Cold & Deadly (Cold Justice: Crossfire #1)(115)

His lips twitched. “Privacy huh? I didn’t think you were up for that yet.”

He was kidding, but her pupils flared.

“We’re clever enough to figure something out.” Her smile was positively sinful.

He pulled her closer and rested his lips against her brow. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Dominic spotted Mallory waving to them, and they headed across the grass to meet her and Parker, who looked ready to head back to their newborn. Ava’s mom steamed ahead like the force of nature she was.

The smell of crushed grass rose up and teased old memories. For once the scent didn’t evoke grief and suffering. It reminded him of the power of love and also of how much love needed to be tended and nurtured.

“I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Ava Kanas.”

She stopped and blinked at him with a shocked expression on her face. “Are you proposing to me in a graveyard, Dominic Sheridan?”

“I’m not proposing in a graveyard.” He turned towards her with a grin. “I’m telling you that I am going to propose to you, and you need to prepare yourself.”

“Prepare myself?” she quizzed.

“For being loved by me for the rest of my life.”

“Being loved by you is the best thing I’ve ever experienced.” Her hazel eyes grew large. “I don’t ever want to lose you.”

“You won’t, Ava.” But he knew what she meant. The way she’d lost her father and he’d lost his mother. The way Van had been taken from them. He gathered her fingers against his chest. “There are no guarantees about how long we get on this earth, but I do know that we carry the people we love in our hearts forever.”

He kissed her, and she melted against him with a soft sigh.

“It’s funny,” she said, pulling away and leading him towards where the Parkers and her mother were waiting for them. “Chasing criminals never really scared me, but being in a relationship, being part of a couple? That terrifies the hell out of me.”

“It used to scare me too, but not anymore.”

She glanced up at him. “What’s the secret?”

He held her gaze. “You are, Ava. You are.”

Then he looked up at the sky and knew it was true. Ava Kanas was worth the risk of heartbreak.





Read Toni Anderson’s A Cold Dark Place. Free at most online vendors.


Lindsey Keeble sang along to “Fun.” on the radio, trying to pretend she wasn’t freaked out by the dark. It was one in the morning and she hated driving this lonely stretch of highway between Greenville and Boden. Rain was threatening to turn to snow. The wind was gusting so forcefully that the tall trees looming high above her on the ridge made her swerve nervously toward the center line. The back tires slid on the asphalt and she slowed; no way did she want to wreck her precious little car.

She worked evenings at a gas station in Boden. It was quiet enough she usually got some studying done between customers. Tonight everyone and their dog were filling up ahead of a possible early winter storm. You’d think they’d never seen snow before.

A flash of red lights in her rearview had her heart squeezing. Dammit!

She hadn’t been speeding—she couldn’t afford a ticket and never drank alcohol. She signaled to pull over and stopped on the verge. Lindsey lived responsibly because she wanted a life bigger than her parochial hometown. She wasn’t some hillbilly. She wanted to travel and see the world—Paris, Greece, maybe the pyramids if the unrest settled down. She peered through the sleet drenched glass as a black SUV pulled in tight behind her.

A tall dark figure approached her vehicle. A cop’s gold shield tapped against the glass. Frigid damp air flooded the interior as she rolled down the window and she huddled into her jacket as rain spat at her.

“License and registration.” A low voice rumbled in that authoritative way cops had. He wore a dark slicker over black clothes. The gun on his hip glinted in the headlights of his vehicle. She didn’t recognize his face, but then she couldn’t really see his features with ice stinging her eyes.

“What’s this about?” Her teeth chattered. She found the documents in her glove box and purse, and handed them over. Her hands returned to grip the hard plastic of the steering wheel as she waited. “I wasn’t speeding.”

“There’s an alert out on a stolen red Neon so thought I’d check it out.”

“Well, this is my car and I’ve done nothing wrong.” She knew her rights. “You’ve got no reason to stop me.”

“You were driving erratically.” The voice got deeper and angrier. She winced. Never piss off a cop. “Plus, you’ve got a broken taillight. That gives me a reason.”

Lindsey’s worry was replaced by annoyance. She snapped off her seatbelt and applied the parking brake. She’d been shafted last year when another driver had sideswiped her in a parking lot and then claimed she’d been at fault to the insurers. “It was fine when I left for work this afternoon. I haven’t hit anything in the meantime.” Goddamn it.

“Go take a look.” The cop stood back. He had a nice face despite the hard mouth and even harder eyes. Maybe she could sweet talk him out of a ticket, not that she was real good at sweet talk. Her dad could fix the light in the morning but if she had to pay a ticket as well, every hour of work today would have been for nothing.