LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter One

      Kara tilted her face away from the scalding July sun. It was the hottest, driest summer on record in Shadow Point, Kentucky, and she was eternally grateful for the misty breeze blowing off the fountain at Memorial Park. Her sleeping infant, Casey, on the other hand, seemed utterly unaware that her mother was slowly melting in the afternoon heat. Casey was like that. Naturally content, perpetually at ease. Not at all like the other moms had warned Kara babies could be. Casey had slept through the night by eight weeks and continued to be as lovely and charming as ever at four months.

      Kara wiped the back of one sweaty arm across her forehead. A year ago, she’d run three miles before dawn. These days she was lucky to power walk half that before dinner. The heat wasn’t helping. She parked the three-wheeled jogging stroller in a berth of shade from an ancient oak and checked her step counter for time and distance. Already 10:00 a.m., and she was a thousand steps shy of her goal. She’d have to make them up indoors. The temperature was rising, and Casey would soon be ready for lunch.

      Kara inhaled the sweet scent of blooming flower beds and the busy vendor carts positioned throughout Memorial Park. She eased her backside onto the fountain’s wide marble edge and waited for her heart rate to fizzle back to a steady thrum before making the final trek to her car. She gulped the dregs of warm water from her bottle and let her eyes slide shut.

      “Beautiful day.” A man’s voice sprung her lids open. The brim of his dark ball cap was pulled low over his forehead, casting shadows over his wide, deep-set eyes. His dark blue jeans and shirt clung to his bulky frame, likely applied there by a dewy coat of sweat. He clasped his hands behind him and peered into Casey’s stroller. “Pretty lady you’ve got there.”

      “Thank you.” Kara set a protective hand on the stroller’s side. She concentrated on Casey’s sleeping face instead of keeping eye contact with the man, hoping he’d take the hint. Kara wasn’t interested in a conversation or anything else he had to offer. What she needed was to go home and take a shower. Maybe change into something that wasn’t soaked in sweat.

      “She looks like you,” he marveled. “Is her daddy at work? He must be missing her fiercely.”

      Kara’s gut clenched at the thought of Casey’s father. A man she’d thought was good and decent, one who’d claimed to love her until a small pink cross appeared on the pregnancy test. Suddenly, he wasn’t ready for a life with her. Certainly not prepared for fatherhood. He was sorry, but he just couldn’t do it, and how did this happen anyway?

      Kara forced the hard rock of emotion down her throat. This had happened because she’d allowed herself to let him in, when she knew full well there was only one man in the world meant for her, and it wasn’t the man making excuses about commitment.

      “No,” she answered with more bite than intended.

      Casey’s father wasn’t at work, as far as she knew, and he wasn’t missing Casey at all, but that was his loss and Kara’s gain. Casey was a gift. Kara knew that now, but for months she’d thought the pregnancy was her punishment for naively letting another man into her life. She figured this was what happened when women were gullible and stupid. The idea, of course, was laughable now. Her pregnancy had been a blessing that changed the shape of her world, and for the first time since the real love of her life had left her, Kara was profoundly at peace.

      Except for this guy, contentedly pursuing a conversation, despite the fact that she’d barely looked in his direction. “I’m sorry,” she said, looking pointedly at her wrist. “I really should get going. It’s time for her bottle, and I want to get her out of this heat.” She stood on tired noodle legs and set her hand firmly on the stroller handle. Kara leaned forward, but the carriage didn’t budge.

      The man had moved his hand to the stroller’s opposite side, curling meaty fingers over the edge and effectively holding it in place. “Must you go so soon?” He hitched one side of his mouth into a sinister half smile.

      “Yes.”

      Something dark flashed in his eyes. “May I hold her before you go? Just for a moment?”

      “No.” The word leapt off Kara’s tongue with venomous warning. Adrenaline rushed through her veins, stiffening her posture and renewing her strength. “Please remove your hand from my baby’s stroller,” she seethed. Her stance widened on instinct and her muscles tensed to fight. It was a new and semi-frightening sensation, but in that moment she was sure she could flatten this man if needed. If he attempted to lay a finger on her daughter, they’d soon find out if she was right.

      He stared, unmoving.

      “Now,” she ground out the word.

      Slowly, his fingers pulled away from the stroller. He slid the offending hand into his pocket. The other hung limply at his side. The oily smile she longed to knock off his face had morphed into something like disappointment or distaste. A silver lighter appeared in his hand, pulled swiftly from his pocket. He flicked it to life and watched with the same menacing expression he’d just given her. The flame sputtered, then died with a closing snap of the lid. He tugged the brim of his hat and lifted his gaze back to Kara. “Watch yourself,” he warned. “I hear it’s going to be an inferno.”

      With that, he strode away, angling deftly through throngs of parents and caregivers gathered at the little water park nearby. The musical sounds of children’s laughter sent a shiver down her spine. The contrast of their happiness to her own fear was unnerving. She watched raptly until he was out of sight, just in case he decided he’d like to hold one of those splashing children the way he’d wanted to hold Casey.

      Kara’s lungs filled suddenly on a deep intake of air. “Time to go, baby doll.”

      Casey squirmed at the sound of her mama’s voice. A small complaint fell from her tiny rosebud lips. Eyes still pinched shut, she flailed her arms before going limp once more. Someone was due for a feeding.

      Kara whirled the stroller away from the fountain, thankful to have left her car parked in the opposite direction from the water park where the man was last seen. If she never saw him again, it would be too soon. In fact, the way her skin was crawling right now, never returning to Memorial Park would be fine by her. Matter of fact, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if that guy harassed anyone else today because she hadn’t spoken up. Heaven forbid he lay a hand on any child. The minute they were safely locked inside her car, Kara would call the local sheriff and file a report.

      * * *

      US MARSHAL RYDER GARRETT listened with slow burning fury as his brother West, the Cade County sheriff, relayed a report made by Kara Noble about a strange man at Memorial Park. The fact that someone had upset Ryder’s former fiancée was enough to tighten his jaw. The fact that her description of the man in question matched fugitive Timothy Sand had Ryder packing his bags. Even the remote possibility that Sand was anywhere near Kara was enough to send Ryder back to Shadow Point. He hadn’t been home in three years, but he was already making plans to obliterate the speed limit on his way.

      “She said that?” Ryder asked for the third time, shoving clothes haphazardly into a duffel. “She told you the man said it was going to be an inferno?”

      “Yep,”

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