David quietly stared at the road, listening as Tracy tried to hide that she was crying. It was something he’d learned to do with his wife—he’d known when she was crying without even looking. And he’d also known when to give his wife space. Or when he needed to speak up.
But this time he didn’t have a clue. Of course, Tracy wasn’t his wife. Far from it. But he knew that sometimes a woman just had to cry. David didn’t want to interfere with Tracy’s process. He had enough anger and hurt inside for the both of them.
Veronica Stemson was thirty-four and had gotten divorced a couple of years ago. He thought she might have been seeing someone. Her mother was still alive, but her father had passed five years ago. She had one sibling still in the area. Funny how he knew so much about her. Come to think of it, maybe Cade had dated her in high school. That was what life was like in a small town—everyone was connected. A death like this was a huge loss for the community. A complete waste.
He squeezed the steering wheel until his knuckles grew white and then composed himself, if for no other reason than to keep it together while he was with Tracy. She had enough to deal with. Both of them lost in their grueling thoughts, silence hung between them, except for the noise his truck made as it bounded over the occasional pothole on the back road.
Because he knew how caring the community was, he didn’t doubt that Jewel would let Tracy stay at the main house. She was considerate that way. He might have had a thing for Jewel, even though she was a few years older, if he hadn’t met Natalie first and fallen madly in love with her.
If only he could let go of his own guilt for his wife’s death and move on with his life. Then he would be free to love again. But David was a loyal man, loyal to his guilt, and he had no intention of letting go of that. No intention of falling in love again.
He steered down the bumpy excuse for a driveway past the B and B to the cottage out back. Yes, she definitely needed to leave this cottage, which was too far from the house for comfort, especially with a dangerous man out there somewhere. And now a possible arsonist. That was, if the fire truly was about someone from Tracy’s past coming to Mountain Cove to seek revenge.
God, please let her be wrong about that.
They wouldn’t know a thing until the fire marshal conducted his investigation. In the meantime, people could die. David needed to make sure that Tracy was safe and secure, tucked away in the main house before he could head back to find out more.
At least it was still daylight. It was nearing seven in the evening. The sun wouldn’t even set for another two and a half hours and twilight lingered forever this time of year. Sometimes he thought the summer hours in Alaska were much too long. Sure, he could get a lot done, but it seemed the day would never end.
He’d barely parked when Tracy climbed out of his truck.
“Hey!” he called after her.
Her frantic rush to the cottage clued him in that something was wrong. And looking up ahead, he saw that the door was open.
David hopped out and ran after her, beating her to the door. “Just hold on,” he said. “You can’t just waltz in there. Let me check things out first. We should probably call the police.” He wished Winters would get a grip on this investigation and finally decide Mountain Cove had a real situation going on.
“Solomon!” she called. “Come, Solomon!”
Dead silence was their only answer.
EIGHT
“Go ahead and call them. What are you going to tell them? Someone lost her dog?”
Cell to his ear, he frowned, then dropped the phone. “You’re right. That’s not going to work, and any explanation would take too long.” David called the dog, too.
After hiking up to the B and B and asking Jewel if she’d seen Solomon, Tracy and David searched the surrounding area and called out using the command Solomon should have down by now. He wasn’t perfect, but he was a good dog. He wouldn’t have just run off like this, not when Tracy was gone. Besides, the door had been closed, securing him inside until she got home.
David called the dog, pressing deeper into the woods behind the cottage. He was here with her, after everything that had happened today. After the fire. She would have thought he’d want to be back at the fire station with the boys and in the middle of things to discuss the fire, and maybe even bring up a suspect to the police, if Chief Winters hadn’t already thought of it. But she had to admit, she was comforted by the way he’d stayed by her side.
“Solomon, come on, boy,” David called again. That he was here searching for Solomon with her kindled something in her heart.
One day she’d have to tell David about the night Solomon had saved her life. It would help explain what the dog meant to her, though she suspected he already knew.
And maybe David was beginning to mean a little too much to her, considering she wanted to share that with him.
She’d told him she didn’t want or need his help. That had definitely been a mistake. When she’d seen the door to the cottage hanging open, she was more than glad David was here with her. What if someone had been inside waiting for her?
But if there had been someone there, David could have gotten hurt. If the burning today was part of Santino’s retaliation—bringing back the terror he’d rained down before—then David or anyone near her was in danger. Something she already knew, but she hadn’t realized how far that danger could reach.
“David, wait.” Tracy rushed through the thick and lush forest of Sitka ash, maple, cedars and a host of other trees and undergrowth she couldn’t name. A person could easily get lost.
He paused and turned to face her, pushing a leafy branch out of the way.
“Be careful, please. I don’t want you to get hurt. What if he’s out there? What if we run into him?” What if Solomon had caught his scent and gone chasing him?
He frowned. “Don’t worry about me, Tracy. Stay close to me and let’s find Solomon.” Letting the huge leaf pop back up, he pushed on, and Tracy shoved through the greenery to keep up.
“I appreciate your help, I really do, and I’m not going to stop today until I find Solomon, but I want you to face the facts. You could be in danger, just by being with me. Talking to me. Being my friend. Look what happened to Veronica.”
“You don’t know that fire was related to your situation.” Hands on hips, David stopped again, searching the woods.
“Of course I do. And you do, too. What we need is for Chief Winters to see that, if he hasn’t already. But if I’ve learned anything about that man, it’s that he will get the facts before he makes any decisions. I can’t actually blame him for that, though. Can you?”
“Not really. No. It’s part of police procedure. And it takes time.” David still studied the woods.
They’d gotten off topic. Tracy wanted to make it clear to David that being with her might cost him. Was she worth it to him? Either way, she couldn’t ask him to pay that price. Nor could she want him to pay it.
David turned his forest green gaze on her, the lush vegetation behind and around him emphasizing the intensity in his eyes. Taking her hand, he squeezed. Reassurance? Her heart jumped. He’d encouraged her and much more. It was the “much more” that she was worried about. She should pull her hand away, but her heart refused to reject him again. This man was out here helping her find her dog. Inside, she smiled—helping her find Solomon was only a small thing, but sometimes the small things were what meant the most.
“Don’t worry. We’ll find him,” he said with a wink and then flashed that grin she’d seen him use on other women around town. But now she knew it wasn’t manipulation on his part. His charming smile was simply part of who David was. And he’d found a way to smile at her like that with all that was going on. After the fire that had them both on edge.
Reining in her thoughts, she focused on the task at hand. “We should probably split up,” she said. “You can call me on your cell if you find him.”
“Are you crazy? We’re sticking together.”
&nbs
p; She’d figured he would say that, but she was trying to be practical.
“So I take it this isn’t a usual thing? Solomon doesn’t usually run off?”
“No. Not like this. This isn’t right.” Tracy was afraid to voice her worst fear—that Solomon didn’t run off on his own, but that someone had done something to him. Was she being paranoid? She felt alone in all this—except for David. Even the police were not taking any of this seriously. At least not yet.
“See, even Solomon isn’t safe.” Tracy paused, swatted at the mosquitoes and rubbed her arms against the chill as the woods grew darker. “Jay might be home with his family in Texas tonight, Veronica home with her family if I had gone into WITSEC. Oh, David, what have I done?”
David tugged her to him. Did he realize how he held her up, kept her from collapsing on her trembling legs? She hated that she’d shown him how weak she really was, been this vulnerable in front of him, and not just once. Finally he held her at arm’s length and kept his gaze fixed on hers.
“I want you to listen to me,” he said. “I know I urged you to get a new identity, so you could be safe, but you were right when you said you shouldn’t run or hide. Anyone who could find you here could find you anywhere, even with a new name and identity. But this time we’re one step ahead. We know someone is after you, and we’ll be prepared. I don’t intend to leave you until the police nab this guy.”
His words bolstered her courage even as they made her realize she was crazy to think she could stand her ground—stay in Mountain Cove—without someone by her side. But she never would have pictured David in that role.
“Is that okay with you?”
“Oh, so now you’re asking my permission?” She couldn’t help but give him half a smile, even in the face of all that was wrong in the world. “It’s too much to ask.”
“You’re not asking. I’m insisting.”
“You always get your way?”
His smile slowly flattened. “Not always, no.”
Tracy waited for him to say more.
David dropped his gaze. “I…”
“What is it? What were you going to say?”
“I failed someone before. I don’t want to fail you, Tracy, but maybe…maybe you should count on more than me and more than the dog.”
“Who should I count on, then? God?”
David’s silence on the matter chilled her to the bone.
*
David wanted to reassure her and be there for her, but he reminded himself of his colossal failure that had come at the cost of a life. He’d said too much, and realized it when he saw the look of hope in her eyes.
David hadn’t meant for her to believe in him—if that was what he’d seen flashing in her beautiful gaze. He’d only meant for her to know she wouldn’t have to go through this alone. He definitely wasn’t a hero—not like his father. Not like his siblings. And he wasn’t sure that he was the person Tracy should count on. Of course, he believed in prayer and that God listened to his prayers. Answered them, too. But David couldn’t reconcile why God would let him fail his wife. Why Natalie had died in a fire, instead of David, who’d spent his life fighting them. It made no sense.
Aware that Tracy waited for his reply, he searched for the answer to her question. Deep inside, he knew what it was, and despite his own struggles, he couldn’t withhold it from her. “Of course you can count on God. So pray hard.”
He sent a teasing grin her way to lighten the moment and started off again. “The sun’s going to set before we find that dog of yours if we don’t get busy. Dusk in the forest is dark.”
He caught Tracy’s frown; saw her shoulder sag a little. Since they hadn’t found Solomon yet, he knew she had reason to be worried.
Even as they searched deeper in the woods David started to think this might be some sort of trap. Was the Santino gang member using the dog as bait to draw them away from safety? David was glad he carried a gun. As always, his weapon was tucked safely in the waistband holster clipped to his belt. Besides, he was equally concerned about coming across a bear as he was a two-legged killer.
Finally, after they’d searched long and hard, calling for the dog without receiving the hoped-for response, David pulled out his cell and prayed for a decent signal. To Tracy, he said, “I’m calling in the family. The more the merrier.”
He didn’t want to incite more fear than Tracy already carried, but he wanted reinforcements. This was taking much longer than it should. There could be no doubt that something was wrong. Something had happened to Solomon.
Before the call went through, he heard barking in the distance. Solomon? He gazed in the direction from which the sound came. A glance at his phone told him he’d lost the signal, so he tucked it away.
“It’s faint, but it’s Solomon!” Tracy took off as fast as she could make it through the undergrowth. Good thing she had on jeans, he thought absently. But he should lead the way in case this was a trap.
He caught up then pushed past her. He pressed his hand against the gun in his holster. “Listen, in case this is something more than your dog simply running off, let me go first. I have the means to protect us.”
She frowned. “Don’t shoot my dog.”
“I’m an expert marksman, okay?”
He led the way, but at the edge of the trees he paused and put his hand out for Tracy to stop, too.
“What is it?”
David listened and his heart sank as memories of his childhood rushed back, confirming what he thought he heard.
“I think Solomon’s barks are coming from there.” He gestured ahead of them where the trees opened up to an adit—an entrance to what remained of an old mine—driven into the side of a mountain.
“What’s that?”
“A shaft to an old gold mine. It’s not a working operation, abandoned long ago. There’s none of the buildings you might expect, though some of the area’s old mines have been renewed in recent decades. Gold is what built the town of Mountain Cove, remember?” Or maybe she’d never known that to remember in the first place.
“I can’t believe it’s not boarded up.”
“It was.”
From the cover of the trees, David peered at the shaft. It looked as if someone had broken through the old boards put in place years before after it had been discovered that David and his friends had been exploring the mine. Probably, more should have been done to close it off for good.
“Let’s go get him.”
“Not that simple.”
Tracy pushed past him out into the open.
“Wait! What are you doing?” David snatched her back. “This could be a trap.”
“This isn’t exactly the modus operandi of Santino’s gang. Luring a dog into a mine?” She shook her head.
“No. Luring you into a mine.”
“Like I said, this isn’t the way they have worked in the past.”
“Was pushing someone over a ledge something they’ve done before?”
Tracy’s silence was answer enough.
Chambering a round into his gun, David led the way. If nothing else, they could disturb a bear. Either way, David was prepared. “Doesn’t matter if it’s their MO or not—we can’t go in. It’s not safe.”
“Then how do we get Solomon out? Since he hasn’t already come out on his own, something’s wrong.”
“Maybe he found someone who is injured inside the mine, just like he found Jay.”
Except Solomon sounded different than he had that day on the trail. Uncertainty crawled over David. They stood at the yawning opening of the old mine, listening to Solomon’s barks echo inside.
“I can’t take this anymore.” Tracy moved past David to enter the shaft, knocking a board over.
“No you don’t.” David grabbed her arm and held fast. “It’s too dangerous.”
Solomon yelped as if he was in pain.
David wasn’t sure what to do. He couldn’t let Solomon suffer. What had the dog gotten into? Had he found someone? Or worse, ha
d someone taken the dog to lure Tracy inside? Lord, what do I do?
Tracy put her hands on her head. “We can’t just leave him down there, David. But how are we going to get him out? We don’t even have flashlights.”
“I don’t know.”
“Solomon! Come, boy, come,” she called, desperation in her cries.
“All right. I used to play in this mine when I was a kid—that is, until Dad found out. After that, it was boarded up to prevent anyone from getting hurt, but obviously someone wanted inside.”
“What are you saying?”
“I know my way, if memory serves me.”
“Didn’t you just tell me it’s too dangerous? And…I can’t let you do that for me.”
Tracy stared up at the sky as if she could find a way to Solomon there. David figured it was more about hiding the raw emotions pouring from her face, but he had already seen and his heart twisted.
“Solomon… He saved my life.” She lowered her gaze to meet his. “I have to do something to help him.”
At the look in her eyes, David saw the depth of her devotion to the animal and it left him with more questions about what had happened that sent her into hiding in Mountain Cove.
“I know that he’s important to you, but the mine itself is dangerous enough, even if there’s no one lying in wait to attack you. Maybe this isn’t how a Santino gang member would normally operate, but you can’t be sure, and what if Jay’s attacker took Solomon into the mine to draw you in? What if he just wants to get you alone? Think about it. On the trail, he wanted you alone, but that plan was foiled when Jay ran ahead of you. And last night at the grocery store, he was ready to attack before I drove up. Today’s fire was only a warning.”
“But I’ve been alone at the cottage all along.”
David scratched his chin. Good point. “Except he obviously doesn’t know you’re staying there. Maybe if he’s followed you at all, he’s seen you drive up that way and thought you were staying at the actual main house. Maybe he didn’t even know about the cottage.” Except Solomon had been taken from the cottage. “That is, until now,” he added.
David was jumping to a lot of conclusions. He wasn’t a detective, but he cared about keeping Tracy safe. And he hadn’t wanted to scare her, but maybe she needed to open her eyes.
Love Inspired Suspense June 2015 #1 Page 27