by Elle James
“If I have any more questions, I know where you live.” The sheriff clapped a hand on Colin’s shoulder.
Colin led Emily out of the woods and walked along the road back to where he’d stashed the truck.
When he pulled out of the dirt road onto the highway, he started to turn right.
“Where are you going?” Emily asked.
“I told you…to the Iron Horse Ranch. You’re staying with us until this threat is neutralized.”
She smiled. “I’m willing to go to the ranch, but I’ll need clothes and toiletries from my house before I go out there. I can’t go with just the shirt on my back.”
Colin gave her a sheepish grin. “Sorry. I didn’t think about that.”
“And your go bag is at my place. You might need that. We also need to collect my sister. That might take some doing.” Emily chewed on her bottom lip, making Colin want to lean over and kiss her.
Colin winked and turned toward Eagle Rock. “Leave her to me. I know how to work her.”
Emily chuckled. “You do, do you?”
Colin liked the sound of her laugh. “We have to get past all this. You need to laugh more. I always loved your laugh.”
Hell, he’d always loved Emily. He just hadn’t known how much until he’d kissed her behind the barn. By then, it had been too late. He’d committed to the military, and she’d wanted stability.
Had coming home to Iron Horse Ranch been two-fold? To find his father and to have a second chance at a life with the only woman he’d ever loved?
Chapter 9
On the drive back to Eagle Rock, Emily pulled out her cellphone and called her sister, Brenna.
“Hey, sis,” Brenna answered. “I heard you had some trouble at your house last night. Just to let you know, I heard it from a waitress at the diner.”
Emily cringed at the accusing tone in her sister’s voice. “I’m sorry. I should’ve called you immediately. It’s just that the past twenty-four hours have been insane.”
“Yeah, I might have lost my sister and wouldn’t have known until it was too late,” her sister’s voice dripped sarcasm. “I’m on my way to your place to perform an intervention. It appears your Marine isn’t taking good enough care of you, since he’s letting people try to burn down your house.”
“He didn’t let anyone try to burn down my house. I’m glad he was there, because he put out the fire and chased one of them down. Otherwise, my house would’ve been nothing but ashes with me inside, burned to a crisp. And the arsonists would have gotten away with the crime.”
Her sister didn’t answer immediately. When she did, her voice was calmer. “Okay. I guess I’ll cut him some slack. But I’m still coming over to your place. I want to see for myself that you’re okay.”
“Sweetie, before you come, pack yourself a bag with enough clothing and toiletries to last at least a week.”
“Are we going on a trip?” Brenna asked.
“Something like that. I’ll explain when you get to my place. See you soon.”
“You bet you will,” Brenna said.
Emily ended the call and shot a glance toward Colin. “She’ll be over in less than fifteen minutes.”
“That fast?”
“She lives on the other end of town, and Eagle Rock isn’t that big.”
“Yeah, but she still has to pack a bag.”
“And curiosity for why she might need one will be killing her.” Emily grinned. “I give her fifteen minutes. That should be enough time for me to pack one of my own.”
Colin drove into town and turned onto the street where Emily’s house stood. The house was on the very edge of town, far enough away from her nearest neighbor she could have screamed her head off and no one would have heard from inside their well-insulated homes.
Emily shivered. She’d loved that they had so much space around the house. It had been a beautiful, quiet little retreat. A great place to raise children.
Now, all she could think of was the isolation. She really did owe Colin her life. If he hadn’t been there with her, she might have been severely injured or killed.
Before she could open the car door, Colin laid a hand on her arm. “Stay in the vehicle while I check the grounds.”
Emily didn’t argue. The Marine had combat experience. He knew what he was doing.
He started with a wide sweep of the yard, ducking into the trees and behind bushes, searching for anyone who might be lurking.
When he emerged after making a complete circle around the house, he climbed the steps to the porch and reached for the doorknob.
Colin hesitated, his hand halfway to the knob. With a quick glance back at Emily sitting in the car, he stood back from the door and nudged it with his foot.
The door swung open without him having to turn the knob.
Emily leaned forward. “What the heck?” She reached for the handle on the car door. Had the house already been opened? She had been certain she’d shut the door and locked it before they’d left that morning.
She reached for the pistol in the glove box and pushed open the car door.
Even armed, she didn’t feel any safer. Not with Colin inside, possibly facing another paid killer. He hadn’t come back out yet, and he didn’t have a backup.
Emily hurried toward the front door, the pistol in her hand, aimed forward. With every step she took, she reminded herself, think before you shoot.
She didn’t want to shoot Colin, mistaking him for a bad guy.
Tiptoeing up the steps, she eased across the porch and pushed through the front door.
Her first thought was that she’d entered the wrong house or a post-apocalyptic war zone. This couldn’t be her house. Not the clean, neatly organized space she’d made her home for the past eight years.
The table beside the door had been smashed into firewood. The brown leather couch Alex had insisted on purchasing had been slashed into pieces, the stuffing ripped out and strewn all over the floor. Every cushioned chair had been ripped to shreds, including the padded seats around the dining table.
The television lay on the floor, the plastic casing shattered. The television stand’s doors had been broken off, the side drawers pulled free, the contents flung throughout the room.
“I’m sorry, Emily,” Colin said from the stairway up to the second floor. “The only good news is that whoever did this, isn’t here.”
“The bedrooms?”
He shook his head. “Equally destroyed.”
“Why?” she asked, shaking her head, unable to process the devastation.
“Since every drawer and cushion in the house was torn into, I’d say they might have been looking for something.”
“The ledger Alex talked about was stored in the safe deposit box in the bank.” She stared up at Colin as he descended the staircase. “They destroyed the bank. What did they think they’d find here? Surely, I would have found anything Alex might have left here. I’ve been through all his effects. I found nothing.”
“Perhaps he hid it so that you wouldn’t find it. Or the people who had this done think Alex might have more information hiding in his house. Information you might not know exists.” Colin crossed the floor, stepping over broken furniture and puffs of cushion stuffing.
When he reached her, he pulled her into his arms and held her.
Emily rested her cheek against his chest, listening to the reassuring beat of his heart. The sound reminded her that he was still alive. And she was still alive. That was what was important. Things could be replaced.
“Is there anything left in my room? Do I need to bother packing a bag?”
“The clothing in the bedroom where you slept is there. Not in the closet. I don’t think they slashed them like they did the couch and chairs.
“I’d better pack a bag. It’s very clear to me I can’t stay here.” She pushed away from Colin’s embrace and started up the stairs toward the room she’d slept in since her falling out with Alex.
She peered into the master suite
and the other bedroom before stepping into her room. Her clothes had been yanked from the closet so hard the rail had come loose and lay bent and broken on the floor, along with her blouses, dresses and trousers. Every pair of shoes had been pulled off the shelves and flung across the room. The mattress was in shreds, pushed from the frame, the box springs torn beyond any chance of repair.
Her gaze shot to the top of the dresser where she’d kept her jewelry box. The box wasn’t there.
Emily dug through the piles of clothing, the bedding and mattress stuffing, frantically searching for the little wooden jewelry box, the only thing she’d kept of her mother’s belongings. In it was her mother’s diamond engagement ring that her father had given her when he’d asked her to marry him.
Her mother had loved that ring and everything it stood for. She’d made Emily promise not to bury it with her. It was the only thing of value she had to leave to her oldest daughter.
By the time her mother had passed away, she’d already removed the ring and placed it in the jewelry box her mother had given her. She’d been too thin to wear the ring and too afraid it would fall off and she’d lose it.
Emily couldn’t lose the ring. It was all she had left of her mother besides memories.
Tears slipped from her eyes as she pushed through her damaged belongings in search of her past.
Colin knelt on the floor beside her. “What are you looking for?”
“My mother’s jewel box. I have to find it.” When she didn’t find the box beneath her clothing, she moved to where the mattress had been pushed off the side of the bed and tried to lift it back into place. On her knees, she couldn’t get the leverage she needed to move the mattress back onto the boxed springs.
“Let me,” Colin said. He rose to his feet, grabbed the edge of the mattress and swung it over to lie in its proper place.
Emily pawed through the bed linens and the comforter until her hand fell upon a hard object beneath all the fabric. She yanked the comforter aside. Lying on the floor was the jewel box her mother had left for her, broken into several pieces.
Gathering all the pieces into her lap, Emily sifted through the bracelets, earrings and necklaces until she finally found the diamond solitaire ring. Clutching it to her chest, she let the tears fall.
When her mother had died, she’d held her grief inside. As the oldest and only person left, besides Brenna, she’d felt she had to be strong for her little sister.
She’d stood dry-eyed beside the casket when Alex had been laid to rest, the horror of losing him and her unborn baby still too fresh in her mind for her to digest and comprehend.
Somehow, in the disaster of her house, the dam burst, and all the tears she hadn’t shed burst free and fell, drenching her face, her hands and her clothes.
Colin lifted her to her feet. “I can fix the box,” he said. “Please, Emily, don’t cry. I can fix it.”
“You can’t,” she cried. “I don’t care about the house, the furniture, the years I’ve lived here. They don’t matter. You can’t fix this, Colin.” She shook her head, the tears running down her face. “You can’t bring back my father or my mother. You can’t bring back Alex, and you can’t bring back the baby I lost in the crash. Those things can’t be fixed.”
“You’re right,” he said. “But you still have Brenna. And me. We’re still here. You aren’t going to lose us.”
She stared up at him through her tear-soaked eyes. “How do you know? You’re a Marine. Doesn’t that make you a target for enemy bullets?”
“Em, you can’t borrow trouble. It’s no way to live. You have to appreciate what you have, when you have it. You’re not guaranteed tomorrow. If you spend all of your life worrying about things that are out of your control, you’ll miss all the good stuff.”
“I know you’re right. But it’s hard to see past all that’s happened. I’m beginning to think it’s me. I’m the jinx. I keep losing the people I care about. I’m afraid.”
He pulled her into his arms and held her close. “It’s okay to be afraid, as long as you don’t let it stop you from living. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” He smiled as he pushed aside a damp tendril of her hair. “Who said that?”
“Nelson Mandela,” Emily said, her tears drying.
“If anyone had a crappy life, he did. But he didn’t give up.” Colin tipped her chin up. “And neither will you.”
She nodded and sniffed noisily. “I know. But I’m allowed at least one meltdown along the way.”
Colin grinned and kissed the tip of her wet nose. “That’s my Em. Now, go wash your face before your sister gets here, or she’ll blame me for making you cry.” He winked and turned her toward the bathroom in the hallway.
As he walked behind her, the floorboard beneath his foot creaked loudly.
Colin frowned and pushed the bedsheets aside to stare down at the wooden flooring.
Emily shook her head. “That board has been squeaking for the past year. I meant to have someone fix it but never got around to it.”
Colin leaned down and ran his hand across the slat and picked at it with his fingernail.
The board popped up, revealing a hidden compartment beneath the floor.
“What’s this?” He bent and slipped his fingers into the compartment. A moment later, three more floorboards slipped out of place. Beneath them lay a short metal box.
Colin drew the box out of its niche and set it beside the hole in the floor. “Maybe this was what they were looking for.”
Emily’s eyes rounded. “I’ve been stepping on that squeaky floorboard for so long, it didn’t even occur to me that it was a hiding place.” Her brows twisted. “I swear I didn’t even know Alex near the end. He kept so many secrets.”
“He probably didn’t want you to get wrapped up in what he was doing.”
“And keeping secrets was his way of protecting me?” She snorted. “That’s bullshit.”
“I can’t really speak for Alex. All I know is this box might give us a clue as to who he was dealing with.” Colin tried the latch. It didn’t budge. “It takes a key.”
“Well, that key might’ve been lost with Alex—or was blown up in the bank vault explosion. The key he left in the package was definitely a safety deposit box key.” Emily glanced around. “I’ll be right back.”
She ran from the room, hurried down the stairs and returned moments later with the hammer they’d kept in the kitchen. Granted, she’d found it on the floor along with the contents of her small tool bag Alex had gifted her with on her birthday.
She held out the hammer. “You want to do the honors, or shall I?”
He took the hammer with a smile. “I’ll do it. You look mad enough to destroy everything in that box.”
“I think I have a right to be angry. I didn’t sign up for this crap, but here we are.” She waved a hand at the mess.
Colin turned the box over a couple of times. Whatever was inside rattled with each turn. Finally, he laid it on the floor and banged the locking mechanism twice with the hammer. On the second tap, the box bounced open.
Inside was an older model cellphone, the kind that flipped open.
Colin opened it. “The battery is dead.” He looked inside the box again, but it was empty. He replaced the slats in the floor, covering the hiding place and then asked, “Did Alex keep charging cables somewhere?”
“In the nightstand in the master bedroom,” Emily jumped up and led the way to Alex’s nightstand. She hadn’t made the effort to go through all of his things yet. She just hadn’t felt like it. After losing him and the baby, she’d walked around in a fog for weeks. And since she wasn’t using that bedroom, clearing out the room hadn’t made her priority list for dealing with it anytime soon. The top drawer had been full of books, cards and old letters, which were now strewn across the room. The bottom drawer, a neatly arranged storage place for what seemed like every electrical gadget cord imaginable, had miraculously remained untouched.
Colin had
followed her into the room. He turned the phone upside down and stared at the shape of the plug. Then one by one, he held up charging cords until he found one that fit the phone. He tested it in the electrical socket next to the bed and a green light blinked awake on the cellphone.
He unplugged the cable and slipped it into his jacket pocket. “We’ll charge it at the ranch. Your sister will be arriving soon, and you don’t want her to walk into this mess without a little warning.”
“No, I don’t want her walking into this. She’ll freak out.” Emily was halfway to the bedroom door when she heard Brenna’s voice downstairs.
“Emily?” A split second later, her sister called out, “What the hell? Emily!”
“I’m okay,” she said, hurrying to the top of the stairs.
Brenna stood in the front entrance, her hand on the doorknob, her face white. “Oh, thank God.” She hurried toward her, picking her way through the mess.
Emily descended the stairs and hugged her sister.
“I don’t understand,” Brenna said. “What the hell, Sis? Tell me you weren’t here when…this…happened.”
“We were in Bozeman,” Emily reassured her.
“Why would someone do this to your house?”
“We think they were looking for something,” Colin said as he came down the stairs to join them.
“You can’t stay here,” Brenna said. “It’s not safe.”
Emily nodded. “Agreed.” She glanced over her shoulder at Colin. “I’m going to stay at the Iron Horse Ranch until things settle down.”
Brenna grimaced. “I’d offer to let you stay with me, but I’m not so sure that’ll be safe either. Someone has it out for you.”
Emily took her sister’s hand. “You need to come stay with me at the Iron Horse Ranch.”
Brenna’s eyebrows rose. “Is that why you had me pack a bag?” She snorted. “And here I thought we were going on a spontaneous vacation.” Brenna shook her head. “I’ll be fine at my place. I just had all the locks reworked, and I have a .40 caliber pistol I can keep handy.”
Colin and Emily shook their heads at the same time.
“If someone wants to get to Emily,” Colin said, “he might use whatever means is necessary to get to her.”
