Mistletoe Reunion Threat

by Virginia Vaughan

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I disabled the GPS on our phones and on the car. You said you didn’t have anything on you that could be tracked. So they can’t be tracking us electronically. It has to be someone who knows our whereabouts, but the only person I told was Vince. I suppose anyone who works around the police would know about our reconnection, but other than that, who is even aware we know one another?”

  Her gut constricted at that suggestion. Had someone in the police department betrayed them to a killer?

  He pulled out his phone. “I’m going to call my friend Josh Adams. He’s a former ranger buddy who lives here in town. His wife works at the FBI office in Jackson. They’re good people.”

  She glanced at him, nervousness ticking through her. “How do you know you can trust him?”

  “There’s no one I trust more than my fellow rangers. Josh is on our side. If I can’t believe in anything else, I believe that.”

  “I can’t trust him. I don’t even know him.”

  He looked at her, eyes wide and surprised. He must have seen the fear on her—it had to be pouring off of her—because he gave her a reassuring nod and his voice quieted. “Then maybe you can trust me? I know I let you down before when I promised you’d be safe at my house. You weren’t and that’s on me. But believe me now, Ash. We absolutely can count on Josh.” He held up his phone as if asking her permission to make the call.

  She pondered the decision only for a moment. She had no choice, really. She needed to trust someone and it wasn’t his fault she hadn’t been safe at his house.

  Finally, she nodded and he hit the button and placed the call.

  She gripped the steering wheel again and took a deep breath, hoping against hope she could believe in Garrett’s judgment about his friend.

  He put the phone on speaker and when Josh answered, Garrett quickly updated him on the attacks against Ashlynn and the kidnapping.

  “I heard about that on the news. How can I help?”

  “We need a safe place to stay. Whoever is after Ashlynn is still managing to track us. I haven’t figured out how yet. We need somewhere off the grid.”

  “I have just the place,” Josh said. “Elise has a great-uncle who left her a cabin outside of town. No one should be able to trace it to you. I’m texting you the address of a convenience store. I’ll meet you there in a half hour with the keys and a map to the cabin.”

  When he received the text, he called out the directions to Ashlynn and she headed north on the interstate. Rain turned to sleet as she drove and the quiet in the car grew deafening. The windshield wipers swished back and forth in a timed motion. That and the hum of the tires against the road were the only sounds. She felt tension pouring from Garrett as he rummaged through his bag and checked his weapons. Seeing him in combat mode was unnerving. When she’d known him before, he’d been rakish and charming, a dangerous combination in itself, but she’d not seen this side of him until today. He’d grown into a serious and brooding man with muscles for days and firsthand knowledge of guns and ammunition. Five years had changed him from a boy to a man...but was he now a man she could count on to bring Jacob home?

  As she added Stephen’s death to the killer’s toll on her life, she realized the truth. If she wanted to live long enough to find her son and bring him home, she had no choice but to trust Garrett.

  * * *

  They pulled into the convenience store but didn’t see Josh’s car. It had been hours since this mess first started and neither of them had eaten anything. They both needed food in their stomachs and a few hours of sleep if they hoped to keep their wits about them. “Let’s go inside and get some provisions,” Garrett suggested.

  Ashlynn agreed and shut off the engine then followed him inside, but he couldn’t help but notice she looked like she was moving on autopilot. He lifted a silent plea skyward. They needed God’s help to get through this and he could only hope that the Almighty would look past his shortcomings to see how deserving Ashlynn was of His help. He had no right to ask God for anything, not after the mess he’d made of his life, but Ashlynn didn’t deserve the danger she’d found herself in.

  As he carried two bags of groceries to the car, Josh pulled up. He jumped from his car and greeted them both.

  “I’m sorry to hear about your son,” Josh told Ashlynn. “But I have every confidence you’re in good hands with Garrett. I also phoned Elise and updated her about the situation.” He glanced at Ashlynn again. “Elise is FBI. She specializes in child abductions. Unfortunately, she’s in Nashville at the moment working as part of a task force. But she did promise to contact the locals and examine the evidence they’ve collected.”

  “Thank you for your help,” Ashlynn said. “And thank your wife, too.”

  Josh handed Garrett a hand-drawn map to the cabin and the keys. “I’m glad to see you bought some supplies. We haven’t been up there in quite a while so the cupboards are pretty bare. What else can I do?”

  Garrett didn’t hesitate. “The men who attacked us had automatic weapons and a sniper’s aim. I might need some backup before this is over.”

  Josh nodded. “I’ll call around and see who else is close. How are you set for weapons?”

  “I was able to grab my gun bag. It’s enough to last as long as we don’t get into a major firefight.”

  “I’ve also got a storage locker with weapons and ammunition. I’ll get some things ready.”

  “Is all that really necessary?” Ashlynn asked.

  “Let’s hope not, but if it is, we’ll be ready.” Garrett wasn’t going to find himself outgunned again.

  Josh shook his hand firmly. “Be safe, and remember I’m only a phone call away if you need me. I’ll be on alert.”

  “We will. Thanks, Josh.”

  He climbed back into the car, waving as he drove off.

  Josh’s handwritten map led him straight to the cabin. As he’d stated, it was isolated and set back on a lake in the woods. It was a perfect place to hide out and he couldn’t imagine how anyone could find them here.

  He led Ashlynn inside and she looked around, glancing through the window as the sun rose over the lake. The cabin, while isolated, had modern amenities. Garrett headed over to the kitchen and placed the grocery bags on the counter. It helped to keep his hands busy unpacking the groceries. They would have to stock up if they planned to stay there long, but for now, this would do. He heated up a can of soup, poured it into two mugs and handed one to Ashlynn, who had curled up on the couch, a blanket wrapped around her and her legs tucked beneath her.

  She shook her head, not wanting the soup, but Garrett insisted. “You need it. You have to stay strong for Jacob, remember?”

  She relented and took it from him, though she didn’t drink any of it. “I don’t understand why this is happening,” she said instead, her voice small and frail. “I don’t know why God is doing this to me. What have I ever done that I would deserve any of this?”

  She hadn’t had an easy life, but he knew better than most that life wasn’t always fair. If he could go back in time and change things, he would. He longed to change the past and his actions. But all he could do was be here for her now, comfort her as best he could and do everything in his power to bring her son home safely to her.

  He was a believer. Had asked Jesus into his heart during his first year with the rangers, and he felt certain God was watching out for Jacob. Yet he also knew bad things happened in this world and God didn’t often intervene in man’s sinful behavior. Evil existed on Earth. He knew it firsthand. He’d witnessed it in action and asked himself many times the same questions she was now asking him. Why did God allow bad things to happen?

  “I don’t have all the answers for you, Ash. I can’t fix what has happened, but I can be here for you and Jacob. I want to be here for you.”

  Her eyes were col
d and hard as she looked at him. “I wish I could believe you,” she told him in a flat voice. “But I can’t forget how you left us. You abandoned me when I needed you most, Garrett. How can I trust you now? How can I know for certain that you won’t leave again?”

  “I won’t leave. I’m not that same person, Ash.”

  She shook her head. “Neither am I. I’ve been through too much to be that trusting young girl I once was. I always thought you were the one person in this world I could count on. Then you left me. You left me when I needed you more than I’d ever needed anyone.”

  He didn’t understand exactly what she was talking about, but she didn’t understand what he’d gone through, either. “I thought I was protecting you. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

  “It doesn’t matter what your intention was. It still hurt.” She wiped away a tear that slipped through. “And the way you cut me off after you’d made your decision was cruel. You wouldn’t even speak to me. I sent you letters. I emailed you. But you never responded. I didn’t even have any way to know for sure that you received them.”

  “I got your letters, Ashlynn, and your emails. But you have to understand, I thought I was protecting you. I looked at our future and all I saw was your pain and heartache if I married you.”

  “You made that future of pain and heartache come true for me when you abandoned us, Garrett.”

  Her words stopped him. “What do you mean us?” Stephen’s words came back to him in a wave. I’m not Jacob’s biological father. Did that mean...?

  She placed the cup of soup on the table and turned to him, her eyes blazing with anger and indignation. “You claim you didn’t want to leave me to raise a family alone, but that’s exactly what you left me to do. You turned me into a single parent.”

  He felt his face flush at the realization of what she was saying. “Are you telling me Jacob...?” He stopped, his question hanging in the air.

  Her expression changed to one of confusion. “You said you’d received my letters and emails.”

  “Yes, I received them, but I didn’t read them. I couldn’t. I thought you were trying to change my mind. I never read them.”

  He set down his cup and stood, his turn to feel overwhelmed. She acted as if he’d known all along, as if her letters and emails had come with the words you’re going to be a father written in big, bold letters across the front and in the subject line. Maybe if they had, he would have opened them.

  She stood and touched his arm, the graze of her fingers whisper soft. He looked at her and saw tears pooled in her eyes and the sudden realization hit him that she’d believed all this time he’d known and he’d rejected her because of it.

  Her manner softened but the truth hung out there for several moments that seemed to last an eternity. Finally, she spoke the words that would change his life forever.

  “Garrett, Jacob is your son.”

  FOUR

  Garrett lowered himself slowly back into the cushions of the couch. Hearing her words was a blow like no other he’d ever sustained. He was sick and excited at the same time. It was the strangest mixture of emotions he’d ever felt.

  She sat beside him and placed her hand over his, her touch only serving to rev up the emotional turmoil he was currently experiencing. “I’m sorry. I thought you knew.”

  He raked a hand over his face as the weight of her words continued to sink in. “Are you telling me that I’m searching for my own son?”

  “Yes.”

  He stood, his mind spinning with this new information. His son was the boy missing. His son was out there somewhere. Someone had kidnapped his son.

  He spun around and glared at Ashlynn. “How could you let this happen?”

  Hurt and anger flashed in her eyes, but she stood to face him, her chin jutting out stubbornly. “I don’t even know why this is happening.”

  “You should have done a better job of protecting him.”

  Now her face flushed with anger. “Don’t you dare stand there and criticize my parenting, Garrett Lewis. You were the one who ran out on us.”

  “Not by choice.”

  “Do you think that matters? Do you believe for one second that your intentions make any difference in our lives? You promised you would help me find Jacob and bring him home. Once that’s done, you can leave again and never have to worry about us.”

  She turned and rushed into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her. He heard the click of the lock and grimaced at his own reaction. What was he doing? He was taking out his frustrations on her and that wasn’t fair. She already had too many people blaming her for her choices. He didn’t want to be one of them.

  He stood at the back door and stared out at the lake, his mind struggling to process this new information that changed everything he knew about his life. Every decision would now have to be made in the context of how it would affect his child. The idea terrified him. He’d never had a dad and he had no idea how to be one. His best friend, Marcus, who had died in the ambush, had always had his family in his thoughts, or so it seemed, because he always had a funny story to share about something that had happened when he was home or else he was showing off a drawing one of his kids had colored for him.

  In Garrett’s mind, that was what a father looked like. His first official act as a father had been to abandon the mother of his child. Now he’d accused her of allowing his abduction. Not a great start to fatherhood.

  He pushed the door open and walked outside, needing the brisk morning air to clear his mind. He stared up at the sky and had to question why God would allow this to happen. Why had he been allowed to live while a terrific dad like Marcus had been taken? He tried to shake those feelings away. He couldn’t let emotion and guilt jeopardize what he needed to do. He had to focus on the job of finding Jacob. Everything else could be worked out once he was home safe and sound.

  Yet even as that thought crossed his mind, another countered it. If he’d been killed instead of Marcus, who would be here to look for his son now? Jacob’s safety would be in the hands of strangers. He liked several of the men he’d met on the force, but did he trust any one of them to find his kid? The answer was a resounding no.

  He picked up a stick and hurled it into the lake.

  For the first time since the night of the ambush, he couldn’t feel guilty for staying alive because it allowed him to be here now when his son needed him.

  * * *

  Ashlynn flung herself across the bed, angry at him for letting her down again and even more at herself for daring to believe in him. He couldn’t have faked that reaction. He honestly hadn’t known she was pregnant when he’d broken their engagement. But that gave him no right to blame her for Jacob being kidnapped.

  But her anger extended even further. Life had once again used her as a pawn in its game and Ashlynn wasn’t amused. She didn’t understand why God continued to allow such terrible events to happen to her. She’d never done anything to the Great Almighty.

  Tears slipped from her eyes as she remembered her foster mother telling her she’d offended God just by being born. She’d had no control over that or over any of the terrible events that had made up her life. Her mother’s death along with her father’s alcoholism had led her into foster care and into the home of Kathryn Rollins, who had singled her out for a reason only she knew to suffer repeated abuse and neglect. The other children in the home—six in all, including Kathryn’s own biological son—had not shared in her torment, and Ashlynn had grown up believing something was inherently wrong with her.

  She often still pondered that thought. Did she truly not deserve a family of her own? Or a happy life for her son? Judge Warren would call that kind of thinking utter nonsense and assure her that she did, indeed, deserve such things. But the older she got and the more she struggled, the less she tended to believe it.

  But that
didn’t mean she would quit fighting, if not for herself then for Jacob’s sake. He deserved a happy life even if she didn’t.

  * * *

  A few hours later, Garrett heated up two breakfast burritos he’d gotten at the convenience store. It wasn’t much, but it was all he had to offer until they made a run for supplies. He tensed when he heard the bedroom door unlock. He watched Ashlynn walk out and shuffle across the floor to the kitchen. She looked better after a few hours of rest, but he doubted she’d slept well. He also couldn’t miss the red, swollen eyes that indicated she’d spent at least part of the time crying. He kicked himself, feeling guilty for causing at least some of that.

  “I made breakfast,” he said, sliding a burrito to her. She hadn’t eaten any of the soup he’d heated for her earlier, which meant she hadn’t eaten since before he’d first seen her yesterday afternoon.

  She shook her head at the offer of food. “Just coffee, please.”

  He poured her a cup from the pot he’d started and handed it to her. Then he sighed and got ready to eat crow. “Look, Ash, I owe you an apology. I think I was taking out my frustrations on you earlier. I was just so shocked by what you told me.”

  She sipped her coffee, but her expression was guarded as she glanced at him. “No apology is required.”

  He saw the lift of her chin and the determined look in her eye. He knew that stance. She was shutting herself down, hiding her hurt and pain away so she wouldn’t seem weak. He’d seen her do it before. If she could protect herself, then she would never have to admit to being hurt.

  “Don’t do that. Don’t shut me out like that.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m fine.”

  He walked around the island separating them. “I’m trying to say I’m sorry I hurt you, and before you say I didn’t, I know good and well I did. I was wrong to blame you for Jacob’s abduction. You had no control over what some psychotic did.” He reached out and caressed her arm. He’d wanted to comfort her but instead he’d jabbed her. He longed now to pull her into his arms. She looked like a wounded bird, so sad and helpless, but he knew from experience that that look was deceiving. She was a mother lion who would pounce when her cub was in danger.