by Sarah Barrie
Reid took an easy step back, held it over his head and stared at her in disbelief. ‘My God, Jordan, can you hear yourself? Have you even looked in the mirror lately? When was the last time you slept? How about ate?’
‘Give it back!’
Instead, he put it on top of her dresser. ‘You don’t need it. Just sleep. I’ll keep you safe.’
She glared at him. ‘I don’t want you here!’
‘I don’t blame you. I should have believed you.’
Jordan sat on the edge of the bed, head in her hands. ‘I don’t care. Just go.’
‘No. I won’t leave you to a maniac.’
She lifted her head and stared hard at him. ‘You already did.’
He sat beside her and smoothed her hair. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t,’ she pulled away. She had to get rid of him before she fell into a heap in his arms. ‘I hate you.’
‘No you don’t,’ he replied quietly.
She got to her feet, got away from him, then turned on him. ‘What do you want to hear? You broke my heart? Fine. There it is! But you need to go. I don’t want you here anymore!’
‘Jordan…’
Reid wanted to explain, wanted to hold on to her, convince her he loved her and make sure she knew how sorry he was. But he knew what sleep deprivation looked like, knew there was no point trying to talk to her tonight. He walked out, but was back a minute later with a chair and he sat, put his legs up on the end of bed and relaxed.
‘You can sleep, or you can argue. But I’m not going anywhere.’
Jordan knew that tone. Giving up, she wearily crawled back onto the bed and curled into a foetal position. She was completely drained, physically as well as emotionally. She couldn’t deal with him — couldn’t argue. So she closed her eyes to avoid him, and within two minutes, Reid heard her breathing even out.
CHAPTER
19
She hadn’t meant to sleep, but somehow when Jordan next opened her eyes it was full daylight outside and the clock on her dresser read 9.38 a.m. She’d slept all that time? Memories of the previous night flooded back in and her gaze flew to the now empty chair at the end of her bed. Had he sat there all night, watching over her?
Not sure how to feel about that, she pulled off the blanket that hadn’t been there when she’d closed her eyes. She’d have to get up and…look for a note! In her confusion she’d almost forgotten. Jumping to her feet, she rushed out of the room. If it wasn’t on the table, it would be outside on the veranda, otherwise she could look —
Smack. She hit something hard in her sprint through the hallway and realised it was Reid. His hands shot out to steady her.
‘Slow down,’ he told her. Ignoring him, she side-stepped and began searching inside, then outside.
‘He didn’t leave one.’ Reid’s eyes narrowed at her panicked search. ‘I’ve already checked.’
‘But what about the ute? He sometimes puts one under the windshield. I’ll check, maybe he —’
‘Jordan, he didn’t leave one.’
It was like the psycho already had her, he thought. As she moved past him, he bent and scooped her up.
Jordan shoved at him. ‘You think I’m going to let you manhandle me?’
‘I don’t think you can do much about it. And that’s not a challenge. Relax, have some breakfast.’
‘No, I…you don’t understand.’
‘Yes, I do. You’re as obsessed as he is. You’ve been out here alone with this too long.’ He dropped her lightly onto a chair. ‘Now eat,’ he ordered, and put a plate of scrambled eggs in front of her.
Jordan looked down at the steaming plate. Eggs? He’d cooked eggs?
Reading her thoughts, he gave her a lop-sided grin. ‘Yes, I cooked eggs. There was nothing in the pantry and I had to tussle with an overly vicious rooster in the chook pen to collect them. Damn near lost a few fingers and an eye too, so you’d better make sure you clean off the whole plate and be grateful.’
He thought he almost saw the ghost of a smile touch her face, which made the entire traumatic event worthwhile. He wasn’t kidding about the rooster.
‘He doesn’t have a problem with me,’ she muttered, poking at her food.
It had been so long since she’d bothered to sit down to a meal that she didn’t know if she could do it, but she took an experimental taste.
‘Maybe he thought I was moving in on his ladies. I’d be worried if a guy like me showed up.’
Unwillingly, a laugh broke from her lips. Reid stared, put his fingers to his eyes and took a deep breath. She shoved her plate away, snapped, ‘What?’
‘I can’t stand seeing you like this,’ he explained, running a finger down a hollow cheek. ‘When I saw you last night I almost fell over. Felt sick. I was coming back, but when I saw you I was worried I might have been too late.’
‘Don’t,’ she whispered.
‘Sleep deprivation is a nasty thing. Last night…I need you rational. I need to talk to you about Brian Dunmore.’
‘Brian?’
He nodded, spoke quietly and gently. ‘Brian’s writing those notes, honey.’
She was glad she hadn’t eaten the eggs when an immense wave of nausea washed over her. Brian? She thought about it — took a few moments to digest the information. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Yeah.’
‘How? How do you know? Have you got him?’
‘No, but I have people en route. He’s cleared out of Hal Carter’s but he left a lot behind. We know he killed Beau, bought those flowers — we traced them to a florist in town.’
‘But that was weeks ago.’
‘There were receipts — credit card payments. He hasn’t hidden his tracks. That makes him careless, but no less dangerous. I’ve had experts look at the evidence.’
Jordan’s mouth fell open. ‘When? You were supposed to be in the city not giving a shit.’
‘I’ve done nothing but think about you,’ he said gently.
‘Could have fooled me.’
He needed to tell her — make her understand. ‘Jordan, my sister died of a drug overdose when I was sixteen.’ Jordan’s mug hit the table with a bang and coffee sloshed all over the table. Staring at him, she could see the hurt was still there. ‘My parents tried everything to get her the help she needed but it wasn’t enough. She used to make up all sorts of stories to convince us she was clean. Eventually, it looked like we’d pulled her through it. A week after that she was found dead in a friend’s toilet with a needle in her arm.’
And now it all made sense. ‘Reid, I’m so sorry.’ She reached out a hand to squeeze his. ‘No wonder…’
‘I just didn’t want to go through that again. It took me awhile to figure out I didn’t have a choice. I can’t switch off how I feel about you. I was an idiot to believe I could, and a coward to try. Once I figured that out, I was coming back — even before Harry called. I let what happened to Annabelle cloud my judgement because I was scared that if I believed you, like I believed her, you’d end up dead too…I should have believed you.’
‘But…you were coming back?’
‘Yeah,’ he replied, and pulling her hand up to his lips he kissed her wrist. ‘I’m in love with you. There wasn’t a choice.’ Not knowing what to say, Jordan just stared at him as he leaned over the table and kissed her forehead. ‘It’s not that surprising, is it?’
‘Well to be honest…’
He pulled her to her feet and she was in his arms. His kiss was everything he’d tried to explain, and more. She could feel the frustration, the anxiety, the desperation. Then he slowed it down, gentled his hold, and suddenly she was no longer drowning but floating, because here was the love.
‘You scared the hell out of me,’ he finally murmured against her lips.
Overwhelmed, Jordan rested her head against his chest. ‘I couldn’t tell anyone — about the notes. After Madi…I was petrified. I had this image jump into my head of Beau in that ditch, only it wasn’t Beau. It was you, or Madi
, or someone else.’
‘That’s not going to happen.’ With one last squeeze he let her go and studied her again. ‘Please have your breakfast. Just looking at you makes me hungry.’
‘I guess I haven’t been eating much…’ she muttered.
‘How many nights have you gone without sleep?’
‘I don’t sleep during the night, but I usually catch a bit during the day.’
‘Hmm. Because you know I love you, I’m going to tell you: you look like crap and your mental state last night was certifiable.’
‘Thanks. Maybe I was just mad at you.’
‘Just mad? You shot at me.’ She saw his face mirror the amusement she’d heard in his voice as he poured her a coffee and sat back down. ‘And that one past my ear was close.’
Jordan just made a ‘pft’ sound as she braved a hot sip. ‘Miles of room.’
His grin spread and she smiled back, then her features tightened. ‘Why would Brian want to strangle me?’
‘Don’t worry about Brian,’ he said vehemently. ‘We’ll get him. He wants you scared, and my girl’s not scared of anything.’
She laughed, but it wasn’t with amusement. ‘Don’t be too sure.’
‘Any minute a small army’s going to get here. They’re familiar with what’s going on.’
‘From the city? How’d you pull that off?’
‘Brian’s wanted for murder, and on drugs charges. We need to find him. We think he’s in the mountains.’
She nodded at that. ‘He is. He’s watching all the time. I can’t imagine he’s happy about you being here.’
Reid considered her carefully. ‘How do you know?’
‘He knows when to break in, somehow dodges Mack…I barely sleep but when I do he leaves another note…a couple of times I went outside and just yelled at him…and he replied in what he wrote.’
Reid went very still, and had to sit down. ‘When I think about how much danger you’ve been in while I was sitting in my office —’
‘You’re here now.’
‘Yeah,’ he replied, then, hearing Mack growl, he stood and looked out the window. ‘And here comes the cavalry.’
Jordan watched in bewilderment as Harry got out of his car, leading a cavalcade of more than a dozen vehicles from police cars to black SUVs. Armed men and women emerged from them like ants. German shepherds sat impatiently beside some as they gathered around, waiting for instructions.
‘Looks like a manhunt,’ Jordan observed.
‘It is a manhunt. I need to go greet them, alright?’
‘Wait, that’s…’ she pointed to a man and woman just stepping out of one of the cars.
‘Brett and Kelly, yeah. Brett was working undercover. He’s about my best mate. Kelly’s his wife. She’s got a good grasp on Brian from his letters and our investigation but she’ll want to speak with you and you need to tell her everything you know as accurately as possible.’
‘Okay…’
‘But?’
‘You sure she wants to help me? I wasn’t exactly friendly last time we met.’
‘Yeah, I’m sure. She’s already giving me hell over it. You’ll get on like a house on fire. Here they come. Ready?’
Jordan looked down at her appearance self-consciously. ‘Not exactly. I need to shower and change.’
‘Then get moving, princess. You’ve got five minutes before you’re inundated with cops.’
Brian paced the small space on the mountainside and watched the cars arrive. What’s this? What’s this! What’s going on? No, no, no… this isn’t in the plan. Bitch! She really is a bitch!
She never really loved you at all. Now she’s going to get them to kill you…the singsong voice taunted in his head.
His nerves started to twitch, his blood pounded in his ears. Don’t panic, don’t panic.
Run, run as fast as you can…
A strangled snarl emerged from his lips as he clamped his hands over his ears. He was perspiring now; sweat trickled down his brow and along his spine. He could see them all gathering around, chatting and shaking hands. His fists clenched and unclenched on the binoculars as he found Jordan among them. He grated his teeth and popped a pill into his mouth.
He’d have to change his plans. Adapt. He could do that. Sure, he could do that. But he’d have her. They belonged together. He tried to explain — tried to make her understand all this was for her own good. But she didn’t get it. She just refused to listen!
The drug wound its way through his system like liquid confidence. Nothing could touch him, no one could stop him. Carefully, gently, he picked up her t-shirt and rubbed it against his face.
‘Angel.’
He laid it out on the ground and ran a hand lightly over it, imagining she was there; it was her he was touching. As he dreamed, dogs barked and men’s voices carried on the air. His head snapped up, his smile became a snarl.
He slid his hunting knife from its pouch. No, nothing would stop him. He’d have his angel. And then…an uncontrollable rage slammed into him and he stabbed the knife into the shirt. Over and over he slashed, decimating the fabric.
Satisfied, he calmed himself, collected what control he still possessed and examined the destruction. In his mind he could see her — see the ruined flesh, smell the blood. And he laughed.
‘Alright bitch,’ he muttered with cold, hard determination, ‘bring it on.’
Jordan could only look on in amazement while a phenomenal amount of equipment was unloaded into the house, and her living room was quickly and efficiently transformed into a base of operations.
Even more bewildering was the new light in which she was seeing Reid. Everyone was saying ‘yes sir’ and ‘no sir’ and deferring to him for questions and orders. He filled the role with an ease and familiarity that spoke of long-term responsibility.
Apparently, she really hadn’t been far off in her initial assessment of him.
Even now, knowing what he did, seeing it all unfold was overwhelming. So she watched, impressed, and her gaze seemed to draw his own.
‘How are you doing?’ he asked, striding across the room to where she was trying to remain out of the way.
‘To be honest, I’m feeling a bit useless. Can you tell me what’s happening?’
‘Men are moving out to all the fire trails and to the road out of town. Another couple are already set up at Carter’s in case he heads there.’
‘There’s more? I thought every cop in the country was in my living room.’
‘Not quite.’ He gave her arms a reassuring squeeze and kissed her forehead. ‘Let’s do something about you feeling useless.’
She allowed him to lead her out to the kitchen and saw Kelly sitting at the dining table, speaking to another woman.
‘Ladies, I give you Jordan.’ He gently pushed Jordan toward to a vacant seat. ‘Jordan, you know Kelly. This is Rita, another detective and a good friend. They’ll have questions for you.’
‘Sure.’
‘Hi Jordan.’ Kelly smiled with the same sort of warmth she’d welcomed her with on their first meeting.
‘Hi Kelly, hi Rita,’ she greeted, looking the detective over.
The woman was tiny, she thought, and still she managed to look lethal. She had piercing dark eyes, a short crop of dark brown hair and a slight yet steely figure currently dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt. She wore weapons the way other women wore jewellery and Jordan was pretty sure she wouldn’t be afraid to use them. Right now, those watchful eyes were turned on her and she knew she was being assessed, just as she had assessed.
‘Hi Jordan,’ she finally said. ‘How’s it going?’
‘Fine.’
‘Good. I need to ask you some questions, but there’s something else I need to take care of first. Stay put for me, okay?’
‘Okay.’ Jordan saw the women exchange glances, and then watched her walk away with real relief.
‘Scary, isn’t she?’ Kelly whispered, causing Jordan to grin.
‘The way
she looked at me, I feel like a suspect.’
‘She looks at everyone like they’re a suspect. But in reality I think she’s curious about you.’
‘Why?’
‘You’re the woman that hooked Reid.’
‘I haven’t hooked —’
‘You don’t think?’ she laughed, and leaned in conspiratorially. ‘He handed over control of the biggest operation of his career to Rita so he could attend a certain cattle sale. And since he came back? Everyone that’s had anything to do with him has been wishing you’d hurry up and work it out. He actually lost it in an interrogation. That’s unheard of for Reid.’
‘What did he do?’ Jordan couldn’t help but ask.
‘Broke a guy’s nose. Threatened him with a fate worse than death…’
‘Reid? No.’
‘Yes. And that’s not to mention Hal Carter’s complaints about him threatening to shoot him because of the trouble he caused you. He threw a chair during questioning.’
‘Oh my God,’ Jordan muttered, processing. ‘I saw him hit someone once, but even then he didn’t seem too fazed. It was like he was just…taking out the rubbish or something.’
‘That’s Reid. Usually.’
‘I thought he’d given up on us.’
‘Reid’s an awesome guy, but he’s always tended to avoid getting too wrapped up with anyone. When he first brought me out to see you, I was just as curious as Rita is now.’
‘About that…I was an absolute bitch, I’m sorry.’
Kelly laughed and shook her head. ‘Don’t be. I understand. You threw me though — you weren’t what I had envisaged.’
‘Do I want to know what you envisaged?’ Jordan asked wryly.
‘Excluding the fact you’re gorgeous, you don’t really fit with…’
‘His type?’ Jordan asked. ‘He told me.’
Kelly laughed. ‘You challenge him, that’s a good thing. You’re smart — more points — and you keep him off balance. When we got out to your place and you started spouting my own words at me, I knew why you meant something to him. I couldn’t help but wish we’d met under different circumstances.’
Jordan grinned. ‘I would have been a lot nicer to you if we had.’