by Connie Mann
Sometime later, Josh walked over. “I think we’re about done here. I’ll have you ride with me, and Charlee will follow us in your truck.”
“That’s not necessary. You guys are heading back to the quarry once you drop me off, correct? To find the cave the flash came from.”
His jaw hardened. “This was no accident. We need to figure out what happened. That means police work, no civilians.”
Delilah straightened, irritated by his sudden distance and frosty tone. “I understand that. But I was the one who fell in the water.” She cocked her head and watched his expression. “Aren’t you worried for my safety?”
He froze as though she’d slapped him and stepped close, hands clenched, his green eyes blazing fire. “I am nothing but concerned for your safety. Which is why I’m trying to figure out who tried to kill you today.” When heads turned in their direction, he lowered his voice. “Work with me, Delilah. Not against me.”
His words reduced more of the bricks protecting her heart to rubble. It was a good thing she was leaving soon, or she could totally fall in love with this guy. Had any man ever looked at her like he did? Like she was precious and important and deserved protection? It made her want to toss responsibility aside and curl up in his arms for a good long while. But she couldn’t lose focus. Not with Mary still trapped. “Take me with you. Once you’ve collected evidence, I need to look around. Please.” Before he could say no, she added, “Otherwise, I’ll just come back on my own later.”
He shook his head in disbelief, blew out a breath, and then turned back toward her. “Fine. But you stay in the truck until I tell you.”
She wanted to grin in triumph but understood the fine line he was walking by taking her along. “Thank you.”
One side of his mouth tilted up in a grin. “Tread lightly, Miss Atwood. I don’t want to have to arrest you for interfering in an FWC investigation.”
She sent back a saucy smile. “Then don’t try to shut me out, Officer Tanner.” She raised her chin and marched out ahead of him.
* * *
Josh shook his head at her audacity. She was accusing him of shutting her out? The woman had chutzpah, he’d give her that. He admired her tenacity, even as he cursed her stubbornness. But he also understood.
Hunter stepped up beside him. “We’re heading back to the quarry. Meet us there after you drop Delilah off.”
Josh didn’t mention Delilah’s plan, figuring the old adage about it being easier to ask forgiveness than permission applied here.
Delilah was quiet as they wound around the dirt road. As soon as he parked the truck and climbed out, both Hunter and Pete were in his face. Fish stood behind Hunter, also scowling.
“What is she doing here, Hollywood?” Hunter demanded. “You know better than that.”
Josh didn’t deny it. “She wants answers, too. Besides, this way, we can keep an eye on her.”
Pete’s jaw clenched. “I hope you told her to stay in the truck. We don’t need a civilian mucking up evidence.”
Irritation flared at his brother’s tone. “Yes, Deputy Tanner, I am well aware of the rules of evidence.”
Pete huffed out a breath. “Right. Just a little touchy. What if the shooter missed or one of us was the real target?”
Josh knew they were all thinking along the same lines. Whoever shot out Delilah’s connecting wire either had great aim, or they meant to shoot her and missed. The second possibility sent a chill down his spine. He couldn’t discount Pete’s idea of a third possibility—one of them as the target—but it didn’t ring true. His gut said Delilah was at the center of whatever was going on.
“One step at a time, Pete,” Hunter said. “Let’s see if we can figure out who was back here. If we’re really lucky, there will be some spent shells.” He looked over at Fish. “You have your camera handy?”
She held it up. “Always in my car, LT.” She led the way, taking pictures of everything as they approached the limestone cave cut out of the hillside.
Josh glanced over his shoulder, relieved to see Delilah sitting in the truck. He scanned the area, his eyes following the cable far above them. From this distance, you’d need a rifle with a scope to see exactly who was riding the zip line. So if Delilah was the target, how did someone know she would be there and which one she was? In his mind, that meant the shooter had gotten inside information from Mo or Curly or some other zip line employee.
Fish stepped up beside him and lowered her camera. “Whoever took out that cable is one hell of a good shot.” Since she regularly beat the pants off everyone in their squad on the firing range, he didn’t argue.
“That’s what I was thinking,” Josh said as they followed Hunter and Pete into the mouth of the cave. Everyone had grabbed flashlights out of their trucks, SOP even if they weren’t driving official vehicles, and four matching beams clicked on. They swept their lights over the limestone floor, careful to stay just inside the mouth so as not to obliterate any footprints. “Yes!” Fish shouted and carefully stepped closer with her camera. “We’ve got boot prints,” she said.
Pete panned his light all the way around one side of the cave while Josh slid his over the other. “No brass that I can see. How about you Hollywood?”
“Nothing here either.”
“I’ll get a tech team out here,” Hunter said. “Hopefully I can get a cell signal outside. If we’re really lucky, this boot print will match the one we found near Black’s body.” He eyed the squad. “Bulldog, you got here first. Any sign of a vehicle having been here recently?”
“Negative. I checked as we approached. After last night’s rain, any tracks would’ve been from today.”
Fish offered to wait for the tech team while the rest of them gathered what evidence they could.
When Josh stepped into the bright sunlight, he squinted for a moment while his eyes adjusted. He walked over to his truck and started muttering when he saw the empty cab. “Stubborn, reckless woman.” He turned in a circle, trying to figure out where she had gone. His eyes tracked higher, and he saw the opening to another small cave, half-obscured by a bush. Cursing under his breath, he headed in that direction.
* * *
Excitement hummed under her skin as the squad disappeared into the cave. She slipped out of the truck and eased the door shut behind her, scanning the area, confirming what her heart already knew. It looked totally different than it had from above or from the opposite shoreline, but this was the place. A grin spread across her face, and she resisted the urge to shout.
After a quick glance over her shoulder, she started up the steep limestone hill, determined to slip into the cave before anyone noticed. Using her hands for balance, she scampered up in her tennis shoes, wishing she’d worn hiking boots for her still-tender ankle. She froze when she accidentally sent some rocks tumbling down the hill. No one emerged from the cave below, so she continued her ascent.
When she reached the little bush that obscured the opening, she turned on her cell phone flashlight as she ducked inside. Yes! This was definitely the cave Mary had declared their private hideout years ago.
Memories flooded her when she spotted the flat rocks they’d used as backrests. She reached behind one, pulled out the tin box of matches, and lit the oil lamp, then held it aloft until she found what she was after.
The small burlap sack was tucked in a niche in the wall. She pulled out the two journals, and as she ran her hands over hers, the fear and confusion she’d poured onto its pages so long ago washed over her. There was no writing or decoration of any kind on the plain cardboard cover, as though she’d avoided drawing attention to herself, even in a hidden journal.
Mary’s was different, covered in colorful stickers Delilah had purchased at the farmers market. It reflected her personality, bright and cheerful and brimming with optimism. A huge contrast to the reality Mary was facing right now. Had her sister been here
recently?
Delilah flipped to the back of the book, and a folded piece of paper slipped out. Her heart sped up as she read it, scribbled in Mary’s looping handwriting.
I hope you find this and can find me before my birthday. Please, Delilah. Papa and Aaron are fighting all the time about some kind of alliance. It’s somehow connected to my wedding, but nobody will tell me what’s happening. I’m scared.
“I thought I told you to stay in the truck,” Josh growled behind her.
Delilah spun around, startled, and almost crashed into him. His arms shot out to steady her, then settled on her shoulders. She clutched Mary’s journal to her pounding heart. “Why did you sneak up on me like that? You almost gave me heart failure.”
Irritation crackled around him like static electricity. “Someone could have grabbed you.”
A chill passed over her at the reminder. “You’re right. I wasn’t thinking.” Then she smiled. “But this is it.”
It took him barely a second. “The cave you were looking for?”
“Yes. This was our hideout, and I found Mary’s journal. I can’t believe it’s still here.”
Josh narrowed his eyes as he scanned the small cave. “Everyone in your family knows about this place?”
“Probably. I never told anyone we were coming here, but John Henry kept us on a pretty short leash. It wouldn’t surprise me if he followed us.”
“Did Aaron come here too?”
“At first. He and I found it together. Later, it was just Mary and me.”
“Has she been here recently?”
The fear in Mary’s note raised gooseflesh on her arms. “Yes.” I’ll find you, Mary Lou Who. I promise.
“Did she say where she is?”
“No.” But maybe I’ll find more clues when I study the journal. As the thought registered, her foolishness slapped her, hard. He was doing his absolute best to help, yet her first instinct was still to keep information from him. Her worry that confiding in him could make things worse for Mary was legitimate. But what if the opposite happened because she wouldn’t trust him?
That ended now. She reached to hand him Mary’s note just as someone shouted his name from below.
“We need to go.” He turned toward the entrance.
Frustrated, she tucked both journals inside the burlap sack, blew out the oil lamp, and followed him back to the truck, her mind on Mary’s note. What alliance? The possibilities sent another shiver over her skin.
“I’ll drive you home, Xena,” Josh said when he pulled up beside her truck.
She pulled her thoughts from Mary and raised a brow, smiling. “Xena? Like the warrior princess?” One of her professors had shown clips from the television series in class, and she liked the comparison.
His smile didn’t hide the worry in his green eyes. “I get that you’re in warrior mode, desperate to protect your sister. I admire it, and frankly, it’s sexy as hell. But even warriors need someone to watch their back.”
There it was again, the sizzle of attraction that made her want to touch. She gave him a slow once-over, as though assessing his fitness for the job. “You offering, Officer Tanner?”
He gave a mock shake of his head. “I have clearly lost my touch. Have you not heard a word I’ve said?”
“Oh, I heard.” She smiled, and then honesty forced her to add, “But until now, I haven’t been ready to listen.” She reached for the door, glanced over her shoulder. “I can drive myself, but there are things I need to tell you. Will you follow me home?”
His grin sent a delicious shiver down her spine despite the heat of the day. “Absolutely.”
She had mixed feelings as she drove. Explaining why rescuing Mary mattered meant revisiting her past and admitting what a naïve, stupid girl she’d been. Except for Kimberly and her counselor, she’d never told anybody, not even her sweet foster parents. But he wouldn’t understand her concerns unless she told him the truth, every ugly bit of it.
He followed her inside and sat down at the dinette. She slid in across from him, then jumped up again. “Can I get you anything to drink? I have sweet tea or water.”
“They don’t let you live in the south if you don’t like sweet tea, do they?”
She appreciated his effort to calm her, but her hands were still a little unsteady as she poured two glasses and set them on the table.
He leaned over and gripped her fingers. “Whatever it is, it’s going to be okay. Just talk to me, all right?”
She nodded, sipped her tea. Then she sat up straight and pushed all her namby-pamby self-consciousness aside. This wasn’t about her. “Before I tell you what I found in the cave, you need to know why I have to find Mary.”
He sat up straighter at the word cave but didn’t ask. “You haven’t been back in a lot of years. I’ve wondered why you’re so determined to find your sister now.”
The words came out in a rush. “It’s almost her sixteenth birthday, and in my family, instead of a sweet sixteen party, you get a wedding dress. I can’t let that happen to her.”
He didn’t interrupt, but his knuckles went white around the glass, and tension radiated off him.
“Since I left, I’ve always come back before Christmas and around Mary’s birthday to drop off a gift and card, make sure she knows I haven’t forgotten her. My research project is a way to be here this summer. I wanted to reconnect with her and Mama, and I was hoping, since they finally raised the marital age to seventeen last year, that she’d be okay. Instead, I found out they are marrying her off anyway.” She met his gaze, fury pounding through her. “She’s just a girl. She should be worrying about prom dresses and crushes on boys. Not preparing to marry some man old enough to be her father.”
“No question.” He took her hands and made soothing circles on the backs with his thumbs. “How do you plan to prevent it?”
The steel underneath his casual question reassured her. So did the fact that he didn’t immediately jump in with a plan but was listening to what she had to say.
“Initially, I thought I’d just show up at their campsite and offer to take her off their hands. John Henry always complained about all the mouths he had to feed. I figured it’d be easy.” She rolled her eyes. “It obviously hasn’t worked out that way.”
Josh studied her. “Not only have lawmakers raised the age to seventeen with parental consent, the partner can’t be more than two years older.”
She snorted. “You do remember that my family never lets a little thing like the law get in their way, right?” She muttered a curse. “She doesn’t want to get married now. She wants to go to college and choose her own husband when she’s ready, way down the road.”
“Which is her right, legally and morally.” He paused. “Do you think what happened today is connected to Mary?”
“Unless it’s connected to my research project.”
“Another possibility we’re looking into.”
Delilah stood and pulled the journals from her backpack and handed him the note from Mary. “Maybe this has something to do with it.”
She watched his expression darken as he read. “What alliance? Do you know?”
“I don’t. Yet. But her fear is clear as day.”
He walked over, tipped her face up. “We’ll find her and stop this. Make no mistake.” He paused, then asked, “Do you know who the groom is?”
Nate’s face popped into her mind at the word groom, and she bit back her revulsion. “I’m trying to find that out.”
“May I keep this?” He held up the note.
Delilah nodded and started pacing, trying to find the words to tell him the rest.
He leaned against the counter, arms crossed over his chest, jaw clenched. “Did you get a wedding dress for your sixteenth birthday, too?”
Her counselor had called it survivor’s guilt. It washed over her, and she s
wallowed hard, bit her lip. Before she realized he’d moved, he reached out and cupped her cheeks and raised her chin, but she couldn’t meet his eyes.
“Is that why you disappeared?”
“I couldn’t stay. I was a coward and left Mama and Mary to deal with the fallout.”
“Look at me.”
She expected judgment, at the very least disappointment, but what she saw was…admiration.
“You’re not a coward. You were sixteen years old. It took incredible guts to leave everything behind and start over. I’m proud of you, and I hope you’ll tell me the whole story someday.” He tucked her hair behind her ears, then stilled. “She’s not pregnant, right?” The new law did allow some exceptions.
She shivered. “No, not as far as I know.” Please, God.
“Good. Then Xena, my beloved warrior, you and I are going to find Mary and prevent her from being forced into an illegal marriage. You are not alone.”
Relief slid through her as she absorbed that, but she still had to ask, “What about the FWC investigations?”
He sent her a cocky grin as wide and confident as his nickname implied. “If we all work together, we’ll find your sister, stop the wedding, figure out what idiot painted a target on your back, and find out what your family is up to.”
So many emotions rushed through her, Delilah couldn’t sort them out fast enough to put them into words. She reached up and cupped his cheeks, then placed a kiss on his lips, hoping to convey a small piece of what was in her heart. But instead of stepping back, he gripped her hips and kissed her again, pulling her against him in one quick move. She sighed as his arms tightened around her. His tongue teased her lips, and she opened her mouth, savoring the glide of their tongues and the taste that was uniquely Josh. With her arms around his neck, she tunneled her fingers in the hair at his nape, delighted to feel his heart pounding as hard as hers. What would it be like if—
“Stop thinking,” he murmured.
She smiled against his lips and did as he instructed. The world faded away as the kiss deepened, and there was nothing but the two of them, need and desire rushing through her. He cupped her backside and groaned deep in his throat. Unable to resist, she ran her hands under the hem of his T-shirt, desperate suddenly to feel all those hard muscles under her palms. He felt as good as she’d imagined, and she made a low sound of approval in her throat as he nuzzled her neck, placing quick kisses behind her ear, then biting gently and soothing the spot with his tongue. His hands slid under her T-shirt, and anticipation built as his palms slowly, deliberately inched their way higher and higher—