Her heart pounded harder. She yanked open the supply closet door and stepped inside out of earshot of the other staff. “Yeah, I was stupid. The biggest mistake I made was telling you anything about my past or myself. We should have kept things strictly employer/employee—”
“Not a problem. You’re fired. Get your things and get out of the clinic. I’m hanging up and calling the cops.”
“You do that and I’ll tell them about your cabin.”
He laughed as if her threat was like throwing a drop of water at a raging fire. “You think I don’t know you sent McCord out there to snoop around.” A hiss resounded over the line and it reminded Ashley of a rabid wild boar she’d once seen. “The two of you better keep whatever you think you saw to yourselves or your nasty little secret is going to be all over town.”
Her conversation with Josh came back like a rushing wind. He’d told her about several women that had died just like the girl on the Ashley Ridge trail. The FBI agent had suggested the group of unsolved murders were connected, a potential serial killer. The secret cabin. His unexplained disappearances. The abusive, narcissistic, psychopathic behavior. Taken together, all the bits and pieces brought her to a horrifying conclusion.
“And so will yours. Do you really think we haven’t figured it all out? What do you do with those girls once you kidnap them? The body that hiker found out on Ashley Ridge Trail…was she your handiwork? What happened to do no harm, Dr. Phelps?”
The line disconnected, and Ashley’s gut told her she’d just made the worst mistake of her life.
****
Josh burped and his mouth filled with the taste of second time around frozen convenience store burrito. Amazing how one of those things could stay with a person for hours after it had been eaten. Not exactly a healthy lunch, but it would keep his body and soul together until he could eat better that night.
Ashley had declared she was going to fix them a real home cooked meal. When he had doubted her ability, she’d pouted and flounced out of the kitchen. He laughed again at the face she’d made at him. Thankfully, she hadn’t remained mad very long. A flurry of kisses had done a lot to put the woman in a better mood.
Actually, it hadn’t hurt his mood either. He had gotten up with a bad feeling he couldn’t seem to shake.
He glanced up from a dual microscope when the door swung open. Tori barged into the lab and scanned the room. When their eyes caught, he could read the panic all over her face.
“What are you doing here? You know you’re not supposed to come in here while you’re on leave—”
“I need to tell you something important.”
“Okay. Can it wait—”
“No.” She grabbed his elbow and practically dragged him out the lab door, down the hallway, took a right into the back hall, and popped the handle on the door to the outside. Once they were in the parking lot, she spun him around. “Gray is in trouble.”
Josh laughed. “That’s not unusual—”
“No, he’s made a big mistake.”
Josh put his hands on her upper arms. “Settle down. What’s going on?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Then what did you come here for?”
She pushed his hands off her. “Sometime today, a news story is going to break about Halsey and Haskins and Gray.”
She had his undivided attention.
“Whatever happens, whatever you hear, nothing is what it seems. You have to believe that. It’s going to seem like he’s turned his back on us, but he hasn’t. You have to prepare yourself for this. You have to watch out for Ashley while all this is going on. But mostly, you can’t believe anything you hear about him. None of it will be true.”
“You’re scaring the hell out of me, Tori. What has he done?”
Tears welled in her eyes. “He’s done something incredibly stupid. I can’t tell you the details because the less you know the better. It’s going to seem like he and I have had a really big fight and that I’ve turned my back on him, but we’re just pretending. He’s not betraying us. You have to believe that. Promise me you’ll believe it even when it seems like he’s…”
“Where is he?”
She shook her head. “He’s in hiding until this all unravels.”
He stared at her and then rubbed the hair on the back of his neck where it had started itching like crazy. Always a bad sign.
“Things are going to get much worse before they get better, Josh. But they will get better. I have to believe they will. I have to believe this isn’t going to destroy him.” She grabbed his forearm. “Just promise me while all this is going on, you will never leave Ashley alone. Always know where she’s at and who she’s with. None of us are safe until this resolves.”
The bad feeling he’d awoke with that morning had just turned into an urgent need to find Ashley.
Tori glanced left and right. “I have to go.” One more worried frown appeared on her face before she walked off. “Promise me you won’t forget that he’s still one of the good guys.”
“I won’t forget.”
After she rushed away, he dug his cellphone out of his pocket and tapped Ashley’s contact number. When she didn’t answer, fear rose to a new crescendo inside him. He had to go see her, just to make sure she was all right. Whatever Gray had done was going to affect them all. He had to get to Ashley before whatever was about to break ripped their lives wide open once again.
The drive took longer than it should have. Traffic had slowed to a crawl, an unusual circumstance for Fairview. Apparently old man Sawyer’s truck had stalled smack in the middle of the busiest intersection in town.
Josh finally pulled into the employee lot behind the clinic, took the nearest parking spot to the back door, and slammed the gearshift into park. He finally allowed himself one deep breath when he spotted her car. The clock on his dash read six thirty. She had another half hour before her shift would end, but he couldn’t wait.
He dialed her number one more time, hoping she had been with a patient when he called the first time. When she didn’t answer, he stuffed his cell into his pocket and got out of the truck. The building wasn’t huge, but it took him longer than he wanted to circle it and enter the clinic through the front door.
The receptionist’s eyes lit when he caught her attention. No doubt she was someone he had been with or had gotten drunk with or had done something else with that he couldn’t remember.
He couldn’t recall her name. “Hi…”
“It’s me, Josh. Daphne.”
“It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?” He offered her his best charming smile. “I was wondering if you could help me out.”
“Sure, Josh.”
Her sugary sweet answer and the dreamy way she said his name screamed all sorts of trouble, but he proceeded with his mission. “I’m looking for Ashley Rivers.”
Daphne’s good mood and sweet temperament vanished as if by magic. “She’s not here.”
“Her car is out back.”
A woman in a nurse’s uniform glanced his way. “She said she had a headache and left about…” She stopped and checked her watch. “Ten minutes ago.”
“Are you sure she’s not still here?”
Daphne narrowed her eyes. “Why are you looking for her?” Clearly the woman thought he should be looking for her instead.
He stifled a groan and leaned further through the reception window. “I wanted to tell her the results of the paternity test.”
Daphne’s eyes widened so much they nearly blew out of their sockets.
A man stepped out of the back office. He recognized the guy but couldn’t remember his name right off. The man was probably Phelps’s assistant. Thompson, I think.
“She left with Dr. Phelps.”
The scene wobbled a bit. Josh grabbed the edge of the counter. “Are you sure she left with Phelps?”
“Yeah, they were leaving when I was coming in. She didn’t look too good. Kind of sick.”
Josh ventured one more ques
tion for which he didn’t really expect to get an answer. “Did they say where they were going?”
Thompson turned his attention back to the paperwork in his hands. “No, but I thought I heard her say something about a cabin, but they were at the other end of the lot, so I probably misunderstood her.
No, Thompson had understood perfectly. Phelps was taking Ashley to the cabin and they had at least a ten to fifteen minute head start.
He turned to leave, but Daphne had one more thing to say. “Josh?”
He stopped and gave her his attention, reluctantly.
“So…how did the paternity test come out?”
“You really want to know?”
She nodded, a mean gleam in her eyes. No doubt, she planned to use whatever she found out.
“There wasn’t a paternity test. I was lying to you. What I wanted to tell her is none of your business. So mind your own.”
He heard her yell a few ugly words at him as he exited the building. A woman entered just as he passed through the door. He smiled at her. “They’re kind of testy in there. The nursing staff just found out the doctor is sleeping with the receptionist.”
The woman shot him a curious gaze. She glanced toward the reception area and then glanced back at him. He left her standing in the open door with a speculative look on her face.
****
Terrance’s knee bounced. The gun in his hand jumped every time his leg moved. Ashley glanced toward him and then turned her attention back to the road. When he’d shoved the weapon in her face, she’d had no choice but to get into his vehicle with him. Brady Thompson had just gotten out of his car before Terrance slammed the driver’s side door, so she had asked him if they were going to the cabin. His face had splotched with sudden heat. For a moment, she thought he was going to backhand her. She was certain only Brady’s presence had stopped him from some sort of violence.
She couldn’t be sure, but she hoped Brady had heard her intentionally loud voice. Their eyes had locked for a brief moment. A questioning look had flitted across his face, followed quickly by disgust.
Ashley dragged her focus back to her present situation. Terrance’s eyes darted everywhere. Every once in a while he’d stare over his shoulder as if the demons of hell were chasing him. When they hit the Fairview city limits, he settled down, but only by a smidgen.
“How long have you been sleeping with him?” Terrance’s angry voice split the tense quiet in the car.
“We haven’t had sex…yet.”
“Yet? What’s keeping you out of his bed? I know it’s not loyalty to me.”
Loyalty? What did he know about loyalty? She wanted to slap him on behalf of his wife, but needed to keep her hands on the wheel. “I never said we weren’t in the same bed. I just said we haven’t had sex.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
The slice of his anger cut through her like a knife.
She gathered her faltering courage before she spoke again. “He’s still recuperating from the beating you gave him out at the Jepson place.”
She was only guessing, but it was the only thing that made sense. Josh swore up and down his assailant was a man. Who else hated him that much?
Terrance cackled, a maniacal sound that made her skin crawl. “That never kept a real man from what he wanted.” He waved the gun at her as if it weren’t dangerous to be so careless with it. “He must not want you that bad.”
Oh, but Josh did want her. She could feel it every time they were together. Josh hadn’t pushed things, and maybe that was because he knew how damaged she was from everything she’d been through, how difficult it would be for her to be with him with the images of being with Terrance still fresh in her memory.
It all made sense. Josh was giving her room to get her psyche straightened out. Just that morning he had suggested she should get some counseling. She got what he was doing. He wanted her to be psychologically ready when they were finally together again. He wanted her to be whole and not fractured. For a man like Josh McCord that was something of a personal sacrifice.
She got it and she loved him even more for it. When they were together, he wanted her to mentally be with him and not with every other man she’d ever been with. The list was a short one. Josh. Then Jeremy. Then Terrance. Only one of them was her choice.
Josh had confessed to her how awful he felt that he’d been with so many women while they were apart. She could see the guilt and the self-loathing surge up in him. That morning, she’d done everything she could to ease his mind, to tell him it was in the past if he wanted it to be. Truth was, she couldn’t think about that. Not yet. It was a psychological hurdle she was going to have to overcome. The thought of how many women Josh had been with hurt like hell.
Terrance wouldn’t understand that kind of guilt or Josh’s patience with her while she worked it out in her head. It took more strength of character for a man to wait until the time was right than to force his physical needs on a woman. No, Terrance Phelps would not understand that. He was used to getting what he wanted when he wanted it. She seriously doubted if he could empathize with anyone.
She bit her tongue. She wouldn’t argue with him. Antagonizing Terrance was not a good idea. She noted that he hadn’t bothered to deny attacking Josh.
“How many of them were there, Terrance?”
He glanced at her from the corner of his eye.
“How many women did you kidnap?”
He smiled as if she’d just complimented his greatest accomplishment. Her stomach did a roll over.
“So McCord figured it out. Did he tell you all about it? Did the two of you get off on it?”
His suggestion sickened her.
“Did he tell you what he found in the cave underneath the cabin?”
She waited a moment before answering, giving him plenty of time to anticipate her answer. “No, I told him.”
“You? You were the one who broke into the cabin and… You’re lying. You don’t have the guts to do something like that.”
He was so full of himself. The jackass thought he had her so much under his control that she wouldn’t dare disobey his direct order for compliance. And why wouldn’t he believe that? She’d never said no to him. Ever. How could she when she believed he would have destroyed the one person in the whole world she really cared about if she had defied him?
Telling Josh what Terrance had been doing to her was the hardest thing she’d ever done in her life…and probably the smartest. Just having one more person know the awful truth began the process of loosening the bonds of her captivity. She didn’t have to give in to whatever Terrance had planned for her. She’d ram his sports car into a tree first.
Maybe I should rattle his cage a little. Just see what happens. Maybe he’ll fall apart and I can escape. She smiled at the irony of the cliché she’d used. A cage. How appropriate for him. Animals belonged in cages.
“Josh knows where the cabin is now. He’ll follow us. You won’t get by with this.”
His grin was pure evil. “Good. That’s just what I want him to do.”
Her heart sank. There was no way to alert Josh to the danger he was in. She’d dropped her phone to the floorboard and kicked it under the seat, hoping the GPS would guide the cops to wherever Terrance was taking her.
They passed the Hot Spot and she thought she spotted Brett Duncan’s truck on the lot. Poor guy needed to stay away from drink. With all that anger bottled up inside him, he was about to explode all over someone. She shook thoughts of Brett out of her head. But then she went back to them.
“What happened to Cherish Duncan?”
Terrance inhaled deeply. “Never met the woman. I don’t know how her driver’s license ended up on Brandy. Whoever did that… That’s not the way I left her.”
A chill snaked through Ashley’s blood stream. He’d just admitted to killing the woman on the Ashley Ridge Trail. Unless Josh caught up with them, Ashley was as good as dead.
Chapter Eighteen
Josh’s cell phon
e vibrated in his cupholder. His hopes were dashed when the display told him the call was from Halsey rather than Ashley. Not that he believed Ashley could call him. Not if Terrance Phelps had her. Josh let the call go to voicemail. He was in no mood to talk to the sheriff. He ignored it again the second time Halsey called. The third time Josh relented and answered.
The sheriff wasted no time berating him. “Where the hell are you? I shouldn’t have to track you down like this.”
Tell the boss the truth? Sure, why not. “I’m headed down the highway toward Ashley Ridge.”
“The Hot Spot, huh? You’re still on the clock, McCord. This is a serious infraction. I thought I made the conditions of your reinstatement pretty clear.”
He sighed. He would have a hard time reversing the reputation he’d gotten as a heavy drinker. An on-the-job drinker. “I’ve already passed the Hot Spot. I don’t have time for drinking right now.”
The old man grumbled a few curse words under his breath before he finally said something intelligible. “Where is he?”
“Who?”
“Grayson. Where is he? I know you know.”
Tori had warned him something big was going down.
The best strategy was to seem clueless. The sheriff always bought that act. “Honestly, Sheriff. I have no idea. He left town and he didn’t tell me where he was going.”
Halsey huffed his disbelief. “Jackson said he’s seen Grayson around town. If he’s been around, I’ll bet you’ve talked to him. I’ll bet the two of you are in this together.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He really didn’t. Tori hadn’t given him any details.
“A reporter from Little Rock has been asking a lot of questions, like how Grayson is connected to Fred Haskins and why I’m covering it up. What is she talking about? I didn’t know he was connected to Haskins.”
Josh remained silent. Apparently, Halsey had no idea that Gray was Haskins biological son. “Which reporter?”
“Her name is Belinda something-or-other. That doesn’t matter. What does matter is that she’s been implying Haskins asked me to cover up the fact that Grayson found Caroline’s body. She wants to know why I’ve kept it out of the news, why there’s been no internal investigation. How the hell would she know about that?” He paused, and by the gasps coming across the phone call, Halsey was sucking in huge breaths of air and puffing them out. “I thought his pal Bennett was supposed to take care of cleaning up that mess.”
Ashley Ridge (Haunted Hearts Series Book 3) Page 21
