Stop it, he warned himself as he walked out to meet her and leaned over the fence. “That’s Lady. She’s my mom’s horse.”
Ashlee stroked her nose. “She’s beautiful.” She motioned to the other horses in the pen. “They’re all so beautiful.”
He heard sincerity in her voice and his hope meter kicked up a notch. She’d never cared for horses in the past. That should have been his first clue that she hadn’t wanted to live the ranch life with him. Horses and ranches kind of went hand-in-hand.
He took a chance. “Maybe you’d like to go riding later. We have a mare that’s real gentle, perfect for beginners.”
She chuckled at his use of that word. “Am I a beginner? I don’t even know.”
“Well, I can’t say how much horse riding you’ve done lately, but you were always a fair rider. Never cared much for it, though.”
“That makes me sad and I don’t even know why. I can’t put my finger on anything specific, but something about being out here, stroking this horse and taking in the fresh air, makes me feel like I’ve been inside a box for a really long time and now I’ve finally been freed from it. It’s almost as if the idea of fresh air and green fields is foreign to me.”
“I’d imagine you’ve been working inside for a long while. I get that. This is a far cry from being stuck in some office year after year.”
“I guess it is.”
He hopped off the fence. “Why don’t I saddle up the horses and take you on a tour of the ranch? There’s a real pretty spot down by the lake.”
She smiled at him, a smile that sent his hopes shooting through the roof.
Calm down, boy.
Her eyes sparkled at the idea. “I’d like that.”
He hurried into the barn to retrieve the saddles, but his phone buzzed before he could get to them. He glanced at the text message from Josh.
Bring Ashlee to the office. Someone showed up here looking for her. Says he’s her boyfriend.
The boyfriend. Of course, he would show up now. Lawson gave a beleaguered sigh as he slid the phone into his pocket and walked out to the horse pen. “Change of plans. We need to head back to the sheriff’s office.”
Ashlee’s eyes widened with surprise. “What is it? Did they find those men?”
“No, nothing like that. Someone arrived at the station looking for you. He says he’s your boyfriend.”
“Oh, I forgot about him.”
“I thought you forgot about everyone.” The bite in his tone was uncalled for, but he’d once again been stung by her and he didn’t like that feeling one bit.
“It’s not like that. I don’t remember him—didn’t even recognize his picture when I looked it up online back at the hotel. When I talked to him and told him what was going on, he insisted on coming out here—but then, a few minutes later, I was attacked by that man. I haven’t really had much time to think about Jake since then. That’s all I meant.”
Lawson remembered her saying something about the guy back at the hotel, when she was giving her statement—but he hadn’t wanted to think about it, so he’d pushed it from his mind. But now he couldn’t ignore him anymore. The one good thing about Ashlee running away was that he hadn’t had a front-row seat to her moving on from him. He hadn’t had to see her with another man. Not until now.
They climbed into Josh’s pickup and Lawson drove her to the sheriff’s office, but he was already dreading this reunion for his own sake. He didn’t want to see the kind of man Ashlee had left him for. The previous day, she said he was her boss, which meant he was probably wealthy. He knew she worked for a large and successful accounting firm.
They arrived and walked in to find Cecile talking to a man in a suit. He was tall and looked like he’d just stepped out of a cowboy magazine ad. Not a real cowboy, but an ad agency’s airbrushed idea of one. Lawson instantly didn’t like him and didn’t trust him.
He glanced at Ashlee, who was studying the man, too, but he didn’t see any flashes of recognition. Not yet.
Cecile motioned behind him and the man turned. A broad smile spread across his face. He rushed over, pulled Ashlee into his arms and hugged her tightly. Too tightly in Lawson’s opinion.
“Ashlee, I’ve been so worried about you,” he said, cupping her face in his hands. “How are you? Any recollections returned?”
She continued to stare up at him, but her face was a blank. “No, nothing yet.”
Understanding dawned on the man’s face and he took a step back. “You have no idea who I am then, do you?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t. I mean, I recognize your voice from our phone conversation and your picture from the web site, but I don’t know you.”
“That’s disappointing. I was hoping just seeing me would spark something.”
Lawson understood that disappointment and could empathize with this guy on that point. He, too, had been hurt that she hadn’t known him the first time she’d seen him. Of course, in that moment, he hadn’t known about the amnesia. He’d thought she’d just forgotten him.
Ashlee turned to him. “This is Lawson Avery. He’s an old friend. He’s been letting me stay with him and his family during this ordeal.”
The man held out his hand to Lawson. “Jake Stephens. Nice to meet you. And thank you for taking such good care of our girl.”
Shaking this guy’s hand made his skin crawl, but he forced himself to do it and nod. Something about Jake’s slick manner Lawson didn’t like, but he couldn’t be sure it wasn’t pure jealousy on his part. He didn’t like Jake Stephens one little bit.
Jake slipped his arm around Ashlee and pulled her to him. “I had to rent a car to drive from the airport, but if we leave now, we may be able to catch a flight back home tonight.”
“You can’t leave!” Lawson exclaimed and both Jake and Ashlee looked at him. “I mean we—the sheriff’s office—still has questions.”
Thankfully, Cecile came to his defense and put him out of his jealous misery—although he didn’t miss the smirk on her face as she did.
“That’s true,” she said, stepping into the conversation. “Ashlee was found with a large amount of cash and bullet holes in her car. She’d obviously been involved in a gunfight. In addition, she’s been the victim of multiple attempts on her life in the past two days. We need to find out who is behind these attacks and what exactly is going on before she leaves town and our leads dry up.”
“Yes,” Ashlee agreed. “I can’t leave until I know who is after me and why. I could be a sitting duck if I go home without those answers.”
Jake Stephens wasn’t convinced. “But aren’t you a target staying here, too? I can provide security for you at my condo. It’ll be much safer than that little apartment you live in.”
“We have questions for you, as well, Mr. Stephens,” Cecile added.
He stiffened, bristling at her comment. “Questions for me? About what? I don’t know anything.”
“Still—” Cecile opened the door to the interview room “—if you don’t mind answering a few questions, it would help in our investigation.”
He glanced at Ashlee, then sighed and gave a half-hearted smile. “Sure, whatever you need.”
Cecile followed him into the interview room and closed the door as Ashlee moved closer to Lawson.
“What kind of questions is she going to ask him?”
“You called him from the hotel, right? Is it just a coincidence that you were attacked not long after?”
“I wondered that myself right after it happened.” She folded her arms over her chest and hugged herself, worry lining her face. Lawson wanted nothing more than to take her into his arms and tell her everything would be okay, but he didn’t. It wasn’t his place to do so any longer. It was Jake Stephens’s.
And if there was any talk of Ashlee returning home with that guy, Lawson was going to know more about him f
irst.
“Wait here. I’ll be right back.” He turned to Kyle, whose desk was behind his. “Will you keep an eye on her? I want to hear this.”
Kyle nodded and Lawson opened the door to the interview room.
Cecile gave him a look, but continued her questioning. “I understand Ashlee works at your company. Tell me what you do, Mr. Stephens?”
“I’m a partner in an accounting firm. What does that have to do with anything?”
“Ashlee has been the victim of multiple attempts on her life,” Cecile replied smoothly. “We’re trying to determine where those threats are coming from. Is it possible this is linked to something with her work or your firm?”
The man glanced at them both, then laughed and shook his head. “Trust me, it’s boring work most of the time.”
“I’m sure that’s true, but we would still like to investigate that angle. Are you familiar with a motorcycle gang called the Pontiac Posse? Are they clients of your firm?”
“I’ve never heard of them before.”
Neither had Lawson, but he assumed that was the biker gang Mayor Baxter had warned them about.
“I’d like your permission to take a look at Ashlee’s client list.”
“That’s not possible, Deputy Bradley. Our clients have a right to privacy.”
“But aren’t they Ashlee’s clients? I’m sure you wouldn’t balk at her looking through them.”
Jake tapped his finger against the table, then shook his head. “I’m afraid, given the circumstances, I can’t allow that. If she’s incapacitated, and she obviously is, I’ll have to reassign her workload until she’s able to continue.”
Cecile leaned back in her chair and studied the man. “How long have you and Ashlee been dating, Mr. Stephens?”
“Four months.”
“And you care about her?”
“I do, but—”
“Then why are you hampering our ability to discover who is after her?”
“I’m not trying to hamper anything, but I have a responsibility to my company, as well. I can’t just hand over confidential files because my girlfriend is in trouble.”
Lawson grimaced at the word girlfriend, but tried not to let it show as the man continued.
“Look, I’ll go through those files myself and let you know if something jumps out at me.”
“No offense, Mr. Stephens, but you’re not an investigator. Besides, how can we be certain Ashlee’s not in danger because of something that ties back to you?”
“I would never hurt Ashlee.”
“Then it’s a coincidence that an hour after she called you, she was attacked at the hotel?”
His face paled and he leaned back in his seat. “I had nothing to do with that.”
“I hope not.” Cecile stood and walked from the room. Lawson followed her.
“What do you think?” he asked as they entered the hallway.
Josh appeared from his office and asked the same question. “What’s your gut tell you about Stephens?”
Cecile glanced at Josh, then gave a weary sigh. “I don’t think he’s involved, but I can’t rule it out until I see those files.”
“And without a warrant, that’s not going to happen,” Lawson added.
Josh shook his head. “We’ve got nothing to justify a warrant at this point. Let’s run a background check on Stephens and the firm. See if there’s any dirt to be found that could get us a look at those files. Actually, call Colby. His connections at the Bureau might reveal something more than ours would. Maybe there’s a corruption investigation Mr. Stephens ‘forgot’ to tell us about.”
Cecile nodded. “I’m on it.” She walked off to make the call.
Lawson stared at the man through the window as he sat in the interview room, engrossed in texting on his phone. It made sense that whatever Ashlee was involved in had something to do with her job. Her whole life was about her career. It had to be, since she’d left him for it. And if this case was tied to her work, then Jake Stephens was the man who would know about it. Lawson hadn’t gotten a dishonest vibe from him, but a good liar could fool even someone trained to spot them.
“If he’s involved and he gets back to his office, those files will be gone before we can look at them.”
Josh shook his head and motioned to Stephens, who was still texting. “Trust me, brother. If he’s involved, they’re already gone. But do you really think he is?”
The truth was...no, he didn’t. Lawson wanted something sinister from this guy, but his gut told him he was on the straight and narrow and really seemed to care about Ashlee. That burned him, too, because Jake Stephens appeared to be everything he wasn’t—successful, ambitious and, most of all, in a relationship with Ashlee.
He walked into the main office and found Ashlee at his desk, using his computer. She flushed as if embarrassed. “I hope you don’t mind. Deputy Deaver signed me on. I wanted to check my social media page.”
He sat and rolled his chair closer to hers. The worried crease of her forehead told him her sister hadn’t left her a message on her page. “Still no word from Bree?”
“No, and I’m worried. Why hasn’t she responded to me? Even if she couldn’t reach me anywhere else, she could have at least left a post on my page. I would have seen it.”
“We’ve checked her cell phone and bank records. There have been no calls made, no texts, and no movement on her accounts.”
“I’m worried about her, Lawson. I have to find her. If this happened to me, she might be in trouble, too.”
“Or she might be the cause of this trouble. Have you considered that?”
He saw her eyes flash with something like anger or irritation and knew it was directed at him. He’d seen that look before. For her, it had never mattered that Bree was the author of her own troubles. Ashlee would always run to her aid.
“I’m still trying to run down known associates of your sister. Maybe one of them can lead us to her.”
She nodded. “Thank you, Lawson. I know this isn’t important to you, but I appreciate your help.”
He leaned forward and placed his hand over hers, ignoring the way his heart skipped a beat at the feel of her soft skin and delicate hand under his. “It’s important to you, Ashlee, so it’s important to me. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be bad-mouthing her to you right now. You’re right. Whether or not she’s linked to whatever is going on, we need to find her. Finding her might be the only way we learn the answers to why this is happening to you, why someone is targeting you.” Lawson nodded at the interview room. “What about Jake? What are you going to tell him?”
“I don’t know. I’m certainly not leaving with him. And not just because I need to be here for the investigation. He’s a stranger to me. There’s nothing familiar about him at all. Plus, I can’t get it out of my head that I spoke to him not long before that man showed up at my hotel to attack me. That can’t be a coincidence, can it?”
It could be but, in his experience with criminal cases, coincidences didn’t exist.
Josh called both Lawson and Ashlee along with Cecile into his office for a rundown of the investigation.
“We’re still trying to track where the money came from,” Cecile said. “It’s slow going. I’m still waiting on a callback about whether or not it’s counterfeit.”
“What about that biker gang the mayor mentioned?” Ashlee asked her.
“So far, we haven’t been able to tie them to this. We haven’t identified any of the men who’ve attacked you, but if they’re a part of that biker gang, they’re keeping their heads low. I also checked the call logs and we didn’t have any calls about shots fired coming in the day you were found.”
“It’s unlikely we would, unless they came from town,” Josh commented. “Around Courtland County, no one flinches if they hear gunfire.”
Cecile interjected. �
�They would have if they’d heard enough to make all the bullet holes in the back of Ashlee’s car. I’d guess those holes were made with a semiautomatic. Either that or there were multiple shooters.”
“She’s right,” Lawson concurred. “That much gunfire would attract attention.”
“Which means,” Josh noted, “that wherever this happened, it was isolated enough that no one was around to hear the shots. That could mean an abandoned ranch or warehouse.”
Lawson took off his hat and rubbed his head. “There are any number of abandoned ranches around here to choose from—too much land to check everywhere.”
Cecile stepped forward and glanced at the map of Courtland County pinned to Josh’s wall. “That’s true, but based on the road and the direction she was headed when you found her, Lawson, I might be able to narrow down that list.”
Josh nodded. “Good. Start working on that. And pull Mahoney and Deaver off their assignments if you need the help.”
Cecile turned to walk out, but stopped when the front door opened and Colby walked in and headed straight for Josh’s office. “Looks like your brother has news.”
Lawson stood as Colby entered. “Did you find something?”
“I had a colleague at the Bureau do a check on our friend Jake Stephens in there,” Colby said, motioning toward the interview room. “His background came back clean. He’s got no criminal record, pays his bills on time and manages a multimillion-dollar company that hasn’t been tied to any scandals. The background check revealed no red flags. He emailed me a copy and I printed it out for you.”
Lawson took the report from him. Disappointment settled in and he saw by her expression that Ashlee was disappointed, too. They were both getting weary of dead ends. He’d been hoping for something to be wrong with this guy, but that had obviously just been the jealousy talking. He glanced through the printed pages and realized his brother was right. This guy didn’t even have a parking ticket in his past. “That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s not involved. He could have something going on under the table that he hasn’t been caught at yet. Ashlee could have found out, which put a target on her back.”
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