For Her Eyes Only

For Her Eyes Only
Sharon Sala

As a devastating summer storm hits Grand Springs, Colorado, the next thirty-six hours will change the town and its residents forever….

Jessica Hanson is plunged into darkness when the power goes out at her office the night of the storm. Stumbling in the dark, she hits her head and awakens to a sinister vision of the mayor’s murder. Was it just her imagination, or was it real? To learn the truth she’ll have to go to the one man she wanted to forget when their affair ended—Detective Stone Richardson.

Stone Richardson deals in facts. And the facts he uncovers point to Jessica being a witness to murder. That means a killer is on the loose, and Jessica is in danger. But now she’s had a vision of another death—his.

Book 4 of the 36 Hours series. Don’t miss Book 5: During the blackout, a dance with a mysterious stranger leads to romance and a fake engagement in Cinderella Story by Elizabeth August.

For Her Eyes Only

Sharon Sala

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Contents

Chapter One (#u25ace905-9905-5205-a264-6f02f21c1628)

Chapter Two (#u3fd9841e-9173-5d6d-8bee-54cc67e9200b)

Chapter Three (#u9935bc7f-1f67-5a04-ba9e-d8b1d2a3cdd1)

Chapter Four (#u8ca59aa9-4745-52f9-ad00-88af4c865f46)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One

Thunder rolled outside the walls of Squaw Creek Lodge, ripping through the gray, overhanging clouds. Rain splattered against the shake-shingle roof before running onto the ground. It had been raining for so many days, but it was getting worse. It seemed as if heaven was weeping. And while it was fashionable to cry at weddings, Jessica Hanson thought this was ridiculous.

She sat hunched over her computer, determined to concentrate on getting out the payroll for the lodge employees, and not on the wedding about to take place in the nearby ballroom. As she flipped through the time cards, her lower lip slid out of position just enough to pass for a pout. A sign to those who knew her best that she was more than slightly annoyed. She knew the couple who were about to get married, yet she hadn’t been invited to the wedding. But she was honest enough to admit that part of the reason could lie in the fact that she hadn’t been back in Grand Springs long enough to reestablish her place within her old circle of friends. Jessica’s reason for leaving Grand Springs two years ago had been traumatic enough for her to break all ties with her past except for those with her sister, Brenda. And although she’d been back a little over two months, she had yet to see the man who’d been her reason for leaving.

Stone Richardson.

Just thinking his name made her heart hurt, and she blinked back a quick spurt of tears as she let the memory of him back into her mind. Stone—as in…with a heart of. Then she sighed. Damn his ex-wife, Naomi, and damn his hard heart, anyway. It wasn’t Jessica’s fault Naomi had done everything within her power to prove that it was Stone’s job as a cop that had ruined their marriage and not Naomi’s own lack of understanding or willingness to accept him for who and what he was.

Jessica glanced at the clock. Almost six-thirty. Long past quitting time. She hammered on the keyboard with renewed intensity, determined to get through with the payroll before she left.

Her brief affair with Stone had ended without anyone, and that included Brenda, ever knowing it had happened. Stone had refused to trust another woman enough to give their future a chance, and Jessica hadn’t been willing to settle for being a cop’s sexual outlet.

She’d told herself then and she still thought it now—the best and worst thing that ever happened to her was loving Stone Richardson. Coming back to Grand Springs had been Jessica’s way of proving to herself that she was over him. And although she’d been back for two months now, she had yet to see him face-to-face. When that happened, then she would know if her two-year, self-imposed exile had worked.

Her fingers flew as she entered data into the computer, while her mind was stuck in the past. Laughter from the gathering guests was faint, but she heard it all the same. She rolled her eyes and frowned. If she could have seen herself, it would have lightened her mood. She looked more like a pouting child who’d been put in a corner for something she hadn’t done, than the consummate professional she considered herself to be.

A sudden clap of thunder made her jump, and when the lights flickered, she paused, her fingers poised above the keys as the battery backup to her uninterrupted power supply beeped a quick, nervous warning. The storm was getting stronger by the hour. Thunder, lightning, torrential rain—and it didn’t look as if it was going to stop any time soon. Grand Springs was in for a rough night.

“No, no, no,” she begged, staring at the flickering screen. When the power held, she sighed in relief and returned to her task. Just a few more cards and she would be finished.

Cool air circulated within her small, self-contained office as, moments later, she hit the save key. It was done! A smile of satisfaction crossed her face.

Jessica leaned back in the chair, stretching as she listened to the contented purr of her computer’s hard drive. Her shoulders ached and her neck was tired, and out of habit, she reached up and pulled out the pins holding her hairdo in place. It rolled from the topknot and onto her shoulders without so much as a tangle. Since it wouldn’t hold a curl, it only stood to reason it wouldn’t hold a knot, either.

Her hair was thick and straight and a color her sister, Brenda, called dishwater blond. She’d been told all of her life that she looked a bit like a young Goldie Hawn, minus the giggles, of course. It hadn’t helped Jessica’s opinion of herself at all. She didn’t want to be minus anything. She wanted…

Before she could finish the thought, the room went dark, lit only by the screen of the computer still in operation. The backup battery began beeping a frantic warning for her to shut the system down before all was lost.

Frantically, Jessica exited the program, breathing a quiet sigh of relief when she switched off the computer. She hadn’t had time to print out the checks, but payroll had been saved. However, now that the screen was dark, she couldn’t see a thing. Outside her office, she heard the sound of a folding chair tumbling to the floor, and then an unnatural silence.

“Perfect. Just perfect,” she muttered, and wearily laid her head down on the desk to wait for the power to resume.

A man’s muffled voice sounded as he ran past the outer door to her office, and Jessica thought he said something about fuses and flashlights. Flashlights! There was one in the file cabinets by the door. Although good sense told her to stay put until the power returned, she pushed her chair back from the desk and then stood. It was her first mistake.

The absence of light was disconcerting. It made the air seem thicker, her balance less sure. Circling her desk with hands outstretched, she was forced to orient herself by touch alone. When she bumped the edge of the desk with her knee, she winced. Even though she was wearing pants, the fabric wasn’t heavy enough to prevent the bruise that was bound to appear.

“Fish guts,” she muttered, rubbing at the ache in her knee.

When she could bend it without further pain, she moved again, still aiming for the file cabinets by the door. Once more, the absence of light threw her off balance and she staggered, this time stumbling backward. Her sleeve caught on something sharp, and when she heard fabric rip, she groaned. That had been her favorite blouse.

Another ripple of thunder sounded overhead as something thumped against the outside of her door. A muffled curse and then a slight moan drifted beneath the crack. It gave her a modicum of satisfaction to know she wasn’t the only one fumbling around in the dark. Still fuming over the tear she’d put in her blouse, she started forward. It was to be her second mistake.

The office that had been her refuge now seemed close and confining, and in a panic, she hastened her steps. Seconds later, something hard and round rolled beneath her shoe, and in dismay, Jessica remembered the umbrella she’d tossed on top of a cabinet hours earlier. Even as she’d been walking toward her desk, she’d heard it roll off and onto the floor. She’d meant to go back and pick it up, but the phone had rung. And then she’d sat down and started to work and thought nothing more of it…until now.

The sensation of moving through space without seeing where she was going was frightening. All she knew was that her feet were no longer on the floor and she was on the way down. And then pain shattered her consciousness. She’d found the file cabinets…the hard way.

* * *