It was also dark, because of the trees blocking out the midday sun and the mountainsides around which the road curved. But even more than that, the silence made Joslyn feel as if they’d entered an entirely different world. This was not like the suburbs or cities she was used to. This wasn’t even the open rolling foothills of Sonoma that she’d lived in for the past six months. It was almost like a ghost town, except for the occasional wisp of smoke from a fireplace chimney that could be seen through the trees.
“How are we going to find the cabin?” she asked. “I don’t see house numbers.”
Clay shook his head. “We’re wasting time looking for the house this way. There was that little grocery store on the side of the road right when we turned off of the highway. Let’s turn around and ask directions.”
Joslyn did a three-point turn in a driveway. As she did, she caught sight of a curtain twitching over the front window of the house at the end of the driveway, but other than that, there was no other sign of life.
Barnes Groceries looked like a long, rambling shack from the front, but was larger than it appeared once they went inside. There weren’t many people in the store, and they found two employees chatting over the fruit they were setting out.
“We’re hoping you can help us find our friend’s house,” Clay said.
The red-haired man who turned to Clay had a polite smile but a strangely wary expression in his eyes. “Oh?”
“Gabe Speight’s family cabin? My sister’s there, and we’re trying to meet up with her.”
“The Speight cabin?” The man’s face grew strangely still, and he hesitated before answering. “Sure, that’s not too far.”
“Could you please draw us a map?” Joslyn asked. “I’m afraid we’ve tried to find it and got lost.”
“Sure, sure.” The man led the way to one of the cashiers and got out a pad and pencil. He drew a map, with a square for the grocery store and an X for the cabin. “Be sure to stay right at the forks. Otherwise you’ll really get lost.”
The man’s words were friendly enough, but there was something about his demeanor, or maybe it was the placid expression on his face, which made Joslyn’s suspicions rise.
“Thanks, we appreciate it.” Clay said. He smiled at the man, but she noticed that the smile wasn’t quite the same as when he had spoken to other people. There was a tightness about his jawline that made her think that his instincts were saying the same thing—something was wrong.
They got into the car. “I didn’t get a good vibe from him,” Clay said.
“Neither did I.” Joslyn looked at the hand-drawn map. “So do we follow the map or not?”
Clay sighed. “Do we have a choice?”
“What if we’re walking into something bad?”
“We’ve been in bad spots before. And Fiona might be out there. I have to at least try to protect her from Richard Roman.”
As Joslyn started the car, she realized she would want Clay to pursue her this persistently if she were in trouble. She realized that after all they’d been through for the past few days, she trusted him to come for her if she were in danger.
She wanted to be that important to him.
She shook the thought away. Fiona was important now. And Clay was not someone she could invite into her life beyond these few days. She couldn’t control him. She couldn’t control or predict what would happen when she was with him, and that frightened her as much as a showdown with Met and G.
The map was detailed enough that they were able to follow it easily. They had driven only half of a mile, but the roads were so narrow that it took them quite a while. They were in the middle of a long stretch of road when suddenly a RAV4 came toward them, headlights beaming. It slowed, but strangely, instead of stopping a distance from them, it came almost up to their front bumper.
“Joslyn.” Clay’s voice was tight. He was looking behind them.
A pickup truck had pulled up. She hadn’t noticed it because its headlights were off, and it also came right up to her rear bumper.
They were penned in.
Her heart rate shot up. She looked at Clay, who looked grim. “Now what?” she asked.
“Wait for them,” he said. “It’s their territory.”
Two men got out of the truck behind them, while a woman and a man in a red ball cap exited the SUV in front. Joslyn felt rather than saw Clay tense when the man casually fingered a shotgun. Behind them, two more men came out of the pickup truck, also with shotguns.
The woman came up to the driver’s side, a false smile on her face, and knocked on the window. Joslyn lowered it only partway.
“Mind stepping out of the car?” she said pleasantly.
Joslyn looked at Clay, who gave a tight nod.
She wasn’t sure what she expected, but no one threw her against the car or threatened her. The woman stepped back a few steps to let her exit the vehicle.
“We aren’t too fond of strangers asking about other people’s houses,” the woman said.
The man at the grocery store must have called these people and told them they were coming. Had he deliberately sent them this way to trap them?
“My sister is there,” Clay said through gritted teeth.
“If she is, she’d have given you directions to the house,” the woman said reasonably.
“Her name is Fiona Crowley and we think she’s staying at the Speights’ cabin.”
“There’s no one by that name in this area,” the woman said firmly. “Now I’d like you to turn around and be on your way.”
“I just want to find her and make sure she’s safe.”
“If someone here needs protecting, we can take care of it.”
“There is a man after her who will walk over dead bodies to find her,” Joslyn said.
The two men behind them shifted nervously.
“He’s been after us,” Clay said. “We’re trying to find Fiona so we can move her somewhere safe.”
“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” one of the men said.
“Shut up,” the woman snapped at him.
Fiona was here. If she weren’t, the man wouldn’t have said that. “Please,” Joslyn said, “just ask her if she’ll see us. He’s her half brother, Clay Ashton. I’m Joslyn Dimalanta and I was in school with her.”
“She’s not here,” the woman said again.
“Ellen,” one of the men hissed, “we’re just bringing trouble on everyone by helping that girl.”
“Shut up,” Ellen said to him.
“You just like her because she fixed your wireless internet,” the man shot back.
“She’s been more neighborly than you have, Gordon,” Ellen snapped. Then she stopped, and sighed.
“Please,” Joslyn said again.
“Before I do anything,” Ellen said, “you’re going to hand me that gun in your flashbang holster, missy.”
Joslyn was impressed she’d seen it, considering her shirt wasn’t form-fitting. She turned her back to the men, reached in, and slowly drew it out, handing it to Ellen.
The woman nodded to the man in the red ball cap who’d been riding with her in the SUV. He turned and trotted back the way they’d come, and about fifty yards down the road, he turned off into a driveway almost hidden in the brush.
“Is Fiona there?” Clay asked. His body strained forward as if he could see through the trees.
“She’s nowhere near here,” the woman said. Joslyn had suspected that—if the redheaded man at the grocery store had warned these people, he had also mostly likely sent them down roads away from the house were Fiona was staying.
“She called me,” Clay said. “Three weeks ago. I’ve been searching for her ever since.”
“If she wanted to see you, don’t you think she’d have called you again?” Ellen said.
“We know she’s here so none of her friends and family would get hurt,” Joslyn said. “But we found out who’s after her and why. With her help, we might be able to stop him, and she’ll never
have to worry about him again.”
Ellen considered the information. “You really think so, don’t you?”
“I know what it’s like to be hunted,” Joslyn said.
Something passed across the woman’s eyes, and there was a subtle change in her expression. “I believe you do,” she murmured.
“You’ve only known her for three weeks, and yet you’re protecting her like this.”
“There’s some who’d be happy chasing her off, because they don’t want any trouble,” Ellen said with a side look at the man who’d objected, “but most of us aren’t like that. We take care of our neighbors—you have to, out here. And some of us know what it means to want to hide away.”
A look passed between Joslyn and Ellen, and she somehow knew she’d earned a measure of respect from this tough mountain woman.
The man in the ball cap came running back up the road. “She said she’ll see them.”
Ellen nodded. “Gordon will drive your car back to the grocery store, and you two can ride with us.”
“Are you sure about this?” said the ball-cap man. “How do we know they’re who they say they are?”
“Use your eyes,” Ellen said to him, glancing at Clay. Then she opened the SUV back door. “Clay, you’re in back. Joslyn, you’re up front with me.”
They drove through winding roads, and Joslyn was almost positive Ellen drove in a few circles to confuse them. Almost twenty minutes later, they turned onto a long side driveway that had six houses ranged along it, three on each side, each with elaborate vegetable and flower gardens in front.
They stopped at the middle house, a two-story building with cream-colored siding and emerald green trim. The front door was on the side of the house at the top of a short flight of stairs, under a mini porch. As Joslyn got out of the car, the door opened.
And there she was.
This was the first time she’d seen brother and sister together, and she was again struck by how alike they were. Fiona’s features were more delicate, but they had the same blue-gray eyes, the same blond-streaked, brown hair. Hers was pulled back into a ponytail. Until this moment, Joslyn had never realized how Fiona’s intent expression mirrored Clay’s exactly.
The siblings froze, staring at each other. Then Fiona burst into tears, running down the stairs and into her brother’s arms.
SIXTEEN
Clay held his sister as tightly as he could with one arm, feeling her crying against his shoulder. He’d forgotten how small she was, how slender and fragile.
“It’s okay, Fi.” He stroked her back like he’d done when they were younger. His throat tightened even as his heart felt filled to bursting. They’d found her. And he’d never chase her away again. He’d protect her from Roman and anyone else who would dare try to hurt her.
When Fiona’s tears had run themselves out, Ellen came up to them. “I’m assuming you’re okay with these two, but did you want one of us to stay with you?”
“No, thanks, Ellen,” Fiona said, wiping her face.
“Well, if you need me, I’m just a holler away.” She gave Joslyn her gun and headed to the house next door to Fiona’s, the first house on the lane. The other cars began to leave.
“Oh,” Ellen called to Joslyn, “when you need your car, just come on over and we’ll take you to the grocery store.” Then she disappeared into her house.
“Hi, Joslyn.” Fiona gave her a hug, too. “Come on inside.”
Clay hadn’t really noticed the cooler air here in the mountains until he walked into the house and felt the comforting warmth from the wood-burning stove in the corner of the spacious living room. There was also the scent of the cinnamon–orange-peel tea that Fiona liked.
Fiona grabbed some tissues from a box on the coffee table and blew her nose. “How did you guys find me? I was so sure I picked somewhere obscure.”
“You did,” Joslyn said. “We’re just tenacious.”
Fiona’s eyes widened. “You didn’t tell Dad, did you?”
“No, don’t worry,” Clay said. “We guessed someone in Martin’s employ told Roman where you were.”
“Roman? You mean Richard Roman? That’s who’s after me?”
“You didn’t know?” Joslyn asked.
Fiona shook her head. “Have a seat. I’ll get us some tea.”
Clay made a face, and Fiona suddenly laughed. “You still hate tea?”
“I hate your herbal stuff. I want something bitter and caffeinated.”
“You haven’t changed a bit.” Fiona headed into the kitchen.
Joslyn sat on the couch, and Clay sat next to her, taking her hand. “Thank you,” he said. “This means more to me than just protecting her from Roman. I hadn’t realized how much I missed her in my life.”
She squeezed his hand, and her joy for him washed over him. “I’m glad you got this second chance with her. You can make up for lost time.”
“I’m not going to waste it. If anything, I’ve learned that life’s too short to not take risks. I want to take every moment I can to be happy with her.”
Joslyn looked slightly startled at his words, but she squeezed his hand one more and then withdrew it.
Fiona came in with three steaming mugs, which she put on the table. Fiona shoved a mug toward him. “Bitter and caffeinated.”
He grinned and took it. Then he reached out to take her hand. “You’re okay, right?”
She nodded, looking down.
“Those guys who kidnapped you didn’t hurt you, did they?”
“How did you… Oh, you probably talked to Amelia. That’s how you found me, right?”
“You didn’t make it easy for us,” Clay said.
“It wasn’t meant to be easy. Two guys had kidnapped me, after all.”
“What happened?” Joslyn asked.
“I was in Phoenix. You guys found out I was living there for the past year or so?”
Clay nodded. “I hired a PI.”
“I am a PI,” Joslyn said. “Of sorts.”
“I went to the local art museum. It’s my favorite, so I’d been going often. And then Dad showed up one day, wanting to talk to me. I guess he found me the same way you did, although I really tried to hide my trail.”
“Why didn’t you tell him where you went when you left LA?” Clay asked.
“I didn’t want him to find me.” Fiona took a deep breath. “When I was in LA, I was helping Dad launder money and move it into offshore accounts.”
They’d been suspecting something like this, but hearing his sister say it still seemed unbelievable. “Why? How? Did he force you?”
Fiona bit her lip and shook her head. “One of the reasons I left Chicago was because Dad had offered me a job in LA. He said it would have short hours and wouldn’t interfere with my degree program. But what he really wanted was my computer expertise to help him launder his money and move it into his accounts in Bara.”
There were tears in Fiona’s eyes as she looked up at him. “I was so ashamed of what I was doing for him, Clay, after all the grief I gave you over your mob connections. And there I was doing illegal things for my own father. I was mad at you when I left Chicago, but I had always intended to call you and reach out again…except I couldn’t.”
“Hey, it’s okay.” He moved to sit next to her, even though it was squished in the loveseat she sat in, and put his arm around her. “You know, if prison taught me anything, it’s that we all make mistakes.”
“At first I was kind of excited about how much money I was making,” Fiona said. “But then I started to hate it more and more. Finally I left LA because I couldn’t keep working for Dad, and I just wanted a clean break. I thought I’d managed to hide from him, but he found me at the museum and said he’d known all along where I was.”
“What did he want?” Clay asked.
“Apparently he’d found out that some of his accountants were skimming, so he moved a bigger chunk of his money into his Bara accounts and changed the passwords. He wanted me to come b
ack to work for him because he knew he could trust me and no one else knew about those accounts.”
“Someone did, or Roman wouldn’t have tried to take you,” Clay said.
“I don’t know how they’d have found out. No one except Dad knew I was in charge of the Bara accounts. Dad paid all my travel expenses himself in cash, not through the company or any trackable lines of credit.”
“Roman’s got some sort of mole in Martin’s company. He’s been trying to find you himself, without any of his people around him. We think it’s because he doesn’t trust any of them.”
“I wondered about that,” Fiona said. “I told Dad I wouldn’t work for him again and I left the museum, but then two guys grabbed me in the parking lot. The thing is, I know Dad’s driver saw me, but he deliberately turned away. That’s when I knew it had to do with Dad somehow.”
No wonder Martin had decided to ditch his employees to search for Fiona alone.
“They didn’t know I had my phone in my pocket,” Fiona said. “I was wearing cargo pants and they missed one of the pockets near my knee when they searched me. They put me in the back seat of their car and drove for a while, but then they stopped for gas. I went to the bathroom and tried calling you, Joslyn, but both your numbers were disconnected.”
“I lost both numbers last year,” Joslyn said.
“So then I called you,” Fiona said to him, “but they realized something was up, because they broke into the bathroom and took my phone.”
“What about the postcard?”
“I managed to steal one of those prestamped postcards when they were dragging me back out to the car,” Fiona said. “I found a pen in the back seat of the car and scribbled that note as fast as I could. Then at the next gas station, I put it in the mail slot. But I managed to run away from those guys and hide—the gas station was right next to a big truck stop. And then I snuck onto the back of a farm truck to get away. I sold my watch to get a bus ticket to Amelia’s house.”
Love Inspired Suspense May 2015 - Box Set 1 of 2: Trail of EvidenceGone MissingLethal Exposure Page 34
