get this guy and we'll get Pescoli back alive," she said, hearing the ring of conviction in her tone, wondering if she were lying.

"G.o.d, I hope so." He cleared his throat. "Look, I'm on my way back. Chandler and Halden are staying on a little longer, wrapping things up with the Spokane Police, trying to find a link as to how the suspect knew so much about the other murders. I'll see you at the office and we'll have a meeting of the task force. I want anything the crime scene has got on Pescoli's vehicle and her place. Get a search warrant and talk to her kids and...Oh, h.e.l.l, you know what we need to do."

"Already on it."

"Good. Later."

She hung up, finished drinking her cooling tea, then stepped outside where the sun was rising over the eastern hills and traffic was starting to move through this part of the town.

Pescoli had been missing two nights now.

Chapter Seven.