Oregon Outback Read Online Free

expected. I appreciate the heads-up. Keep me apprised of any new developments.”
    “Will do.”
    When the call ended, Jonas thought about Robert Gambini, the crime boss he’d helped put away. The man couldn’t do much from behind bars, and his associates were being watched. Jonas should relax. Forget about it for now. He was here to recoup. He tried to shove the thoughts aside, but it was difficult.
    After the events that led up to his time off, Jonas had allowed himself to dream, if only a little, about a life with Darcy, living in Carnegie, the small town where they’d grown up. Here in the Oregon Outback where two of his brothers still lived.
    But everything looked different now. He couldn’t recapture the past, what he’d lost. Nothing ever stayed the same. Darcy didn’t want to see him. Nor would he ever be free from the threat of criminals he’d helped to incarcerate.
    Even if Jonas resigned, leaving the FBI, it was unlikely that would make any difference to a man like Gambini. If he found Jonas, then another innocent victim could die.
    This time, Jonas could endanger someone he loved.

Chapter 3
    T ourists mingled in the aisles, perused Darcy’s photographs and sketches, and examined cheap junk from China—gifts to take home to friends and family. The late afternoon sun beamed through the glass front, warming the store and creating rainbows from the hanging prisms that sold for $19.99.
    The busy day should have helped her forget yesterday as she assisted customers and answered questions, but her mind was far from today, insisting on living in yesterday.
    What are you afraid of?
    Emily had cut to the heart of the matter, asking a question Darcy couldn’t answer. Darcy’s friend had simply exercised her muscle as a friend in her efforts to bring Jonas and Darcy face-to-face. As Emily’s friend, Darcy would forgive her.
    Eventually.
    Then Jonas himself had appeared on the lonely highway to rescue her, riding in his brother’s big noisy truck like some kind of hero.
    Darcy’s heart had beaten desperately against her chest, demanding to be let out. But she’d held on with all her strength, and in the end, kept her heart imprisoned. She’d not been able to look at him for long. The way his dark eyes searched her soul, she imagined him looking for remnants of the love they once shared. Her fantasy had almost set her heart free.
    But that was all it was—a fantasy.
    Trim and muscular, he looked even better than he had at eighteen. She didn’t appreciate his attempt to jockey himself back into her life. Had she done the right thing in giving him up back then? Her father had thought so.
    What was she afraid of?
    Loving him again. Losing him again. There. She admitted it. Releasing her pent-up breath, she grabbed the counter, steadying herself.
    Her father’s death. Jonas’s reappearance. It was too much, too fast. The walls were closing in around her.
    “Are you all right?” A woman stood at the counter, facing Darcy.
    Smiling, Darcy focused her thoughts on the bright sun pouring into her spacious shop.
    The woman’s teenage daughter placed their merchandise on the counter. Darcy rang up three small plastic dinosaurs and a dolphin wind chime, boxed and bagged the items, and thanked the woman and her daughter for their visit.
    Next in line was an elderly woman, Mrs. Olson, one of her father’s parishioners. She placed one of Darcy’s framed sketches on the counter.
    The ancient gnarled juniper … her father’s funeral … Jonas, leaning against it
.
    Her breath caught. All she could do was force a smile and pretend the sketch wasn’t suffocating her.
    “I’ve always thought your sketches were lovely. My great-granddaughter wants to be an artist. She lives in Idaho. I’m taking this to her for her birthday.”
    Darcy made the appropriate small talk, and then Mrs. Olson reached across the counter and pressed her hand, aged with liver spots, over Darcy’s. Her wrinkled smile was kind. “I don’t