Gone without a Trace

by Patricia Bradley

  Something about the way she stood reminded him of Robyn. Maybe that was why he was so drawn to her. He should have told Livy to get someone else to pick her up. Because for all practical purposes, he had asked Sharon for a date, and he had no idea why. It had seemed so natural that the words slipped out. But he was still married. And until that changed, he had no business even flirting with another woman. Even one who reminded him of his wife.

  He kept her in his line of vision and noticed Timothy staring at him. He waved, and the ex-Marine nodded. Timothy was one he didn’t know much about, only that he’d grown up in Logan Point. He’d gone to a smaller school on the far side of the county while Chase had attended the main county school. Then, instead of going to college, Timothy had joined the Marines. Chase finished his sandwich and leaned back in the chair, the glass of tea in his hand.

  Sharon appeared at his table, her purse in her hand. “I’m ready.”

  “Good. Let me take care of my ticket.”

  Once he’d paid Johnny B, he walked ahead of her to open the door, then ushered her through it with his hand on her back. Chase caught a light, sweet fragrance as she came close to him. Odd how similar it was to what Robyn used to wear. “My truck is over here.”

  “Why do all the men in Logan Point drive pickups?”

  He laughed. “You’ve noticed.”

  She rolled her eyes. “It’d be hard not to.”

  He made a muscle with both arms. “Logan Point is a man’s town,” he said, using his deep voice. He opened the passenger door and helped her step up into the cab. Regret stabbed him. He hadn’t done that for Robyn in years. When did the romance leave their marriage? And how much was he to blame?

  As he climbed behind the steering wheel, Sharon fumbled with her purse, then felt her pockets. “Oh, wait, I can’t find my phone.”

  “Do you think you left it inside?”

  She opened the truck door. “I must have. Let me go see if I can find it.”

  “Give me your number and I’ll call it.”

  “Good idea, but wait until I get inside.”

  She told him her number, and he waited until she went through the doors before dialing it. When the call went to voice mail, Chase hung up.

  Suddenly it dawned on him that he should have gone with her. What if someone abducted her? He dialed as he climbed out of the truck and hurried toward the diner, his heart racing. She answered this time, and relief swept over him.

  “Finally found it in the break room. I’ll be right out.”

  “I’m inside the door.” His heart slowed as she walked out from the back of the diner.

  “You could have waited in the truck,” she said when she reached him.

  “If anything had happened to you, Livy would skin me alive.” He opened the door for her and walked her back to his pickup.

  She fastened her seat belt. “Sorry for being so much trouble, but thanks for taking me home.”

  Something about her voice was different. He glanced at her. “Did you say you were from East Tennessee?”

  She crossed her arms over her stomach. “I’ve lived in Bristol for a few years. Why?”

  He shrugged. “No reason. It’s just that sometimes I catch a different accent.”

  Her face colored and she twisted a strand of hair around her finger. “I’ve lived other places. Have you lived here always?”

  “Yeah. Even when I attended Memphis University. Drove back and forth. For a while, my wife attended with me, but she dropped out.” He backed out of his parking space and pulled out of the lot. He hadn’t meant to make her nervous, but he wanted to know more about her. “Were you a waitress back in Bristol?”

  Her sigh was soft, resigned. “For a while. Mostly I went to school for my degree and helped out where I lived.”

  “At the abuse shelter.” Chase turned his left signal on and turned off the highway.

  “You remembered.”

  “Why were you living at an abuse shelter? Did your husband—”

  “No. I . . . was stalked and I managed to get to Bristol without him finding me. I didn’t have a job or a place to live, and Susan took me in at the shelter. I just earned my degree in December.”

  “Abby said you were helping Alex with a case. Is it because you were stalked?”

  Sharon shifted in the seat, and he took his eyes off the road for a second. She stared straight ahead.

  “You don’t have to answer.”

  “No, it’s all right. I’m trying to help Alex find whoever took the Woodson girl.”

  “He thinks it might be your stalker?”

  “Yeah.”

  “But . . . won’t he recognize you?”

  She hesitated again. “No. I’ve changed.”

  Even though she was answering him, he could tell she wasn’t comfortable talking about the subject, and he didn’t like making her uncomfortable. He turned right onto Coley Road. “Tell me what kind of degree you have.”

  Her shoulders relaxed. “It’s in psychology, but I’m getting my master’s in social work. I want to help other women who’ve been abused.”

  “Good for you. I wish my wife had gotten her degree.” He liked Sharon. She was spunky and brave. That was where she was totally different from Robyn. He couldn’t imagine his wife surviving on her own. “It must have been hard, starting over with nothing.”

  “You do what you have to do. I was alive, and for a while, that was enough. Now I want to get my life back.”

  “I’d like to help.”

  The look she shot him indicated she hadn’t forgotten what he’d said in the restaurant. Heat crawled up his neck. “Look, about what I said earlier . . . I shouldn’t have made that comment. I’m a married man, and until I change that, I have no right to ask a woman out to eat. But helping you wouldn’t be the same thing.”

  “Are you g-getting a divorce?”

  He didn’t know why it was so easy to talk to Sharon. He found himself wanting to tell her about Robyn. “Considering it.”

  “What happened to your wife?”

  “She got tired of being married to me a couple of years ago. Took off to who knows where.” He tried to keep the bitterness from his voice, but when Sharon flinched, he figured he hadn’t succeeded.

  “How do you know that’s what happened? Did you ever consider something might have happened to her?”

  “I might if I hadn’t gotten this call, saying not to try to find her, that she had some things to work out.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “You see, we were having a little trouble. Sometimes when I think back, I realize I might have been hard on her. At any rate, I figure she just got tired of me griping all the time.”

  “Why didn’t you try to work it out?”

  “I didn’t know she was that mad at me.”

  “Did you love her?”

  The question filled the cab. “Yeah,” he finally said. After a few seconds, he added, “Guess I still do, especially when I think about what a good mom she was. That’s when I wonder if something could have happened to her—’cause it’s hard for me to believe she’d stay away from Abby this long.”

  “Chase—”

  His side window exploded, and he threw up his hand. “What—”

  The unmistakable crack of a gun sounded, and the truck lurched to the left. Someone was shooting at them. “Get down!” He steered the truck to the side of the road as another bullet whizzed by his head, exiting out the back windshield.

  “The shots are coming from across the road. Get out and stay low.” The truck wouldn’t offer much protection, but at least they wouldn’t be out in the open. Sharon scrambled from the truck as another shot rang out. A searing pain ripped through the front of his shoulder. Got to get out. He looked down. Blood everywhere. Chase tried to climb over the console. So dizzy.

  “Chase! No!”

  “Get down . . .” The words barely made it past his lips when darkness edged into his consciousness.

  Robyn knelt beside the truck, her hand shaking a
s she punched in Livy’s number. The lights from the cab of the truck cast a harsh light in the darkness. “Hello?” Livy’s voice cut through the eerie silence.

  “Chase has been shot! We’re about a mile from the house on Coley Road. Hurry!”

  “Did you call 911?”

  “No, but I will.” Should’ve called them first. The phone shook in her hand as she pressed the emergency numbers.

  “911. What’s your—”

  “I’m on Coley Road about a mile east of Kate Adams’s bed and breakfast. The person I’m with has been shot. Please hurry! He’s bleeding.” Robyn tossed the phone on the dashboard and climbed back into the truck. Chase lay slumped over the console, blood pooling around the gearshift. He was losing too much blood. She searched the truck for something to use as a pressure bandage, but as usual, her neat-freak husband had a pristine truck. She peeled off her coat. She had to get him on his back. But what if moving him causes paralysis? Which was better—bleed to death or not walk? She tried to lift him, but he was dead weight. She pushed again, and he groaned.

  “Chase, I need you to help me. Try to lean back!”

  His eyelids fluttered open.

  “Can you hear me? You’ve been shot. I need you on your back. I’ll try to help you.” She tried to keep the panic from her voice. “Do you understand me?”

  He barely nodded, and as he pushed, she tried to help him. “One more time.”

  She pushed on his uninjured right side as he rolled back, exposing his blood-soaked shirt.

  “Hurts so bad,” he whispered.

  If she didn’t stop the bleeding, he would bleed to death. She pressed her coat to the wound. “Stay with me. Help is on the way.” He closed his eyes.

  “Chase, talk to me.” No response. “Please don’t die. It’s me. Robyn. I love you, Chase.”

  He couldn’t die. Not when they were so close to being together again. Why hadn’t she already told him who she was? Maybe this wouldn’t have happened.

  She clamped her teeth together. Whoever had kidnapped her shot Chase. She was as sure of that as she was of breathing. It was her fault. She’d flushed the kidnapper out, but Chase might die because of it. She kept pressure against the wound.

  Car lights flashed in front of her. Please let it be Livy. Seconds later, her cousin jerked the driver’s door open. “What happened?”

  “Someone shot at us. Chase is bad, I know it.” At last, sirens sounded in the distance, but she didn’t let up on the pressure.

  “Are you hit?”

  She shook her head as red and blue lights topped the hill. “Just Chase. He’s really bleeding.”

  “Let me take over for you.”

  “I’ve got it.” She kept her coat over the wound until a paramedic climbed into the cab.

  “I’ll take over from here,” he said. “On the count of three.”

  Once the medic’s hands were pressing the wound, she backed out of the truck and another paramedic took her place. Chase hadn’t moved. She wasn’t sure he was even breathing. “Is he going to live?”

  “Let us get him out of the truck so we can assess his injury.”

  Shivering, Robyn backed away from the scene. Her head swam as coldness spread across her face. She fought the blackness stealing her vision. Then her knees buckled, and she sank to the ground.

  When she came to, a paramedic was wrapping a blood-pressure cuff around her arm, and Livy knelt on the other side of her. “What happened?”

  “Be still while I get your blood pressure,” the medic said.

  She winced as the cuff inflated.

  “Blood pressure is low,” he said. “But you don’t seem to be injured, so I think you just fainted.”

  She struggled to sit up. “How’s Chase?”

  Livy helped her. “They’re working on him.”

  “Don’t try to stand yet,” the medic advised as Ben stooped beside her.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. We were talking and suddenly someone started shooting at us. He was trying to get me out of the truck when he was hit.”

  “Could you tell where the shots came from?”

  “Chase’s side window exploded first. Then there were more shots, and I think one of them hit a tire. The one that hit Chase came through the windshield after we pulled over.” She shivered in the cold night air, and Livy slipped out of her coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. “What are they waiting for? Why aren’t they taking him to the hospital?”

  “They’re getting him stabilized,” Livy said. “You didn’t see the person?”

  “No. We were just talking and—”

  “Do you remember who was there?” Ben asked.

  She pressed her hand against her mouth, reliving the moments before they left the restaurant. “It’s Sunday night, so it was mostly just the regulars—Jason and Bobby and Timothy. Johnny B. A couple of truck drivers, but everything was normal.” She turned as they lifted Chase and placed him on a gurney. Her eyes burned from unshed tears.

  “I think our guy saw you leave with Chase, and he didn’t like it,” Ben said. “We can’t do much here at the scene tonight, but in the morning I’ll have my deputies scour the area across the road. For now, give Livy a list of the men who were at the restaurant when you left. I’ll call Taylor to see if she can meet us at my office.”

  “Ben, she’ll want to be with Chase,” Livy said.

  He winced. “You’re right, but she’ll want to catch this guy too. Maybe we can talk at the hospital.”

  Chase had been shot and it was all her fault. The thought went around and around in Robyn’s head like a bad song. Her eyes were glued to the scene where paramedics worked on him. He had an IV now, and they’d hooked him up to a heart monitor. She didn’t like the way the amber and red lights gave his skin a ghostly cast. One of the medics approached Ben as the others lifted the gurney into the ambulance bay. “He’s stabilized, but he’s lost a lot of blood.”

  “You think he’s going to make it?” Ben asked.

  “Barring complications, he should. Have you notified the family?”

  Robyn hugged her arms to her stomach as Ben glanced toward her. “I’ll call his mother now.” He took out his phone and dialed.

  Livy fisted her hands. “This wouldn’t have happened if I had been there to take you home.”

  “It’s not your fault.” Robyn followed her gaze, her teeth chattering. Once Chase was loaded, the driver slammed the bay doors and hurried to the front of the ambulance. Her heart ached to go with him. “If anyone is to blame, it’s me. When I was pressing against the wound, I kept asking myself why I hadn’t told him who I was.”

  She looked at Livy. “Is it time to tell the family who I am? If I don’t, won’t they think it’s strange that I’m hanging around the hospital? Because I’m not leaving until he’s out of the woods.”

  “Let’s play it by ear,” Livy suggested. “Our guy is coming unraveled, and I don’t know if we can keep you safe if he knows you’re Robyn.”

  “I don’t think I was safe tonight, and Chase certainly wasn’t.”

  In the surgery waiting room, Robyn ran her finger over a wrinkle in the green scrubs a nurse had loaned her. Her bloody clothes were in a bag at her feet. No one had questioned her being there after Livy explained she’d been in the truck with Chase and why. She glanced toward the door. Where were Livy and Alex with that coffee they’d gone after?

  Across from her, Taylor paced the room, crossing paths with Charlie. Evidently, her dad had grown close to Chase since she’d been gone. Chase’s mother, Allison, leaned forward, resting her head in her hand, and Ben stood in one corner, conferring with his fiancée. Leigh Somerall had treated Chase in the ER before sending him to surgery an hour ago.

  Robyn approached the doctor. “Do you think he’ll make it?”

  The doctor hesitated, her green eyes darkening. “Nothing’s ever guaranteed, but I think he has a good chance. His vitals were good, and he’s young and in excel
lent physical shape. We should be getting another report soon.”

  The concern in Leigh’s voice almost did Robyn in. She hadn’t known her well in high school, but she hoped that would change when this was all over with.

  “Thanks,” she said and walked to the window. After a minute, she felt a presence at her side and turned, giving Allison a hesitant smile.

  “Livy tells me you’ve worked all day. I want you to know, we don’t expect you to stay. Not that we don’t appreciate your concern.”

  “I want to be here.” Allison had always treated Robyn like she was her own daughter, had even taken her side over Chase’s on more than one occasion. Robyn would give anything if she could just reveal who she was to Allison and explain what happened two and a half years ago.

  The phone rang, and everyone turned to stare at it until Allison crossed the room and answered it. Robyn held her breath as her mother-in-law nodded, then hung up.

  “The bullet is out. It missed all major organs but nicked a major vein. That’s why there was so much blood.” She took a deep breath and released it. “But he’s going to be all right.”

  Cheers erupted in the room. Robyn wanted to dance as tears streamed down her face. He’s going to be all right. Sweetest words she’d ever heard. She hugged Livy and then hugged her again. Then, she caught her breath, suddenly remembering that when she thought he might die, she’d told him who she was. And that she loved him.

  What if he remembered?

  He cleaned the Browning 22 rifle, wishing it had been his 30-06 in the gun rack on his pickup. If the deer rifle had been there instead of the light caliber rifle, Chase Martin would be history. He ground his molars, thinking about the way Chase’s hand rested on Sharon’s back when they went out the door. And before that, flirting with her like he was single. Martin had Robyn, and he had mistreated her. He wasn’t getting Sharon.

  He’d watched Sharon this evening. She’d gotten the card, but she hadn’t gone home like he’d expected. Maybe she thought it was a joke. He stroked the barrel of his rifle. That would be a serious mistake on her part.