Last Resort

by Amber Malloy

  Waging a hard-fought war within himself, he tamped down the feeling to kiss her pouty lips. Truth be told, he needed to thank her then join his friends, but his feet felt rooted to the ground.

  “Why the hell are you on nerd duty?”

  “New experience. Besides…” She nodded toward the band.

  “Not a fan?” he asked.

  “Nirvana without Kurt Cobain just isn’t the same. Hey, I think your crew made it up front.”

  Levi glanced up. The girls surrounded his friends while they pushed the wheelchair next to the stage.

  “This one’s for my guy, Mike Caldwell. He’s going through some tough times right now,” David Grohl announced, “but I hope to see you make it through this stronger and better than ever.” They kicked into “There Goes My Hero,” Mike’s favorite song.

  “Wow,” he said, impressed Cayden pulled a dedication off.

  “I owed you for not telling your parents how old I really am.”

  “Yeah,” he muttered, a little disappointed that her kindness didn’t turn into a declaration of love instead of an obligation to pay back a debt.

  While the Foo Fighters belted out their greatest teenage anthem, he beat back the need to break his promise and kiss her. Closer to her mouth than he had any right to be, he bent his head toward her, in pursuit of her glossy pink lips.

  “Time to motor.” The sound of the redhead’s voice stopped him cold. “Dale and his friends figured out you guys are here.” Simone tugged on his arm.

  With a cheeky smile, Cayden glanced above her head. A few feet from where they stood hung mistletoe from the ceiling of the tent. She gave him a one-finger wave with a devious expression firmly in place.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Present Day

  The air smelled different in the fall. It probably had a lot to do with the wet leaves and change in seasons. Somehow, the aroma of maple and pumpkin mixed into the air. Cayden never dissected the exact reason for the scent. Groggy from lack of sleep, she stood in front of Stoney’s stall.

  “Eight hours later … I think that’s an all-time record for ignoring my text.” Levi’s deep voice caressed her ears. One of the many things about him that turned her on. “Did you bother reading it?” He took off his plaid jacket and put it over her shoulders.

  Since the temperature dropped, she understood his reference to her clothes from earlier. Cayden stood in her Uggs and Victoria Secret sleep shirt. When she woke, the clock read 10:45 PM, and she figured no one would be around at the barn. However, she didn’t consider the brisk temperature.

  “What happened to Stoney?” The white bandage went all the way up the horse’s leg.

  “Someone took her out on a joyride last night, and she got caught in a fence.”

  “That seems…” Everything appeared out of focus. “Ridiculous.” The pills didn’t help her stay asleep, but they did manage to keep her off balance. She fought against the muck in her head to make sense of it all.

  “Hey.” He grabbed her by the shoulders, turning her to face him. “Did you get any sleep?”

  “Not much.”

  “What’s going on? You’ve been out of it ever since you came back from the city.” He cradled her face in his hands while he studied her.

  Cayden didn’t know how much she wanted to confess, but the weight of it became too heavy to keep to herself.

  “Those sleeping pills aren’t working, I take it?” His icy tone indicated he didn’t approve. On accident, she left the prescription bottle on the night stand.

  Once he realized she wouldn’t confess her sins to him, he dropped his hands from her face. Diagnosed with PTSD years before, Levi didn’t endorse self-medication. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought he joined a cult that frowned upon medical intervention.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked.

  She took a step away from the stall but stumbled over her feet.

  “You’re really out of it.” He steadied her with his hands. “Let’s get you home.”

  The judgmental timber in his voice quickly changed into concern. Hefting her up into his arms, he cradled her to his chest.

  “Levi?” Cayden said through the dense fog in her head. “Where are the ponies?”

  “They’re in their stall, babe.”

  “Nope.” As her head grew heavy, Cayden found she couldn’t hold it up any longer and let it fall back. “All the ponies are … gone.”

  ****

  The sun shone bright in the cloudless sky, but it didn’t change Levi’s bad mood—he had been up all night. The ponies were gone. He spent the rest of the day combing through camera footage with the sheriff. They were able to narrow down a timeframe. The last employee left at 7:00 PM and Cayden noticed somewhere around 11:00 PM.

  Shawn left the resort a couple of hours ago. Nothing of substance came up on any of the video feeds. Without a shadow of a doubt, he knew all the weird stuff happening had to do with Cayden.

  Frustrated that things spun this far out of his control since the beauty showed up, he loaded the dishwasher.

  “Cayden!” Before she even opened the front door, Levi heard his mother’s voice. If she continued to shout, she would wake up the spoiled but sexy brat.

  He hurried to the hallway to stop her. “Mom,” he hissed.

  She’d already made it halfway up the stairs.

  Ignoring him, Mom called out again, “Cayden.”

  “Mom.”

  She glared at him with barely concealed anger. Beat down and tired from the previous day, he honestly wouldn’t mind taking out his mood on the closest person available. Nevertheless, it appeared that Mom would win this one. “Do you really want to do this?”

  Familiar with her disappointed face, he waited for his mom to step back down to the foyer.

  “Regardless of her stress-related insomnia or your triggers from PTSD,” she growled, “you two are grown and I can’t stop … whatever this is.” Instead of defending himself, he waited to hear her out. “Did you know she bought us a week stay at a spa in Chicago? Plus, first-class treatment with Bears and Blackhawk tickets which would keep us busy for more than a month.”

  “Sounds expensive. Coffee?” he offered.

  “Don’t distract me with politeness. I want to stay mad for at least a good minute. Why does she want us out of the way?”

  “No clue,” he admitted. Even in her zonked-out state last night he couldn’t get much from her.

  “This book is a bad idea.” Red blotches spread across her chubby cheeks. She seemed to be barely holding her anger at bay.

  “Agreed.”

  She stomped her little Ked-covered foot in frustration. “This isn’t a fifty-year-old case where she gives the reader a long backstory and then solves the crime… First Stoney, now the ponies?”

  Considering that only a handful of people knew about Cayden’s writing career, he found the strange disappearance of their horses not entirely a coincidence.

  “Think you can talk her out of this?”

  “Do you?” he volleyed back to his mom as his dad honked the horn outside.

  “I’m going to kill your father!” Obviously, Dad wanted to motor. “Last question, is she sleeping all day? Because that’s not good either.”

  Slow to answer, he thought of something that never occurred to him before. “Do you think that means she’s starting to figure out who killed her?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine.” She threw up her hands in a huff. “I’m gone to leave you to do whatever this shit is!”

  “Mom!” Shocked she cursed, he bit back a chuckle.

  “What? Dealing with you two could drive a sober person off the wagon, just … take care of her,” she said before she abruptly turned on her heels and left. No good-bye kiss or hug. Instead, she stomped out of his house.

  Levi crossed the hall to the front door to make sure she got to the RV safely and waved at his dad who sat in the driver seat.

  “You can’t hold your horses for five damn mi
nutes?” she fussed. Levi chuckled, happy to know that the next hour of his dad’s life would be pure hell.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Folded in the warmth of Levi’s oak bed, Cayden tried to work her way out of her foggy cocoon.

  “We need to talk.” His lips warmed her ear.

  “Hmmm.”

  “Get dressed and meet me in the kitchen.”

  The calloused pad of his finger caressed the tip of her nipple, causing it to harden under his touch. “Why not here?”

  “Because we won’t get anything done … not with words, anyway.”

  She twisted her body toward the sound of his voice, allowing his hand to slip lower.

  “Come on, Ms. Young, it’s important.” Levi slid his finger over her clit. She arched her back with a shudder and moaned.

  “We can pick this up later,” he said, tenderly kissing her neck before drawing his hand away.

  “Few more minutes,” Cayden begged, already missing the warmth of his strong body.

  “I flushed the rest of your sleeping pills down the toilet.”

  The crash back down to Earth hit hard. “Of course you did,” she muttered. “Thanks, warden.”

  “Ah, honey, I tried to be nice.”

  She felt the strong grip of his hand around her ankle before he yanked. Her legs hung over the edge of the bed. Levi grasped her by the shoulder to make her sit up and face him. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Tired.” She tried to fall back on the mattress, but he held her in place.

  “We found Shana’s body together, we’ll figure this out together.”

  She blinked a couple of times before she focused on his blue eyes. The heaviness that seeped into her spirit made a slight shift.

  “Coffee?” she muttered.

  “Get up, sexy, and I’ll make you some.”

  He kissed her on the forehead before he released her body onto the bed. Falling back, she deliberated whether to go back to sleep or not.

  Darkness engulfed the room, which meant Cayden missed another day. Maybe Levi had cause to be concerned after all.

  She got out of bed and stepped into a cute onesie she scored from her designer friends before she met him downstairs. A coffee mug filled with chocolate drizzled whipped cream waited for her on the family, farm-style table he made. She grabbed the seat across from Levi and greedily slurped the pretty concoction.

  “Ponies?” Cayden asked once the caffeine kicked in.

  He used his thumb to wipe the cream off her mouth before sucking the remainder off it. “Gone.”

  “My fault?”

  “Not unless you stole them… Now spill.”

  Buying herself a few more seconds, she put her leg up and slowly drank her coffee. “Simone said her parents hit a financial rough patch around 2002,” she started. “They were close to losing everything, and unless she did some extra work, she wouldn’t be able to stay at Chesterfield.” The hot heat of the mug warmed her hand while she found the words to continue.

  “Extra work like what?”

  Cayden took a deep breath and pushed it all out at once. “They thought she got a scholarship through the school, but Dale’s father would fly junior and senior girls out of the country to screw his rich friends.”

  “Holy shit!”

  “Diplomats, oilmen, and a couple of celebrities. It wasn’t just her having a hard time moneywise … other girls at Chesterfield were as well.”

  “Shana?”

  “Simone wasn’t sure but said it was possible considering Shana was a scholarship kid.”

  Levi clenched his fist. “Did Dale know?”

  “He recruited—”

  He quickly stood, knocking his chair over.

  “I’m going to kill that fu— Did he touch you?” In a flash, he was in front of her. “Did he ever touch you?”

  “Levi.”

  “Tell me,” he demanded before he took a ragged breath and lightened his tone. “Please.”

  Cayden grazed the back of her hand over his face. “No,” she said. “I was too busy touching you.”

  A slight smile curved his mouth before he softly kissed her lips. “I’m pretty sure it was the other way around.” He pulled away from her and crossed to the back door. “Give me a minute.” Splitting a high-pitched whistle, he awakened the beast. Belle’s hard toenails tippy-tapped against the floor above, and seconds later she barreled down the back stairs.

  As Levi followed his dog out of the house, Cayden sipped her coffee and wondered if she should just quit and let the whole thing go.

  ****

  After a good hour, the roaring hatred that stabbed the spot behind his eye petered out. Natural breathing techniques his doctor had taught him helped with stress. A long drive generally worked best. Levi took Belle for a run around the property in the truck, which turned into an even longer trek into town. By the time he returned to Goosebay Lake, the sun peeked above the horizon.

  “Donuts!” Cayden leaned over the back-deck railing. Her breasts nearly greeted him before she did. As she made the gimmee sign for the treats, he reached in the white box and handed over her favorite—chocolate cake.

  In the pursuit of the truth, he nearly forgot she had on the sexiest pair of thermal underwear he had ever seen. Pink and furry, the first button started in the middle of her chest. Levi sighed and skimmed the base line of the forest but couldn’t make out anything.

  “Oh, hey, there’s one.” She waved at shadowy figure in the distance, while she munched on her doughy fried crack.

  Levi made it up the stairs of the deck and tossed the white box on the patio bench.

  “Want to give the hunters a show? This thing does have a back flap,” Cayden admitted.

  The crotch of his pants tightened at the thought of her sexy brown ass. Blocking her in with his body, he stepped behind her. “My mother came by the house yesterday looking for you. She knows you’re using me for dick.” He moved a long curl out of his way and put his lips on her neck.

  “Lydia’s known we’ve been fucking forever.”

  “That’s reassuring,” he muttered. When Cayden offered the donut over her shoulder, he took a bite and let the rich chocolate melt in his mouth. “Tell me the statute of limitation has not run out on prosecuting Dale?”

  “Afraid so.”

  “Can we at least get him on murder?” He pressed his lips against her skin again, admiring how soft and sweet she smelled.

  “First, we have to build a profile of the victim.”

  “Sixteen-year-old girl most likely forced into sex trafficking by doucheface Dale Newman, check.”

  “Then we follow the evidence.” Turning around in his arms, she bumped her nose against his. “Sorry.” She laughed.

  Was Dale’s teenaged hard-on for Cayden merely a recruitment tactic for his dad’s jacked-up sex ring, or was he in search of the Holy Grail much like everyone else? The unanswered question rolled around in Levi’s head, bothering him.

  “Shana’s sister didn’t have much in the way of keepsakes, but told me their mother put most of her stuff in storage. She gave me the key.”

  “What facility?” he asked.

  “Park It City Storage, it’s about twenty minutes out.”

  “Yeah, I know where it is.” Cayden put the rest of the donut to his lips for him to finish it off. “Give me the key,” he said between bites.

  “Ah, you want to go without me?” She twisted her lips down in a mock pout.

  “No, I’ve got an idea, but I’m going to see how it plays out first.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Valentine’s Day—2004

  Ice-covered snow clung to the ground.

  Clinging onto life a lot longer than anyone thought, Mike died on Monday. They were all put on punishment after the kidnapping, even though everyone believed it gave Mike a few more months to live.

  Levi felt ill-fitted in his suit, while kids from his school milled around the resort’s restaurant. His parents allowed them to
have the memorial at Goosebay Lake. The Scotts owned the only place big enough to accommodate the whole town.

  “We’re going to the quarry to pour out a pint of Guinness,” Greg said as he joined them. During the whole service, his group pretty much stayed to themselves. When they carried the casket from the church, Bud broke down. After that he didn’t say much. He seemed pretty lost without his brother.

  “Boys,” Sheriff interrupted their plans.

  “Sheriff,” they responded.

  “You idiots are really lucky that kid didn’t die during your little stunt, otherwise this memorial would be going a lot different.” Shawn’s dickhead dad still wore his uniform and he didn’t even have to work that day. Levi wondered if the overbearing ass even owned regular clothes. “I guess your parents have some money to blow, huh, Scott?”

  Since Levi didn’t know how to answer, he just looked away in hopes Sheriff would leave them alone. No one wanted to hang at Shawn’s house for just this reason.

  “Well, they should quit trying to show everyone up. People are grieving … it’s not a contest.”

  Very rarely did Levi thank the heavens for Trent Scott, but one second in Sheriff Cooper’s presence always managed to fish that emotion out of him.

  “Okay, well, you idiots remember this is a memorial and conduct yourself accordingly.” Sheriff Cooper looped his thumbs in his gun belt, probably waiting for them to apologize for kidnapping Mike that day. Considering none of them were sorry, they all stood in awkward silence until he moseyed off to harass someone else.

  “I have to help my parents clean up,” he blurted out the lie. They hired a crew, but he just needed to get away from the sadness the huge hole Mike’s absence made in the group.

  “Levi!” Meghan’s high-pitched whine forced his stomach to drop.

  “Uh-oh, Levi’s in trouble,” Shawn teased.

  Someone made the sound of a whip, while they chuckled at his current predicament. For weeks, he had kept her at arm’s length, using Mike’s illness for the reason.

  “What are we doing for Valentine’s Day?” she damn near yelled as bright welts inched up her neck. “Did you make plans? Do you even have anything for me?”