Read. Relax. Recharge!

6/25/2026

The excerpt this week is from Bait, book 5 of Circles.

Linden tapped the yearbook. “Would playing these mystery-solving games give someone that sort of information about someone else?”

“Yes, it’s very possible.” Tyler shrugged. “But in my case I don’t think it’s ever been a secret I’m not fond of the cold.”

Linden snorted. “Sort of ironic you wanted to live here.”

“Not really. I was only thinking of when it was nice and sunny, with flowers blooming and leaves on the trees. My coming here was more of an emotional decision because I needed to get away than anything else. Wyoming is a good place to get away to.” Tyler glanced down at the floor again, then turned to look out the window. Linden followed his gaze and sucked in a breath at the sight of Devils Tower rising up in the distance, white against the gray sky. Tyler turned back to Linden. “Whoever is here is probably after me.” He took another deep breath. “So let’s trap that person. I’ll be the bait.”

“No.” Linden held up one finger. “That’s a bad, bad idea.”

“But you did that when you were here before—set a trap.”

“With a half-dozen other FBI agents hanging around for backup and one of the two men helping to set that trap a trained park ranger, also a federal agent. They were wearing wires too. That was a completely different situation.”

“So, we, uh, improvise.”

“Improvise?”

“Do you have any of that listening equipment?”

Linden frowned. “No.”

“It was worth a shot.”

“Poor choice of words.”

Tyler snickered. “Yeah, it is, I guess. I have another idea. Our intruder probably knows you’re here, right? Even if they didn’t see you and me outside, your car was parked in the lot for—what, twelve hours? And they probably don’t know why you’re here, even if they do know you’re with the FBI.”

“Agreed.”

“If we make it look as if you’re here for a personal visit and act as if we’re not concerned someone was in the closed building, or even have decided there wasn’t anyone there after all, maybe that will draw our stowaway out and we can catch them?” Tyler waved at the door leading to the main lodge. “We certainly have plenty of places to lock someone up until we can get more help out here.”

“First thing is to check on the generators,” Linden pointed out.

“I notice you didn’t agree with my idea,” Tyler said and chuckled.

“I’ll agree with one part. Maybe showing that my visit isn’t purely professional wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

“Ah, I was right.” Tyler grinned and rocked on the balls of his feet a few times, apparently very pleased with himself.

Linden heaved a sigh. “Yes. If you didn’t turn out to be my prime suspect in a murder investigation, I was a little worried about you.”

Tyler play-punched Linden’s shoulder. “Only a little?”

Linden shook his head and crossed to the kitchen, grabbed the shotgun off the counter. He held it out to Tyler and said, “Generator.”

Tyler took the gun. “Yeah.”

Once more they pulled on boots, heavy coats, gloves, and this time Linden added one of the thick knitted scarves Tyler had hanging on the hooks where the coats were kept. Tyler tucked his shotgun under his coat, and Linden made sure his holster was concealed as well.

“Back out into the elements,” Linden said while Tyler opened the door to the main lodge and then followed Linden outside.

Linden trudged through the snow with Tyler. The snow along this part of the building had been blown into drifts that rose up to their knees. It didn’t take long before Linden was pulling in deeper breaths than normal. When he blew them out, the sharp wind dashed away his frozen breath in seconds. The best he could do was shuffle his feet through the heavy white stuff, which felt more as if he were slogging his way through quicksand, or what he imagined quicksand to be like. He’d always thought he was in good shape. Maybe he’d been mistaken.

Tyler led them around to one of the narrow sides of the building. That end of the structure was covered with round, rough-hewn stone that tapered up to a chimney. A frame of log-style wood surrounded and supported it. Linden imagined that without heat and power, there would be smoke curling from the chimney in the not too distant future.

Located near the middle of the wall was an enclosure about three and a half feet tall and four or five feet wide. It had a wooden top over slatted wood and chain-link-fence sides. Tyler stopped and put a hand on it, leaned against it. Even with the thick coat on, Tyler’s chest visibly expanded more rapidly than normal, and his shoulders rose and fell in time with his breathing. Tyler seemed like a guy in good shape, so possibly Linden’s self-assessment wasn’t so far off after all.

Tyler bent down and took hold of something, lifting his gaze to meet Linden’s and at the same time giving the object a jangle. It was a padlock. More to the point, a padlock that’d been snapped and partially pulled from the now splintered wood around it. Shaking his head, Tyler let go of the lock and stood straight to flip open the top of the enclosure. His expression was a cross between disgust and alarm. Linden leaned closer and peered inside at the same time Tyler did.