THE heat pounded down upon him like a hammer of the gods, heavy and relentless. Soaked through with sweat, Cole did his best to maintain his speed but the longer the ride continued the more difficult this became. He decided not to veer off to his home. Maddie would be there, but she wouldn’t expect him to turn up until the end of the day, knowing full well that Cole’s helping hand to the young sheriff always took longer than anticipated. He found stomping around his father’s big old house tedious and, since the break-in and all the horrors that ensued, he much preferred to be in town and while away his days, trying not to think of Maddie too much and the comforts of the wonderful home she had created for them both. But he was a troubled man, as Maddie herself often commented on. A man with
