Read Online Dangerous Refuge by Elizabeth Lowell - Free Book Online

Her breath brushed the back of his hand as she spoke. “But not enough to give in to temptation.”
    “At least I tempt you.”
    She sat back and blew out a long breath. “Tanner, you’re a living, breathing temptation to anything female with a pulse.”
    He gave a crack of laughter. “You’re the first woman who’s noticed.”
    She doubted that, but she knew better than to argue it. She had a suspicion that verbal fencing with him would lead to more temptation than she wanted to handle. A quick mind appealed to her more than a hard male body.
    Tanner had both.
    “Did you really think Lorne would change his mind if you talked to him?” Tanner asked.
    “You’re giving me conversational whiplash. Wait—” She blew out a breath. “You’re right, time to change the subject. When I returned from a fund-raising retreat, there were two messages on my phone. The first was from Kimberli, who said she’d made a mistake with the contract she took out to Lorne, along with the letter of intent he was supposed to sign to firm things up before the party.”
    “Must have been a bad mistake.”
    She closed her eyes for a moment. “The boilerplate contract allows the Conservancy to modify land usage according to the overall conservation plans for the entire Intermountain West. Lorne wanted a guarantee that the land wouldn’t be traded for any reason under any circumstances. It’s hardly an unusual response. We agreed to make the change. He agreed to sign.”
    Tanner waited. The weariness in her made him want to pull her into his arms, but that wouldn’t answer any questions except the hot, male-female kind. Death was a cold business.
    “Kimberli was late, as usual, for the appointment. She grabbed the wrong contract from Legal and didn’t have time to check it.”
    “So Lorne found a mistake.”
    “He accused the Conservancy of everything but stealing children for the sex trade and kicked Kimberli off the ranch. She left a message on my phone that I was supposed to go to Lorne and talk reason into his thick head.”
    Tanner raised black eyebrows. “She has a lot of faith in you.”
    “She knew Lorne was more than a job to me.”
    “You said there were two messages.”
    “The second one was from Lorne. He was . . . very angry. Wanted me never to set foot on his land again. He wouldn’t answer my return calls. I tried to sleep. Finally I gave up and headed for his ranch. I knew he got up before dawn.”
    Tanner listened to Shaye’s words with the skill and intensity of a man who made his living sifting lies from truth. Nothing in her body language or tone rang any alarm bells.
    “Did he ever complain about pain or shortness of breath or being stiff in his left side?” Tanner asked.
    “No. Other than a knee that bothered him on cold, damp mornings, I never heard him say a word about pain. I never saw him hesitate to pick up a bale of hay or a bucket of water, either.”
    “He got the sore knee when he was bucked off a horse that was meaner than he was,” Tanner said, remembering his uncle’s blistering language as he was slammed into the corral fence. “He got back on, rode the horse into the ground, and sold him the next day.”
    “Sounds like Lorne.” She hesitated. “He died quickly. He didn’t thrash around or try to crawl back to the house. Just lay faceup to the sky.”
    “You found him on his back?”
    Shaye nodded.
    Tanner’s fingers tapped once on his thigh. “Odd.”
    “Why?”
    “Unless the person is already lying on his back, most quick, natural deaths fall facedown.” He rolled up the paper trash and stuffed it into the fast-food bag. “Had he argued with anyone else lately?”
    “Other than Kimberli, not that I know of. I warned her not to be late with the contract because it was poker night and—”
    “Wait. If he was signing a contract, why the letter of intent?”
    “Lorne doesn’t—didn’t—trust anyone. Before he signed the letter of intent, he wanted to review and