TRIGGERED: A Romantic Suspense Bundle (5 Books)

by Evie Nichole

  Chloe looked between them. “What man at the dock?”

  “I think there was someone outside last night.”

  “What?” Harbour snapped.

  “I didn’t see anyone. Jareth was just acting weird.”

  “Why didn’t you call the police?” Chloe cut in.

  He turned to her. “Because I didn’t see anything.”

  “Well, you did see the man at the dock. I’d like a description.”

  Harbour smacked his chest again with the back of her hand. He didn’t know what he was doing that made her think that he wasn’t paying attention.

  “The phone.”

  “The phone call you got the night of the fire? Did you get another one?” Chloe said.

  “I don’t know. Ever since Derek lost his phone, people have been calling me. There were way too many calls, so I stopped answering.”

  She took a second to glare at him as if challenging him to make a smartass comment. Regardless of whatever she might think, he did have a concept of appropriate behaviour.

  “Anyway, because I didn’t answer, people took to sending me texts. They were, well, detailed, so I stopped reading them. If this sicko sent a text, I wouldn’t have seen it yet.”

  “Would you mind if I have a look at it?”

  Harbour nodded but Derek stopped her as she headed to the stairs. “You tell her about the creepy guy. I’ll get the phone.”

  “Okay.” She sounded like she was too busy keeping the stress out of her voice to keep track of the conversation.

  When he reached the bottom of the staircase he called over his shoulder, “You left it on our bed, right?”

  “Huh? Oh, yeah.”

  He was halfway up the stairs before he heard Chloe ask, “So, ‘our’ bed, huh?”

  Harbour stammered and snapped out Derek’s name. His only response was a soft chuckle. Maybe he didn’t have a sense of appropriate behaviour. But at least she sounded more irritated than scared.

  He jogged the last few stairs and swung around the bannister. A cool breeze stopped him in his tracks. From his position in the hallway, he could see straight through the open bedroom door. The curtains churned around the open window. They hadn’t left that open.

  His shoulders tightened as he edged closer to the room, ears straining to hear anything beyond the soft conversation happening downstairs and his own footsteps. Everything was silent. Still. With one hand, Derek pushed the bedroom door back flush against the wall. Nothing. He cast a quick glance behind him before crossing the threshold and snatching Harbour’s phone off of the end of the bed. Besides the window, nothing else looked disturbed or missing.

  The phone sat snugly within his loose fist as he checked the other rooms. There were no wardrobes and few possible hiding places. As soon as he was convinced that no one was on the second floor, Derek headed back downstairs.

  The second his foot hit the bottom of the staircase, he tossed Chloe the phone and headed straight to Harbour’s parents’ room. Harbour caught up with him just as he finished checking under the bed.

  “What are you doing?”

  Derek brushed past her to glance out the door. Chloe was at the kitchen island, searching through the contents of the phone. He still closed the door before he turned back to Harbour.

  “Did you leave our bedroom window open?”

  “My,” she started to correct before she caught onto his meaning. “No, I didn’t. Why?”

  “It’s open.”

  “You think someone’s in the house?”

  “I haven’t found anyone. I think they’re gone.”

  Harbour lifted her hands into the air as if she was praying for strength. “Why aren’t you telling this to Chloe?”

  Cupping her shoulder, he pulled her deeper into the room, eyes darting to the door. It didn’t seem like Chloe had heard the outburst.

  “You expect an intruder in your house. You have a police officer, with a gun, in your kitchen. You tell said police officer. It’s an easy concept.”

  “My house?”

  “Don’t be cute.”

  “You think I’m cute?”

  “Derek.”

  He huffed a sigh and glanced at the door again.

  “I don’t trust her.”

  Harbour blinked. “Did you ever think that she scared off these guys? We’re lucky she showed up when she did.”

  “Or they are.”

  “You think she’s in on it?” she asked.

  “She’s not above suspicion.”

  “Why would she show up and ruin the plan?”

  “We didn’t take Jareth with us,” Derek said. “They might not have been prepared for him to be in the house.”

  Harbour didn’t look convinced but she at least kept her voice low. “Chloe knows Jareth. She knows he’s all bark and no bite.”

  Derek crossed his arms over his chest and jerked his head to the side. “Maybe she’s the distraction.”

  “What?”

  “She comes in and makes sure we’re all in one area of the house so this guy can get it. He hides in the house somewhere and waits for us to fall asleep.”

  Again, Harbour just stared at him as she processed the words. “That is immensely creepy.”

  “Maybe, but —”

  “But why would she let you go upstairs then? It seems like the first rule of being the distraction is that you to distract. She didn’t do anything that could have warned someone that you were coming.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Well, I know Chloe. We can trust her.”

  “Maybe you can.”

  “I trust her and you trust me.”

  “I hate that argument,” he said. “Just because I trust you doesn’t mean I can force myself to trust whoever you say is a chill dude. Trust doesn’t work like that.”

  “Derek.”

  “And yeah, I trust you, but that doesn’t mean that I trust your judgement.”

  “Okay, I get it.”

  “Are you sure? I can keep going.”

  “No, I’m good.” She heaved her shoulders like a simple dramatic sigh just wasn’t enough. “I’m going to tell her.”

  “Seriously?”

  “She has a kid now, Derek. I’ve babysat for her.”

  “Mothers can be psychopaths too.”

  “I’m just saying that she’s got way too much to lose to risk it all just to get back at us for . . . whatever, I don’t even know.”

  “Any way I can talk you out of it?”

  “I’ll feel a lot better knowing someone with a firearm has made sure that no one’s lurking in a crawl space.”

  Derek stared over her head as he let his frustration out on a long sigh. He agreed, because even if he hadn’t, she would still have done it. At least this way he could save some face. Still, the impulse to try and distract her was too strong to resist.

  “Can we talk about how you pretty much agreed that I live here?”

  Harbour rolled her eyes and headed for the door.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Harbour waited in the kitchen as Chloe moved through the house, gun in hand. Every light was on, and a few of the lamps, but it didn’t settle the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. No matter how many times she told herself that she should be used to having strangers in the house, her brain wasn’t buying it. The possibilities of what could have happened clogged her mind. Maybe they would come back? Or maybe she would wake up in the middle of the night to find a stranger looming over her.

  Her fingernail beds were starting to bleed, but she didn’t stop picking at them. Not saying a word, Derek placed a hand over her to make her stop. How could he look so calm? She was expecting so see someone pop out of a cupboard and run for the door at any moment, and he was just standing there like the whole situation was a slight annoyance.

  “I’m locking the bedroom door tonight,” she declared. “And I’m putting a chair in front of it.”

  “What if he’s already in the room?”

  S
he glared at him. “You’re a horrible person.”

  A smirk twisted his lips. “No, I’ve just been through this a couple of times.”

  Footsteps echoed down the stairs. Harbour pushed off from the counter and took a few steps forward, craning her neck to catch sight of Chloe. Relief pulsed through her when she caught sight of Chloe, alone and holstering her gun.

  “No one’s here.”

  “We didn’t leave that window open,” Harbour said.

  Chloe held up a hand, “I’m not saying that no one was ever here. I’m just saying that they’re gone now.”

  “That’s oddly not as comforting as I thought it would be.”

  Derek leaned back against the kitchen counter, his face still an unreadable mask. His placid demeanour wasn’t reassuring. If anything, it left Harbour feeling like a child jumping at shadows.

  “Who are you going to tell about this?” he asked.

  Both women turned to Derek but he offered no other explanation.

  “I’ll tell the other officers.”

  “And who will they tell?”

  “I’m good at my job, Derek.”

  He smiled. “Oh, I’m sure you’ve dealt with a lot of these situations.”

  “Derek,” Harbour hissed.

  He dropped his smile but didn’t let the point lie. “However this goes down, this psycho is going to be someone you know. It’s in my best interest to try and suss out how you’re going to react to that.”

  “I’m going to do my job,” Chloe said.

  Harbour was grateful when Derek responded with only a nod. Chloe pushed any trace of annoyance off of her face, a skill she had honed after becoming a mother, and placed her hand on the kitchen island. Jareth had quickly lost interest in the new visitor and had taken to sleeping on the couch. Now that all three of them were in the kitchen, his renewed interest had him trotting around them, trying to decide which one would give him the most attention.

  “We can’t stay here,” Harbour said.

  “We check into any hotel and everyone will know within an hour,” Derek pointed out. “This is Nowhere, after all.”

  “We could maybe go to Piper’s.” Harbour regretted it the instant she said it. “But I don’t want to bring this to her.”

  “I don’t think they’re coming back tonight,” Chloe said.

  Harbour picked at her nails. “How can you be sure?”

  “Starting a fire is one thing. It gives the arsonist some distance. Whatever they were planning tonight was far more face-to-face. They got scared off. That’ll make them skittish.”

  “So we’re hoping that they have a crisis of confidence?” Harbour asked. “That doesn’t sit well with me. And what if they feel like they need to get it over with before they lose their nerve?”

  “I may be able to set you up in one of the officer’s houses for the night. They’d have to be desperate to follow you there.”

  “No,” Harbour asked as she looked between the two. “I’ve got an idea. No one yell.”

  “What is it?” Derek asked.

  “The cabin.”

  “Your winter home?” Derek asked.

  “No, this is just a little hunting cabin that we put up last year. It’s right by Justin’s Lake, about two hours hike in from the road.”

  Derek pinched the bridge of his nose. “So, when you think a madman might be after you, your first instinct is to hide in a cabin in the middle of the woods, far from help and cell service?”

  “I’ve hunted in those woods my whole life.”

  Derek kept his face down as he met her gaze. “You hunt?”

  “My dad showed me how, and meat is expensive,” she dismissed. “The point is; I know those woods. There’re no roads that go there and it’s a hard trail, even during the day.”

  “It might not be smart for you to stay there,” Chloe said softly.

  “That’s the point. It would look ready-made for them for them. Scared or not, how can they pass up that kind of opportunity?”

  Derek straightened, “Are you suggesting you use yourself as bait?”

  “Well, we, but still.”

  “No.”

  “Derek.”

  “Don’t try that,” he warned. “This is not an argument saying my name will win.”

  “Do you have a better idea?”

  Chloe’s lip twisted down with worry. “Fog is expected to roll in tonight.”

  “So they’ll feel more protected. Look, I can help. Tell me what you need. I know the quickest way to get in and out and where you can hide in wait. We can do this.”

  “There is normally a lot more prep time for these sort of things,” Chloe said.

  “But we might not get this chance again.”

  Derek growled, “I’m having trouble getting past the cabin in the woods part.”

  “I get that for you the woods are a scary place. But I’ve spent most of my life in them. It’s my home turf. If that sicko wants to follow us out there, fine. Let’s show him what it’s like to get hunted.”

  She watched as Derek and Chloe exchanged a glance.

  “It could work,” Derek said grudgingly.

  “And you’re okay with that?” Chloe said.

  He turned to Harbour and she tried to mimic his smirk. “Follow my basic instructions and you’ll be fine.”

  “I can also follow your complex instructions,” he smiled.

  “Does that mean you’re up for the hike?”

  “Promise to take care of me?”

  “So,” Chloe said, “Is this a thing now? Shameless flirting in completely inappropriate situations?”

  “Joking around makes me feel better,” Harbour was quick to say. “I wasn’t flirting.”

  “I was.”

  She threw Derek a glare, but he only winked. After looking at them each in turn, Chloe shook her head.

  “Do you have a map?” she asked. “I’m not agreeing, but show me what you’re thinking.”

  ***

  Derek watched the forest pass, the fog churning around the rich brown tree trunks. It still didn’t sit right with him, but all his arguments of him going while Harbour stayed someplace safe had fallen on deaf ears. He had a lot of experience talking her into things, not so much talking her out. As the miles stretched on, he found it hard to keep from being anxious, but at the same time, it was hard to keep focused. There was a conversation that they really needed to have.

  Harbour had only let them take two backpacks. The first she stuffed with their change of clothes and the basic essentials that weren’t at the cabin already. A quick stop at the grocery store, just to make sure everyone knew they were headed out, had provided everything they had stuffed into the second pack. With a hunting knife strapped to her belt, a set of pocket binoculars shoved into the back pocket of her jeans, and a compass on a chain long enough to fit under her shirt, Harbour had looked calm and in control as she piled Derek and Jareth into the truck.

  The further they got out of town, the more Harbour visibly relaxed. A thousand evergreens had hidden the thin dirt trail so well that he hadn’t noticed the turnoff until Harbour forced the truck through the first layer of branches. She hadn’t had any trouble finding it, and he started to think that there might be something to the idea that they would be a lot safer in the wilderness.

  With one hand on the wheel, and the other keeping Jareth on the bench seat, Harbour expertly avoided the larger of the potholes. The road was still a mess. Derek spent most of the trip trying to make sure that he didn’t smack his head against the ceiling.

  Eventually, the road had opened up and flattened out into a small parking lot. It looked like it could only take about ten cars, but he bet it never really had a demand for more. Jareth had been nearly as happy as he was for a chance to stretch his legs. The forest was thick and towering mountains rose up on all sides, the tips lost in the cloudlike mist.

  As subtly as he could, Derek looked around, trying to catch sight of any car or movement. Everything was silent a
nd it looked as if they were alone. Harbour had promised him that it was a ‘short walk’ to the cabin. Two hours later, Derek felt the urge to remind her yet again that she had blatantly lied.

  “Stop complaining and enjoy the view,” was her normal response.

  Every so often she would glance at her compass and slightly alter their course. They weren’t walking along a trail, but instead heading straight through thick underbrush almost as tall as her and scrambling over boulders slick with moss. There were too many trees for Derek to be able to tell any kind of direction. Thick fog hovered over the tops of them, swallowing the sky and making it impossible to tell the time. It left the world above him a monotone shade of grey, and everything below a vibrant green. He felt small. It was a sensation he wasn’t quite sure he liked.

  Harbour jogged up a sharp incline like she was a mountain goat and looked down at him expectantly. He quickened his pace but wasn’t as good at finding solid earth as she was, so it took him some extra time. She looked at him like he was a toddler just learning to walk, in a kind of a teasing but indulgent way.

  “There it is,” she declared, all traces of fear and anxiety gone.

  He looked over the branch she held. He could see the lake, with the fog coiling over it like rolling clouds, but beyond that, there was only trees and bushes.

  “Where?”

  She pointed into the uninterrupted forest. “Right there.”

  “There is nothing there.”

  “Twenty bucks,” she challenged.

  “You’re on.”

  She lifted her chin and headed off with her hands holding the straps of her backpack. Jareth had already run on ahead. At certain points, Derek could only see the tall dog when he bounced around like a rabbit. Still a few feet in front of him, Harbour spun around and held out her arms like a prize show host. Edging closer, Derek was finally able to distinguish the log cabin from the forest that surrounded it.

  Moss had already started to grow on the unfinished wood and the slanted roof nestled easily under the low branches of the trees. Only the patch around the stone chimney had been properly cleared. There was only one door, one window, and a small deck that could barely fit a chair. The entire structure probably offered the same amount of space as a large cell home.