by Jana DeLeon
He reached up and brushed a lock of her hair from her eyes. As his rough fingers stroked her soft skin, her body flashed with heat. Given that it was December, she was certain it wasn’t the temperature in the room that had caused the response. He looked her directly in the eye for several seconds, and she would have sworn he was about to lean in and kiss her. Then he rose from the bed and went over to look out the window.
“I’ll lock the door before I pull it shut.” He picked up her cell phone from the dresser and handed it to her. “Keep this on your nightstand. If anything at all bothers you during the night, call me. If I don’t answer, call the police.”
“But—”
“No buts. I should never have left you waiting in the truck. I should have sent you back to town to get the sheriff. I’m not going to make the same mistakes again.”
The stubborn look on his face was a dead giveaway that she would get nowhere arguing with him.
“Try to get some rest,” he said before stepping out of the room and closing and locking the door behind him.
She stared at the closed door and sighed. Finally, she pulled her pistol out of her nightstand drawer and checked to ensure that it was loaded and ready to fire, then placed it on the nightstand next to her cell phone.
Soon, she would slide down under the covers and try to stop her whirling mind long enough to sleep. Somewhere in the house, Tanner was probably still blaming himself for everything. Truth be known, she understood how he could think that way from his perspective, but from her own, she knew there was no way she would have left him in the house alone. Not tonight and not any other.
The television remote was right there on her bed, but she didn’t pick it up. Even the most fascinating of programs couldn’t top what was happening in her own home. She rose from the bed and pulled the curtains aside, staring out into the darkness.
Someone or something was out there. Even in the cloak of darkness and separated by glass and curtains, she could feel the eyes upon her.
* * *
THE INTRUDER LURKED AT the edge of the black swamp, watching the house as the lamp in Josie’s bedroom clicked off. Kidnapping hadn’t been part of the plan, but she’d been a sitting duck. It was too much temptation to resist.
If tonight didn’t put the fear of God into her, then the intruder would have to come up with another idea. A key to Josie’s house jingled in a duffel bag as the intruder lifted it from the ground.
The night’s events had accomplished two things.
* * *
JOSIE GROUSED AND DRAGGED her feet over breakfast and generally delayed more than any ten females he’d ever seen, but Tanner finally got her in his truck and on the way to the doctor.
“I don’t need to see the doctor,” she grumbled for at least the tenth time as he drove into town. “I don’t even have a headache.”
“I made a promise to the man. Do you want me to be branded a liar and a fool?”
She blew out a breath and slumped in her seat. He looked over at her and grinned.
“Have you always been this spoiled?” he asked.
She sat up straight and glared at him. “Spoiled? I’ll have you know I work my butt off. I’m no pampered princess, regardless of what some might think.”
“I didn’t say anything about working hard.”
“Then what are you insinuating?”
“That aside from Vernon, you’re used to men doing what you say.”
She frowned. “Nothing could be further from the truth. Look, I’m not trying to be ungrateful. I know all of you are worried about me and trying to do what you think is right. And I know I’m making that more difficult than it has to be.”
“No argument so far. You want to tell me why that’s the case?”
She shrugged. “I guess I got used to taking care of myself for one. I don’t have time to be off work if I want to open the bed-and-breakfast on time. And since I’m self-employed, I don’t have insurance. All that testing comes directly out of my pocket.”
Tanner glanced over at her and took in her stiff posture and the way she nibbled at her bottom lip. He understood being independent—understood it with a vengeance—but he didn’t understand the rest of her concerns. If it had been someone without the last name Bettencourt, he might have, but Josie could write checks for additional workers and get everything done on time if it was that important to her, and the cost of an X-ray was negligible in the big scheme of things.
If her inheritance wasn’t immediately liquid, he was sure the doctor would bill her and allow her to get money shifted. Certainly, the man wasn’t going to hold her hostage in his office for cash payment. All he could assume was that whatever the real problem was, she wasn’t ready to tell him about it. As much as that frustrated him, he really couldn’t blame her. When it came right down to it, he was barely more than a stranger, and he was hired help, to top it off.
It occurred to him that where Josie Bettencourt was concerned, “hired help” seemed to be his destiny.
He held in a sigh as he parked in front of the doctor’s office on Main Street.
“While you get checked out,” he said, “I’m going to have a talk with the sheriff. I’m sure he’ll want to talk to you as soon as you’re done.”
“Oh, I doubt that. He doesn’t like to talk to anyone who thinks he should actually do his job.”
“Well, then he’s going to be mighty unhappy, and I don’t care. Rest assured, he will do his job. I’m not giving him a choice.”
Josie gave him a small smile. “If I didn’t despise the man so much, it would probably make me happy to see you lean on him. Unfortunately, that requires looking at him, so my enthusiasm is not where it ought to be.”
Tanner laughed. “Tell me how you really feel.”
Now she smiled for real. “That was the ‘light’ version.”
“I think I might enjoy this,” he said, and climbed out of the truck.
Josie exited the truck and gave him a wave as she walked up the sidewalk to the doctor’s office. “I’ll come see the fallout as soon as I’m done here,” she said, and walked inside.
Sufficiently warned, Tanner set his jaw and strode across the street to the sheriff’s department, but before he could enter the building, a young woman stopped him on the sidewalk.
“Tanner, right?” she asked, then looked at the ground.
He took a good look at her, then remembered where he’d seen her before. “Good morning, Marquette.”
She looked up and gave him a shy smile. “I hope you enjoyed your ribs last night.”
He nodded. “The ribs were excellent, as was the service.”
Her eyes widened and a dark red flush crept up her neck and onto her face. “That’s a very nice thing for you to say.”
Tanner instantly felt a bout of compassion for the young woman. He’d been that person before—shy, hiding in corners, afraid to draw attention to himself. He hadn’t morphed into an extrovert, but he’d finally become comfortable in his own skin...usually...most of the time. Okay, maybe he had some work to do, but he was way better off than Marquette.
“I’m going to have some coffee at the cafe,” Marquette said, staring at the sidewalk again, “If you want to join me.”
“I appreciate the invitation, but I’m on my way to speak to the sheriff.”
She looked up again. “Is everything all right?”
“We had some trouble at Ms. Bettencourt’s house last night. I want the sheriff to look into it.”
“Is Josie okay?”
“She’s fine, but neither of us is interested in a repeat event.”
Marquette nodded. “Well, she’s lucky she’s got you looking out for her.” She gave him a wistful smile. “I guess I’ll see you around.”
“You have a nice day, and thanks again for the coffee offer.”
“Anytime,” she said, and started down the sidewalk toward the cafe.
Tanner took a deep breath and blew it out, mentally preparing himself for battle
. Then he pushed open the door to the sheriff’s department and walked inside.
An older woman with poofy brown hair sticking out in every direction called out a greeting to him from a copy machine in the corner of the reception area.
“Good morning, Ms....”
“Bartlett,” the woman said as she ambled back to the desk with her copies, “but you can call me Cathy. What can I help you with this morning, Mr....”
“Tanner LeDoux.”
“Ah, yes. You’re the tracker that Josie hired. Heard about it this morning at the diner.”
“I’d like to speak to the sheriff. Is he in?”
She leaned forward and whispered, “Doesn’t move out of that chair unless it’s time to eat.”
“May I ask what this is about?” she asked in her regular voice.
Tanner held in a grin. “Yes, ma’am. There was an intruder out at the Bettencourt place last night, and he tried to drag Josie off into the swamp.”
“Oh!” Cathy’s eyes widened and she put her hand over her mouth. “Is Josie all right?”
“She hit her head on a rock and has a bit of a headache, but seems all right. She’s at the doctor’s office right now getting a thorough check.”
Cathy nodded approvingly. “I know you young people don’t think you need doctors unless you’re missing a limb, but I’m glad she’s getting checked. I lost my husband to a head injury.”
Sympathy coursed through him. “I’m very sorry. How did it happen?”
“Got hit with a net frame working on his shrimp boat. Tossed back some aspirin and refused to see the doctor despite my nagging. Dropped dead three days later. He’d been bleeding in his brain.”
“That’s a sobering story, Cathy, and makes me happy that I insisted despite her protests.”
She nodded and rose from her chair. “Follow me. The sheriff needs to find whoever attacked Josie. If it had happened before last night, you wouldn’t have been there, and things could have gone very wrong. It’s not safe, a young woman staying out in that big house. It’s too remote.”
“Emmett Vernon lives on property.”
She waved a hand in dismissal. “Emmett’s too busy gabbing at the general store or stalking through the swamp. Even if he was on property, he wouldn’t hear anything happening at the main house all the way from his cabin. And you couldn’t blast him out of there with dynamite, not even to protect Josie. The man’s got issues.”
“Yeah, I noticed the attitude.”
“Got a lot of men with that problem in this town.” She pointed her finger at the door with “Sheriff” stenciled on it. “Including this one,” she whispered.
“Sheriff,” she called out as she pushed open the door. “There’s a Tanner LeDoux here to see you about some problems at the Bettencourt place.”
She stepped back and Tanner walked into the office, getting his first look of Bobby Reynard since they were teens.
He felt an unexpected amount of satisfaction when he saw that the bully who had embarrassed him in high school now had a beer belly and sagging biceps. Apparently, Cathy had been telling the truth—the man only moved to eat.
He stepped up to the desk and extended his hand, but Bobby didn’t even bother to move forward and take it. Instead, he just stared at Tanner with a look that was part disgruntled, part bored.
Tanner sat in a chair in front of the desk, unwilling to be deterred by the man’s rudeness. Apparently, not everyone matured after high school.
“If Josie sent you down here thinking you’re going to get a different response than she did, you’re wasting your time. Trouble with bears wasn’t my job last week and it’s still not. I hear you’re some big-time tracker. You shouldn’t have any problem with wildlife.”
“I’m not here about bears. I’m here because someone attacked and tried to kidnap Josie in her driveway last night.”
Bobby raised his eyebrows, clearly unperturbed. “I’m sure she was mistaken. Probably someone just wanted to talk to her, but being a frigid bitch, she assumed the worst.”
Tanner clenched his hands by his side, exercising every ounce of control he had to keep himself from jumping out of the chair and pummeling the man into tomorrow. “The doctor came to see her last night. She’s at his office right now getting tests run for a concussion. Does that sound like a pleasant conversation to you?”
“You don’t say.” Bobby sat up in his chair. “Did you see the guy who attacked her?”
“No. I saw a light in the upstairs window of her house when we pulled up the drive. I left her in the truck while I went inside to check it out. He grabbed her out of the truck.”
“Did you find someone in the house?”
“No, but a window on the back of the house was unlocked, and I found tracks beneath the window in the flower bed this morning.”
“Can Josie describe her attacker?”
Tanner hesitated. He’d been dreading this part of the conversation all morning. “Yes, but it’s not going to do you much good. He was wearing a disguise.”
“A mask or something?”
“No. An entire costume.”
Bobby’s jaw set in a hard line. “I know you’re not about to tell me that she was attacked by the Honey Island Swamp Monster. Given your background, you of all people know better than to come into my office with that nonsense.”
“Look, I don’t think there’s a real monster stalking Josie, but I do believe her description, and that means someone is going to very creative lengths to scare her.”
Bobby sighed. “You seem like a nice guy just trying to do his job, so I’m going to give you some advice. Josie Bettencourt is not what she seems. On the surface, it’s all mannered and nice and easy on the eyes, but below the surface is a desperate woman who will do anything to ensure that her bed-and-breakfast is successful. Now, just what do you think it would do for bookings if news gets out that the Honey Island Swamp Monster has been spotted on her property?”
Tanner frowned, not liking that niggling feeling he’d just gotten. “Why would she be desperate? Clearly, her family has money.”
“At one time, the Bettencourts were darn near royalty in this town. But rumor has it that Josie’s dad got taken by his financial adviser and was near bankrupt before he died. Some think losing the money is what did him in.”
“Rumor has it. So what you’re saying is that no one knows for sure and everyone’s making a huge assumption?”
“Call it whatever you’d like, but old man Bettencourt’s financial adviser is doing a dime in Angola for embezzling his clients’ money, and Bettencourt testified at the hearing. Doesn’t take a detective to put those facts together. Then when Josie rushed home and got this fool idea of opening a bed-and-breakfast in her family home, I knew the score.”
Tanner stared at the man, all of the pieces falling into place. Josie’s working to the point of exhaustion. Her worry over the New Year’s opening. Her refusal to hire more contractors or pay higher rates.
Could Bobby possibly be right? Was all of this the master plan of a clever woman who was desperate to hold on to her family home?
Bobby leaned forward in his chair. “I see you understand my line of thinking.”
“I can understand why you’d draw those conclusions, but there’re a number of things that don’t add up. I tracked the creature through the swamp yesterday—saw it with my own eyes. Why hire me if it’s all a ruse?”
“Credibility? If a professional tracker says there’s something out in the swamp, then that makes it all the more compelling to investigate. You say you saw the creature?”
Tanner could hear the skepticism oozing from the man’s voice, and couldn’t really blame him. It was an outlandish sort of thing to buy into.
“Yes.”
“’Bout how far away were you from this creature?”
Tanner immediately knew where he was going with his line of questioning. It was the same direction Tanner would have gone if the situation were reversed. He resented, a bit, bein
g on the wrong side of the desk.
“About twenty yards away when I saw part of the head. It was easily over six feet tall. I gave chase for about a mile through the swamp, but the creature outmaneuvered me and lost me by jumping in the bayou. By the time I got around the bend, he was out of sight and the root system on the banks didn’t allow for me to zero in on his exit point.”
The sheriff nodded, looking a bit smug.
“I want to be clear,” Tanner said. “I don’t believe in monsters, but I know what I saw, and there is no way that was Josie in a suit. The size was all wrong.”
“Oh, I agree that it couldn’t have been Josie. But she could easily be paying someone to do the job. Makes more sense, really.”
“If she paid someone to create this buzz, then why was she attacked?”
“You only got her word on that. She got away and wasn’t seriously injured. If something that size really wanted to hurt her—man or creature—couldn’t he have done a better job?”
Tanner clenched his jaw, trying to find a good argument to the sheriff’s words, but unable to come up with one. The reality was, if everything he’d said about Josie’s father was true, the sheriff’s theory wasn’t exactly that far-fetched. He didn’t want to believe it, but couldn’t stop that small feeling of doubt.
“I can see you’re torn over this,” the sheriff said. “I get that. She’s a beautiful woman and you’re trying to do your job. Tell you what—I’ll drive out to the house and take a look around. If I come up with anything that indicates something different than what I suspect, I’ll launch a full investigation. How’s that sound?”
Tanner knew the man would do only the most cursory of checking up, but he also knew when he’d been outgunned. He nodded and rose from the chair.
“Thank you for your time,” he said, and exited the building.
As soon as Josie was done at the doctor’s office, they were going home for a long discussion. This time without the lies.
Chapter Eleven
Josie glanced over at Tanner, wondering again what he was thinking. He’d been waiting outside the doctor’s office when she walked out and had asked about the checkup, but had only given her a cursory nod when she’d told him everything was fine.
