Swearing, he stopped and studied the map, aware that Nia was all but mindless with impatience. He wished he could do something, say something to help, but he had nothing for her.
He checked the compass once more, then the map. “Okay, we need to leave the trail,” he said. “The trails aren’t going to take us where we need to go anyway.”
Ezra nodded, his face grim, mouth set in a firm, flat line.
Nia all but took off running—or would have if Law hadn’t caught her arm. “Together,” he said softly. “We need to stick together, and slow down now. We shouldn’t be too far off.”
She rolled her eyes but remained at his side. “Just what are we looking for, anyway?”
“I’m not too sure,” he said, sighing. “This is farther in than I usually come. I’ve done some walks with Lena, but she doesn’t come near the cliffs and she knows I’m not fond of hiking, so we don’t generally come this far back. I’m out of my depth here. The big, bad sheriff over there doesn’t do much hiking, either, I don’t think.”
Ezra grimaced. “Shove it, Reilly.” His limp had become more noticeable over the past hour and harsh lines bracketed his mouth.
With a faint smile, Law kept walking, easing deeper into the undergrowth.
“There,” he muttered. “Shit, I bet it’s in there.”
There was an odd growth of greenery there—something that didn’t quite match with the rest of the forest. If he hadn’t been looking for something out of place, he wouldn’t have noticed, not in a million years.
“What?” Nia asked.
“I’m not sure yet.” He drew closer and his paranoid mind had him going slower, slower … nothing. But his skin was prickling, all over.
“Damn it, are you part snail?” Nia hissed behind him.
He shook his head.
Ezra muttered, “Keep your eyes peeled, Reilly.”
He grunted, still inching forward. As he placed his right foot down, something creaked.
Wood—
Carefully, he lifted his foot. Narrowing his eyes, he used his foot to sweep it back and forth over the forest floor—or what should have been the forest floor.
But it was cloth—durable, thick cloth, the same indistinguishable shade of brown as the ground, covered with leaves and dirt. He backed up and crouched down, searching for the edge of it. Once he’d found it, he started to lift it. Nia gasped and lunged, but Ezra caught her. “Slow down,” he said brusquely. “We don’t know what we’re looking at yet.”
“But …”
“I said slow down. Reilly, come on. We need to mark the area—I’m going to call some favors in, have some friends come in and help me …”
Law tuned them out. Yeah, he knew what Ezra was thinking. He suspected the sheriff hadn’t entirely expected to find anything but more of what they’d already found.
This … well, it was unexpected. Somebody had gone to the effort to hide this, and that was already an oddity. The cop’s mind was probably in overdrive now, whirling and spinning, either thinking about a compromised case, or maybe down the same direction Law’s had gone—Law was a paranoid bastard. Maybe this guy was, too. Maybe there were traps …
But he got the cloth up without incident and found himself staring at a door, set in the earth.
He reached for the iron handle.
“Damn it, Reilly.”
Lifting his head, he glanced at Ezra over his shoulder. “You want to call them and say, Hey, I found a cellar. Come out here and help me make sure nobody died in it. Or would you want something that looks … nefarious?”
Ezra opened his mouth, then snapped it shut. Finally, he snapped, “I can’t use anything that I find down there. Not a damn thing.”
“No. You can’t. If you go in right now, into this place that’s not on your territory, and you find something that could become part of a case, it could compromise a case, right?” Law gave him a thin smile. “But me? Being a nosy bastard who was just checking something out while you two caught up with me? If I find something and tell you about it, that’s a different story, isn’t it?”
Ezra glared at him.
“I’m going. Just me,” Law said softly.
“No fucking way,” Nia snarled, twisting her arm and breaking free from Ezra. She shot forward, but Law blocked her.
“Wait here,” he said. “For now, just wait. There might not be anything down there, and even if there is …”
His voice trailed off.
Ezra stepped up. Curling a hand over Nia’s shoulder, he said, “If there is anything down there, the fewer people inside the better—you being in there is going to make it even more complicated. It’s bad enough with Reilly, but at least he’s local and I can use his nosy ass and those maps as a reason why he was out there. People are used to him doing crazy things. But if you want justice for your cousin, you need to back away from this now.”
Justice—
“Back away?” she said softly, arching a brow. She looked between Law and Ezra. Then she shook her head. “Damn it, neither of you would have even bothered trying to look for anything if it wasn’t for me and now you want me to back away? Fine. You know what? Go fuck yourself.”
Jerkily, she pulled away and stormed off. She was tempted to take off, but if she did, either Law or Ezra or both would come after her, she suspected. And even if she was pissed about this, she wanted to know if there was anything beyond that door—
There was a faint screech as metal protested. Swinging her head around, she stared, watched as Law peered down inside. He pulled a flashlight from the backpack he’d brought along and flipped it on, peering down inside. Then, just like that, he was gone, leaping down into that maw of darkness.
Her breath lodged in her throat until she heard his voice floating up.
“One big room—a cot, an area that looks like somebody could shower or something. Lights on the wall … don’t work. Gas, maybe.”
There was silence, for the longest time.
Then, he spoke again, his voice strained. “I’m coming back up—there’s a ladder.”
The first thing she saw was his face, pale and gleaming under a fine sheen of sweat. His eyes too dark, almost glassy. He climbed out of that hole but before he could say anything, he shoved past them.
She watched, stupefied as he stormed away and bent over, hands braced on his knees, like he was fighting the urge to be sick.
“Law?”
He straightened slowly, shaking his head.
“Damn it, Law, what is it? Did … was there something of Joely’s down there?” she demanded.
He shook his head again. Then he held out his phone, but not to her. Ezra took it.
Whatever the sheriff saw caused little reaction. Tucking the phone into his pocket, he looked at Law. “It might not be for what you think,” he said quietly.
“Fuck that,” he muttered. He looked a little less pale.
Good, because Nia was about to kick his ass. “What did you see?” Storming up to him, she drilled a finger into his chest, about ready to pummel him.
He caught her fist, his grip tight, almost too tight. Eyes half wild, he stared at her. “I’m not telling you, damn it,” he growled. “I don’t want to live with that in my head. I’m sure as hell not putting it in yours.”
She jerked away. Fine. Fuck this—she’d go look—
And he caught her by the waistband of her jeans before she took two steps.
Shrieking in frustration, she rounded on him and hit him, full force, her fist plowing into his jaw.
His head snapped back. When he looked back at her, there was next to no emotion in his eyes. “Go ahead and do it again if it will help,” he said. “But I’m still not telling you and you are not going down there.”
“Kids.” Ezra stepped up, pushed between them. “I hate to break up this lovely scene … but we need to get back. Law, we need to figure out how we’re going to spin this. For now, we’ve got lousy reception so that plays into our favor. If you want to tr
y that shit, we were hiking and you got ahead of us, ended up finding that spot while you waited …? I need you to e-mail me that photo …”
Staring at Law, she backed away, shooting another look at that dark hole.
Answers … so close.
“There aren’t any immediate answers down there, Nia,” Law said quietly. “If you go there, all you’ll get is more nightmares. You don’t need that.”
She looked at him. “Isn’t it up to me to make that decision?”
“You can’t undo the damage once it’s there. You can’t take those nightmares away.” He shook his head. “I’m not letting you do it.” Then he moved around her and sealed that nightmare back up.
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
TOOLS. ROPES STAINED WITH BLOOD. CHAINS.
Those were bad enough. But the other things …
Law’s gut clenched each time the image of the saw blade danced through his mind. The serrated teeth stained with blood. His gut clenched each time. He hadn’t gotten sick, but it had been damn close.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. And Nia wanted that image in her head.
Shit, no. He had to watch her like a hawk, too, because for most of the afternoon, she’d been ready to take off running. He’d made his call, not necessarily fudging anything. Just leaving out one or two minor details.
Like that they had been looking for the cellar they’d found.
They’d just gone hiking.
Remy hadn’t been pleased—Law could tell, but at one point, the lawyer had cornered both of them and snarled, “What are you two trying to do? Get all of us fucked?”
“Now, Remy … I never outright told you what we were doing,” Ezra said easily. “Just mentioned Nia’s concerns … then that we were going out for a hike. And, to be honest, I didn’t expect to really find anything.”
Remy looked about ready to bust a vein. “You expect me to buy that?”
“Doesn’t matter if you buy it or not. I can tell you, honestly, I didn’t think we’d find anything. I figured our chances of finding anything out there were slim to none.” Ezra shrugged, his green eyes direct. “Reilly and I have been out there before—never saw a damn thing. Didn’t see why we’d expect it to be any different this time.”
“But you did. And damn it, now what in the fuck happens?” he snarled. “You’re the damn sheriff and you had civilians on what might be a murder scene!”
“Actually, only one civilian,” Law corrected. “And we were just walking around—researching some old maps of mine. The cellar was on one of them and I wanted to take a look. I moved ahead and was wandering around while I waited for Ezra and Nia to catch up, that’s when I found it.”
Remy snorted. “Like anybody is going to buy that.”
Law looked down at his maps, then back at Remy. “Well, I do have the maps. And come on, Remy, look at it logically. If Ezra had thought he’d be finding a murder scene, he’d have his men with him. Right? So logic tells us he wasn’t expecting to find anything of the sort.”
“Nah, he was just out there because he’s into recreation,” Remy muttered. “And that’s why I had to take a day off of work … without telling anybody why. That’s why he took a day off of work. Without telling anybody why. Like that isn’t going to make people suspicious as hell. And by the way … why the big fucking secret?”
“Because the sheriff isn’t sure just which of the townspeople are involved,” Ezra said, his voice flat. Hard.
Remy stared at Ezra blankly, not comprehending.
Law realized the lawyer hadn’t quite arrived at that conclusion yet, that he hadn’t connected those dots. Too close to it, he guessed—hell, Law hadn’t lived here all his life, wasn’t connected by blood or marriage to nearly thirty percent of the county. Remy was. His roots here, they went deep. More than likely, he would know whoever was behind this—more than likely, he had met the killer—might even be friends with him.
Shit, wasn’t that a thought to have in your head?
“You know, for a sharp lawyer, you’re not thinking very clearly here,” he pointed out.
“Reilly. Shut the fuck up.” Ezra focused on Remy. “Think it through, Jennings. If he’s right, whoever did this is local. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Whoever did it is local … and you know him.”
“No.” Remy shook his head, spit the word out like it tasted bad. “Fuck, no.”
“Yeah. Which is why I wanted it quiet while I was out there. We couldn’t put it off—Nia was out there yesterday and she’s had some weird shit happen, which tells me somebody is paying too much attention to her. I couldn’t risk not taking a look around, don’t you get that?”
“You’re nuts,” Remy snarled. “There’s no way—”
“Nothing else makes sense,” Law said softly. “If she’s right, then whoever did it put her cousin at my place to throw attention off Lena when she reported hearing the screaming that first night. That means either they knew we were close, or that the people in town already figured I was mostly still an outsider … or both. That cellar? Nobody but a local with pretty deep roots would know about it. It can’t be anybody but a local.”
“You’re not a local.” Remy glared at him. “But you know about those underground areas. Hell, I didn’t know about them. Yet you did. Explain that.”
“Sheer luck—I found the maps at a yard sale. If it wasn’t for those …” He shrugged.
“This is bullshit,” Remy spat.
“Look, I know this isn’t—”
“Enough.” Ezra pushed between them. “I’ve got work to do—in all likelihood, there’s a crime scene to be processed. Remy, you’re probably going to want to find a way to pass on this. Instead of hassling Law, why don’t you think about how to do that? Law—get Nia the hell out of here.”
Nia shot a look at the darkness of the trees.
She wanted—needed to get back there. But how could she possibly hope to, now? Assuming she even could. As though he’d been purposely intent on throwing her off, Law had led them on a winding, confusing trail back to the house and she hadn’t been thinking clearly enough to pay attention on the way in to note details.
And of course, lousy reception meant she couldn’t really mark the area either.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Law and she stiffened her spine, kept her gaze focused straight ahead. It was a stab of betrayal, even looking at him. He’d locked her out.
Kept her on the outside when she’d been the one to push him into finding this. The bastard.
“How long are you going to stay pissed at me?”
She set her jaw. Damned if she’d speak to him right now. Son of a bitch.
He sighed. “I’m not doing this to cut you out, Nia. Whether you believe it or not, I’m doing you a favor here.”
Her resolution to remain silent splintered under her fury. Wheeling around, she glared at him. “I don’t want your damn favors,” she snarled. “I don’t need your coddling, your protection, your fucking knight in shining armor routine. Maybe you needed to ride in and save the day with Tinkerbell in there, but I don’t need a hero, damn it. Y’all never would have even bothered to look for anything if it wasn’t for me. How could you cut me out like that?”
“Because I’m going to have fucking nightmares after what I saw,” he snapped. “I’d rather it not be in your head.”
Then he stopped, took a deep breath. “You want to be pissed off, you be pissed off. I’m sorry if I hurt you—that wasn’t my intention. But if I had to make the same call, I’d do it again. And I’m not sorry for that.”
He turned around and headed back into the house.
She waited until she heard the creaking of the door as it opened. Then, because she couldn’t keep the question silent any longer, she blurted out, “What in the hell did you see?”
Law just shook his head. “Aren’t your nightmares bad enough right now?”
He’d have to tell her, he figured. Sooner or later, if the cellar turned out to be what he
thought it was, details would slip. He’d have to tell her. But until Law knew for certain, he wasn’t going to put those images in her mind. If she hated him for it, then she hated him.
Feeling somebody’s eyes on him, he looked up and saw Hope watching him. She was perched on the stairs, her elbows resting on her knees, her misty green eyes full of sympathy and sadness.
“Hey.”
He gave her a tight smile and shoved his hands in his pockets.
“I guess you won’t tell me, either, huh?”
Law lifted a brow.
Hope smirked. “Didn’t think so.” She shifted her gaze past his shoulder, staring toward the door. “You know, I really wish she’d drop the ‘Tinkerbell’ comments.”
“She doesn’t mean anything mean by it,” he said wearily.
“I know.” Hope lifted up a hand, propped her chin on it. “You know, she’s probably not really angry at you. Just upset. Scared. Frustrated. Once she cools down …”
Law snorted. “No. She’s angry. Really angry. At me. And it’s too fucking bad, because I wouldn’t do it any other way.”
“Is it that bad?”
He stared at her. Then he looked down at the floor. “I don’t want to sleep tonight, sweetheart. Because I’m afraid of what I’m going to see.”
“So it is that bad.”
“Worse,” he muttered. He shoved a hand through his hair. He fucking needed a drink, but couldn’t. Not yet. Probably wouldn’t be wise to have one later, either. Not until he’d figured out how Nia was going to react. If she had any plans on slipping away, he had to be ready, had to watch her …
This was probably all over town by now.
“Did you hear?”
He held the coffee cup loosely, focused on doing just that because he wanted to crush it. Wanted to hurl the steaming liquid in Natalie Walbash’s pretty face. Instead of doing that, he gave her a puzzled smile. “Heard what?”
If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense Page 20