Treasure and Protect_a small town romantic suspense novel

by Lori Ryan

  Her hand was on the pepper spray as she talked to Ethan.

  “I’m not getting back in the truck with you, Ethan. We can talk about this, but I’m not getting back in the truck.” She still hoped she could talk him into calling the police and explaining things. She didn’t want to mention the police yet. It was possible he would see that as a threat and things would escalate even more than they had. As far as she could tell, he still saw her as a potential ally.

  He took a step closer, but she held out her hand and took a step back.

  “Cora, I can’t let anyone find out what we did. I need to get out of here. They’ll figure it out and I can’t be here when they do.”

  She gripped the canister of pepper spray and slid the safety lock to the side with her thumb so she was ready to use it if she had to. “I’m not going with you, Ethan. If you want to run, you’re going to have to do it without me.”

  She didn’t know how many miles they had travelled. Not many, she thought. Maybe five or so miles.

  She nodded to the truck, hoping he would get in and go. If she stayed on the road, she could find her way to a house. They had passed a ranch house a mile or so back. It was dark, but she could stick to the road and find her way.

  Ethan looked smaller somehow now, like he’d lost his way. “Just come with me. Please, Cora.” He didn’t seem to want her as a hostage. He almost seemed like he just didn’t want to be alone in this.

  He came toward her and reached for her, but she pulled away. Anger crossed his features, made all the more vivid and frightening in the light of the headlights. “Cora, we have to go!”

  She dodged his grip and brought the pepper spray up, aiming toward his face and pressing the trigger. She didn’t know how accurately she hit him, but his scream told him she at least caused some amount of pain. He stopped and bent, hands to his face.

  Cora didn’t wait to see what would happen next. She ran to the truck and got in, shutting the doors and locking them.

  Then she looked down and reality hit her. She didn’t know how to drive a stick shift.

  She looked up in time to see Ethan coming toward her. His eyes were nearly closed, blue ink streaked his face. A face now contorted with pain and rage. And she’d just trapped herself.

  29

  Justin was later getting home than he’d planned. He had told Cora he wouldn’t make it home in time for them to have dinner together, but he wanted to at least call her and maybe go over and spend some time with her if she was still awake.

  He got out of the shower and tried her phone again. She hadn’t answered his first call and she wasn’t answering this one either. She’d said she was going to see Ethan. As much as Justin wanted to support her in that, he had to admit there was a small caveman part of him that wanted to grunt and groan about her going to see someone she’d just stopped dating.

  He got dressed and tried to kill time, flipping through the channels looking for something to watch on TV. Cora was right. He needed a dog. His house was entirely too empty and quiet.

  He picked up his phone and looked at it again to be sure he hadn’t missed her call. Nothing.

  It rang in his hand as he was setting it down, but when he looked at it, he saw Ashley’s name in the contact, not Cora’s.

  “Hey, Ashley, what’s up?”

  Ashley snorted. “Tell my sister she flaked on me.”

  “Sorry. She’s not with me. Was she supposed to be with you?” Cora hadn’t mentioned seeing Ashley, but it wasn’t like he kept tabs on her every move.

  “She’s not with you?” Ashley didn’t sound overly worried. More annoyed than anything.

  “My car is in the shop and Garrett is on duty so she said she’d pick me up at the library. She didn’t answer her phone so I figured she was with you.”

  “She went out to Ethan’s to check on him, but,” Justin checked the clock on the microwave, “that was three hours ago. What time did she say she’d pick you up?”

  Ashley hesitated. “It was actually an hour ago. I just thought she would get to me eventually, so I’ve been catching up on work.”

  “I’ll run out and check on her. Maybe Ethan’s just really upset about his dad and she just hasn’t felt right leaving him alone.” Even as Justin said the words, he had a feeling she wouldn’t have stayed with Ethan if it meant leaving Ashley stranded at the library. She would have at least called or texted Ashley to say she was running late or couldn’t come. “Do you want me to swing by and get you?”

  No,” Ashley said. “I’ll text Laura. I’d rather you head right out to check on her. Will you let me know when you track her down?”

  “I will.”

  Justin grabbed his wallet and keys and headed for the door. Ethan’s father’s house was about twenty minutes away, but he could shave that to fifteen.

  30

  Cora searched the cab of the truck for a phone. Hers was in her car, but maybe Ethan had his in his truck.

  Ethan pounded on the driver’s side window. “Cora, open the door!”

  Our heroine is not an idiot. God, she wished the narrator would shut up.

  He stopped, coughing and spitting onto the pavement.

  She opened the glove compartment. No phone. No weapon.

  “Open this fucking door!” He kicked at the door. “Fuck!”

  Cora took a slow, deep breath. At this point, would he let her go if she ran? She could get out of the passenger side door and run for the woods. She still had the pepper spray so she could hit him with that again, but she didn’t know if that would do anything more at this point. She really had no idea.

  Maybe now that he knew she was going to fight him, he’d rather get away in the truck than come after her. It was a gamble, but it was one she had to take. It was that or stay in the car and hope someone came along to help her. So far, there hadn’t been anyone.

  Ethan turned toward the woods on his side of the car and started looking for something. She could guess he was looking for something to help him break the window. That made the decision for her. Cora turned and released the locks while his back was to her. She bolted for the woods and ran.

  31

  Justin fought back the sickening feeling as he tore through Ethan’s house. There was blood on the flagstone walkway out front and it was obvious there had been a struggle. The house was empty and Cora didn’t answer him as he called out to her again and again.

  Her car was out front. Ethan drove a truck, but there was no truck in sight.

  Justin went back out to the front of the house and dialed Garrett directly. He filled him in and hung up. It would take several minutes for Garrett or any of his officers to get there. Justin rounded the house and looked across the field at the back of it. No sign of anyone there.

  He jogged back around to the front of the house and went into the living room. He’d seen a gun cabinet on his first run through the house. He lifted the fire poker from the fire place and crossed to the gun cabinet and broke through the glass. He lifted a rifle from the cabinet and headed out to his car. He would call Garrett and let him know he was heading out to look for her. Sitting and waiting for the police wasn’t an option.

  Justin thought as he pulled down the driveway. It was possible they’d headed toward town and he simply hadn’t seen them on his way to the house. If something bad had happened and Cora was hurt, it either meant Ethan had been the one to hurt her or he was trying to help her. If he was trying to help her, he would have headed toward town with her. He’d get her to the hospital or the police station.

  If that was the case, she’d be getting help already or would be getting it soon. If Ethan had been the one to hurt her, he would be heading away from the town center. He’d want to put distance between her and any help she could try to reach, wouldn’t he?

  Justin stopped for a second at the end of the driveway to text Garrett and let him know he was following the road away from town. If he didn’t find anything, he could come back and join the search back here.

>   He put his phone on the dashboard and turned right. He had very little to go on, but it was better than sitting still and hoping Cora was all right.

  He ignored the text from Garrett telling him to wait for the police to arrive. Justin wasn’t an idiot. He knew what could happen to him. He’d been shot when he got between his sister-in-law and his brother’s killer once. But he would gladly take another bullet if it meant keeping Cora safe.

  He hoped like hell he was overreacting. Maybe there’d been an accident and someone was hurt. The blood might not even be Cora’s. It could be Ethan and she’d driven him to the hospital.

  Not likely, since she would have taken her own car if that was the case.

  Still, maybe there was an accident and Ethan had taken Cora to the hospital and neither of them had been able to call and let anyone know.

  Of course, the first thing Garrett would do was have one of his officers check with the hospital to see if anyone matching her description had been brought in. They would know in minutes if that was the case.

  His car ate up the miles and there was no sign of Cora on the road.

  Justin started to second guess himself. Maybe he should have gone on foot through the back field. Maybe Ethan was never home and that’s why his truck wasn’t there. It was possible someone else had been there and they’d hurt Cora. Could she have run out into the fields behind the house?

  His mind made up all kinds of possibilities. But there were houses back behind Ethan’s house. If she’d run that way, she would have been able to get to help, wouldn’t she?

  He lifted his foot from the gas, thinking he needed to turn around and head back.

  He was seconds away from hitting the brake when he caught sight of something ahead. It was far out in the distance, but it was a truck. Justin couldn’t remember what color Ethan’s truck was, but this was the first sign of anyone out this way.

  He hit the gas hard. If Cora was in trouble, he wouldn’t waste any time getting to her.

  32

  Cora gulped for breath as she ran. Running through the woods at night meant she couldn’t move very quickly at all. But she had heard Ethan come after her as soon as he realized she’d taken off into the woods. She hoped he would give up when he realized they were getting further from the truck and his means of escape.

  He’d alternated between cursing at her and attempting to cajole her into stopping so they could “just talk about it.”

  She pressed on, keeping one arm up over her face as she ducked tree limbs and tried to avoid being whipped in the face by saplings that were too thin to see easily in the dark.

  She could hear Ethan coming closer and closer. She was running as hard as she dared though the trees, but he was closing the gap. She held the pepper spray as her mind scrambled through options. Could she find a large stick to defend herself with?

  In all likelihood, anything she could swing wouldn’t be large enough to hurt him, would it? Besides, stopping to look would probably give him too much time to get to her.

  She chanced a look over her shoulder. He was close. Too close. And if she kept running, she wouldn’t have any energy left to fight him.

  Cora turned and readied herself.

  He was right there. He was on her.

  She raised her hand and sprayed the pepper spray again, but he went for her arm this time. He slammed her arm into a tree, taking them both crashing down. She cried out in pain.

  “Just listen to me, Cora!”

  He had her pressed to the ground and he was still trying to reason with her. If she wasn’t so terrified she would have laughed. Some part of her that felt like she was watching this from a distance almost did laugh.

  She grabbed for anything around her. There were no rocks. Nothing large she could hit him with. His weight was so heavy.

  She closed her fists around the leaves and dirt of the forest floor and raked her hands over his face with the mess. His eyes were sore and swollen already. When she pressed her hands into them and raked down, he howled in pain again and she bucked with her hips, trying to throw him off of her.

  She put her hands together, making one large fist with them and struck at the side of his head, trying to throw him off balance. If she could just throw him off balance, maybe she could run again.

  33

  The truck was stopped on the side of the road, the passenger door open. Headlights on and the dome light in the cab glowing. It was empty.

  Justin took only the time he needed to text Garrett and then he grabbed the rifle and a flashlight from his glove compartment and entered the woods on the passenger side of the truck.

  “Cora!” He called out to her as he swept the light from left to right and back again in front of him. “Cora!”

  Muffled shouts and the sounds of a fight met his ears. He broke into a run. She was there. She was fighting. He heard a shout of pain and it wasn’t from Cora.

  But Ethan was on top of her, pinning her down.

  Justin saw red. He lifted the rifle and slammed the stock into the side of Ethan’s head.

  The man fell to the left and Justin put himself between Cora and her attacker.

  “Are you okay, Cora?” he called.

  “Yes.” Her answer was shaky, quiet.

  Justin turned to look at her. Ethan came up, flying at Justin.

  Cora screamed.

  Justin turned and blocked Ethan’s swing, but the rifle went flying.

  Ethan came at Justin again, a growl coming from him as he launched himself at Justin. Both men landed on the ground, Ethan on top.

  Ethan threw punch after punch at Justin. They weren’t landing hard, but they were landing. Justin leaned up, grabbing Ethan around the waist and pulling him down to him, gripping him tight so they were close together. It gave Ethan very little chance to throw any more punches and took him off balance.

  Justin trapped Ethan’s leg with his own, crossed over his shoulder and flipped Ethan to his back. An elbow and a punch to the face finished the job.

  Ethan was out.

  Justin stood and lifted the rifle in one hand as he pulled Cora to him with his other arm. They heard sirens approaching on the road.

  “Are you okay?” He asked the question again, even though she’d already said she was.

  Justin couldn’t see her well enough to check her for wounds, but he ran his hands over her.

  “I’m okay,” she said, as she burrowed closer, wrapping her arms around him. Nothing had ever felt better to him.

  Justin realized his heart was hammering in his chest. Hell, he didn’t know what he would have done if he’d gotten here any later. He had no idea what the hell had happened. No clue why Ethan had gone after her, but he thanked God Ashley had called him and given him a reason to come out here and check on her.

  “You fought,” he said, pulling back and looking at her. “You ran and you fought and you hung on.”

  “I had it under control,” she said, talking into his chest, her face buried against him.

  Justin swore, then laughed, because there wasn’t anything else he could do in that moment. He laughed and he kissed her and he held her to him as the police moved in to secure the scene.

  34

  Two hours later, they had the story. Ethan was in custody and Derrick Ayers had been caught when he’d walked into a clinic with a gash in his head. He didn’t put up much of a fight when the police caught up with him there.

  Ethan had come home to help his father, knowing he was likely responsible for the water poisoning that was causing his illness. When the chemical drums had been dug up and Caufield Furniture named the transport company responsible for shipping the drums to the disposal site, his father had put two and two together. He’d known Ethan and Derrick had worked for the two companies. The fact the drums were found on land that used to belong to the Knights was too much of a coincidence.

  Ethan and his dad had fought. Ethan said he didn’t push his dad down the stairs. In the heat of the argument, his father lost h
is balance and Ethan couldn’t get to him in time to stop it.

  He swore his dad was already dead when he left the house. He had planned to say he found him lying there when he got home, but forgot Cora came out most Sundays to see his father. Cora didn’t know what to believe but that would be for a judge or a jury to figure out.

  For now, she wanted to go home.

  No, that wasn’t true. She wanted to go wherever Justin would be.

  Her family had other ideas. They were currently all packed into the Evers Police Department lobby.

  “Really, mom, I’m okay.”

  Justin stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders, the firm pressure calming her. “I’ll get her home, Mrs. Walker.”

  “She should have someone stay with her tonight,” Cora’s mom said. “She shouldn’t sleep alone.”

  “I think he’s got that covered, too, mom,” Ashley said.

  Cora flushed but Justin squeezed her shoulders again and she had a feeling he was trying not to laugh.

  In the end, she went home with Justin to his house, preferring his larger bed. They stopped at her house for her to grab her toothbrush and a change of clothes.

  He flipped the lights on in his bedroom when they finally made it to his place. “Do you want me to make you some tea? Or hot chocolate?”

  “No. I want you next to me.”

  He nodded and slipped into the bed next to her, pulling her against him.

  She snuggled in, needing the warmth and strength of his arms around her. “I heard your voice in my head when I was in the truck with him. I heard you coaching me on what to do and how to get away.”

  He kissed the top of her head, his arms wrapped around her. “I’m so damned glad you fought back. God, I don’t know what I would have done if…”

  He didn’t finish the sentence. She shivered in his arms at the thought of what might have happened if he didn’t get there when he had. She had been running out of energy to fight and Ethan had been so much stronger than she was.