Blazing Summer (Darling Investigations Book 2)

by Denise Grover Swank

  “And now it looks like I couldn’t handle it on my own.”

  “You’ve handled her just fine on your own until tonight, so why not let me help?”

  I turned to face him, putting a hand on my hip. “Because I’m not looking for a man to save me, Luke. I’m looking for a man who will support me.”

  He grabbed a plate from the rack and started to dry it. “So you wanted me to stand back and let that woman walk all over you?”

  “I could have handled her.”

  “But why not let me help?”

  “Because I didn’t need to be saved.”

  He stared at me like I was a Martian with three heads. Then he grinned and leaned forward, giving me a kiss. “Was that our first fight? Because I think that means we get to make up.”

  I shook my head, but the corners of my lips lifted up despite my orneriness. “There won’t be any makeup sex tonight.”

  “Get your mind out of the gutter, Summer Baumgartner. Who said I was interested in sex?”

  I lifted my eyebrows. “So you’re not?”

  He wrapped his arm around my back and slowly pulled me to his chest. “I most definitely am, but I’m following your lead on this. You want to take it slow, so we’re taking it slow.”

  “Thanks for understanding.”

  “I’ve waited ten years to get you back. This is enough for now.”

  Luke stayed for a couple more hours, and we walked the farm. I showed him where Teddy was planning to put the chicken coops and explained Meemaw’s resistance to it. Before he left, he walked me to the front door, pulled me into his arms, and gave me a long, lingering kiss.

  “Next time we’ll have a real date,” he said, then got in his truck and left.

  I got ready for bed, worried that there was still no sign of Dixie and Teddy. Teddy could handle himself, but I didn’t trust Trent Dunbar farther than I could throw him.

  Around ten thirty, I sent Dixie a text.

  I’m sorry about dinner. I love you.

  Five minutes later, she texted back.

  Love you too.

  At least she was still talking to me. I drifted off to a troubled sleep, waking to the sound of a text on my phone.

  I checked the screen and saw Dixie’s name. The time was 2:14.

  Summer, I need you to get me. Now. I’m at the recreation area at Lake Edna. By the pier.

  My breath caught in my chest for two reasons. One, it sounded like she was in trouble, and two, that was where I’d found Otto Olson’s body. A cold sweat broke out on the back of my neck as I called her. She didn’t answer.

  Why didn’t she answer?

  I snagged my truck keys off the dresser. Still wearing my pajama pants and a tank top with no bra, I slipped my feet into a pair of flip-flops and bolted out of my bedroom, through the kitchen and then the back door.

  I was practically hyperventilating by the time I reached the recreation area twenty minutes later. The thought of facing the place where I’d been attacked—and in the dark, to boot—freaked me out. But the fact that Dixie hadn’t answered any of my multiple phone calls terrified me even more. I parked the truck in a lot facing the pier and started to panic when I didn’t see her.

  I hopped out and headed toward the beach. “Dixie!” She didn’t answer, and it felt like someone had slapped my panic button. “Dixie!”

  I found her on the beach, lying on her side on the sand. I started to cry before I even reached her. “Dixie.” I dropped to my knees next to her and brushed her long, blonde hair out of her face. She reeked of smoke, which scared me nearly as much as her unresponsiveness. “Dixie. Answer me.”

  “Mmm . . . ?” she said. Her voice was slurred, and her eyes were half-closed.

  “Oh, thank God. What happened?”

  She tried to get up but fell back onto the sand. I wrapped an arm around her back and helped her sit, her legs extended straight out in front of her. She started to weave in place and almost tumbled onto her back.

  I brushed her hair back, searching her face in the moonlight for any sign of injuries. “Dixie, honey, you’re scaring me. What happened?”

  She leaned her head on my shoulder. “Party . . .”

  “You went to a party?”

  “Hmm . . .”

  Maybe there was a bonfire. That would explain why she smelled like smoke. “Can you get up?”

  “Uh-huh . . .” She tried and fell back down.

  How was I going to get her to the truck? “Dixie, I’m goin’ to call Teddy.”

  Her eyes flew open. “No Teddy!”

  She was right. Teddy would lose it. We didn’t need that right now. “What about Luke?”

  “No . . .” She turned over on her hands and knees. Pushing up on her hands, she stood upright on her knees and then tried to stand. I wrapped her arm around my neck and helped her to her feet.

  “Dixie, how did you get here?”

  “I don’t know.” Her eyes were only half-open.

  “How much did you have to drink?”

  “I don’t drink. I promised Luke.”

  Now that I thought of it, I’d never seen her drink. Now I understood why. “What about drugs? No judgment, Dix. I just need to know.”

  “No. I didn’t take anything. Not anymore. Not since . . .”

  Not since the fire.

  With her arm around my neck and my arm around her back, we set a slow pace toward the parking lot. I was amazed we made it to the truck, but she almost fell when I released her to open the passenger door.

  I was scared. If Dixie wasn’t drunk or high, then what was going on? I wondered what she’d been doing for the last six hours. She’d met up with Trent, that much I knew, but who else? Why did she smell like smoke?

  What if something terrible had happened to her? It would need to be reported. I wanted to call Luke, but I wasn’t sure that was the right decision. Then again, what if she’d done something that could get her in trouble? I couldn’t forget that Luke had been the one to arrest her after the barn fire. The fact that he was her friend wouldn’t protect her.

  I got her buckled in, but by the time I got to the driver’s side, Dixie was leaning her head against the window.

  “Dixie. I need to know what happened.”

  “Mmm . . .”

  “Dixie.”

  She tried to sit upright and rested the back of her head on the head rest, her eyes closed.

  “Did you hit your head somehow?”

  “No . . .” Her answer was so quiet I could barely hear her.

  I couldn’t do this alone. I needed help, and in the end, there was only one person I trusted to make sure Dixie was safe, no matter what.

  I pulled out my phone and called Teddy. He answered right away.

  “Summer? Is everything okay?”

  “No,” I said, my voice breaking. “Where are you?”

  “About to leave the Jackhammer. Why? What’s going on?”

  I’d passed the bar on the way to the lake, but I’d been too preoccupied to notice his truck in the parking lot. “It’s Dixie.”

  “Dixie?” he sounded panicked.

  She moaned, her head rolling on the seat. “Don’t call Luke.”

  She wouldn’t have to worry about that. I lowered my voice. “She’s with me, and she’s uninjured as far as I can tell, but she’s not right. I’m headed home now. I’ll stop at the Jackhammer.”

  “I’ll be waitin’.”

  Dixie slept during the ten-minute drive. The bar’s neon’s lights were turned off, and the parking lot was nearly empty, but Teddy was pacing next to his truck.

  I pulled in next to him, and he had Dixie’s door open before I came to a full stop.

  “What happened?” he asked, fear filling his eyes when he saw her.

  “I don’t know,” I said, my voice cracking. “She texted and asked me to come get her at the lake. So I jumped in the truck, and when I got there, I found her lying on the beach.” Tears filled my eyes. “I was scared she was . . .” Dead. But
I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

  “She smells like smoke.”

  “I know. I don’t know why. She mentioned a party . . . and she’s clearly on something, but she said she didn’t have anything to drink and that she didn’t take any drugs.”

  He squatted next to her and patted her cheek. “Dixie. Wake up.”

  “Teddy?” she murmured, sounding surprised. Her eyes opened a crack.

  “It’s me, little sister. Tell me what happened,” he said in a soft, soothing voice. “Did you see Trent?”

  “He took me to his party, but I wanted to leave.”

  Teddy’s jaw set, but he brushed her hair back from her cheek. “Was there a bonfire, Dix?”

  “No.”

  Teddy looked up at me, and the fear in his eyes was nearly my undoing.

  “We’ve got to get her home, Summer. She needs a shower, and we have to wash her clothes. Tonight.”

  I nodded, unable to speak.

  “Are you okay to drive?” he asked when he saw my hand shaking.

  “Yeah.”

  “Drive the speed limit home. I’ll follow behind you.” He paused. “Summer—we can’t tell Luke. I mean it.”

  “But we don’t even know what happened.”

  “Exactly. We don’t know what happened, and until we do, this stays between us.”

  I took a deep breath and nodded. “Agreed.”

  I was a nervous wreck driving back to the farm, terrified I’d get pulled over, terrified Dixie had been involved in something awful.

  As soon as we pulled in behind the house, Teddy parked beside me. He had Dixie’s door open before I was out of the truck. Scooping her into his arms, he said, “Summer, hold the door open for me, then go upstairs and start the shower.”

  “What about Meemaw?”

  “We just need to be quiet.”

  Several minutes later, we were settled in the upstairs bathroom. The water in the shower was warm, and Teddy had set Dixie down on the toilet lid. She seemed to be coming around.

  “What are you doin’?” she asked. She was still bobbing around, but at least her eyes were halfway open.

  “You need to take a shower, Dix, okay?” he said. “Can you stand?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Teddy glanced at me.

  “I can help her,” I said.

  The gratitude in his eyes caught me by surprise. “I’ll stand outside the door and wait for her clothes.”

  He stepped out of the small bathroom and shut the door.

  Dixie was rousing enough that she helped me strip her down to her bra and panties. After I handed her shirt and shorts out to Teddy, I helped her into the shower and got in with her. She leaned against the shower wall while I washed and conditioned her hair, then I scrubbed the rest of her with a scrubby and some of my good-smelling shower gel. My pajama pants and tank top were soaked and clinging to my skin, but that was the least of my worries.

  When I finished, she’d come around enough for me to turn my back while she stripped out of her underwear and wrapped a towel around herself. I did the same, leaving my sopping pajamas on the shower floor. We went into her room, and I helped her put on a nightgown, then grabbed a pair of her pajamas to put on since my clothes were downstairs. I turned around to ask her more questions, but she was already lying on her side in bed, her eyes closed.

  I found Teddy in the hall, and now that Dixie was out of sight, he looked like a nervous wreck.

  He gazed found mine. “Did she say anything else?”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  “Do you have any idea what happened?”

  My stomach twisted. “No.

  He scrubbed his face with his hand. “I have to protect her, Summer. I can’t lose her again.”

  I grabbed his forearm and squeezed. “We have to protect her, and we will. The both of us. I’m here to help this time.”

  I’d do whatever it took.

  CHAPTER NINE

  We had an 8:00 a.m. call time at the train station, but I was worried Dixie wouldn’t be up to it.

  I’d slept with her in her full-size bed, terrified to let her out of my sight, so when the alarm on my phone went off at six forty-five, she roused too.

  I rolled over and studied her. She lay on her side, some of her long blonde hair covering her cheek. Partially asleep, she looked younger than twenty-five, and a surprising surge of protectiveness rushed through me. Dixie had lost her mother when she was fifteen. She’d spent the remainder of her teenage years locked up in juvie, motherless, and except for Teddy, alone. Though Meemaw had eventually come around, she still blamed Dixie for the fire.

  Dixie was one of the sweetest people I knew, and she’d gone out of her way to welcome me back to the family. It only confirmed my vow to protect her at all costs.

  She opened her eyes and looked confused when she saw me.

  “How are you feelin’?”

  “I have a splittin’ headache, and my stomach feels like it’s leading a rebellion . . .” She rubbed her forehead. “Hopefully a hot shower will take care of that.” She paused and slid her hand to the hair at the nape of her neck. “Why is my hair damp?” As if coming more fully to her senses, she tried to sit up. “Why are you sleepin’ with me?”

  I sat up too. “Do you remember anything about last night?”

  Her confused look quickly morphed into fear. “No.”

  “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  She closed her eyes as she tried to concentrate. “That gosh-awful dinner. Then Trent picked me up and took me to a party. I don’t remember much after that.” A troubled look crossed her face, telling me she had remembered something, but then her eyes opened wide, and I could tell she’d hit a brick wall—the place where her memories ended. “Why don’t I remember what happened?”

  I grabbed her hand and held on, searching her face. “I don’t know, Dixie, but we’ll figure it out.”

  “Why is my hair wet?”

  How much should I tell her? Deep in my gut, I knew something bad had happened last night, and Teddy seemed to feel the same way. She had a right to know everything. “After we got you home, I helped you take a shower.”

  Terror filled her eyes. “I don’t remember that.”

  “Do you remember texting me?”

  “No.”

  “Last night you said you weren’t drunk and hadn’t done any drugs . . .”

  She shook her head and winced. Nevertheless, she was adamant when she said, “No. I don’t do either of those things. Not anymore.”

  “Do you think someone might have slipped something in your drink?”

  Her eyes bugged out. “You mean roofied me?”

  “Yeah. Why else wouldn’t you remember anything? You were totally out of it when you called me and I picked you up. Teddy carried you upstairs. You don’t remember any of that?”

  “Teddy knows about this?”

  “I had to tell him. I was scared, Dixie. I wasn’t sure what to do.”

  “And you helped me take a shower? Why? Did I puke on myself?”

  I was scared to tell her the truth, but she had a right to know. “No. You smelled like smoke.”

  Terror washed over her face, and she backed up to the headboard. “What?”

  “Last night Teddy asked you if there was a bonfire at the party. You said no. Are you sure about that?”

  Her hands began to shake. “I don’t remember a bonfire. We were at Trent’s ranch.”

  “The Dunbar ranch is on the north side of town. I picked you up from Lake Edna. You were alone. Do you remember how you got there?”

  “No.”

  My stomach churning, I said, “If you were drugged, we need to report it.” Yes, Teddy and I had agreed to keep Luke out of it. But we’d also agreed to keep Dixie safe, and I was beginning to think that meant reporting it. The way she’d acted last night and her complete lack of memory pointed to the involvement of someone else, someone with questionable motives.

  “You
mean report Trent?” she asked suspiciously.

  “I mean report whoever did this to you. What if you were raped?”

  She paused for a moment, considering it, then shook her head. “I’m not sore, so I don’t think I was.”

  “Dixie. That doesn’t necessarily mean you weren’t. We should be safe.”

  “Trent was the last person I remember being with, which means he’ll be the one they blame. And with his record . . . No.”

  “But—”

  “No.” She slid out of bed and nearly fell. “Besides, everyone already thinks I’m a murdering druggie and a slut. No one would believe me.” She headed for the bedroom door.

  “Dixie.”

  She turned to face me with tears in her eyes. “This is my life, Summer. My choice. No.”

  Tears filled my eyes too. I hated that she felt this way, but I’d seen some evidence of it myself with the people in this town. Some of them did look down at her. And Connor said people were whispering her name next to Bruce Jepper’s still-smoldering house. She didn’t need any more gossip.

  I scrambled to the end of the bed and grabbed her hand. “Okay. Fine. No police. No Luke. But I want you to pee in a cup.”

  “What?”

  “I read somewhere you can test for date-rape drugs in urine. So pee in a cup and we’ll send it off for testing ourselves.”

  “You’re kiddin’ me, right?”

  “No. I’m serious as a heart attack. The only way I’ll agree to keep quiet is if you pee for me.”

  She grinned. “You know that sounds perverted.”

  I wiped a tear from my cheek and grinned back. “Then, so be it.”

  “Well, I really have to pee, so get a cup quick.”

  I hopped out of bed and hurried down the stairs and into the kitchen. I expected to run into Meemaw, but she wasn’t in there—although the coffeepot was full. I scoured the cabinets and selected a small mason jar and a lid, then headed back upstairs and found Dixie standing in the bathroom doorway.

  “Here,” I said, holding it out. “Use this.”

  She took it and then shut the door.

  I leaned my back against the door frame. Now I needed to figure out where to send it. I’d read a post somewhere that you could send urine off to a private lab, but the results took one to three weeks. I needed to find a way to get them back sooner. At least I’d gotten her to agree.