Frost Security: The Complete 5 Books Series

by Glenna Sinclair

  “Almost done!” Jessica called from her bedroom. “How much clothes should I pack?”

  “Light,” I called. “Three or four days’ worth.”

  I grunted. What the hell was going on with me? I felt great just being close to her. I felt awful, too, at not having her be mine right then and there. For instance, when we’d been in the Jeep on the way to her cabin, I’d had to struggle to keep my hands off her, had to fight to keep them to myself. Just one little touch, my emotions screamed, just to see if she returns my affection.

  I shook my head again and watched as an old white pickup truck drove by, headed northbound. My threat-acclimated brain tracked it as it drove, picturing a car bomb nestled inside, or a group of masked terrorists. Of course, nothing like that would happen with this. That was just my time in Afghanistan bleeding over into the present. But, still, it was good to maintain situational awareness, to watch the comings and goings of traffic as it breezed past the little cabin on the side of the highway.

  “Almost ready?” I called into her bedroom.

  “Two minutes!” she called back.

  I nodded silently and turned my attention back to the front lawn. I did have one thing to say. Not only was Jessica beautiful, intelligent, and independent, but she was also handling all this like a champ. Most people wouldn’t have been as stalwart or resilient given the same set of circumstances. She’d just been driven off the road and had her car practically totaled, and she was reacting exactly the way I needed her to. She had a goal, a purpose in mind, and she was working towards it regardless of who was out to get her. Honestly, all of that just made me care for her even more.

  As she bustled past with Eli and Wallach hot on her heels, she threw her backpack at my feet and swept into the kitchen.

  “What now?” I called, trying to hide my irritation. We needed to get away from here and get to the safe house. Any more delays were just going to put us at greater risk.

  “Just getting food and the leashes for the dogs,” she called back unapologetically.

  Jessica came back from of the kitchen, leashes in one hand and bag of dry dog food in the other. “I dropped the cans in the bag,” she said, shooting me a harried smile as she shoved the bag of dog food into my chest so I’d take it from her.

  “Ready?” I asked as I grabbed the bag.

  She scooped up her backpack and tossed it over her shoulder. “Ready,” she said, brushing some rogue strands of hair behind her ears. She turned to the dogs. “You guys ready?” she asked as she bent down and snapped their leashes onto their collars.

  Wallach barked once in acknowledgment, and Eli just wagged his tail. They clearly knew they were going somewhere, and I could tell from their body language they were both over the moon about exploring someplace new.

  Jessica locked up behind us, both dogs tugging at their leashes, and we headed out to my Jeep.

  “You have clothes already?” she asked as I unlocked and opened up the back hatch. “Or is Frank going to bring you some?”

  “I always have a go-bag,” I explained as I took her backpack from her, our fingers brushing with a hint of electricity, a little pop.

  “Oh,” she said, surprised. “You feel that?” she asked with a little grin as I nestled her bag into the back of the Wrangler.

  My first thought had been that the shock was all in my head. I laughed and looked into her eyes as I straightened up. “Yeah,” I said. “A spark, huh? Wasn’t sure if I’d imagined it or not.”

  She smiled back a little shyly and glanced away, both dogs tugging at their leashes. “We ready?”

  “Door should be unlocked,” I replied, heading around to the other side. “Pull the lever on the side of the chair and it’ll slide forward so you can fit the dogs in back.”

  As she was getting Eli and Wallach into the back, my phone buzzed from a text message. It was Frank, letting me know the wrecker was on its way to get Jessica’s car and he was having it towed to the office for safe keeping. By the time I’d finished typing out a “thank you” in reply, Jess was in the Jeep with the door closed.

  I stripped my sidearm off, put it in the center console, and we were off. All I had to do was make one more stop for gas and we’d be headed for the safe house.

  With Frank here, and soon Matthew and Jake, I just hoped we could get the situation under control. Otherwise, we’d been spending more than just a few days at the cabin.

  I wasn’t sure what worried me most about this situation: that we had an outlaw biker gang hot on our trail, or that I was kind of looking forward to a few days alone with Jessica.

  Chapter Twenty-eight – Jessica

  We stopped at Sheila’s house on the way to the cabin. I left him back in the Jeep as I went up and knocked on the front door with the dogs and their things. She answered a moment later.

  “Thank you so much for doing this on such short notice,” I said as I passed over Eli and Wallach’s leashes to her, along with the dog food and everything else she might need.

  “Girl, I’m just happy you’re okay!”

  “Thanks, but I’m fine. Just taking Frost Security up on their recommendation, you know.”

  “What? Sorry, I just saw your car out on the highway near your place with the tow-truck while I was on my way here to meet you. What happened?”

  “Oh, yeah.” I paused, trying to think of the best way to phrase this next part. “Remember how Richard was worried things would escalate, and how he wanted to move me up to the safe house in case something happened?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, things definitely escalated. A big black pickup tried to run me off the road, but ended up just putting a hole in my oil pan. Car’s screwed for right now, but I’m safe.”

  “Thank God,” she said, her hand over her mouth in horror. Her tone changed abruptly, though, to a decidedly more lascivious one. “Wait, so you’re going to a safe house?” she asked, eyebrows raised. “With Richard? Alone?”

  “Oh, shut up, Sheila,” I groaned.

  “Where’s it at, huh? Up in the woods somewhere? Huh, huh?”

  “Sheila,” I hissed. “It’s not like that.”

  “Nice, secluded spot somewhere north of town, where no one can hear either of you scream all night long?”

  I laughed at her innuendo despite myself. “You know it’s not like that! He’s a professional, Sheila, and that’s why I hired him.”

  “Oh, I know how guys are, girl. Especially when they’re in front of a roaring fireplace on a cool evening, with the nearest neighbor miles away. All that professionalism goes right out the window, baby.”

  “Oh, shut up,” I groaned. “You’re making this into something else entirely, and you know it.”

  My phone rang and my heart jumped. I took it from my back pocket and glanced at the screen. It was just Karen calling. I was tempted to pick up the phone, just to tell her I was fine, but didn’t want to have to start spinning another web of lies. And, with Karen, I’d have to with as big of a gossip as she was.

  “This is all we need for the dogs, right?” Sheila asked. “I just want to make sure I don’t need to swing out and grab anything before any of the shops close, or go by your place.” Sheila was the only person I’d exchanged spare keys with, other than the landlord of course, and she dog sat for me on the few occasions I had to travel out of Enchanted Rock on business or pleasure. It was the same for me and her houseplants. Admittedly, I did a lot more watering for her than she did dog sitting for me, but I didn’t mind.

  “Nope, you should be good.”

  She started to say something, but stopped mid-word as her phone began to ring. She rolled her eyes and showed me the phone’s screen. Karen Ray.

  I winced a little.“Wait, hold on. Sheila, I need you to lie to Karen about what happened. She came by the house last night while Richard was there, and I lied and said he was a friend.”

  “You lied to her?” she asked, her interest intensifying. “Why?”

  “I don’t know,” I
groaned. “I just did. She probably saw my car and wants to know what happened. Tell her I’m fine, that I hit a rock in the road or something, okay? That you talked to me a little while ago.”

  She laughed. “She’s just going to call you back.”

  Crap, she was right. I bit my thumbnail and chewed away at it. “Well, I think I’ll be out of reception. Just, whatever you do, please don’t tell her what’s going on.”

  My best friend giggled again. “I still don’t see why you don’t tell her yourself. She’s going to figure it out eventually.”

  “Oh,” I said, sighing, “I know. I just don’t want all of the Rock to find out before I come back to town.”

  “Okay, okay,” Sheila relented. “I’ll call her back when I get the pups settled in. What do you want me to tell her about why you’re missing?”

  “Um,” I thought out loud, “tell her I’m on an unexpected trip with my friend Richard. That’s kind of true.” I sighed. “Isn’t it?”

  “Your devious wish,” she said, chuckling, “is my command, mistress.”

  “Oh, shut up.” I bit my thumb again. “One other thing. Can you put a sign in the Gallery window, a nice printed one saying that I’ll be back on Monday? That should give me enough time to get this all figured out.”

  “Yeah,” she said, “absolutely. I can do that. What else?”

  I checked off a mental list of all the things that still needed to be done, things I may have missed. I came up empty, though. “I think that’s it,” I said finally. “If I can think of anything else–”

  “You’ll be out of area,” she finished with a laugh, “and you won’t be able to call me anyways.”

  I laughed. “Yeah,” I said, “I guess so.”

  “You know,” Sheila said, “I do want to say one thing before you go, to just level with you real quick.”

  “Yeah?” I asked as I reached down and scratched behind Wallach’s ears. “What’s up?”

  “You’re taking this really well. The turtle–”

  “Tortoise,” I corrected.

  “The tortoise, the bikers, the truck. All this. I’m kind of surprised.”

  I looked back over my shoulder at the Jeep, at Richard on the phone with the other personnel of his security office. Just seeing him like that, with his proud bearing, his defined muscles, that strong, square jaw, and the way his eyes took in his surroundings even while doing something as simple as speaking on the phone…it just filled me with a sense of safety. Like I knew, despite what had happened earlier on the highway, he’d protect me to his dying breath. And that, somehow, made this slightly okay. It made the whole experience a spot of bad weather in the entirety of my life, instead of the totality of my existence that it could have become.

  “Yeah, girl,” I admitted to Sheila. “Believe me, I’m surprised too.”

  “Well, be careful out there,” she said. “I’ll see you Monday!”

  “I will,” I promised before we both hugged and I turned to leave.

  Both Eli and Wallach whined pathetically as I left, tearing my heart in two. I didn’t want to leave them, but Richard had convinced me this was just easier.

  “Ready?” he asked as I climbed back into the Jeep..

  I nodded. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

  We hit the road. As we pulled out of the Rock and headed north, further into the mountains, I found myself looking forward to the next few days. I mean, I didn’t necessarily want to be in hiding from a murderous bunch of psychos who’d been stalking me for the last couple weeks and leaving threatening messages on my voicemail. But, and this was a really big but, if I had to be in hiding anyways, a cabin retreat with Richard, alone, high up in the Rockies was almost like a mini vacation.

  If I looked at it that way, this almost approached acceptable.

  An hour or so outside the Rock, just as we were passing an old trading post-style gas station and turning to head off towards the safe house, my phone began to ring. I pulled it out and looked at the number I didn’t recognize.

  “Another call?” Richard asked.

  I nodded, sighing. “Another call.”

  “Answer it,” he said.

  I groaned, but still picked up the call and pressed the phone to my ear. “Jessica Long,” I said warily.

  “Take the deal, Jessica,” said the modulated voice. “Get out of the Rock. Take the deal.” Something about the voice this time seemed off, though. Like, maybe, they were using a different program to filter it?

  “Know what?” I said in a moment of anger. “Screw you.” I hung up the phone, pressing the button furiously, and tossed it back in my purse.

  I was sick of this. And more than ready for it to be over.

  Chapter Twenty-nine – Richard

  We followed the curves of the road after we left the highway, going further and further into the woods with every twist and turn.

  “This place is really out here, isn’t it?” Jessica asked, peering out the passenger side window at all the pine, spruce, fir, and aspen.

  “Yeah,” I replied. “No reception at all. We have to keep an old school radio up here for winter as a just-in-case kind of thing.”

  “Wild animals?”

  “Oh, yeah. Around hunting season this place gets pretty loud with the number of hunters coming up for the elk and deer. Other than that, though, it’s quiet.”

  “Wolves?” she asked. “I heard something about them introducing wolves to the area.”

  Uncomfortable with how close to hope that question was, I shifted in my seat as we made another bend and continued our ascent. “Not really,” I lied. How could I tell her the truth?

  After that, we lapsed into a friendly silence as we finished the drive. There wasn't anything disconcerting about the quiet as we just soaked in the forest like two old friends. The land here has a majesty to it, a presence that impresses on you how tiny of a speck you are in the universe. Even down in Enchanted Rock, with the mountains surrounding and dwarfing everything, a person could forget this fact. Here, though, as we slowly trekked deeper into the woods, you were eloquently reminded of that.

  The mountain valley stretched out behind us, and the mountains towered around us. Pines stretched as far as the eye could see, split only by a tiny silver sliver of highway as it cut its way through the valley. This was as close to wild country as you got, and it sang to my soul in a way that no other place ever had.

  Soon after, we pulled up at the safe house, a three bedroom cabin Peter and I had purchased on the cheap from one of our early clients when we set up Frost Security. The woman hadn’t wanted the hassle of renovating, and we knew we’d need a safe place for the pack. Besides, where would we put any clients we picked up along the way, like Jessica, that might be in need? With the help of YouTube and some blogs, we spent our weekends fixing the place up and making it livable again.

  Yes, even shifters used YouTube.

  Frank’s silver Mustang sat parked in front, and the screen door hung open.

  “This is it, huh?” Jessica asked, smiling as she looked around the little homestead.

  “Don’t like it?” I asked, strangely a little nervous.

  “No,” she replied, “not that. It’s just, well, this is even more real all of a sudden. I’m going to be in a safe house for the next three days, at least.”

  I nodded. “At least you’ll have company, though, right?”

  She smiled a little as she opened the passenger door. “I guess there’s that.”

  We piled out of the Jeep as Frank came out onto the porch. I slung my rucksack over my shoulder and we headed up to meet him.

  “Made good time, buddy,” Frank said as we stomped up onto the porch and I held open the screen door for Jess to head past me. “And the Genny’s already going, too.”

  She walked inside and did a quick look-around, nodding approvingly.

  The place was rustic, to put it politely. A comfortable couch, a small table for eating, a couple of comfortable chairs, and a giant rug to
tie it all together. A flat screen television was mounted on one wall, but I couldn’t recall the last time it had been turned on. Sure, we had a satellite dish out back and everything, but it still saw little use. Built-in bookshelves covered the interior wall of the room, and we’d stocked it with a combination of the classics, old history books, and newer titles. Everything from Kipling to Joyce to Rowling. Most people forgot to bring anything to read when they were afraid for their lives and, besides, Peter would rather thumb through a book than play cards or watch TV. Of course, we had cards, dominoes, and a dozen other board games. Long nights in the dead of winter were better with a little entertainment.

  The full kitchen opened into the living room, with a little island for food prep sitting on the border between the two. During the winter, you wanted the heat from the oven to help with the rest of the house. Hell, on some summer nights up here it was still a good idea.

  On the same wall as the bookshelves, a door led into a hallway that snaked around back to the front, connecting the three bedrooms and one bath.

  “Didn’t have much choice,” Jessica admitted to Frank as she dropped her bag on the couch and had a little stretch from her hour and a half or so in the car, riding her shirt up a little in front so we could see her midriff. “Richard said we needed to get out of there.”

  My pack mate looked away as she stretched, and shifted his eyes to mine. Something in his eyes told me he wanted to look just as much as me, but knew it would be wrong. “Normal week’s worth of provisions in the kitchen. Meat, fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs. May have to thaw some of the meat, but shouldn’t have to come down from the mountain for a while. Y’all be right as rain, I figure.”

  Jessica’s eyes went wide. “A week? A whole week?”

  I raised a hand before Frank could. “It’s just a precaution. I don’t expect any more than a few days, at most. But we prepare for a week at a time to minimize trips back and forth.”

  Frank nodded in agreement and continued. “We have enough canned veggies to wait out Armageddon, and beans, rice, pasta—whatever’s needed is stocked as well. Anything else?”