Harlequin Romantic Suspense March 2021

by Anna J. Stewart

  The raspy voice responded to her announcement with, “Oh, for Pete’s sake. You’ll have to stand up and walk to the john because I’ll be damned if I’m gonna wipe your ass for you.”

  The crudity shocked her into a higher state of consciousness, but she was far from fully awake. Strong hands hoisted her upright and dragged her to her feet. Her legs felt oddly disconnected from her body, and her entire body felt puppetlike. Her limbs were weak, her joints uncooperative. If she had become a marionette, she really wished the puppet master would tighten up the strings a little. She felt all floppy and on the verge of collapsing.

  “Stand up or you’re going to pee in your pants.”

  Blinking, she squinted at the room. It was daylight again. Maybe late afternoon based on the rosy tint coming in the window. She had the sense of a full night having passed and most of another day. How could that be?

  She was shoved roughly into a tiny bathroom and told to go and go fast. Or else.

  Or else what? Too groggy to understand what was happening to her, she fumbled at her jeans button and zipper. How she managed to get her clothes out of the way before she sank onto the toilet seat, she had no idea. Instinct, maybe. And long years of muscle memory.

  How long she sat there after relieving herself, she had no idea. She became aware of fists pounding on the door. A voice shouting that he would come in there and drag her off the toilet if she didn’t hurry up.

  It was an act of supreme effort to haul herself upright. She pulled up her pants, zipped them and belatedly remembered to flush the toilet. Man, she was out of it. The room began to spin and she clung to the towel rack convulsively, struggling to stay upright. Something was terribly wrong with her. But what? She couldn’t focus her mind long enough or hard enough to puzzle out what was wrong with her.

  She staggered out into the main room, which was now flooded with orange-red light. Yup. Sunset.

  And then the bee sting, and night descended upon her again. The last thing she heard was that raspy voice, swearing as she thudded to the floor.

  * * *

  Wes finished dragging and seeding the lower pasture in the morning. Next up on the never-ending list of chores was to go to the grain elevator and buy a couple of tons of corn to restock his dwindling supply. He’d already planted a field of his own corn, but it would be late this fall before it was harvested, dried and ready to feed to the cows. Until then, he was stuck buying it. The sun was dropping behind the mountains, and the feed store would close in a half hour. But if he hurried, he could get there in time to buy the corn he needed.

  He was heading for his truck when he spied a familiar SUV coming up his driveway. It parked beside him and the driver got out. Wes said, surprised, “Hey, Joe. What brings you up here?”

  “I’ve been trying to get in touch with you all day, Wes. Why haven’t you been answering your phone? You scared the hell out of me.”

  Wes frowned. “No one’s called me.”

  “Are you kidding? I’ve called at least a dozen times. Left messages. Told you over and over to call me the second you got the messages.”

  “I lost my phone...yesterday, I think. What’s up?”

  “Jessica’s gone missing.”

  “What?” Wes jolted as a surge of adrenaline ripped through him. “What do you know? When was she last seen? Have you got any leads?”

  Joe threw up his hands as if to ward off the barrage of questions. “We’ve got nothing at the moment. I was hoping she was with you and that the two of you had decided to go off-grid, to ground, until the threat blows over.”

  “She’s not here. You can look if you want.”

  “I believe you,” Joe said briskly. “You may be a jerk, but you’re an honest jerk. You wouldn’t kidnap your ex.”

  “Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence,” Wes replied sourly.

  “Anytime.”

  Wes stared at Joe while his brain churned like mad. Something was trying to bubble up to his consciousness. A connection between recent events. Something important. It broke through and he blurted, “What are the odds my disappearing cell phone has something to do with Jessica’s disappearance?”

  Joe frowned. “I dunno. Do you lose your phone often?”

  “Never. I always know where it is. There are specific places I lay it down, and nowhere else.”

  “Then I suppose it’s possible the two are linked. You were included in the threats for a while. Do you have reason to believe someone broke into your house or truck to take your phone?”

  “Two nights ago, when I got back from Sunny Creek, I was convinced someone had been in my house. But then I put it down to paranoia. What if someone was in the house and stole my phone?”

  “Why? And how would that be connected to Jessica?” Joe asked.

  “If someone called or texted Jess from my phone and said that I was in terrible trouble and needed her to come rescue me, she would go. At least, I think she would. My phone would be the perfect way to lure her into going somewhere she wouldn’t normally go.”

  Joe grimaced. “Unfortunately, that makes a certain sick sense. The good news is I’m more optimistic about tracking down your phone than I am Jessica.”

  Wes frowned. “I have a tracer program installed on my phone. We can run it from my laptop computer in the house.”

  “Trace away. It may be the best lead we have on her.”

  Wes raced into the house and pulled up the phone-finder app on his computer. In a few seconds a message popped up on his screen. “That’s weird. The tracer program says my phone is turned off. I never turn it off.”

  “Maybe the battery ran dead,” Joe suggested.

  “This tracer program would tell me that. But, instead, it says the phone is powered down.”

  “Does that tracer app have the ability to tell you where the phone was last used?”

  Wes nodded and typed in the proper command. After a few seconds, a map popped up on the screen with a red dot in the middle of it. “Okay, that’s wrong. It shows my phone being used at the Sapphire Club yesterday morning, late.” The Sapphire Club was one step down from a strip club...one very shallow step, and not a place he routinely hung out.

  “I gather you weren’t there?” Joe asked drily.

  Wes rolled his eyes at his cousin. “I was here on my tractor, seeding the lower pasture.”

  “So then, your theory that your phone was stolen is looking better. When’s the last time you remember using it?”

  Wes cast his mind back. “I guess that would have been day before yesterday.”

  “Before or after you decided to take on a pack of angry women and got handed your butt in a sling?”

  “Before.”

  “Have you got any idea where Jessica might have gone off to without telling anyone?” Joe asked soberly.

  “You would have to ask her girlfriends.”

  “Already did. The only thing they all agreed on was that she wasn’t considering leaving town and had expressed being happy in Sunny Creek. Apparently, it feels like home to her.”

  Really? Jess liked life in a tiny town? Frankly, he was shocked at the notion.

  “Look,” Joe said, “it’s possible she just left town for a few days without telling anyone. There may be nothing wrong.”

  “No, there’s something wrong,” Wes disagreed. “I feel it in my gut.”

  Joe grimaced. “Yeah, my gut’s yelling at me, too.”

  “Can I help with the search?” Wes asked tersely.

  “I wish you could. I’ve got my guys driving all over the county looking for her car, and I’ve notified all the neighboring counties. Tonight, I can officially put out a BOLO on her. Thankfully, that Corvette of hers is super distinctive. If someone sees her, I’ll hear about it.”

  Wes nodded. “Yell if you can think of something for me to do. Anything.”

&n
bsp; “Okay. Call me if you hear from her. And stick by your landline so I can get in touch with you until you get a replacement cell phone.”

  Wes nodded and ushered his cousin outside. As he climbed into his SUV, Joe looked tired with dark smudges under his eyes. He’d obviously pulled an all-nighter last night looking for Jess. Poor guy. “Take care of yourself, Joe. You’re no good to Jessica if you’re dead on your feet.”

  “Easy for you to say. You haven’t lost a citizen on your watch. One you promised to keep safe.”

  The thing was, Wes had also promised to keep Jessica safe. And he’d failed her. Again.

  He went inside his house and paced restlessly for a while, his heart slamming against his ribs in stress. Something was wrong with Jessica. She was in huge trouble. He felt it.

  There had to be a way to help her. But what? He felt physically ill with worry before an idea finally occurred to him. Maybe someone at the Sapphire Club would have an idea who might have stolen his phone. It was a long shot, but worth checking out. The local regulars there would be pretty well-known. Folks in these parts all knew each other, so the impulse to steal from one another was pretty small. If a stranger had come to the area, he or she should stand out to the staff of the Sapphire Club.

  He drove to the bar and stepped into the dark, smoky interior. Loud music blared and a bored-looking go-go dancer gyrated to the beat on a stage at the back of the joint. Wes headed for the bar and the bartender, a guy he’d gone to high school with.

  “Hey, Wes!” the guy shouted over the din. “Long time no see! What brings you in here?”

  “I lost my cell phone and a tracker app showed it being last used in here late yesterday morning. You didn’t happen to be working then, did you? Maybe see any strangers?”

  “Nope, but Candy was here. She’s the waitress in the red T-shirt.” The bartender flagged her down as she approached with a tray of empty glasses, and she leaned forward to listen to the bartender shout Wes’s question at her.

  She nodded at Wes. “An older guy was in here yesterday. Almost bald. He was the only nonregular here during the whole lunch shift. Didn’t look like the criminal type, though. But he was a terrible tipper, now that I think about it.”

  And clearly that was tantamount to a crime in her book. Wes smiled and thanked the woman, palming a twenty-dollar bill to her for her troubles. Her eyes lit up and she started to sidle closer to him.

  “Sorry, I’m in a hurry tonight, Candy. Thanks for your help.”

  “No problem. Come back sometime when you’re not in a hurry. I’ll make sure you have a good time.”

  He smiled kindly at her. She was just trying to make a buck, after all. He left the club, his mind racing. An older, almost bald guy? Surely not. Surely George Blankenship wasn’t lurking around Sunny Creek. He would have let Jessica know he was here, and he wouldn’t stalk his own daughter. Would he?

  The guy had always walked the razor’s edge between reasonable and unhinged. Most people interpreted his brand of crazy as being a super-gung ho Marine, but Wes knew better. The guy had actually been a bit unbalanced. Had something pushed the Old Man all the way over the edge?

  Wes drove back toward downtown Sunny Creek, and the more he thought about it, the more certain he was that the stranger at the Sapphire Club had been George Blankenship. It felt absolutely right in his gut.

  He parked at the sheriff’s office and went inside. “Is Joe here?”

  “Nope, he’s out cruising, looking for your girlfriend. Can I help you?” one of the other deputies said.

  “I was just at the Sapphire Club, and I think Jessica’s father is in the area.”

  “He’s probably looking for his daughter, too.”

  Wes shook his head in the negative. “I don’t think so...”

  When he was done laying out his suspicions, the deputy started to type on his computer while he said, “I’m going to run an occupancy and credit card search for this Blankenship guy and see if anything pops in this area.”

  Thank goodness the deputy believed him. Maybe, with the help of the sheriff’s department, George could be located. The general’s presence in the local area all tied in with his missing phone and Jessica somehow. He was sure of it.

  Wes sank into a seat beside the deputy’s desk. “Mind if I wait to see what you find on George?”

  The guy shrugged. “It’s an ongoing investigation, and we’re not supposed to share information with the public.”

  “I know her well, and I know the area. I can help you guys,” Wes pleaded. “I’m the closest thing to family Jessica has in Sunny Creek.”

  Huh. That was actually the truth. Even though they’d been on the outs for a while, they still shared a connection to each other. At least he hoped they did. No, they did. He was still totally hooked on Jessica, and there was no way her feelings for him had completely crumbled in the past several weeks.

  Whatever they’d been fighting about before fell away to complete unimportance in the face of her disappearance. She had to be safe. She had to be.

  The deputy responded slowly, “Joe thinks you’re a stand-up guy. And if you’re close to her, you might as well know what’s going on.”

  Wes nodded tersely.

  The computer beeped only a few seconds later. The deputy read aloud from the screen. “G. Blankenship’s first purchase was in Billings, a full month ago, and then there’s a list of gas and grocery bills here. He stayed at a motel there for two weeks.”

  “Any idea where he is now?”

  “Last transaction I have is for a rental cabin at White Pine Forest State Park for one night about two weeks back. Is your guy a fan of camping?”

  Wes shrugged. “He is a retired Marine. He would certainly know how to camp. Although he didn’t strike me as the back-to-nature type.”

  “That’s all I’ve got on him. He hasn’t made any credit card purchases in the state of Montana since then. Maybe he left the state.”

  “Why would he do that without at least saying hello to his daughter?” Wes speculated. “And maybe he hasn’t left. Maybe he has simply gone off-the-grid. He would know how to do that, too. If he’s paying for stuff in cash, he wouldn’t be leaving an electronic trail for you to find.”

  “True. But that sounds pretty paranoid.”

  Wes snorted at the deputy. “You haven’t met George. Paranoid is his middle name.”

  The deputy was typing again. “Any idea what kind of vehicle he drives?”

  “Assuming he hasn’t rented a car to throw us off the trail, he owns a black Land Rover. It has Virginia license plates.”

  The deputy looked surprised at the detailed knowledge he had of George, but Wes didn’t feel like explaining that he’d worked for the guy. Not now, when Jessica was in danger and every minute counted. The more he thought about it, the more certain he was that George had something to do with her disappearance. The general had always been a control freak where she was concerned. According to her, the man was known to obsess over her and even confused her for her mother sometimes. Talk about creepy.

  Wes announced, “I’m going to run up to White Pine and ask the ranger if he knows anything about where George might have gone. If you’d let Joe know about all of this, I’d be mighty grateful.”

  “Yeah, sure. I’ll get on the radio with him and relay it all.”

  “Perfect. Thanks, man.”

  The deputy grinned. “It would, in fact, be my job to help.”

  Wes nodded tersely over his shoulder but was already moving rapidly toward the door. Hang on, Jessica. I’m coming for you.

  * * *

  The next time Jessica made the slow swim toward consciousness, she actually made it all the way to full wakefulness. She had a raging headache and was thirsty again, and her stomach growled demandingly. As if she’d missed several meals. What in the world?

  The r
oom that took shape around her in the dark was Spartan. Linoleum floor. Raw wood planks on the walls and ceiling. Screens over the windows with mosquitoes and june bugs banging at them. A lantern sat on a small table beyond the foot of the bed, its light and steady hissing noise the only disturbances in the night and silence.

  Outside, crickets and frogs made a deafeningly loud chorus. A whip-poor-will’s distinctive call split the night outside, startling her.

  She tried to sit up and was startled to realize her wrists were bound over her head and her ankles were tied to the footboard. The bed she lay in was made of logs and looked ridiculously sturdy. Panic surged through her. Had she been raped?

  She took inventory and didn’t feel any different. Plus, she was fully clothed. Whew. Had she been kidnapped, then? By whom? Why? Her memory was full of black, frustrating holes at the moment.

  Recollection of multiple sharp pains in her arms came back to her. Injections. She’d been drugged! For how long? It was night now, and she recalled waking up to go to the bathroom twice. Maybe a day and a half? Or had it been even longer?

  She appeared to be alone in the cabin, but there were two closed doors across the room. One was probably a bathroom. The other, she guessed, was a second bedroom. Was her captor in the cabin with her?

  How in the world did this stuff keep happening to her? She was just trying to live a quiet life in a quiet town, for crying out loud. Was that too much to ask? An urge to cry tightened her throat and made her eyes fill with tears.

  No! She had to hold it together. Survival was the priority right now, not feeling sorry for herself. She wasn’t the daughter of a Marine officer for nothing. She knew she had to discipline herself and focus on the crisis at hand.

  She tugged at her bindings and grimaced. They were painfully tight and left no room for her to even contemplate wiggling out of them. Worse, they were made of thick leather and didn’t have the slightest bit of give in them.

  Her muscles felt stiff and her entire body was sore. Memory of blinding pain, of spasming from head to foot while jolting agony ripped through her came back in a rush. She’d been electrocuted. A Taser, maybe? It had been the most excruciating agony she had ever experienced.