To Be With You

by Daphne Abbott

  Besides, my Olivia was tough as shit. There was no way she’d go down without a fight.

  The driveway was dark when I reached the Van Ess House, so I slowed the car and kept an eye out for anything suspicious. I assumed everyone on the emergency services teams would rush to the fire, but if Olivia had made it to the house before their arrival and encountered a problem, they have missed her in their haste to get to the scene.

  My instincts were correct because about 100 yards from the house, I saw a dark shadow in the forest. I pulled in closer to find that it was Olivia’s car.

  “Olivia!” I jumped out of the rental as soon as I had my car in park and rushed to see if Olivia was inside. The interior was empty, and there was nothing to show where she’d gone. Obviously, something had spooked her because there was no other reason she’d pull her car off at this location.

  Some clouds had rolled in since I’d left the red cottage, so I went back to the car for supplies. I grabbed my keys, put on a black hoodie over my light gray tee, and took the flashlight from my glove box. I’d give anything to have a better weapon on hand, but the metal case of the light would have to suffice if I ran into trouble.

  My cell vibrated in my pocket just as my light caught something shiny behind a massive bush. Rather than answer right away, I clicked off the light and snuck around the back of the bush. If there was someone around, I’d already alerted them with the light. It’d be worse to answer a call and give them another way to pinpoint my location.

  Through the leaves in the bush, I could see a black Mercedes sedan, much like the one I’d seen the mayor drive around town. The doors were closed, and the windows were tinted, so I couldn’t see if there was anyone inside. As slowly as I could, I crept around the bush and walked up to the back of the car. In the dim moonlight, I could see tracks like another car had been parked there recently.

  Was the mayor meeting nefarious people out here? The land was isolated and would provide privacy for conversations you didn’t want people to know you had.

  When I was sure I was alone, I pulled the phone from my pocket and hit redial.

  “Where are you?” Liam asked for the second time that night.

  “At the bottom of the hill, just before the curve,” I replied as I clicked on the flashlight and shone it into the car. “I found a couple of things you’re going to want to see.”

  “Can’t.” Liam sounded worse than he had an hour ago. “We found something up here, too.”

  “Liv?”

  “No, my father.” Liam sighed, and I could hear him mumble something, then sounds of movement. “You can’t get closer than the carriage house because the fire department is still working, but if you can get to the carriage house, I’ll talk to you there.”

  “On my way.”

  It was a hive of activity at the top of the hill, with several fire trucks, cop cars, and even an ambulance on the scene. I could pull the rental close to the carriage house and got out just as Liam walked up from the side of the mansion with Sadie on his heels. Both deputies looked exhausted. Sadie had some soot smeared across her cheek, and Liam’s duty shirt was missing.

  “What’s going on?” I met them in the middle of the drive, feeling like my heart was going a million miles an hour. “Does anyone know where Olivia is?”

  Liam ran a hand through his hair and grimaced. “No, but we’re looking.”

  “Did you see her car along the drive?”

  “No,” answered Sadie. “Where?”

  “Base of the hill just before the bend. Her car is on the north side. You’ll find another car on the south side behind a massive bush.” I turned to Liam. “I think the other car is your dad’s.”

  He nodded. “We found Dad in the back garden.”

  “He’s the one that started this?” Liam and Sadie exchanged a look. “What? What’s going on here?”

  “Dad’s been shot. An ambulance just left to take him to the hospital in Garrett about ten minutes ago,” Liam said, and I could tell the sentence cost him.

  The Van Ess children had never enjoyed a close relationship with their father, but seeing your parent with a gunshot wound would mess with anyone’s mind.

  “Shit.” I struggled to think of something more to say, but I had nothing. “What about the fire? Is it under control yet?”

  “Fire’s been contained,” Sadie said. “They’re just hosing down the embers now. Fire Marshall will come tomorrow to give his opinion, but the last guy I talked to seemed to think that, at the most, there would be some joists and flooring that would have to be replaced on the first floor and basement.”

  “Well, at least that’s something,” I muttered and looked up when I heard my name called from a distance.

  Lucy and Ruby were standing with Gray and Hunter at the edge of the drive. A deputy was in front of them, arms out wide, obviously preventing them from coming closer. I could see from the stance of the two men that they did not appreciate whatever he was saying.

  “Finch, let them through,” Liam called and waved for the newcomers to join us.

  “Olivia?” Lucy asked as soon as she was close.

  “No sign yet,” I replied. “But they found the mayor shot in the garden.”

  “Fuck,” muttered Hunter.

  I nodded my agreement. “He’s on the way to the hospital. Fire’s managed, and the damage is minimal. Sadie and Liam were just updating me on the rest.”

  Ruby frowned as she crossed her arms over her ample chest. “You don’t think Olivia shot the mayor, do you?”

  “I can’t answer that right now,” Liam said. “First, we need to find my sister. My guess is she’s the only one that will help us unravel what happened here.”

  Grayson looked at his watch. “It’ll be dawn in another two hours. Do you plan to wait to search until then, or should we start now?”

  “Now,” I said, cutting off whatever Sadie or Liam had to say. “Even if the police won’t help, we need to start now.”

  Lucy nodded. “I agree. There’s no way of knowing if Olivia’s shot as well. I think we need to act like she has been and work as quickly as we can to find her.”

  “As much as that makes sense, I can’t guarantee that our boss will allow a search,” Sadie said. “But I also can’t stop you from organizing one on your own.”

  “Won’t be the first time the citizens of this town will search for a missing person without the aid of the cops,” Ruby said, her face taut with anger.

  Not a single person had a comment. Though I hadn’t been around for the events of last winter, I’d followed the stories online and through my mom. Ruby’s mom’s disappearance was bungled by the department repeatedly until Ruby and Gray had taken the search into their own hands.

  Since they were successful in finding her mom, I was glad to have their support now. “Tell me what I need to do,” I said.

  “I’ll get my extra torches from the truck,” Hunter said and walked away.

  “I’ll do the same, and I’ll call Melanie to update her,” Gray said.

  “What about Pris and Pru?” I asked. “Were they coming?”

  Lucy shook her head no. “My parents went to say with them. We convinced them it was best to limit the number of people that showed up right now.”

  “Good thinking,” said Liam. “I’m gonna call the hospital and check on Dad.”

  Sadie reached out and put a hand on his bicep. “You should go. We’ll take care of things here.”

  “But–”

  “Go,” I insisted. “Someone should be with Roger.”

  Liam swallowed several times, then said, “Keep me posted.”

  * * *

  Olivia

  I was stuck, both literally and figuratively.

  After I’d heard the gunshot, I’d run as far and as fast as I could, only to be tripped up by a tree root. I’d
stumbled several feet before crashing to the ground in a heap of limbs. I laid on the ground for a long while, trying to get my bearings back.

  This part of the forest was dense compared to the area near the house. I didn’t know how far I had to go before I reached the camp, but my best guess was that I was at least halfway there. Which was good. Except now, there was no moonlight to show me the path I’d fallen from.

  “Just my fucking luck,” I muttered as I rolled to my knees, trying to assess if anything was broken. When nothing gave a twinge, I stood up and shifted my weight from foot to foot. No pain. I stood still and listened to the noises of the forest—no sign of other humans.

  Time to go.

  Cautiously, I walked in the direction that felt right. I was typically good at finding my way in confusing situations, but I’d never been stuck in the dark woods with nothing but my wits.

  After a few steps, I could see the path cut into the forest floor.

  “Which way, though?”

  There was no answer, just my gut instincts, which told me to turn to the left and proceed with caution. This time, I walked instead of jog. The slower pace grated on my nerves, but it made sense considering the visibility I had to work with.

  Step by step, I walked through the woods, effectively blind to my surroundings. I could hear the skitter of animals around me and prayed that I wouldn’t happen upon a bear or some wolves. Usually, the bigger predators stuck to the state forest about ten miles south, but we’d seen signs of them coming closer to town over the last two years.

  “Gunshots, and wolves, and bears. Oh, my.” The joke was lame, but I couldn’t help myself. The entire night was like a strange fever dream culminating in this long walk through the trees with a gunman on my heels and my house burning to the ground.

  When this was over, I was finding Callum, begging his forgiveness, and demanding he joins me on a month’s long vacation to some place tropical. Thoughts of Callum helped. As I walked, I planned my big apology and some sort of grand gesture. I’d crushed him twice in our lifetime. I was going to need something big to prove I’d learned my lesson.

  My toe hit another root, but this time I could recover and continue moving. Callum always had a way of making me forget what I was doing. His light teasing, the sexy way he described architecture, the way he supported me and let me run the project, even though he was the expert, painted a picture of a man that would make the perfect life partner.

  Distance be damned. If he still wanted to live in Brooklyn, we could work something out. I wasn’t opposed to splitting time between the city and Eagle Creek. It would be a unique experience.

  A twig snapped in front of me, and I stopped to duck behind a nearby tree. My breathing was erratic, so I covered my mouth with my hand and strained to hear the noise again. It was silent for so long; I wondered if I’d imagined the noise. But just as I lowered my hand from my mouth, I heard it again.

  It was impossible for me to see how far the noise was coming from, but any distance was too close if it wasn’t one of my friends. Blood was roaring through my ears, making hearing difficult, and every instinct in my body screamed at me to run. But I ignored it and stayed quiet and still, just a bit longer.

  Then I heard another twig snapping several feet away. The sound of a hard exhalation of breath followed. The sounds were easily identifiable as human and not a bear. Which was good. Or bad. Depending on who the human was.

  I refused to gamble with my life, so I looked around the immediate area for a place to hide. The base of the tree I was currently using was okay, but not ideal, since it was barely wider than my shoulders. It would require me to keep the tree between me and the person approaching at all times.

  There was a bulky form of a bush to my left, but it would be the same issue as the tree trunk. I needed to find a place I could crawl into and hide without moving. I looked up at the tree I was sitting under and saw several branches within my reach. Climbing into the tree’s canopy would make more sense than hiding behind bushes, but the time it would take me to climb took time away from my quest to get to a phone.

  Another twig snapped in the distance, and my mind was made up for me. My life had to be more important than the house. We could rebuild Van Ess House, but there was no rebuilding for me, so I grabbed the closest limb and climbed. If only Callum could see me now, he’d be so impressed that our tree climbing lessons from childhood were finally paying off.

  Chapter 29

  Callum

  “We don’t know who shot Roger or if they’re still in the area,” Ruby said as we stood in a circle discussing our search plans. “Maybe this needs to wait until dawn like Sadie suggested.”

  Gray wrapped an arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “I agree it’s dangerous. We can sit this out until the sun comes up if that makes you more comfortable, sweetheart.”

  “Well, I’m not gonna wait around for the light,” said Lucy. “She’s my best friend, and if she needs me, I’m gonna find her.”

  “Stubborn to the bitter end. Even when it endangers your own life,” Hunter muttered.

  “You got any better ideas?” Lucy snapped at him. “Because last I checked, Olivia’s been missing for hours, and we all know time is important in searches.”

  They all got strange looks on their faces, probably each remembering the winter before.

  I ignored the arguments as I shoved the light in the pocket of my jeans. I’d found pieces of rebar next to the carriage house and grabbed one for my protection.

  “Rebar’s not gonna help you against a gun,” Sadie said as she rejoined the group after checking in with the higher-ups. “We just got the okay to organize the search as soon as it’s light. That’s only two hours from now. We can wait that long.”

  “No,” I said and clenched my jaw against saying anything further.

  Sadie sighed, bent over, and revealed a holster strapped to her ankle. “I’m gonna regret this,” she said in a tight voice. “But if you insist on going into the woods alone, take my backup weapon. It’s my personal gun, not the department’s. I assume you know how to shoot?”

  I took the heavy black gun from her hand and checked the safety before tucking it into my back pocket. “Yeah, Dad taught us all gun safety.”

  Sadie nodded. “Just do nothing stupid.”

  “I won’t.” I turned to the others. “I’m going to head toward the Boy Scout camp through the woods. If Olivia didn’t have her phone and abandoned her car, they would be the closest neighbors she could run to for help.”

  “I’m sorry we can’t follow you,” Ruby said, and pulled me into a hug. “Gray and I have kids to think about now–”

  I squeezed her to shut her up. “I get it.”

  Lucy stepped forward. “I’m still going.”

  “The fuck you are,” Hunter said in a menacing growl. “Stay here with these two. I’ll go with Cal.”

  Lucy opened her mouth to argue, but I was done with the discussion. “I’m going. If you want to come along, Hunt, let’s go.”

  I circled the cars and started walking toward the split in the trees, where I knew I’d find a path. As children, Olivia and I would frequently use the path in the summer to visit and play with the kids at camp. I did not know if there’d been any major changes in the last fifteen years, but we were about to find out.

  “The camp’s about four miles away on this path,” I whispered when Hunter came up behind me, almost silent on his feet as we entered the forest.

  “Try to keep as quiet as you can and listen for sounds that don’t belong,” he said, and I nodded. The man was a former soldier. Of course, I was going to listen to him.

  Thick tree coverage and a moonless sky made progress slow. Hunter advised only using the lights when necessary since they would pinpoint our location for not only Olivia, but the shooter if they were still around. Since he seemed like some badass co
mmando, I followed his lead.

  Even as dread flowed through me, I’d made a mistake in not waiting for daylight. I pressed on with Hunter in the lead. Hunt must have had eyes like a cat because he moved through the brush like it was broad daylight while I stumbled behind, unable to find decent footing. Nothing looked suspicious. Nothing seemed out of place.

  But then again, it was in the middle of the woods. How would I know?

  Hunter stopped and held up a hand. Which I knew from my hours of playing Call of Duty in college meant he expected me to stop and wait silently. As soon as we stopped moving, sounds from the forest were noticeable again, and I strained to hear any sign of Olivia.

  Hunt looked over his shoulder. “Someone’s walking, about 100 yards ahead of us.”

  “Olivia?”

  He shook his head. “Sounds too big to be Olivia. Follow me. We’re going to let them walk past so we can see who it is. Then we can decide what to do about them.”

  We moved off the trail behind a group of small evergreens. The smell of pine was almost overwhelming. My body kept twitching as we stood in silence, waiting for the person to walk by.

  Hunter elbowed me after what felt like hours and pointed to the path where a tall, dark figure was moving closer to our hiding spot.

  Breathless moments passed as I watched the figure get closer and closer. When they were only about ten feet away, luck was on our side, and the moon peeked out from the clouds long enough to see his face. I’d seen him only once before, but once was more than enough.

  Kevin. That slimy bastard.

  When I moved out from behind the bush, Hunter put a hand on my arm and held me still until Kevin was several feet away. “Know him?” he whispered.

  “Yeah, a former co-worker of Liv’s. Guy’s slimier than snot.”

  Hunter nodded and turned back to watch Kevin. “Give me the gun.”

  I hesitated, my pride preventing me from seeing the wisdom in that request. “What are you going to do?”

  Hunt sighed. “I’m gonna tackle him from behind. Disarm him, and we’ll use some of that rope to tie him up till the cops can come.