by L. P. Dover
Swallowing hard, he clicks on a picture of Samantha. “You’re a lucky man, Jake. I’d found someone like that too, and now she’s been taken away from me.” Tears form in his eyes. “I never thought anything like this would happen to me. I’m an undercover cop for fuck’s sake. I should’ve protected her. Being in my line of work, sometimes it’s hard not to think you’re invincible.”
“I know how that goes. I thought I’d have learned my lesson after my motorcycle accident a few years ago, but it finally took getting run off the road and possibly dying again to make me see the light.” Luckily, in my motorcycle accident, I high-sided and only dislocated a shoulder in the process. My rear brakes had locked up and I was thrown off. Never in my years of riding had I ever had that happen to me.
Terry’s phone rings and he steps out of the room. Officer McGee comes over and takes his place beside the bed to look at the video. We watch more, and nothing exciting happens, until Bryan’s truck pulls up the driveway. It’s dark, but I can see the driver get out of the truck, wearing a dark jacket and a ballcap on his head. He’s taller than Bryan, and a little more muscular up top. I can’t see any distinct facial features.
“He’s back,” I say.
Bryan huffs. “But what for?”
The man sneaks out of view, just as another car pulls into the driveway. I point at the screen. “Is that Samantha pulling in?”
Bryan holds his breath, his focus on the video. We watch as Samantha walks up to the door, dressed in her pink sweater and jeans. My stomach drops because I know what’s about to happen. Bile rises up the back of my throat, especially when I see the dark figure coming up behind her. I know I should turn away, but I can’t. He hits her on the back of the head and carries her to the truck, tossing her in the back, along with the two by four.
Bryan’s chest rises and falls so fast, I’m afraid he’s going to hyperventilate. I’ve seen people lose control and he’s already there. “Bryan,” I say, keeping my voice calm.
“He killed her on my fucking doorstep.” Tears fall freely down his face. He looks up at me and screams. “HE KILLED HER ON MY FUCKING DOORSTEP!” Ripping out his IV, he pushes his computer off the bed and jumps to his feet, slamming his hands on the wall. “I need to get out of here. I need to find him.”
The machines beep out of control and a nurse rushes in. She sees what’s going on and her eyes widen, but by the look on her face, she’s too afraid to approach Bryan. Officer McGee pulls her aside. “We need to get him calmed down.”
Terry hurries in and tries to calm Bryan down, to no avail. Bryan is much stronger, and Terry can’t keep up. I grab Bryan around the waist, pinning his arms to his side. I have my strength from MMA fighting on my side. The nurse scrambles to get to us with a syringe in her hand. “I don’t want that,” he yells.
I squeeze him tighter and he fights me. “If you don’t calm down, that’s exactly what you’ll get. I know what you saw hurt, and I can’t imagine the kind of pain you’re feeling right now, but you have to focus on getting out of here. You can’t help find her killer if you’re doped up in a hospital bed.”
A loud, guttural scream belts out of his mouth and he drops to his knees, completely lost, sobbing uncontrollably. We let him mourn and it’s hard to watch; I feel every ounce of his pain and grief, as if it’s my own. As the minutes pass by, his breathing slows, and his tears stop flowing. Anger takes hold once again, but he’s keeping it restrained—boiling close to the surface. He glares up at Terry, body tense. “I’m out of here tomorrow. I don’t care what you have to do, make it happen. You all know I’m innocent. I need to be out there looking for this bastard. He’s mine.”
When Terry nods, Bryan cooperates with the nurse and sits back on the bed, while she puts his IV back in.
Terry pulls me over to the side. “What the hell happened while I was gone?”
I nod toward the laptop still on the floor. “He watched Samantha’s murder.”
Terry bows his head. “Fuck. No wonder he went crazy.”
“What’s going to happen now?”
He looks over at Bryan whose hard gaze is focused on the ceiling. “We let him go and I clear him of all suspicion. He won’t stop until he finds who’s responsible.”
“Agreed.” The sooner he does, the sooner I can have my wife back.
Twenty
Jake
Sleep was no friend of mine last night. I’d received a text from this anonymous asshole around midnight, and I’ve been staring at it ever since.
xxx-xxx-6334: I’m going to find your wife. She’s MINE.
Even though it’d been late, I called Terry to let him know what happened. The number came from one of the same numbers on Ellie’s phone. All I could think about was what would happen if that fucker did find Ellie. My bags are packed and I’m ready to head to Canada. My flight leaves the day after tomorrow. Terry worked his magic and I’m flying under an alias, to make sure my whereabouts can’t be traced.
The doorbell rings and by the time I get to the door, the FedEx truck is leaving my driveway. I pick up the large envelope and it’s from Arizona—the contract for our new house. Before I head to Canada, I’m going to sign and ship them back. I’m ready to get out there and start a new life with Ellie.
Sitting at the kitchen bar, I lay out all the papers and read through them. An hour passes by and I’m almost done with the paperwork, when my phone rings.
“Detective,” I answer.
“Jake,” he replies. “I’m calling to let you know that Bryan was released from the hospital this morning.”
“How is he?”
Terry sighs. “Not good mentally, but he’s determined. However, his request to join the case was denied, but we both know that’s not going to stop him. He’s been put on leave for a few weeks, until everything dies down.”
“I had a feeling that was going to happen. I wonder what he’s going to do now?” I sign the last of the contracts and slip the papers into an envelope. Terry’s car starts up in the background.
“I don’t know. I gave him some of my clothes, so he’d have something to wear when he left. He took his laptop and didn’t look back. His truck is still seized for right now, so we can search it for evidence. I have no clue how he’s going to get around.”
“Thanks for telling me.”
He clears his throat. “I was kind of hoping you’d reach out to him somehow, before you leave for Canada. He seems to be more receptive to you.”
Maybe it’s because I’m his tie to Ellie and he feels a need to prove his innocence to me. There’s no doubt in my mind that he’s innocent, after everything I’ve seen. “Speaking of Canada, if that psycho bastard were to track my movements, where will it look like I’m going?”
“Washington. Nowhere near Quebec.”
Grabbing my jacket off the chair, I grab my keys and head for the door. “Thanks, Terry. I’ll drive around to see if I can find him. If I don’t find him today, I know where he’ll be tomorrow.” Samantha’s funeral is then. He would never miss it.
“Sounds good. I know I shouldn’t ask this of you, considering everything that’s happened.”
“It’s okay. I don’t plan on being the guy’s best friend, but if he can help this case, I’ll work with him.”
“Thanks again.”
We hang up and I throw on my coat. I doubt I’ll find Bryan, but I can at least try. When I get outside, I hop in my truck, but a car pulls up at the front of my house and I stop. Bryan gets out and slowly makes his way down my driveway, dressed in a pair of jeans, and a flannel shirt, covered with a brown leather coat. He looks a lot better than he has the past couple of days.
I step out and he stops mid-step, holding out his arms. “I know you probably don’t want me here, but . . .”
“Actually,” I cut in, “I was on my way to look for you.”
His brows furrow. “Why?”
I walk toward him and stop at the edge of my truck. “Detective Bradshaw told me about your reque
st to join the case being denied. I thought maybe we could help each other. You need facts, and I have a lot of them. I figured I could give you some insight before I leave town.”
His gaze drops to the ground. “Are you going to Ellie?”
“I am.”
“I’m assuming she’s safe.”
“She is. Owen’s looking after her for now.”
“I should’ve known,” he says, lifting his head. “Those two were inseparable. He hated my fucking guts.”
“I wonder why. I hated your fucking guts. You drunk dialed her all the time. Not to mention, the week of our wedding, you tried to convince Ellie that you were the one she was supposed to be with.”
Sounding guilty, he clears his throat and sticks his hands in his pockets. “Not one of my finest moments, I’ll give you that. But that was so many years ago. She loves you and she chose you. I don’t think of Ellie like that now. We had a connection that I never had with anyone else, at least, not until Samantha.”
With a heavy sigh, I cross my arms over my chest. “Her funeral’s tomorrow. Are you going?”
He nods. “Her parents don’t want me there though. They still have doubts about my innocence.” His eyes close and he takes a deep breath. “I’ll be treated like an outcast, not as the man who lost the woman he loved and wanted to marry.”
“The truth will come out soon,” I assure him.
When he opens his eyes, they blaze like fire. “You’re damn right it will, once I expose the bastard who did this.”
“Speaking of him, he texted me last night.”
“What?” he exclaims incredulously. “You can’t be serious.” I pull up the text message and show him. “That dude has some serious balls. I’d be pissed the fuck off.”
I pocket my phone. “Believe me, I am. The detective didn’t have any luck tracing the phone numbers. The one from last night is the same phone number he used to text Ellie. There’s also another one that was used prior to this one.”
His brows furrow. “Do you mind giving the numbers to me, so I can trace them myself? I’m a little more advanced than the detective.” He hurried back to his car and grabbed a pen and small piece of yellow paper.
The numbers are ingrained in my mind; I recite them off and he writes them down, slipping it into his back pocket. “I’ll get right on that tonight. Does Ellie know about it?”
I shake my head. “I’m going to tell her when I see her. It’s one of the reasons we thought you were sending the texts. With having all that computer access, we knew it’d be easy for you to be untraceable.”
Taking a step forward, he leans against the other edge of my truck. “It is. Not just any person can work the codes like I can. You either have to be savvy with tech or have a lot of money and pay someone to do the dirty work for you.”
“And you can do this from your laptop?” I ask.
He nods. “Luckily, it has all I need. I’m not ready to go home just yet anyway.”
I point toward the dark blue sedan parked in front of my house. “Whose car is that? I know your truck is still being searched for evidence.”
Pulling the keys out of his pocket, he fiddles with them. “It’s my parents’ extra car. They have three vehicles, so they let me borrow it. Once everything’s over, I’m going to buy another truck. I can’t fathom the thought of driving mine, when I know Samantha’s body was in it.”
I can’t blame him there. I wouldn’t be able to walk through the front door of my house if Ellie was killed there. “I understand,” I say, running my hand over the tailgate of my old truck. “With my other truck wrecked all to shit, I had to bring this baby out. What do you say we get to work on this case?”
Bryan’s determined gaze meets mine. “Let’s do it. I figured we could make a stop at River Bend Road, at the location you ran off the side of the mountain.”
“Sounds good.” I tap the side of my truck. “I’ll drive.”
Opening the passenger side door, he looks through at me—his expression unsure—and gets in. It’s clear he knows I don’t trust him. And I’m not going to lie, having him in my truck is strange. There’ve been plenty of times where I have wanted to beat the shit out of him, especially when I found out he tried to get her not to marry me.
It doesn’t take long to get to the scene of the crime. The snow is piled up on the sides of the road from where it was scraped, so I drive over a mound to get out of the road. The guard rail is still smashed from where I drove off.
Bryan peers down the mountain and shakes his head. “Damn, man, you got lucky.”
With a loud snort, I shut my door. “No shit. The guy was standing right in the curve over there,” I say, pointing at the area. “I swerved and lost control. It was hard to see with all the snow coming down.”
Bryan walks over to the spot and looks around. “Apparently, the cocksucker had my boots and Halloween costume on. He must’ve taken the boots off me when I was drugged. And the cape was in the back seat of my truck.”
“Your truck was down the road, parked out of sight,” I add.
He meets my gaze. “Whoever did this is smart. I’ve dealt with some pretty slick criminals in my day, but this one seems to know what he’s doing.”
That’s not what I want to hear. I watch him walk around, but from the look on his face, nothing is sticking out to him. He walks back over to the truck, his expression unsure. “What are you thinking?” I ask.
We get in the truck and he sighs. “That maybe we should stop by the field. I want to see where my truck was left.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I don’t want to bring up the obvious, but he’s the one who knows what to search for.
Keeping his focus on the road, he nods. “Just take me there.”
The ride is silent, and tension fills the air. Bryan’s about to see the place Samantha’s body was dumped. I don’t even want to know what he’s thinking right now. I, for one, know I’d be murderous. When we get to the area, I pull off to the side of the road.
“Your truck was right there.” I point at the exact spot. There’s a field off to the right, and you can still see pieces of the yellow crime scene tape billowing in the wind. He sees it and jumps out of the truck. I don’t bother getting out because I know he needs his space. There’s nothing I can say that’s going to make the situation better.
Falling to his knees, Bryan fists his hands in his hair and screams. I close my eyes and turn away. I can’t bring myself to watch him; it’s a personal moment. A few minutes later, he hops back into the truck and slams the door, his breathing deep and fast.
“I’m ready to go,” he growls low.
I don’t ask if he found anything, because I know he didn’t. There’s too much snow covering the ground. When we get back to the house, he gets out of the truck and I watch him walk up the driveway. He pauses with his back to me. “I’m going to work on locating those phone numbers tonight. It might take me a couple of days, if they’re well hidden.”
“That’s fine. I know you have other things on your mind right now.”
He glances at me over his shoulder, his eyes red. “I just want to get through tomorrow.”
Twenty-One
Ellie
“This place is gorgeous,” I gasp as I get out of Owen’s truck. As far as I can see, there are mountains and rolling hills, all covered in white. Wearing only a dark green T-shirt and jeans in the frigid temperatures, Owen grabs our bags and starts toward the old, two-story, gray stone house with a navy-blue tin roof. There’s a barn in the back, surrounded by wide open fields. “Did you find this on Airbnb or something?”
Owen opens the door and laughs. “Not exactly. Now hurry up, it’s cold.”
“Maybe you should’ve worn more clothes.” Giggling, I walk inside, and the house is amazing. It’s wide open, with dark cherry hardwood floors, and a kitchen with marble countertops that match the color of the gray stone outside. Mouth gaping, I slide my hand over the counters, feeling the coolness of the mar
ble. “This kitchen puts mine to shame, and that’s saying something. Mine kicks ass.”
Chuckling, Owen marches up the stairs. “You’re more than welcome to use it. Come on, I’ll show you to your room.”
I follow him up the stairs to a room with a queen size bed, covered in a white lace duvet and a white canopy. “I know I’m too old for this, but I’ve always wanted a canopy.” The windows in my room overlook the field behind the house, with a majestic mountain in the distance.
He joins me by the window. A sly grin spreads across his face. “Want to take a walk?”
“Sure. Just make sure you put on a coat. I don’t want my bodyguard freezing to death. What use would you be to me as a frozen cop-sicle in the snow?”
Chuckling, he starts for the door. “You’re not going to get rid of me that easily.”
Boots already on, I grab my thicker coat out of my bag and slip inside of it. Owen is by the front door, wearing his coat, when I get downstairs. “Where are we walking to?”
That mischievous smile is back. “You’ll see.”
The snow glitters in the sunlight, almost like diamonds scattered across the field. Our footprints are the first ones to make a dent in the snowy landscape as we head toward the barn. We walk inside, but it’s empty of animals.
I lean over one of the stalls and sigh. “I wish I had horses. I’ve always wanted one.”
Owen winks. “There’ll be some in here this coming spring. There will also be cows, chickens, pigs, and maybe even a goat.”
“How do you know? Are you friends with the owners?”
Taking my arm, he pulls me out of the barn and lets me go when we reach the wooden fence. He ignores my questions and just smiles as he takes in the view. “There are forty acres out there to explore. We might have to wait until the snow melts first though.”
I snort. “As much as I’d like to do that, I’m hoping I won’t be here that long. I have my bakery to think of, and our move to Arizona.”