Her hands caught the rocks. Started to slip.
Hands clamped down on top of hers as Judah fell to the ground at the edge of the river. “I’ve got you.” He said, his voice steady. “And I’m not letting go.”
Piper let him pull her out of the water and collapsed on the ground beside him. Tears were streaming down her face, mixing with the brackish water of the tidal river.
They were running out of time to find out who was after her. Because Piper didn’t know how many more of these attempts she could survive.
It already felt like they were pushing their luck.
The next time might just be the one they couldn’t escape.
She cried there for a few minutes, her body exhausted, her mind grieving the normal life she’d had before all of this. She’d also lost the boat. The team needed that.
“I’ve got to call Jake,” she said around her sobs. “He might be able to get the boat if they head out soon and catch it.”
Piper knew some people rafted on this river. While she personally thought it was ridiculously dangerous, it was possible they might be able to recover the boat with a raft. Well, if the fan had gone off.
She didn’t know how that was possible. And she didn’t have the brainpower to try to work it out right now, either. Piper pulled out her phone, filled Jake in. He promised to go look for the boat.
“Hey, it’s going to be okay.” Judah’s voice should have been comforting, but it wasn’t. Not this time. Piper was past being able to be comforted. This had gone on for too long.
“I can’t do this anymore,” she heard herself say and felt his arms wrap around her.
She’d never realized exactly how it would feel to be held by a man like Judah, someone who was more interested in giving than taking, someone who wanted the best for her. She struggled to even put words to the feeling, but protected came close.
Almost even loved. But it was too soon for words like that, and Judah might not feel that way about her. She wasn’t meaning to assume anything about how he felt.
But it was how it made her feel.
“Let’s get back to the police station.”
“I want to go home.” Her voice was small, and she hated it, but Piper had nothing left. She’d been pulling on reserves for so long that those were depleted. She needed...well, she didn’t know exactly what, but not this.
“As soon as we give a statement, I’ll take you right to Adriana and Levi’s.”
Home. She’d meant her home.
“Back there?” She didn’t mean to be ungrateful. They’d both been great, but it just wasn’t home; it wasn’t normal.
“Piper, come on.” Judah stood up, took her hand and helped her up, too. Then he took her other hand in his and turned her to face him. They stood there, both still dripping wet, and Piper leaned her head forward until her forehead rested on Judah’s chest. She felt the rhythm of his breathing, constant and comforting, heard the beating of his heart.
He was so strong. So dependable.
She could so easily lose her heart to this man.
“I miss home.” Had she only been gone for a day? She missed more than the building. She missed her routine, her job, everything about her life as it had been before this threat had interrupted it.
“I get it. I really do. And if you give me a list of things you want, I’ll have an officer pack a bag for you and bring it to Adriana and Levi’s, so it will be waiting when we get there.”
Piper nodded slowly and looked away.
“Hey.” Judah’s voice was soft. Piper looked back at him.
Gentle hands tilted her chin up so that she was looking at him and her eyes met his. Judah’s eyes searched her own.
“I understand you want normal right now. But it’s not an option. Even if I sent you back home and we pretended everything was okay, it wouldn’t be. We would be taking unnecessary risks because the danger is still out there. Someone needs you out of their way, Piper, and they aren’t done yet. They aren’t going to stop until you are out of the picture, do you understand?”
How could she so desperately want to be alive, while at the same time, someone desperately wanted her dead? It hurt to put it into words, to make herself acknowledge the fact that someone didn’t want to “hurt” her or “scare” her.
Someone wanted to kill her. Forever.
She blew out a breath. “Levi and Adriana’s as soon as we are done with the police station?”
“Yes.”
“And you’ll buy me pizza for dinner?”
“I’ll buy you pizza for dinner.” He had the hint of a smile in his voice.
It was enough, for now, to give Piper the strength she needed to head down the river, along a narrow moose trail that wound along beside it, back toward town.
* * *
Judah had called in to the police department, letting them know what had happened. They’d promised to send an officer out to the scene. He hadn’t anticipated it would be his brother. This reminded him all too much of when someone had been after Levi. Mixing family and police work was tricky enough anyway, but when one of them was in danger that felt personal?
It made it even more complicated.
“Be careful,” Judah told Levi when they met on the trail. “The boat would have been tampered with about half a mile back up the river. Piper was showing me a scene of one of the recoveries she worked.”
“And you think someone tampered with it?”
Judah hadn’t given a lot of details over the phone, but filled his brother in now. Levi nodded, his face more serious than it ever was.
“What is going on here? This feels...” He shook his head.
“How does it feel to you?” Judah pressed. “Because I have my theories, but I don’t know if I’m so close to it I’m not seeing something, or if I’m making connections that aren’t really there.”
“I mean, it’s not going very well for them right now, but it feels almost like some kind of cleanup operation. They were eliminating people who had gotten in the way of something, and now Piper keeps stumbling upon them. Either they are worried she witnessed something she shouldn’t have, or they’re just tired of her rescuing their victims. And now she’s a target, too.”
“Cleanup is a good way to describe it.” Judah looked over at Piper, who was listening wide-eyed. Of course she couldn’t leave the two of them alone to talk when there was an active threat against her, and Judah wouldn’t want her to, but truthfully he’d forgotten briefly that she was standing right there.
“Wait.” Judah watched the expression on her face shift.
“You mean, like a hit man?”
Judah and Levi looked at each other. Judah looked back at Piper.
“We don’t know yet.”
She shivered. “Let’s get out of here. Please.”
Judah nodded at his brother and put his arm around Piper, helped her hurry down the trail.
“I hate what this is stealing from me. I love that river. I love that boat. I love my job. I don’t want to be afraid to help people.”
She sounded so torn, so upset that Judah wished he could fix it all, but he knew he couldn’t.
“You can do this,” he said instead, which felt to him like an empty promise, even though he meant every word. But what else was there to say?
He could do the interviews he wanted to do by himself. That was an option. But Judah had the feeling that really what she wanted was her life back. Since that wasn’t an option, he really felt like she’d want to be involved.
But then again, wasn’t that making a decision for her? Perhaps he should talk to her and give her the option to bow out, in case he was reading her or the situation wrong. After the way she had been abused and manipulated before, Judah wanted to make sure he didn’t do anything to make her feel like she wasn’t the one in charge of her own life.
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“You’re lost in thought,” she finally said, but after quite some time, which made him think that she had been lost in thought, also.
“There’s a lot to think about,” he said truthfully.
She nodded.
When they reached the car, they climbed in silently and Judah drove to the police station. This was starting to feel almost routine, and not in a good way. He needed to do whatever it took to figure out who was behind the attacks.
But there were still so many pieces he wasn’t connecting.
He thought about them, sitting beside Piper while she gave her statement.
First, Piper rescued a lot of people. They’d found three cases where the deaths or near deaths looked suspicious. So, say someone was killing those people and Piper was interrupting the murderer. Then Judah would have uncovered a motive for someone trying to kill Piper.
Even thinking that phrase hurt him. The idea that someone wanted Piper gone was heart-wrenching.
He cared about her. She was his friend, so it made sense. At least, that was what he tried to tell himself.
If his and Levi’s instincts were right, a cleanup man, a hit man of sorts, did make sense. Someone hired him to make the messes go away. In a town as small as Raven Pass, a rash of shootings would have practically shut the place down. That would be an ineffective way to commit a string of crimes without being caught. Instead, to kill people in ways that looked natural, that made it seem like the wilderness was claiming another victim...
Well, it was brilliant in a thoroughly evil kind of way.
But who would pay to have people killed? Who would need messes cleaned up in Raven Pass?
They were a small town, located off the Seward Highway near Girdwood. They got their fair share of crime; sometimes drug trade from Anchorage spilled over, things like that. But multiple murders that seemed connected?
Judah didn’t know where to start.
Piper was looking at him, and Judah realized she and the chief were done talking.
“Sorry, lost in thought.”
“I’m sure the two of you want to get dried off and cleaned up.” Chief Moore stood. “I’ll let you go for now and get in touch if we have any more questions. Wicks, I’ll have another officer cover for you the rest of your shift.”
“Are you sure?” The chief was a fair man, a good boss, but Judah didn’t want him making exceptions.
The chief’s eyes went to Piper, then Judah. He nodded decisively. “I’m sure. Consider making sure no one gets close to her your job for the rest of the day.”
That he could do. Judah nodded. “Yes, sir.” And they went to the car and headed straight for his brother’s house. No one was home, so Piper dried off and cleaned up in the guest room while Judah borrowed a change of clothes from his brother. They weren’t quite the same size. The pants were a little long, the shirt a little snug in the arms and shoulders, but close enough.
Judah had grabbed the files from the police department on the search and rescue cases. They had a small file on each of them and Judah had earlier printed out the digital records and stuck them into manila envelopes to take them home.
“What’s all that?”
“The case files. I don’t have much, since the incidents weren’t determined to be criminal at the time. But it’s something.”
Piper nodded, then walked over to sit beside him on the couch.
Her nearness was distracting, but that wasn’t necessarily something he wanted her to know, the huge effect she had on him, so he said nothing. Instead he read down the list, focused on the observations the police had made.
After reading all three, he came to the same conclusion for all of them. The police hadn’t been wrong not to pursue any of them. But he could definitely see some holes in the stories, enough that in retrospect he could see that they should have been investigated more thoroughly.
Also, he really needed to talk to the other people who had been involved.
“I’ve got a question for you,” he said to Piper.
She looked over at him. “What’s up?”
“I need to interview some of the attempted victims if they’re still alive, maybe some other people who were associated with these cases. The biggest gap we have in the investigation right now is that we don’t know why someone was targeting all these people. If there’s no connection, it could be a serial killer. But I agree with Levi. I think some kind of hit man is more likely what we are looking at, which means there has to be a link between them. Someone is getting rid of some people for a certain reason.”
“Okay, so what do you need from me?”
“Well, it depends.” He looked at her. Waited. “Do you want to be involved, or would you rather not?”
“What do you mean?” She frowned. “You want to know if I’m out? Is that it?”
“It’s not your job, Piper. And I’ve asked a lot of you. Today was awful, not knowing if you’d make it out of the river. Really not knowing if either of us would. I don’t want to go through that again. But I don’t want to refuse your help if you’re offering.” He rubbed a hand on his forehead. “I don’t know what’s better anymore, for you to help or not help. I’m doing my best to keep you safe either way and it’s still not enough. So at this point I just want to know what you want.”
Instead of replying right away, Piper said nothing, but she did nod, and she looked like she was considering everything he’d said.
“If I keep helping...” She trailed off. “I’m not in the way, right?”
“Not at all,” he told her truthfully. Yes, she was distracting, but she’d be that even if she wasn’t with him.
Piper nodded. “I want to help, still.” She smiled. “Thank you for letting me pick.”
So he’d been correct about that one. Judah was deeply relieved he hadn’t offended her. Instead it actually seemed like he’d done the right thing. “You’re welcome. How do you feel about seeing if anyone is available to talk to us today?”
She winced. “I guess there’s no reason to delay.”
“The sooner we get all this figured out, the better off you’ll be. Safer.”
“I know.” Her expression still didn’t seem certain. “I get all of that. I’m just so tired. Let me go grab shoes.”
Judah knew she wanted to help, but he also believed her that she was tired. She had dark circles under her eyes that hadn’t been there a few days ago. The case was taking a toll on all of them, but especially on Piper. He wanted to stick to his decision and let her help, but that might take some effort. He was a protector. He also wanted to be able to tell her to step back, take a rest.
Maybe instead he’d have to arrange some rest for both of them.
“Got my shoes. Let’s go.” They walked to the car together, Judah’s mind already working on how he could give them both a little bit of a break the next day.
TWELVE
The first house they pulled up to belonged to Randy Walcott, who had almost drowned after operating a canoe while intoxicated. He had almost nothing useful to tell them, since he couldn’t remember the accident at all due to how much alcohol he had consumed. They’d asked him about that and he’d admitted he’d just had too much to drink and not enough food. There was no reason to suspect his drink had been spiked, since he’d been alone.
“Do you know why someone might be after you?” Judah asked.
The man shook his head. “No. You think someone still is?” He seemed to consider this, then nodded. “I can see that.”
The words made Judah frown. “You still feel like you’re in danger?”
He frowned. “I don’t know that I’d say that, but...” He trailed off. “Actually I would, yes. Several times since the accident, I’ve felt like someone is following me. I don’t know that I have enough solid evidence of that to be helpful to you guys, but it’s a hunch I’ve had anyw
ay.”
It wouldn’t hold up in court, but it was enough for Judah to take notice and pay attention.
“Thanks for talking to us today,” Judah said as he and Piper moved from his front deck back toward the truck. “Call if anything else comes to mind.”
He nodded. “I’ll do that. And I hope you guys figure out whatever it is you’re working on.”
“Thanks, we appreciate it,” Piper said with a smile.
They got back into the car and Judah pulled out of the driveway. “That could have been more helpful.”
“You had to know he wouldn’t remember much, considering how intoxicated he’d been.” Piper said.
“Yeah, but I thought we’d be able to get a better picture of who could be after him. I believe him that he feels like he’s being watched, and that would make sense. But by who?”
Next they drove to the address listed for the man Piper had rescued from the rock ledge. It was an apartment building. As they climbed from the car, Judah tried to keep his level of awareness high. It would be easy for someone to follow them and try to take a shot at Piper.
It was a way that you couldn’t live for very long before it started to weigh on you. Judah knew that he was exhausting himself. But what else could he do?
They walked to the door and Judah reached his hand up to knock.
A woman answered the door. Probably early forties, maybe late thirties. She looked tired. Her blondish hair was pulled into a messy bun and she didn’t look pleased to have visitors.
“Is Jay Jones home?” Judah asked. “I’m from Raven Pass PD. We’d like to talk to him, ask him about an accident he was involved in several months back.”
The woman frowned. “Sorry, no one by that name lives here.”
Judah felt Piper’s gaze on him and glanced in her direction. She looked afraid. There was no other way to say that.
And for good reason, possibly.
“Okay, thank you.”
The woman shut the door before he’d even finished talking.
Then she eased it open again. Judah’s shoulders immediately tensed. He couldn’t think of any good explanation for why she would be opening the door again, especially after the chilly reception she had given them the first time.
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