Expired Cache

by Lisa Phillips

  Ellie stayed where she was. Jessica passed them, went all the way to her sister, and gave her a fierce hug. Dean’s eyes burned. He blinked away the sting—and some eye sweat he wasn’t going to admit to—and ushered the doctor to the hall.

  “Let’s leave them to it.” Jess showing up was a great opportunity, one he wasn’t going to waste. “They’ve been through a lot the past few days.”

  If the doctor had anything to do with that, Dean would be surprised. But he would want to know either way. Just as he wanted to make sure Ellie was safe for good. Not just for now.

  Dean used his size and pure momentum to get the doctor out the front door. Gilane almost tripped over the front step, but Dean was done with him. If the doctor was just here to feel bad and make sure they all knew it— then he could just go.

  “I’ll let you know if we need anything.”

  Dean shut the door and strode back to the living area. The last two times Ellie had been out of his sight, something terrible had happened. First one, he’d been blown up along with the cabin. Second, she was abducted.

  And then left alone.

  Another scare tactic?

  Jess planted her hands on her hips. “One of you talk to me.”

  Ellie spun around. Beside her, Jessica bristled.

  Dean sighed. “Sit down, both of you.”

  “I need to tell Jess about the map.”

  He held up a hand. “Just give me a minute.” Dean stared at her while his thoughts flipped through everything he knew at the moment. She was all right. His shoulder was on fire, and she looked paler than she should be.

  Jessica still had a bandage on her forehead. Stuart was who-knew-where. Ted was afraid of their father.

  He slumped back on the couch and shut his eyes, running his hands down his face while he took a rare moment to just breathe.

  “Is he okay?”

  Ellie replied to her sister’s question. “Even Superman has vulnerabilities.”

  That was how she saw him? Dean stared at her. “I’m not an alien hero.”

  Jessica laughed. “No comment.”

  Ellie shoved her sister’s shoulder. “You know I didn’t mean that.” But it had served to bring levity to the moment.

  Jessica covered her sister’s hand with her own. “Please tell us what happened. You were pretty out of it when we brought you here. I thought we were going to have to take you to the hospital.”

  Dean hadn’t thought that, but he knew Jessica had been scared. “What did he do?”

  The ghost in Ellie’s eyes disappeared when she blinked. “I told you most of it.”

  Dean nodded.

  “After he choked me for a second, my legs started to give out.” Ellie pressed her lips together. He saw her hand squeeze her sister’s hand. “I just don’t think he wanted to carry me.”

  “It was another warning.”

  She locked gazes with Dean and nodded.

  Jessica said, “Did he do anything, or say anything, after that?”

  Ellie swallowed. Dean noted the discomfort, not worse, but he still didn’t like it. She said, “I should have left it alone.”

  “So more of the same,” Jessica said. “Warning you away from looking into Pop’s past and whatever he wanted you to find.”

  Ellie made a face. “Everything I had that was going to give me an idea of what it was has now been destroyed. There’s nothing left to find unless Mr. Holmford wakes up and tells us what it was.”

  “Conroy checked with the hospital,” Jessica said. “It’s looking like he won’t wake up anytime soon. If at all.”

  Ellie let out a long sigh and slumped back in the seat where she was. Dean wished he was beside her, so he could pull her into his arms and just hold onto her. It would make both of them feel better. Kind of like that kiss had.

  The two women on their side of the coffee table looked like they’d been through the wringer, and he imagined he did as well.

  Jessica looked around. “I’ve never been in Ted’s house before. It’s huge in here.”

  “Ted’s house?”

  She shot him a look. Dean just shook his head.

  Ellie got up and wandered back to the map. “Did you bring that picture with you?”

  “Yes.” Jess dug in her shirt pocket and pulled out her phone. “Though, why you’re all hot on this map thing, I have no idea. If it had to do with what Pop wanted you to find, he’d have had one as well. Not just Mr. Holmford and the café.”

  “And here.” Ellie held out her hand.

  Jessica slapped her cell phone into it.

  “It’s a match.”

  Dean got up, stretching his shoulder while they were both turned away from him. Ouch. His stitches still hurt, and he was past due for more antibiotics. “What’s a match?”

  Ellie said, “The coffee shop map and this map—” She pointed to his wall. “—they’re the same. But the map at Holmford’s was different.”

  “But Pop didn’t have any maps. So what does it have to do with anything?”

  “I want to look at the house.”

  Jess folded her arms. “Maybe when the fire investigator is done.”

  Ellie said, “I think it means something. Because one map is what they let the public see. One map is what the founder we know of—Holmford—had for himself.”

  “The truth, and the lie.” Dean crossed the room. “What does Holmford have on his map that mine doesn’t?”

  Ellie looked up at him, excitement lighting her eyes. “A trail.”

  Twenty-Eight

  It took a whole day for the fire inspector to be done with her grandfather’s house—her sister’s house now. Ellie went in first with Dean right behind her. He had his gun out. Ellie had been trying to convince him since her sister came over that they should walk up into the hills and check out this trail.

  But first, she wanted to check over the damage. See if there was anything she could salvage.

  “Thanks for coming with me.” She glanced back over her shoulder.

  “Where else would I be?”

  Right. Because he was protecting her. Not for any other reason than he felt bad she’d been abducted, and he’d failed to prevent it. She understood how he thought now. With a protective streak that made him feel guilty for not having done enough.

  Was that what her grandfather had felt...guilt? Unable to prevent something terrible, he’d kept that secret for years. Now it was up to her to discover it. To do what she thought was right with the information.

  Ellie stopped at the doorway to the study and sighed. “Do you think he knew I’d be in danger doing what he asked?”

  She didn’t think her grandfather would have wanted that. Wouldn’t he have at least considered the possibility she’d be at risk?

  “If Holmford knew as well, as a founder, I don’t see why your grandfather would have left you unprotected.”

  She glanced at Dean. Her grandfather’s choice to receive the land around the cabin. He didn’t leave me unprotected. She had the cabin—he had the land. Her grandfather had surrounded her with Dean. Intentionally? He can’t have known they would be attracted to each other, yet her grandfather had placed them alongside each other.

  She had to believe he’d known Dean would keep her from danger. He was a hero through and through.

  Ellie said, “Then he had to have also left me a way to figure it out.”

  “The trail?”

  She didn’t want to discuss the trail right now that she was here at the cabin and had the chance to look through his things. But she had to climb over charred furniture. Someone hadn’t wanted her to be able to look through any of this. Tried to destroy any chance she had of figuring it out.

  The rational part of her wanted to rise to the challenge and hope for the best. To be brave. The rest of her felt a lot like a scared little girl. Or the teen who’d just had her naiveté torn to shreds. That part of her wanted to pray there was still hope.

  “You believe, right?”

  D
ean just waited by the door. He shrugged one shoulder. “I always have. When I needed God and when He felt far away.”

  “Where does your ability end and God’s help begin?”

  “It’s a good question. One a lot of people wrestle with.”

  She continued to move through the room while he spoke.

  “He gave me the skills I have. And put me in a place to receive the training to be a SEAL, a medic, and a counselor. I can do a whole lot, but I can’t prevent every bad thing. I can’t save everyone I want to. And like with Stuart, I can’t help him unless he wants to get better.”

  “So where does faith come in?”

  “I can pray. I do what I can, and I pray as much as I can.”

  “But you can just walk away.” Like with her, he didn’t need to be protecting her.

  “Can I?”

  So with him, it was imperative. Similar to how she had to chase this mystery. “That’s why I have to do this. It’s why I need to figure this out and go up that trail. Take a look around. Because my grandfather trusted me to do it.”

  “The way I trust the skills God gave me.”

  She nodded. “After…” She didn’t say it. “I pushed everything out. And everyone. My mom decided to move, and she took me and Jess with her. I wanted to go. Jess wanted to stay, but she was too young to argue. I graduated from high school in New York. Went to college. It was easier to study than to feel.”

  She glanced around the burned remnants of everything she’d ever cared about. The life she’d had. Her family.

  “It’s always been easier to delve into history. Those events were real, but it doesn’t tug at my emotions the way the present does. I can live my life and be knowledgeable, but I don’t have to be emotionally invested. It already happened.”

  Until now. She was back. She’d faced her demons and passed out from a lack of oxygen. Ellie had to face the fact she would never be strong enough to defeat an attacker. But she could be strong through it. The way she was refusing to back down now.

  Dean said, “I knew early there was something in me that was different. I could fight, and I usually won. My dad was always manipulating everyone. Everything. Still does, as far as I know. My battles were physical. Mind games…” He sighed. “I couldn’t do it. Not when it messed with my head. I got so mixed up, I would get in fights at school just to try and distract myself.”

  She glanced at him. From the distant look in his eyes, she figured he was lost in memory.

  “So I joined the Navy. Got all the way into the SEALs. Far enough I realized it wasn’t my father who put in me what it was that I didn’t like. It was just me.” He paused to scrub his hands down his face. “I didn’t want to fight all the time, even if I was good at it. So I walked away from that as well. I came home and decided to be someone I liked. A man I could respect.”

  “And you’ve done it.” She respected him. He was a hero, the kind of guy who put others first constantly. Who waded into their messes. Injuries. Accidents. Traumas. He wasn’t shy about the mess and focused on helping people.

  They’d both run from who they were. She’d denied her emotion. He’d tried to become someone he wasn’t. It was almost comforting knowing he wasn’t as perfect as she’d thought. There were chinks in this hero’s armor. And she respected him all the more for it.

  They’d both had to fight for peace.

  She was still fighting and maybe always would be. Dean had become who he wanted to be—and the therapy center was part of that.

  “I’m still figuring it out.” She crouched and rifled through scorched books. The journal. She lifted it, leafing through the pages. They were unreadable now.

  “There’s nothing left.” She tossed it aside and picked up a music box by her feet.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Tears rolled down her face, and she swiped them away. “I have to figure out how to deal with fear and this sadness. I feel like it’s swallowing me.”

  “Ellie.”

  She squeezed the music box too hard. It splintered in her hands.

  “Ellie, look at me.”

  He sounded so compassionate. She shook her head and dropped the box. “I have to do it myself.”

  The last thing she wanted was for him to feel like he had to counsel her. But he said, “I want to help.”

  She straightened and faced him. “You have plenty of things to do, and I don’t want to be one of your patients.”

  “You’re not.” He closed the gap between them. “I’ve been protecting you for days through some pretty intense stuff. I’m invested in the outcome now.”

  “Then why do you look mad?”

  Dean cracked a smile. “My shoulder hurts. And you have bruises on your neck. This guy got way too close.” He swallowed, all the self-deprecating humor gone now. “He could have killed you.”

  “He didn’t.”

  “He could have raped you.”

  Her breath hitched in her chest. “He didn’t.” The same way she’d been saved from worse, years before. “It was bad, but I think God kept me from worse. He allowed it to happen—that, but no more.”

  “For what reason?”

  “You’re the one who believes. Why would that be?”

  “Psalms says, ‘You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.’”

  “What does that mean?” she asked. “Hedges?”

  “He puts boundaries around us. Evil happens, but He wants to use it for His glory. And for our good.”

  “Like your father?”

  “I have to have faith.” He took a breath. “I don’t know the extent of what he did to Ted. But I can be here now, helping. Praying.”

  “Being a hero.”

  “Maybe it’s too late.”

  She touched his arms. “It isn’t. I’m proof of that.”

  “You can say that because you aren’t the one who has to live with the fact you didn’t catch him. And I didn’t keep you from being taken in the first place.”

  “Yes.” She squeezed his arms. “I can say that. Because you found me. You’re right, no one can prevent what is supposed to happen. I just have to find the good. Like being here with my sister. Putting a wrong, right. Sticking it to Professor Tumbleweed, because I’m going to write a better book than he ever could.”

  Dean grinned again.

  “And I can do it because you’re here.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “That’s why I feel like I have the strength to go up that trail and find out the secret someone is willing to hurt me and destroy my grandfather’s things over, in order to keep it hidden.”

  “I can’t be your strength. But I will be here.” His expression intensified. “Whoever it is, they’re serious.”

  “I know.” She touched her neck. “And they might destroy it before I can find out what it is.”

  “They probably already did, and this is a last ditch effort to keep anyone from finding out.”

  She said, “I need to try.”

  Dean pushed out a breath.

  “I know this isn’t what you want to be doing. You’re supposed to be setting up your therapy center.”

  That was why her grandfather gave him that land. Not for some wishful idea of hers that she be hedged, behind and before. Protected by a hero.

  He frowned.

  “But I do need you.” She wanted him to understand. “When it’s done, you won’t need to protect me anymore. I’ll be gone.” It hurt to say the words, considering what her heart seemed to want from Dean.

  That wasn’t the point though, was it?

  She didn’t live here. Now that fire had destroyed it all, Jess could rebuild. While Ellie figured out her own path.

  And she wasn’t going to run, the way she’d done before. Too quickly jumping at the chance to start over somewhere no one knew her. Hiding in books, in history. Pretending nothing bothered her. Ellie’s mom had train wrecked her life, making poor choices. Driven by her emotions.

  She refu
sed to do the same.

  As soon as she could get back to her life, she would figure out what was next for her. Ellie wanted to land somewhere she felt at home. Despite how her future seemed to fit in with Dean, too much had happened here.

  She didn’t feel safe.

  She needed him. “Until this is over, I need your help. I don’t think I can do this without you. I’m independent, and I want to think I’m strong…”

  “But everyone needs someone to watch their back.”

  She nodded, pleased he understood. Dean didn’t look happy, though. He looked kind of mad about it. “I can’t help feeling like we’re running out of time.”

  She shoved at a few more things on the floor, only succeeding in getting ash on her fingers. The music box. The books. She still had no idea what her grandfather’s clues were.

  She’d failed.

  “Let’s go check out that trail.” He crouched beside her. “Okay?”

  Ellie nodded, her gaze snagging on the box. “What is…”

  Dean saw what she had zeroed in on. He scooped it up and pulled the bottom section of the box apart. “Looks like a secret compartment.” He tugged out a folded paper. It disintegrated in his hands and fell to the floor.

  A map.

  Twenty-Nine

  He had his gun holstered, but that didn’t mean Dean couldn’t have it up and firing in less than two seconds.

  Which was the only reason he allowed Ellie to come up here.

  There was no point considering whether he should have told her no. She thought he was her hero? Fine. Dean was going to walk up this mountain with her on a wild goose chase, uncovering a secret that could take her a lifetime to work out, and then this would be done.

  He’d been thinking about it since she asked him about faith. About his skills versus God’s strength.

  Dean’s skillset? Thanks to the SEALs and all his training, that was mission completion. And right now the mission was keeping Ellie safe. Which meant taking out the source of the attack. If God had brought her to him, and if Dean was supposed to do this, then he would do it.

  Fastest way to mission completion? Draw out the attacker. Her abductor. The main suspect, whoever he was.

  Force a confrontation.