The Bribe: Calamity Montana - Book 1

by Nash, Willa

  If it wasn’t someone Lucy knew, then it was probably a crazed fan.

  “Shit,” I muttered. “What else happened with Everly?”

  “Pictures. Texts. Emails. Just in a condensed timeline. Lucy got an email once a week. Everly is getting them daily.”

  Christ, this was bad. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “He’s desperate. I don’t like desperate.”

  And I really didn’t like that Everly had come here.

  “I assume Everly and Lucy are together?” Detective Markum asked.

  “Yep.” As soon as I left here, those two wouldn’t be out of my sight. They could hang out in an interrogation room while I worked.

  If Markum had traced Everly here, there was no telling how quickly the stalker would too.

  “I’m going to need a favor, Detective.”

  “What can I do?”

  “Send me everything you’ve got. For both Lucy and Everly.”

  “Done.”

  “Also, I’ve got a friend in Nashville right now doing some digging too. He’s in private security but he’s good. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to share with him too.”

  “It’s not our protocol,” he said. “I’ll have to run it up the chain of command here.”

  “That’s fine.” No matter what they said, I was leaking the information to Blake. I wanted him equipped with as many details as possible as he worked. Besides, I suspected that the files Detective Markum had weren’t going to add up to much if they hadn’t even shortened the list of suspects.

  “Anything else?” he asked after I rattled off my email address and cell phone number.

  “No, but let me think on it. I’ll be in touch. Appreciate the call, Detective.”

  “Just keep me in the loop. Please. I don’t want to see anything bad happen to Lucy or Everly.”

  Neither did I. “Talk soon.”

  I pressed the button in the cradle to end the call, then immediately dialed Lucy’s cell.

  “Hey,” she answered with a smile in her voice. “Are you regretting going to work already? You can always come back and hang with us. We were just talking about opening up a bottle of wine.”

  “Hold that thought. I’ll be there soon and we need to talk.”

  “Okay,” she drawled. “Everything all right?”

  “I just got off the phone with Detective Markum.”

  “What?” I heard her moving, her bare footsteps slapping on the wood stairs. Then the door to her bedroom closed with a familiar squeak to the hinge. “Did you call him? I thought we were going to wait until we heard from Blake.”

  “He called me.”

  “Oh, God.” She gulped. “How did he find me? What did he say?”

  “I’ll explain it all when I get there. Just do me a favor, keep the front door locked. You and Everly stay there and stay inside.” It was a nice fall day and Lucy loved to go for walks down the gravel road. I didn’t want her and Everly out of the house. Or worse, coming into town because they wanted to explore.

  “It is already.”

  “Don’t answer it. For anyone.”

  “You’re scaring me, Duke.”

  “Don’t be scared, baby. I’ll be there soon.”

  “Okay.” The fact that she let me hang up without demanding answers spoke to how much she trusted me. I’d kiss her for that later, if she’d let me. Because before I kissed her, there was a very real chance I’d strangle her best friend.

  The hairs on the nape of my neck stood on end. The nagging feeling in my gut screamed that Everly’s trip had basically circled Calamity in red on the stalker’s map.

  I grabbed my keys and flew from the office, jogging through the bullpen. “Gotta go, Carla.”

  “Everything okay?”

  I didn’t answer. I just lifted a hand and shoved through the doors that led me outside. The afternoon sun was so bright that on my way out, I collided with a woman on her way in.

  “Duke.” Melanie gasped, latching on to my arms since I’d nearly plowed her over.

  “Mel? What’s up?”

  “I can’t find Travis.”

  “What do you mean, you can’t find him? It’s a Friday. He’s at school.”

  “No, the office just called me and said he didn’t show up for his first three periods and I hadn’t called to excuse him so they were checking to make sure he wasn’t sick.” Melanie’s hands flailed in the air as the words rushed from her mouth. “After I got home from the bar last night, we got into a fight. He’s mad at me because a while back, I was seeing this guy from out of town. Travis didn’t like him and made me promise to break it off.”

  “Did you?”

  She shook her head. “It’s not serious. We just see each other here and there. Last night after I left the bar, he called and Travis overheard us talking.”

  “Then you got into a fight.”

  “Yes. He was still mad at me this morning and wouldn’t talk to me before school. But this doesn’t seem like something to skip over, does it? Did something bad happen? Have you heard from him?”

  “No.” I dug my phone from my pocket and pulled up Travis’s name. It rang and rang until his voicemail kicked in. “Travis, call me back.”

  Melanie ran a hand through her hair. “He’s not at my parents’ house either.”

  “What about his friends?”

  “I asked the school and they’re all in class except for Savannah.”

  I frowned. “Then he’s with her. Call her mom. Call her stepdad. Call Hux.”

  “I did. April hung up on me, Hux didn’t answer, and Savannah’s stepdad was in a meeting at his firm.” She looked at me with pleading eyes. “Will you help me find him? Please?”

  Son of a bitch. I needed to make sure Lucy was okay, but I also didn’t trust Travis to stay out of trouble, especially if he was with Savannah. That girl could talk him into anything stupid, like ditching school.

  “Are you working?” I asked.

  “When the school called, I left and took the rest of the day off.”

  “Go home,” I told Melanie. “If he shows up, call me.”

  “Okay.” She nodded. “Thank you. I’m sorry.”

  There was genuine fear in her face, which meant their fight last night had to have been a bad one. Travis rarely got mad at his mother, at least outwardly.

  “I’ll find him.” I walked to my truck, climbing in and dialing his number once more. When I got voicemail again, I didn’t bother with another message but I did send him a text to call me. Then I dialed Hux. He didn’t answer.

  “Fuck,” I spat, turning on the truck and reversing out of the parking lot, driving straight for the gallery downtown.

  The peaceful day I’d hoped for, waking up with Lucy in my arms, had slipped through my fingers. With my pulse racing, I had a hard time concentrating on the road.

  Where was Travis? I didn’t have time to deal with this. Why wasn’t he at school? And where was Savannah?

  Enough was enough with those kids. My guess was there’d been another incident with Savannah’s stepfather, and it was time to step in. That girl needed help and not from another sixteen-year-old.

  “Goddamn it.” I pounded a fist on the steering wheel as I came up on a tractor on the highway and slowed to a near crawl. “Come on.”

  The farmer behind the wheel bounced as the large tires rolled.

  Rather than wait, I ducked down a side street, flipping on my lights with no siren. I arrived at the gallery and parked in the back lot, hurrying down the narrow stretch in between buildings to get to the sidewalk that ran along First.

  The gallery was located across the street from the White Oak Café. A man I didn’t recognize stood out front, staring at me. He didn’t wave. He didn’t move. He just stood there, wearing a navy polo tucked into khaki pants, and stared.

  What the hell? Who was he? I kept an eye on him as I opened the door to the gallery. Still, the man didn’t move.

  “Hi, Duke,” the receptionist greeted me.

 
“Uh, hey.” I walked inside. “Is Hux in?”

  “Not yet. He texted that he was up late working last night so I don’t expect him until one or two.”

  “Damn.” He was probably sleeping. “Can you have him call me as soon as you hear from him?”

  “Sure,” she said to my back since I was already walking for the door.

  The guy at the café was gone and I scanned the street, looking for him again. My eyes landed on a black car, one block down.

  It had Colorado plates. The windows were tinted nearly the same shade as the exterior. There was a man behind the steering wheel, speaking on the phone, but it wasn’t the same guy from the café. He was wearing shades and had dark hair, while the other guy had been blond. But like the other man, his unwavering attention was fixed on my face.

  I took a step closer, ready to pound on his window and demand some ID, just as he started the car’s engine and reversed out of the space.

  The knot in my gut loosened for just a moment. He was only a tourist, an innocent man sitting in his car wondering why I was staring at him. No doubt the blond guy was too. Damn it, I was getting paranoid. But with good reason. If Everly had made it to Calamity before noon, her stalker would be here before midnight.

  I took out my phone and dialed Lucy’s number as I made my way back to my truck.

  “Hey,” she answered, breathless.

  “Hey. You okay?”

  “Yes. No.” She sniffled.

  “Everly told you what’s been going on.”

  “Yeah. I told her that Detective Markum called you and you were freaked out about something. She started crying and . . . Duke, she doesn’t cry.”

  “It’s going to be fine.”

  “Are you on your way here?”

  “Not yet. Change of plan. Melanie came to the station because she can’t find Travis. He skipped school today because they got in a fight last night. I’m trying to find him.”

  “Oh, no. Any ideas where he could be?”

  “Maybe the park. I’m going to drive there, then search around town for a while. You stay home.”

  “We will.”

  “Do you want me to come there?”

  “No. You should find him. We’re fine. But do you think . . . do you think the stalker is here?”

  “Probably not yet,” I answered honestly. “But I think at this point, it’s only a matter of time.”

  “Everly promised she was careful. No one knows she came here.”

  Except she’d paid for a ticket in her own name and with a fucking credit card.

  “Just stay put. Keep the door locked. I’ll be there soon.” Travis was getting an hour. If I hadn’t found him before then, I’d pull my deputies into the search.

  “Okay. I love you.”

  “I love you too.” And I’d do anything to keep her safe. Even if that meant putting a bullet in the man who’d been making her life a living hell.

  The next call I made was to the station. “Carla, can you have one of the guys on patrol drive out to Widow Ashleigh’s farmhouse for me?”

  “Uh, sure. Why?”

  “Just because.”

  “You got it,” she said. “Grayson should be closest. I’ll radio him now.”

  “Thanks.” It wasn’t the same as being there myself but having someone else’s cruiser parked out there was a little peace of mind.

  I spent the next thirty minutes driving around town. It was quiet, as it normally was. Kids were in school. Parents were working. The park was empty and the leaves that had fallen from the trees were blowing across the browning grass.

  Travis’s car wasn’t parked at any of his friends’ places. It wasn’t at Savannah’s. Whether he liked it or not, next week I was installing a LoJack system on it, like the ones we had on patrol cruisers.

  With no sign of him anywhere, I checked in with Mel. She hadn’t heard from him. So then I drove to the high school, wishing I were in uniform and had my gun on my belt because when I interrogated his friends, it would make getting information a hell of a lot easier.

  All the while, a nagging dread tortured my gut. I needed to see Lucy and have her with me. I needed to talk to Everly and find out what the fuck was going on and why she hadn’t mentioned any of this before.

  But first, I was going to find the closest thing I’d ever had to a son.

  Chapter Twenty

  Lucy

  “How could you keep this from me?” I asked Everly.

  She swiped at her teary eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  I could recall many times like this in our lives. The two of us sitting on a bed, one of us crying. Today, we’d both cried and the bed was in my guest room.

  When Duke had called me, we’d just brought her things upstairs and were getting her settled. After I’d told her that Detective Markum had contacted him, she’d spilled everything.

  The letters. The gunshots through her balcony. The protective custody.

  My fucking stalker could have killed my best friend. And I’d been happily living my life in Calamity, oblivious.

  “This is my fault.” I put my hand on her knee. “I’m sorry.”

  “No, it’s not. See? This is why I didn’t tell you. Because I knew you’d take the blame. But it’s not your fault. It’s this creep. And I know I shouldn’t have come here, but I wasn’t sure where else to go.”

  Her parents still lived in the neighborhood where we’d grown up. If there was any threat of mortal danger, Everly wouldn’t drag it to their doorstep.

  “You did the right thing, coming here. We’re in this together.”

  She clasped her hand over mine. “I hate this asshole.”

  “Same.” I huffed a laugh. “I can’t believe you snuck out of protective custody.”

  “Ugh.” She flopped backward onto the pillows. “It was stupid. I know it was stupid. Duke’s going to ream me out for that later, isn’t he?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “Better to face your boyfriend’s wrath than stay in that hole where they put me. I was going nutzo. You’d think they’d have something better than a basement with a three-channel television, no books, no nothing, including windows. Fuck that place. I like Detective Markum, but he has no clue who he’s after and I wasn’t going to live in that cave for the rest of my life. So I waited until the cop on duty went to the bathroom, and then I walked out the front door and made a run for it.”

  I frowned. “You could have gotten hurt.”

  “Please. I was in this little suburban neighborhood with white picket fences and kiddie pools in the backyards. And”—she sat up and hopped off the bed, walking to her suitcase beside the closet to unzip it and pull out a can—“I had my bear spray.”

  “I have mine in the closet.” I smiled. “Though since Duke sleeps with a gun on the nightstand, I don’t think I’ll need it.”

  She came back to the bed. “How mad is he that I came? On a scale of green pepper to serrano.”

  “Ghost pepper, Ev. He’s kind of protective of me.”

  “Which is adorable,” she muttered. “I just wanted to get away and have this disappear. Montana worked for you, so . . .”

  “I get it. And so does Duke. But he’s going to want to know everything, so don’t hold back, okay?”

  “Okay.” She nodded. “I just wish we had a clue who was doing this.”

  “Preach. I’ve thought about it for so, so long. Detective Markum was so sure it was someone I knew, but I think it’s got to be a whacko fan.”

  It could be this nameless, faceless person. I’d performed at so many places, singing for a sea of people. One of them wanted to hurt me. One of them had fired a gun at my best friend.

  “But why?” Everly asked. “What did we do to deserve this?”

  “You did nothing but be my friend.”

  And what had I done? I was a nice person. At least, I strived to be a nice person. I was kind to others. If I’d scorned someone, it hadn’t been intentional.

  “You didn’t do anything
wrong either.” She gave me a sad smile. “No one deserves to live in fear like this.”

  I scooted closer to wrap my arms around her and rest my cheek on her shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  “I shouldn’t have come.” She sighed. “I put you in danger.”

  “No, I’m glad you did. It’s safer here than Nashville.” It was safer with Duke. “Let’s go downstairs and—”

  The doorbell rang.

  I gasped and my entire body flinched as Everly yelped and jumped off the bed. I slapped a hand to my racing heart and stood. Then I forced my wobbly knees to move toward the door.

  “Where are you going?” Ev hissed.

  I put my finger to my lips before tiptoeing out of the room and down the hallway, crouching at the top of the stairs by the banister.

  Everly’s heat hit my shoulder as she pressed in close.

  I held my breath, squinting to make out who was here through the small, narrow window off the front door.

  Chances were, it was a delivery. That was the most common reason someone would ring my doorbell. I didn’t have visitors or neighbors who dropped by. It could be Kerrigan, checking on the house. But Duke’s panicked voice and Everly’s brush with death had me freaked.

  “I don’t see anyone,” I whispered and took the first step.

  Everly latched on to my elbow, trying to drag me back.

  “I’m just going to check.”

  “No.”

  I shook her hand loose and took the stairs silently, my eyes glued to that window in case my visitor looked inside.

  Which he did. With cupped hands to shield his eyes from the sunlight streaming through, he pressed against the glass to get a glimpse of the entryway.

  And the moment I saw his face, my frame relaxed.

  Travis.

  “It’s fine. It’s the kid Duke’s out looking for.” I stood tall and turned, laughing at the canister in her grip. “Put the bear spray away.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. You’re going to freak him out if you carry that around.”

  “Fine.” She spun and ran it back to the bedroom. Then she hurried down the stairs, a few feet behind me as I flipped the dead bolt and scowled at Travis.