by C. J. Miller
Ford narrowed his eyes as if he didn’t believe Nathan. “I saw you two together. You’re doing more than renting a cabin.”
“We’re working together.”
“So now you bring a civilian onto the case?”
“She’s lending her outdoor experience.”
Ford pointed a finger at Nathan. “Don’t get in my way.”
He didn’t remind Ford again that he had called him first to let him know about the intruder. Nathan’s priority wasn’t to be top dog on the case. Colleen deserved to have her killer brought to justice however that needed to happen. “I don’t plan on it.”
Ford rocked back on his heels. “You know, you should get back to work and get assigned to a case. You’re a good investigator, and the distraction would be healthy for you.”
“I wouldn’t be assigned to this case,” Nathan said, knowing Ford’s fake flattery was an attempt to get Nathan to back down. Men who were more manipulative and influential than Ford had tried to talk Nathan out of pursuing this case. But Nathan was dedicated. He wasn’t stopping his pursuit of the Huntsman.
“You’d be assigned to a case where you can do some good,” Ford said.
“I’m planning to do some good here.”
Ford shook his head. “You’re being a fool. I have real work to do. Stay away from my crime scene.” Ford stalked away.
Nathan didn’t argue. Poking around the scene wouldn’t get him more information. The footprints might provide some indication of stature, but Nathan could look at those after the FBI finished processing the scene.
Autumn appeared next to him. “How’d it go? Does he know anything more? Did he tell you anything about the scene?”
He hated disappointing her. “They’re working the scene now. I’m sure they’re looking for the killer. Ford won’t share information. We’re on our own.”
Autumn looked from him to the crime scene. “I don’t understand any of this. Why would the killer come back? What does he want?”
An interesting piece of the puzzle that would form the killer’s psyche. “Maybe he left something behind? Something significant to him? Maybe he didn’t finish the job and wants to complete his ritual.” Or did he return to confirm the body had been found and taken down? “Why do hikers hang packages from trees?” Nathan asked, thinking again about the body in the tree.
Autumn shivered. “Like food and such?”
Nathan nodded.
“I leave a few packages along the trail with emergency supplies and I string them in the trees to keep animals from getting to them. If anyone is hiking the trail and comes up short, they are welcome to it. It’s an unwritten rule on the trail.” She paused. “Do you think there’s a connection between emergency supplies and how the killer places his victims?”
“Not sure yet,” Nathan said, putting the information on file.
Autumn rubbed her arms and he wished he could sweep her against him and assure her she was safe. The need to hold her, touch her hummed in his veins. Being alone with her was utter temptation. The temptation to reassure, console and to claim.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
He wasn’t about to admit he’d been picturing carrying her into her cabin, stripping her naked and having her. “About the case.”
“You looked pretty intense.”
“It’s an intense situation.” Not just the murder. Her. Being with her. It wasn’t the right time to think about kissing her and holding her. His reaction to crime scenes had always been strong and visceral, and though he wasn’t proud of it, the need to blow off steam with some physical exercise—like sex—was enticing.
“I don’t understand why someone would do this,” she said.
Nathan forced himself to concentrate on her words and not her mouth. Her lips, pink and inviting. “Maybe he can’t control the urge.”
He stepped closer and Autumn took a step away. Had he been foolish to believe he could keep her safe? The killer had struck once and possibly returned to the scene, and Nathan’s gut told him he wasn’t finished.
In previous cases he’d worked, Nathan had had a partner, a team and trained professionals to bounce ideas off. This was the first case where he was on his own. The urgency to keep Autumn as his trail guide, and partner, escalated. Without the FBI’s resources at his disposal, he needed another advantage. He needed Autumn.
But was he drawing her into an investigation that would get her killed?
Chapter 3
Autumn’s stomach knotted when Daniel’s cruiser pulled onto the campground. His arrival had an ominous feel to it. They hadn’t spoken since their breakup.
Daniel climbed out of his car and strode directly toward her. He had grown his beard out again and it was the same color as his dark hair. Though not tall, he spent a lot of time in the gym and at the gun range and was in good shape. Autumn didn’t want a confrontation, but she had no way to avoid him. Dread and anxiety swept over her, making her more tired than she already was.
Daniel looked between Autumn and Nathan. “Why does it seem like every time there’s trouble, a Reed is involved?”
Autumn wouldn’t let Daniel bait her. “The Huntsman is in this area. We’re one of the closest camping areas to the Trail. Do the math.”
Daniel narrowed his eyes. “Where’s your brother?”
Did she have to answer him? This wasn’t his case. He was in his uniform, but Autumn had seen him use his position as sheriff for his own purposes in the past. “I don’t know.”
“How convenient.”
Autumn held back the angry words that came to mind. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve had a long night.”
Daniel reached for her, but Nathan was faster. He stepped between them before Daniel could catch her arm. “She said she was leaving,” Nathan said.
Daniel straightened, trying to put himself eye level with Nathan. “Who are you? Autumn’s keeper?”
“I’m a friend,” Nathan said.
Daniel looked between Autumn and Nathan and snickered. “Whatever. People who get close to the Reed family never seem to fare well. Good luck.”
Daniel turned and walked away, leaving Autumn feeling as if she had a hot poker burning a hole in her gut. How could Daniel talk to her that way? Alluding to the trouble her family had gone through was low, even for Daniel.
Autumn and Nathan went into her cabin and closed the door. The places where she felt safe were growing smaller. What was next, someone bursting into her home and causing problems here, too?
After several hours in her cabin, nervous energy ticked in her veins. She was going stir-crazy. The FBI and park rangers were still scouring the woods. The fireplace was blowing hot air, and Autumn grabbed a blanket off the back of the couch and threw it over her legs.
The FBI wouldn’t find the man she and Nathan had seen at the crime scene. He was long gone, which meant he was still hunting, watching and waiting to strike.
“What will we do now? Wait for them to leave and then look around ourselves?” Autumn asked. With Daniel on the scene whispering in Ford’s ear, he’d repeat his theory that Blaine was guilty, keeping her brother at the forefront of Ford’s suspect list.
Nathan reclined and let his head fall back onto the couch. “We might see tracks in the morning. But the FBI will probably stay, too, or return when the sun comes up.”
Special Agent Ford wouldn’t share information with them. They’d have to find evidence themselves, evidence to prove Blaine was not the Huntsman. “We need the information they’ve found at the scene.”
Nathan nodded his agreement. “I haven’t figured out how to acquire that yet.”
“I might have a way.”
Nathan lifted his head and his eyes swerved to hers. “Oh?”
“I have a friend at the coroner’s off
ice. A friend who loves to gossip. We could find out what she knows.” Her willingness to pry into this case took her aback. She didn’t have any business involving herself with the coroner or the victim. But knowing the identity of the dead woman would remove that trifling doubt in her mind that the victim was someone she knew. Unlike Roger Ford and Daniel, she could review the information without the bias of assuming her brother was involved.
“If you have a contact, we should explore that option,” Nathan said. “Why would she risk her job?”
Aside from being a gossip, Natalie was a casual friend. She’d enjoy the attention and would want to tell someone what she knew about the case. As the case grew more popular in the media, Natalie would become more eager to take a position near the spotlight. “She might enjoy talking to a cute FBI agent.”
“You want me to flirt with her?” Nathan asked.
“Sure, why not?” Autumn asked, already not liking the idea.
“People saw us together tonight at the lounge. She might not buy it that I’m walking in with you and then flirting with her.”
Autumn shrugged. “Tell her the truth. Tell her I’m helping you with the case.”
Nathan leaned forward. “Is that what we’re doing? Just working the case?”
For a long, loaded moment, Autumn considered admitting she felt the attraction between them, but something held her back. “Yes. Aren’t we?”
His unbearably gorgeous face almost had her handing over the truth. But before she did, Nathan set his hands on his knees and pushed himself to his feet. “I’ll head back to my cabin. I want to make some notes about the case. I’ll make a few calls and see if I can learn something.”
“You’re leaving?” She clambered to her feet, her hand shooting out on its own accord and gripping the front of his jacket.
He glanced at her hand holding on to him. “Is that a problem?”
Panic surged inside her. She didn’t want to be alone. Thor was good company, but she needed someone tonight. A person. A man. Someone to make her feel safe, and Nathan fit the bill. “Maybe you could stay. I don’t want to be by myself tonight.”
He took a deep breath as if weighing his choices. His eyes darted from her to Thor and back again. “I’ll stay.”
Relief rushed over her, followed by a flare of panic. It was a small cabin. Where would Nathan sleep? Autumn scanned the room. She had limited options. “You can take the bed and I’ll crash on the couch.”
“I can’t kick you out of your bed, and I don’t mind the couch. It’s probably nicer than some of the places I’ve slept recently.”
She looked at him from head to toe. He was too broad across the shoulders to fit on the cushions and his legs would hang over the ends. “I don’t think you’ll be comfortable.”
He rolled his shoulders. “The couch is fine. I’ll run to my cabin and grab a few things. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Autumn watched him leave, then locked and bolted the door behind him. Even though the park rangers and FBI were trolling the scene, their lights bright against the dark of night, and their voices carrying across the air, she wasn’t taking chances.
She grabbed a set of fresh linens from her closet and wrapped the sheets over the couch cushions, adding a few blankets at the end. She put out fresh towels in the bathroom. Would he need anything else?
Was she being silly about this? What difference would it make if he slept here or twenty yards away in his cabin? She didn’t have an answer she could verbalize, but she felt safer to have Nathan in the room with her.
* * *
Daniel jogged to Nathan as he walked to his cabin. “She’s a real piece of work, isn’t she?” he asked.
Nathan glanced at the sheriff. He wasn’t in the mood to get in the middle of someone else’s broken relationship. “What do you want, Sheriff?”
“I think you need to know who you’re getting involved with.”
Autumn had made it clear their relationship was professional. Despite the overarching sense of attraction, she wasn’t ready for anything else. He considered her boundaries good. They would keep him in line and focused on what was most important: finding the man who had killed Colleen.
“She’s working the case with me. I don’t need to know anything except that she’s good outdoors.”
Daniel regarded him carefully. “You know about her brother, right? And her uncle?”
“She’s mentioned her brother.” Several times.
“He isn’t quite right in the head. He’s dangerous. He takes after his uncle.”
“What’s wrong with his uncle?” Nathan hated that he was getting baited into a conversation about Autumn’s personal life. She had indicated it was off-limits. It felt like a betrayal to indulge in what amounted to gossip with Daniel.
“He was a crazy old man. Would go off alone in the woods for days at a time. Come back smelling like garbage and telling wild stories about bears and wolves. When he went off to war, he came back even crazier. Loved his guns and knives. Went off in the woods one day and never came back. Worst part was that Blaine adored his uncle. Thought his gun collection was great.”
An interesting family dynamic, but having a nut in the family didn’t mean Blaine was the Huntsman. “Thanks for the warning. If Blaine comes back to the cabins, I’ll be careful.”
“Sleep with one eye open, man,” Daniel said.
His comments had Nathan wondering about Daniel. “Why are you telling me this? I thought you and Blaine were friends.”
“We were. But he’s too out there for me. When the murders started along the trail, I thought right away of Blaine.”
“Did you tell Autumn?”
“No way. She doesn’t listen to me. Our relationship ended badly and when it comes to her family, she has on blinders.”
“I’ll keep it in mind,” Nathan said. Autumn had been evasive about her family. Was she knowingly hiding something about her brother?
* * *
Nathan knocked on the door to Autumn’s cabin, announcing his presence. “Autumn, it’s me.”
She unbolted the door and pulled it open. He stepped in carrying his duffle and a thick briefcase filled with folders and papers. “I won’t keep you up if I do some work, will I?” He wouldn’t let Daniel’s words get to him, but he was a fellow law-enforcement officer. Daniel could be bitter about his relationship with Autumn or he could have good instincts and something was off about the Reed family.
“It won’t bother me.”
“Cute pajamas,” he said, nodding at the green nightclothes she had clutched in her hand.
She glanced at the pajamas and frowned.
“Did I say something to upset you?” he asked, touching her chin lightly and tilting her head up. He would get inside her head. He would find out if she was holding back something about her brother, even if she was subconsciously trying to protect him.
“Are you teasing me? I imagine most of your sleepovers involve women in designer pajamas.”
He laughed. “I don’t have sleepovers with women often. I’m married to the job. And when I do, I rarely take notes on her pajamas.” But since she’d brought it up, now he was thinking about what pajamas he’d like to see her wear. She had a knack for distracting him.
That quickly, he’d forgotten about trying to ferret out more information about her brother.
* * *
An hour later, Nathan was stretched out on her couch, the sheets and blanket Autumn had given him tucked around his waist. He was sandwiched between the fireplace and the pellet stove, the heat in the room nearly unbearable.
It wasn’t just the heat. It was her.
Nathan rolled from his side to his back. His arms didn’t fit on the couch and it was difficult to find a comfortable position when he couldn’t fully extend his legs. He’d slept
in worse—a car’s passenger seat on a stakeout, motels better suited for mice than people and, in the past few months, on the cold ground without appropriate gear.
This was much better. At least he was somewhere clean and protected from the elements, wrapped in a sheet that felt great against his skin.
He heard the bathroom door open and the light switch flick off. Autumn crept across the cabin, her feet making the floor creak, and she appeared, her face hovering above his, her hair falling around her shoulders. “Are you still awake?”
Since his eyes were open, the question didn’t require an answer. “Waiting for you.”
She knelt on the floor next to the couch, tugging her robe tighter around her. If anything, it made the garment less modest, outlining her lithe figure. “I keep seeing it in my head.”
Nathan rolled onto his side and pushed himself up to sit. “Don’t. It’s over. The intruder is gone.” He hesitated to tell her he wouldn’t be back. He’d been wrong about that once before. Time alone must have let her thoughts drift to the scene, both when the victim had been hanging from the tree and to the man they’d seen lurking near it. Nathan understood the difficulty. Sometimes, weeks after a crime, horrible images replayed in his mind without warning.
He reached for her hands, to offer comfort from the terror he saw in her. Her hand was warm and soft in his and the shadows from the fireplace cast light across her face. She shifted, the robe parting near the top to reveal a shirt beneath. He’d gotten a preview before she’d put her sleepwear on and now he wanted to see more. The shirt was thin. Maybe one of those tank tops with the straps that fell over a woman’s shoulder in invitation. An invitation he wouldn’t decline.
Stop.
He needed to find Colleen’s killer. He had promised his family he would do this. Besides that, Autumn was his partner, someone who would help him solve the case. She had also found one of the Huntsman’s victims. He couldn’t have a relationship with her—it would muddy the water, make them lose concentration. Nathan had questions about her family, and getting involved with anyone close to the case was a mistake.
