Page 1 of Canyon Killer
CHAPTER ONE
“I love my family. I really do. But sometimes they annoy me almost beyond bearing.” The infant in Bethany’s arms stared up at her with wide blue eyes, then blew a bubble. Bethany laughed. “Yeah, why am I complaining to you? But give it twenty years or so, and you’ll understand. Families are wonderful, but sometimes…”
She shifted the infant, Joella, to her other arm and turned back to the computer at the front desk of Peak Jeep Tours and Rentals. The message blinking there, from her mother—who also happened to be her boss—informed her that Mom had made a dentist appointment for her for the following month. As if Bethany, at twenty-three, wasn’t capable of making her own appointment. She was tempted to call and cancel it, but in the small town of Eagle Mountain, Colorado, there really was only the one dentist, and she liked him.
She sighed, closed the message and turned her attention back to the baby.
“Uh, Bethany, is there something you’ve been keeping from us?”
She looked up from admiring the infant to find her brother Dalton regarding her with a quizzical expression. She had three brothers, and Dalton was the youngest, two years younger than Bethany. Tanned, with a scruff of a beard and a faded Alpine Adventures T-shirt stretched across his broad shoulders, he looked as if he had lived in Eagle Mountain all of his life, instead of only two months. Locals still lookedherup and down and said things like “You’re not from around here, are you?” And she had lived here nine months. It really wasn’t fair.
“She belongs to a couple who booked a Jeep trip up to Portnoy Basin,” she said and smiled down at the baby again.
“Are we offering free babysitting with our tours now?” Dalton leaned over and snagged a handful of jelly beans from the bowl on the corner of the desk.
“They thought they would be able to take her with them.” She settled Joella into her carrier and tucked a soft yellow blanket around her. “I had to explain we couldn’t allow an infant, even in a carrier, in an open-topped Jeep on a rough four-wheel-drive road.”
“And they talked you into watching her.” Dalton chuckled. “You’re such a sucker.”
“It’s not as if she’s much trouble,” she said. “And the trip was her mom’s birthday present. She was really looking forward to it.”
“Sucker,” he repeated. “I’m going to see what I can find for lunch.”
Dalton moved past her, into the back room, as the front door opened and a man entered—tall, twentysomething, bronzed, chiseled features and close-cropped hair, aviator sunglasses, dressed in khaki cargo pants and a button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to reveal muscular forearms. Your basic gorgeous, outdoorsy type this town seemed to be full of.
Bethany smiled broadly. “Hello. How can I help you?”
“I need to rent a Jeep,” he said.
“Great.” She returned to the desk and pulled up the Jeep rental form. “How long would you be needing it? We rent by the hour, but the daily rate is a better deal.”
He moved in closer. He smelled like leather and some exotic spice. Expensive. “I need it for a couple of months,” he said. “Until the project I’m working on in town is finished.”
“Oh.” She looked back up at him. He had removed the sunglasses to reveal blue eyes, fine lines at the corners. “Most people just want to take them into the mountains for a day or two.”
“I need it for at least a couple of months,” he repeated.
“Sure. We can do that.” Bethany forced her attention back to the form. It was either that or keep staring at him like a smitten teen. “Since you want it for that long, I could offer you a ten percent discount.” That wasn’t anofficialpolicy, but it made sense to her. And it wasn’t as if Mom and Dad were going to fire her for trying to please a customer.
“Thanks.” He handed over a matte black credit card. The kind that screamedhigh credit limit.
“I’ll just need your name and contact information.”
“Ian. Ian Seabrook.”
She filled in his name and the address and phone number he rattled off, copied off his insurance and driver’s license information, then checked the board to see what was available. They had a couple of their usual blue rental units available. And a brand-new black one. The black one wasn’t officially in the rental pool yet. Dalton and his twin, Carter, were lobbying hard to put it in the tour fleet so they could drive it. But hey, Ian looked like he would take good care of it. She grabbed the keys off the hook.
The door opened and Carter came in. He and Dalton weren’t identical twins, but they looked enough alike that people who didn’t know them well sometimes got them confused. Carter was an inch taller and five minutes older and a little beefier than Dalton. “Whose Porsche is that parked out front?” he called.
Ian turned to look at him. “It’s mine.”
“Are you taking a tour with us?” Carter leaned back against the desk, focused on the newcomer.
“Mr. Seabrook is renting a Jeep,” Bethany said. She inserted Ian’s credit card into the card reader.
“Seabrook.” Carter straightened. “Ian Seabrook?”
“Yes.” Ian accepted his credit card from her.
