The Rogue

by Jennifer Bernard

  “That’s why you’re going to make that statement,” he went on. “My reputation’s on the line. Rockwell thinks he can come back here and ruin my life. He can go fuck himself.”

  Finally it all clicked into place. “Oh my God. You’re the coach. The one who beats up his players. Artie Nelson.”

  He hit her in the back of her head, with his fist this time, not the knife.

  “I served you drinks at the Last Chance. That’s why you sound familiar.”

  “Got a genius on our hands here. Now you’re starting to see it.”

  “Okay, so you’re angry at Griffin and you’re carjacking me and taking me somewhere to make a statement to the press. I’m still not getting it.”

  “He’s smearing me, now you’re going to smear him. You’re going to say that he hit you and threatened you with a knife. You’re going to say it exactly like I tell you.”

  Even though that knife was at her throat, she shook her head. “Never. I’ll never say that about Griffin.” Because Griffin was rock solid, true blue, solid gold, and right at this moment she couldn’t believe she’d been so stupid as to walk away from him.

  “Oh, you will. I don’t know how much Griffin told you about me, but I got all kinds of dirt on people in this town. Including one Frank Riggs. I heard you asking about him at the Last Chance. Rang a bell. I remembered an incident from back then, and did some digging. I have all the answers you could ever want. And I’ll tell you, right after you hold that press conference.”

  Oh sweet mother, this man was a monster. What kind of person held out something like that as a carrot? She could find out what happened to her father only by lying about Griffin?

  That wasn’t a choice. It was torture.

  She would never sell out Griffin, never. If that was her only way to find out about her father, she’d have to let him go.

  That thought made her vision blur and her hands slipped on the steering wheel. Panic seized her as the Toyota careened across the road. Was this how she was going to go? At the hands of a crazy-ass high school football coach?

  Griffin’s calm voice and careful instructions replayed in her mind as she pulled out of the fishtail spin by the skin of her teeth. The coach had gotten slung against the door, and she had a quick fantasy about opening his door and pushing him out. But she couldn’t reach that far and anyway she needed to keep both hands on the wheel to control the car.

  So she gritted her teeth and allowed him to right himself without any interference.

  She glanced at the rearview mirror and noticed the tracks that swerved across the road in a wild pattern.

  Ha!

  The coach hadn’t thought about that. If Griffin came after her, he’d see those tracks and he’d know something wasn’t right. Griffin didn’t miss things like that. He might not be a racer anymore, but all that skill and knowledge lived inside him.

  Please come after me, Griffin. Please don’t let me go. Please.

  “Drive to that cabin you were staying in,” the man growled. Her nose wrinkled at the sour smell emanating from him. Old cigar mixed with stale sweat. “I need to leave something there.”

  “Leave something at my cabin? Why?” She remembered the night when Griffin had walked her home, when she’d thought someone was following her. “Have you been stalking me? Are you some kind of perv?”

  Even though that earned her another punch to the jaw—lighter, this time, so they didn’t crash--it was well worth it.

  “Not stalking, bitch. Information-gathering. Fucking Rockwell threatened me, told me to stay away. Couldn’t let that stand.” The coach coughed into his fist, a smoker’s cough that made her nauseous. “Know what I love? I love knowing that every blow I land is going to get blamed on Griffin Rockwell. That’s some sweet fucking justice.”

  “How is that justice?” Sweat poured down Serena’s face as she focused on keeping the car on the road. “Why don’t you just stop hitting your players? That’s the best way to fix your reputation.”

  “Too late for that,” he said. His tone—nervous, guilty—set off another round of alarm bells.

  “Why is it too late? Did something happen? Is that why you’re doing this now?”

  “Shut it.” He backhanded her again. Her ears rang and her vision blurred. She barely managed to hang onto the steering wheel. “Give me your phone.”

  Silently, she handed it to him. He turned it off and stuffed it in his jacket pocket.

  “When we get to the cabin, you’ll stay in the car.”

  The hell she would.

  They reached the turnoff that led toward the town of Rocky Peak. She turned left, toward her cabin, and made sure it was a rough turn, one that traveled over new snow. If Griffin did follow her, she wanted to leave as many little clues as she could.

  If he didn’t follow her…she’d be on her own. Like always.

  And then she remembered the hunting knife that Griffin had given her. It was sitting in her suitcase where she’d tossed it during her lightning round of packing. Would he be gone long enough to dig it out before she ran for help? And what if she did? The coach was strong, much stronger than she was.

  But if he didn’t know that she had it…maybe, just maybe…she could surprise him long enough to jump out the door.

  She pulled into the driveway of her cabin and stopped the car. Artie held out his hand for the keys, which she handed to him.

  As soon as his big hand closed over the keys, his fist came at her. And everything went black.

  30

  Griffin got as far as the foyer before Kai caught up with him. “Hang on, bro. Let’s think this through. No need to go tearing off without backup or a plan. What’s going on?”

  “I don’t know exactly.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “I just feel like something’s off. Even though Serena was mad, I don’t think she would have just left like that.”

  “Even if Dad scared her off?” Gracie was breathless from her run down the hallway to join them.

  “He really yelled at her, hard,” said Nicole. She and the twins were right on Gracie’s heels. “I haven’t seen him like that in a while.”

  “You don’t know Serena. She doesn’t scare easy. She had it tough growing up, and since then too. It’s more likely that he pissed her off instead of scared her. And then there’s the cigar. Not Dad’s.”

  “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,” said Jake doubtfully.

  “I know Serena.” Griffin’s intense tone made everyone else stop talking. “I may be a washed-up, half-deaf town pariah, but I still have my gut. And my gut says something’s wrong.”

  “Then let’s go,” said Kai immediately. “Where do we start?”

  “Count me in too,” said Jake. Izzy rested one hand on her twin’s shoulder and nodded.

  “Make that two.”

  “Me too.” Gracie made a sassy face at him. “Unless you want to keep doing the strong and silent, go-it-alone thing.”

  Griffin shook his head as he strode to the coat room to grab his jacket. “Nope, that’s over. I’ll take all the help I can get. I’m the best driver, so I’m going after her. Kai, you come with me because you’re a paramedic.”

  “How about if I spread the word with the volunteer firemen. She’s still driving that Camry, right?” Jake pulled out his cell phone as Griffin nodded.

  “I’ll stay with Max unless you need someone with a medical background,” said Izzy. “That’s a lot of drama for one day.”

  “Good idea.” Griffin scrubbed a hand across his face. “Okay, what else?”

  Nicole raised her hand. “I can back up Isabelle or stand by with another car in case you need me.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Gracie pulled her lower lip between her teeth. “Can I come with you? I probably know Serena the best, except for you, Griffin. We’ve been working on stuff together and talking about art and I don’t know, maybe I can be helpful.”

  Griffin nodded. “Yeah, you should come. That would be great, thanks G
racie. We could use another set of … ears.” He sent her a ghost of a smile that hopefully communicated that he appreciated her even though his gut was tied up in knots at the moment.

  Gracie’s face lit up and she skipped off for her fleece jacket.

  As they left, Jake was already on the phone, talking to someone in a low, urgent voice. Nicole gave Kai a long goodbye hug and a kiss.

  Would he ever get the chance to do the same with Serena? The ache and fear in his heart amped up another degree.

  Outside, the cold blasted them in the face like a wake-up slap. They all loaded into Kai’s Tacoma, with Griffin at the wheel. Instantly he felt better, more in control. It helped so much to be in the driver’s seat, to feel his pro racer side take over. At the wheel, he was the master of his own destiny—well, aside from snow and ice and freaking carjackers who might have stolen the woman he loved.

  Yep, loved. Say it again. He loved her, and even when she’d pushed him away and stalked out of the lodge, he still felt connected to her. He’d known that she would come back, known in his bones that nothing was over between them. That it wouldn’t be over, not any time soon and hopefully not ever. Emotion still pulsed between them, hot and wild and vital and necessary. She made him feel alive.

  Lost in his thoughts, he made it a good way down the mountain before he even realized it.

  “Damn, you’re good,” said Kai admiringly. “It’s one thing watching you on TV, another thing being your passenger.”

  “And this isn’t even his vehicle of choice,” Gracie said from the back seat. “Imagine if we were on a motorcycle right now.”

  “All of us?”

  “It might be kind of crowded, but we’d be safe in Griffin’s hands.”

  Griffin snorted. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but let’s not put that to the test.”

  The windshield was fogging up, so Kai put on the defroster, then cleared off a space to look through. “Looks like someone had trouble up ahead.”

  Griffin took his foot off the accelerator as they closed in on the tire tracks that crisscrossed the road. A shot of fear bolted through him. “Could be Serena’s Camry. About the right size.” He pulled over before they reached the tracks and hopped out of the truck, followed by the others. A light sprinkling of snow had fallen since the tracks were laid down, but they were still clear enough.

  “Let me,” said Kai. “I’ve dealt with a few accidents in my time.”

  Griffin was happy to let him take the lead. Kai stepped carefully alongside the tracks, tracing out what must have happened. Gracie walked into the woods at the side of the road, peering through the thick trees and underbrush.

  Meanwhile, Griffin tried Serena’s phone once more. This time it didn’t even go to voicemail. It had been turned off.

  “Whoever was driving managed to regain control right here,” Kai called, pointing to a spot on the road. “There’s a pretty clear tire mark, want to check it out?”

  Griffin crouched to look closely at the mark. Almost definitely, it was from Serena’s car. He stared at the tracks for a moment, trying to imagine what had happened. The tire tracks didn’t necessarily indicate another person in the car. Maybe she was alone and had temporarily lost control. Except …

  “Look what a good job she did coming out of that spin. That’s some good driving,” he said, almost to himself.

  “Well, you trained her, right?” Kai buried his hands in his pocket to protect them from the cold.

  “Exactly. I trained her. I know she can handle this road. I haven’t felt one speck of black ice, it’s too cold for it. So why did she go into that spin to begin with?”

  “Good point.” Kai pulled out his phone and called Jake. “Looks like something definitely went down. Any word from anyone in town?”

  He put the phone on speaker so they could all hear Jake’s answer. “Luke thinks he saw a Camry headed south through town. Didn’t see the license plate or who was in it, but he did notice the car was blue. He was on a date, sorry. He’s usually more observant.”

  South…toward the highway. Was Serena headed out of Rocky Peak? If she reached the highway, it would be almost impossible to find her.

  But south was also the direction of her cabin. Where the guy in the camo hat had been lurking.

  It was worth a try.

  “Let’s go,” Griffin said sharply. “I have an idea.”

  They all jumped back in the truck and he hauled ass downhill. He didn’t say anything, keeping his focus one hundred percent on the road ahead, using all his skill—and then some—to get down the mountain as fast as a two-ton machine possibly could.

  He felt Kai and Gracie’s silent support, as if they knew chatter would just distract him. It made for a rare quiet moment for the Rockwell family. No joking, no teasing, no yelling—just wholehearted, one hundred percent unity.

  When they reached the street where the cabin was located, he pulled up to the curb as close as possible without being spotted.

  “Okay, let’s do a little reconnaissance. We need to see if Serena’s there, and if anyone else is with her and—” He broke off when he realized that Gracie was already way ahead of him. Silent as a ghost, she’d slipped out of the truck and was stealthily making her way past the snow-laden alders surrounding the cabin. In her creamy fleece jacket, with her petite size and blond hair, she could hardly be seen against the terrain.

  “Did she really just do that?” Griffin glared at his brother in the passenger seat. “Why didn’t you stop her?”

  “You do know that there’s no stopping Gracie when she decides to do something, don’t you?”

  “You have a point there.” But still … Gracie shouldn’t be taking that risk. This was his job. He started to get out, but Kai put a hand on his forearm. “We’d both stick out like football players at a ballet. Gracie’s got this.”

  “But what if…” He didn’t want to contemplate the possibilities.

  “She’s smart. She won’t do anything too crazy.”

  Then again, she was Gracie, always a wild card in any situation. They both kept their hands on their door handles, waiting to charge out of the truck if necessary. Gracie looked over at them and gestured toward a gap in the alders.

  Griffin shook his head violently. Don’t you dare.

  She rolled her eyes, just as she’d done as a kid, but followed his silent direction and simply parted the branches enough to see through them. For long, agonizing moments they watched her survey the scene past the protective shield of the alders.

  Then she came tiptoeing back toward them, a pale sprite against the piles of snow.

  Griffin didn’t completely exhale until she was back inside the truck. “You scared the living crap out of me, Gracie.”

  “Sorry. I knew you’d make a fuss so I just went. I think I saw Serena. Her car is sitting right there in the driveway, with someone in the driver’s seat. But the windows are fogged up so I couldn’t really see. And I think someone might be in the cabin. I know that cabin really well because I used to clean it. The front door always gets loaded up with snow, and I didn’t see any.”

  Griffin reached toward the back seat and gripped his sister’s hand. “You rock, Gracie-girl.”

  She grinned at the sound of the nickname he used to call her. “Any time, Griff-dude. So what next? Call the sheriff?”

  “You know it’ll take them half an hour to get up here. Why don’t we just carjack her right back?”

  Kai nodded, eyes gleaming. “You handle that part, I’ll create a distraction.”

  “Like what? Nothing too dangerous. We don’t know if he’s armed, but we have to assume he is.”

  “I got this. You just go get Serena. Gracie, get in the driver’s seat and get ready to take off.”

  Griffin still hesitated, but Kai wasn’t a rescue paramedic for nothing. “Go,” he said sharply. “Trust me. I’ve screwed up plenty of things, but this, I can handle.”

  It was different, having a big brother around to help—but
he’d take it.

  31

  Griffin slipped quietly out of the truck and loped toward the driveway of the cabin.

  He spotted the outline of Serena’s head in the driver’s seat right away. Scanning the cabin for signs of the bad guy, all he saw was a shadow passing a window—coming right for the front door. Damn it. That didn’t give him enough time to get to the Toyota. He’d have to make a run for it and hope the dude didn’t have a gun. A stupid assumption given that he probably had some kind of weapon to get Serena to go with him.

  He was preparing to dash across the driveway toward the driver’s seat when he saw something fly through the air and hit the wall of the cabin with a hard thump.

  A snowball.

  Jesus, was Kai counting on his snowball prowess to get them out of this mess? Trust a Rockwell to do something that nutty.

  It seemed to work, at least enough for Griffin’s purposes. The figure inside the house froze, then crept toward the wall where the snowball had splattered.

  Staying low, he loped across the driveway to the rear of the car, where he crouched behind the bumper, waiting to see what happened next.

  Another snowball hit the wall, then another. Kai was aiming at the walls instead of the window so the dude wouldn’t realize those were snowballs flying through the air instead of something more menacing.

  Whatever, as long as it was working. No footsteps came pounding out the front door. Quickly, Griffin slipped around to the driver’s side and tapped on the window.

  Serena didn’t move so much as a muscle in response. Through the fogged-up windows, he saw that her head was slumped against the headrest. Unconscious.

  Horror raced through him. Was she still alive? How badly was she injured? Shit. Also, how was he going to get her out of the car if she couldn’t move?

  He knocked louder, and this time she responded. The door opened just a crack. He yanked it open and saw Serena’s wild eyes and bloodied face.

  Rage shot through him at the sight of the damage the carjacker had done to her.