Pushed Too Far: A Thriller Read Free Page A

failure to save her still stung like an open wound. Still he’d pulled himself together. He’d gotten through the investigation, the trial, and the months of nothingness after.
    Now he had to face it again.
    He watched the police chief pick her way over the ice. She was a beautiful woman, high cheekbones and serious, gray eyes. If he’d met her under other circumstances, he was sure his attraction would be his focus. Instead, every time he saw her, he felt raw and wary.
    She would want to talk to him, not just about the failed rescue today but where he’d been this morning, what he’d done last night, and it would all start over.
    The news crew met her as soon as she’d stepped onto shore, camera heading her off, microphone pushed into her face. He could read her lips from here.
    No comment.
    No comment.
    “You done with the suit?” Dempsey tromped up next to him and held out a hand.
    Lund pushed himself up from the playground equipment and forced himself to peel off the protective layer. “I can take care of it.”
    “You did the paddling.”
    “You drove.”
    Dempsey shot him a sideways look. “Just give me the suit.”
    Lund handed it over. He knew Dempsey and Johnson were just trying to share the load. They didn’t get that helping pack up wasn’t a burden. On the contrary, being able to do something might help get his mind off Kelly, off the police chief and her inevitable questions.
    Of course, he hadn’t told his fellow firefighters exactly who he’d pulled from the water. Pete Olson had insisted he keep that information quiet, and now he was glad he’d listened. Dempsey and Johnson were coddling him enough just thinking he’d failed to save a woman he didn’t know.
    Too bad it wouldn’t stay a secret for long. As soon as they found out, they would start treating him like he was as fragile as the ice on that lake.
    Covering an area of rural land and small towns, the fire district didn’t have a live-in firehouse. It had only two full-time firefighters, the chief, who handled the administrative end, and the fire inspector/community outreach director, who happened to be Lund. The rest were paid volunteers who trained regularly and responded to the radios they kept in their homes.
    But the lack of other full-time firefighters wouldn’t prevent the chief from insisting he take some time off, leaving him with nothing to do but sit around and think.
    He looked back toward Police Chief Ryker. One last no comment, and she broke away from the camera and started his way.
    He yanked on his boots, stood and tried his best to relax. He’d been through this drill before, knew what was coming, but that didn’t mean he had a clue how to handle it. Or that he ever would.
    “Mr. Lund. I’m glad I caught you.” She skirted the ambulance and Unit One, wind streaming her blond hair across her face despite her efforts to push it away. She wore a dark wool coat over police blues, as usual, something that always struck him as odd compared to most chiefs of police who tended to prefer suits. He suspected she counted on the uniform to remind citizens of her authority, to give her an edge.
    Not that she needed it.
    Stopping in front of him, she shoved one hand in her pocket and studied him as if reading his mind. “This must be a shock. I’m so sorry.”
    The first time Kelly had been murdered he’d spent so much time studying Val Ryker’s expressions, he no longer needed subtitles. “But you need to ask me a few questions.”
    “Unfortunately, yes.”
    “Seems last time the only answer you’d accept was a confession.”
    Her lips tightened. “Do you have something to confess?”
    “I didn’t kill her, and I don’t know where she’s been all this time. Will that suffice?”
    “That’s a start.”
    “You want to know where I was the past few hours and who can vouch for me.”
    She didn’t answer, just waited for him to go on.
    “I’ve been at the fire station all day, plenty of witnesses.”
    “And