“I can’t breathe,” Shep wheezed out.
“Shit,” Cash barked. “He’s having some kind of allergic reaction. What the hell did you get into—”
Emmy glanced over and put a hand on Cash’s shoulder. “No, he’s having a panic attack. Don’t go down that rabbit hole with him. He needs you to be calm.”
“You’re right,” Cash said and turned to say to the room, “Everyone but Emmy and me out of here. Give them some space.” He centered his attention back to Shep. “You, close your eyes, and let’s breathe together.”
His brother counted him through some round breathing, and Shep’s galloping heart slowed to a trot. But his fingers were still working the rope. A fisherman’s knot. Then a sheepshank. And finally a trucker’s hitch.
Joss’s hand in his, and a rope in the other. Shep’s world was beginning to right itself just a little, even though he imagined he could feel Puck’s furry weight against the side of his leg.
“I can’t live without him, Cash.”
“Not that it’ll come to that, but yes you can. You had a life before him and you’ll have a life after him.”
“It’s better with him.”
“Of course it is. Which is why Dr. Orozco is working her ass off right now.”
Shep finally opened his eyes again to see Emmy and Joss both watching him closely.
Emmy said, “You’re both a little dehydrated and definitely exhausted. I’d like to start a saline drip on each of you. You also need food and a whole lot of rest.”
“We’ll feed and water them,” Cash said grimly and hitched a thumb toward the front door. “But there’s not a damn person here that’s gonna let them rest until they hear what happened up on that mountain.”
* * *
Although Joss had been eager to meet Shep’s family, they’d descended like a plague of locusts, and that had been slightly unsettling. But there was not a doubt in her mind that these people cared for Shep deeply. Loved him unconditionally. How could he believe he didn’t know what love was? It was all around him.
So thick she could breathe it in. She wanted that, what he had. People who didn’t expect him to sparkle before they smothered him with adoration.
Shep’s paramedic brother Cash looked a bit like him. The hair wasn’t as shaggy, but there was something about his eyes and mouth. He had a lightheartedness about him that she’d seen in Shep a few times.
Emmy McKay, as she’d been introduced, checked Joss’s blood pressure and glanced at the cabin’s front door. “The troops are assembling.”
That was good. Joss said, “Could they stay outside? Shep might need some space to tell the full story, but…”
“But what?” Cash’s sharp gaze met Joss’s.
“But you might want to have a few people stand guard.”
“Are we guarding against your fans or something else?”
“Something else. Definitely something else.”
Cash shot to his feet and was out the door. Joss heard him bark out, “Reid, we’ve got problems. No, I don’t know what the hell they are right now. But I need you and your brothers to surround this cabin. Take weapons.”
Shep smiled—a weary, trying-for-patience smile. “We are kind of a bossy bunch.”
“I hadn’t noticed.”
“I’m surprised Maggie isn’t up my ass right now.”
“Oh, she was out on a call,” Emmy said cheerfully. “But apparently she’s on her way. So expect her to breach your posterior any minute now.”
A younger woman—probably midtwenties, with brown hair in a chin-length cut and blue-framed glasses—poked her head in from the porch. “Can I do anything in here?”
“Think you can rustle up a snack?” Cash asked her.
A brown paper bag crinkled when the woman held it up and grimaced. “Mom brought what she called the-cure-for-everything muffins.”
“I don’t even want to know, do I?” Cash groaned.
“Crystallized ginger for nausea, red ginseng for hangover, whisky and honey for cough.”
“That actually sounds like her best baked good yet,” Cash said.
“Oh, and turmeric and salmon for inflammation.”
“No, thank you,” Shep said firmly. “I have some Epic bars in the kitchen.”
“I’ll get them.” The woman dropped that bag, and that was when she seemed to realize Shep had company on the couch. Her gaze stopped and Superglued onto Joss. “Oh. My. God. You’re… you’re… Why didn’t anyone tell me…”
“Snack now, Riley,” Emmy drawled. “Fangirl later.”
Ah, so this was Shep’s younger sister. The Scarlet Glitterati fan.
“I’m on it,” she said. She leaned back outside and said, “Dad, did you bring OJ? We could use that inside.” She beckoned a tall, lean, older man who carried what looked like a carafe of fresh-squeezed juice into the cabin and they hurried into the small kitchen. They returned with glasses of juice and Shep’s favored protein bars.
“Thanks, Dad,” Shep said as he reached for a glass. “And look at you, Riley, being all domestic. Coen is a good influence.”
Riley stuck out her tongue at her brother, but immediately sucked it back in. “Shit, I’m sorry. This is horrible. Shep, I’m…” She walked toward the front door. “I need a minute.”
“Why is she upset?” Shep asked his dad. “She didn’t like being called domestic?”
His dad clapped him soundly on the shoulder as he passed the other glass of juice to Joss. “No, I think she’s worried about her big brother.”
After what amounted to a post blood drive snack, Joss and Shep settled into two wooden chairs on the front porch. A woman, wearing a sheriff’s department uniform with a utility belt packing a serious looking handgun, strode up the stairs and stood directly in front of Shep. “Talk to me.”
The rest of the group gathered around them as if awaiting story time at the library.
It was a bit of a tall tale.
When things went completely quiet, and Shep didn’t say a word, Joss reached over and gripped his hand. “Do you want me to explain everything?”
“You will do a better job.”
She took a bracing breath and said, “We’re pretty sure we evaded a murderer.”
25
“Excuse me?” Maggie—glaring at Shep as only Maggie could—braced her hands on her hips. Yeah, even he knew that was unhappy body language.
“Mags,” he said. “Give us a minute here before you start grilling us down to the bone. Because I have a few questions for you.”
“Harris Shep—”
“Did the other Do or Die people make it back to town?” he asked.
“I haven’t seen them. Anyone else?” she asked, looking around at the family members gathered.
“No,” Emmy said, “but they were staying at the B and B before they left, right? I can call Mrs. Tasky and find out.” She pulled out her phone and walked to the edge of the porch, but Shep figured they were still out there in the woods somewhere. Or one of them had turned on the rest of them.
Hell, he didn’t know, and his head was one massive ache of confusion.
Joss gripped his arm and addressed his sister. “Sheriff, law enforcement needs to get out into that national forest.”
“What the hell are we looking at here?” Maggie asked, hands still firmly planted on her uniform-covered hips. “A rescue mission, a manhunt, what?”
“Probably all of the above,” Shep told her. “And definitely body recovery.”
“What?” Shep’s mom jumped off the front steps, her eyes more than wild. “Whose body?”
“Buffalo Moody’s,” Joss said. “We found him. Well, Lauren Estes actually found him out in the woods, but…”
“Someone had him strung up in a tree,” Shep said. “But I don’t think that’s the way he was killed.”
“Why the holy hell didn’t you call me immediately?” Maggie demanded. “I don’t give a flying flip that you were on federal land.”
Th
e national forests were officially in the US Forest Service’s jurisdiction, but they had cooperative agreements with most county law enforcement in Western Carolina, including Haywood county. “I planned to,” Shep said. “But when Joss and I made it back to the group’s campsite, the others were gone, along with a lot of my stuff, including the sat phone.”
“Where were you?”
“Almost three quarters around the trail loop on the east rim. But the body was in the woods off to the north. As for Moody, I’m not sure how much will be left of him by the time you get people up there.”
“If you were at the east rim, you should’ve been back sooner. Where have you been?”
“When the rest of the group wasn’t in camp, and it was obvious they’d stolen supplies, I got suspicious. What if one of them killed Moody?”
“Shep thought it was best for us to hit another trail,” Joss added.
“And a few other things happened along the way that made us realize someone was tracking us,” Shep told Maggie.
“What kind of things?”
“Maggie, it doesn’t matter right now.” Shep jumped to his feet and glanced around for Puck. When he remembered Puck was—no, no, no! Don’t think about Puck right now. Shep tried to calm his jumping pulse by sheer will. “What matters is that I hopefully put a spear through someone’s leg up near Stonehill caves. If I was lucky, he might still be there. If he’s not—”
“—then we definitely have a manhunt on our hands.”
“I’m going up with you.” That was not negotiable.
“No,” she shot back immediately. “This is a job for law enforcement. Maybe search and rescue.”
“I have more experience in the backcountry than all those people combined. Besides, I know the exact locations of Moody’s body and where I hopefully speared whoever killed him.”
“You just came down off that mountain and you’re not in any shape—”
“You can leave me here,” he said, spinning around to loom over his sister, “and I’ll hit the trail on my own.”
“No, you certainly will not,” his mother protested and looked toward his dad for support. “Ross, tell him that he can’t—”
“Honey, he’s an adult,” his dad cut in. “I’d rather Maggie let him go in with her group, but I will not tell a grown man what he can and can’t do. Shep knows what he can handle and what he can’t.”
As much as Shep admired and respected his mother, his dad had always been his person. His rock. He was the one who convinced Shep he was worthy of being accepted by other people, just as he was.
Joss reached for his arm again and her grip tightened to the point of pain. Something was wrong.
He turned to her and ducked his head to try to gain a little privacy. “You are upset. Why?”
“I don’t want you to go back up there.”
“I have to.” It occurred to him that she might be scared. Good going, Shep. Get her to safety and then let her think you’re going to dump her. “If you’re scared, you can go home with my parents or better yet, someone can take you to my Aunt Joan’s house. My cousin Reid has security—”
“I’m not scared for me,” she said. “I’m scared for you. Whoever is out there made it clear that he or she was after you.”
“You were in the tent, too, when that fire was set.”
“But I wasn’t the main target.”
“I’ll be hiking in with Maggie and other law enforcement. You might have noticed that my sister wears a gun on her hip. Believe me, she and everyone who works for her knows exactly what they are doing.”
“Then I want to go back up, too.”
Oh. No. Hell, no. Shep wanted to jump away from her—pace and pull at his hair. Instead, he took both of Joss’s hands in his. “You would slow us down.” She started to say something, and he squeezed her fingers. “And I need you to stay here and keep an eye on Puck.”
“But your family. They can—”
“He’s gotten very attached to you over the past few days. If he wakes up and I’m not there, he might be scared. But if you’re there, you can help him. He won’t be scared if you’re there.”
Her head dropped and when she spoke, she sounded a little like a frog. “How long do you think you’ll be gone?”
“I don’t really know.”
“I want to stay here,” she said. “In your house.”
Shep glanced away from Joss to find every person in his family staring at them—wide-eyed and loose-jawed. What? Had they never seen two people have a conversation before? “We’re just making soup,” he told them.
“Sure you are, buddy.” Way shook his head, but appeared to be suppressing a smile. “Sure you are.”
“Dad, Joss will be staying here. I am going to give her my keys—to the cabin and my truck.”
“Okay, what do you need me to do?”
“Do you think you could help track down her belongings? All the Do or Die celebrities had to give up most of what they’d packed before we left. I bet Moody had his support people store it somewhere.”
“Absolutely.”
“Honey,” his mom gripped his shoulder. “What can I do? Joss will probably be hungry later. I could—”
“Take her to the Triple B. That would be a great idea. If she doesn’t feel up to it tonight, maybe tomorrow sometime.”
“I could do that.”
He touched his mom’s hand. She was trying hard to smile, but it didn’t look like the proper muscles were all engaged. “You’re wearing a fake smile.”
“I’m trying for it to be real.”
“Maggie and I will be okay.”
“I know you will, honey. But I don’t care how grown up and capable you both are, you’re still my babies.”
“Mom,” Maggie said, pulling their mom in for a hard, quick hug, “your babies need to gear up and move out while we still have some daylight.”
* * *
After Shep and his sister left in her cruiser to finish prepping for the trip back up the mountain, Joss was still surrounded by his family. There were quite a lot of them. And none of them appeared to be leaving.
She’d never felt threatened in a crowd until she’d taken a header off the stage that night. Now, her fear of falling had little to do with losing control and being physically vulnerable. It was all about the emotional threat.
She swallowed to try to make her thumping heart return to its proper location in her chest. You aren’t being hunted here. These people won’t drop you and stomp you underfoot. “Um… Was there… Can I tell you anything that Shep didn’t get a chance to explain?”
Riley—who’d been giddy to initially meet Joss—wore a tight-mouthed expression and body armor made of crossed arms. “I’d like to know why you’re cozying up to my brother.”
Another swallow, but no words made their way out of Joss’s mouth. Shep’s family all looked like a phalanx of shit-locked soldiers right now, even Shep’s firefighter brother Cash, who had initially seemed like a totally laid-back, easygoing guy.
“He got you off the mountain,” Riley continued, her tone combative. “What else do you want?”
“I… I don’t know what you mean.”
“I’m asking why he was holding your hand and acting as moon-eyed as I’ve ever seen him.”
“Shep doesn’t normally do moon-eyed.” Shep’s brother, Way, wasn’t a huge guy. But with his unsmiling mouth and slitted eyes, he looked as though he might know thousands of ways to maim. Then again, he’d had a cargo hold full of what she’d realized were back-to-school supplies. So who was this guy? “So we’re all a little taken off guard.”
“What happened out there?” Riley demanded. “What did you do to him?”
“Riley-girl,” her dad said softly. “Your mother bear streak is showing.”
“I don’t care.” She shook her head, making her hair swing angrily. “She’s a big rock star, and he’s…”
“Amazing,” Joss said softly as she looked around at all the unfriendly
faces. Only Shep’s dad’s body language was relaxed. “Riley, I get why you’re protective. Shep told me a little about all of you while we were out there, and it’s obvious you all love him very much. So I don’t have a problem telling you that I care for him deeply as well.”
“Care for. What does that mean exactly? And how can you care for a man you’ve known for less than a week?”
Joss stood and looked Riley in the eyes. Maybe not directly, because Shep’s sister had a more than a few inches on her. But she’d be damned if she planned to defend herself, defend Shep, while sitting. “It means exactly what I said. I have feelings for him. He’s smart and funny and capable and honest. A woman would have to be a fool not to be drawn to that.”
Riley’s shoulders lost a smidge of their tension. “There have been a few fools through the years.”
Cash snorted. “With the biggest one being Amber.”
Shep’s mom took Joss by the arm and pulled her in. “Shep hasn’t had the most successful romantic past. Are you saying… We’re asking if you’re involved with him.”
If having his body inside hers and having feelings she couldn’t quite define was considered involved, then absolutely. “Oh my God! You want to know what my intentions are. Like his dad said a few minutes ago, Shep is a grown man. You all know that, right?”
“I’m not sure if you realized this,” his mom said. Her volume was soft, but the thread of steel in her words was clear, “but he is… a little different.”
“Of course, I noticed,” Joss said. “I got my first clue when he said something that knocked my legs out from under me.”
Cash groaned and shook his head. “That’s Shep, alright.”
Joss stood her ground. “But what I also noticed is that he’s refreshingly honest.”
“Some would say painfully.”
“He told me about his Asperger’s.” She looked around, meeting each person’s gaze, one by one. “That explained a lot.”
“Having something explained and truly understanding it are two different things,” his mother said. “You’ve only known Shep a few days. He’s a wonderful, generous, authentic person, but close daily contact with him can be challenging. A challenge many people aren’t up to meeting.”
Striking Edge Page 24
