Landon

by Delores Fossen

  She clutched the baby closer to her. The baby wasn’t familiar to her, either, but there was one thought that kept repeating in her head.

  Protect her.

  She knew instinctively that it was a baby girl, and she was in danger. Maybe from this glaring man. Maybe from someone else, but she couldn’t risk staying here to find out. Somehow she managed to get to her feet.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” the man snarled.

  She didn’t answer. It felt as if all the muscles in her legs had disappeared, and the world started to spin around, but that didn’t stop her. She took off running.

  However, she didn’t get far.

  The man caught her almost immediately, and he dragged them to the ground. Not a slam. It was gentle, and he eased his hands around hers to cradle the baby. While she was thankful he was being so careful, that didn’t mean she could trust him.

  She heard the sirens getting louder with each passing second. Soon, very soon, there’d be others, and she might not be able to trust them, either.

  “I have to go,” she said, struggling again to get away from him.

  But the man held on. “Tessa, stop it!”

  She froze. Tessa? Was that really her name? She repeated it several times and knew that it was. Finally, something was clear. Her name was Tessa, and she was somewhere on a farm or ranch. Near a burning building. And this man had saved her.

  Maybe.

  Or maybe he just wanted her to think that so she wouldn’t try to run away from him.

  “How do you know me?” she asked.

  He gave her that look again. The one that told her the answer was obvious. It wasn’t, not to her, anyway. But he must have known plenty about her, because he’d asked if the baby was theirs.

  She didn’t know if it was.

  Mercy, she didn’t know.

  “You know damn well who I am,” he snapped. “I’m Landon Ryland.”

  That felt familiar, too, and it stirred some different feelings inside her. Both good and bad. But Tessa couldn’t latch on to any of the specific memories that went with those feelings. Her head was spinning like an F5 tornado.

  “Landon,” she repeated. And she caught on to one of those memories. Or maybe it was pieces of that jumble that were coming together the wrong way. “I was in bed with you. You were naked.”

  That didn’t help his glare, and she had no idea if she’d actually seen him without clothes or if her mind was playing tricks on her. If so, it was a pretty clear trick.

  A fire engine squealed to a stop, the lights and sirens still going, but Tessa ignored them for the time being, and she gave the man a harder look. She saw the badge then. He was a lawman. But that didn’t put her at ease, and she wasn’t sure why.

  “Can I trust you?” she came out and asked.

  He grunted, and then he studied her. “Is this an act or what?”

  Tessa shook her head. Not a good idea, because it brought on the dizziness again. And the panic. “I don’t remember who I am,” she admitted, her voice collapsing into a sob.

  He mumbled some profanity and stood when one of the firemen hurried toward them. “An ambulance is on the way,” the fireman said. “Is she hurt?”

  “Maybe. But there’s also a baby with her.”

  That put some concern on the fireman’s face. Concern in her, too, and she pulled back the blanket to make sure the baby was okay. Something she should have done minutes ago. But it was just so hard to think, so hard to figure out what to do.

  The baby was wearing a pink onesie, and she appeared to be all right. Her mouth was puckered as if she were sucking at a bottle, and she was still squirming a little but not actually fussing. Tessa couldn’t see any injuries, thank God, and she seemed to be breathing normally.

  “I’ll tell the ambulance to hurry,” the fireman said, moving away from them.

  And he wasn’t the only one rushing. The firemen were trying to put out the rest of the blaze, not that there was much to save. There were also other sirens, and she saw the blue lights of a cop car as it approached.

  She caught on to Landon’s hand when he got up and started toward that car. “Please don’t let anyone hurt the baby.”

  That seemed to insult him. “No one will hurt her. Or you. But you will tell me what I need to know.”

  Tessa didn’t think this had anything to do with that memory of them being in bed, but she had no idea what he expected from her. Whatever it was, he clearly expected a lot.

  Landon pulled his hand out of her grip and started toward the man who stepped from the cop car. The second man was tall, built just like Landon.

  A brother, perhaps?

  The second man and Landon talked for several moments, and she saw the surprise register on the other man’s face. He kept that same expression as he made his way to her.

  “Tessa,” he said. Not exactly a friendly greeting. “I’m Deputy Dade Ryland. Landon’s cousin,” he added, probably because she didn’t say anything or show any signs of recognizing him. “We need to ask you some questions before the ambulance gets here.”

  Tessa nodded because she didn’t know what else to do. The baby and she were at the mercy of these men. Her instincts told her, though, that she should get away, run, the first chance she got.

  Maybe that chance would come soon. Before it was too late.

  But it wasn’t Dade who asked any questions. It was Landon. He put his hands on his hips and stared down at her. “We need to know what happened to Emmett.”

  “He’s dead,” she blurted out without even realizing she was going to say it. “And so is his wife, Annie. Annie was killed in a car accident.”

  Where had that come from?

  “That’s right,” Dade said, exchanging an uneasy glance with Landon. “Emmett and Annie are both dead.” As Landon had done earlier, Dade knelt down, checking the baby. Then Tessa. Specifically, he looked into her eyes. “She’s been drugged,” he added to Landon.

  “Yeah,” Landon readily agreed.

  The relief rushed through her. That was why she couldn’t remember. But just as quickly, Tessa took that one step further.

  Who had drugged her?

  The drug had obviously messed with her head. And maybe had done a whole lot more to the rest of her body.

  She had a dozen bad possibilities hit her at once, but first and foremost was that if someone had drugged her, they could have done the same to the baby.

  The panic came again, hard and fast. “Did they give the baby something, too?”

  “I don’t think so,” Dade said at the same moment that Landon demanded, “Tell me about the baby.”

  Tessa latched on to what Dade said about the baby, but she had to be sure that the newborn hadn’t been drugged. It was something they’d be able to tell her at the hospital.

  It’s not safe there.

  The words knifed through her head, and she repeated them aloud. And something else, too. “Don’t trust anyone.”

  They weren’t her words but something someone else had said to her. Important words. But Tessa didn’t know who’d told her that.

  Or why.

  Obviously, that didn’t make Landon happy. He said some more profanity. Added another glare. “She keeps dodging questions about the baby.”

  That caused Dade to give her another look. This time not to her eyes but rather her stomach. Not that he could see much of it, because she was holding the baby, but he was no doubt trying to see if she had recently given birth.

  “Did you set this fire?” Dade asked her, easing the baby’s legs away from Tessa’s belly.

  Tessa flinched, and Dade must have thought he’d hurt her, because he backed off. But that wasn’t the reason she’d reacted that way. She’d winced not from pain but from his question
.

  “Someone set the fire?” she asked.

  Landon didn’t roll his eyes, but it was close. “Take a whiff of the air.”

  She did and got a quick reminder of the smoke. The breeze was blowing it away from them now, but Tessa could still smell it. And she could also smell something else.

  Gasoline.

  “Someone, maybe you,” Landon continued, “used an accelerant. Based on how the fire spread, I’m guessing it was poured near the front of the barn and was ignited there.”

  And the person had done that while the baby and she were still inside.

  Oh, mercy. That was a memory that came at her full force with not just the smells but the sensation on her skin. The hot flames licking at her. Her, running. Trying to get away from...someone.

  She also remembered the fear.

  “Someone tried to kill me,” she said.

  Dade didn’t argue with that, but it was obvious she hadn’t convinced Landon. Well, she didn’t need to convince him. There weren’t many things Tessa was certain of, but she was positive that she’d just come close to being murdered. Or maybe the person who’d set that fire had been trying to flush her out.

  But why would she have been hiding in that barn?

  Tessa didn’t get to say more about that, and maybe she wouldn’t have anyway, because the ambulance came driving toward them. The moment the vehicle stopped, two paramedics scrambled out, carrying a stretcher, and they headed straight for her and the baby.

  She studied their faces as they approached, trying to see if she knew them. She didn’t, but then, no one looked familiar. Well, except for Landon, and she didn’t have enough information to know if she could trust him.

  Don’t trust anyone.

  But if she hadn’t trusted Landon, why had she landed in bed with him?

  After cutting his way past Dade and Landon, one of the medics checked her. The other, the baby. And they asked questions. A flurry of them that she couldn’t answer. How old was the baby? Any medical history of allergies? Were either of them taking medications?

  “She claims she doesn’t remember anything,” Landon snarled. “Well, almost nothing. She knows Emmett’s dead.”

  Yes. She did know that. But that was it. Heck, she wasn’t even sure who Emmett was, but even through her hazy mind, it was obvious that these two lawmen believed she knew a whole lot more than she was saying.

  Or maybe they believed she was the reason he was dead.

  While Tessa kept a firm hold on the baby, the paramedics lifted them both onto the stretcher. “Will you be riding in the ambulance with them?” one of them asked Landon.

  Landon stared at her, nodded. “Please tell me once these drugs wear off that she’ll be able to remember everything.”

  “You know I can’t guarantee that. She’s been injured, too. Looks like someone hit her on the head.”

  Landon glanced back at the barn. “She could have gotten it there. When I got here, she was on the ground moaning. Maybe something fell on her.”

  The paramedic made a sound of disagreement. “It didn’t happen today. More like a couple of days ago.”

  “Around the time when Emmett was killed,” Landon said under his breath, and he looked ready to launch into another round of questions that Tessa knew she couldn’t—and maybe shouldn’t—answer.

  However, one of the firemen hurried toward them, calling out for Landon before he reached him. “You need to see this,” the fireman insisted.

  Landon cursed and started to walk away, but then he stopped and stabbed his finger at her. “Don’t you dare go anywhere. I’m riding in the ambulance with you to make sure you get there.”

  It sounded like some kind of threat. Felt like one, too.

  The paramedics lifted the stretcher, moving the baby and her toward the ambulance, but they were also carrying her in the same direction Landon was headed. Tessa watched as the fireman led him to the front of what was left of the barn.

  Whatever the fireman wanted Landon to see, it was on the ground, because both men stooped, their attention on a large gray boulder. Dade did the same when he joined them.

  She saw Landon’s shoulder’s snap back, and it seemed as if he was cursing again. He pulled his phone from his pocket and took a picture, and after saying something to Dade, he came toward her. Not hurrying exactly, but with that fierce expression, he looked like an Old West cowboy who was about to draw in a gunfight.

  “What do you know about this?” Landon demanded. “Did you write it?” He held up his phone screen for her to see.

  With everything around her swimming in and out of focus, it took Tessa a few seconds to make out the words. When she did, she felt as if a Mack truck had just slammed into her.

  Oh. God.

  Chapter Three

  While he waited on hold for Dade to come back on the line, Landon glanced around the thin blue curtain to check on Tessa again. Something he’d been doing since they arrived at the Silver Creek Hospital. She was still sitting on the examining table, feeding the baby a bottle of formula that the hospital staff had given her.

  Tessa was also still eyeing Landon as if he were the enemy.

  That probably had plenty to do with the message that’d been scrawled on the boulder back at the barn. This is for you, Landon.

  The same words as in the message that’d been left on Emmett’s body. Except this time, there was a little more. Tessa’s dead now because of you.

  Reading that obviously hadn’t helped lessen the fear he’d seen in Tessa’s eyes. Hadn’t helped this knot in Landon’s stomach, either. He had to find out what was going on, and that started with Tessa.

  She’d insisted on the baby staying with her, so they had both been placed in the same room, where the doctor was checking them now. Maybe the doc would be able to give her something to counteract whatever drug Tessa had been given.

  Or taken.

  But Landon had to shake his head at that thought. Tessa wasn’t a drug user, so someone had likely given it to her. He needed to know why.

  This is for you, Landon.

  Someone clearly had it out for him. And that someone had murdered Emmett and had maybe now tried to do the same thing to Tessa and that innocent baby.

  The baby had to be cleared up for him, too. If she was his child... Well, Landon didn’t want to go there just yet. He already had enough to juggle without having to deal with that. The only thing that mattered now was that the baby got whatever medical attention she needed, and Landon could go from there.

  “There were no prints on the boulder,” Dade said when he finally came back on the line.

  Landon groaned, but he really hadn’t expected they would get that lucky. The person who’d set all of this up wouldn’t have been stupid enough to leave prints behind. But he or she had left a witness.

  One whose memory was a mess.

  “The crime scene folks will do a more thorough check, of course,” Dade went on. “Something might turn up. Anything from Tessa yet?”

  “Nothing. The nurse drew her and the baby’s blood when they got here. Once we have the results of the tox screen, we’ll know what drug she was given. And if that’s what is affecting her memory.”

  Of course, there was still that lump on her head.

  The doctor had examined it, too, right after checking the baby, but like the paramedic, the doc said it was an injury that Tessa had gotten several days ago. In the doctor’s opinion, it was the result of blunt-force trauma.

  Landon figured the timing wasn’t a coincidence.

  “I don’t think she’s faking this memory loss,” Landon added to Dade.

  Tessa must have heard that, because her gaze slashed to his. Of course, her attention hadn’t stayed too far away from him since this whole ordeal started. And after seein
g that message on the rock, he knew why.

  “All of this is definitely connected to me,” Landon said to Dade. “The second message proves it.”

  Or at least, that was what someone wanted him to believe—that both Emmett’s murder and this attack were because of something Landon had done.

  “Did you find anything else in the old arrest records you’ve been going through?” Dade asked.

  Landon had found plenty. Too much, in fact. It was hard to narrow down a pool of suspects when Landon could name several dozen criminals that he’d had run-ins with over the years. But there was one that kept turning up like a bad penny.

  “Quincy Nagel,” Landon answered. The name wouldn’t surprise his cousin, because Landon had discussed Quincy with Grayson, Dade and the other deputies in Silver Creek.

  Landon had put Quincy behind bars four years ago for breaking and entering. Quincy had sworn to get even, and he was out on probation now. That made him a prime suspect. Except for one thing.

  Quincy was in a wheelchair.

  The man had been paralyzed from the waist down in a prison fight. It would have taken some strength to overpower Emmett and to club Tessa on the head. Strength or a hired thug. But while Quincy had plenty of money from his trust fund to hire a thug, there was no money trail to indicate Quincy had done that.

  “I’ll keep looking,” Landon said to Dade. Though the looking would have to wait for now, because the doctor stepped away from Tessa, and that was Landon’s cue to go in the room.

  Landon knew the doctor. Doug Michelson. He’d been a fixture in Silver Creek for years, and while Landon had moved away when he was a kid, he still remembered the doc giving him checkups and tending to him on the various emergency room trips that he’d had to make.

  “The baby’s fine,” Dr. Michelson said right off. “But I want to get a pediatrician in here to verify that. I’m guessing she’s less than a week old since she still has her umbilical cord.”

  Since Landon didn’t have a clue what to say about that, he just nodded.

  “Is she yours?” Dr. Michelson asked.