by Rebecca Deel
Minutes or hours later, Jake eased away from her, his breathing accelerated, lips swollen from her kisses, and cheeks flushed. “That nearly got out of hand, Lacey Coleman. You go straight to my head.”
She dragged in a shuddering breath. “That’s good, right?”
“It’s excellent.” Heat lingered in his gaze. “I had a feeling the chemistry was there.” He brushed his thumbs across her cheeks. “No bad moments?”
“If you couldn’t tell, I didn’t do something right,” she teased, then laid her hand over his still-racing heart. “No flashbacks.”
Satisfaction filled his expression. “I’m glad.” He peered into the hotel room. “Cade’s back.”
She looked over Jake’s shoulder. The other operative was ensconced on the bed, laptop perched on his thighs, his gaze glued to the screen. “He looks busy. I doubt he’d notice if I collected my second kiss.”
Jake laughed. “Trust me, he didn’t miss anything we were doing. My control can’t take another dynamite kiss. You’ll have to wait for the second installment.”
“A good night kiss?”
“If you want one.”
“Oh, I do.”
Jake stood and pulled Lacey to her feet. “Come on. I want to know if Cade encountered a problem while he was gone.”
Cade tore his gaze away from the computer when they entered.
“Any trouble?” Jake asked.
“Not after I ditched the tail. Child’s play. The Winston PD isn’t well trained.”
“Beckett?”
“Nope. Some green rookie who didn’t look old enough to drive.”
Will’s absence made Lacey uneasy. She didn’t like Will, but preferred him in her sight. His father made her feel the same. Maybe the feeling was a leftover from years ago when the police rousted her mother on a regular basis unless she provided a freebie for the arresting officer. Charges would then mysteriously drop.
“News from Zane?” Jake asked.
“He sent us files for each missing woman. I checked the dates when the women disappeared.”
“Notice anything?”
“The pattern’s weird. The women disappeared about every three to six months.”
Lacey frowned. Every three to six months? No. It was just a coincidence. Wasn’t it? She dropped onto the edge of the opposite bed.
“Lacey?” Concern filled Jake’s voice. “Do you feel all right?”
“It can’t be,” she murmured.
“What can’t be?”
“Remember how often I said I visited Mom?”
Her boyfriend stilled. “Every three to four months.”
“The disappearances are connected to you,” Cade said.
Lacey’s stomach knotted. “It must be a coincidence. Right?”
Jake wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and drew her against him. “Do you remember the dates when you visited your mother in the past year?”
“Pretty close.”
“We need to confirm or disprove our theory. What were the dates?”
“December 24, the last week in March, the middle of June.”
They were silent a moment while Cade worked on the computer. He looked up, his expression grim. “With the exception of Yvonne, each of the last three women disappeared within a few days of Lacey returning to Nashville.”
Jake pressed a kiss to her temple. “You’re the key to the disappearances. If we figure out why, we’ll know who. The answer to everything concerns your past in Winston. Who wants you so bad he kidnaps substitutes when you leave?”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Jake’s arms tightened around his trembling girlfriend as he waited for her response to Cade’s revelation. Whoever this clown was, he wouldn’t touch Lacey.
“That’s not possible. I didn’t date much when I lived here. The boys weren’t interested in dating the daughter of the town street walker.”
“The facts speak for themselves.”
“There must be another explanation. I’m telling you, no man cared enough to do something like that because of me.”
“What about Paul Chesterfield?”
Lacey stiffened. “He’s a grumpy old codger who hits on attractive females when he isn’t with Nora.”
Jake scowled. “Tell me he at least waited until you were 18 before targeting you.”
She remained silent.
Guess that answered one question. “How young were you the first time?” Chesterfield hitting on Lacey wouldn’t be a one-time deal. She was a beautiful woman.
“Fourteen.”
“He’s a pervert, Lacey,” Cade said. “Did he touch you?”
Jake clenched his teeth. No. If that old man had molested Lacey, he would be in Chesterfield’s face.
“He kissed me. It was disgusting and I made sure he knew.”
“Did you tell Yvonne?”
“She was drunk when those incidents happened. I didn’t bother to tell her. She wouldn’t have remembered me telling her about the incidents much less done anything about it.”
Jake’s gut clenched at the thought of Lacey alone and vulnerable, fending for herself. She didn’t have anyone in those days, definitely not the case now. Even if she wasn’t a favorite at the coffee shop with the Fortress operatives, Lacey had him now. “We’ll look into Chesterfield, see if anything pops. Who else comes to mind?”
“What about that cop, Beckett?” Cade asked.
“What about him?” Lacey walked to the table where Cade had set an extra bottle of water for her. She broke the seal and sipped the liquid before returning to Jake. “I never dated him. He was two years ahead of me in school. We didn’t run with the same crowd. He and Noah Holt, another jerk, were in the groups of popular kids. I was on the outside looking in. I ran into Will all the time. In a town the size of a postage stamp, I couldn’t help but see him everywhere.”
“Did he strike up conversations with you?” Jake asked.
“If you call asking who my mother was banging lately conversation, then sure, he talked to me. Same with his wealthy buddy, Noah.” She shuddered. “Noah was the worst, wanting to know the price Mom and I charged for a double booking.”
“Will never asked you on a date?”
Her cheeks flushed.
“He must have. I take it you turned him down.”
Another sip of water. “I didn’t want anything to do with him, his buddies, or his father.”
“His father? What does Chief Beckett have to do with this?”
“If you and Cade dig deep enough, you’ll discover Wayne Beckett was one of Mom’s johns along with most of Winston’s police force.”
“Are you serious?” Cade’s eyebrows shot up. “He never got caught?”
“Are you kidding? The whole town knew. No one spoke about it because they didn’t want to be on the chief’s bad side. He makes a great friend and a terrible enemy. He has wealthy, influential friends and would do anything to stay in their good graces.”
“No one called his hand on it.” Jake rubbed the back of his neck. “Unbelievable. Chief Beckett knew you were aware of his visits to Yvonne?”
“He never said so specifically, but he kept close tabs on me. He seemed to be everywhere I went in those days, too.” She scowled. “And so was Noah.”
“Want me to check into the Becketts?” Cade asked.
“I asked Zane to look into them.”
The other operative turned his attention to Lacey. “Since Z is tearing apart the Becketts’ lives, I can try tracking your mom’s cell phone.”
“Todd said he tried that with no luck.”
A shrug. “Won’t hurt to give it a shot now.”
Lacey told Cade the number. Her eyes widened, and she clamped her hand over Jake’s. “The purse. Where’s the purse I grabbed from the floor of the cabin?”
“My SUV. I was more worried about you than the handbag. Why?”
“I think it belongs to Mom.”
Jake stood. “I’ll get it.”
“I’m going w
ith you. I’m too antsy to wait here.”
“Back in a few, Cade.” He made sure the hallway was clear before he escorted Lacey from the room. Minutes later, he unlocked his SUV and reached under the passenger seat for the pink purse.
Jake urged her toward the elevator. “Wait until we’re in the room before you look inside the purse,” he murmured, scanning the concrete structure. “We don’t want to give the police anything to see if they pull the surveillance footage.”
“I didn’t think about security cameras.”
“It’s my job to think about those things.”
The elevator doors slid open. Knowing the risk of observation held true in the car, he blocked the camera’s view of her with his body. Jake wrapped his arms around her and said softly into her ear, “Don’t look at it, but there’s a camera in the upper left corner. Keep the purse between our bodies.”
“How do I do that when we arrive on our floor?”
He kissed her ear, smiling when she shivered in reaction. “Easy. Keep your attention focused on me as though you are under my spell.”
“How will that help?”
“I’ll be doing the same because I’m fascinated with you. I’m your boyfriend, after all. I should be crazy about you.”
The bell dinged to indicate they’d reached their floor.
“Are you crazy about me?” Lacey asked.
“Can’t you tell?” He walked off the elevator with her. “I’ll have to do better the next time I kiss you.”
“If you do any better, I might melt onto the floor,” she muttered.
Jake burst into laughter. “You saying I have skills, Lacey?”
“I think you’re lethal in more ways than one.”
Still chuckling, he unlocked the door to his room and nudged Lacey inside. She hurried to the second bed and dumped the contents of the purse on the spread.
She gave a watery laugh as six tubes of lip balm rolled away from the pile. “Mom loves different flavored lip balm. Her lips are always dry. She also claims the men she dates love to kiss her to see what flavor she’s wearing.”
Incredible. “How many flavors does she have?”
“Thirty, maybe more. She buys new flavors when she runs across them at the store or online.” Lacey shrugged. “I don’t say anything to her. I’d rather she buy lip balm than waste her money on an addiction that might kill her.”
“That’s nothing,” Cade said. “The head of Personal Security International is married to the owner of Otter Creek Books. She has hundreds of books in their home. Josh says they’ll have to move to a bigger house soon because there won’t be room for them plus the books and his weapons stash.”
“No cell phone in the purse?” Jake asked her.
She thrust her hand back into the bag and unzipped an inner pocket. “Nothing. Mom always drops the phone in this pocket. She hates having to sift through the contents of her purse to find it.”
“Cade?”
“I don’t know why the Winston PD couldn’t find anything, but the Fortress program is triangulating Yvonne’s cell phone’s signal. So far, I can tell the phone is still in the Winston area.”
“How long will it take to narrow down the location?” Lacey asked Cade.
“A few more minutes.” He glanced at Jake. “Call the boss.”
He dropped a soft kiss on Lacey’s lips before he called Maddox and placed it on speaker.
“Yeah, Maddox.”
“It’s Jake. You’re on speaker with Lacey and Cade.”
“You’re still there, Ramsey?”
“Yes, sir. Jake and Lacey ran into trouble. Thought I should stick around.”
“What happened, Jake?”
“Had a couple run-ins with local cops, searched Yvonne Coleman’s house, and drove to an abandoned cabin she used for meeting men.” He felt Lacey flinch. “Sorry,” he murmured to her before continuing to speak in a normal voice to Brent. “The cabin was wired for explosives.”
“You or Lacey hurt?”
“Minor burns for me, bruises and a deep cut for her.”
“Do I need to squash a hospital report?”
“Jake treated me.” She sipped more water. “Now I know why you hired him. He’s excellent at his job.”
“He’s one of the most requested medics in Fortress. Anything more, Jake?”
“Lacey found her mother’s purse in the cabin. She scooped it up seconds before the place blew up. Unfortunately, that’s not the worst of it.” He explained about the missing women who were close to Lacey’s age with similar features, hair and eye color, and body type.
“You’re telling me my wife’s best friend has caught the attention of a serial killer?” Ice cold rage filled Brent’s voice.
“Yes, sir. Another woman goes missing within days of Lacey leaving Winston and returning to Nashville.”
“The local cops called in the feds yet?”
“The police chief refuses to bring them in. He says he has a better chance of finding the culprit than a stranger.”
“Any bodies turn up yet?”
“Negative.”
“Do you need your team?”
“I don’t think so. I wouldn’t be opposed to a fed poking around, though, if it’s one you trust.”
“I have a friend who works for the FBI. I’ll see if he’s free. If not, I’ll work out something else. Be expecting someone to arrive by tomorrow at the latest.”
“Thanks, boss.”
“Lacey, how are you holding up?”
“I’m worried about Mom.”
“We’ll find her. In the meantime, stay with either Jake or Cade. Don’t go off on your own for any reason. If this guy is taking substitutes for you, let’s not give him the opportunity to take the real deal. Keep your cell phone charged and with you at all times. Jake, do you have an extra tracker in your equipment bag?”
“I’d already planned to use it with Lacey.”
“Good. Make sure it’s something she wears all the time, something inconspicuous.”
“Copy that.”
“Zane will be sending a report on the Becketts. I take it these are the cops giving you grief?”
“Police chief and his son.”
“What’s the connection with Lacey?”
“The father was a customer of Yvonne’s.” He scowled, remembering the way Will Beckett had looked at Lacey. “The son doesn’t know how to keep his hands to himself.”
Silence, then, “He hurt you, sugar?” Brent’s words came out very soft.
Jake winced. He’d hate to be on the receiving end of the boss’s anger.
“Not really.”
“Lacey.”
“Jake arrived before things got out of hand. I have a few bruises. They’ll fade.”
“Did you take care of him, Davenport?”
“Warned him off last night, and slammed him against a wall a little while ago when he tried to put his hands on her again.”
A sigh. “All right. Watch your back. He sounds vindictive. I want another update in four hours. Anything changes, I want to know immediately.”
“Yes, sir.” He ended the call.
“Got it,” Cade said, glancing up from his computer screen. He twisted the laptop around so Jake could see the map where he’d plotted the coordinates.
Jake studied the map and stilled. Oh, man.
“I’m not great at reading maps. Where is she?” Lacey’s hand clamped on his.
He didn’t want to tell her. Had he missed Yvonne? Searching the cabin had revealed no one, including Yvonne. “The Martin cabin.”
“No,” she whispered. “We didn’t see her. With the explosion…” Her voice choked off.
“Her cell phone signal is still strong. If the phone had been inside the cabin, the explosion and fire would have destroyed it. The phone is outside the burn zone. Does Yvonne silence her phone?”
“I’ve never known her to do that.” Hope lit her eyes. “Maybe she’s near the cabin.”
He raised the
ir clasped hands and kissed the back of hers. “If we’re lucky, we might be able to track her phone’s ring tone.” Hopefully, they would find Yvonne alive.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Jake clasped Lacey’s hand as he led her toward the woods at the cabin’s back property line. He and Cade had checked the area around the burn site before allowing Lacey to leave the safety of the SUV, but they couldn’t check the surrounding forest without leaving her vulnerable.
He wished his teammates were here. Jake had a bad feeling about taking her to find the phone. He’d never forgive himself if they stumbled upon Yvonne’s body. However, short of handcuffing her to the steering wheel, he couldn’t stop her from coming with them. Truthfully, if it was his mother, he’d be out here looking for her no matter what anyone advised him. He’d go through any obstacle in his way.
“If I tell you to drop, do it without question, Lacey,” he murmured.
“I will, I promise.”
He hoped he didn’t regret his decision to let her accompany them. More important, he hoped Lacey didn’t regret it.
They walked in silence, the night air brisk, woods utterly still as they journeyed deeper into the trees. Jake’s skin prickled. Wildlife should have been stirring. Lacey wasn’t quiet trekking through the area, but that didn’t explain his gut-deep feeling they weren’t alone out here.
A limb cracked, sounding almost like a rifle shot. Cade crouched, quartering the area with his weapon. Jake pushed Lacey against a tree, signaled her to go to the ground, and positioned himself between her and a potential threat, Sig in his hand, tracking as his gaze scoured the trees and shrubs for signs of a two-legged predator stalking them.
A rustle to his left drew his attention. Animal or person? Cade had heard the noise and moved to intercept. Though he longed to follow, Jake refrained. He wouldn’t leave Lacey alone and unprotected.
They waited for tense moments until Cade reappeared, his expression grim. “I have something you need to see.” His gaze slid to Lacey. “Might be best to stay here, Lacey.”