by Reus, Katie
“We won’t be long,” Mac said quickly to Lincoln. His expression was so tight, but she could see the emotions in his eyes, how worried he was for his brother. “Joe doesn’t seem to have any breathing obstruction, but I’m bringing his core temperature up first. I’ll be coming in fast so make sure the ambulance is ready.”
“We’re ready now,” Lincoln said. “I’ll radio everyone and tell them to stay put so no one gets in your way.”
As soon as they had Joe wrapped in the blanket, she said, “I’ll start cleaning his wound. You drive.” She didn’t know much about boats and he could get them there faster.
Nodding, he jumped in the back as she sat in the footwell, holding Joe’s head in her lap as Mac quickly steered out of the underbrush. She gently ran her fingers over Joe’s pale forehead. His chest rose and fell in shallow bursts and while his body was chilled, his head felt incredibly hot. But at least he was breathing and getting warm now. She just prayed he made it.
Mac handed her the first-aid kit as he maneuvered down the creek as fast as possible. Little waves splayed out on either side of them as she opened the kit. There wasn’t much she could do, but she managed to clean off the wound on his forehead with alcohol wipes and get rid of most of the dried blood. An ugly bruise had formed, his forehead a yellowish green. Since he wasn’t bleeding, she didn’t put a bandage on it because they’d be back at the marina soon and the EMTs would take over.
He’d gunned the engine so that they were flying over the water. As they sped forward, Mac called out over the sound of the wind rolling past them. “Here, take this.” There were “no wake” signs but who gave a crap about that now.
She grabbed the T-shirt from him with a murmur of thanks. Without jostling Joe, she quickly took off the lifejacket and her own soaked shirt. She had spare pants in her pack, but she’d worry about that later. Keeping her back to Mac, she stripped the sopping shirt off and tossed it into the footwell in front of them.
She froze as she remembered what her back looked like.
Hell. Her scars.
Some days she completely forgot about them—like today. Wordlessly, she tugged the shirt on over her head and hoped Mac hadn’t noticed.
Joe let out a soft moaning sound as she shifted his head against her lap. That had to be a good sign, right? He’d been so damn quiet, but sound and movement was good. “You’re going to be okay,” she murmured to him, hoping he could somehow hear her.
God, please let him be okay, she silently shouted. Let today have a happy ending. The world certainly needed more of them.
Chapter 17
Ezra looked at the message, a smile spreading across his face. Maybe his investment was going to pay off after all.
The message was simple. I’m still interested in information.
Ezra wrote back immediately. I’ve found what you’re looking for. Technically he was waiting on a final confirmation that it was the right woman, but he was going with his gut on this. It had never steered him wrong. And if it ended up not being her? He’d just refund the guy. He wasn’t going to rip anyone off. It was bad for business.
Barely five minutes later he received another message. I want the information. I can wire your fee.
Smiling to himself, he quickly typed back. The fee has doubled. It had been ten years, and while it hadn’t taken a ton of work to find this target, he knew he was the only one looking for this woman. No one else on the forum had opened the offer in nearly eight years.
That’s bullshit!
No, that’s business. I’m the only one with the information. This was a dead case and it took a lot of work. Take it or leave it.
Twenty minutes trickled by as he worked on other projects.
Fine. I’ll wire you half now and the other half once I’ve verified the information is good.
He could live with that. No problem. If you try to double-cross me, I know who you are and I know where you live. Then he sent an aerial shot of the man’s house, not caring if he pissed him off or not. This guy might have had political connections at one time—and Ezra knew that he still had some—but he was a typical rich asshole. One who’d been born into wealth, not truly earned it. He had to hire people like Ezra to do his dirty work.
You’ll have your money by the end of the day.
Ezra typed, Do you need help taking care of the target? I have someone on retainer who is in pest control. If the man didn’t understand what pest control meant, then he was a moron—and this guy was definitely not stupid. He was rich as hell and had only gotten richer over the last ten years. Of course, it was on the backs of poor people, but no surprise. Men like him were all the same. Which was why Ezra didn’t feel an ounce of guilt at charging him double. It was simply business.
I want the information only. I have someone who can handle things.
As soon as I have my money, you’ll get all the information you need.
He logged off, not surprised it would take a few hours for the guy to send the money. It was a healthy chunk of change. And Ezra would be true to his word; as soon as he got paid, he would send the man all the information he would need to find the woman formerly known as Ana Diaz.
He glanced at his watch, then texted Tony. Get me the final pictures and her new name.
Tony replied almost immediately. On it.
He broke his burner phone apart, then grabbed his regular cell and scrolled to the number of the collector he’d bought his last car from. It was time to buy another toy.
Chapter 18
Autumn was barely paying attention as she hurried across the parking lot. Both Lincoln and Adeline had texted her that Joe had been found—alive, thankfully—and was at the hospital. She wished she could have left school earlier, but she’d forgotten about a couple parent-teacher conferences today, both of which had ended up being ridiculous. A couple emails could have covered the “issues”.
So now she was on her way to pick up Adeline, who’d left her vehicle at the marina since her friend had rode to the hospital with Mac Collins.
“Ms. Perez?” An angry male voice drew her attention as she nearly reached her car.
Startled, she turned to find a man getting out of a big Chevy truck. He left the driver’s side door open, the engine still running. She guessed that his hair had once been a dark brown, but it was liberally peppered with gray throughout. In jeans, sturdy boots and a faded T-shirt, he stalked toward her, his shoes making thumping sounds against the pavement.
“Can I help you?” Instinctively she held her teacher’s bag in front of her and slid her hand into her purse to grab her pepper spray. As her fingers wrapped around it, some of her tension eased.
The older man’s eyebrows were drawn together and his mouth was pinched into a tight line. And he was big too, looked as if he might have once played football or some kind of sport.
“My son, Mark Cadman, is in your class. He’s a senior—and it’s your fault that he’s not getting to play in next Friday’s game!”
She recognized the name immediately because Mark hadn’t been turning in any of his assignments. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I have no control over football or basketball or whatever.” She knew it took an incredible amount of discipline for kids to participate in sports, but she wasn’t sure what Mark played because he didn’t wear any sort of sports paraphernalia to indicate.
He took a menacing step toward her. “It’s football, and because you’re failing him, now he can’t play!”
Autumn stood her ground. “I think what you mean to say is that because he’s not turning in his assignments, he’s failing. He is literally failing himself because he won’t do the work. It’s art class,” she added, giving him a hard look. She hated being confronted by such a big guy but she wasn’t backing down. She’d learned that with bullies, sometimes that was the best thing to do. And it was very clear that this guy was a bully. Because any man who would confront a woman alone in a nearly deserted parking lot like this? Yeah, he was definitely tryi
ng to intimidate her.
“He’s too busy for art,” he snapped.
“Then he needs to take another elective class. I’m not going to give him good grades for doing nothing. How hard do you think my class is?” The question was more or less rhetorical. “And if you would like to schedule a conference, I would be more than happy to do that—and to include the principal. Do not bother me in the school parking lot like this again. I don’t respond well to bullies.”
He actually looked shocked at her words—even as he took another menacing step toward her. “Bully?”
Desperate for a distraction, she pressed her car alarm on her key fob. It was either that or pepper spray him, because he had a dark look in his eyes that had her teeth on edge.
He looked around, startled, so she took the advantage and hurried toward her car, sliding inside and turning off the alarm as she locked the doors. “Asshole,” she muttered.
He slammed his fist on the hood of her car, so she laid on the horn and looked him dead in the eye.
He jumped back as she kicked her car into drive and tore out of the parking lot. As one last parting shot, he slammed his fist on the hood as she shot past him. She looked in the rearview mirror and saw that he was hurrying to his truck.
Heart racing, hands trembling, she used the vehicle’s OnStar system and called the principal.
Thankfully, Sheila picked up immediately. “Hey Autumn. Everything okay?”
“Mark Cadman’s father just stopped me in the parking lot. He pounded on the front of my car and hood when I drove away from him. He’s angry that Mark is getting a failing grade. I don’t know what he would have done but…he scared me.”
To her surprise, Sheila let out a fairly savage curse. She hadn’t even realized the woman was capable of cursing. “He’s not even supposed to be at the school,” she said. “Mark lives with his mother because of custody issues. I think the dad was abusive. I’m going to alert the police right now. Are you okay? Do you need anything?”
Still shaking as she hurried down the road, she shook her head then realized she needed to answer audibly. “No, I’m okay. I just… I don’t want to see him again.” When she looked in the rearview mirror, no one was behind her.
“You won’t, don’t worry. I will handle this right now.”
“Thanks, you’re the best.” She’d gotten lucky that Verona Bay High was such a good school—and Sheila’s leadership was part of the reason why she was hesitant to accept the offer at the cultural center. A principal could make or break a school, and Sheila was a true leader who cared about both her teachers and her students.
She glanced in the rearview mirror as she turned onto the two-lane backroad highway. The hospital was technically in the next town, but it was more or less on the outskirts of Verona Bay. And there was only one way to get there. Thankfully it would only take twenty minutes, but she wished she was there right now.
She knew it was unlikely that the man would follow her, but she couldn’t help the feeling that someone was watching her. She thought about calling Lincoln, but didn’t want to bug him when she knew Sheila was already taking care of things. She couldn’t run to him for everything, especially because she knew he was the type of man to drop everything for her now that they were having a baby together. No, she couldn’t abuse their relationship like that.
“Stupid paranoia,” she muttered to herself as a jacked-up Jeep zoomed around her. The rumble of the tires were loud and obnoxious, but she managed to shake off most of the residual tension in her shoulders after about ten minutes of driving and listening to soothing music.
Pop!
She let out a yelp as her car jerked to the right. Gripping the wheel hard, she tried to keep control as the car fishtailed, swerving back and forth across the two lanes.
Her heart leapt into her throat as she struggled to gain control, to slow down as it shook and shuddered from the blown tire.
Instead of slamming on the brakes, she shifted to neutral and eased her foot on down, barely holding on to control as she slid onto the grassy patch on the side of the road. As her car finally stopped, she couldn’t stop the wild beat of her heart.
Blood rushed in her ears as she took stock of herself. There were no cars coming in the other direction and none in the rearview mirror.
Still feeling jittery, she grabbed her pepper spray and eased out of her vehicle. The back of her neck prickled and she could swear someone was watching her. The thought was ridiculous—she was in the middle of nowhere.
The faint scent of smoke lingered in the air from a controlled fire a few weeks back. The huge pine trees on either side of the road had been thinned out, parts of the underbrush brown and sooty. It was so quiet, she felt like the only person in the world right now.
If someone was here, she would know, right? Still, she couldn’t shake the uneasy sensation of fingers crawling up her back even as she walked to the rear of her car, her pepper spray gripped tightly in her fingers. She winced. The rubber on the back tire had a huge hole in it, the thing completely flat. She’d gotten flats before, but this…she must have hit a nail or something huge. There was no way she’d be able to patch this thing up either.
Cursing, she popped her trunk, glad she had a spare.
She had AAA, but she wasn’t sure how long they would take and even though she absolutely hated changing tires, she could do it quicker than the time it would take someone to get here. Still, what if Mark Cadman’s father came after her and found her on this deserted road?
She started to call AAA, but at the sound of an engine revving, she listened to her fight-or-flight instinct and hurried around the side of her car, the thick blades of grass brushing over her feet and around her ankles. She crouched down behind her car to give her cover as a huge truck pulled to a stop behind her.
She clutched her only weapon as the front door opened, heart thudding.
She froze when she saw a woman named Clarice get out. Autumn didn’t know her well, just knew that she had a thick country accent and was at the local diner a lot.
She hurried around from behind her car and nodded politely at the other woman.
“Car trouble?” the woman asked, stating the obvious as she eyed the tire. Her blonde hair was big, her huge hoop earring glittering as they caught the fading sunlight.
“Yeah, I don’t know what happened.” She strode to the back, frowning down at the mess.
Clarice let out a low whistle. “You must have hit a nail or bunch of them. That almost looks like someone shot out your tire,” she drawled with a shake of her head.
Her panic must’ve shown on her face because Clarice just laughed. “I’m kidding. I can’t imagine someone shooting at ya. You’re the art teacher at the cultural center, right? You teach all those classes?”
Autumn nodded, even as a thread of unease wound down her spine. Somehow she found a real smile. “I am. My name’s Autumn.”
“I’m Clarice.” Setting bright pink nails on her jean-clad hips, she smiled. “I can help you change your tire if you want?”
She blinked. “Yeah that would be great, thank you so much.”
Twenty minutes later, she was incredibly grateful to the woman. It would’ve been a hell of a lot harder to do it by herself on the side of the road as she worried about passing vehicles. And the truth was, Autumn wasn’t sure she actually could have done it by herself on this partial incline. Not to mention she was still rattled from her encounter at the school.
Once Clarice was done, she offered her money, not even sure how much something like this would cost.
“I’m not taking your money.” Clarice wiped her hands on a towel she’d grabbed from her truck as she declined Autumn’s offer. “Maybe you give me a discount on one your classes?”
“You can take one for free. Seriously, thank you so much for this.”
“Heck, yeah. Women need to help each other.”
Autumn found herself smiling again. “Amen to that.”
With her ruined
tire in the trunk, she made a mental note to take it by the auto body shop so they could tell her what happened. She needed to get a new spare now anyway.
She also needed to tell Lincoln. Even if Sheila had already called the sheriff’s department, she wanted to tell him about this too.
* * *
Autumn stepped into the hospital waiting room, immediately scanning for Adeline.
“Hey, thank you so much for coming,” Adeline said to Autumn as she jumped up from her seat in the hospital waiting room.
The place was fairly packed, with about seventy-five percent of the seats taken and a cluster of people standing in line at the free coffee stand in the corner. The walls were a pale gray, the floors a shiny white and the cushy chairs a mint green. A low hum of voices filled the room, but mostly everyone was keeping to themselves.
Autumn hurried forward, taking in her friend in a quick visual sweep. Adeline had on scrub bottoms and a shirt that was far too big for her tall, slender frame. “So what did they say?”
“I think he’s going to be okay. He’d been unconscious for a while. It looks like his boat got away from him when he was leaning over to grab some trash. He fell out, hit his head, and I think he might have been drinking a little. I’m not really sure on the particulars yet. But his brothers are in with him and he’s actually spoken a few times and seems to make sense.”
“That’s great…” Autumn glanced over as Mac Collins strode out, his flannel shirt shoved up to his elbows and circles under his eyes.
Immediately, he zeroed in on Adeline.
They both turned to him as he hurried forward and, to Autumn’s surprise, pulled Adeline into a big hug.
Adeline seemed startled but hugged him back, laughing a little awkwardly. “I hope that means everything is definitely okay?” she asked as he set her back on her feet.
“He’s going to be okay. A little banged up and I think embarrassed that everyone was out looking for him. But it’s a good thing we were, or he…” He swallowed hard and rubbed a hand over his dark hair as he looked at Adeline. “Anyway, I really just wanted to say thank you again.”
