“Nice to see you, too,” he said calmly. “A police officer, huh? I’m the new pastor for Creekview Church.”
“Like father, like son, right?” She shook her head. “Guess I’m not surprised. Welcome to Treasure Point.”
Funny, she sounded slightly less than welcoming.
He reached to roll up his window as she walked away, until he caught the words she tossed over her shoulder.
“By the way, your rear left tire is flat. Must’ve run over a nail.”
It figured. He had been so caught up in his conversation that he hadn’t noticed. He squeezed his eyes shut, running over his options. He was now more than fifteen minutes late to his meeting. There was no way he had time to change a tire first.
He was stuck. And Shiloh—Officer Evans—was his only option.
He pushed open the truck door, walked to her car and tapped on her window.
She jammed her finger down on the button and glared up at him when the window was fully open. “What?”
Adam smiled what he hoped was his most charming smile. “Any chance you could give me a ride?”
She flung her door wide, narrowly missing hitting him in the leg.
He raised his hands in mock surrender. “You don’t have to get upset. I won’t be any trouble. And I can let myself in.” He headed toward the passenger side until the sound of Shiloh snickering stopped him.
“What?”
She reached for the rear door of the patrol car, opened it and motioned to the backseat. “You can ride here.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
She only raised her eyebrows. “Did you want a ride or not?”
Adam climbed in, thankful that he’d left his dog with a friend in Savannah and made plans to pick him up and bring him to town along with the rest of his belongings in the next day or two. He couldn’t imagine how well it would have gone over if he’d had to ask for a ride for both him and the dog, especially since he seemed to rank somewhere near the bottom of Shiloh’s “favorite person” list.
He tried not to think about where he was sitting as he took in the scenery, observing the town through the windows.
It looked like every other small town he’d been in along Georgia’s coast, but it appeared to be a nice place to live. Anticipation coursed through his veins—hopefully, it would be a good place for his first solo pastoring job. His dad’s connections had found the job for him, and Adam wanted to do his best work here—make sure he didn’t let God, or his dad, down. He wasn’t sure which possibility scared him more.
He looked at Shiloh and noticed she was checking the rearview mirror every few seconds. The tense set of her jaw made it clear that something was wrong. Something more than having her ex-fiancé in the backseat of her cruiser.
Adam looked over his shoulder. An older-model gray sedan was following them.
He glanced at Shiloh, still staring in the rearview, so he turned his head again. The car behind them inched closer.
Shiloh sped up.
So did the other car.
Adam turned to the front again, watching Shiloh’s face through the clear barrier. Her jaw was set, but there was a glimmer of fear in her eyes.
“Shiloh, what’s going on?”
She didn’t answer.
He looked up the road ahead of them. If they made it across that bridge, then they’d be in town.
“Do you think they’ll back off once we’re in town and there are people around?”
“I don’t know.” The dread he heard in her tone settled deep in his own gut.
A car in the approaching lane sped toward them. Adam tensed. Not likely that was a coincidence.
The bridge loomed closer. They were twenty, maybe thirty, yards away when the car coming at them swerved deliberately into their lane.
Understanding slammed into Adam, made him work to catch his breath.
They were trying to force them into a collision. Were they after Shiloh? And why?
He didn’t have time to ask more questions or to figure out anything else. They’d reached critical mass. Adam braced himself for impact, thankful that he was spiritually ready to die—even if he’d have rather put it off for a while—and closed his eyes. Visions of fiery car crashes he’d seen during his chaplain training haunted him. He didn’t want that to be his final thought.
So he opened his eyes, took one more look at Shiloh.
Instead of looking resigned, she appeared ready for a fight. Adam’s eyes widened as he realized what she was doing.
Shiloh yanked the wheel hard right, and the car clipped the guardrail with their left front side as she avoided the bridge and careened straight toward the last place Adam would have thought would be a good idea.
Straight into Hamilton Creek.
TWO
Shiloh fought the urge to close her eyes and instead fixated on steering the car straight into the creek.
The car slammed into the water, arresting their speed to something approaching slow motion. Water sloshed and caught the vehicle, bringing them to a stop in the middle of the creek.
She released her breath as she looked out the window. Would have uttered a prayer of thanks if she had thought God was paying attention.
Shiloh pushed at the door, but it wouldn’t budge. With about three feet of standing water, the pressure was too great.
Water trickled in through the cracks in the doors. Shiloh’s chest tightened, and she fought to breathe even though there was still plenty of fresh air in the car.
No. She couldn’t let fear overtake her and she refused to sit here while the cruiser filled with water. She had to use her head, use her training and stay focused on the situation. She looked around for something to use to break the window, eyes catching immediately on her black baton on the passenger-side floorboard. She reached for it, tensing as she remembered the snake that had been there not two hours before.
Shiloh tightened her grip on the stick and smashed it through the window.
She pulled her body through the opening, careful not to catch herself on any of the remaining jagged glass, and stood in the midthigh water as movement in the back of the car caught her eye.
Adam.
For a minute, in her panic, she’d forgotten he was there.
Shiloh glanced down at the door handle but knew trying to pull it open would be futile. She couldn’t break the glass for him with her baton without shattering it all over him and risking an injury. She might not like him, but she’d never hurt him on purpose.
“Move!” he yelled through the window and motioned with his hand for her to back away.
She stepped aside and watched as he brought his arm back and smashed something—a pocketknife, maybe—through the window. It took a few more seconds for him to clear enough glass to get through, then he climbed out as she had and joined her in the murky water.
Nothing could have kept the relief she felt from showing on her face. Adam must have seen it, because he grinned.
“See, I knew you still cared. At least a little,” he teased.
He was lucky she didn’t want the hassle of an internal-affairs investigation—because she wanted nothing more than to slap that grin off his face.
“You don’t get how serious this is, do you?” Shiloh muttered between clenched teeth. She scanned the marshy area around the creek again, unable to suppress a shiver as she did so. Next her gaze landed at the creek’s banks, which would make ideal cover for a sniper. Nothing—that she saw.
But her gut instinct, which had served her well before, said someone was out here. Watching.
“I get it.” Adam’s voice had sobered. “I mean, I don’t. It makes no sense. But, yeah, I know that someone tried...” His voice trailed off.
“Tried to kill us,” she finished for him, then swallo
wed hard and focused her attention on the bridge. No cars. Her pursuer and his accomplice were long gone, and she had no leads—not a license-plate number and no worthwhile description, since almost every car involved in a crime was a “dark midsize sedan.”
Frustration and fear fought for dominance. Shiloh tried to stay calm but finally could hold back no longer. She kicked the side of the car, doing nothing more than splashing muddy salt water all over herself. When she considered the incident with the snake that morning, she knew the two events had to be connected. And that could mean only one thing.
They’d found her.
She’d known it wouldn’t be hard for them. She had moved only an hour away, to this small town, which seemed like the perfect haven. Though she’d left Savannah five years ago—determined to do her best to solve the case and be ready for the criminals once they came after her—she hadn’t expected the past to find her today.
Maybe she wasn’t as prepared as she’d thought.
But until now it had been quiet. Probably too quiet. She’d almost started to hope that they had realized she didn’t have whatever they were looking for, and that she could wrap this up and bring them to justice without becoming a target again. Shiloh studied the too-quiet landscape, finally settling on the question that weighed heavily on her mind.
Why now?
Shiloh shook her head, scanned their surroundings again and concluded that finding the answer would have to wait until she wasn’t standing out in the open—not to mention nearly up to her waist—in dirty, smelly water. She radioed the station, gave their location and a short description of what had happened, as she slogged through the water to the shore.
“Shiloh?”
She jumped at his voice and relaxed as her mind registered that it was only Adam, who’d joined her on the creek’s bank.
Only Adam... She turned toward him and narrowed her eyes. “How is it that you show up in town and suddenly someone wants me dead?”
He jerked back as if she had slapped him. “What?”
“I’ve been attacked twice today—the same day I see you for the first time in five years. This seems entirely too coincidental to me.”
“Let’s back up. You think someone’s trying to kill you because I came to town?”
Everything about the expression on his face said it wasn’t true. Her heart simultaneously sank and danced. It sank because if he didn’t know why his arrival would have put her in danger, then she was back to square one. Shiloh didn’t want to think about why it danced. Other than to admit that, heartbreaker or not, Adam had always been someone she had trusted. One of the only people alive. She wanted to believe he was still worthy of that trust.
“I’d never let anyone hurt you. You know that.”
He touched her arm lightly and even pressing thoughts, like the danger she was in, left her for a split second.
She had to resist this chemistry. Trust was one thing. Falling for him again was another. She and Adam were wrong for each other in every way that mattered. She’d learned that lesson the hard way once already; there was no need to relearn it.
“Are you okay?” He was trying to be civil. Could she try? Civil. Nothing further. She nodded.
“And now you know why I thought this job was too dangerous for a woman,” he muttered.
Any thoughts of civility faded. He was still a caveman. Worse yet, he was a pastor caveman, a profession that would give legitimacy to his “a woman has her place” way of thinking.
Somehow she managed to withhold her response. He meant nothing to her now, so his opinions couldn’t hurt her. Theoretically.
Relief flooded Shiloh as she saw a patrol car approaching in the distance. She watched as it crossed the bridge, cringing as she realized it was the chief. She’d hoped they’d send one of the other regular beat cops. The guys would tease her forever for it, but they wouldn’t ask probing questions that could reveal her involvement in the case that had killed her cousin.
Annie hadn’t been careful enough—and it had gotten her killed. Until Shiloh could figure out why this current string of attacks had begun, she’d need to be on her guard. Someone was keeping tabs on her, and anything she revealed stood the risk of getting back to the wrong person. Not that she didn’t trust the chief—she did. But the chance that he might let something slip was too real to ignore. The fewer people who knew about her past, the better. And the safer.
“You okay, Shiloh?” The chief’s voice was more gruff than usual, and Shiloh could read his emotions in his tense posture. His gaze moved to Adam.
“I’m fine,” she answered. “Though the car has been better. This is—”
“Adam Cole. The new chaplain. Welcome to Treasure Point.” The chief surveyed the scene and shook his head. “It’s not usually quite so...exciting around here.”
Shiloh blinked. Looked to Adam, whose hint of a sheepish grin did nothing to deny the chief’s words.
He was the new chaplain? This day couldn’t possibly get any worse.
* * *
The ride the chief had given Adam and Shiloh into town had been... Awkward was too nice a way to put it, Adam thought to himself.
The chief hadn’t said much, just had let Shiloh explain what had happened. If Adam wasn’t imagining things, she was more nonchalant now than she had been when they’d been in the middle of it. A change in perspective? Or had she been deliberately downplaying the danger?
Adam didn’t know, didn’t really have time to think about that right now. Shiloh was part of his past—she’d made that very clear when she’d walked away from him years ago with barely a word. He’d moved on—gotten past his broken heart and taken his life in a new direction. His job here was his future, his chance to pastor his own church, have some purpose, maybe even make his dad proud.
He straightened his shoulders before lifting his hand to knock on the solid oak door of Hal Smith’s house. He’d talked to the man, and the other deacons, on the phone as part of his interview process but hadn’t actually met them in person.
The door opened, revealing a tall bearded man wearing a frown. “You’re Reverend Cole?”
“Yes, sir.” Adam stuck out his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
The other man took it and shook it. Barely. “You’re late.”
Adam kept his smile affixed and refused to flinch at Hal’s obvious displeasure. Yeah, Adam had known this wouldn’t make the board happy. Imagine how they would have reacted if the chief hadn’t agreed to drive Adam back to his car to retrieve a fresh set of clothes, which he’d changed into at the police station, before he’d arrived. “I’m sorry about that. It won’t happen again.” Part of him wanted to explain, but his father had taught him not to offer excuses when it came to work, so he didn’t.
Another man walked up behind Hal and extended his hand. “Walter Davis. It’s nice to meet you, Pastor.” He turned to Hal. “Didn’t you hear? He was in a wreck on the way here. Give him a break.”
Hal made no comment, just grunted and motioned for Adam to come in.
Okay, then. He regrouped and followed the men into the house. The rest of the deacons had gathered in the living room. When Adam entered, they all stood and introduced themselves. Adam noticed that each man wore slacks and a collared shirt, even for an informal meeting like this. Adam did have on a nice golf shirt, but his good jeans seemed out of place. This church might be a little more old-fashioned than he’d realized.
“So, Pastor, how was your trip down?” someone asked.
Adam couldn’t help but laugh. “Eventful. I got caught up in traffic and had a couple other problems, but I’m glad to be here.”
“Good.” They nodded. There was a second’s worth of silence, and then Hal, who appeared to be the leader, spoke up again, asking for Adam to share his testimony again with the group, plus what he hoped to accomplish a
s the pastor of their church. It was information he’d already provided, but Adam didn’t mind doing so again in person. Everyone listened attentively, but when Adam was done talking, no one had questions about what he’d said. Instead, they moved the meeting in a different direction entirely.
“We wanted to meet with you immediately to let you know our expectations, now that you’re here, so we can have this out face-to-face. You should be aware how important it is that you conduct yourself in an appropriate manner.”
Adam’s eyebrows rose, and he felt his shoulders tense. “I don’t understand what gives you the impression that I wouldn’t.”
“Our last pastor...” Walter spoke up, shaking his head. “He was asked to leave because of some moral issues.”
Adam’s heart broke for the church. Losing a pastor for any reason was tough, but to have someone they respected fall prey to sin and leave in such a way... It would be hard for them. He felt himself relax as he realized that, at least in their minds, this was a necessary conversation to have, not an attempt on their part to make him feel uncomfortable the second he got to town. Although it was doing that, as well.
“I understand.” Adam nodded. “I can assure all of you that I am a man of integrity, as I told you during my interview process, and as I’m sure my references told you, too.”
“Be as that may, Pastor, we have very high standards after what happened.”
Their tones, which bordered on accusatory, might have intimidated him when he was straight out of seminary. But he’d had a little time to gain experience as an associate pastor in Atlanta, where he’d started working during his seminary training. He’d seen enough now to realize that they were hurting, that it would take extra care on his part to earn their trust.
But he would earn it. This was his first solo pastoring job. He loved these church members already, even the ones he hadn’t met, and he didn’t want to let them down. If he failed here, he’d be shortchanging not just his congregants, but his teachers and mentors who believed in him. He hated the thought of that, especially the idea of disappointing his father.
“I’m sure I’ll be able to conduct myself in a way that meets whatever standards you have,” he said with confidence, smiling in an attempt to assure them that they didn’t need to worry.
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