Read Online Montana D-Force (Brotherhood Protectors Book 3) by Elle James - Free Book Online Page B

her shoulder, Mia became hyperaware of his body so close to hers. Several times she lost focus on the words, breathing in his outdoorsy scent.She could feel his heat, and it made her pulse quicken. What would it feel like to lie next to him, to be held in his arms and feel his hands sliding across her body?
    Her naked body?
    Mia closed the journal and stood, putting as much distance between her and Bear as possible in the small room.
    He walked around the room, looked out the window and checked under the bed.
    “What are you looking for?” Mia asked.
    “I don’t know. I feel like there’s a missing piece to this puzzle.”
    Mia rubbed her arms, a chill raising gooseflesh across her skin, now that Bear wasn’t standing over her. “Why did she stop writing in the middle of a sentence, and why did she then get so depressed she’d take her own life?”
    “Do you think maybe she got a call from someone?”
    “We thought of that.” Mrs. Severs stood in the doorway, a cup of tea in her hand. “We checked her cell phone records. The calls she’d made that night after she got home were to her bridesmaids. We asked them what the calls were about, and they all said Allyson had called to tell them about her and Phillip’s choice for a honeymoon location. They said she sounded happy. They couldn’t understand what could have made her so sad.”
    Mia hugged Mrs. Severs once more, careful not to spill her tea. “Thank you for indulging me. I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am that Allyson is gone.”
    “Thank you for caring,” Mrs. Severs said. She glanced at her watch, and her eyes widened. “My husband will be home in ten minutes.”
    “We’re leaving.” Mia hooked Bear’s arm and followed Mrs. Severs out of Allyson’s room and through the front door.
    Once they’d reached the porch, Mrs. Severs seemed to relax. “It was nice seeing you, Mia. How long will you be in town?”
    “I’m not certain. At least until I complete a project I’m working on.”
    “Congratulations on your success in the movie industry. Everyone in Eagle Rock is excited by our local celebrities.”
    “Thank you,” she said with a small smile. “I do my best.”
    “I find it ironic that Allyson never wanted to leave Eagle Rock. If she’d left when you and Sadie did after high school, she might be alive today. I sometimes wonder if I made the right choice, encouraging her to live here. Or if my husband and I had stayed home that weekend we went to the cabin, maybe we could have prevented whatever happened to make Allyson so sad.”
    Mia touched the woman’s hand. “Don’t blame yourself.”
    She gave a sad smile. “I know. Nothing I wish I could have done will bring her back. But still…” She shrugged.
    As soon as Bear drove out of the Severs’s driveway, he turned to Mia. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but I think you need to talk to the sheriff about what happened to you, Mia. He might have other unsolved cases that could be related. He also will have access to the state’s crime database. If other women in neighboring counties have been assaulted, we might have a serial rapist on our hands.”
    Mia had been thinking along the same lines. Everything about Allyson’s abrupt change in personality and outlook screamed trauma. And what trauma would make her pull back from everyone she loved? The situation felt eerily familiar. “You’re right. I need to talk to the sheriff. But I only want to talk to Sheriff Wilson. Not any of his deputies. The sheriff is an old friend of the family; he’ll be discreet.”
    “When?” Bear persisted.
    “I’ll set up an appointment with him for the morning.”
    “Why not now?”
    Irritated, she shot a narrow-eyed glance in Bear’s direction. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re pushy?”
    He grinned, the expression transforming his face. “All the time.”
    Mia sat frozen in time, the smile on Bear’s face lighting up the interior of the truck cab. “You really should