Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense March 2021--Box Set 2 of 2

by Dana Mentink

  He joined her in the kayak and grabbed the paddle.

  “It should be smooth sailing, as long as no one shoots…” Her voice caught. She cleared her throat and her paddle sliced through the water at a faster speed until the current caught.

  “Thanks, but I’d like to keep the paddle handy in the event we need to flip over again.”

  “I’m sorry about that,” she said. “I know your leg—”

  “If I’m being honest, I’ve had some phantom pains, but I’m fine. Nothing you did.” His heart sped up from the admission. She’d told him the truth the night before, hadn’t she? The only way she would trust him is if he trusted her.

  Facing forward, the trees providing privacy from the world, it seemed easier for him to share. “The water’s usually not a problem. Most of my job is by land. The forest service handles the rafting and river permits and, as you also know, the river patrol—when we have someone—handles the fishing permits and river data collecting, so I think this is the first time in years I’ve been on the river. Maybe that’s not the best thing. Face my fears and all that.”

  “Well, I think you’ve done brilliantly.”

  He smiled at her answer. While subtle, her verbiage sometimes shifted ever so slightly to British phrasing. She loved words like dodgy, brilliantly and rubbish. She’d probably watched every British drama that had been made. He’d painstakingly done his best to scrimp and save for three years, hoping to surprise her with a trip to England for their honeymoon. His chest tightened at the memory. The savings still sat, for the last three years since the split, untouched. When they’d first broken up, the temptation to use it on the best motorcycle money could afford almost won, but it hadn’t seemed practical, and the last thing he’d wanted after long days in the truck was a long drive, even if on an amazing motorcycle.

  “If you don’t mind me asking, do you still consider teaching during the school year and being a river guide during summers?” He watched her spine straighten.

  “Um, that had been the plan. But Aunt Linda needed me.”

  He studied the water rushing past them. “I didn’t think she got divorced until recently.”

  She shrugged. “I want her to be happy. I have plenty of time to get to teaching.”

  He thought it actually became significantly more difficult to be hired the longer a person waited after getting a teaching degree, but he stayed silent.

  Her sigh was so soft, he almost missed it. “I do miss spending every day on the river. Not with gunmen or discoveries of drugs, but…you know.”

  “I’m sorry we haven’t been able to finish prepping all the sites.”

  “At least I got farther down the river to know what to expect. It’s too bad we can’t go to the regular take-out to check that off my list. It was only one more past Sangster, but we would’ve had to go through another set of big rapids.” She exhaled. “How will the drugs we discovered help with the investigation?”

  “The cache provides motive for why someone would want to kill Dexter. Beyond that…well, I’m not sure.” The canyon wall on the right disappeared. A light reflected off something metallic in the distance. “I think Zach is waiting for us.”

  “About that. Do you trust him?”

  He pursed his lips. Something about the way she asked gave him pause. “We’ve been over this, Nora.”

  “Well, I’m just wondering. If you can trust him and Perry, even though they’ve given you reason not to, then what does that say about me? After years of giving you nothing but reason to trust me…” She pulled in a sharp breath and the paddle slapped hard against the water. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to get into our past. I really didn’t.” She pulled the oar up onto the bow in front of her, so their speed slowed. “The point is I should probably tell you something before we pull up on the bank and see Zach.”

  “Okay.” The wind gusted and chilled his already wet head, causing him to shiver. But the discomfort served as a reminder. Nora had likely saved both their lives. Despite the foreboding, he forced himself to remain calm. “What is it?”

  “I hid the bag of drugs.”

  “You did what?” His words came out almost as a shout, his peaceful intentions carried off with the breeze. Her braid flipped back. He only vaguely registered that his exclamation had likely startled her. “You hid evidence of a murder? That’s obstruction of justice, Nora.”

  She twisted her torso so she could mostly look him in the eyes. “So, you going to arrest me? Again?” Her eyebrows raised in a challenge. She spun back around to face forward.

  Despite the cold, it was as if his stomach suddenly held nothing but a plateful of habañero peppers and hot sauce. “For the last time, I didn’t ever arrest you. I took you in for questioning. I couldn’t be trusted to make a judgment.”

  Her shoulders rose almost to her ears. “You might as well finally admit that I couldn’t be trusted.”

  “Not a good time to make a point when you just hid evidence.”

  “Someone wanted to kill us, probably me more than you. So, I hid the one thing that might be used as a bargaining tool to get away alive. Plus, I don’t trust Zach, and I wanted to see his reaction.”

  Henry’s shoulders sagged as she picked up the oar and made her way to the approaching bank. He replayed the words in his head. From her point of view, her reasoning probably made perfect sense. Her father had walked out never to be seen again when she was only five. She’d grown up taking care of Maya while her mother had worked two, sometimes three, jobs. Even now, after her comment about her aunt, she seemed to think everything of importance was up to her to make happen and that no one wanted to help her when she had a need.

  And he’d failed her. Again. He’d been the one to ask her, even after she’d witnessed a murder, to guide the boat. Every question she’d had, he’d taken as a commentary on his worthiness, on his capability to do the job. He took a deep breath, purposefully compartmentalizing the feelings for another day or never. “I understand your reasoning. But, Nora, even if Zach freaks out, a reaction isn’t proof of anything.”

  “If he pulls a gun on us, we’ll know! Perry and Zach were the only ones who knew we found the drugs because you called them. Right? They knew where we were on the river. If one of them didn’t shoot at us, then maybe they gave the order to someone else.”

  He pressed his oar into the rocky, shallow water near the bank and helped leverage them onto dry ground. He hopped out before Nora could. “Allow me.” He pulled them farther up the bank and took a knee, so he could look right into Nora’s face.

  Bobby had been right last night, even though Henry hadn’t been ready to admit it. He still owed Nora a real apology before they could ever move on. As colleagues. Friends would be too much to hope for given their past. But if he was going to keep her safe and solve the case, they needed to reach the point of trusting each other.

  “I don’t want to argue with you, but I don’t think Zach is going to pull a gun on us. It’s probably not going to make any difference, but before we go up there I also need to tell you something.” He took a deep breath. Her wet bangs had started to dry, curling and framing her eyes, wide and searching his face. The past was in the past. This was simply sharing an analysis, but the words still caught in his throat. Why did he feel like he was about to put his heart in mortal danger?

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Nora couldn’t wait to get out of the kayak, but she felt like a heavy weight had been placed on her chest, holding her back from moving as she waited for Henry to speak. She opened her mouth to press him but stopped. If this was the old Henry, the one she’d thought she was going to marry, then that look would’ve meant he was struggling to be vulnerable. Something shifted, though, in him ever since he had returned to the area as a law enforcement ranger.

  Henry shook his head. “Like I said, it’s probably not going to make any difference.”

  “Wo
uld it be okay if you let me decide that? What do you need to tell me?”

  His eyebrows shot up and relaxed forcefully. “Well, the night I walked in on you holding…”

  She wanted to interject by saying, A perfectly innocent substance, but bit her lip instead.

  “What you didn’t know was the kind of day I had. I didn’t think it mattered back then, but I had just come back from my parents’. I was wanting my mother’s help in booking a…a trip.”

  Nora’s cheeks heated as she observed Henry’s discomfort. A trip? Had he been about to book their honeymoon the night their relationship fell apart? She spotted the driver’s door of the deputy’s vehicle swing open on the rocky ridge above them. “Henry, I think Zach is starting to wonder if something’s wrong.”

  He pressed a hand on his forehead. “The point is that my conversation with my parents didn’t go well. I thought they’d finally accepted my new career, but my dad launched into how much I’d disappointed him by not going to law school like the plan.” He blew out a breath. “And I’d had some feedback that day from my boss that wasn’t all good. So, when I showed up that night, I had certain expectations about what our interaction would be like and instead—”

  “I think I can fill in the gaps.” Nora’s mouth fell open, imagining his state of mind that night. “You were trying to prove yourself.”

  “I didn’t think that at the time, Nora. I convinced myself I was doing the right thing, by the book. And, if I’m being a hundred percent honest, I was hurt you hadn’t talked to me about your sister beforehand. I could see for myself Maya had been changing. In subtle ways at first, but…” He shook his head. “I thought we had laid the past to rest, but I realized I still owed you an apology for how I acted that night. And if we are going to work together like this then we need to properly put things to rest.” He stood and waved at Zach to indicate all was well. Zach seemed to understand the message to stay put. Henry reached out a hand and Nora accepted. She stood and stepped out of the kayak until they were a mere breath apart.

  “You’re wrong,” Nora said. Her breathing grew shallow. “It does make a difference. I appreciate you telling me.” The breeze irritated her eyes and she blinked away the moisture threatening to appear. Allergies, probably. She hesitated, not sure she wanted to continue the conversation, but he’d put everything on the table, so she felt compelled to do the same. “You probably won’t believe me, but I didn’t see the way my sister was changing. Not really. When I had the feeling that something was off, I didn’t want to bring it to you. I knew you had enough on your plate.”

  “You’ve never liked asking for my help.”

  She stared at the ground and pulled her hand out of his. “We’d both stopped talking by then anyway. Grown apart. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.” She felt like she was back at the lodge parking lot, watching the line in his chin deepen as he looked away and told her the best course would be breaking up. This conversation was too similar for comfort. “Consider the matter laid to rest. We can put the personal history aside, work together and move on.”

  That same hard frown returned. “I’m glad you didn’t let the matter go. I think I needed an excuse to bring up the things unsaid.” Henry cleared his throat. “For closure, too.”

  “We really didn’t have each other’s backs when you think about it. Guess it’s good we broke up.” She offered a half-hearted laugh. “Zach is probably getting impatient.”

  Henry seemed frozen, almost statue-like, as if fighting with himself how to respond. “He can wait. I want to make sure you hear me. I’m not talking about the past just for the sake of it. We need to trust each other now. Communicate. That’s the only way I’m going to keep you safe.”

  The gunman seemed to grow in size in her memory, a towering monster ready to kill her and everything she held dear. Her bravado faltered. She was suddenly desperate to get back to her room and lock the door and never come out. “I understand. You’re right.”

  He glanced over his shoulder. “You remember exactly where you put the drugs, right? Was it back at the last stop?”

  She nodded. “I can retrieve it.”

  “I’m going to need you to take me there tomorrow morning. We can bring backup,” he added quickly. “For both accountability and safety.” He sighed. “And I’ll make every effort to help you prepare the rest of the sites, but, Nora, I’m not sure you’re going to be able to start the rafting season on time. If we can’t find the gunman, if this leads to something bigger…”

  He was trying to prepare her for the worst. The rafting business going under was now a real possibility. She refused to fall apart in front of him. “I won’t let the magazine reporter get on her flight if I can’t take her on the river, but otherwise, I prepare for the best case scenario.” She took a slow breath in to calm her pounding heart. “Do you really think the drugs will help find Dexter’s killer? Or will his death be written off as a drug-related death? Forgotten like Tommy’s?”

  His face fell. “I’ll never forget Tommy’s death. You know that.” He cleared his throat and looked away. “We can hope that a recent arrest for one of the mobile meth labs might connect the drugs to the murderer.” His voice and gaze hardened. “It’s a long shot, but we still need to go by the book on this.”

  “Hey!” Zach hollered from above. “Perry’s been trying to get hold of you. He says you’ll want to hear what he has to say.”

  Henry looked down at his satellite phone. “I got nothing.”

  “We’re probably too close to the canyon walls for a signal,” Nora said. “He’s at a better vantage point.” She did her best to pick up the kayak, but her arms were spent from the last hour of hard paddling. Henry grabbed the other end of the boat without her prompting, taking more than his share of the weight as they transported the gear up the hill. The moment they set the kayak on top of the SUV, Henry’s phone buzzed. “Perry texted. Zach was right. He wants me to call immediately.”

  The rangers were used to bad phone signals and had the habit of projecting their voices loud enough for a town hall when they were communicating. Perry’s greeting through Henry’s phone was loud enough for Nora to hear while she strapped the kayak to the SUV. Zach stepped out of the vehicle again and tried to help her, though he didn’t seem accustomed to securing a boat and kept waiting for her to give instructions.

  She avoided looking Zach in the eye. She still took it personally that he disregarded her witness statement.

  “I had a gut feeling that something about those bullet casings looked familiar.” Perry’s voice continued to carry from the speaker of Henry’s phone. “I checked the crime reports. The striations looked similar to the photos I took of other casings. At another crime.”

  Henry scratched his head. “But nothing official?”

  “No. I have a friend at the ATF office in Boise. They have the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network at their fingertips.”

  “You and I both know it’ll take weeks to—”

  “Takes them fifteen minutes to run the test, Henry. As long as it’s top of the pile, and since the gunman took a shot at a law enforcement officer, we have your life at risk to thank for a priority rising to the top of the stack. I had the forensics equipment in the office to send them what they needed. They’ll have results back to us in the hour.”

  “That’s… Wow. That’s great.”

  Zach had stopped helping and was staring at Henry, clearly engrossed in the conversation, as well. Nora tried to move past him to finish tightening the tie-downs, but it was as if she had become invisible to the deputy. Her damp braid clung to the back of her neck and she accidentally hit him with it as she swung it around her shoulder. “Sorry.”

  He grumbled but stepped out of her way.

  “I know you don’t work in forensics. Do you know what that means?” Perry’s voice came through the static.

  Henry rolled his eye
s for dramatic effect and Zach laughed, clearly having overheard. “The hammer or firing pin of each rifle has a unique striking pattern,” Henry responded. “I’m fully educated, Perry.”

  “I guess you were going to be a lawyer. They probably go nuts over stuff like that.”

  Henry unclipped his helmet and scratched his head. He turned to face Nora while he spoke into the phone. “While you wait on your results, I’d like to assemble a team tomorrow. We weren’t able to bring the drugs we found back to land—after the shooting and all. The drugs are in a safe place, but I think we need more hands to make sure we don’t get fired on when we retrieve them.”

  “We definitely need a team, Henry, but we’re going to do more than retrieve the drugs.” Perry sighed. “My ATF contact just dinged me with an email. It’s only preliminary and needs to be confirmed, but the bullets that were used to shoot at you today did match a former crime.”

  “You don’t sound very happy about that.” Henry approached the SUV and gestured with his thumb that they should probably get going. Zach nodded and got into the driver’s seat while Henry opened the backseat and gestured for Nora to get inside. “What’s the lead? Who shot at us?”

  “The striations on the shell casings match the firing marks on the bullets used to kill Tommy Sorenson.”

  Nora gasped and spun to Henry. His face drained of all color.

  “Whoever wants you two dead also killed your rafting friend, Tommy,” Perry said.

  * * *

  Henry tightened his holster and checked his ammunition. The morning air seemed to suspend the moisture from last night’s intense rain. The cold and humidity were no match for the layers he wore today. This time, he was going to be prepared if he needed to dunk for cover. He hustled to the employee lodge office where the front door was propped open.