by Liz Shoaf
Ethan was opening the rear door, lifting Penny in, giving Chloe time to mask any emotion. She pasted a smile on her face and twisted around. “Good day at school?”
Penny scrunched up her nose. “What are you doing in my dad’s car?”
The kid wasn’t exactly rolling out the welcome mat, but Chloe was fast developing a soft spot for Ethan’s daughter. Chloe pulled the tablet out of its box and held it up where Penny could see.
“Look what I just bought.” She didn’t know if Penny had better computer skills than her dad, but most kids these days had a device in their hands practically before they could walk.
Her answer came when Penny leaned forward and tried to grab it out of her hand. Ethan had settled himself in the driver’s seat and reprimanded his daughter while starting the engine and backing out of the parking space.
“Penny! You don’t grab. If you would like to see something, you ask nicely.”
Penny’s lower lip trembled. Chloe shook her head as if saying, That won’t work on me, and Penny’s lip protruded in resentment. Chloe hadn’t been around many kids during her adult life, but she did train dogs and knew a thing or two. She faced forward in her seat.
“I guess that means you don’t want to play some of the nifty games made for kids on my tablet, then.” She waited a full minute, then grinned when a syrupy-sweet voice piped up from the back seat.
“May I please play with your tablet?”
Chloe brought up a few proper games made for children and locked out the rest of the tablet.
She turned around and handed the device to Penny. “Here you go. See, that wasn’t so bad.”
She received a nose scrunch, but let it pass.
Ethan cleared his throat and looked in the rearview window. “Penny, I have to go out of town for a short period and you’ll be staying with the babysitter until I return. She’s a grown woman and I expect you to mind her.”
Chloe glanced over her shoulder and snapped her head forward again. She didn’t think Ethan had seen Penny’s crestfallen expression a second before rebellion set in. The dejected look in the kid’s face gripped Chloe’s heart and refused to let go.
“I don’t want to stay at the babysitter’s. I want you to stay home,” she screeched at an earsplitting decibel level.
Ethan’s jaw locked. “I don’t like your tone, young lady. This is related to work and you’ll do as you’re told.”
Chloe slumped down in her seat. The hurt look she’d seen in Penny’s eyes reminded her of the day she’d been told her parents were dead and that she’d be living at the orphanage. She had to do something, and then a thought occurred to her.
“Hey, Penny, if it’s okay with your dad, why don’t you stay at Mrs. Denton’s? I’m sure the school bus could pick you up and drop you off there. That way you could have the run of the B and B and eat all the chocolate chip cookies you could ever dream of.”
Chloe looked over her shoulder tentatively to see how her suggestion was received and was vastly relieved to see the calculating look on Penny’s face. She’d take anything over the hurt.
The little stinker looked her straight in the eye and started bargaining. “Can Geordie stay with me?”
Chloe grinned. “It’s always smart to stop while you’re ahead, and my dog goes with me. I might need him.”
“Can I, Daddy? Can I stay at Mrs. Denton’s? I promise to be good.”
Ethan looked at Chloe and mouthed thank you. It warmed her heart.
His grin belied the seriousness of his tone. “I don’t know, Penny. Can I trust you to get on and off the bus at Mrs. Denton’s and to mind what she says?”
Chloe laughed when Penny bounced in her seat, straining against the seat belt. “I promise, Daddy.”
“If it’s okay with Mrs. Denton, then you can stay there while I’m gone.”
A happy squeal came from the back seat and Chloe smiled while Ethan parked the Jeep in front of the B and B. Her grin slid away when she thought about the disc and the man who was after her.
* * *
Mrs. Denton agreed readily to take care of Penny while he was away, and Ethan strode down the hall to tuck her in and say goodbye. Their flight left early the next morning and he would be long gone before Penny awakened.
He stopped at Penny’s partially open door and was peeking through the opening when he heard whispers and several giggles from his daughter. What he saw surprised him. Chloe and Geordie were lying across the middle of the bed and Penny was sitting cross-legged near her pillow.
He strained to hear their words. “And this is how you keep Tommy Milton from putting frogs in your desk.”
Chloe lowered her voice and Ethan grinned. He could only imagine what the woman was telling his daughter to do, but then they quieted.
“You know, Penny, nothing is going to happen to your father. He’s a strong man and he’s very good at what he does.”
Penny’s soft reply almost broke his heart. “But Chloe, Tommy Milton said Daddy could get killed in the line of duty and then I’d be all alone.”
Ethan saw a big fat tear slide down her cheek, and his hands clenched. He had no idea that Penny worried something might happen to him.
He held his breath, ready to step in, while he waited on Chloe’s response. She might not be the best person to be having this discussion with his daughter. The woman had lost both her parents at the same time, and she was a pretty tough lady.
Chloe didn’t sugarcoat it. “Well, Penny, I can’t promise you that nothing bad will ever happen, but you have to have faith in your dad. You’re a powerfully strong reason for him not to get himself hurt because he loves you very much.”
Penny perked up, and Ethan released the breath he’d been holding. “You mean like the preacher says to have faith in God?”
Chloe became evasive. “Something like that.”
He watched Penny climb under the covers. “I’m going to say my prayers right now and ask God to take care of my daddy.”
Chloe slid off the bed and Ethan slipped into a room across the hall. He didn’t want Chloe to know he’d listened to their conversation. He was feeling a little raw at the moment, and he expected she was, too. He couldn’t imagine a ten-year-old losing both parents at the same time, and he was sure Chloe’s conversation with Penny had brought back sad memories.
Hearing Chloe’s door close, he took a deep, fortifying breath. He thought he’d been doing a pretty good job raising Penny as a single parent, but discovering his little girl had been worrying that he would die had figuratively knocked the breath out of him. No six-year-old should have to worry about things like that.
He stepped into the hall and slipped into Penny’s room. Moonlight filtered in through the window and he stared at the one thing he’d done right in his life. Pressing a soft kiss on Penny’s brow, he stood for a moment longer and asked God to look after his little girl. She opened her sleepy eyes and gifted him with a sweet smile before falling back asleep. One last look and he turned to leave. He had a few phone calls to make in preparation for his departure.
* * *
The next morning, Ethan was surprised to find Chloe at the kitchen table with her laptop and a mug of coffee sitting in front of her. Today she had on the same pair of jeans with a sweatshirt bearing another picture of her and Geordie competing in some kind of a bite contest.
“It’s five o’clock. I figured you’d sleep until the last minute. We don’t have to leave for the airport until six.”
She grunted and took another sip of coffee without looking up.
“What’s Geordie doing in the picture on your shirt?”
“Huh?” She looked up and he noticed dark blue circles under her eyes. “Oh,” she said, rubbing her eyes, “I’ve trained Geordie in everything from tracking, to obedience and bite training. This was taken at an event we attended.”
Ethan poured himself
a cup of coffee and chuckled before taking a sip. “A trained attack poodle. I thought bite training was for dogs like German shepherds and Belgian Malinois. You know, dogs with a little muscle behind them.”
Chloe’s eyes narrowed until he grinned, letting her know he was teasing. He took a seat across from her and placed his mug on the table. “You’ve been up most of the night, haven’t you?”
She rubbed her eyes again and dropped her hands in a defeated manner that roused his protective instincts. “I had to get my laptop set up so I could track my stolen computer.”
“And?”
Her bleak eyes met his. “Ned was right. It’s a good thing we already made flight plans because my old laptop is definitely in North Carolina.”
He sensed there was much more. “And?”
Moisture filled her eyes, but she sat straight in her chair and took a deep breath. “If my tracking program is working right, my old laptop has been connected to the internet in Mocksville, North Carolina.” She swallowed hard and whispered, “It’s at the orphanage where I spent six years. Sarah Rutledge lives there. She took care of me during that time. She’s the one who homeschooled me.”
Ethan didn’t like the way this was shaping up. “You think the killer is leading you to Sarah Rutledge? For what reason?”
Chloe exploded out of her chair and started pacing the floor. “I don’t know!” she yelled, and faced him. “I don’t know anything about a disc and I don’t know how to stop this.”
Ethan had been around Chloe long enough to know she was a woman who prided herself on her strength. Her tears proved she was beyond upset and it pinged him near the region of his heart, but he quickly discarded the emotion. He had no plans to get emotionally involved with this woman, or any woman—not after he’d failed Sherri. It was time for him to do his job.
“Sit down.”
“What?”
A sparkle of fire lit her eyes, and he relaxed. He could deal with the fire much better than tears.
“Take a seat and let’s make a plan.”
She sat, and Ethan took another sip of coffee while thinking things through. “We’ll follow the lead to North Carolina, and in the meantime, I think you should allow the killer to contact you.”
A belligerent “Why?” sprang forth. “If he can’t get in touch with me, I’ll have more time to figure out what he wants.”
Ethan raised a brow. “And what if he gets frustrated because he can’t get in touch with you and decides to harm Sarah Rutledge?”
Chloe ran long, feminine fingers through her short tufted hair and blew out a breath. “Okay, okay, you’re right. I can’t take that chance.” She leaned forward, her mouth a straight line. “Ethan, I don’t have a clue what he wants.”
“This is no different than solving a murder. We’ll take it one step at a time. First we go to North Carolina and visit the orphanage. I don’t know if the killer placing the laptop there is a threat to the people you know, or if there’s something else he wants us to find, but that’s our starting place. You with me?”
It was one of the few times she didn’t try to hide her emotions.
“How can you be so calm?” Her tone was filled with annoyance and he almost grinned.
“I learned a long time ago to take things slow and methodical and to remove emotions from the equation.”
Chloe looked like she wanted to deck him, and he finally did grin.
“I’m so glad you find this amusing.”
The grin slid away and his jaw tightened. “I have two dead bodies on ice at the morgue. I don’t find anything about this situation amusing. Grab Geordie and your bags and let’s head to the airport.”
She rose and Ethan watched her as she left the room. Chloe was full of ambiguity. One minute she was whipping out her gun, and the next she was easing a young girl’s worries over her father possibly getting injured on the job. His stomach lurched when he thought about Penny’s fears. Fears he’d known nothing about that Chloe had discovered in a matter of days.
He was very confident in his ability to do his job, but he had failed both the women in his life. He should have realized how unhappy Sherri was, and he should have noticed Penny’s worries.
There was a soft knock at the front door—he’d warned David not to ring the bell so Mrs. Denton and Penny wouldn’t awaken—and he got up and stepped into the foyer. He glanced through the wavy glass built into the frame, then unlocked the door when he spotted David.
“Morning, Sheriff.” David handed him a brown paper bag and gave him a speculative look. “You sure you want to do this?”
Ethan took the bag and ignored the question. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone. Call me on my cell if anything happens at the station that you can’t handle.” He’d contacted his deputy early that morning with specific instructions.
“Yes, sir. ’Sides the two recent murders, not much happens around here.” Disappointment filled David’s voice and Ethan hid a smile as he nodded. His young deputy was eager for some action. He closed the door and slipped the paper sack inside his traveling bag, not sure he’d made the right decision. Only time would tell. Chloe Spencer had secrets, and he didn’t know if some of them were connected to the two murders in his jurisdiction or the Peter Norris murder. All he knew for certain was that Miss Spencer was at the center stage of a murder investigation in New York, and somehow involved in the two murders in Jackson Hole. Just because she was nice to Penny was no reason to give her his trust. He’d treat this case like any other and gird himself against those cute dimples when they chose to appear.
ELEVEN
Finally they were seated on the plane and takeoff was imminent. Geordie was allowed to sit with them because he could fit in a carrier under the seat in front of Chloe. She kept all his international shots and papers up-to-date because her job required her to travel when a company she had contracted with in the United States had offices in other countries. It didn’t happen often, but she stayed prepared.
Ethan had been quiet on the way to the airport, and she wasn’t in the best of moods herself. The plane finally lifted off and Chloe unbuckled her seat belt. She might as well get to work and open a pathway for the killer to get in touch with her. Ethan was right—if the killer couldn’t get in touch with her, he might hurt someone else she knew.
Her fingers trembled slightly as she pulled her new laptop from the duffel she’d packed for the trip. Laying it across her lap, she opened the lid and turned it on. She stared at the screen while it booted up. What disc could she possibly have that someone was willing to kill for?
She was shaken from her morose thoughts when Ethan started talking.
“I’m not sure if I’m doing the right thing, but after what happened at Ned’s, I decided to give you back your weapons. I went through proper TSA airport protocol and checked both our guns and the knife. You’ll have them when we reach North Carolina.”
Chloe felt a big ol’ thump in the region of her heart. She was so happy she whipped her head up, grabbed Ethan around the neck and planted a big, fat kiss right on his lips. When she pulled back, he looked as stunned as she felt. Mortified to the soles of her boots, she started rambling.
“I didn’t mean to do that. I’m so sorry. I was just so happy about getting my gun back—”
She snapped her mouth shut when she noticed the amusement on his face.
“It’s not funny. I take it back.”
He laughed. “You can’t take back a kiss.”
She felt heat crawl up her neck. “It didn’t mean anything.”
He sobered. “No, it didn’t. Listen, Chloe, we’re in the middle of an investigation—”
“And you don’t trust me. I get it.”
He looked like he wanted to say more, but shook his head.
She looked at him through the blurred tears and chuckled at his expression. His face held someth
ing close to a look of terror.
“I’m not crying because I don’t cry.” She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “I appreciate what you’re doing. How did you manage that before we left?”
Relief flooded his face. “I called my deputy. He brought your gun and picked up a knife on the way to the house.”
Chloe rubbed Geordie on his head when it popped up between her legs. She had partially unzipped the top of his collapsible dog crate. “So why are you handing back my weapons if you don’t trust me?”
He seemed to give consideration to her question. She liked that about Ethan. He thought things through.
“If anything happens to me, I want you to be able to protect yourself.”
Chloe nodded, but her heart expanded. Only a few people in her life had cared about her. She had often questioned her parents’ love because the only thing they’d ever wanted was to save the world. Had they ever thought about what she’d endure if the worst happened and they were killed? Apparently not, because they’d died following their dream.
Chloe replayed the kiss in her mind. His lips were soft and sweet and felt good against hers, but she shook off the pretty thoughts. She wasn’t a relationship kind of woman, and, besides, who would ever love her? She had a murky past, and even her parents hadn’t loved her enough to give up the mission field. They had even quit taking her with them when she was four years old and she never knew why. They had always left her in the care of Sarah Rutledge at the orphanage when they left the country. They’d known the woman for years, so at least Chloe was familiar with Sarah and the orphanage when her parents’ devastating deaths had occurred. Maybe they’d liked being alone, just the two of them, and a kid tagging along got in their way. Now she’d never know.
Burying the past, she got to work on her laptop. She probably had a zillion messages. She opened her email and proved herself right. She hated any kind of paperwork, and that included returning emails. She took a deep breath.
The first one on the list was from a dog client. She read several lines and laughed.
