Sirens announced the arrival of the local police. Abby was grateful that Ethan handled them, showing his badge and explaining why they’d come to talk to Faulkner. Abby didn’t have much of a statement, which suited her just fine.
Despite the freezing temperature, she kept the pickup door open and watched the activity. Several more cars arrived, including the medical examiner. Ethan moved amongst the cops, but he always seemed to have her in his view. His concern warmed her.
What did Faulkner’s death mean? Was he involved with other criminal behavior? Did his murder have anything to do with her case? And now that he was dead, how would she ever find out what had happened?
Too many questions without answers reeled in her belly. The smell of melted tar added to her nausea.
She wasn’t sure how much time passed, an hour, maybe two, before Ethan came back to her side. “We can leave. They’ll call us if they need anything else, and the detective is going to send a copy of your kidnapping case file to me.”
He slid into the driver’s seat, rolled down the window, and blasted the heat. “I’m sorry about the smell.”
Abby closed her door. “It’s not that bad,” she lied.
He snorted but didn’t argue.
“Faulkner’s car is behind the Dumpsters.” He backed out of the parking space.
“Why would he put it there?”
“Maybe he didn’t want anyone to know where he was, or maybe the guy who killed him moved the car so it would look like Faulkner wasn’t in the room.” Ethan drove out of the lot onto the highway. A mile down the road, he pulled into a gas station and parked next to the restroom. He grabbed a gym bag from behind his seat. “Lock the door. I’ll be right back.”
When he came out, he was wearing sweatpants and a snug T-shirt. He locked his odorous clothes and leather jacket in a storage bin in the pickup bed before getting behind the wheel. He smelled much, much better.
His next stop was a fast-food joint. He followed the arrows to the drive-through window. “What do you want?”
“How can you be hungry?”
He shrugged. “We missed lunch, and the drive home is two and a half hours.” He ordered a burger, large fries, and a Coke.
The smell of hot grease drifted in the window. Abby’s stomach growled. She leaned across the cab. “Make that two of everything.”
They ate in the parking lot. Abby scarfed the burger down embarrassingly fast. Ethan took the Atlantic City Expressway headed west. He had the window cracked. The blasting heat couldn’t counter the freezing air whipping around the cab.
Sipping the remains of her icy soda, she shuddered hard. “Can we close the window?”
“Are you sure?” Ethan glanced over. “I smell pretty bad.”
“I don’t smell it at all now, and you have to be freezing.” Not that she minded what he was wearing. The snug T-shirt outlined defined biceps and shoulders but was hardly winter wear.
“The odor must be imbedded in my sinuses.” He raised the window.
“Thanks.”
The sign for the Route 206 exit passed by the window. Abby sat up straighter. The greasy food in her belly did a cartwheel.
“Get off here.” The words were out before she could stop them. Why did she want to torture herself?
Ethan exited without questioning. She directed him through more turns onto a long dirt road. They passed rows of blueberry bushes, winter-barren and scraggly in the sandy soil. It had been summer then. If it had been winter, she would have died of exposure. Gravel and sand crunched under the tires as the road cut through a patch of woods and emerged into a clearing. In the center was a partially collapsed house.
A strange detachment filled Abby. “Can you drive around back?”
The pickup bumped along the weedy earth. Behind the house, Ethan drew a sharp breath as he parked the truck. Just ahead was the well where Faulkner had kept her prisoner. She stared out the windshield, her mind sucked back through the black hole of time. Fear enveloped her as if she were back in the well all over again. She could see nothing but darkness. The sound of wind was muffled overhead. Had she been more afraid of what Faulkner would do to her when he came back? Or that he never returned?
“Abby?”
She startled.
Ethan was shaking her arm. His worried gaze searched her face. “Are you all right?”
She couldn’t answer. The air felt hot and thick. Her breathing quickened. Her hand found the door release, and she stumbled out of the truck. Cold air, ripe with the scent of pine, washed over her. She leaned on her knees, gulped, and stared at the remnants of the well. Tree trunks swirled around her at dizzying speed. “They filled it in.”
The stone circle was still visible, but someone had dumped a few tons of dirt into the hole since her kidnapping.
“That’s where he kept you?” Ethan was next to her.
“Yes. It was about thirty feet deep. He covered the top with a few sheets of plywood.” She raised her head. The trees had stopped spinning. “I don’t know why we’re here.”
Ethan moved closer. He grasped her elbow and pulled her body straight. His arm came around her body. How could he be so warm? The outside temperature was in the midthirties, and he was in short sleeves. Abby was zipped into a down jacket and freezing to her bones. Shivers wracked her body.
He guided her back to the truck. He got behind the wheel and slid across the bench seat. Wrapping both arms around her, he drew her into a full embrace. Heat blasted from the vents, but it was Ethan’s body that provided Abby with the warmth she sought.
She rested her head against his shoulder. “There was a little bit of water in the bottom. That’s what kept me alive, plus the warm nights. It was summer.”
His arms tightened around her. Her usual reaction when panic struck was to withdraw, but with Ethan, she couldn’t get close enough. The feeling overwhelmed the anxiety rushing through her veins. Nearly frantic to touch more of him, she unzipped her jacket and pressed her body to his. Ethan worked his hands around, stroking her back through her sweater. He scooted closer and drew her onto his lap, as if he knew exactly what she needed: full body contact.
Curled in his arms, her heart rate slowed, and her lungs stopped heaving. She lifted her head. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” He rested his chin on the top of her head.
“I don’t know what made me want to come here.”
“Faulkner is behind you now. Maybe you needed to put this memory in your past as well.” Ethan put a finger under her chin and tipped her face up. “Start looking toward your future.”
“I thought that’s what I was doing when I moved to Westbury.”
His eyes darkened. “Burying your past isn’t the same as accepting and moving past it.”
“The future is a moving target right now.” Abby licked her lips.
Ethan ducked his head. Soft and warm, his lips touched hers. Despite her surprise, it was Abby who took the kiss deeper, opening her mouth and welcoming him inside.
“More.” Her hands clutched at his arms. Heat shimmered along her skin and bloomed deep in her belly.
“Shh.” The fingers on her chin opened, cupping her jaw and angling her face. His tongue slid past her lips and explored her mouth with a thorough gentleness she imagined being extended to the rest of her body.
Abby tipped her head back and let the desire wash through her. Her blood thickened, and her pulse throbbed in her ears. Her hands relaxed, sliding from his arms to splay across his muscular chest. Ethan lifted his head. His eyes had darkened from piercing blue to navy. He kissed her jaw and temple.
She pulled her head back. “I need to take this slow.”
His eyes didn’t like it.
“My last relationship didn’t end well.”
“I thought you didn’t have an ex.” Ethan perked up. “Could he be in
volved in this?”
“No,” Abby said. “It was over before Faulkner kidnapped me. He was older, and I fell for him in the most embarrassingly cliché trying-to-replace-the-father-I-didn’t-have way.”
“Everyone makes mistakes.” Ethan brushed a thumb along her jaw. “What happened?”
“He neglected to tell me he was married.” Years later, Abby could still feel the sting. “I’m not sure what was worse, the humiliation of being duped or the betrayal of being lied to for several months.”
“That sucks. What a jerk.” Ethan cupped her jaw.
Realization hit Abby. She trusted him. When was the last time she had trusted anyone? Her mother had let Abby down. Her father wanted nothing to do with her. Brooke was her best friend and hadn’t been able to break through the instinctive wall of suspicion that surrounded Abby’s heart.
But in less than a week, Ethan was on the inside looking out. Was she rushing things? Was her reaction mainly physical? There was no denying the desire raging in her body. Perhaps she should slow down on the emotional confidence.
Abby leaned into his palm. “How about you? Any deep, dark secrets in your past?”
He snorted. “I haven’t even had a date in ages.”
“Why not?” What she meant to ask was how he kept women away.
“For years I was too busy taking care of the family,” he said. “But they don’t need me all the time anymore. I’m out of practice. It’s probably best we take this nice and slow. I don’t want regrets for either one of us. But I really like you.”
“Me too.” With a smile she felt all the way to her heart, she slid off his lap and straightened her jacket. “Maybe you’re right about me wanting to come here today. Maybe I needed to see it couldn’t happen again. I can’t believe he’s dead.”
“He can’t ever hurt you again.” Ethan adjusted his sweatpants.
Abby averted her eyes, but not before she got an eyeful that demonstrated how much Ethan wanted her too, at least physically. The attraction went both ways. Good to know. Now back to the case. “Do you think Faulkner was the one who poisoned me?”
Ethan looked thoughtful. “I don’t know.”
“And who killed him?”
“I don’t know that either, but I’m going to do my best to find out.” Ethan turned the truck around.
Abby grabbed the armrest as the pickup bounced over a rut in the gravel and dirt road. “Where do we go next?”
“Home. But early tomorrow, I’ll make some calls. The Harris cops said they’d keep me updated on Faulkner’s homicide investigation. The autopsy will probably happen in the next day or so. I also have a call in to the detective who handled your case, Roy Abrams. He’s retired now, but I’m sure he remembers plenty.”
“I’m sure he does.” Abby swallowed. The flush on her skin chilled. “It was his fault I wasn’t found for so long.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Ethan’s hand jerked on the wheel. The truck hit a tree root and nearly bottomed out. He straightened the vehicle, and it slid back into the ruts in the dirt. “What?”
“Faulkner had the address of the farm.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the truck’s rear window. “It was in his cell phone the whole time. The detective never checked it out.”
“That doesn’t sound right.” Ethan’s jaw clenched. “Cell phones are one of the first things any good cop checks out. People keep half their lives in their phones.”
Abby shrugged. “Just because you’re a good cop doesn’t mean they all are.”
“True.” The large majority of his fellow cops were honest and hardworking, but as in any profession, a handful were either incompetent or corrupt. “Are you sure it wasn’t a legal hang-up? Sometimes cops get a bad rap simply for doing their jobs. The legal system doesn’t always make sense, but we have to work within it.”
“Not only did he mess up the investigation, but he tried to cover it up. I found out later, by accident,” Abby shot back. “Do cops always stick together? Even when one of them is wrong?”
“Sometimes,” Ethan admitted. Cops tended to close ranks when one of their own was threatened. “We depend on each other. Doubts about the loyalty of a team member can get a cop killed in a high-stress situation. You need to know without question that your partner has your back.”
But the revelation about her kidnapping explained why she was so distrustful of him at first.
Abby didn’t respond. She rested her head against the window and closed her eyes. At first Ethan thought she didn’t want to talk to him anymore, but her even breathing convinced him she was asleep. She stayed that way for the next two hours, waking as he exited the Northeast Extension of the PA Turnpike.
“I’m sorry.” She yawned and stretched. “I didn’t mean to sleep.”
“No worries. You were tired.”
They’d left the dog at Brooke’s house in case their trip ran late. Ethan pulled into the driveway, and Abby ran in to fetch Zeus. Then she shoehorned the big dog into the small backseat of Ethan’s pickup.
“Will you be all right alone tonight?” Ethan pulled out of Brooke’s driveway and headed for the main road. Abby’s development was closer to town. A few miles later they passed the high school. A figure walked on the side of the road, his dark gray jacket and black backpack blending into the early winter twilight.
“Is that Derek?” Ethan slowed the truck. Zeus whined and stuck his head over the front seat.
“Yes,” Abby said. “He must have stayed after school and missed the late bus.”
Ethan pulled over in front of the boy. In the rearview mirror, he saw the kid stop. His posture said he was considering whether or not to run. Abby lowered the window, stuck her head out, and waved. Derek jogged to catch up.
“You want a ride?” Ethan asked.
Derek shrugged. “Sure.”
Abby opened the door, and Derek squeezed into the back with the giant dog. Instead of moving over, Zeus practically sat on Derek’s lap. The kid didn’t seem to mind.
Ethan pulled back into traffic. He was supposed to be simplifying his life, paring it down, limiting his responsibilities. So why did it seem he was picking up needy strays at an alarming pace?
His phone vibrated. Cam’s mobile number.
Ethan answered. “What’s up?”
“I hate to bug you, but I could use you back home.” A loud thud sounded over the connection. “Like now.”
“What was that?” Ethan asked.
“That was Bryce trying to get a rope on the bay horse,” Cam explained. “He’s sick. We called the vet, but neither of us has been able to even get in the stall with him.”
Ethan rapped the phone against his temple. He did not need this. He was spread as thin as a sheet of paper over his responsibilities. Cam and Bryce were going back to school the next day, and Mom was headed to her sister’s house. Normally, Ethan would be looking forward to a few weeks of post-holiday alone time, but not this week. “I’m on my way.”
He hung up and turned to Abby. “There’s a small emergency at home. Do you mind if we stop at my place?”
Abby shook her head. “Of course not.”
Ethan looked at Derek in the mirror. “Derek?”
“Nope.” The kid draped a companionable arm around Zeus’s neck.
“Do you need to call your mom?” Ethan held his cell over his shoulder in offer.
“Nah. She’s at work.” Derek turned his attention to the dog.
“OK. Thanks.” Ethan made a U-turn toward home. Tomorrow he was calling Ronnie and pressuring her to find a foster home for those horses.
Abby sat up straighter. Nerves quivered fresh. She was going to see Ethan’s house and meet his family. The truck turned into a gravel driveway next to a weather-beaten mailbox. There were no other houses in sight. A football field away, a white farmhouse
sprawled in front of a small compound of outbuildings. Behind the barn, a snow-covered corral and pasture spread out to woods in the distance.
She got out of the truck. She folded the front seat to give Derek and Zeus more room to climb out. Abby looked up at the house. Three wide steps led to a front porch. Despite the fact that Christmas had passed three weeks before, an evergreen wreath decorated with a huge red velvet ribbon hung on the door.
She glanced over at Derek, who chewed a bit of skin from the side of his thumbnail. He looked as nervous as she felt.
What had it been like to be raised in the country? Abby’s ears prickled at the lonely sound of wind whistling across the open land. She imagined you could sit on your deck in complete silence in the middle of the day, quite unlike the suburbs, where the sounds of lawn equipment and kids punctuated the weekends.
“Oh good, the vet’s here.” A MINI Cooper, a midsize SUV, and a large white van were lined up in the yard. Ethan led the way into the barn. Abby and Derek hesitated at the door.
“It’s OK. You can come in.” Ethan wiggled his fingers in a come along gesture. The most trusting of them, Zeus, followed him first.
Three men and a woman were gathered around a half door. The woman was striking. Even in her bulky winter gear, she was tall and thin, her long black hair partially covered with a watch cap. She turned to Ethan, and her mouth opened in a warm smile. An unexpected shaft of jealousy speared Abby. She tamped it down. She and Ethan had shared one kiss, one desperate embrace born as much from her loneliness and raging emotions as her desire. She had no claims to him.
Abby blinked away to study the two younger men, also tall and slim, with the same black hair and bright blue eyes as Ethan. His brothers. Which made the remaining man the vet.
“Abby, Derek, these are my brothers, Bryce and Cam.” Ethan gestured. Cam was clean-cut, while Bryce wore his long hair in a ponytail. Other than their hairstyles, their features were identical. Twins?
“This is Doc White.” The vet was to people what Zeus was to dogs. The huge white-haired man, dressed in winter coveralls, nodded at them.
She Can Hide (She Can Series) Page 13
