* * *
“Hey, Ralph. Sally,” I called out as soon as Rocky and I cleared the door into Evergreen Diner.
Sally looked up from the register and waved while her husband’s head popped up behind the passthrough.
“Well hey there, sugar. How’s things?”
“Things are good. Just stopping in to pick up some lunch. What’s good today?”
I heard his loud snort all the way from the kitchen. “Everything, girl. You already know that.”
He wasn’t wrong there. Lincoln and I had come in a few more times the past couple weeks. Each time, I’d tried something different from the menu, and each time it had been fantastic.
“All right then, one meatloaf sandwich for Linc, and one chef’s choice for me.”
“On it!” he called back, then got to work, banging spatulas and pans and making an all-out ruckus while putting my order together.
I moved down the counter with Rocky at my side and hopped up on the stool across from Sally.
“How you doin’ today, sweetheart?” she asked, leaning her forearms on the counter.
“I’m doing fantastic.”
Her face stretched into an outright beam. “I bet you are. Word’s spreading all over town, honey. Lincoln Sheppard’s over the moon for the new girl. Hand to God, no one’s ever seen him like this. He’s totally smitten.”
My entire body warmed from the inside out, and I lowered my voice like I was telling her a secret. “We talked this morning. I’m emptying a drawer for him and making room in my closet for his stuff today.”
Sally let out a giddy squeak and slapped the counter. “I knew it!” she declared triumphantly. “Knew all it’d take was the right girl comin’ along to settle that man into domestic bliss.”
“What are you out there wootin’ about, woman!” Ralph bellowed from the kitchen.
Sally stood tall, and the two started up one of their shouted conversations they were so well known for. “Eden’s makin’ room in her closet and clearin’ out a drawer for Linc!” she hollered back.
Everyone in the diner turned their attention our way, and my cheeks burned like fire as Ralph whooped loudly. “Freakin’ A! Knew he’d get wise and lock that sweet girl down! Happy for you two, Eden, girl!”
“Oh my god,” I whispered, clapping my hands over my face as a giggle burst past my lips.
“Don’t you be embarrassed, girly. People been talkin’ for weeks. Now they’ll just have confirmation of what they already suspected.”
“Whatever you say,” I told Sally with a grin and a shake of my head.
My food arrived a few minutes later, and I grabbed the handles of the plastic bag with one hand while tightening my grip on Rocky’s leash with the other. I bid my farewells to Sally and Ralph, then headed out of the diner.
I needed to get my man his lunch. Then I needed to get home and make room for his stuff.
Today was going to be a damn good day.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Lincoln
At the sound of Rocky’s bark coming through the closed door to my office, the bad mood I’d been battling instantly fell away. If he was here, that could only mean one thing—Eden was with him. And after the call I’d just finished, seeing her would be a welcome distraction.
Pushing from my chair, I rounded the desk and headed for the door. The moment I pulled it open and spotted her standing at Roxanne’s desk, her face warm and bright in laughter at something Rox had just said, all that thick, shiny hair trailing down her back, the weight on my chest lifted and I grinned.
Rocky spotted me first and came trundling my way, dragging his discarded leash on the ground behind him. “Hey there, boy,” I muttered, giving his head a pat before moving toward my woman.
Her laughter tapered off as I drew close, but the smile was still firmly in place as she turned to me. “Hey, honey.” Christ, I loved hearing her call me that. “I took a chance that you hadn’t eaten lunch yet, so I got you a meatloaf sandwich from Evergreen.”
“Perfect. I’m fuckin’ starving.” Hooking her around the waist, I pulled her against me and leaned in for a kiss, relishing the sweetness of her lips. “You joinin’ me, or am I eating alone?”
“Joining you, if you have the time.”
“I always have the time for you.” I took the bag from the counter and grabbed her hand, leading her back to my office with Rocky on our tail.
We sat on the couch and I started pulling the containers from the bag, spreading them out on the coffee table in front of us. Then we dug in.
“So how’s your day going so far?” she asked after a couple bites.
I washed my mouth out with a slug from the bottle of water she brought me. “Was shit ’til you showed up.”
Her beautiful face pulled into a frown, and she tipped her head, the parchment-wrapped sandwich in her hands held aloft halfway to her mouth. “What happened?”
“I need to go outta town for a job in DC. Shouldn’t take too long, but I’m not too happy about havin’ to leave you when your brother’s still in the wind.”
Her expression gentled as she reached out and placed a hand on my thigh. “I’ll be fine, baby. I’ve got Rocky, and it’ll only be a few days.”
I knew she wasn’t going to like what I said next, but the only way I’d make it through this job was if I had peace of mind that she was safe. And I hoped like hell Hayes and Trick were closing in on Shepley Brenner and the men after him so we could put this shit behind us.
“I want Rocky to stay with you, but I’m gonna put Cord on you while I’m gone as well.”
She floored me by nodding in agreement. “Okay.” Then she narrowed her eyes in a playful glare. “Just as long as you don’t tell him annoy the crap outta me.”
“No worries,” I chuckled. “He’ll be on his best behavior.”
She looked off to the side in thought as she slowly chewed the bite she’d just taken. “You know, this might actually be a good thing. It’ll give me a chance to talk to him about Rory.”
“Fuck me.” I groaned, looking up at the ceiling for some sort of divine guidance. “What happened to stayin’ out of it?”
“Hey, that was your idea, not mine. I would’ve been totally fine sticking my nose right in the middle of it. And with you not here to stop me, I’m going for it.”
Trying to talk her out of it would have been like beating my head against a brick wall, so I didn’t bother, but I did issue a warning. “You’re gonna do what you want to do. Just promise me you won’t do anything that’ll cause him to quit or want to knock my teeth down my throat when I get back, please.”
She smiled through the bite she’d just taken, making her cheeks puff like an adorable chipmunk. “I promise no such thing.”
Well shit.
She was lucky she was so fucking cute.
* * *
Eden
Fall had officially ended, and winter now held Hope Valley in its grip. I couldn’t wait for the first official snowfall of the season. While some people hated the cold, I absolutely loved it.
However, my companion just then wasn’t one of the people who appreciated the chilly temps the way I did.
“Christ,” Cord grunted unhappily from beside me. “This is fuckin’ misery, sweetheart.”
I shook off his complaint with a contented giggle. There was no way Cord was going to bring me down. After being gone for three days, Lincoln was finally coming home this evening, and I couldn’t freaking wait.
Cord had been a much better companion this time around since he wasn’t going out of his way to drive me up the wall. It was only times like this that things got a little sketchy, seeing as he hated winter. Too bad for him, I loved it and didn’t let the frigid temps stop me from taking my daily walks.
“Quit your belly aching. It’s not even that bad.”
I saw him shoot me a glare from the corner of my eye. “Speak for yourself. Pretty sure my balls have pulled back up inside my body for warmth.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing, and we resumed walking in silence. It took me a few more minutes to get up the courage to broach the subject that had been on my mind for the past three days.
“So…,” I started hesitantly. “How’re things with Laurie?”
Reading my tone loud and clear, he turned his head in my direction, lifting one of his eyebrows toward his hairline. “She’s fine. Why do you ask?”
I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my thick winter jacket and tried to play it cool as I shrugged. “No reason. You haven’t really talked about her lately, so I was just a little curious.”
Neither of us said a word for a few more yards, then “I’m not stupid, Eden. I know you don’t like her.”
“What? That’s not true!” I lied. He might have been speaking the truth, but I’d come to look at Cord as a friend, and I didn’t want anything to tarnish that.
“Yeah it is,” he chuckled.
It took a while for me to figure out what to say next. Lying was out of the question since he saw right through me, but I needed to tread very carefully.
“Okay, I don’t really care for her,” I finally admitted. “But I’ve only met her once, so I’m willing to keep an open mind and admit that maybe she was just having an off night.” I didn’t believe that. My gut told me that my initial opinion of her was spot-on, but I’d do as I said for Cord.
“It’s a complicated situation. I’ve known her all my life. We were friends as kids, then a couple all through high school, and went long distance in college. When we graduated she expected me to come back home so we could finally be together in the same place, but I threw a wrench in her plans for the future when I joined the Army. There’s a lot of history with us. It’s not as cut and dry as some relationships.”
“Sounds intense.”
“It is,” he agreed with a nod. “She might come off a little hard, but she’s a good person.”
“All right,” I finally relented. “If you’re happy, then I’m happy for you. That’s all that matters.” I kept the part about Rory having a mad crush on him, and me thinking she’d be a much better fit for him, to myself, Lincoln’s warning ringing in the back of my head.
Cord pulled his hand from his coat pocket a few seconds later and checked the watch on his wrist. “It’s getting late. We should probably be headin’ back.”
“What?” Grabbing his arm, I yanked it down so I could see the time and sucked in a gasp. “Shit! I didn’t realize we’d been walking for so long. I have an appointment at the salon in half an hour. Let’s go.”
We turned and switched course, heading back in the direction we’d come from. Hopefully we’d make it back to the house in enough time for me to get to Nona’s shop. It was time for a touchup on my hair, and if I waited much longer, I’d have a real root disaster on my hands.
We were walking at a quicker clip when I noticed a big black SUV coming around the bend fast.
“Jeez,” I muttered, narrowing my eyes at the car. “They don’t slow down, they’re gonna plow right into a tree.”
“Eden, stop.” Cord grabbed my arm in a grip so tight it made me flinch, and when I looked up to see what was wrong, he was watching the SUV in a way that caused warning bells to sound in my head.
“What’s wrong?”
“Don’t know.” The SUV continued right at us, gaining speed as it grew closer. “Get to the trees.”
“It’s probably just some idiot kid.” But I wasn’t sure I actually believed that. Everything in my body was screaming out, telling me something was wrong. And the second Cord laid eyes on the car, he felt it too.
“Trees, now,” he barked in a tone I’d never heard from him before.
I jerked in fright and stumbled a few steps back off the pavement and onto the crunchy, frost-covered leaves and grass that lined the side of the road.
Everything that came next happened so fast, I couldn’t keep up.
A moment later, the SUV came to a screeching halt right beside us. Cord whipped around, planted a hand in my chest, and shoved so hard that I landed on the ground, knocking the breath from my lungs.
“Eden, run!” he bellowed, whipping a gun from the waistband of his jeans. But it was too late.
I scrambled to my feet in just enough time to see two men alight from the SUV, their guns drawn, and they didn’t hesitate to fire.
I screamed at the top of my lungs as Cord’s body jerked unnaturally with each bullet that tore into him. He fired back, but I couldn’t tell if he hit his target before he slumped to the ground.
“Cord! No!” Instead of running in the opposite direction like he’d ordered, I went right for him, screaming his name over and over. But he didn’t move.
One of the men who’d just shot Cord grabbed hold of me before I could make it to him, and I screamed and thrashed with all my might, fighting with everything I had to get to Cord, to make sure he was okay. “No! Let me go! Someone help! Help!”
Fear clawed at my gut as I screamed so loud my throat felt like it was on fire.
A moment later, something hard came down against my temple with a pain so intense I thought my skull had been split in half.
Then everything went black.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Lincoln
I’d just hit the town limits when my cell started ringing.
Looking at the name on the display in confusion, I hit a button on my steering wheel and engaged the Bluetooth. “Hey, Nona. What’s up.”
“Hey, Linc. Is Eden with you?”
My back went straight and my gut twisted into a knot. “No. I’ve been out of town on a job. Just hit Hope Valley.”
“That’s weird.”
That knot grew even tighter. “What’s weird?”
“Well, she missed her appointment with me to get her hair done, and she’s not pickin’ up her phone. I thought maybe she was with you and just forgot.”
“How long ago was this?”
“I-I don’t know,” she answered, her voice now holding the same panic I felt digging into my chest. “Maybe forty-five minutes ago. She’s never late, and I can usually always get ahold of her. That’s why I thought she was with you.”
“And you’re still at the salon? You aren’t at home?”
“No, I’m not home.”
My chest squeezed at the same time my foot slammed the gas pedal down as far as it could go. “All right, Nona, listen, because this is important. I’m five minutes out. Call the station and ask to speak to Detectives Walker or Wanderly. Tell them what you just told me, and tell them to get to Eden’s house as fast as they can.”
“Lincoln, what’s going on?”
“Now, darlin’. Make the call. I have to hang up and make some of my own, but I’ll keep you filled in as much as I can.”
Her voice quaked with tears as she replied, “Okay, Linc. Okay. I’ll call.”
I disconnected and immediately reconnected, hitting the button on my speed dial that went to Cord’s phone. It rang and rang before his voice mail picked up. I hung up and tried again, getting the same result.
When I hung up that time, I called straight into Alpha Omega. “Roxanne,” I clipped the instant she answered. “Has Cord checked in with you recently?”
“Not since earlier. Why, is something wrong?”
Fuck. “Put me through to Xander.”
“Linc—”
“Now, Rox!” I barked.
Her voice came back weak, “All right. Going through now.”
I got that automated beep for a second before Alexander Caine, my expert in all things tech, picked up.
“Linc.”
“Need you to track Cord’s phone. He’s supposed to be on Eden, but neither of them is answerin’ their phone, and Eden no-showed at an appointment earlier.”
“Fuck,” he hissed through the line. Then I heard him hit the keys of his keyboard in rapid fire. “Fuck! Signal’s showin’ near mile marker six off Milner Road.”
The bl
ood in my veins froze to ice. “That’s the middle of fuckin’ nowhere.”
“I know, brother. And the signal’s not fuckin’ moving. Something’s wrong.”
“Get some uniforms to that location. I want you and West with them. You call as soon as you figure out what the fuck’s happening.
“On it.”
The call dropped just as I whipped my truck onto Rosewood Lane. As I raced to Eden’s house as quickly as I could, I did something I hadn’t done in longer than I could remember.
I prayed.
“Please, God. Let her be okay. Please, I’m beggin’ you. Don’t take her from me.”
All I could do was hope like hell He was listening.
* * *
Eden
I cried out as the man standing above me landed another punch, this one splitting the skin at my eyebrow open, causing blood to pour down and blur my vision.
“Where’s your brother?” the man standing across the room asked again.
“I don’t know,” I answered for the millionth time.
I didn’t know how long they’d had me, or even where we were. When I’d come too earlier, I’d been in the back of the SUV, my hands and feet tied with rope and a strip of duct tape covering my mouth. I could have been unconscious for minutes or even hours, so there was no telling if we were even in Hope Valley any longer. The only thing I knew was that they’d had me long enough for the sun to go down.
They’d driven me to a dilapidated shack in the middle of the woods that looked like it hadn’t been used in decades, then tied me to a chair in the center of the room.
There were three men. The biggest two had been taking turns beating the hell out of me, while the much older and smaller one—the one I assumed was in charge—stood several feet away, like he didn’t want to risk any of my blood flinging onto his expensive suit.
I knew exactly who these men were without having to know their names. They were the men after Shep.
The older man moved, grabbing an overturned chair and coming to sit right in front of me. He leaned in, and I could smell vodka and cigarettes on his breath. It was enough to make me retch. “You know, we can keep this up all night. No one has any clue where you are. Just tell us where your brother is, and I promise I’ll make my men stop.”
Out of My League: a Hope Valley novel Page 24
