“I think you dropped this,” an impossibly sexy male voice said.
“Oh, thank you,” she stammered, just then noticing the uniform. “Officer.”
He studied her for a few more seconds, a look of surprise on his face, then handed her the bag. “You must be the woman who’s staying in cabin five over at Miranda’s.”
Amy could only manage a nod at first, but after swallowing several times, she croaked out, “I’m just visiting for a few days.”
He finally broke eye contact when the waitress came out from the kitchen and asked him if he wanted his usual. “That will be fine, Amanda, but will you make it to go? I have some things to do at the station,” he said, then to her chagrin, turned back to her.
Trying to catch her breath and slow the pounding of her heart, she fumbled through her wallet for the money to pay her bill, then slid it under her empty plate. She felt him watching her, but didn’t dare look at him again, sure that he’d see how attracted she was to him and embarrass herself.
“Well, I’d better be going,” she mumbled, turning to walk away.
“I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself,” he said, and she couldn’t help but look over at him. “I’m Sheriff Michael Anderson.”
When he held his hand out, she had no choice but to take it. “Amy Thompson,” she said, shivering when a tingle traveled up her arm and spread through her body.
“Nice to meet you,” the sheriff said. “I hope you enjoy your stay in Prospect Falls.”
“Thank you; it’s nice to meet you too,” she said, then shifted nervously from foot to foot, desperate to get away. “I guess I’ll just head on back to my cabin now.”
“One more thing before you go,” the sheriff said, his deep voice making her stomach quiver. “It would be best if you stayed in town. Don’t go up into the mountains: we’ve got a bit of a bear problem.”
“The man at the store told me the same thing,” she said. “He said it wasn’t safe even in the car.”
The sheriff nodded. “He’s right,” he said.
Amy studied him for a second, something bothering her about the warning. “I’ve never heard of bears attacking humans unless they were threatened,” she said. “We have lots of bears back home and as long as you stay away from them, they leave you alone.”
“Yes, well, these bears are different,” he said. “Trust me; you don’t want to tangle with one of them.”
“Don’t worry, Sheriff, I’ll stay in town,” she said, still a little suspicious, but unable to pinpoint why.
“Please, call me Michael,” he said, grinning at her, making her heart do flip-flops and her stomach quiver.
Trying to ignore the way her body was reacting, she mumbled, “Ummm, okay, Michael.”
Chapter Six
***Michael***
Michael watched Amy walk away, wondering if she was the same person he’d researched the day before. The woman he’d just talked to didn’t seem much like the stuffy academic her online profile had made her out to be. In fact, the picture she’d used for her profile looked nothing like her. Without the glasses, her hair falling over her shoulders, the tight jeans and tee-shirt, she looked more like a student than a professor.
It wasn’t until she was out the door that he realized he hadn’t found out anything, that he’d let his sudden attraction to her distract him. He still didn’t know why she was in town, or who the mysterious friend was who’d come through Prospect Falls so many months ago. So, when Amanda handed him his lunch, he headed for the door, hoping to catch her before she got back to her cabin.
But when he stepped outside, she was just turning into the drive that led to the cabins, and he knew it would have looked weird to run after her, so he turned the other way and headed for the station. He wished he could just forget Amy—she was just one more complication in his already complicated life—but he couldn’t ignore the fact that Molly had shown up here a few months ago and still had small parts of her memory missing from her encounter with the demon.
When he got to the station, he could see Vincent and Gabriel waiting for him in his office, and looked at his watch, cursing because he was late. “Sorry, I’m late,” he said, putting his lunch in the refrigerator in his office, then sitting down. “I ran into that woman who’s staying in the cabins.”
Vincent sat up in his seat. “Who is she? I’ve heard so many rumors, I can’t keep them straight,” he said.
“She’s really got the town talking,” Gabriel said. “That’s all I’ve been hearing about at the clinic.”
Michael shrugged. “So far, all I know is that she’s an academic from New York, a professor of literature or something like that. She claims she’s on vacation and after hearing about us, decided to check out the town,” he said.
“Who told her about Prospect Falls?” Vincent asked, a suspicious look on his face. “I heard she’s been saying it was a friend of hers who was here a few months ago.”
“I haven’t quite gotten to that,” Michael said. “I thought it was more important to keep her out of the mountains, but I’m sure we’re worrying about nothing. Besides, she can’t be looking for Molly if that’s what you’re thinking. Molly never even made it into Prospect Falls before she lost her memory.”
The two men exchanged a glance. “I hope you’re right; the last time this happened, we almost had the state police breathing down our necks. They aren’t going to believe us if someone comes up missing again,” Gabriel said.
“But no one is missing,” Michael said. “Molly is alive and well. I still think we’re worrying about nothing, and we have bigger problems.”
His friends exchanged a glance but didn’t say anything. “Fine, I’ll put some more time into making sure Amy is telling the truth, see if I can find out who told her about us, but I think it’s a waste of energy.”
He pulled out his cell phone and called Miranda, who answered on the first ring. “She went back into her cabin and hasn’t come out,” she reported without even saying hello.
“That’s good. Can you just let me know if she leaves again?” he asked.
When he hung up the phone, he looked at Vincent and Gabriel. “There: are you satisfied? The next time she leaves, I’ll find her and grill her, maybe drag her down to the station.”
“Very funny, Michael,” Vincent said. “Now tell us what Arthur has come up with.”
“A whole bunch of nothing,” he said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. “He’s been eating all my mother’s food, and poring over old books.”
“Do I detect a hint of jealousy?” Gabriel asked, trying not to smile.
“No, of course not,” Michael said a little too forcefully. “I just don’t like the way he looks at my mother.”
“And how does your mother feel about the way he looks at her?” Vincent asked.
When Michael didn’t reply, the men exchanged another glance. “Will you two stop doing that?” he said. “My mom wants you over to the house for dinner tonight, and you’ll see: it’s disgusting, the way they act.”
“Well then, I should be going. I’ve got patients waiting,” Gabriel said. “I’ll see you at dinner tonight. Hopefully we’ll have something to talk about then.”
Vincent got to his feet as well. “I’ve got a meeting with the board in a few minutes, so I’d better go too,” he said. “Don’t worry about your mom, Michael. She’s a big girl and perfectly capable of taking care of herself.”
He didn’t say anything, just waved the two of them off, then looked at the stack of paperwork on his desk and sighed, wondering where it had all come from. It would have been easy to shove it aside and head back out the doors, but instead, he found a pen and pulled the first stack off the pile and got down to work.
***Amy***
Amy shut the cabin door, dropped her purse on the table, walked over to the window, and looked out just in time to see the curtains on the windows of the office swing back into place. She’d felt Miranda’s eyes on
her again as she walked past the office, and although she was doing her best to ignore it, she wasn’t doing a very good job. It was annoying to be watched, made her feel like even more of an outsider, and she once again considered leaving.
She wasn’t doing a very good job anyway. She’d chickened out at the restaurant this morning, then when she’d had a chance to ask the sheriff, she’d blown that as well. But the man had thrown her off balance with his sexy voice and green eyes, turned her knees to jelly like an adolescent with her first crush. Cringing when she remembered the way she’d blushed and stammered, she pushed the man from her mind, deciding she was too old for crushes.
Turning from the window, she saw her laptop on the table next to the stack of papers that represented all the research she’d done to track Molly this far. She took it all to the kitchen table and spread it all out, then turned on the computer and opened up the screenshot of the map with the little flag that represented the last place Molly’s phone had gotten a signal. She studied it for a long time, trying to figure out her next move, then she noticed something she’d missed before.
Opening a split screen and a Google map of the area, she compared the two and discovered that the signal hadn’t been coming from Prospect Falls, but a few miles out of town. From the sketchy details on the map, it looked like Molly’s car had stopped out in the middle of a field or something, but she still felt a burst of excitement. If she could find Molly’s car, that might get someone interested in finding her friend—maybe even the hunky sheriff.
Thinking of the man made her heart flutter and a thrill rush through her, and she smiled at her silly thoughts. Dragging herself back to the maps, she tried to enlarge the Google map, but it didn’t give her more detail, so she flipped to satellite mode. After several hours of staring at the computer and messing with the screen, she managed to draw a crude map to where she thought she’d find Molly’s car.
It was well past lunchtime, but she didn’t want to stop to eat, so she grabbed some fruit and headed for the car. She’d already started it and was pulling out of the parking spot when she looked in the mirror and saw Miranda looking out the window. Feeling like she was getting caught doing something wrong, she drove down the long drive, then turned and headed down Main Street.
As she went through the only stop light in town, she saw the sheriff getting into his car, and her heart started pounding in her chest. But the next time she looked in the mirror, he was going the other way, and she sighed with relief, shaking her head at her wild imagination. The sheriff was not following her, she told herself as she slowly drove out of town; her imagination was getting the better of her again.
When she saw the gas station coming up, she looked down, realized that she was almost out of gas, and pulled in. She’d barely gotten out of the car when a young man came out of the garage attached to the little store. “Can I help you, ma’am?” he asked, taking his cap off.
“I need some gas, please,” she said, slightly taken aback.
“I’ll be happy to pump that for you,” he said. “If you’ll just pop the latch.”
Amy did as he asked, then wasn’t sure what to do. “I think I’ll just go inside and get something to drink,” she said, noticing his name tag. “Thank you, Jimmy.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, his cheeks turning pink. “We’ve got a full cooler in there.”
Amy walked away smiling, but the smile disappeared as soon as she walked into the little store and saw the sour look on the woman’s face behind the counter. “Can I help you?” she asked, her voice cold and hard.
“I was looking for something cold to drink,” she said, stumbling over her words.
The woman pointed to the corner of the store, then went back to reading the book in her hands. Amy quickly made her selection took it to the front counter and got out her wallet, then waited while the woman finished the page she was reading, a bit shocked by her rude behavior. When she finally set the book down and looked at Amy, she eyed her suspiciously before firing off her total.
“I need to pay for my gas, too,” she said, holding out her card.
“You’ll have to pay Jimmy for the gas,” the woman spat at her. “Don’t you have any cash for that?”
Amy threw some money down on the counter, grabbed her drink, and left without another word, sure that she’d say something she’d be sorry for later. People already didn’t like her; she couldn’t afford to make an enemy of one of the locals, not if she wanted to find Molly.
When she got back out to her car, Jimmy was still pumping gas, and she realized just how empty it had been. “Wow, I must have been almost out,” she said.
“It’s a long way here,” he said, his voice quivering a bit.
“I guess that’s why you don’t get many strangers around here,” she offered, trying to make conversation.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Jimmy said, finishing up with the gas. “Want me to check your oil?”
But she didn’t answer right away because she suddenly realized that if Molly had made it into town, this would have been the one place she would have stopped for sure. She studied Jimmy for a second. “I bet you meet everyone who comes into town,” she said, flashing him a big smile.
Chapter Seven
***Michael***
Michael took the corner a little too fast, wincing when the tires squealed, but didn’t slow down. As soon as he saw Amy’s car parked by the pumps at the gas station, he let off the gas and coasted into the parking lot behind the station. Feeling ridiculous, he crept around the side of the building and peeked around the corner just as Amy went inside the store. He made a run for it and hid behind the ice machine, ducking down just before she came back out.
He watched her walk back over to her car, but the motor on the ice machine was running, so he missed what she said to Jimmy. When it finally shut off, he heard Jimmy say, “Most people have to stop for gas even if they’re just passing through.”
Amy studied Jimmy for a minute, then said, “A friend of mine came through here a few months ago. I wonder if you’d remember her.”
“Don’t know, ma’am, maybe,” he said. “Will you pop your hood for me, please?”
He watched through a gap between the ice machine and the wall as Amy walked around the car, bent over, and popped the hood, cursing when his body responded to the sight of her bending over in her tight jeans. She walked back around the car and stood hands on her hips, watching Jimmy for a few minutes.
“My friend's name is Molly; she looks a little like me,” Amy said, and his heart nearly popped out of his chest. “Do you remember anyone named Molly coming through town?”
Michael saw the look of panic appear on Jimmy’s face, but he quickly smoothed it away. “Doesn’t sound familiar,” he said, then he looked at Amy and said. “If she looks like you, I would have remembered her.”
“Well, I’ll take that as a compliment,” Amy said, but he could see that she was disappointed. “So, you don’t remember anyone like that?”
“Sorry, wish I could help. Is she missing?” Jimmy asked, slamming the hood.
“I’m the only one who thinks so,” she said. “But I still have a few more leads. Hopefully, she’ll turn up and I’ll find out I was just being silly.”
“Where you off to now?” Jimmy asked. “Stay away from the mountains.”
“I’m just going to go for a drive, you know, check out some of the farms along the highway,” she said. “This is such beautiful country and I’m feeling a little cooped up.”
Just then, his phone started vibrating in his pocket. He grabbed it and quickly shut it off, then backed out of his hiding space. As soon as he got around the side of the building, he hit redial without even looking to see who had called. When he heard Miranda’s voice, a few curse words threatened to spill out until he heard what she had to say.
“She’s got maps on her computer, and it looks like she was tracking someone’s phone,” she said.
“Tracking it where?” he asked, hearin
g Amy’s car start up.
“The ravine,” Miranda said.
“Shit, I have to let you go,” he said, running for his car.
He hung up on Miranda, then got on the radio, and a few minutes later, he was speeding down a dirt road, hoping to beat Amy to the roadblock he’d set up. Her car was just pulling up when he came to a screeching halt behind the cruisers blocking the road and jumped out. “I’ll handle this,” he said, pushing past his deputies.
When he got to the car, she rolled down her window, looked up at him, and then down the road. “Is something wrong?” Amy asked, looking a little nervous.
“Sorry to stop you like this, but there’s been a bad wreck up ahead and we had to close the road for a few hours,” he said. “It should be open later tonight.”
He saw the disappointment on her face. “Oh, well, I guess I’ll just go on back to town then,” she said.
Michael watched her drive away, then turned and faced the men standing by their cars waiting for an explanation. “I want one of you to stay here for an hour and make sure she doesn’t come back,” he said, offering nothing more before driving off.
As he drove, he considered his options. He didn’t know for sure that she was here looking for the same Molly, but in the next breath, he had to admit that it was too much of a coincidence. So that left him with two choices: tell her the truth, or as much of the truth as he could, and hope that she’d believe him, or distract her until either she gave up or Adam and Molly got back.
The second choice was far more appealing; he’d dodged a bullet today, but he couldn’t risk her finding the ravine and the cars they’d dumped there, Molly’s right on top. Vincent had been suggesting for years that they cover the cars after they dumped them, but no one had ever thought it that important. Now he could see that they’d made a mistake. It wasn’t the only one either, since Amy had maps leading right to the ravine, probably from Molly’s cell phone signal, he realized.
Guardian Dragons of Prospect Falls: (A Paranormal Shifter Romance) Page 16