by Elle James
As she walked with Bastian, Angus, Colin and Duncan fell in step with them, emerging together into the clearing where the crumbling cabin stood.
The sheriff exited through the front door, shaking his head. When he spotted Jenna, he moved toward the steps.
“Watch the top step. It’s broken,” she called out.
The sheriff bypassed the steps and jumped off the porch onto the ground and headed for her, his brow pinched. “I don’t know what you think you saw, but the place is completely empty.”
Chapter 4
Jenna’s body froze beneath Bastian’s hand. “What do you mean, it’s completely empty?” She started forward, stepping out of Bastian’s arm. “There was a chair, a battery, jumper cables and rope.” She marched to the stairs and started up, passing over the top one to place her foot on the porch.
Bastian hurried to catch up to her. He noted the broken boards and the sagging post at the far end of the porch. He prayed the overhanging awning didn’t collapse while they stood beneath it.
Jenna entered the house ahead of him and came to an abrupt standstill in what had been a living area with windows looking out over the back yard.
Like the sheriff said, the room was completely empty.
“I don’t understand. The chair was here.” She waved her hand at the floor. “There was blood on the floor.” Jenna squatted to get closer to the wood planking. Even the blood had been cleaned up. Every last droplet. “It was here.”
She stood and faced the sheriff. “Do you have one of those lights? The ones that can illuminate blood that’s been cleaned up?” She pointed to the floor. “Look at this floor. If this place had been empty for ten years, it would have a thick layer of dust right here.” She walked into the far corner and brushed her foot across the surface, stirring up a puff of dust. “Like this.”
The sheriff’s eyes narrowed. “As a matter of fact, I do have one of those lights and some Luminol.” He left the cabin and was back a moment later with what looked like a flashlight and a small bottle of spray liquid. “Where did you say it was?”
She pointed to a dust-free spot on the floor. “Here.”
Sheriff Barron sprayed Luminol on that spot and shined the ultraviolet light over it.
The floor lit up a fluorescent blue in that spot.
Jenna gasped.
Bastian’s fists clenched.
There had been blood there.
The sheriff handed the ultraviolet light to Angus to hold as he sprayed more Luminol in a wider radius. Bright blue dots appeared where droplets of blood had been.
Sheriff Barron straightened. “I believe we have a crime scene.” He turned to Jenna. “You say the blood was sticky when you stepped into it?”
She nodded.
“Which means it was fairly fresh.” He waved to the McKinnons. “I’ll need you all to leave this building, careful not to touch anything. If there’s a fingerprint to find, the state crime lab will find it.” He touched the button on his radio and called dispatch, requesting a state crime lab evidence collector team ASAP.
Angus nodded to his brothers. “You heard the man. Out.”
He herded Colin and Duncan toward the front door.
Jenna looked to Bastian. “I wasn’t imagining it.”
He shook his head. “No, you weren’t.” He held out his hand to her.
She laid her fingers in his palm, and he drew her into his embrace. He needed to hold someone. If the blood was his father’s, he’d been alive, beaten and tortured.
Jenna wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek against his chest. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“For what?” he said, his lips brushing against her temple.
“If it was your father,” she murmured, “I’m sorry for what he’s having to endure.”
“We’ll find him and set him free.”
“You two need to move on out of here,” the sheriff reminded them.
Bastian leaned back. “Ready?”
She nodded.
“Do you have your keys?” he asked.
Jenna dug in her pockets, unearthing the set of keys she’d tucked there so long ago.
He took them from her. “Let’s go check out your Jeep.”
She frowned up at him. “I didn’t even think to look as we drove up. Do you think they might have damaged it?”
“I don’t know, but you’re not getting into it until we’ve given it a good once-over.” He slipped his arm around her waist and led her toward the door.
Once outside, he crossed over the broken step and helped her descend to the ground. She’d been through so much that day, it was the least he could do.
The Jeep stood several yards from the house.
“When the two men drove up on their motorcycles, they looked at my Jeep.”
When Jenna started to reach for the door handle, Bastian grabbed her wrist.
“Let me look it over first,” he said.
She frowned and took a step backward. “Okay.
Bastian tried opening the door without using the automatic unlocking mechanism on the key fob. The door opened easily. She’d left it unlocked.
Inside, a purse lay on the floorboard, its contents spewed all over the front seat.
Bastian frowned. “You left the door unlocked and your purse on the seat?”
She nodded. “I was by myself. I didn’t expect company. Most people leave their front doors unlocked around here. It used to be a fairly safe community.”
He handed her the open wallet. “Look through this and tell me if anything’s missing.
She flipped through the credit cards and gasped. “My driver’s license. It’s not in here.” She frowned up at Bastian, her eyes rounding. “They’ll know my name.”
“And where you live.” Bastian’s lips pressed together in a thin line. “You can’t go back to your place. Do you have someone you can stay with?”
“I’ll be fine on my own,” she insisted, though her voice wasn’t nearly as strong as before he’d reminded her the two men who’d chased her knew where to find her.
“You can’t stay alone.” He gripped her arms and shook her gently. “You don’t know what they’ll do.”
“They might do nothing. It’s not like I saw their faces. They wore helmets, and then ski masks.”
“They had to have taken off the helmets for you to see them in ski masks,’’ Bastian said. “They might not know you didn’t see them without the helmets. They could think you’ll identify them in a lineup.”
Jenna’s face paled. “Do you really think they would come after me?”
“Yes. I do.” He pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her. “You’re not safe going back to your place alone. Hell, you’re not safe to go to the grocery store alone.”
She shook her head, her hands flat against his chest. “I don’t know anyone well enough to ask if I can stay the night with them. I don’t have many close friends. Just Molly. And my parents moved to Florida.” She shrugged. “So, no, I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
“Then you’re coming home to the Iron Horse Ranch.”
“I can’t impose on you and your family. I already imposed enough when I divorced my husband. I can’t do that again.”
“My sister and mother will insist on your staying with us.”
“Seriously—”
Bastian held up a hand. “I can’t stop you from going to your house, but I beg you not to. Please come stay with us until we can figure out who those men were, and if they were involved in what went on in this house.” He glanced toward the cabin. “I don’t want what happened here to happen to you.”
Jenna shivered. “Me either.”
“For what it’s worth, we second that motion.” Angus stepped up beside Bastian. “Mom would be beside herself if we let you go back to your place alone.”
Colin raised a hand as if he were swearing in court. “That’s the truth.”
Duncan nodded.
Jenna glanced from Angus
, to Colin, to Duncan and back to Bastian. “Okay. I’ll go with you. I’ll need to stop at my house to get a few things before I do.”
“Before you take off in this Jeep, let us check it over thoroughly,” Angus said.
“Exactly what I was going to do,” Bastian said.
Colin reached inside the Jeep and popped the hood open. He and Duncan checked the engine, while Bastian and Angus looked beneath the chassis and tested the lights and brakes.
Bastian held the passenger door open for Jenna as she got in. “My bet is they left your Jeep alone. Having cleaned up the evidence, they hoped to discredit you if you brought anyone out here to view a place where someone could have been held hostage.”
“Just because we didn’t find anything wrong, doesn’t mean they didn’t tamper with the Jeep,” Angus pointed out. “It just means we didn’t find anything obvious.” He clapped a hand to Bastian’s shoulder. “Take it slow and easy back to town in case they tampered with something like the power steering or brakes.”
Bastian nodded. “Will do.” Then he slid into the driver’s seat, started the engine and drove down the rutted, overgrown driveway and out onto the county-maintained gravel road.
All the way into town, he took many opportunities to test the brakes and power steering. Both appeared to be functioning properly.
When they reached Eagle Rock, Jenna gave him directions to her tiny apartment over the Blue Moose Tavern.
“You live here?”
She nodded. “It’s not much, but it’s affordable. When I start making more money, I’ll buy a house. Until then, at least I know who my neighbors are and, if I need help, there’s always someone close.”
“At all hours,” Bastian said. “Doesn’t the noise bother you?”
“I invested in an excellent noise cancelling headset. I sleep quite well.” She led the way up to her loft. At her door, Bastian took her key and inserted it into the lock.
He pushed the door inward and felt on the wall for the light switch.
The room lit up with soft white lights shining in the corners and over a narrow bar between the compact living room and the mini kitchen.
He crossed the room to the only other door in the apartment.
“That’s just…my bedroom,” Jenna said, her voice fading.
“It’s the only other place an intruder could hide.” He entered her bedroom, checked beneath the bed, in the small closet and the adjoining bathroom. When he was done, he stepped out into the living room. “All clear.”
She smiled and shook her head. “Thank you for being so thorough.”
He heard the sarcasm in her tone and chose to ignore it. “You’re welcome.”
Jenna brushed past him and into the bedroom where she pulled a small bag out from beneath the bed and added a pair of jeans, trousers, three sweaters and socks. When she pulled bras and panties out of drawer, Bastian turned away. He walked to the single window overlooking Main Street, his thoughts on the white lace panties and matching bras she’d added to the clothing in the bag.
All day, he’d reminded himself Jenna was his little sister’s best friend.
His little sister.
Never mind, his sister was a grown woman now and Jenna was, too. He couldn’t think about a woman who was his little sister’s best friend. That would be like thinking about his sister.
He shot a glance back to the bedroom where he could see Jenna stuffing undergarments into the bag.
She certainly wasn’t a little girl anymore, not with full, soft curves in all the right places.
When he’d carried her into the sheriff’s office earlier that day, he’d felt those curves pressed against his body and fought a sudden rise in awareness for this girl who wasn’t a girl at all.
He wanted to ask what had happened between her and Corley Ferguson. Why had they divorced, and how long they’d been married? But that would be too personal. Besides, he wasn’t interested in starting something with the pretty real estate agent. He was due to go back to active duty once they found his father. And a career as a Navy SEAL didn’t make for good family life.
Bastian had made a vow to himself a long time ago that he would never marry. When Lauren had died in that head-on collision all those years ago, he’d felt it was partially his fault she’d died, and he’d lived. If he’d been paying more attention to the traffic in front of him, he might have been able to swerve differently and take the bulk of the impact on his side.
However, the outcome would’ve been just as deadly. He’d have had to know Lauren had skipped engaging her seatbelt. The head-on collision had been unavoidable. The only thing that would have changed the outcome, was if he’d noticed her lack of a seatbelt and insisted she buckle up. With hindsight being twenty-twenty and the past being unchangeable, he couldn’t bring Lauren back to life, or alter history.
“I’m ready,” Jenna said from the door of her bedroom. She carried a soft-sided bag in one hand and a tote in the other. She’d changed out of the dirty clothes, brushed the tangles and twigs from her hair and washed the dirt and makeup from her face.
If anything, she looked even more desirable. Her face, clean of makeup, emphasized the natural pink of her lips.
A sudden urge to taste those lips washed over Bastian. He took a step toward her and stopped.
What was he thinking?
For a moment, he closed his eyes to the beauty in front of him. Then he squared his shoulders, opened his eyes and took the larger bag from her hand. “It’s getting late. My mother will be waiting dinner for our arrival.”
“She shouldn’t wait on us.”
“You’ll be her guest. Of course, she should.”
Jenna smiled. “That’s sweet of her, but not necessary. I spent so much of my childhood in your mother’s house, I felt like one of the family.”
Exactly the reason why he couldn’t have sexy thoughts about her. She was like a sister.
Then why did he want to kiss her like she wasn’t?
Bastian was first out the door and down the steps as if he was being chased by the hounds of hell.
“Hey, are you forgetting something?” Jenna called out from the top of the stairs.
He turned, a frown pulling his eyebrows together. “Am I?”
She rolled her eyes. “For a moment there, I thought you’d load up my bags and leave without me.” Jenna hurried down the stairs and caught up with him.
They fell in step beside each other.
“My apologies,” he muttered.
“Something bothering you?” she asked.
If only she knew how loaded that question was. “No,” he said and tossed her bag on the back seat of her vehicle.
Jenna laid her tote on the back floorboard and climbed into the front passenger seat.
Bastian closed the door and rounded the vehicle to the other side, sliding into the driver’s seat.
Jenna turned to him. “If it bothers you for me to stay at Iron Horse Ranch, I would just as soon stay in my own apartment.”
“It would bother me more if you stayed here.” He shifted into gear and pulled out of the parking lot.
“Then why are you frowning?”
He drew in a deep breath and let it go. “I have a lot on my mind.”
Jenna touched his arm, sending a spark of electricity throughout his body. “I’m sorry. It makes me sick to my stomach thinking about whoever was tortured in that cabin. I hope it wasn’t your father.”
“And in a strange way, I hope it was. It means he’s still alive and somewhere nearby.” Bastian balled his fist and tapped the steering wheel with it. “We just have to find him.”
“Soon,” Jenna added quietly.
Bastian nodded. “You say the men who chased you carried military grade weapons?”
“Yes. They looked like the ones that deployed soldiers carry. Their clothing looked like something you’d wear into combat, with pockets and loops to carry ammunition. Instead of camouflage, the fabric was all black, including the ski masks.
“Do you know of any para-military organizations training in the area?”
Jenna shook her head. “I know we have preppers or survivalists, but I wasn’t aware of any that were training like a military organization or purchasing military arms.”
“I’ll have my friend Hank Patterson look into it. Maybe he can discover who out here might own semi-automatic rifles.”
“And why they would feel the need to do what they were doing in the cabin.” Jenna twisted her hands in her lap. “It’s hard to believe stuff like that is happening in our own backyard.”
“There are some sadistic bastards in the world. And they aren’t all confined to warzones.”
When they pulled up to the house on Iron Horse Ranch, Bastian’s mother and his sister Molly were the first out the door and down the steps to greet Jenna.
“Jenna,” his mother cried. “We heard what happened to you.” She pulled her into her arms and hugged her hard. “I feel like my second daughter just came home,” she said, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye.
“I hope I won’t be an inconvenience to you.” Jenna leaned back and gave Bastian’s mother a weak smile. “I could have stayed in town.”
“No way.” Molly moved in for the second hug. “It’ll be like a sleepover, only longer. I can’t remember the last time we had a slumber party.”
“Graduation from high school,” Bastian’s mother said. “You and your five other friends stayed up all night long, playing music, singing karaoke and lying beneath the stars, planning your lives.”
Jenna snorted. “So much for those plans.”
“But you’re here now.” Hannah McKinnon took Jenna’s hand. “Dinner first.”
“I should carry my things up to my room first.”
“Let Molly and Bastian do that. You must be exhausted. I heard all about your terrible ordeal from Angus. But I’d like to hear it from you, if you’re okay talking about it.” She led Jenna toward the dining room.
Molly chuckled. “Mom knows how to make someone feel at home.” She glanced up at Bastian. “Thank you for making her come. I tried for years to get her to stay out here.”