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  TOUCH OF DANGER

  By

  Alexa Verde

  Book 4 in the Secrets of Rios Azules Series

  Copyright © 2017 by Olga Grun writing as Alexa Verde

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, posted on any website, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations in printed reviews and articles.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Edited by Amy Knupp. Formatting by L.K. Campbell. Cover design by Elle J Rossi.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Other Books by Alexa Verde

  In loving memory of my grandpa Ivan, veteran of World War II and one of the kindest men I’d ever known.

  Chapter One

  “What’s going on, Seth?” Julia Morrison cradled the phone in her shoulder. Seth Vargas had been her sounding board for years, and now it seemed to be his turn to need someone to listen.

  “I have to disappear for some time.” His voice trembled.

  “What happened?” Julia frowned.

  It wasn’t like her friend to sound this terrified. She’d seen him at the Christmas party two days ago, and he’d seemed thoughtful, concerned, which was so unlike the easygoing, always-in-a-good-mood Seth she knew. But he hadn’t been scared then.

  “I can’t tell you over the phone. Come to my place right now.” His voice dripped with urgency, and he disconnected.

  Julia grabbed her purse, Seth’s Christmas present.

  “I have an emergency,” she mumbled to her boss and shot out the door of the nonprofit where she worked as an accountant.

  She climbed inside her car, her heart racing. The more she tried to hurry, the more her hand shook as she fumbled to get the key into the ignition.

  Should she call 911? And tell them Seth Vargas had asked her to come straight over because he’d decided to take a trip? She needed more information before making that call. Julia peeled out of the parking lot.

  She floored the gas pedal and headed toward Seth’s home about ten miles outside of town. The small community of Rios Azules never felt so big as she trekked across town, for the first time in her life ignoring the thirty-five-mile speed limit.

  What seemed like an eternity but her watch showed her was only twenty minutes later, she knocked on his front door and waited. Christmas lights were still hanging under the roof, and an artificial snowman greeted her from a spacious lawn. Maybe Seth’s mind had been occupied with something else besides putting away the decorations.

  There was no answer, so she hammered on the door with the iron-cast lion’s head knocker again. Seth’s crimson-colored sports car reflected sunshine in the driveway. He must be home.

  Chills snaked down her back despite the warm day. Even at the end of December, it was warm in south Texas.

  Still no reply.

  Her stomach sank.

  Something was wrong.

  Terribly wrong.

  She’d never heard Seth sound as scared as he had in that call.

  Hoping against hope that he’d answer, she knocked again.

  On Christmas day, they’d gone to church together, then to her office party. They both loved Christmas and often celebrated it together before she joined her friends and he joined his parents. But this year her boss had asked her to organize the office party and she hadn’t been able to talk her way out of it. Totally out of her element, she’d been so preoccupied with doing a good job and keeping everyone happy that she’d paid little attention to Seth.

  Otherwise, she’d have noticed something had been wrong.

  Guilt squeezed her rib cage as she listened to the eerie silence, desperate to hear Seth’s footsteps inside the house, to see his smiling face appear in the doorframe.

  No footsteps.

  It was pointless to knock again.

  Julia tried the knob, and it turned easily. A motor growled behind her, and she whirled around. A dark blue truck parked near the curb.

  Seth’s brother, Ivan Vargas, jumped out of the truck and strode toward her. Ivan’s piercing brown eyes seemed to look right into her soul, and her heart skipped a beat. Despite their years apart, Ivan still had that effect on her, but she couldn’t let it impact her now. Seth had to be her primary concern and not his brother, who’d been her first and biggest crush ever.

  Julia turned to the door and hesitated.

  What if Seth was unconscious and needed help? A born protector, Ivan had recently joined the town’s police department. He wasn’t wearing his police uniform at the moment, so he must be off duty. Still, with a tall, muscular cop at her back, it should be safe to enter, shouldn’t it?

  Julia stepped inside and froze.

  Blood.

  So much blood.

  The stench of it flooded her nostrils.

  Seth’s body was sunk in the chair. His hand hung to his side, and a gun had been dropped nearby.

  Somebody screamed.

  It took Julia a moment to realize the scream had been her own.

  A gust of wind touched her skin, and she swung around.

  Ivan stormed into the house. His eyes widened, and shock registered on his face as he looked at his dead brother. With a visible effort, Ivan seemed to take control of his emotions.

  “Did you see anybody?” His voice was hollow.

  Her legs wouldn’t hold her any longer, so she leaned against the wall. She shook her head, unable to force words out of her mouth.

  “I’ll check the interior and outside perimeter. Stay here.” Ivan turned around.

  Julia stared at what was left of Seth. She forced herself to step forward, intending to try CPR, but shrank back to the wall immediately. There was no way he could’ve survived a wound like that.

  Ivan called the dispatcher as he disappeared down the corridor in one of the huge rooms. The perimeter was large, so he could be a while.

  Dear Lord, please keep Ivan safe in Your care. In Jesus’s holy name. Amen.

  What had happened here was too much for her to take in. Her wonderful, cheerful, happy friend no longer existed.

  Stop. Falling. Apart.

  Think.

  After all, she was good at thinking and analyzing. She looked around the room for signs of a struggle. Nothing looked disturbed. A huge Christmas tree stood near the wall. She’d helped Seth decorate that tree. They’d had fun picking out ornaments and hanging them, including her favorite ones of three little houses in snow, the ornaments she’d inherited from her grandparents. Julia filed the beautiful memory in the recesses of her mind.

  She had to concentrate on the frightening present and forced herself to look at her friend.

  It looked like a suicide, but her senses screamed at her not to believe it. The Seth she knew couldn’t kill himself. He loved life too much. He was a Christian. And she’d just talked to him on the phone. He’d sounded scared, not suicidal.

  If only she’d arrived sooner, maybe she could’ve saved him. Just like that time many years
ago when she’d arrived late.

  Too late….

  Julia shivered, dragged herself away from the support of the wall and over to Seth. Her legs were lead weights. Useless or not, she tried for his pulse. Of course, there wasn’t one.

  She said a prayer for Ivan and his family.

  Julia ached to call her friends, the small group nicknamed the Danger Girls. But she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to push the words past the huge lump in her throat.

  As she glanced at the blood—Seth’s blood—she shuddered. The color was so vivid, and the metallic scent so familiar. She became light-headed.

  An image from her childhood appeared in front of her eyes. There had been so much blood then, too…. She shut it out with a trained effort. Her faith had helped her recover from that trauma.

  God was going to help her survive this one, as well.

  She whispered a prayer.

  Her heart went out to Ivan. There was no way to lessen his pain, but if she could make it even a tiny fraction more bearable, she’d do her best. After all, they’d been good friends before Ivan had left Rios Azules to join the army and then the police academy.

  Instinct took over.

  Self-preservation.

  No matter how much she wanted to find a small, dark place and hide, she needed to pay attention to the matter at hand. What if Seth had been murdered and the intruder was still in the house? Did Seth’s gun have any bullets left in it? One of her friends had taught Julia to shoot.

  Julia shook her head in response to her own question. She knew better than to use a smoking gun.

  God’s got this.

  The strong grasp of fear lessened. She needed to think. With his love of barbecuing, Seth had purchased a nice collection of steak knives.

  There was no sound of footsteps, but she caught a shadow moving in the corner of her eye. Julia tensed, ready to duck behind the furniture. Too late for a mad dash to the kitchen for a knife now.

  Dear Lord, please help me. In Jesus’s holy name. Amen.

  Goose bumps erupted over her skin.

  Was it Ivan returning or somebody else?

  ***

  Moving fast along the rooms, Ivan checked them, making sure not to disturb any evidence. Then he checked the exterior, including a huge backyard, where he’d joined his brother so many times for barbecuing. The yard smelled of freshly cut grass, a welcome difference from the stench of blood inside. Ivan struggled to concentrate on making sure there was no intruder hiding behind the old oaks, and not on the fact that his brother was gone.

  Of course, Ivan would have to let a different officer from the Rios Azules Police Department process the scene. He was off duty. Besides, he shouldn’t be working on a case where the victim was his immediate family.

  The victim.

  His only brother.

  The army and the police academy should’ve prepared him for everything. Ivan wasn’t prepared for this. A part of him died the moment he’d seen his brother dead. But in the presence of possible danger, Ivan had to distance himself from the victim. He couldn’t let himself be consumed by grief, at least not yet.

  Was it a suicide as it appeared, or had Julia scared off the killer?

  The house and the fenced-in yard were empty, and there was no sign of foul play. No sign of struggle whatsoever. Ivan returned to the living room, steeling himself against what he was about to see.

  Seth looked so much like him. The experience was eerie, akin to looking in the mirror. But Ivan had to think like a cop, not as a person who’d just lost his sibling.

  Switching off his emotions, drawing on every bit of his training, Ivan inspected the gun, holding it with the fabric of his T-shirt, careful not to leave or smudge any fingerprints if there were any. He recognized the weapon as the one belonging to Seth. During Ivan’s quick check, he hadn’t noticed anything missing in any of the rooms, including expensive electronics and art. This didn’t seem like a robbery.

  It appeared that Seth really had killed himself. But why? What would drive his brother to do something like that?

  Ivan glanced at Julia. She stared at the dead body, not blinking. He stepped to her, his only witness.

  She was shaking terribly. “I’m s-sorry.” Her teeth chattered, and she stuttered. “Seth c-called me, asking me t-to c-come in. I should’ve g-gotten h-here s-sooner.”

  Ivan tensed. “When did Seth call you? What exactly did he say? How did he sound?”

  “Ab-bout h-half an hour or forty m-minutes ago. He s-sounded s-scared. D-distressed. S-said he n-needed t-to d-disappear for s-some time. Asked me to c-come over b-because he c-couldn’t t-talk ab-bout it on the phone. I d-drove as fast as I c-could. But I should’ve g-gotten here s-sooner. I’m so s-sorry.”

  “Julia, it’s not your fault.” For a moment, grief slightly shifted, letting a bit of compassion into his heart, making it easier to deny what had happened to his brother. “Did you see anything?”

  She shook her head. “N-no. I f-found… him… l-like this.”

  Tears pooled in her big eyes. Freckles stood out on her pale face, matching her fiery-red hair. She looked more like the scared, shy girl he’d met in the third grade than the superficial, selfish woman—just like her mother—she was rumored to be now.

  Memories rushed in front of Ivan’s eyes, of Seth and him as kids, running around in their huge family mansion, playing in the yard, swimming in the pool, laughing. The memories were real. The man covered in so much blood Ivan could barely recognize him couldn’t be.

  Ivan had seen deaths caused by gunshot wounds before. But none of them were his little brother, whom he’d failed to protect. Just like he’d failed to protect his friend Jake…

  “He c-can’t be g-gone. N-not S-seth. He was always s-so joyful.” Her teeth chattered again.

  Ivan winced at Julia’s use of past tense in regard to his brother. He wrapped his arms around her, trying to stop her shivers.

  Then he let her lean against the wall for support and turned around to have one more look at the room. A sheet of paper on the coffee table attracted Ivan’s attention. Something was typed on it. Holding it carefully because of the miniscule chance there’d be the perp’s fingerprints left, Ivan hurried to read it.

  I want to explain why I’m going to take my own life. Julia Morrison said she loved me, and it was all lies. She was ruthless. She broke my heart and stomped on it, too. I can’t imagine my life without her, but she only laughed at me and humiliated me. It’s too painful to bear. I know I’ll hurt some people by my decision. But I just want to stop this pain. Seth Vargas.

  Ivan took a shaky breath and read the letter twice. There could be only one conclusion.

  His brother was dead because of Julia, who’d been known as a heartbreaker. And his brother, while fun and easygoing on the outside, had a sensitive side.

  Ivan’s blood boiled, and there was no compassion in him toward her anymore.

  Only anger.

  “What does the letter say?” Julia asked as tears—crocodile tears—ran down her pale face.

  How could he have once considered her beautiful?

  For a moment, Ivan couldn’t speak. When he found his voice, he read the letter to her, enunciating every word. Her jaw dropped, and she stopped crying.

  “My brother died because of you, Julia.”

  Sirens split the air as his heart shattered into a million little pieces.

  ***

  Two days later, Julia pressed on the brakes and swerved, trying to avoid a pothole. She didn’t succeed, and her car shook.

  Argh.

  She shouldn’t have taken this shortcut along a lonely farm road. But her friends and relatives had told her they were coming over after Seth’s funeral, to show their support. Julia was grateful to them, especially after the way Seth’s family had thrown hateful glances her way at the funeral. It pained her that one of those antagonistic gazes had come from Ivan.

  Now she needed to race to arrive before her guests.

&nb
sp; Her friends, the so-called Danger Girls, had been the answer to her prayers when she’d been growing up. After losing her father as a child and with her mother changing husbands afterwards so often that Julia couldn’t keep track of them, Julia had ended up at her grandparents’ cottage at the ripe age of six. She’d taken care of her ailing grandpa and grandma while they’d provided for her.

  And the Danger Girls… All of them had at least one parent missing and another one either neglecting or downright abusing them. Except for Lydia Velasquez. Lydia had both parents disappear from her life soon after she’d been born and was left with her grandmother. The Danger Girls had pretty much raised each other.

  Despite the sad day, Julia remembered her blessings as her car’s tire hit another pothole.

  The Danger Girls had always been by her side, in good times or bad. Today, Mari Goodman and Lydia Velasquez had flanked her sides at the funeral, standing tall and challenging anybody to confront Julia after the information from Seth’s note had somehow become known. Three months pregnant, Mari had shown up despite her husband Luke’s protests, who’d probably been afraid she could miscarry again if overwhelmed by negative emotions.

  Despite their fragile looks, both Mari and Lydia were known for their strong will, determination, and courage, and Seth’s family hadn’t dared to say anything to Julia so far. It probably had helped that Lydia’s grandmother had been one of the richest women in town and Mari had a black belt in karate.

  Two other members of the Danger Girls, River Forrester and Soledad O’Hara, most likely would’ve been by Julia’s side, too. But with Soledad in San Antonio at the grand opening of her exhibition and River moving to Dallas with her husband, Julia had decided it was best not to call them.

  Julia glanced in the rearview mirror. She was still skittish after saying a final good-bye to Seth, and the view in the mirror didn’t help calm down her nerves. A black sedan with tinted windows tailed her, even after several turns on an otherwise deserted road. The vehicle didn’t come close enough for her to read the license plate.