Ranger Redemption (Brotherhood Protectors Colorado Book 3)

by Elle James

  “I’m just afraid of how he’ll show up,” RJ said. “This sneaking around crap has us all nervous. And the damage he did to Cage’s truck demonstrates a violent streak. You need to make sure Cage is with you at all times.”

  “Believe me,” Emily said. “I will. Until we catch this guy, Cage and I will be joined at the hip.”

  “I’m glad you two are staying at the cabin,” RJ said. “It’s remote enough to keep your stalker guessing as to where you are. But to make sure you’re not being followed, I think Jake and I will escort you halfway up the trail.”

  Cage nodded. “I’d appreciate that.” Having another set of eyes on the trail would make him feel better about being so isolated.

  The chicken cordon bleu was delicious. Cage ate every bite and a couple of the dinner rolls. His time in the Army had taught him to eat when he could because he might not get to later. A soldier had to provide fuel for his body so that he had sufficient energy to face the enemy.

  Emily, on the other hand, picked at her food, staring at the necklace lying between her and Cage on the table.

  He picked it up and handed it to Swede. “See if you can trace this to where it was purchased or engraved.”

  Swede grimaced. “I’ll do the best I can but don’t expect miracles. I’m really hoping that Emily will find something on the databases, now that you have some initials to go by.” He pushed back in his seat. “I’m finished, Emily. If you’re ready, I’ll get you started.”

  She perked up and scooted back in her chair. “Let’s do this.” She stood and collected her plate, ready to carry it into the kitchen.

  “Leave it,” JoJo said. “Max and I will clean up. You go.”

  Swede led the way into the basement. Emily followed and Cage brought up the rear. Swede went straight to the bank of computer monitors, pulled out the keyboard tray and tapped on the keys. A couple of the monitors blinked to life.

  Emily handed him the flash drive.

  He plugged it in and scanned it for viruses. When it was cleared, he showed her where to access it. “And by the way,” he said, “the latent print expert said they did not find any other fingerprints besides yours and Cage’s among those prints they lifted. Your stalker had to have been wearing gloves when he entered your apartment.”

  Cage’s lips pressed firmly together. Nothing about this investigation was going to be easy. He hoped that the databases Swede was tapping into would do the trick and lead them to their guy.

  “Once you get your names sorted by the initials, run those names against the criminal database.” He showed her how to perform a search and narrow it down by location. He brought her up on another database using a different monitor. “You can toggle back and forth between these two.” He showed her how. “This database contains information about military personnel. Start by sorting. Narrow it down to inactive, for now, and an address here in Colorado. If he’s one of your patients, he should have a local address.”

  She nodded.

  “If you need any more help, just yell. I’ll be here, but I promise not to look over your shoulder.”

  “Thanks, Swede.” She glanced across the room at Cage.

  He smiled. “Go for it, and don’t mind me. I can play solitaire on my phone.”

  She got to work.

  Cage studied her while she wasn’t looking his direction. She wasn’t beautiful in the photogenic, movie-star kind of way. Still, she was pretty, with her auburn hair curling around her face and down to her shoulders. He loved the way her green eyes sparkled when she got excited about something, and her smile made him warm all over.

  Emily was the kind of person that, if he was in a crowded room, she’d be the one that he’d be looking for. And when he’d found her, he’d feel complete.

  Cage wondered what Ryan would have thought of her. They’d discussed the kind of women they thought they wanted to marry. Emily wasn’t anything like what he’d pictured in a wife. He’d thought he’d have gone for a blonde with blue eyes. Now that he knew Emily, he realized there was more to the color of her hair and her eyes. The real beauty of a person was what was inside. And Emily was beautiful all the way through.

  An hour and a half into her search Emily sighed, stood and stretched. “It’s getting late. I’ve done enough for today.”

  Cage leaped to his feet. “Did you find any potential suspects?”

  Her lips pressed together. “Maybe.”

  “On the criminal database? Or on the military one?” Swede asked.

  She pressed her lips together. “Both.”

  Feeling the first spark of hope in the past couple of days, Cage grinned. “That’s promising.”

  Emily gave him a twisted smile. “I don’t want to get my hopes up. I didn’t make it through all the J and R names.”

  “What kind of crimes did you find on your guys on the criminal database?” Swede asked.

  “One of them was caught selling drugs,” she said. “He got probation. Another had a restraining order against him to stay away from his ex-wife.”

  “Any more?” Cage asked.

  Emily shook her head. “Not so far. I got about halfway through my list of patients with a J and an R initial. I have to continue tomorrow.”

  “Any chance those two have appointments in your office this week?”

  Her face grim, Emily nodded. “I have one of them in an individual appointment tomorrow, and the other in a group appointment on Wednesday.”

  “You need to cancel that individual appointment,” Cage said.

  Emily shook her head. “No way. If he’s the one, I want him to show himself. Besides, I’ll have you close by.”

  “Close might not be good enough,” Cage said. “Is tomorrow the drug dealer or the restraining order?”

  “Restraining order.”

  “You’re definitely cancelling that appointment.” Cage frowned. He didn’t like Emily putting herself out there with a man who’d shown a tendency toward violence. “Do you think we can get a court order to have him and his apartment searched?”

  Swede shook his head. “At this point, I don’t think we have enough evidence. Plus, we’d be answering questions about how we obtained our information.”

  “And I really don’t want to single out anyone who might not be the stalker.” Emily shook her head. “These guys have enough strikes against them. That could set them back on any kind of strides they’ve made in improving their mental health.”

  Cage clenched his fists. “I don’t like it.”

  “You think I do?” Emily asked.

  “At the very least,” he said, “I’m going with you to the group session.”

  She nodded. “I think we could finagle that. We just have to get through tomorrow.”

  “Are any of your other individual appointments tomorrow with anybody with a J or an R in their name?” Cage asked.

  “I don’t think so.” Emily’s eyes narrowed. “But I can’t remember all of them.” She pulled her flash drive from the computer and slipped it into her pocket. “Right now, we need to get up the mountain. I don’t want to be trail riding in the dark. And I won’t stay here and put everybody at risk. I need to change into something I can wear on the four-wheeler, and I’ll be ready.”

  “Me, too,” Cage said.

  “I’ll let RJ and Jake know to have the four-wheelers out and ready to go,” Swede said.

  “Thank you, Swede,” Emily said. “For everything.”

  The big guy nodded. “We’ll hit it again tomorrow.”

  Cage followed Emily up the stairs. After she entered her room and closed the door, he went to his room, changed into some old jeans and a T-shirt. He slipped his handgun into a shoulder holster, shrugged into a warm jacket and came back out into the hallway.

  Emily wasn’t far behind. As she came out of her room, she was slipping a 38-caliber pistol into a shoulder holster, and she carried a jacket in her other hand.

  “Ready?”

  She nodded.

  RJ and Jake were
waiting outside the barn with four ATVs, their engines running. The noise from the engines prevented the exchange of words.

  Emily mounted her four-wheeler and headed for the gate.

  Cage slipped in behind her.

  Max and JoJo were at the gate with it opened wide. As soon as the four ATVs were through, Max closed the gate.

  The only time Emily slowed on the ride up the mountain was around corners or when the trail became too rocky.

  Halfway to the cabin, RJ and Jake peeled off, leaving Cage and Emily to complete the journey on their own.

  They arrived at the cabin fifteen minutes later.

  Emily stood back and let Cage be first through the door. He found the flashlight on the wall and shined it quickly around the interior, looking for anything different, small or large. Everything looked the same as when they’d left that morning. He opened the door wide and Emily walked in.

  “I’ll start the generator,” he said.

  Emily nodded. “I’ll bring in some logs.”

  Before long, they had a fire burning in the potbelly stove, warming the interior of the little cabin quickly.

  “I’m going to get my shower,” she said with a tight smile. “I won’t be long.”

  He poured water from one of the water bottles into a pan and placed it on the stove to warm. While Emily was in the shower, he took the two mugs they’d used the night before out to the stream and rinsed them clean. He was back before it got too dark to see. He closed the door and moved the latch in place. It wasn’t a lock that somebody could pick. It was a heavy wooden latch. To get in, someone would have to use a pretty hefty battering ram to break down the door.

  Hopefully, he didn’t have to worry about that. They were far enough up in the mountains that Emily’s stalker shouldn’t be able to find them. Then again, the bastard had proven himself resourceful.

  Cage laid his handgun on the table where he could reach it quickly, stripped out of his jacket and the shoulder holster and stood with his hands held out to the potbelly stove, warming them.

  A moment later, Emily appeared in the doorway to the tiny bathroom. She wore the long T-shirt, and her face was scrubbed clean of any makeup she’d worn that day. She padded barefooted across the floor, carrying her clothes, jacket and shoulder holster. She laid her things on the table, pulled her .38 out of the holster and laid it next to his 9 mm.

  Then she turned to the potbelly stove and held her hands out to the heat.

  “My turn,” he said. “I’ll only be a couple minutes.”

  Emily snorted. “Any longer than that, and you’ll be an icicle.”

  With a smile, Cage ducked into the bathroom, stripped and rinsed off quickly before his skin could turn blue. When he came back out, he only had the towel to wrap around him as he’d left his shorts on the bed. He tossed his clothes on a chair.

  Before he could take two more steps, Emily was in his arms, pressing her cheek against his naked chest. She didn’t say anything, and he didn’t feel a need to speak either. It was enough to just hold her.

  When she finally raised her head, he bent to kiss her then he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bed. He laid her on the sleeping bag then crawled inside it with her, tugged the towel free and dropped on the floor. Then he pulled her close so that they could share each other’s body heat.

  As much as he wanted to make love to her, he figured that wasn’t what she needed at the moment. She needed somebody to hold her and keep the darkness away. He held her for a long time and thought she might have fallen asleep, when she stirred against him.

  “Are you asleep?” she whispered.

  He chuckled. “No. I thought you were.”

  “You want to sleep?” she asked.

  “Actually, I’m wide awake.” He was more than wide awake; he was aroused. All she had to do was shift her hand from his chest and slide it lower, and she’d discover that for herself.

  She slid her calf over his, and her hand shifted from his chest down his torso.

  Cage’s breath caught and held. He wasn’t going to assume anything until…

  Her hands slipped lower and circled his cock.

  “Are you sure you’re up to this?” he asked.

  “I am,” she said. “And apparently, so are you.”

  They made love slowly, taking the time to find out what each of them liked.

  After an incredibly satisfying climax, they lay for a while in each other’s arms staring up at the dark ceiling.

  “Are you going to sleep now, or would you like some cocoa?” he asked.

  “Cocoa, please.”

  Cage slipped out of the warmth of the sleeping bag, pulled on his shorts and walked across the cold wooden floor to the potbelly stove. The water he’d put on to warm was hot enough now for the chocolate. He poured it into the mugs, added in the packets of cocoa mix and stirred.

  Emily had pulled her shirt over her head and sat cross-legged on the bed.

  He handed her the cup and slipped into the sleeping bag with her, glad for the warmth.

  She sipped her cocoa quietly for a few minutes, then looked over the rim of her cup at him. “Do you think what we have here is just a short-term infatuation?”

  He laughed. “You’re the psychologist. You tell me.”

  She shook her head. “I really don’t have a clue. I’ve never been in love.” Her brow furrowed. “Is it even possible to fall in love in just a couple days?”

  Cage shrugged. “You’re talking to a self-professed, confirmed bachelor who’s afraid of commitment because of the disappointment of childhood. My buddy Ryan and I talked about getting married and having kids, but mostly we looked at it as something of a rite of passage. We really didn’t discuss falling in love.” He set his empty mug of cocoa on the table beside the bed.

  She handed him hers, and he set it beside his. Then he took her in his arms, and they lay back against the pillow.

  “Well, what do you think now?” Emily said.

  “I think we were missing the whole point of marriage and children.”

  She chuckled. “And what point is that?”

  “Finding a partner for life. Finding someone who completes you.”

  “And when did you come across this discovery?” Emily asked.

  He pulled her even closer. “When I met you.” Then he kissed her and held her even longer. It wasn’t about having sex. It was about being with someone you cared about and who cared about you.

  Chapter 14

  Surprisingly, Emily had had the best night’s sleep she’d had in a long time. She attributed it, not the lumpy mattress or hot cocoa, but to the man who’d held her in his arms throughout the night.

  That morning, they went through the same routine as the previous day, making love quickly before saddling up on the ATVs for the early morning ride down to the lodge. Emily showered, changed into nice work clothes, grabbed breakfast sandwiches and coffee to go, and headed out.

  Jake and RJ offered to go with them to the VA hospital as backup. However, there was no sense in having so many people sitting around her office.

  If she ran into any difficulties, Cage would be there, and they could call the hospital police. As it was, they couldn’t take their weapons on campus. Hopefully, neither could her stalker. No guns or knives were allowed inside government facilities.

  Emily prepared for her day like any other day, by going through her patient files before each appointment to remind herself of that person’s issues and progress. She tried to focus on each patient and his needs, when all she could think about was the one veteran she’d confront that afternoon.

  Jason Romig.

  The criminal database had him listed as having a restraining order his ex-wife had filed against him, claiming he was abusive. Emily had seen Jason on a number of occasions but had never seen that violent streak in him. Then again, some of the so-called nicest people turned out to be serial killers.

  After each session, Emily retreated to her inner office, wher
e Cage would rub the knots out of her shoulders and ask her how she was holding up. She lied each time, telling him she was fine when her insides were wound up tighter than a top. The man had to see through her lie based on the tension he could feel in her muscles.

  She barely ate a bite of her salad at lunch. By the time her one o’clock appointment with Jason Romig rolled around, she was nervous. She could barely focus on her computer monitor as she prepared for the session.

  “Let me go in with you,” Case said.

  Emily shook her head. “You can’t. And you really aren’t supposed to be in here,” she said, glancing around her inner office.

  “I’m not leaving you alone with him.”

  “Then just listen through the crack in the door,” Emily advised.

  “I don’t feel good about this,” Cage said. “But I know you’re going to do this no matter what I say. Don’t hesitate to cry out for help if you feel at all threatened.”

  She nodded. “I will.”

  Emily stepped into the room where the session would take place and closed the door to her inner office, leaving a gap of five inches. She sat in the armchair, leaving the couch open for Jason. Then, with her heart pounding against her ribs, she waited for her patient to arrive.

  Five minutes after the scheduled appointment time, Emily’s hands were sweating, and she was ready to bolt.

  Jason Romig walked into the room. The man was bigger than she remembered from the last time he’d been in her office. His broad shoulders seemed to fill the room, and he was a little on the heavy side. He looked like he could snap her like a twig.

  He came in with a snarl on his face and dropped onto the couch.

  “Good afternoon, Jason.” She had to force a natural, soothing tone to her voice, when in fact she was terrified. The only thing that kept her calm was the knowledge that Cage was in the other room, a few short feet away from her.

  “How have you been over the past week, Jason?” Emily asked.

  “Great…just great,” he said, sarcasm dripping from his tone.

  “You don’t sound great,” Emily said. “Is something wrong?”