HAUNTED: The Chase Ryder Series Book 2

by Ho, Jo

  As we piled into the car, Florence slipped her hand through the window and gave mine a squeeze. Her eyes shone with tears as she shot me a small smile.

  “Try not to get into any more trouble. My heart can’t take another incident.”

  I kissed her hand and started the engine. As we pulled away, I saw her watching me from the curb, her figure growing smaller and smaller until I could barely make her out anymore.

  24

  Chase

  For someone who had been initially so excited by the possibility of a road trip, I was so relieved when we pulled up outside the ranch just over four hours later.

  Sam and Gideon had taken shifts driving, while Sully rested. No one had really discussed doing that but I guess we decided he needed a break. There wasn’t much talk of what had happened at the cemetery and the missing text. Sam said she’d run the number through the system, but for now, we just had to assume that someone knew Sully would be going home, someone who had something against him and who decided now was the time to get back at him. Sam was absolutely firm in this, refusing to consider any other scenario, but I knew Sully wasn’t convinced. I could see it in the way he didn’t meet her eyes when he agreed with her. I had a horrible feeling that maybe, he wasn’t quite as ready to let Emma go as we had thought.

  Sam parked the car as we piled out. Sully went to help Zeb while Gideon flung open the front door and we started trooping inside when Bandit suddenly froze, his ears pricked high. He whimpered and spun around, searching for whatever it was that had gotten his attention. Then he pawed the ground and looked at us. I’d known him long enough to know what he wanted even without the iPad which was still packed in one of our cases.

  Follow me.

  Confused, I went with him as he lead me to the back door. “What is it?” I asked.

  He whined at me, pawing at the door. Whatever was going on, Bandit didn’t have time to wait for his tablet. He shoved his nose at us urgently, hurrying us to open the door. Frowning, Gideon unlocked the door as Bandit tore off into the long grass, barking and whining until he reached a particular spot and stopped, circling the area, barking at us.

  “He’s found something,” Gideon said concerned, as we hurried out there. He had much longer legs than me plus he could run faster so he got to Bandit before I did. When I finally reached them, panting from the sudden exertion, he waved at me to hang back.

  There was a shadow in the long grass.

  A shape that was low and moving. As Gideon got closer, it whimpered, and I recognized that sound immediately.

  It was a dog.

  Some kind of mongrel mix. It had the face of a German Shepherd but its short legs resembled those of a Corgi. I remembered seeing them once and finding them kind of comical looking — I’d read somewhere that the Queen of England had an entire tribe of them.

  This dog was short but painfully slim. Her brown eyes were pinned on us in alarm. Her tongue hung out as she panted, terrified.

  “Back up,” Gideon said. I did as he commanded, gesturing at the others who, having realized something was up were now coming up behind me, to stay back. Bandit darted around the dog, sniffing like crazy. He whined as if what he could smell concerned him, then he dashed to my side. Seeing how scared the other dog was, however, I figured he wanted us to give her space.

  Gideon lowered into a crouch, making himself smaller, then he shuffled closer, making soothing sounds. “Hey, girl. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to help.”

  The dog’s eyes darted wildly as she took in all of us before settling on him. She bared her teeth in a snarl but couldn’t stop the trembling in her body. I knew it was bravado, a show she was putting on to try to warn Gideon away. Still, scared dogs acted irrationally sometimes, attacking without warning, so he had to be careful.

  He stopped, reaching slowly into a pocket where he took out the remnants of a Nutter Butter pack. The dog’s nose wrinkled as she smelled the cookie. She kept looking at Gideon but some of her suspicion became overridden by hunger as a great blob of drool suddenly fell from her mouth. Gideon saw this as he snapped a cookie in half and tossed it to her. It landed between her paws, right under her nose. Her jaws lunged forward, and she snapped up the cookie, never taking her eyes off of him. He threw the other half at her. Again, she ate it up. She looked at him, eyes begging for more. Gideon gave her the rest of the pack which she hovered up in no time.

  “I’m sorry girl, if you want more, you’ll have to come inside with me. I’m all out,” he said, showing her his bare hands and the empty wrapper. The dog looked at him, then his hands, then the empty wrapper. A whine of fear escaped her lips, as she tossed a nervous glance at the rest of us, though we were rapidly backing away.

  Gideon moved slowly towards her. She whined again but didn’t move. Slowly, slowly, he stretched out a hand to touch her. She trembled under his touch but allowed him to pet her. He fussed her for several moments just letting her get used to him when finally her tongue snaked out to lick him. Gideon smiled.

  “See, that’s not so bad now, is it?”

  He stayed with her until he could stand up without her cowering behind him.

  “Come on girl, follow me. We’ve got lots of food inside.”

  I wasn’t sure whether she understood him or not, but the dog wouldn’t move. Gideon tried again.

  “No one is going to hurt you. We just want to see if you’re alright,” he pleaded. Still she wouldn’t move. Gideon stopped, not knowing what else to do when Bandit barked beside me. I don’t know what he said, but her ears pricked up and she started towards the ranch of her own accord. I stroked the top of his head, marveling once again at him.

  “Thanks, boy,” I said to him gratefully.

  “Woof.”

  25

  Sully

  Gideon fed the dog who wolfed down the food like she hadn’t eaten in days.

  I hadn’t been able to get too close to her — she growled every time anyone who wasn’t Gideon approached her. I was glad she trusted him though it made examining her a bit of a pain.

  I could see her ribs clearly showing against her side. Her coat was encrusted with dirt and I was pretty sure those black spots were mites in her ears. I’d instructed Bandit to stay away from her until I could clean her up as I didn’t want him to catch anything from her. Bandit seemed all too pleased to comply, which surprised me. I thought he’d like another dog around but she seemed to put him on edge. He kept sniffing her and staying behind Chase. I’d seen him with dogs before, back at the clinic when Forbes’ men had attacked us. Bandit had asked the other dogs for help, so I knew he wasn’t afraid of dogs — far from it — so this behavior was a little puzzling. It could just be he was protecting his territory, however, as clever as he was, Bandit was still just a dog.

  “Since she trusts you, I’ll need you to hold her head and talk to her calmly while I try to get a look at her,” I told Gideon. “Now, she may get frightened. The key are her ears. If she lays them flat on her head, she’s going to attack in which case, you back up immediately.”

  “Got it,” Gideon answered.

  “Sam, Chase, you guys have this sheet ready. If it looks like she’s going to attack, the two of you throw this sheet over her and we’ll trap her in it. If she can’t see, she won’t be able to attack. We use this technique all the time so you should be fine,” I said.

  I caught Chase staring at me funny. “What?”

  “Isn’t that only used on cats?” she asked.

  “How do you know that?” I said. “Wait, let me guess, you read it somewhere and your brain filed it away for exactly this moment?”

  She nodded.

  “It’ll work on her too.” I nodded to them all. “Ready?”

  Gideon started stroking the dog as I approached from her side — not her back — I wanted her to see me coming so she wouldn’t be startled. At my first touch, her legs shook, and she tossed a few nervous looks at me, but Gideon’s voice seemed to have a calming effect on her. S
he pressed her head into his hands as if she was afraid to look at what was about to happen.

  I felt around her torso. Though her ribs were prominent, I couldn’t feel any breaks. It was the same for her legs. Looking into her ears, I confirmed my early suspicion — they were plagued by the little suckers. If she’d let me, I could clean out the majority of them but I’d need drops to get rid of the rest and to deter them from coming back. I’d try that later when she was more at ease with us, but right now, I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything pressing to contend with.

  Bandit whined by Chase, hyper concerned. Hearing him, the dog shook with fright. We all knew Bandit would never harm her but it seemed she wasn’t so sure. I didn’t think she would hurt any of us, but I also didn’t want to run the risk of her flipping out.

  “Bandit, could you stay outside? Your being here seems to be scaring her.”

  Bandit whined unhappily and shook himself as if to say there was nothing to fear from him but he trotted out, tossing us a longing look over his shoulders as he went.

  “Thanks boy.”

  Sighing deeply, he left the room. Carefully, I took hold of the dog’s mouth, mindful that even in her weakened state, those teeth could do plenty of damage, and what with my face being so close to those jaws… Well, I was being vigilant.

  I pried her mouth open. Her teeth weren’t too bad — she was younger than I had first thought. Breath was as expected (bad), tongue a decent color. Next, I examined her legs where I could see thick scars that had healed around the bottom of her legs, close to the paws. There was a matching scar around her neck. A red-hot burn of rage started building inside me. These scars were consistent with being chained against her will for an extended period. Shifting her fur, I saw other scars and bruises, some only days old, while others had clearly been there much longer. Unable to hide my feelings, Chase picked up on my anger immediately.

  “What’s wrong?”

  I looked at her. “She’s been badly beaten, chained and starved, up until the moment she probably escaped.”

  Chase drew in her breath sharply while Gideon gripped his fists into balls.

  “You think someone did this to her recently?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah, but they’ve had a while, judging by the scars and bruises I’ve found. Might be that she’s always been tortured. We could be the first nice people she’s met.”

  Gideon looked at the dog, with her head in his hands, hiding from the sorry world that had broken her. “I’m sorry, girl, but whoever they were, they won’t hurt you again. You’re safe now.”

  She looked up at him with large brown eyes and whimpered.

  26

  Sully

  It wasn’t until I sat on the edge of our bed that I realized how weary I was feeling.

  I tugged off my boots, letting them drop to the floor with a thud. Sam moved past into the ensuite bathroom. Moments later, I heard the sound of running water. Steam curled out from the bathroom, fogging the air. I was surprised to see Sam return fully dressed.

  “You’re not getting in the bath?”

  “No, I’m drawing it for you. It’s been a long day, figured you could do with some relaxing.”

  I normally only ever showered, preferring the pounding water to beat down on my body, but the idea of lying in a hot bath didn’t seem too bad right now. Maybe a soak would clear the tension from my mind and shoulders. She looked at me and dropped a kiss on my head. If I were a smart man, I would’ve just gone into that bathroom and let the hot water do its thing, but I wasn’t. Frowning, I took her hand.

  “You’ve known me what, six months now. If I’m not sure about something, I don’t bring it up, true?” I asked. She looked down at me and nodded.

  “I’m not saying you’re lying, Sul, it’s just… you’ve been under a lot of stress. I knew going back wouldn’t be easy for you, seeing your friends and previous life. I don’t even know if you’ve had time to properly grieve…”

  “That’s not what this is. I am not making this up because I miss my wife, besides the timing doesn’t make sense. Why would I suddenly be doing this?”

  She didn’t say anything, just continued to look at me with those piercing eyes of hers.

  “We have just decided to do something big, Sully, maybe deep down, you’re not ready for the changes that might bring about.”

  I realized then what she was thinking. “This hasn’t got anything to do with us getting married. I don’t have a problem with that, with moving on.”

  “I know,” she said. “Listen, don’t worry about it tonight. I’ll look into the calls in the morning when I’m back at work. I’ll run a trace, see what I can find out.”

  Relief surged out of me. Despite how she had said she would do this before, I guess there was a part of me that doubted she would, but if she was going to do that, it meant she was willing to believe me. She didn’t think I was the mad man I was beginning to sound like.

  She nodded in the direction of the bathroom. “Go on before it gets cold.”

  She shot me a smile as she opened the suitcase and started to unpack our things from the trip. I gave her shoulder a squeeze as I headed into the ensuite.

  “Thanks hon.”

  27

  Sam

  Sam focused on the clothes in front of her, taking out several armfuls and dumping them onto the bed. The everyday action of folding clothes was bringing a small sense of peace. If she could just sort the mound in front of her, maybe her mind would stop shrieking and sending out its distress signal.

  She saw Sully drop his clothes on the floor (something that usually drove her mad, but today the normality of it gave some relief) and lower into the bath. From her position opposite the ensuite, Sully would not be able to see her as he had his back to her.

  Exactly the way she wanted it.

  Keeping a watchful eye on him, Sam moved to his side of the bed, to where Sully had left his cell phone. Watching to make sure Sully wasn’t going to see what she was doing, Sam picked up his phone, unclipped the battery and slipped out the SIM card which she quickly put into her own phone.

  When Sully had been giving his explanation of events at the cemetery, he had caught her off-guard and Sam had not remembered that a phone’s log wasn’t actually saved on the device itself, but on the phone’s SIM card. It wasn’t until they were on the drive home that this had come to her attention. Sam knew she could have mentioned this to Sully earlier, but the truth was, she wanted to check this out herself.

  She turned her phone on and waited impatiently, tossing a look at Sully to make sure he couldn’t see what she was up to. Sam wasn’t an insecure person and had never had reason to go through her man’s phone before. The boyfriends she’d had before Sully had all been decent guys but the relationships had ended when the romance had fizzled out. She was still friends with a few of them, though their new wives weren’t that keen on Sam being in the picture, so she had respected their wishes and disappeared out of their lives. Having to deploy this duplicity now hurt Sam almost as much as it would Sully, but she had to know.

  The logo for the phone appeared, followed by Sully’s home screen and Sam was in!

  Scrolling quickly through the menu, she came to the text message log but she could find no mention of the text Sully claimed to have received — there were just the usual texts sent from each of them.

  She swiped through until she reached his text messages. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, just the usual texts sent from each of them. There was one from Sam, asking when they wanted to do their big reveal dinner, a few from Gideon with basic housekeeping questions. Chase had sent Sully some funny memes. The sight of them made Sam’s lips curve into a smile. What was it about Chase and memes? The kid was always trawling through the net to find them, or she’d be laughing at her phone reading 9Gag. Trying to explain the joke to Bandit usually resulted in more laughter as the dog just did not understand the concept of humor. Thinking of them, of her family, the smile left her
face as Sam felt another pang of unease that she couldn’t shake. They were so happy before this trip, why did this have to happen?

  Finding nothing in the inbox, Sam clicked on the sent folder. There were only three texts, but what she read was enough to send chills down her spine.

  “Who is this?” read the first text. The next asked, “Why are you doing this?” The last text, consisting of only one word had the biggest impact on Sam.

  “Emma?”

  Sam looked over at the man she loved, relaxing in the bath. Her eyes dark with worry.

  28

  Chase

  It took a while, but Sully was finally happy that he’d done all he could for the dog.

  Not that he expected to find a missing report on her, but Sully ran through the usual sites all the same. She wasn’t an expensive dog, wasn’t used for breeding, it looked like it was a clear case of neglect and abuse. Though I wasn’t happy about this, I had to admit it was easier to focus on her, rather than what had happened with Sully at the cemetery. We’d retreated into our own rooms but I was sure Sam and Sully were having more conversations about it all.

  Bandit and I were having a big discussion of our own. He sat with me on the bed, asking questions about the other dog. I was trying my best to explain, but it wasn’t like I had many answers myself.