Allison Brennan - Love is Murder

Love Is Murder is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously.

A Ballantine Books eBook Original

Copyright 2011 Allison Brennan

Excerpt from Kiss Me, Kill Me copyright 2011 by Allison Brennan

All Rights Reserved. Used Under Authorization.

Published in the United States by Ballantine, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Ballantine is a registered trademark and the Ballantine colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

This book contains an excerpt from the forthcoming book Kiss Me, Kill Me. This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the forthcoming edition.

eISBN: 978-0-345-52799-8

www.ballantinebooks.com

Cover design by Scott Biel
Cover image of woman: Science Photo Library/Jupiter Images

v3.1

Dear Reader:

Love Is Murder takes place a year before the events in Love Me to Death, the first Lucy Kincaid novel. I hope you enjoy reading this adventure with Lucy and her brother Patrick as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Special thanks to Dr. D. P. Lyle for help on medical questions, and my pal Toni McGee Causey for a quick, early read. My husband, Dan, was particularly helpful this time around with brainstorming. And as always, thank you to the Ballantine and Writers House team.

Happy Reading,
Allison Brennan

Twenty-four-year-old Lucy Kincaid had certainly needed a break, but snow skiing hadnt turned out to be quite as much fun as her brother Patrick had promised. In fact, Lucy had spent more time in the snow than on the snow. Snowsuit notwithstanding, she was cold, wet, and miserable.

I told you I didnt know how to ski. Lucy shivered in the passenger seat of Patricks truck. She put her hands directly in front of the heater vent.

You just need more practice. Well try again tomorrow.

No.

Wimp.

Is it wimpy to not want to freeze my ass off?

For just a second, Patrick took his eyes off the curvy mountain road. Since when have you been a quitter?

It happened the thousandth time I hit the snow.

Patrick laughed. You werent all that bad.

Its no fun to fail.

Youre just cranky because everything usually comes so easy to you.

Not true, Lucy protested, knowing her brother was right.

Patrick grinned.

You think this is funny? she asked.

I think youre scared.

Im not scared.

Are too.

God, youre a brat.

Lucy stared out the passenger window as they carefully made their way back down to the lodge where they were staying for the four-day weekend. The winding mountain road was treacherous in parts, and the increasing wind coupled with the falling snow didnt help. She found it strange that less than two hours ago, they were skiing under bright blue skies dotted with white clouds, but during the thirty minutes theyd sat at the coffee shop at the base of the ski lifts, the sky had darkened, as if a gray, fluffy blanket had been laid over the mountains. The snow flurries had begun blowing almost as soon as Patrick started the ignition.

Im glad we didnt take the snowmobiles this morning, Lucy said. Wed be coming back in this.

Were almost there. Patricks expression had grown from light to concerned as he slowed. Hed already kicked the SUV into four-wheel drive.

The drive to the Delarosa Mountain Retreat yesterday afternoon had been lovely, with striking scenery and crisp fresh air. Lucy loved the outdoors, though she preferred it at least forty degrees warmer. Now, unfamiliar with the treacherous road, she was as tense as Patrick, and wondering why the weather report had told them a mild storm system would be passing overnight, when it was four in the afternoon and this was no mild storm. With every passing minute, the snow increased and Lucy suspected a blizzard would be in full force before sundown.

She trusted Patrick to get them safely back to the lodge and hoped that though fierce right now, the storm would quickly pass.

She closed her eyes, considering Patricks comments about how she didnt take failure well. Maybe he was half-right. She was more than a little irritated that shed failed her first day skiing because anything athletic usually came easy to her. In fact, most things came easier to her than others. She studied in school, but never as much as her peers. Shed been an honors student, received two bachelors degrees and a masters from Georgetown, and spoke four languages fluently. And because her mother had nearly drowned when she escaped Cuba, Rosa Kincaid made sure every one of her seven children could swim. Lucy ended up being on the swim team in high school and college and had been scouted for the Olympics, but she couldnt commit the time and energy such an opportunity required. After shed been attacked on the day of her high school graduation, her priorities had changed dramatically.

Lucy came from a military and law enforcement family. Her father was a retired colonel; her oldest brother Jack, retired army. She had a cop for a sister, a private investigator brother, and another brother who was a forensic psychiatrist. Theyd all married into law enforcement in one way or another. Patrick was a former e-crimes cop, and now worked for a private security company with Jack. Joining the FBI seemed not only natural, but what Lucy was supposed to do. She had everything plannedshe would submit her application this summer. It could take up to a year to go through the testing and review process. In the meantime, she had plenty of work with her new DC medical examiners internship and volunteering at a victims rights group.

While she was in great shape from running and swimming, being fit didnt seem to matter when she couldnt find her balance on those damn skies. She opened her eyes to see if the landscape had changed. The snow continued to stream down at a forty-five degree angle, the wind rocking the sturdy truck.

It didnt look like theyd get another opportunity to ski this weekend. Secretly she was pleased. She didnt like being so cold her teeth chattered, though at the same time she wanted a second chance. She didnt want to return home a failure at the one new thing she tried and didnt get immediately.

A bright green flash to her right, up the mountainside, caught Lucys eye. She leaned forward and immediately recognized that a person was rolling rapidly down the steep, tree-dotted slope. As she said, Patrick! Someones in trouble! she saw the tumbling figure smash into one of the trunks. The person grabbed the tree and tried to stand, but that only sent him falling again, a streak of pink behind him.

I see him. Patrick stopped the truck as quickly as he dared on the icy road. Turning on his emergency lights, they both got out of the car. The icy, damp air hit Lucys lungs before it registered on her skin. She trudged to the back of the SUV and grabbed the first aid kit, then followed her brother, fighting the wind-driven snow.

Above them, the man grabbed at a sapling, caught it, and stopped. He was still twenty feet from the road.

Thats Steve, Lucy said, recognizing the lodge owners twenty-year-old son now that they were closer. It seemed to be getting darker by the second, the blinking lights in the front and rear of the car turning the snow alternately red and yellow.