Chapter 1

      Her eyes were wide with fear and death. She stared up at him as if appealing to him for help. She wasn’t the only one.

      “Come on, Forrest,” his brother Donovan implored him. “Whisperwood PD needs your expertise.”

      Forrest gestured at the body lying amid the piles of dirt where Lone Star Pharma had intended to expand its parking lot. The drug company had had to put its plans on hold once the asphalt crew had dug up the body. “This isn’t a cold case.”

      She couldn’t have been buried that long; the body had barely begun decomp. Not that he was that close to the scene, which the techs were still processing. He’d wanted to stay out of the way, but his brothers had urged him closer.

      “This isn’t the only body that turned up recently,” Jonah, the oldest of his brothers, chimed in on the conversation. He and Donovan had picked up Forrest from their parents’ ranch and brought him out here. Now he understood why. They were trying to get him involved in the investigation.

      They stared at him now. And even though Donovan wasn’t biologically their brother, he looked more like Jonah than any of their biological brothers did. They were both dark haired and dark eyed, whereas Forrest’s hair was lighter brown and longer than their buzz cuts, and his eyes were hazel.

      “Unfortunately she isn’t the only recent casualty,” Forrest agreed.

      A dozen people had lost their lives due to the flooding and wind damage Hurricane Brooke had wreaked on Whisperwood, Texas. Despite being early in the season, the storm had been deadly.

      “That’s why we’re here—to help out because of the natural disaster,” he reminded his brothers. They were part of the Cowboy Heroes, a horseback rescue organization formed years ago by ranchers and EMTs. Forrest had volunteered to help the Heroes’ search-and-recovery efforts—not the police department. “And this isn’t a natural disaster.”

      Though this person might have been one of the people reported missing since the hurricane, the storm hadn’t caused her death. From what Forrest could see in the lights that the Whisperwood PD’s forensic unit had set up to illuminate the crime scene, the young woman had bruising around her neck and on her arms and legs. She hadn’t drowned or been struck by a fallen tree.

      She’d probably been strangled and maybe worse.

      A chill raced down his spine despite the warmth of the August night. The death had happened recently.

      “This is murder,” Jonah said. He must have noticed what Forrest had. “Just like the body that Maggie and I found last month.” He shuddered now. “And that one definitely falls within your area of expertise.”

      Forrest shook his head. “Not anymore.”

      A shooting had forced his early retirement from the Austin Police Department’s cold-case unit. That shooting and the pins that held together the shattered bones in his leg were why he’d had to retire with disability and why, as a volunteer with the Cowboy Heroes, he was consigned to a desk, operating the telephones. He took the calls about what people were missing: loved ones and livestock. But he’d rather be out in the field with his brothers, actually searching for those missing people and animals. Hell, he’d rather be back on the job. And they knew him so damn well that they were aware of that.

      Jonah lowered his voice to a gruff whisper and murmured, “Not because you don’t want to.”

      Sure, he would love to go back to the job, but there was no way in hell that he could pass a physical now. Not with his leg.

      As if he’d read Forrest’s mind, Jonah continued, “But you can now. The chief will give you a special dispensation to help out as an interim detective.”

      The “special dispensation” pricked his pride, and he clenched his jaw. “I don’t need you all doing me any favors.”

      “You’d be doing me the favor,” Donovan said. “I was just about to leave on my honeymoon when this call came into the department.” Donovan helped out only part-time with the Cowboy Heroes; he was a full-time K9 cop with Whisperwood PD.

      “It’s a mini honeymoon,” Forrest reminded him. “You’re not going to be gone long.”

      “But even when we get back, I’m going to be distracted,” Donovan claimed. “Bellamy’s pregnant.”

      Jonah chortled and slapped their brother’s back. “That’s great! That’s wonderful news.”

      And with everything that had happened since the hurricane, good news was more than welcome.

      “Congratulations,” Forrest said, and he reached out and squeezed his brother’s shoulder. Donovan and Bellamy so deserved their happiness. They’d been through so much recently.

      “Thanks,” Donovan said with a big grin. But then he glanced down at the body and shook his head. “She deserves someone’s full attention, and the police department and the chief are just stretched too damn thin right now, dealing with the aftermath of the hurricane.”