Fierce Shadows: Shadows Landing #4

by Kathleen Brooks

  “The pool,” the staffer told her.

  “I’ll meet you there.”

  “Isabella—”

  “I told you I’ll meet you there,” she yelled at Dr. Vella.

  The two left and Isabella sat back and took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. He saw the tension on her face and suddenly the young and confident woman looked beaten down. Dare leaned forward and rested his hand on her knee. “Are you okay?”

  She took another deep breath and looked up at the ceiling for just a moment. “You know that you’re the first person to ask me that? I didn’t know running a hotel would be so damn hard. They teach you about disgruntled customers in school, but never about people who come to resorts and forget all semblance of decency.”

  “Is someone hurt? What can I do?”

  Isabella shook her head. “Not hurt like in a fight. Someone has either drunk too much or overdosed on drugs. Apparently it’s serious enough for me to intervene. Like I said, people are horrid. My father tried to warn me, but I didn’t think it would be this bad. They come here and think they suddenly have a high tolerance and drink to the point of passing out or they think this would be a great time to try drugs. They vomit everywhere and I’m the one who has to deal with it. I’m the one who had to hire an on-site doctor to try to save these idiots. My father just lets them die. And because we are not a cheap resort, most of these idiots come from wealthy families who don’t want me to send their wives, husbands, mistresses, or children to the hospital for drug or alcohol overdoses. Do you know how much Narcan I have on hand here?”

  “I’m sorry.” Dare said and meant it. “Can I help?” he asked as everything he thought he knew was suddenly thrown into doubt. It didn’t sound like Isabella wanted the attention serving illegal alcohol would bring here. It didn’t sound as if she needed the money from it either. It also sounded as if she disapproved of her father’s actions instead of wanting to further them. In fact, she sounded tired of this. Is that what her entourage of young staffers was about? A way to deal with the pressure she was under?

  “No, I’ll handle it. I always do. Thanks for listening.”

  Isabella stood up, straightened her skirt, and then took off at a quick pace. Dare leapt up and was out the back door the second Isabella walked out the door. He raced around the side of the resort and into the bushes lining the walkway to the pool. Ahead of him, Isabella was making her way into the pool area. Dare crept along the shadows until he was close enough to peer through the bushes.

  A young woman was laid out on the travertine stone surrounding the pool. Dare could smell the vomit even from where he was hiding.

  “Shit,” Isabella cursed. “That’s the governor’s daughter! What the hell were you thinking?”

  A man was standing opposite her, but Dare couldn’t see who it was. Dr. Vella, the head of security, Carson Cruz, and the bartender, Brody, were surrounding the woman.

  “Should I give it to her?” Dr. Vella asked.

  “Of course!”

  “It might be better if she—” the mystery man started to say.

  “I don’t want to hear it.” Isabella bent down and found the girl’s phone. Isabella used the girl’s finger to unlock the phone and then she called someone while Dr. Vella hooked up an IV and injected her with something. “Your girl is passed out drunk down at the pool. Our doctor is treating her. Do you want us to call an ambulance?” There was a pause while Isabella listened and then hung up. “They’re on their way. Get out of here.”

  Brody and the mystery man turned to walk toward the beach. The pool bar was closed, so Dare didn’t know why Brody was there. Unfortunately, Carson Cruz was in Dare’s way so he couldn’t see the mystery man. When Cruz finally moved, the man was in front of Brody and Dare couldn’t see squat. But he did hear Brody. “I’m tired of covering your ass. No more. Got it?”

  Dare wanted to follow, but then he heard feet pounding toward him and he had to press himself into the shadows as the girl’s security team ran by.

  “We’re to take her to a private doctor,” one of them told Isabella and Dr. Vella. “Thanks for your help and your discretion.”

  The girl was scooped up as one man carried her and the other carried the IV. Dare had to stay hidden as Isabella, Dr. Vella, and Cruz were the next to walk by. He was about to follow when his phone silently vibrated with a text message. It was after one in the morning and that usually was not good.

  Gavin: Is Harper with you?

  Dare felt his heart stop beating as he called Gavin. He shoved through the bushes and onto the staff path so he could skirt the main building and make it to his bike unseen.

  “Please tell me Harper is with you.”

  “No. I’m just leaving the resort. What happened?” Dare sprinted like the hounds of hell were snapping at his heels.

  “Don’t know. Trent went to meet Harper. He likes to work late at night and so does Harper. She wasn’t at home.”

  “Have you tried the bar?” Dare asked.

  “Of course.”

  “Georgina?”

  “She told Trent that Harper closed the bar at midnight and walked outside with her. Then she went home and assumed Harper did too. We thought she might be with you.”

  “She’s not. I’ll be there soon.”

  23

  Dare felt like he wasn’t even in his body anymore. He and half of Shadows Landing had been searching the entire town since one-thirty in the morning. The sun was rising and so far there were no signs of Harper.

  Gavin opened the bar as a search-and-rescue headquarters. Granger and Kord had taken control and ordered people to start a grid search. Dare had been assigned to search with Gavin. Dare felt his heart being ripped from his chest as each hour passed with no news.

  “We’ll find her. Harper is strong. She’ll fight if someone took her.” Tinsley looked ready to collapse in a puddle of tears, but here she was comforting him. He nodded to her and silently squeezed her hand as the new bartender placed a cup of coffee in front of him.

  “Thanks, Georgina,” he said absently. This was the first time meeting her but he felt as if he knew her from what Harper had told him.

  She sniffled and with a wobbly smile for him said, “You can call me G.”

  “Break’s over,” Granger called out. The room went quiet as he assigned each volunteer pair a new grid to search. As the morning sun rose, more and more people joined their ranks.

  Harper had to be alive. Tinsley was right. She was a fighter.

  Harper woke up slowly. It wasn’t the type of thing where you’re suddenly awake and you know what’s going on. It was an agonizingly slow process and the first thing that registered was pain. Her head felt as if it had been split in two. Everything was black and she felt as if she were on a boat in really rough waters.

  The second thing she realized was that she was cold and wet. Her eyelids didn’t work yet, but she registered that the side of her face was partially in water and by the horrible smell, she also guessed that she was in pluff mud.

  Open. Open. Open. Harper chanted over and over again in her head until her eyelids fluttered open. A sliver of bright light hit her eyes and she slammed her lids closed again. She felt rather than heard the moan she let out.

  Okay, opening eyes wasn’t on the list to do right now. How about fingers and toes? Harper felt her toes slosh around in her shoes. She moved her foot and guessed it was underwater. She moved her fingers and felt them sinking into the mud. She tried to push up but wasn’t there yet.

  Harper took some slow deep breaths and tried to open her eyes again. Her mouth opened on a scream that refused to come out when she managed to get them open.

  An alligator was watching her and it wasn’t Bubba. With Bubba, she might have a chance. This one looked at her and then slid into the water. She had to get her legs out of the water—now!

  Pain shot through her head as she forced her limbs to move. The pain was so intense that she saw bright lights exploding behind her eyel
ids. She wouldn’t stop now. She had lived through whatever had happened and she wasn’t going to let any damned alligator take her down.

  Harper forced her body forward until she felt muddy sand beneath her hands and feet. Only then did she push herself up onto all fours. Her stomach rolled. Her head spun. When she looked around, she had no idea where she was. It was a mixture of small grassy mounds and marsh.

  Harper turned over and collapsed onto her butt. The gator’s two eyes were poking out of the water just feet from her. Harper grabbed a rotting limb and held it out in front of her to ward off the gator.

  They were locked in a standoff until Harper lowered the limb and used it as a cane to help her stand up. She wobbled and clutched the limb as she kept her eyes on the gator. When the world stopped spinning, she took a deep breath. Okay, she got this. The sun was rising, so that was east. She turned her head. And that was west. If she hadn’t crossed the river, then east would only take her to the river. If she were across the river, then east would take her to the ocean.

  “What happened to me?” she asked the gator who just blinked at her in return.“ The church! I was at the church looking at the cemetery. I thought I heard a boat. If I was put on it, I could be anywhere.”

  Harper groaned and looked at the gator. “Do you know how to get to Shadows Landing?”

  The gator charged. Instinct kicked in. Harper threw the limb at him and darted to his side. His jaws snapped at the limb at the same time she flung herself on the alligator’s back. His head snapped around as Harper clamped her hands over his eyes. He stopped fighting as soon as his eyes were covered. He froze with his upper jaw open and hissed. Using one arm to keep his eyes covered, Harper moved her other down his snout and used her body weight to apply pressure. Slowly, his mouth closed and she laid her head down on his as she sucked in large gasping breaths of air over and over again until the spinning stopped.

  “As I was saying,” she told the gator when she finally gained control of her body again. “I don’t think I want to go east. If they took me deeper into the marshes of Shadows Landing, I will get to dry land going either north or west. Same for south if I go far enough. Since I’m only sure of west, then that’s where I’m going. If I can get away from you.”

  Harper looked up from the gator. She was looking west. There were still swamp grasses and water. She turned behind her. To the west, the water looked shallower and there was definitely more solid land near her.

  “Will you be a good boy if I let go?” The gator’s nostrils flared. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.” Well, there was one thing she hadn’t tried yet. Harper closed her eyes, knowing this was going to hurt. “Help!” she screamed as loud as she could. She counted to fifteen and screamed again. She screamed every fifteen seconds like an alarm clock. She’d lost count of how many times she’d screamed when she heard a piercing whistle coming from behind her.

  Harper whipped her head around and then wished she hadn’t when the world tilted. There, in a flat-bottomed boat, was Gator. Harper would have wept if she weren’t still holding onto an alligator that wanted to eat her. She heard the piercing whistle again and saw Gator scanning the area as he rowed.

  “Here! Gator! I’m over here!” she screamed as her voice cracked with emotion. She saw his COCKS hat snap in her direction and then he was rowing fiercely toward her.

  “Looks like old Abe. He’s a nasty piece of work. Hang on, there Harper, I got you.” Gator’s waders disappeared into the mucky marsh waters when he leapt from the boat. He leaned over into the boat and grabbed a cooler. He pulled out three large pieces of raw chicken. “I’m going to throw these. As soon as the second one lands, I’m going to pull you off and toss you in the boat. Got it?”

  “Got it.” Harper felt her breathing speed up as her rescue became a real possibility. Gator pulled the boat as close to her as possible. He was standing to her right. She felt his leg brush hers. Right behind him was the boat.

  “Here we go. Uncover his eyes so he can see it.” Gator tossed the first piece of chicken right in front of Abe. The alligator’s body tensed under hers. Then Gator threw the second. Harper was in the air as soon as Gator threw the chicken. She’d been plucked off Abe and was slammed into the boat before she could blink. When she did, the world spun again as the boat rocked. Gator tossed the third piece of chicken ten feet in front of Abe who looked between Gator and the chicken and decided to go after the last piece of chicken.

  Harper held out her hand and Gator clasped it. “You got a lot of people worried about you,” he said as she helped pull him into the small boat.

  “I was hit from behind. I thought I saw a ghost behind the church and when I walked back there, I thought I heard a boat. I wanted to see who it was and I was hit on the back of the head. I woke up when the sun came up right here with Abe. Thank goodness you taught me how to wrestle a gator.”

  Harper slumped with relief as Gator shoved the small mounted motor into the water and pulled the starter. “I’ll call it in as soon as we get away from Abe. Your man is a right mess.”

  “Poor Gavin, I’ll bet he is.”

  Gator shook his head as they puttered into the deeper water. “Not your brother, though he’s a wreck too. Your boyfriend is the one who’s about to fall apart. Don’t get me wrong. He’s a tough guy. It ain’t easy for a man like that to give up control, but he did. He let Sheriff Fox lead the search. He’s been quiet as a babe doing everything Fox told him to. I have no doubt if I brought you back dead, he’d never recover. Now that you’re alive—” Gator shivered.

  “What? Now that I’m alive . . . what?”

  “Now that you’re alive I almost feel sorry for the sumbitch who hurt you. That man of yours will hunt him down to the ends of the earth to make sure he’s the one to send him straight to hell. Shoot, your man might walk him through the gates of hell and personally hand him to Lucifer if it means getting his revenge for hurting you. That man of yours has it bad.”

  “Has what bad?” Harper’s heart was beating so fast she was worried she wouldn’t hear Gator’s reply.

  “Love, Harper. That man loves you somethin’ fierce.”

  Good, because Harper loved him something fierce too. Her body began to shake as exhaustion and the realization of her whole ordeal hit her. Gator shrugged out of his jean jacket and handed it to her before putting his phone to his ear. “I got her.”

  Dare and Gavin staggered back into the bar. They’d searched their grid and had yet again come back empty. “Nothing,” Gavin reported to Granger who marked off another grid on his map.

  Georgina quickly poured them two more cups of coffee. Earl and Darius, the owners of the rival barbecue restaurants, were working together to feed all the volunteers and two sandwiches were shoved into their hands.

  “You have to eat,” Earl ordered.

  Dare set the sandwich on the table as he looked at the map. “Where should we go next?”

  Granger was studying the map with him when his phone rang. Everyone in the bar immediately went silent. “Got it.” Granger lifted a red pen and put an X through another grid.

  Dare refused to give up hope, but he saw the faces of the volunteers. They were losing hope as more and more of the map was covered with red Xs. The phone rang again. Dare couldn’t watch Granger put another red mark on the map so he looked down at his feet and made a lot of promises if only Harper could be found.

  “Is she alive?”

  Dare shot up at the same time Gavin jumped from his seat. Granger listened as Gavin came to stand beside him. Dare knew he wasn’t breathing. He didn’t want to miss hearing if Harper was alive or dead so he just held his breath. Gavin wasn’t much better. The man next to him was shaking as his wife ran over to clutch his arm.

  Granger’s head turned sharply toward them and he looked right at them as he nodded his head in the affirmative. Harper was alive. “Where are you?”

  Ellery gasped and burst into tears as Gavin hugged her. Dare finally dragged in a breath, standing s
toically as the news began to circulate around him. Granger hung up and sent out an alert to all the volunteer searchers. Dare and Gavin waited impatiently in front of him when Granger raised his head from his phone.

  “Injuries?” Gavin had gone into doctor mode.

  Granger nodded. “Head injury. She was hit from behind and woke up in the marsh north of here. Gator found her. She’s talking, but complaining of dizziness, a splitting headache, and flashing lights.”

  “Concussion or worse. We need to get a CT immediately.”

  The door flung open as Ryker and Tinsley rushed in. Dare stepped back and let Gavin take the lead with his family. While Gavin may have gone into doctor mode, Dare’s mind was now fully in investigative mode. He was going to hunt down the person or persons responsible for hurting his woman and make them pay.

  Dare left the family and everyone else who were now making plans for helicopters and hospitals. He was on his way to the marina. He smiled and thanked the volunteers he passed but didn’t stop until he hit the marina.

  Dare scanned the area. There was one long dock that stood a good four feet above the water. Good for fishing, not for tying a boat up. That’s not where she’d get off. To the right, down the slight hill, were multiple floating docks with boat slips. That’s where she’d go.

  The sound of tires skidding as brakes were being slammed stopped Dare’s jog toward the boat slips. He looked over his shoulder as Miss Winnie and Miss Ruby shoved their doors open and angled themselves out.

  Dare looked out at the water. He didn’t see Gator’s boat yet, so he spun around and rushed over to see what they needed. “Ladies, do you need something?”

  Miss Ruby’s head popped up from where she was reaching into her backseat. Her hair was covered with a blue, white, and pink silk head wrap while Miss Winnie was rocking a velour zip-up robe.

  “Yes, young man,” Miss Ruby called out. “We got the message and knew our Harper would be coming in here. She’ll be cold and hungry so we brought an emergency kit.”