Conard County Marine

by Rachel Lee

  Now that he’d done it once, he could almost feel as if he were being kicked in the ass by the need to finish the job. And he’d started thinking about the next woman, a woman he hadn’t chosen yet, but one he was evidently going to need.

  The changes he recognized in himself at once astonished him and pleased him. He had become an actor, an important actor, in a life that had always made him feel like part of the scenery.

  For the first time in a long time, if ever, he stood back and took a long look at himself. He’d been living mostly by rote his entire life, doing what was expected of him, first by his father, then by his employers. He had lived believing that something good would come along if only he played it straight.

  But now he realized that he’d been letting life and others drive him. Kylie, the one thing he had wanted that was just for him, had scorned him more than once. Even after he’d grown up and had become reasonably successful financially, and had met up with her in Denver, she still wasn’t interested. In fact, she was less than interested, although he couldn’t begin to understand why.

  Now, even without her memory, she still didn’t seem interested. She’d accepted his token gift pleasantly enough but, other than an offer of coffee, had given him no sign that she had become interested.

  Not that it mattered. If she got her memory back, her lack of interest would become a lot worse.

  But all of this was irrelevant now, he told himself. Except for the part about taking care of her for good before she remembered him. No, now he was filled with power—power he had tasted when he’d thought he had killed her. The power of life and death.

  That was so much more intoxicating than money. In fact, that experience had been the most real and intense one of his entire life. He had a taste for it now.

  He wasn’t going to blend in and disappear again. Oh, he wasn’t going to let anyone know about his new powers. He’d keep all that secret from everyone. But he would know, and that was the most important thing of all.

  He had found the true Todd at last. The real one. The one who could hold a life in his hands and extinguish it.

  Feeling the power course through his veins, he decided tomorrow would be the day, as long as Connie and Ethan Parish were working. The older girl would be as inattentive as usual, and the boy would probably soon be alone in his sandbox. It could all go down in a matter of minutes.

  Coop would join the search party. If he left Kylie home alone, that would be an easy takedown. If he didn’t leave her alone, it would be easy enough to release the Parish boy and try another angle.

  But time was short. With each passing day he worried more that Kylie would remember him. Each passing day enhanced his risk.

  And each passing day also enhanced his hunger to finish the job.

  Chapter 13

  The news that little James Parish had gone missing from his own backyard spread through the town like a wildfire. He’d last been seen by his sister playing in his sandbox shortly after dinner. The next time she’d looked he was gone.

  After calling for him for ten minutes or so, Sophie had phoned her mother. The sheriff’s department had arrived in huge numbers, both on-and off-duty members, and began walking an ever-widening search perimeter. Other police had set up roadblocks at quite a distance from town on the only roads leading out of the county.

  Kylie and Coop heard about it when Glenda called shortly after arriving on her shift at the hospital.

  “God, can you imagine it?” Glenda said. “Once was bad enough but now that has happened to Connie again?”

  A few minutes later, Ashley arrived at the door and they invited her in. Kylie could feel the tension in Coop ever since they got the word. She didn’t need him to spell it out that he wanted to be out there looking for his cousin’s little boy. But here he was, stuck with her because he’d made a promise and had been deputized.

  God, this made her feel awful. She watched him clench and unclench his hands repeatedly, and saw how hard it was for him to hold still.

  “I can’t believe this has happened again to Connie,” Ashley said, refusing an offer of coffee. “I’m going to join the search parties, but...well, I just needed a minute to vent.”

  “I understand,” Kylie answered. Indeed she did. Though she’d been in high school herself when it had happened and hadn’t known Connie well at the time, she vividly remembered when the whole town had been on alert because a stranger had talked to Connie’s daughter. And then Connie’s daughter had disappeared. Kylie was quite sure that the fact that the girl had been taken by her father didn’t ease the panic or the memory of what Connie had endured over Sophie. And now it was happening to her again? To the same woman?

  “It’s unbelievable,” Kylie said, finding herself helpless to come up with any other words. The same woman twice? How unlikely was that? The odds were probably astronomical.

  She glanced at Coop and saw him standing stone-faced, arms crossed, a million miles away. Thinking about James, no doubt—about a little boy he was just getting to know. The last of his family, Connie and her children. They had drawn him all the way out here.

  She’d gotten the measure of this man, and didn’t need him to explain that he was being torn in two by his desire to help find James and his promise to keep her safe. He was standing in the very definition of a rock and a hard place.

  She did the only thing she could. “Coop, go help look for James. I’ll be perfectly safe here in a locked-up house.”

  He gave a small negative shake of his head. “I promised. I’d be derelict...”

  “Oh, don’t give me that military stuff, Gunny,” she said sharply, even as fear began to make her heart hammer. She didn’t want to be alone. But she also didn’t want to be responsible if something bad happened to James and Coop had been stuck here with her. She could live with her fear; she’d had plenty of practice. She’d never forgive herself if Coop ever blamed himself in any way for something happening to James. “You need to go help with the search. You owe it to Connie and James, and I’ll be fine. Lord, with all the cops crawling all over this town right now, it probably wouldn’t be safe to jaywalk, let alone try to pull a major crime.”

  The faintest of smiles flickered over Coop’s mouth. She’d made her point. But his answer was stubborn. “I promised.”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Ashley said, butting in as she looked from one to the other. “This is ridiculous. Coop, you’d be more help out there than I would. Go look for James. I’ll stay here with Kylie. Does that work?”

  Coop hesitated, but Kylie gave him a gentle shove. “I couldn’t live with myself. Please. Go. Help Connie and James.”

  He hesitated. “Make sure everything is locked up. It might be best to do all you can to make it look like no one’s home. If I didn’t think it might expose you to more risk, I’d take you with me.” He scowled, clearly still torn. “No, I can’t take you. It’s getting really dark out there. We could get separated. If someone wants to take advantage of you being out there in all the confusion...” He left the rest unsaid.

  “Nobody’s going to try anything,” Kylie said again with more surety than she felt. “One scream and fifty cops would descend. I can dial 911 faster than someone could break in. Yes, I’ll check the locks.”

  Coop finally nodded. He picked up a sheathed knife from the backpack he kept on the hall table and stuck it in his boot. There was also the Glock and clip holster that Connie had given him when she’d deputized him to look after Kylie. This was the first time Kylie had seen him put it on. Then he picked up the radio and the Taser gun.

  He was expecting trouble. But of course he was. People didn’t kidnap little kids for a lark.

  Heedless of Ashley, he pulled Kylie to him and kissed her hard. “Don’t open the door, even if you know who it is.”

  She looked at him feeling a bit dazed by the kiss, and confused by the direction. “Okay,” she said. Then he was gone.

  Before she could move, Ashley locked the front door. “Whe
w, I could feel that kiss all the way over here. Got a little heat going there, girl?”

  “Just a little,” Kylie admitted, but couldn’t quite suppress a smile. The smile didn’t last long, though. Thoughts of Connie and James filled her with anxiety and more of the fear that never quite left her.

  “You can go search, too,” Kylie said. “This watching over me every minute...well, who’s going to break in here tonight of all nights?”

  “That rose was scary, though,” Ashley argued. “Somebody might be watching you.”

  “Then maybe we ought to be out there with the search party and every other able-bodied person in the county.”

  Ashley frowned, but after a minute or so, her expression began to lighten just a bit. “I want to help.”

  “So do I. James must be terrified out of his mind. Let’s go. If we stick together, I’ll be safe. Right now I’m thinking of a child. Compared to that, I don’t care what happens to me.”

  Ashley nodded. “Okay, then. Let’s go.”

  *

  Fierce anger burned in Kylie. It turned all her fears to ash. She’d had enough. Her entire life was being controlled by a man she couldn’t remember, a man who had attacked her for no good reason, a man who was a demon in her memory but a ghost in real life.

  Fear for James Parish had pushed her over the edge. She hardly knew the child, but Connie was one of her best friends and had been for years, ever since she had come home from college. Her own fears vanished in the gale winds of fury that swept through her now. She didn’t care if she was being foolish; she didn’t care if she died tonight. She cared only that not one hair on that child’s head be harmed, that Connie didn’t have to face a future without her son.

  Feeling as if she were finally taking her life back from the man who had tried to steal it, she checked the charge on her phone and stuffed it into her pocket. A light jacket seemed like a good idea, too.

  “I don’t have any weapons,” she remarked to Ashley.

  “Neither do I. I wouldn’t know how to use them. Would you?”

  “No.”

  “We’re just going to look, right? I have no intention of going anyplace where we’ll be out of earshot of the rest of the searchers. We’re just going to help turn this town upside down.”

  Kylie nodded. “Whatever it takes. All I care about is Connie and her son. And I’m tired of making every decision based on some creep who tried to kill me.”

  Ashley smiled faintly. “You go, girl. But later you get to explain it to Coop.”

  *

  Getting the boy James had been easy. For all the nervousness around town about strangers, the kid didn’t seem affected. Todd was absolutely certain that his mother must have warned him repeatedly. After all, her oldest girl had been kidnapped once. But there he was, playing in the sandbox he loved with the little cars and trucks he loved even more, and his sisters were both inside.

  Todd had watched for a while and realized the oldest girl, who was supposed to be watching him, only looked out the back window every half hour or so. Must be that in her mind, the backyard was a safe place for him to be.

  But it wasn’t entirely safe, not against Todd, who simply walked in, wearing heavy glasses, a blond wig and a T-shirt with famous cartoon characters on it.

  “Hey, James,” he said. “I like those cars, too.”

  James had looked up without suspicion. “Wanna play?”

  “Not here. I’ve got a bigger collection of them and more room to play. It’s just a minute from here. Wanna see?”

  The boy didn’t even hesitate. He scooped up a couple of his cars and stood. “Where?”

  “Just down the alley.”

  As easy as that. The only problem came when he wanted James to get in his car. And that was easily handled. “Look, I know your mom. Let’s go see her so she can tell you it’s okay to play with me.”

  Problem solved.

  Twenty minutes later, James was locked up in a closet in a house that had been empty for three years. Todd wasn’t heartless. He left the boy water to drink and candy to eat. As soon as he had Kylie where he wanted her, he’d call an anonymous tip to the sheriff. James would be in his own bed by midnight.

  If everything went according to plan, that was.

  When he closed the boy in, he left the overhead closet light on, told him it was a game of hide-and-seek and he needed to be very quiet to tease his mom.

  That wouldn’t last forever, so he taped the edges of the door to muffle sound.

  But it wasn’t going to be for long. No way. He had nothing against the kid or his mother.

  He just needed to get Kylie. Just Kylie.

  With that in mind, he went back to her house to wait. He was as positive as he could be that Cooper would want to look for his cousin’s son. And that he’d make the mistake of thinking Kylie was safe in a locked house.

  But then that Ashley broad arrived, and when Cooper finally left to join the search parties, Kylie wasn’t alone.

  Red rage nearly blinded Todd, and he had to calm himself down. It was okay, he reminded himself. All he had to do was transform himself into the lifelong friend. He ditched the wig and glasses, and pulled on a business shirt with his jeans while standing in the deserted alley behind Kylie’s house.

  Then he worked his way around to the front door. He’d tell them he was part of the search party. Maybe he could get inside. One way or another, he was going to take Kylie tonight, even if he had to kill Ashley to do it.

  Somewhere in his mind, little warnings began to pop up. Warnings that he wasn’t thinking clearly, warnings that he hadn’t planned well enough. But he was past listening to them. He’d find a way because he couldn’t stand another minute of wondering when Kylie would remember him.

  All he had to do was kill her, throw her into that hole in his barn, and she’d never remember him. And if anyone suspected him, he was ready to leave town, too.

  Driven by urges he couldn’t control, needs that overpowered him, he no longer cared about anything except ending the threat Kylie posed to him.

  Her very existence had become the biggest threat he faced. Nothing else mattered any longer.

  *

  Kylie and Ashley were just stepping out the front door to join the search when Todd appeared. Smiling, he climbed the steps. “Hi, ladies,” he said pleasantly. “Joining the search?”

  Ashley smiled. “Absolutely. You, too?”

  “That’s what I came to town for. Mind if I go with?”

  Standing on the threshold, something inside Kylie turned to ice, as if a glacier filled her entire body. Terror clawed at her, and anxiety weakened her.

  God, she couldn’t even step outside with friends? What was wrong with her? She’d made up her mind that James was more important than her own stupid fears, than her life even. She’d decided she wasn’t going to let that nameless, faceless attacker run her life one more minute, and certainly not with a child at stake.

  And now she froze? She simply couldn’t make herself move. Never before in her life had this happened to her, and the reaction in its own way was as terrifying as all the rest of it.

  In an instant she had become trapped in a waking nightmare over which she had no control. She tried with every ounce of will she had to take that step, to join Ashley and Todd on the porch, and her body would not budge.

  “Kylie?” Ashley said.

  Kylie tried once more and couldn’t even lift a foot. It was as if she had become paralyzed.

  Stiff words emerged from her mouth. “You go without me. I’m...feeling sick.”

  Ashley instantly became concerned. “Need me to stay with you? That’s what I promised I’d do.”

  “No...no.” That much was clear to Kylie. Everyone who could needed to be searching for that child. If she was paralyzed by her terror, that didn’t give her a right to keep someone else from looking. They needed everyone they could get.

  How could she think so clearly when her body had gone into a state of utter rebe
llion? It was exactly like a nightmare, unable to move as the danger approached.

  “You go,” she said. “It’s important.”

  “I’ll check back in a little while?” Ashley said uncertainly.

  “Yeah. But all that matters is James. Just go.”

  So she stood there still frozen until Ashley and Todd disappeared down the street to the gathering point. When they vanished from sight, she found she could move again.

  Shaken by the experience, she stepped back inside and closed the door. What the hell had caused that?

  Well, she decided, she’d calm herself down and try again. There were plenty of searchers she could join up with. Or she could just follow orders and stay safely inside.

  Right then, she doubted her own sanity. How could she have frozen like that? She’d walked through that door before.

  But then the images returned. The flashing knife. The pouring coffee. Without knowing it, she curled up on the couch, lost in a repetitive series of flashes, the same things over and over again.

  The present vanished.

  *

  Todd shed Ashley with no difficulty once they reached the staging point. She immediately fell in with her friend Julie and her husband, Trace Archer. Todd didn’t know Julie as well as some of the others, and Trace Archer just made him plain uncomfortable. It was easy enough to sidle away without being noticed. All his life he’d been able to do that and no one ever asked, “Where’s Todd?” Useful, perhaps, but it had made him feel invisible at times.

  Then, as everyone was dispersing, he slipped away and headed back for Kylie. She was his now, but he still needed to move fast. He saw Coop over by the deputies who were directing the show, and assumed he’d been given some kind of command role here. Good. That would keep him away.

  He ran all the way back to Kylie’s house, afraid someone would see him. But the search parties were just beginning to spread out and most of the alleys were still vacant.

  He didn’t know what the search plan was and he didn’t care. His car was parked in the alley behind Kylie’s place, out of obvious sight. All he had to do was persuade her to go with him. He had his knife, but if necessary he’d clock her again in the side of the head. That had worked pretty well the first time. Brass knuckles had their uses.