Expired Cache

by Lisa Phillips

  Maybe connected in some way—more than the visceral attraction she’d felt when he was standing right in front of her. Trying to be all heroic by treating her wounds. Like she couldn’t wash her own hands. They were red now and stung. But that didn’t mean she required a hero.

  Ellie had been taking care of herself for years now. She wasn’t suddenly helpless because a car had nearly hit her, and she’d been forced to dive out of the way.

  “The cabin itself is what Eleanor has been bequeathed.”

  Ellie said, “I’ve never even seen it. I don’t know anything about it, other than he’d said it was ‘rustic.’” She shrugged. “We never had any interest in hunting, and I got the feeling he wanted some ‘girl-free’ time anyway.”

  Jess grinned. “He said he wouldn’t carry anything that wasn’t his, so I didn’t go. Then mom moved us to New York because Ellie was going to college.”

  Ellie had often wondered if her sister begrudged that, but she hadn’t jumped at the chance to move back. Jess hadn’t given up her life and returned to Last Chance until their grandfather got sick enough he’d required bed rest—the point at which he’d been unable to deny any longer what was proving to be inevitable. His days were coming to an end.

  She shook her head. “It makes no sense that he gave me the cabin.”

  Why would she want that and not the land around it? Instead, her grandfather had given her his man cave while Dean Cartwright, of all people, got the valuable part—the twelve acres around it.

  “Along with a cryptic message,” Jess said. “Could you read that again, please?”

  Holmford nodded. “To my granddaughter I bequeath my secrets, my honor, and the trust necessary to finally wield the truth. Once and for all, what was buried will be unearthed and the story will be told. This, I leave in your hands, Eleanor, believing that you will do the right thing for all parties concerned.”

  “So basically he left you nothing.”

  Ellie knew what her sister was feeling, but she didn’t agree.

  “Seriously El, the house is yours too. We can share it.” Jess shook her head. “This is unbelievable. I get the house, and you get his man cave. It’s probably falling down, in disrepair and full of hunting junk. And the land around it belongs to Dean, of all people. This is nuts. He probably won’t even let you access the property.”

  Ellie turned to the shelves of books and focused on one red spine among the many volumes. She took a long inhale and blew the breath out slowly.

  Would Dean deny her access to the cabin? She wasn’t so sure and would have to check the county assessor’s records to see precisely what he’d been given.

  As for what Ellie had been given, it was a chance to solve a mystery she hadn’t even known existed. She could get to know her grandfather more. My secrets. My honor. My trust. He believed that she would do the right thing. He believed in her. Ellie smiled to herself. Doing that brought up thoughts of her grandfather, threatening to swirl her emotions into a tornado that only left destruction in its wake.

  She pushed the feelings down and turned to her sister. “It’s not nothing.” Trust was never nothing. A sentiment she and her grandfather had shared, as hard as that had been.

  Her sister made a pfft sound.

  “Keep a guest room ready in the house. That’s enough.” She didn’t need money from any of this, and she’d long thought that was the last thing to think about when someone you loved had just died. But it was how things worked, so she let it go.

  “And mom gets all his money?”

  Ellie glanced at the lawyer, then back at her sister. She shook her head, a small movement that Jess understood.

  She responded with a tiny nod of her own.

  They would talk about this later.

  “I should prepare for my next meeting, given that this one got a late start. I’m afraid I’ll have to wrap it up now.” The lawyer stood. “Please don’t hesitate to contact my secretary if you wish to talk further—about any part of what was covered here.”

  “Thank you.” Ellie gathered her purse and held the door for her sister. They shook the lawyer’s hand and offered the standard pleasantries.

  As they headed down the hall, Jess looked at her watch. “I should get to work. I’m late already.”

  “Sorry.”

  The hallway opened up into the reception area. A tall desk, behind which sat a young woman looking up at the man across the counter with a rapt expression. Beside him, another older woman threw her head back and laughed. The man smiled wide at them both.

  “You’re not the one who delayed things.” Jess’s tone darkened.

  Ellie saw who Jess was looking at. I think I know who the next appointment is with. Dean’s smile fell as he saw them there.

  Jess strode to the door and pushed it open. “Let’s go, Ellie. There’s no reason to stick around here.”

  He had tried to help. Why would Jess blame him for her being late to work?

  Dean opened his mouth, like he wanted to say something, and then frowned as she passed by him and headed out into the sunshine.

  Jess stuck her hands in her pockets. “Come on. I’ll walk you to your car. You can drop me off at the police station.”

  Ellie walked to where they’d parked.

  “I don’t know why you aren’t mad.”

  “Why would I be? Grandpa gave me the gift he thought I’d like.”

  Jess glanced over. “And?”

  Ellie shrugged. That should be obvious. “I like it.” A mystery to solve. The secret will be unearthed. She had to wonder what that was. Even just the wonder of it and the unanswered questions were a gift.

  Now there was no denying her grandfather had understood her. Maybe he’d even known she wouldn’t know how to handle her feelings of loss, so he’d given her a mystery to solve.

  That alone warmed her in this season of loss. Being adrift from work, her normal universe. Rotating around familiar places, moving through those where pain flashed. Memory and trauma. All of it was intertwined—good and bad. As soon as she could be gone from here, she would feel a whole lot better.

  They glanced at each other over the hood of the car. Ellie said, “What is it?”

  Jess looked aside. “I don’t think that car coming at you was an accident.” Before Ellie could say more, she added, “At least, it’s possible it might’ve been on purpose.”

  “You’re right.”

  Relief washed over Jess’s face.

  “It is possible.”

  “No, no. I’m not talking about logic.” All the relief Jess had felt at being understood was gone now. “This is serious.”

  “If it is, time will tell. Until then I don’t plan to get emotional or make snap decisions because I’m reacting based on a freak out.”

  “No, I suppose you don’t. Though,” Jess said, “I’d pay money at this point to see you freak out.”

  “Not enough. After all, you only own a house. I’d never do it for so little.”

  Jess laughed. Good. If she was laughing, then it meant she wasn’t completely worried. Just a little. And that helped Ellie feel better.

  There was no way someone was trying to hurt her.

  That was crazy.

  Four

  Dean pushed open the doors to the gym and strode inside. At least now he knew what the fresh wave of ire from Jess was about.

  The receptionist frowned down at his jeans. A guy whose name he couldn’t remember, who seemed to wear a muscle shirt every day of his life. Today’s was pink.

  “I’m looking for Stuart.”

  The receptionist twisted around too fast. Dean couldn’t read the name tag that hung from a pin on his shirt. He moved to the computer and tapped a few keys. “Stu never checked in. Doesn’t mean he’s not here, though.” When he turned back, Dean got a look.

  “Thanks, Mark.” Dean nodded. Plenty of times he’d forgotten to swipe in.

  He did it now, though. Used his key card and pushed through the turnstile into the main
area of the gym. For what had started as a low budget, hole in the wall place to come and spar, it had been hauled into the new century with machines and TVs. They even had a studio on one side, and keypad lockers in the locker room.

  He scanned the treadmills and the free weight stations in front of the mirror. Stuart wasn’t…nope. Not here.

  Dean’s friend might not be here, but Eleanor was. He strode to the treadmill she walked on. Admittedly, slowly. But he could see stiffness in the way she moved, even with the low speed. He walked the row in front, so he wouldn’t scare her by coming up behind her.

  Seriously. The woman had almost been hit by a car today. She could’ve died today, and she was exercising?

  He tried to help people, but some of them just didn’t want to admit they needed assistance. Clearly Ellie Ridgeman was one of those. Too stubborn to acknowledge she could use his help when she’d been clearly in pain.

  “Did you ice your hip first?” He shot her a look, trying to tamp down his annoyance.

  She started. “Dean.” Then pulled one of her earbuds out. “What did you say?” She fumbled the buttons on the display panel and stepped onto the sides of the treadmill.

  “You couldn’t even hear me? Do you know that’s not safe?”

  Anyone could walk up behind her and do whatever they wanted, and she’d never even know. Dean shook his head. This was a small town, but a city girl like this—dressed like a librarian, at least when she wasn’t in the gym—should know how to keep herself safe.

  He didn’t look down at her leggings and fitted activewear shirt. They actually looked like something he’d seen Jess wear, and he wondered if she’d borrowed the outfit from her sister. He was too busy being irritated at Ellie’s disregard for her own safety to contemplate how amazing she looked in that outfit.

  Dean repeated, “Did you ice your hip before you came here?”

  “Oh.” She frowned. “Yes, I did put a bag of ice on it.” The treadmill put her high enough she could look down at him. “But it still hurt, so I figured moving it would help me sleep.”

  She did seem tired. And she’d had an emotional day listening to her grandfather’s will being read.

  Dean needed to back off.

  “Good.” He nodded, then turned away. Stuart was the one he was here to see. Not a woman who proved seriously distracting to his focus.

  Sure, he was attracted to her. She also seemed to have the innate ability to completely irritate him at a moment’s notice. Not unusual, when someone didn’t want him to help them. But this was different.

  He wanted... Dean didn’t even know. Probably he wanted her to fall in his arms, desperate for him to make her feel better.

  She didn’t need his hero complex working overtime. Besides, he was here to find Stuart.

  “That’s it?” She met him at the end of the row of treadmills, one hand on her hip. The one she hadn’t landed on. “You’re not going to say anything else?”

  “What’s to say?” Truth be told, he was still trying to figure out why on earth her grandfather had chosen to give him land up in the mountains that surrounded the town. Talking about it would only mean he’d say or do things that he hadn’t thought through, yet, and that always led to hurt feelings.

  Not that she was the same as every other woman he’d ever met, but he’d yet to find one that was different—who didn’t get hurt by thoughtless words.

  Besides, he didn’t need to lay his stuff on her right now. She was carrying plenty given the day she’d had. Nearly getting seriously hurt, possibly even killed. The resurgence of all the grief she was probably feeling.

  Dean felt his features soften. “I’m sorry you lost your grandfather.”

  “Thank you.” Her voice was gentle.

  It made him want to shift closer, offer some kind of bumbling attempt at comfort she probably also didn’t need. So Dean shifted away slightly and tried to dial down the Navy SEAL presence he had.

  She leaned against the side of the treadmill. “How well did you know him?”

  Now there was a question. He didn’t want to brush off a relationship, but what had there been between them? “We knew each other. When he started to get really sick, before Jessica moved home, he would invite me over. I’d sit with him on the back porch, and we talked a lot. About our lives, and the things we’d experienced.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded. “Did you know he was a frogman?”

  “One of the first Navy SEALs?”

  Dean ignored the way her eyebrows pointed toward each other, above her glasses. “Your grandfather was a Navy SEAL, like me. During Vietnam he was part of a squad of Navy guys who were some of the first SEALs.”

  “Wow.” The wonder on her face was beautiful. As though she found simple stories of great things completely fascinating.

  Dean nodded. “He was a pretty impressive guy, even though he didn’t always agree with me on that. Still, I got him to tell me stories, and we swapped some experiences.”

  He smiled, remembering the old man’s insistence that he was “just a regular guy.” As though the things either of them had seen could be considered normal stuff. The wars they had fought were very different. There was hardly a comparison between mid-twentieth century and the twenty-first century, in terms of combat.

  “Then Jess came home?”

  Dean said, “He’d gotten bad enough Conroy talked to him. Jessica came home, and he was moved to the police station. He didn’t need me as much. Though, I still checked in.”

  But Ellie hadn’t come. Not until the funeral, so far as he knew.

  “He never mentioned you,” she said. “And yet, he gave me a cabin and you the land around it.”

  He’d rather have pointed out that he’d been here and she hadn’t, even though Ellie was the one who was related to the old man. Only, how would that help? He’d mentioned her a couple of times, pointed her out in pictures, but hadn’t said much about her or her mother. Or Jessica, until she came home and Dean saw her for himself.

  Something about the three women, or Chief Ridgeman himself, meant he’d kept family business to himself. That was his choice. Some people told everyone they knew about the loved ones in their lives. Others, like Dean, did not. After all, no one in town knew about his father. Did they?

  “Jessica probably hates me even more now.”

  Not that he cared, of course. Officer Ridgeman was young, and she could have whatever opinion of him she wanted. What did that have to do with him?

  At least, that’s what he would have tried to tell himself before.

  Before Ellie.

  Now he had more of a connection to Jessica. Not just through his besotted brother, but also through her sister. A woman he could honestly say he genuinely liked—and who he wanted to like him.

  “She doesn’t hate you. She’s always had strong opinions, especially when she thinks wrong is being done.”

  “What wrong am I doing, exactly? She’s neglected to explain that to me but seems to have decided that however I’m helping Ted manage his life—and all the things he deals with that she has no idea about—is apparently the wrong approach. The reality is, she has no idea.”

  Her lips pressed into a thin line. At least he hadn’t made her cry.

  “Sorry.” Dean didn’t want to talk about Jess. “I’m glad he gave you the cabin.” Was she glad? He didn’t know. What he did know was there was no way he wanted any of her grandfather’s belongings. He could hardly believe the old man had given him the land, except that Dean had told him about his dream.

  “He knew I wanted to start a therapy center. Maybe your grandfather figured if he gave me that land, I’d be able to finally move forward with it.”

  He didn’t even know what to do with that, or how to feel about being given a gift that huge. The acreage was worth a lot of money.

  Maybe Jessica just wanted it all to stay in the family.

  “If your sister did hate me, I’m not sure I’d blame her.” Dean had to admit that, a
t least. Maybe Jessica was planning on contesting the will.

  Would he even fight it, especially since he hadn’t been expecting this and wasn’t sure if he even wanted it?

  Yes, it was the answer to a need he’d had. A place to start his therapy center. But considering he’d never even walked the property, Dean didn’t even know if it was a good place to build a facility.

  Not to mention where on earth he’d get the money from that, outside the doctor and his friends.

  Or had Ellie’s grandfather planned on him selling the land, using the money to start his venture elsewhere? He didn’t even know. Surely the chief would have put that in the wording of the will. He meant for Dean to keep the land.

  For whatever reason had been in the old man’s mind at the time.

  Ellie was about to say something when a door slammed open across the gym. A slender woman wearing a neon yellow tank top and tiny shorts bounced in. Dean focused on her face while she crossed the floor. She was frantic. “There’s a guy outside, and he’s waving around a gun.”

  Several men crowded around her.

  Dean left them to it and moved to the hall where she’d emerged. The EXIT door at the end had a keycard swipe entrance. He hit the bar and pushed outside, but never heard it click behind him. Before he could glance back, Dean spotted Stuart over by the trees.

  “Dude! Stuart, what’s going on?”

  Stuart swung a handgun in an arc, pointed up high. He had to have squeezed the trigger because a shot went off.

  Dean ducked. He heard a squeal behind him and turned to see Ellie crouched by the door. If anyone came out, she was going to get shoved over onto her face.

  “That was loud.” She shook her head, more surprised than scared. “I forgot it was that loud.”

  “Go back inside.” He turned to see Stuart scan the rear parking lot, his eyes glassy and unfocused.

  Stuart’s skills were deadly enough that he wouldn’t miss if he wasn’t planning on it. If Dean was going to get him to stand down, it was going to take everything he’d learned about post-traumatic stress disorder. Stuart’s case was intense, and they’d only barely begun to work together to manage it.