by C. J. Miller
Blaine looked between her and Special Agent Ford. “I’ve done nothing wrong.”
Special Agent Ford looked amused. “Really? That’s mighty interesting. DNA tells us otherwise.”
DNA? What DNA? “Someone needs to tell me what’s going on,” Autumn said, refusing to step away from her brother. She glanced at Nathan for an explanation, but he seemed as confused as she was.
“Your DNA is a close match to the DNA we found on that book from Hilde’s rest spot and at the Trail’s Edge in cabin twelve,” Ford said to Autumn.
It couldn’t be. Blaine had not done this. Confusion swamped her. Before she could form a coherent question, Special Agent Ford continued. “Blaine, we have questions,” Ford said. “Step away from your brother, Ms. Reed.”
Horror washed over her. They couldn’t take Blaine. The DNA test had to be wrong, a mistake of epic proportions. She’d wanted Blaine to tell Nathan what he knew about the killer and the latest victim, but if Blaine broke during questioning and told Ford what he had witnessed, he’d destroy his defense. “You can’t take my brother. There’s some other explanation.”
Ford reached into his back pocket and withdrew an envelope. “This warrant says we can search the premises and we can arrest Blaine Reed.” Search the premises? Would they see the books and question them?
Blaine stepped around her. He patted her shoulders lightly. “It’s okay, Autumn. I’ll be fine.”
She heard something in his voice, an ominous threat. He wasn’t planning to tell them anything, but he didn’t want to upset her. “Blaine, don’t say anything without a lawyer. Nothing.”
Blaine walked to the police car and smiled over his shoulder at Autumn as if they shared some secret. Which they did. But it left her feeling cold and terrified.
Nathan was at her side a moment later. “He’ll be okay.”
She turned to Nathan, clutching at his shirt. “Blaine didn’t kill anyone. He’s innocent. There’s been some mistake, an error at the lab.” She needed someone to believe her. For someone to be on her and Blaine’s side.
“You need to hire a lawyer for your brother.”
Her mouth fell open. Didn’t he believe her? Blaine was innocent. Was Nathan taking Ford’s side against her and Blaine? “You think Blaine is guilty?”
Nathan took a step away and rubbed the back of his neck. “It doesn’t matter what I believe. What matters is taking care of Blaine. Ford is out for blood. He wants to lock Blaine away. You need to protect him.”
One of the police officers was handcuffing Blaine. The officer put him into the back of the police cruiser.
As they drove away, Autumn tried to hold herself together, tried to think logically without allowing emotion to fuel every thought. She wrapped her arms around herself. What could she do? Following them to the police precinct seemed pointless. She needed to find Blaine help. Which lawyer? She racked her brain trying to think of someone she knew who practiced law. Not environmental or family law, but criminal law.
She needed someone to direct her. She hadn’t been in a situation like this before. “What should I do now?”
“I’ll follow them to the station and see if I can do anything. You need to call a lawyer. Henry Summers. He’ll help you.”
A name of a lawyer. That helped. “Can you call in some favors? Pull some strings? Blaine will be miserable in jail. He needs to be outside in the fresh air.”
Nathan appeared apologetic. “I can’t pull strings on this. I’m not on the case and if they have DNA evidence, that’s not good for Blaine.”
Terrifying for Blaine. What had Blaine gotten mixed up in and how would she get him out of it?
* * *
Autumn wrapped her hands around the mug of hot tea, but nothing warmed her. She’d gotten in touch with the lawyer Nathan had suggested, and Henry Summers had agreed to represent her brother. To secure his services, she’d given him every cent she had remaining in her savings account, a mere pittance of his normal fees. Since she’d been referred by Nathan Bradshaw, Henry had said they’d work out the rest of his fee later. While that had a fateful sound, Autumn wouldn’t worry about it now. To protect Blaine, she’d sell everything she had, even the Trail’s Edge.
Henry hadn’t been able to convince the judge to release Blaine on bail or to persuade any of the court officers to allow her to visit with her brother. However, by some act of extreme good fortune, the FBI had decided to hold Blaine overnight in the local jail, as opposed to transporting him the nearest maximum-security prison.
Being in jail wouldn’t be easy for Blaine, a man who needed the outdoors as much as he needed oxygen, but a maximum-security prison would be worse. How long could he stand being locked in a jail cell?
She looked at the list of tasks she had composed. She needed to talk to the bank about getting another mortgage on the Trail’s Edge. She had to find another job, something that would pay Blaine’s legal bills. She needed to support Blaine, to provide whatever Henry required to prove Blaine was innocent.
She nearly laughed aloud at the last note. As if finding evidence was that easy. She and Nathan had been looking for days to find something, anything to lead them to the Huntsman. Every bit of evidence had pointed to Blaine as the guilty party.
A knock on the door sounded and Autumn almost decided she was too tired to answer it. But if it was a hiker looking for shelter, she couldn’t afford the loss of income. Not now when Blaine needed her. Thor lifted his head, but didn’t follow her to the door. He was as exhausted as she was.
She looked through the peephole and sighed. Her mother. This was not a visit she wanted to have now.
Autumn opened the door. “You picked a bad time.” Although she couldn’t see any better times on the horizon.
“What were those police cars doing? What happened? I was worried about you,” Blythe said.
Autumn considered blowing her off, but it would be faster to tell her the truth. “Blaine came home last night and the police arrested him. They think he’s the Huntsman.”
Her mother gasped. “It’s not possible.”
How would she know? Blythe didn’t know her or Blaine.
“How can I help?” her mother asked.
“Do you have fifty thousand dollars to spare to pay for Blaine’s defense?” Autumn asked drily.
“I don’t,” her mother said and chewed her lip. She shoved her way into the cabin. “Autumn, I need to talk to you.”
“Again, this is not a good time. I have things I need to do.” She didn’t need more drama. Nathan’s words ran in her head and she thought about what had happened to Nathan’s sister. She was open to the possibility of making amends with her mother. Healing the old wounds between her and her mother would take time and energy she didn’t have at the moment.
“This will only take a minute,” her mother said.
Autumn was about to firmly, rudely, whatever it took, kick her mother out, but gathered what remained of her patience and energy. Could her mother know something about the pantheistic beliefs along the trail? Could her mother know more about who might be part of a group with those beliefs? Her parents had lived at the Trail’s Edge for years before Autumn and Blaine had been born. “Can you tell me anything about pantheism?”
Her mother scrunched her nose. “Is that what you call worshipping Greek gods?”
It had been worth a shot. “Nothing to do with Greek gods. It was a theory Blaine had about the Huntsman.”
“Autumn, I want to help you. I want to help Blaine. I think I have some things to tell you that might shed some light on the past.”
Autumn waited for her mother to continue. She hadn’t visited them in years. Did Autumn really need to talk about the past now?
“It’s no secret that your father and I had a difficult marriage. The problem was that it wasn’t just the two
of us in that relationship. There was a third person.”
“If you are about to tell me that Dad cheated on you or you cheated on Dad, that’ll only make me feel worse about everything,” Autumn said.
“Not cheating. Just an interloper. Your uncle. He drove me away. He never liked me and he made it impossible to have a normal marriage to your father.”
Autumn lifted a brow. “From how Uncle Ryan spoke of you, he wasn’t a fan.”
Her mother stiffened. “I’m sure he wasn’t. After I left, it was the fuel his fire needed to cast me as the devil.”
Her uncle had never used those words, but he hadn’t said anything good about their mother, either.
“Then tell me what he did that drove you away. Tell me what he did that made it possible for you to leave me and Blaine.”
Her words found their mark and her mother flinched. “I know you think I’m a bad person for what I did. But I felt like I had no choice. Nothing I did was good enough for your uncle, and he spread his venom to your father. I didn’t know much about hiking. I didn’t like hunting or fishing. I didn’t cook. I didn’t sew. I didn’t do any of the things your uncle thought I should in order to be a good wife to your father.”
Her mother’s eyes welled with tears. She swiped at them, smearing mascara across her temples. “Your uncle criticized everything I did. Your dad defended me, but as the years wore on, he decided ignoring it was better. Then he started to believe it. I couldn’t take it anymore. I thought if I left, you all would miss me so much, you’d beg me to come back.”
Autumn and her brother had begged every night in their prayers for their mother to return. “Blaine and I missed you terribly.”
“When I called, your father said you were fine.”
“And you believed that?” Autumn asked, now angry with both her parents.
“I thought I was wrong for you and wrong for Blaine and you’d be better off without me.”
Autumn stared at her mother. “That is ridiculous. You might not have been a chef or a very good maid or outdoorswoman, but you were our mother and we loved you.”
“I made a tremendous mistake,” her mother said and began to cry softly. “Not a day has passed that I haven’t thought of you and Blaine. When I’ve called, you and Blaine were so distant. I thought about coming to your father’s wake, but I knew I wouldn’t be welcomed and I didn’t want to put you through more of an ordeal.”
“So you waited until now, when things are bad, to show up?”
“I thought I could help,” her mother said.
How? What could her mother contribute? “I don’t think you can help,” Autumn said. “But I appreciate your honesty.” It wasn’t forgiveness she was offering, but it was the best she could give at the time. “I have a lot to do. We’ll talk later.”
“We will?” her mother asked.
“Yes,” Autumn said, not comfortable with the idea, but knowing a “no” wasn’t a response she was ready to commit to either.
* * *
Her mother left and it took Autumn an hour walking the trail with Thor to calm down enough to center herself. When she returned, Nathan was sitting on her porch, looking through a file folder.
Emotionally wrung, she didn’t know if she should pretend she hadn’t seen him and return to the trail. Whenever they were together, her emotions became a loopy mess.
He stood. He’d seen her. It was too late to run. “I’ve been worried about you.”
She took the stairs to the porch and her heart had the same reaction it always did when he was close; it skipped to a faster beat as she drank in the sight and the smell of him. “How’s Blaine? Do you know anything more?”
Nathan studied her face for a moment. “That’s why I’m here.”
His tone was serious and sullen. Her stomach and heart twisted. “Tell me what happened.”
Nathan took a deep breath. “He won’t provide a DNA sample.”
Autumn took a moment to process what he’d said. Was Nathan here to plead for the prosecutor? “He’s taking the advice of his lawyer. The lawyer you recommended.”
“It makes him look guilty. They already have your DNA. They know that he left blood on the journal.”
Autumn felt her anger simmering. She didn’t care what Roger Ford said. It wasn’t Blaine’s blood on the book or in cabin twelve. “What do you want me to do, Special Agent Bradshaw? Help nail my brother for a crime he didn’t commit?”
She spat his title and name at him, furious that he wasn’t on her and Blaine’s side. This was when she needed his loyalty the most.
“Autumn, don’t do that. I’m here to help you.” He reached to cup her chin and she whipped her head away, taking a step back from him. Thor growled in his throat.
“I’m not the enemy.”
She took another step back. “You work for the enemy. With the enemy.”
He advanced a step. “I don’t work for anyone. I’m trying to position myself to best help your brother. They will get a warrant for his DNA. It looks better for him to be helpful.”
Autumn retreated and felt the wood railing at her back. “If the FBI and the police were doing their jobs, they would have followed the correct evidence and they would have found the real killer and not wasted my and my brother’s time. The killer is still out there.” If she was the only person who would believe in Blaine’s innocence, then fine. She would not waver.
“If he is innocent, then giving us a DNA sample wouldn’t matter,” Nathan said.
“Blaine admitted he was on the trail. That doesn’t mean he killed anyone, but his DNA could be on Hilde’s book.”
Nathan set his hands on either side of her against the railing, his legs braced apart so they were almost nose to nose. She turned her head to the side and crossed her arms. She could have shoved him away or lifted her knee and done some serious damage. But her heart wouldn’t let her. Her emotions reveled in his smell, the scent of him that clung to her sheets and in her clothes long after he left. Too easily, she remembered their nights together, the endless passion, the explosive chemistry that set him at odds with the man he could be at times—cold, distant, focused on the case.
“Let me help you and Blaine,” he said.
Autumn looked at him, and their eyes met and held in an electrically charged moment. “Are you trying to help Blaine and me? Or are you here for the FBI, to make progress in the case?”
“I’m here to help you.”
Nathan wanted his sister’s killer found to bring closure to him and his family. “What do you want me to do?”
“Tell Blaine to get the DNA test.”
That did it. Forget love. Forget lust. Nothing came between family. She shoved him away with all her might and Nathan fell back a step. She would have had some satisfaction if he had pretended to stumble. “I won’t talk my brother into anything except following the advice of his lawyer.”
“Henry is good.”
She didn’t reply to that or thank him for the referral. She was too angry to give him any ground. “If that’s all you need to say, please leave. I’m tired.”
Nathan stared at her for a heated moment. “That’s not all, Autumn, and you know it.”
Every muscle in her body flexed in awareness. The look in his eye. The intensity on his face. She affected him, and that knowledge sent a surge of power through her. But having him wrap his arms around her and comfort her was a temporary fix. She wouldn’t toss her heart to him for the night, knowing come the morning, she’d be emotionally devastated all over again. The situation with Blaine was using every inch of her emotional capacity. “Please leave.” The words stuttered from her lips. She wished she could have spoken them with more conviction.
“Let me stay with you. I’ll sleep on the floor.”
Autumn couldn’t give in knowing
even now he was breaking down her defenses. The close quarters of her cabin would melt away her resistance, and by morning she’d be in his arms.
She needed something to throw at him, something to get off the defensive and protect herself. The rejection she’d felt when he’d been cold as ice was a near and painful memory.
“Why? What do you want, Nathan? To sleep with me? Is it still a challenge for you? Isn’t it old hat now? You won! You got me. We had sex. Mystery is over, Great Detective.” The words hurt to say, and she realized she half believed them, half believed he’d had an agenda and had used her to achieve it. She changed the subject, the knife twisting in her heart too painful. Why wasn’t it easier to write him off? “Or is it Blaine you need to figure out now? Ask me questions to dig into his past so you can tell the jury what a mixed-up little boy he was? You know my mother left and my father’s dead. Why don’t you twist those things into a noose and hang us both? You want closure for your sister, but you won’t find it by investigating the wrong person.”
Nathan seemed momentarily taken aback by her words and for the first time since she’d met him, he looked unsure of what to say. “Is that how you feel, Autumn? That I’m using you to get at your brother?”
No. She tilted her chin, hoping he didn’t see through her false confidence. “Yes.” At the same moment she spoke the word, she wished she hadn’t.
Nathan winced, an injured shadow passing over his face. “Don’t do this. Don’t shut me out like you have every other person in your life. Don’t put me in the same box with that other loser you dated.”
Autumn felt the knife hit to the heart and struggled to recover. “I don’t shut anyone out.” She’d give him that Daniel was a loser.
“You live in this secluded area, you hate going into town, you’ve constructed so many walls around yourself, it’s a wonder you can see anyone else. And now you’re worried about Blaine, so your instinct is to reinforce those walls and shove me out. Maybe if you weren’t so worried about getting hurt, you’d let someone who cares for you help you. You can’t even talk to your mother when she is standing in front of you, asking for forgiveness.”
