Missing the Stars: Chandler County

by Melissa Sinclair

  “Which is a good character trait.”

  A sound distracted her, and she looked around for anything out of place. Yet she saw nothing. Still, she felt uneasy, as if something was out of place. Or someone was there, watching her. With another glance around her, she was taken by how thick the vegetation was. Anything and she meant anything, could be hiding in there and she would never see it. The thought had her breaking out in a cold sweat, and she suddenly wanted to be done with the ride. Her sixth sense which had served her so well her whole life was screaming at her to get out of there.

  “Earth to Jessie?”

  “What?”

  “I was asking you if you’re enjoying…what’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Nothing. I just feel uneasy for some reason. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

  Now Cole was looking around as if he could see through the growth, whereas she could not. She heard another noise, and this time, she could see that he’d heard it too. A branch snapping, not terribly close, but close enough.

  “Would there be anything wandering through the woods out here?”

  “Any number of animals.” He paused, then continued. “Mostly small woodland animals.”

  “That noise sounded like something bigger than a squirrel, and I heard it back there a bit too. It was farther away though.”

  “I didn’t hear anything before.” He was frowning as he said it as if he didn’t quite believe he would have missed the noise she’d heard and didn’t quite believe her.

  “I know what I heard. Anyway, you were talking when I heard it,” she snapped.

  “No, it’s not that. Shit. I’m sorry. You’re right, I was talking.” Yet he continued to frown.

  “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. I guess I’m on edge and maybe I’m hearing things…” Another broken branch. This time it was closer than before. Jessie was not imagining things.

  10

  Cole noticed how both horses seemed to go on edge as if they sensed danger. He’d been silently berating himself for not hearing the noise the first time, but now that he’d heard the second and third branch snap and noted how the second noise was much closer than the first, Cole was assessing the area. He’d been lulled into a false sense of security because this was a place of good childhood memories. Not a place where horses and jockeys go missing. Certainly not a dangerous place by any means. The worst thing that had happened to him on this land was a fall from a horse.

  Now things were different. Now his eyes were constantly scanning the terrain, looking for any sign they were being followed. Most people would consider it paranoia, but he considered it his due diligence to make sure they were both safe. Something he should have been doing, like Jessie had been, from the moment they entered the woods. Hell, before they entered the woods. Maybe down deep, he’d thought JD had run, taken the horse for a quick payday.

  As the seconds ticked by, he rewound the conversations he'd had with Jessie since meeting her: her insistence her brother wouldn’t steal the horse, her evasiveness about what she knew, her ability to sneak up on him, her overprotectiveness of her bother. It all added up to the same conclusion, things were not as they seemed. He’d made a false assumption based on Coop’s initial story, and his belief nothing bad would happen on this farm and that nothing serious was going on. Now he knew he had screwed up and he needed to be hypervigilant going forward. Hell, he was always supremely cautious. It was ingrained in him. The overly cautious part of him which kept him going was how he had always lived. He had been mixed up since the deaths of his two employees. Even though he’d been off his game, he didn’t think Jessie or JD were criminals, but he did know they were into something bad. His eyes landed on something, and he yanked back on the reins as he yelled at Jessie.

  “Jessie, pull up on the reins!”

  Jessie jumped and instinctively pulled hard on the reins, and then she was flying through the air. The ground came up fast, and she landed hard on her left side. She lay there a moment as Cole jumped off the horse, tethering him to a nearby tree before he rushed to her side. When he got to her, she was lying still, clearly stunned. Royal Flush had danced backward and stood anxiously to the side. The old mare was a treasure in the fact that she hadn’t run for the hills after her rider was thrown. A lot of horses would have spooked, and he’d be looking at the dust they left behind as they hoofed it out of there.

  “Jessie? Are you okay?”

  “Yeah. I think so. My hip hurts, but I’m fine. Hard to believe, but I’ve never been thrown before. The ground comes up fast.” He was sure she hadn’t ever thought she would fall off a horse, but you know…things change. She got up and brushed off her tush. As she did so, Cole stood and walked over to the part of the trail where they’d stopped. “Why did you yell?”

  “Because of this,” he said, indicating to her to come look. Had the sun not hit it just right, he would never have seen it. Part of the path had been washed out. “I didn’t want her to step in this, break a leg, and throw you.”

  “Well, you prevented half of it from happening.” She rubbed her hip. “I’m glad she didn’t get hurt.”

  “A broken leg for a horse would be more than just getting hurt. In many cases, the horse would have to be put down.”

  “You’re right. I wasn’t thinking how serious it could have been for her.” She looked back at the horse. He thought Royal Flush looked almost embarrassed.

  “Not just her. It could have been much worse for you if you’d have gone over her head. Hell, it could have been worse no matter which way you fell.” He raked his hands through his hair. “Shit.”

  “It looks like it washed out in a rainstorm,” she said as she looked around.

  “Looks that way, but I don’t want to be on this trail anymore. I have a bad feeling we’re too exposed. We might not see whatever made that noise, but whatever it is, sees us.” Which didn’t sit well with him at all. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Cole could see she was favoring her hip and offered her a hand up onto Royal Flush, who was a little jumpy, but doing better than he expected. Then he quickly mounted King and turned around. “It’s faster to go back this way.”

  “At least we know the terrain is safe.” She blew at her bangs. “I would like to get a better look at the rest of the property, but I’m going to admit those noises have me a bit jumpy.”

  “I know what you mean. Are you okay riding? We could walk them out, versus ride them out.”

  “It’s faster to ride, and I don’t like being exposed like that. We've probably only gone a half mile. I think my hip will be just fine.”

  “Let’s go, then. If it gets too hard for you to ride her, let me know, and we can walk the rest of the way.”

  He hated to have her ride the horse. She had to be hurting all over from the fall, but she was right, it was faster, and it wasn’t that far. He knew she was tough enough to handle it. They set off at a steady clip; Cole kept his eyes glued to the trail. Without being asked, Jessie watched the terrain on both sides of the trail and occasionally checked behind them. He didn’t hear any other noises, but it didn’t mean they were in the clear. As fast as they could safely navigate the trail, they ate up the ground to get back to the farm and, hopefully, to safety.

  It didn’t take long until they were emerging from the woods and he could make out the outline of the barn. He felt energized—so much so that he felt like he could climb a mountain. A small part of him realized it wasn’t normal to feel good after an intense situation like they’d just been through. What he should be feeling was terrified, and part of him was, but only for her safety—not his own, because now he was laser focused. He was about to say how good he felt when Jessie pulled up on the reins and started fumbling in her pocket.

  Jessie was on edge as they exited the woods, but when she could finally see the barn, she felt a sense of relief. Her phone started to vibrate, and without much thought, she pulled it out of her pocket. Glancing at the readout she felt her pulse ratchet u
p as she rushed to answer the call.

  “JD? Where the hell are you?” Probably not the best way to start the conversation, but she’d been terrified about his safety after all. She followed up with a hasty, “Are you all right?”

  “Jessie, you need to listen. I got mixed up in something. I don’t even know what I got into, but I just know it’s bad. You need to go underground. I need to know you’re safe until I get this all figured out.”

  “JD, you’re not making sense. I think this has to do with me, not you. Tell me where you are.”

  “I don’t have time for a bunch of questions. They could be back any second, and I don’t want them to hear me talking to you. For all they know, I haven’t tried and I don’t have a signal.”

  “You need to conserve the battery power, turn off the phone…” She stopped talking when she saw Cole shake his head no, he had his cell in his hand and was talking to someone before she could blink.

  “Black, I need you to triangulate his cell phone for me. She’s on the phone with him right now. See if you can see what tower it’s pinging off.” Cole watched her intently as she spoke to JD.

  “JD, I have a friend helping me. He's going to see if he can find where your cell phone is pinging right now.”

  “No! Jessie, you can’t get involved.”

  “Bullshit, I can’t get involved. Aren’t you listening to me? I am involved. This is about me, not you. Regardless, that’s beside the point. Even if it were about you, you’re my brother—the hell I’m not getting involved.”

  “I hid Race the Stars. You should be able to find him, get him back to Coop.”

  “To hell with the horse!” she spat, not thinking straight. “JD, give me something, anything, to help me find you.”

  “You’ll never find me. There are too many to search.”

  “Too many what?” she asked.

  “Storm cellars. I’m in one.” The connection was breaking up.

  “Is it empty? Old? Falling down? Give me something more.”

  But JD was gone. He had either disconnected the phone call, his battery had given up the ghost, or the signal had. Her eyes shot to Cole; he had a thumb up.

  “We got the cell tower, we have a starting point.”

  Her eyes filled with tears, but she pushed them back. What the hell was she going to do to find him? More importantly, how much time did she have to find him before it was too late? She was lost in her thoughts when she heard Cole end the phone call.

  “I have all my people on this case as of this moment. I should have done it sooner. I apologize for that. I misread the situation entirely. But know that I am all over this, and I will find JD. Do you hear me?”

  She blinked, looked at his fiercely determined face and discovered she believed him. Jessie didn’t doubt there was nothing this man couldn’t do when he put his mind to it. For that reason, she was going to put all her eggs in his basket and hope for the best. She wasn’t sure how she was going to break the news to her nana. It wasn’t safe to contact her anyway. So that call could be done a little later. After they knew some more information. If they could find some more information. With any luck, she could put off the call until JD was found.

  For now, all Jessie knew was her brother wasn’t out partying like she had hoped. It wasn’t like she really believed that anyway, but she’d hoped he wasn’t involved in something more sinister. It felt like her heart was in a vise thinking of all the possible scenarios. She couldn’t lose her brother—not her brother. Everything she was, everything she had done in her life had been to protect him. Even if they fought, their bond was impenetrable. There was no other option but to find him. She had made a vow to her parents that she would take care of him if anything ever happened to them, and that was what she was going to do.

  11

  They had stopped riding when the call came in, but now they were moving at a brisk pace again. Trying to get back to the house and surroundings that were at least familiar to Cole, if not herself, not only that, but the place that had far less cover for a sniper or some other person to lay in wait. Once they got closer to the barn, she saw Coop’s car was back. Jessie noticed how Cole visibly relaxed when he saw his brother’s vehicle. Clearly, he had been worried about him. It made sense with JD being taken that Cole would worry Coop would be next.

  As they hurried back, they discussed the implications of the phone call, and in the end they both determined it had only helped them by letting them know he’d been taken by force, which they had assumed was the most likely scenario anyway. However, the phone call hadn’t helped them to know who had taken him or why. Although she was sure she knew the answer. One thing was certain. The phone call hadn’t helped them to find him. There were so many storm cellars in Kentucky, it would be virtually impossible to know where to start. At least they knew a ballpark area because of the cell tower, but time was working against them and whoever had taken JD had the upper hand. She wondered why he had been allowed to keep his phone—it was sloppy at best. Not to mention, she was suspicious the battery hadn’t died.

  “Why did his kidnappers let him keep the phone?”

  “I was wondering the same thing. The only thing I can come up with is they wanted him to contact you, but that makes no sense, does it?” Cole asked glancing at her.

  “No,” she said, but she wasn’t being honest. Jessie had a feeling the phone was left intentionally so he could call her. The bigger question was whether it was merely a way to taunt her, because whoever took him knew she had no chance of finding him, or was it a way to track her?

  When they got to the barn, they took Royal Flush and King inside and took off all their gear. Jessie rubbed the old mare between the ears and whispered promises that she would come back later to give her a nice rubdown. She suspected Cole was doing the same thing in the other stall. Both were obviously antsy to go talk to Coop.

  “All set?” he asked from behind her. She had heard him behind her, part of her suspected he had purposely been noisy to alert her to his presence. Smart man. It was as if he knew what she was capable of if surprised.

  “Sure, but I’d like to come back and give her a good rubdown later. Even if we didn’t go far, she deserves to be pampered a bit.” She rubbed her between the ears one more time and turned to leave the stall. “I think she’s a bit embarrassed about throwing me,” Jessie whispered conspiratorially to Cole and was rewarded with a huge grin.

  He walked over and rubbed his hands across the mares back, cooing to her about how she was a good girl and he knew she didn’t mean to throw poor Jessie off her. Jessie swore if horses could blush, Royal Flush was doing that very thing at the moment. She realized she had fallen in love with the horse. It was silly, but it was undeniable. It would prove to be difficult to leave her behind when it was time for her to be on her way, just like it would be hard to walk away from the tall drink of water in front of her.

  “What’s wrong?” Cole asked, frowning at her.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You suddenly look so sad.”

  “Nothing, really. I was just thinking how much I already love Royal Flush and I don’t want to leave her. It’s pretty silly. I mean, I just met her and, well, she’s just a horse…”

  “Nonsense, Royal Flush is more than a horse. You bonded with her on a different level. Not everyone gets to experience what you have. I was thinking something pretty similar.”

  “About King?”

  When he didn’t answer, Jessie glanced up from the horse, whose eyes she had been staring at, to see Cole assessing her carefully.

  “Sure. Let’s go with that.” He smiled wickedly, then stepped closer to her. “Actually, I was thinking about how after this is all figured out, I think I am going to be sad to say goodbye to you. I find you fascinating.”

  Reaching forward, he tucked her hair behind her ear and she felt her face heat up from the small contact. Really? That kind of a reaction over a slight touch? Geez, what was wrong with her? It wasn’t like she�
�d never been touched by a man in her life. Yet she was behaving like a love-starved teenager and she couldn’t hide it either. She leaned into him, not of her own volition, until her chest brushed against his. With a groan, he lowered his face to hers and kissed her until her toes curled. Breaking the kiss, he looked down at her and smiled.

  “Mmm, as much as I want to continue, we have work to do…for now…let’s go talk to my brother and then we can get back to this.” He ran his hands down her shoulders, and to her buttocks, where he massaged her until she groaned and pressed herself against him harder, feeling the evidence of his body’s reaction to her, giving her some satisfaction.

  For whatever reason, perhaps she was possessed, she reached up and pulled his head down to hers, while simultaneously pushing him back until they were against the door to the stall. Her hands buried in his hair, she kissed him with all she had. Damn the consequences. On a sharp intake of breath, his mouth opened, and her tongue slid in. She had never been the aggressor when it came to anything sexual, but today was a new day and they had just been in an intense situation. There were parts of her that were so thirsty right now she had to quench their thirst. It wasn’t until Royal Flush snorted and stomped on the ground as if to say, get your own room, that she pulled away. Once again, a horse had stopped their kiss from going further. Breathless, she stared up at his lips, wanting another taste, but knowing he was right about going to talk to Coop.

  “What was that?” he asked. She shrugged and slid past him, but just as she got around him, his hand reached out and grabbed her around the wrist, pulling her tight against him. He whispered in her ear, “Oh, this is definitely going to be continued later.”

  “Promises, promises,” she whispered back, knowing she had just thrown down a gauntlet, and not caring one iota.

  “And I always keep my promises.” He smiled wickedly, slapped her ass, and gently shoved her away from him.