Read Online Cold Pursuit by Carla Neggers - Free Book Online Page A

it on her own. But the guesthouse was working out okay. It was cute, and the Whittakers weren’t in Black Falls that much and mostly left her alone.
    Nora didn’t care about any of that right now. She held a breath to keep herself from crying.
    Alex is dead.
    “Don’t think about it,” she told herself out loud.
    She noticed a tear had dropped onto the checklist Elijah had insisted each student in his wilderness-skills class come up with of what to take on a winter hike. She had everything on her list. Map, compass, food, shelter, knife, matches, clothes, a whistle, water, water-purification tablets. A lot of the stuff was new and it was all good quality.
    You’ll be fine.
    She squatted to zip up a small outer compartment on her backpack. Her head spun. She couldn’t make it stop. “Alex is dead,” she whispered. “I can’t believe he’s dead.”
    She was so scared. She couldn’t see straight. She didn’t know what to do.
    Her hands trembled and already felt frozen, but she wasn’t even that cold yet. She had packed gloves—she’d shown them to Elijah to make sure they would work for winter conditions, and he’d given his approval. He wasn’t as cocky as she’d expected a Special Forces soldier to be. He was just super-competent and professional. Everyone in Black Falls that she met said no one knew the mountains better than Elijah.
    Nora wished she could be that confident—that good—one day.
    She sniffled, refusing to cry outright. She’d been so excited about moving to Black Falls, and now her life there was just a big mess. She loved her apartment, and the Whittakers’ estate—a classic Vermont gentleman’s farm—was so beautiful. The guesthouse, once a separate property, was nestled at the bottom of a sloping, manicured lawn that swept up to a huge charcoal-gray, black-shuttered farmhouse.
    Nora hadn’t told the Whittakers, who’d arrived in Black Falls a couple of days ago, about Alex. She didn’t plan to tell them, either. Alex had met them on a trip to Vermont last October. He’d been a regular guest at the Camerons’ lodge for several years and came up one weekend while her mom was on a business trip. He and the Whittakers had hit it off, and they’d invited him to stay with them and to bring his fiancée and her daughter. Nora fell in love with Black Falls. She came up twice after that with Alex and her mother. Then the Whittakers insisted she bring her father one weekend. Just the two of them. He was reluctant at first, but Nora talked him into it. They’d had such a great time together. She’d fantasized about all of them coming to Vermont one day—her, her dad, her mom, Alex. She thought Lowell and Vivian understood.
    If only, though, she hadn’t told them she and her father were heading north in April to look at colleges. They’d immediately invited them to stay at their place in Black Falls. If they hadn’t—if they’d just stayed in another town—he never would have met Melanie Kendall.
    It’s my fault he met that bitch.
    “Nora.”
    She jumped, but stifled a scream when she saw it was Devin on the stone walk in front of the guesthouse. She straightened, sniffled back her tears. “Devin, what are you doing here? You startled me.”
    “Sorry.” He looked almost forlorn. “I just want to talk.”
    “There’s nothing to talk about. Really.”
    A pair of mallards floated in a small man-made pond behind him. The banks of the pond were planted with weeping willows and rhododendrons. Everything about the estate was beautifully done, carefully planned. As much as she wanted her own apartment, Nora loved being there, having her own space and being surrounded by wilderness. She’d hated living in a dorm.
    Devin nodded to her pack. “Are you going somewhere?”
    “Maybe. I don’t know. I wanted to see how all the stuff I’ve been collecting since the class I took with Elijah would fit into my backpack.”
    “Looks heavy.”
    “I can manage.”
    “Nora, what’s