Mountain Witness Read online

  A woman in hiding and a man on a mission in the Smoky Mountains

  Detective Chris Downing doesn’t know much about his neighbor. In the rural town of Destiny, Tennessee, Julie Webb lives a life of seclusion, rarely even offering a smile or wave. Only when Chris hears her frantic screams one night does he gain a glimpse into the life of a woman in hiding, and in saving her life, he is forced to kill her attacker. But Julie’s troubles are only beginning to unravel. When Chris learns the identity of Julie’s attacker, questions of trust are raised and suspicions run high. Together they will uncover the motives of a killer...and the undeniable attraction between them.

  Tennessee SWAT

  Inhaling deeply, she selfishly enjoyed another tantalizing breath warmed by Chris’s skin, perfumed by his masculine scent. Then she pushed herself back to sitting, forcing him to move back and drop his arms.

  He studied her intently, his dark eyes boring into hers. “You do know that I’m going to protect you, right? You seem...scared, or maybe worried.”

  Unable to stop herself, she caressed his face. Her heart nearly stopped when he rubbed his cheek against her hand. Oh, how she wished her life were different, that she had met this man in another place, another time.

  He smiled, a warm, gentle smile she felt all the way to her toes.

  “Everything’s going to be okay, Julie,” he said. “We’ll figure this out. Together.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered back. Her gaze dropped to his lips, and hers suddenly went dry. She automatically leaned toward him. Her hands went to his shirt, smoothing the fabric.

  A shudder went through him and she looked up, her eyes locking with his. The open hunger on his face made her breath catch. And then he was leaning toward her slowly, giving her every chance to stop him, to pull away, to say no.

  But she didn’t.

  MOUNTAIN

  WITNESS

  Lena Diaz

  Lena Diaz was born in Kentucky and has also lived in California, Louisiana and Florida, where she now resides with her husband and two children. Before becoming a romantic suspense author, she was a computer programmer. A former Romance Writers of America Golden Heart® Award finalist, she has also won the prestigious Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in mystery and suspense. To get the latest news about Lena, please visit her website, lenadiaz.com.

  Books by Lena Diaz

  Harlequin Intrigue

  Tennessee SWAT

  Mountain Witness

  Marshland Justice

  Missing in the Glades

  Arresting Developments

  Deep Cover Detective

  Hostage Negotiation

  The Marshal’s Witness

  Explosive Attraction

  Undercover Twin

  Tennessee Takedown

  The Bodyguard

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  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Chris Downing—Part-time SWAT officer, full-time detective, his annual summer bash turns violent when he has to save his new neighbor. Just who is this mystery woman? And is she a witness in hiding, or is she hiding something else entirely?

  Julie Webb—After surviving one attempt on her life, she hides out in rural Destiny, Tennessee. But there’s more than one killer after her. And the only person who can save her is the one person who doesn’t trust her: Officer Chris Downing.

  Kathy Nelson—Does the assistant district attorney really want to help Julie? Or does she have far more to gain if Julie is dead?

  Brian Henson—Administrative assistant to the ADA, or something more sinister?

  Elizabeth Abbott—Estranged grandmother of Julie Webb. What will she do to protect the family’s secrets?

  Max Remington—Fellow SWAT officer and detective in the Destiny Police Department. Is he trying to help Chris, or settle an old score?

  Harry Abbott—A distant cousin suddenly appears from Julie’s past. Who is he, and what does he have to do with the attempts on Julie’s life?

  Thank you, Allison Lyons and Nalini Akolekar.

  For my family...George, Sean and Jennifer. I love you so much.

  And in loving memory to the family member who has passed

  over the rainbow. I’ll always love you, Sparky.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Excerpt from Tough Justice: Countdown (Part 1 of 8) by Carla Cassidy

  Excerpt from Wild Montana by Danica Winters

  Chapter One

  Blood, there was so much blood. Julie stood over him, one hand braced on the bed’s footboard, the other still holding the gun. The blood soaked his shirt, seeping between his fingers as he clutched at the bullet hole in his side. Air wheezed between his teeth, his startlingly blue eyes blazing with hatred through the openings in the ski mask. The same eyes that had once stared at her with such love that they’d stolen her breath away.

  Right before he’d said, “I do.”

  Julie Webb shook her head, blinking away the memories, wishing she could put the past behind her just as easily. Her hands tightened on the steering wheel as she sat in the driveway, the thin pale line on her ring finger the only tangible reminder of the diamond that had once sat there.

  Stop it. He can’t hurt you anymore. It’s time to move on.

  Unfortunately, with most of her assets frozen while the courts did their thing back in Nashville, moving on meant hiding out in the tiny—aka affordable—rural town of Destiny, Tennessee. And with the limited rentals available in Blount County, she’d chosen the lesser of evils, the one place with some land around it—an old farmhouse that had sat vacant for so long that the owner had been desperate to rent it. Desperate equaled cheap. And that was the only reason that Julie had taken it. Well, that and the fact that Destiny was a good three hours from Nashville. She wasn’t likely to run into anyone she knew in the local grocery store.

  The sound of a horn honking had her looking in her rearview mirror, reminding her why she was in her car to begin with. The moving truck sat idling in the gravel road that ran past the expansive front yard, waiting for her to back out so it could back in. After two days of living out of a suitcase and sleeping on the floor, having a couch and a bed again was going to feel like heaven.

  She put the car in Reverse, hesitating when she noticed that her only neighbor had come out onto his front porch. Long, unpaved road, dead end, surrounded by acres of trees and pastures, and she still had a neighbor to contend with. A handsome, sex-on-a-stick kind of guy to boot. Which was going to make ignoring him difficult, but not impossible. She’d had her own sex-on-a-stick kind of man before. And look what it had gotten her
.

  He flashed her a friendly smile and waved just as he’d done every time he’d seen her in the past two days. And once again, she pretended not to notice. She backed out of the driveway.

  Rhythmic beeping sounded from the truck as it took the place of her car, stopping just inches from the porch that ran along the front of the white clapboard house. It was a much smaller, one-story clone of the place next door. There weren’t any fences on either property, so she wasn’t sure where his acreage ended and hers began. But clearly he had a lot more land than her rental. The mowed part of his yard extended for a good quarter of a mile to the end of their street.

  She didn’t care, didn’t want to know anything about him. The only way to survive this temporary exile was to keep to herself and make sure that none of her acquaintances figured out where she was. Which meant not associating with the hunk next door or anyone else who might recognize her name or her face, in case any of the news stories had made it out this far. She fervently hoped they hadn’t.

  The movers had the ramp set up by the time she’d walked up the long gravel driveway. It would allow them to cart the boxes and furniture directly to the top of the porch without having to navigate the steps. That meant everything should go quickly, especially since she didn’t have much for them to unload—just the bare essentials and a few things she’d refused to leave in storage.

  She risked a quick look toward the house next door. The friendly man was gone. A twinge of guilt shot through her for having ignored him. He was probably a perfectly nice guy and deserved to be treated better. But her life was extremely complicated right now. By ignoring him, by not letting him get involved in any way in her problems, she was doing him a favor.

  “Ma’am, where do you want this?” one of the movers asked, holding up a box.

  Apparently, the thick black letters on the side that spelled “kitchen” weren’t enough of a hint.

  She jogged up the steps. But, before going inside, she hesitated and looked over her shoulder at the thick woods on the other side of the road. The hairs were standing up on the back of her neck.

  “Ma’am?” the mover holding the box called out. He lifted the box a few inches, as if to remind her he was still holding it.

  “Sorry, this way.” She headed inside, but couldn’t shake the feeling of doom that had settled over her.

  Chapter Two

  Chris shaded his eyes against the early afternoon sun and watched through an upstairs window as the curvy brunette led one of the movers into the house next door. He didn’t know why he bothered waving every time he saw her. Her standard response was to turn away and pretend that she hadn’t seen him. He’d gotten the message the first time—she wanted nothing to do with him. Too bad the good manners his mama had instilled in him, courtesy of a well-worn switch off a weeping willow tree or his daddy’s belt, wouldn’t allow him to ignore her the way she ignored him.

  He leaned against the wall of the corner guest bedroom, noting the car that his neighbor had parked on the road. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen a BMW. Most of the people he knew had four-wheel drives. Come winter, that light little car would slide around like a hockey puck on the icy back roads. Then again, maybe she didn’t plan on sticking around that long. Summer was just getting started.

  A distant rumble had him looking up the road to see a caravan of trucks headed toward his house, right on time to start his annual beginning of summer cookout. The shiny red Jeep in front was well ahead of the other vehicles, barreling down the road at a rate of speed that probably would have gotten the driver thrown in jail if he wasn’t a cop himself, with half the Destiny, Tennessee, police department following behind him.

  Dirt and gravel spewed out from beneath the Jeep’s tires as it slowed just enough to turn into his driveway without flipping over. The driver, Chris’s best friend, Dillon Gray, jumped out while the car was still rocking. He hurried to the passenger side to lift out his very pregnant wife, Ashley. Chris grinned and headed downstairs.

  He’d just reached the front room when the screen door flew open and Ashley jogged inside, her hands holding her round belly as if to support it. The door swung closed, its springs squeaking in protest at the abuse.

  “Hi, Chris.” She raced past the stairs into the back hallway and slammed the bathroom door.

  The screen door opened again and Chris’s haggard-looking friend stepped inside.

  “Sorry about that.” Dillon waved toward the bathroom. “Ashley was desperate. She had me doing ninety on the interstate.”

  Chris clapped him on the back. “How’s the pregnancy going?”

  Dillon let out a shaky breath and raked his hand through his disheveled hair. “I’m not sure I can survive two more months of this.”

  A toilet flushed. Water ran in the sink. And soon the sound of bare feet slip-slapping on the wooden floor had both of them turning to see Dillon’s wife heading toward them. Her sandals dangled from one hand as she stopped beside Chris.

  “Sorry about the bare feet. They’re so swollen the shoes were cutting off my circulation.” She motioned toward Dillon. “Let me guess. He’s complaining about all the suffering he’s going through, right? He keeps forgetting that I’m the one birthing a watermelon.” The smile on her face softened her words as she yanked on Chris’s shirt so he’d lean down. She planted a kiss on his cheek and squeezed his hand. “Don’t worry. I’m taking good care of him.”

  He raised a brow. “Him? You’re having a boy?”

  “No, silly. I mean, yes, we might be. Or it might be a girl. We’re waiting until the birth to be surprised about the gender. I meant Dillon. I’ll make sure he survives fatherhood.”

  Dillon plopped down in one of the recliners facing the big-screen TV mounted on the far wall. “It’s not fatherhood that I’m worried about. It’s the pregnancy, and childbirth.” He placed a hand on his flat stomach. “Every time she throws up, I throw up. Last week, I swear I had a contraction.”

  Ashley clucked her tongue as she perched on the arm of his chair. “Sympathy pains.” She grinned up at Chris. “Isn’t it wonderful?”

  Chris burst out laughing.

  Dillon shot him a glare that should have set his hair on fire.

  “Did you remember to bring the steaks?” Chris headed toward the abused screen door, assuming the food was in the Jeep.

  “The chief has them,” Dillon said. “I didn’t feel well enough to go to the store so I called him to do it, instead.” He pressed his hand to his stomach again and groaned as his head fell back against the chair.

  Ashley rolled her eyes and plopped down onto his lap. In spite of how green Dillon looked, he immediately hugged her close and pressed a kiss on the top of her head. Dillon started to gently massage his wife’s shoulders and she kissed the side of his neck. Chris had never seen two people more in love or more meant for each other. Then again, they’d only been married for close to a year. They were still newlyweds.

  “Where do you want all of this stuff?” someone called from outside.

  Chris turned away from the two lovebirds and looked through the screen door.

  “Those two are enough to make you sick, aren’t they?” fellow SWAT officer and detective Max Remington, holding a large cooler, teased from the porch.

  “Hey, Max.” Ashley waved over Dillon’s shoulder.

  “Hey, Ash.” Max dipped his head toward the cooler and glanced at Chris. “This beer and ice ain’t getting any lighter. Where do you want it?”

  “Around back, on the deck, well away from the grill. It’s hot and ready.”

  Max carried the cooler back down the steps. Twenty minutes later, Destiny PD’s entire five-man-and-one-woman SWAT team was on the large back deck, plus Chief William Thornton, his wife, Claire, Ashley, their 911 operator—Nancy—and a handful of other support staff.

 
Steaks sizzled on the double-decker grill, which was Max’s domain. On one side of him, SWAT officers Colby Vale and Randy Carter chatted about the best places to fish. On Max’s other side a young female police intern helped load foil-wrapped potatoes and corncobs onto another section of the grill.

  “Two weeks.” Dillon grabbed a beer from the cooler at Chris’s feet.

  Since Dillon was watching Ashley talk to SWAT Officer Donna Waters a few feet away, Chris wasn’t sure what he meant. “Two weeks until what?”

  Dillon used his bottle to indicate the pretty young intern who was earning college credits for helping out at the Destiny police department over the summer.

  “I give her and Max’s fledgling relationship two more weeks, at the most,” Dillon said. “They have absolutely nothing in common and she’s young enough to be his...niece...or something.”

  Chris shrugged and snagged himself a beer from the cooler. The rest of the team laughed and talked in small groups on the massive deck. The chief and his wife were the only ones not smiling. They were too intent on discussing the best placement of the desserts on the table at the far end. Chris grinned, always amused to see the soft side of his crotchety boss whenever his wife of forty-plus years was around. He hoped someday that he’d be lucky enough to be married that long, and be just as happy. But so far he hadn’t met the right woman. Given Destiny’s small size, he just might have to move to another town to expand the dating pool.

  The sound of an engine turning over had him stepping closer to the railing. The moving truck headed down the driveway next door, then continued up the road. His new neighbor stood in the grass beside her front porch, watching it go. Unless she was deaf, she had to hear the noise in his backyard. Was she going to ignore all of them?

  He waited, watching. As if feeling the force of his gaze upon her, she turned. Their eyes locked and held. Then she whirled around and raced up her porch steps, the screen door slamming as she hurried inside.