I walked to my bedroom, pushed open the door, and stopped. I felt as though I had just stepped into the middle of a bad horror film. Blood was splattered everywhere—across my walls, my dresser, my mirror, my bed. And hanging from the small chandelier was the mangled body of a fox.
Its eyes were missing.
I let out a bone-chilling scream that I didn’t even know I had in me.
Thunderous steps came running up the stairs. “Lil!” Cooper shouted. He was at my back before I could even answer. “Come on.”
He tried to pull me away, but I was stunned, paralyzed, unable to move.
Grammy, Drew, and the sheriff came up the stairs. “What happened?” Grammy asked.
Cooper blocked the hall. “Drew, take Barb back outside,” he barked. I was sure he was trying to save Grammy from seeing yet another bloody scene in her home.
Grammy crossed her arms. “You tell me what’s happened in my home right this instant, Cooper Adams.”
“It’s a dead fox, ma’am.”
“What? In Lil’s room? Who on earth would—” She bit back her words, as we all understood that whoever had splashed her back porch with blood and had sent Lil a dead rabbit had struck again.
Cooper held up a hand. “Let’s all go downstairs. I’ll let the sheriff get a crew out here to get what they need, and then we’ll have a team of people clean it up.”
While Drew, Grammy, Bryn, and Jake returned to the party to let the other guests know what was going on, Cooper pulled me out onto the front porch, away from everyone. I scanned the fields for intruders, but everything was now dark.
“Cooper,” I said, “this is the work of someone mighty pissed off that I’m back in Paynes Creek. And they’re definitely not happy that I’m near you.”
“What makes you say that? Why would this have anything to do with me?”
“Don’t you get it? My books? The central characters are a fox and a rabbit. Anyone who knows anything about the stories knows that they’re about you, me, and the town of Paynes Creek.”
Sixteen
Coop
With the night ruined by both Linda Thomas and a bloody fox, I returned to my house with pent-up rage for whoever was harassing Lil. And I wasn’t sure how to process her claim that this had anything to do with me or Paynes Creek. Why would someone who had been stalking her in New York come all the way to Paynes Creek?
Unless it wasn’t the same person…
Furthermore, how had I not known that her children’s books were about us? I’d read her books, of course. I’d just have to reread them—now with a completely different mindset.
I entered my house through the side door, which led straight into the kitchen. But before I even set my keys down, I sensed something wasn’t right.
I reached down to my ankle holster and pulled the weapon I wore even when I was technically off-duty, then I slipped out of my shoes and stepped lightly in sock feet across the kitchen. I proceeded down the hallway, toward my home office, where a lamp was burning in the mostly dark house.
After a deep breath in, I shoved open the door and pointed my gun at the figure sitting behind the desk.
Special Agent Luke Justice’s hands flew up. “I come in peace,” he said.
I lowered my weapon and straightened. “Damn it, man.”
“What?” He reached for the plate sitting on the desk and lifted a sandwich to his mouth. After taking a bite, he waved it at me and spoke with a full mouth. “You always greet houseguests with a loaded Glock?”
“Uninvited ones, yes.”
“Hey! You gave me an open invitation. And a key.”
“You’re right.” I nodded at the sandwich. “And I see you’ve made yourself at home.”
He grabbed the pilsner glass sitting by the plate and lifted it in a toast. “I brought the beer. Enough for both of us for the entire weekend. Why don’t you get one, and you can tell me why the hell you assumed I was an intruder.”
“I sure could use one.”
I stoked the fire in the metal firepit on the back deck, then grabbed a chair beside Luke. “So what brings you back to Paynes Creek?”
Luke had become a good friend while I was living near DC. In fact, he was one of the first agents to hunt me down after the sex trafficking sting went wrong. He advised me to use the bureau therapists and to get past the incident as quickly as possible.
He had also been here in Paynes Creek last fall, when he investigated a serial arson and murder case. He stayed in the apartment in my barn while he was here, but once he closed the case, he returned to DC.
“Two things, actually.” He took a drink of his beer and stared at the fire for several seconds.
“You going to make me guess?”
He shot an easy grin my way. “Impatient much?”
“It’s been a weird night.”
“Well, first, I was looking for Faith.”
Faith Day was the Paynes Creek PD’s only forensic specialist—a forensic photographer. Or at least she was, until she found herself personally involved in the very arson case that had brought her and Luke together—both professionally and personally.
“Did you lose her?” I asked.
With an eye roll and a heavy sigh, Luke stood and began to pace. “She took off when she didn’t like some news I gave her.”
“And where was she when you delivered this news?”
“Colorado. Had her Airstream parked on some guy’s dude ranch overlooking a snowcapped mountain.”
“Nice view. But a dude ranch?” I was unable to hide my surprise. “From the Florida Keys to Colorado. She really gets around.”
“It gets better.” Luke pointed his beer at me. “It was just some guy she met out at a bar—he told her she could park her trailer on his land for free in exchange for photographing the place.”
I arched both brows. “And did you meet this guy?”
“She wasn’t sleeping with him, if that’s what you’re implying.” When I continued to stare, Luke waved me off. “Fuck off, man. She wasn’t.” He took another drink, then sat again. “It doesn’t matter. She left that place, and I thought she might come back home. But she’s not here. Her aunt hasn’t seen her. Last Leah heard from Faith, she was still out west somewhere, probably parked at one of the national parks. She’s ghosted me though.”
“Because of this mysterious ‘news’ you delivered?”
Luke rubbed his forehead and tried to change the subject. “Faith isn’t even the main reason I’m here. Not directly, anyway.”
I wasn’t letting him off that easy. “Really? Because it wouldn’t be that hard to hunt her down.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I’m not going to hunt her down like a criminal. That would be the fastest way to make sure she never speaks to me again.”
“Fine,” I said. “What’s the real reason you’re here?”
“I need a place to stay for a while. Until I decide where I want to live.”
“Until you… You’ve been reassigned,” I said.
“You’re looking at the newest Kentucky special agent. I’ve been assigned to work out of the Lexington resident office. If that sticks, you might have me around for a while. But until it does, I was hoping to pay you rent instead of signing a lease.”
“The barn apartment is yours for as long as you want it.”
“I was hoping you’d say that. I like that place.”
We clanked our beer bottles together to seal the deal.
“I’ll crash at the apartment tonight, if that’s okay,” he said. “And then move in officially next week? I’m in a Louisville hotel for a few nights first. Meetings and such.”
I studied him… then decided to just say what I was thinking. “You moving here for Faith?”
If the question pissed him off, he didn’t show it. “I’ve made worse decisions for even worse reasons in my past. But actually, no. The transfer was offered to me, and I decided I liked the area. Faith would be a bonus if she ever returns and decides to stay pu
t for any length of time. And… I’m told you’re here working semi-undercover—on the same case that most people think scared you away from the Bureau. The SAC thought you might like some help.”
“Could definitely use it. There have been some complications recently, and I’m not sure how they fit into what I’m already here to do.”
I spent the next twenty minutes filling Luke in on Lil and the strange happenings since she got back to town. I even told him about how her kidnapping when we were seventeen inspired my career.
“That’s quite the coincidence that she’s got someone stalking her here in the same town where you’re looking for suspects in a major crime ring.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Also quite a coincidence that your case led you back to Paynes Creek.”
I tipped my beer in his direction. “That actually isn’t a coincidence. Twelve years ago, a sketch artist, with Lil’s help, created a composite of the man who attempted to kidnap Lil. That man, Rudy Richardson, has shown up in my investigations over and over for years, including the night of the West Virginia shootout, but he’s a slippery son of a bitch. And there’s one town he’s shown up in more than any other place.”
“Paynes Creek?”
“Bingo.”
“What about the two other people involved in taking Lil? The gas station clerk, and the other man. Have they shown up in your other cases?”
“Bree White—that’s the clerk’s name—has never been heard from again. The other man remains unidentified.”
Luke and I spent a couple hours throwing ideas around in front of the firepit, switching to bourbon at some point in the early morning hours. And when I finally made it to bed, I dreamt about the night Lil was thrown into the trunk of a dark sedan—except in my dream, it was happening to me instead. And when I got to the part where I escaped from the trunk, I woke as I crashed to the floor of my bedroom.
“Fuck,” I moaned.
I crawled back in bed and slammed a pillow over my head, knowing the morning was coming way too quickly.
Seventeen
Lil
“Sit,” I ordered Bryn the next morning. I picked up the pot of coffee and poured it into a mug that said, It’s okay if this is whiskey. I’m Irish-ISH.
“I should be serving you coffee after last night’s bloodbath,” she said. After my room at Grammy’s had become a crime scene, Bryn had brought me back to her loft apartment above the coffeehouse, and allowed me to use her guest room.
I shrugged. “You sling caffeine all day long.”
The truth was, I just wanted to keep busy. It was hard not to think about that gruesome scene. The dead, eyeless fox. All that blood.
I poured myself a cup, too, though my mug had a drawing of a rooster and the word “cocky” on it. Bryn’s coffee mugs were a hodgepodge of humorous quips, many of them were completely inappropriate for her quaint diner.
She took a sip of her coffee, eyeing me over the mug. “You sleep okay?”
I added cream and sugar. “Well enough. I’m fine.”
She continued to stare at me, concern etched in the lines across her forehead. “Why don’t you just plan on staying with me while we get Grammy packed up? The house will be a mess anyway, and we can come spend some quality time together here in the evenings.”
“I’d like that. Thanks.” I looked around the loft, admiring the black detailing around the large windows that looked out onto Main Street, and the clean lines of furniture against rustic wood floors. “Drew really did a great job up here. It’s hard to believe we’re in little ol’ Paynes Creek. It feels much more New York City than Small Town USA.”
“My brother is definitely talented. I wish Grammy had let him do some things to her house.”
“Why didn’t Drew buy the property from Grammy?” I asked. “He’s always loved it. And he’s obviously in Paynes Creek to stay.”
“He might have, but he’s tied up all his money in his construction company, and didn’t feel like he could take on the responsibility of a big mortgage. Just not good timing.”
“Do you think my mother knows that Grammy is selling?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Could that be why she’s back? God, I hope she doesn’t think she’s entitled to some piece of the pie. If Linda thinks she’s going to waltz back into town and stake some claim to an inheritance… well, Grammy is the youngest seventy-four-year-old I’ve ever known. Linda’s got herself a long, long wait.”
“You tell me if you hear she’s up to anything,” I said. “Blood or not, I will not let that bitch hurt Grammy in any way.”
Bryn laughed, practically choking on her coffee. “I don’t think I’ve heard you call someone a bitch since Tabitha Blake at your junior year homecoming dance.”
“Well, Linda deserves it. And so did Tabitha.” Tabitha had tricked Cooper into believing I’d left the dance—and then tried to talk him into going out to her car with her.
Bryn laughed again. “The look on her face when he told her that he would never go anywhere with her! And that he was leaving to find you.”
“Good times, for sure.”
Bryn’s doorbell chimed, and I startled.
Bryn reached a hand across the counter. “It’s okay. It’s probably just Jake on his way to work.”
I let out a breath. “He doesn’t have a key?”
She got up. “We haven’t quite gotten that far. I’m being very careful this time. That asshole has broken my heart before. It won’t happen again.” She crossed the loft and pressed a button at the top of the stairs. “Who goes there?”
“It’s Coop.”
Bryn looked over at me and waggled her eyebrows. “It seems it’s a different gentleman caller.”
I waved a hand. “There’s nothing going on between Coop and me.”
She crossed her arms. “Nothing at all? If I ask him, will he say the same thing?”
“We’re just friends. Now let him up.”
“Lil says you can come on up.” She pushed another button, and I heard the click of the door in the distance. She returned to the island and sat across from me. “You know I’m not buying that horseshit you’re peddling, right? Have you two hooked up since you’ve been back?”
My heart skipped a beat thinking about the moment Coop kissed me out at the Kuster place. I took a drink of coffee, attempting to hide my embarrassment.
“You have!” Bryn said—way too loudly, as I could already hear Coop’s footsteps on the stairs.
I made a slicing motion across my throat, then quickly lowered my arm as Coop appeared. He was wearing jeans and a button-down shirt, his brown hair wet and flipping up at the ends. After all these years, he truly took my breath away, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about that.
He paused at the top of the steps, a bakery box in his hands, and glanced back and forth between Bryn and me. “What are you two talking… or should I say gossiping… about?” He smiled like he wanted in on the joke.
Bryn didn’t even try to hide her ridiculous grin. She acted as though she’d just caught Coop and me in bed.
“That reminds me,” I said before Bryn could answer. “Bryn, Coop tells me he walked in on you and Jake last week. So how is it that Coop got to know about you and Jake, but I didn’t? What else are you keeping from me?”
Bryn’s smile faded. “I thought we already covered this. I was planning to tell you. I was waiting for you to get to Paynes Creek to tell you in person… and then I kind of wanted to have one or five drinks first so that I could tell you how happy I am before you gave me the inevitable warning about how he broke my heart once upon a time.”
“I wouldn’t have—”
She held up a hand to stop me. “I still expect you’ll give me that speech later. And anyway, it’s not like I chose to tell Coop. That was an accident.”
“You guys should lock your door,” Coop said. He crossed the room and set the box on the counter.
Bryn got up and took her mug to the sink. “I’m
going to get to work before I get into more trouble.” But before leaving, she walked back over and gave me a hug. Though she was two years younger than Coop, Jake, and me, she had always been the mothering type. “You call me if you need anything, okay?”
“I’ll be fine. After a quick trip to the sheriff’s office, I’ll be at Grammy’s all day.”
“Good. I’ll see you out there later.” She turned to Coop and placed a manicured hand against his chest. “Watch out for her.”
“That’s at the top of my to-do list.” It sounded like a light statement, but I knew he was serious.
When Bryn was gone, Coop asked, “Where’s Jake? Did he stay here last night?”
“No. Told Bryn he had work to do this morning.”
“His loss.” He nodded to the bakery box. “I brought your favorite.”
I smiled. “No you didn’t.” I slapped at his arm. “Really? Are those country ham and chive scones from Missy’s?”
“Yes they are. You’re the only chick I know who hates sweets for breakfast.”
“Have a seat. You want some coffee?”
“Would love some.” Coop took the seat that Bryn had vacated.
I walked to the cabinet, pulled down a couple of plates, and poured Coop some coffee. His mug said simply “Have a Nice Day,” but when I handed it to him and he tipped it up, there was a hand on the bottom flipping me off.
He closed his eyes as he drank. “Damn, that’s good coffee. Bryn definitely found her calling.”
“Why are you in street clothes?” I asked. “Not working today?”
“I’m helping the sheriff today. Acting like a detective. Which means apparently I get to wear street clothes. Perk of the job.” He reached over and pulled a scone out of the box.
I smiled. “I can’t believe you remembered Missy’s Scones.”
“I remember everything, Lil.”
I met his gaze mid-bite. I hadn’t wanted to admit it, but there was definitely unfinished business between us. He wasn’t the only one who remembered.
Truth is in the Darkness (Paynes Creek Thriller Book 2) Page 10
