Kitabı oku: «False Security»

ONE

Siskiyou Mountains, southwest Oregon

Olivia Kendricks slowed the snowmobile as she drew near the house, flakes growing thicker by the minute, etching the roof, fireplace and window seals in white and turning her home into a cottage from a Thomas Kinkade painting. Even after two winters here, that picturesque scene always filled her with peace.

Except today. Instead of that sense of peace, an eerie feeling crept over her.

Olivia continued forward. Traveling by snowmobile provided the best way to get here in the winter, unless she wanted to plow the long, curvy drive up the mountain when several feet of the white stuff buried the road. And she didn’t. Besides, Olivia enjoyed the ride.

She lived for it.

The whine of the snowmobile resounded through the forest, echoing off the snow-covered trees as she steered the vehicle all the way in. She parked next to the covered garage protecting her old truck, then turned off the ignition.

Something was wrong. What was it?

Then she realized the lights were off in the house.

Strange.

She removed her helmet, shook out her hair and slid off the vehicle. Flakes accumulated in her lashes and she wiped them away as she entered the front door of the family vacation cabin where she’d taken up residence. There were no relatives left to enjoy it as a getaway anymore—well except her brother, Rich, whom she hadn’t seen since their mother’s funeral three years before.

That is, until yesterday.

Stomping her boots at the entrance, she hoped to disturb her brother into letting her know he was still here.

The dark house that greeted her said differently.

“Rich? Where are you?” She flicked on the lights as she made her way through the vacation-getaway-turned-cozy-home toward the room he’d slept in last night. The same room he’d used as a boy during their stays. Had he left without even saying goodbye? She hoped she’d find the few things he’d brought with him still in the room. Hoped he would stick around for a while and give them both some time to work through their issues of the past, though Rich might not be as keen to resolve them.

His backpack lay on the bed, flap hanging open and jeans and gear sprawled out. Relief swooshed through her. At least he hadn’t left for good. Maybe he’d just gone out for a walk or even a snowmobile ride.

At the kitchen sink, Olivia poured a glass of water and glanced out the window, noting the snowmobile he’d ridden to the house was gone. And something...there was something in the snow.

Frowning, Olivia hurried out the back door.

Blood.

Her breath caught.

Crimson stained the snow and would soon be buried beneath a fresh layer. She let her gaze follow the path the snowmobile had taken away from the house. A trail of blood lined the tracks.

Her heart seized.

Rich!

But she couldn’t let panic take hold. She had to follow that trail before the blood was hidden forever under layers of snow.

“Rich!” Olivia’s gaze searched the woods even as she ran around to the front of the house for her own snowmobile.

She had to catch up to him and make sure he was okay.

Questions bombarded her as she hurried. What had happened? Why was he hurt?

Still in her snowmobile suit, she grabbed gloves and a helmet, then got back on the vehicle. Concern ratcheting up her respiration, she started the machine and sped around the house to follow in Rich’s blood-spotted wake before she could no longer see the tracks. Her heart stumbled as the image of the crimson trail accosted her, but she had to focus.

Off-road and through the ungroomed woods, she’d have to be careful of hidden obstacles and fallen trees. Her eyes strained to follow the tracks and watch where she was going. His zigzagging path showed he had steered haphazardly through the woods.

“Rich!” she called through the opening in her helmet—she’d left the visor up—though she wasn’t sure if he would hear her over the snowmobile.

Living this secluded in these woods, she’d traded the safety and security of knowing that she could call 911 and get a quick response for her privacy, peace and quiet. Now she regretted that decision. She had a satellite phone that didn’t work so well on cloudy days, and a radio she shared with the Wilderness, Inc. crew, but that was iffy in the mountains.

She was on her own up here for the most part.

They were on their own.

Calling his name again, she continued between the trees, grateful the thick evergreen canopy prevented the falling snow from breaking through and hiding the tracks as quickly here. At least she hadn’t seen more blood, which meant that somehow he’d been able to slow the bleeding or stop it completely.

The snowmobile ground over lumps of buried boulders, and skipped along over recently fallen branches covered in fresh powder. She had to be careful that she didn’t get stuck.

Why would a man who was bleeding like that get on a snowmobile and ride off into the woods?

Up ahead, Olivia spotted a snowmobile. She sped forward until she was close enough to identify it as the one Rich had used to come to the house. The snow machine was turned on its side up against a tree.

Olivia let her gaze search for any sign of Rich, fear pricking her neck like icy daggers. He could die from his injury, or he could die from hypothermia, but why had he left the house?

Had he been running from someone? Olivia wouldn’t normally jump to such conclusions, except Hadley Wilde had come to this region to hide because she’d been running from an assassin and that’s when she’d met and married Cooper Wilde, Wilderness, Inc. owner and Olivia’s boss. Since Hadley had hidden here, it wasn’t so far-fetched to think Rich had come here to hide from someone and had been attacked. It wasn’t as if he’d expected to find Olivia living in the house. They hadn’t spoken since their mom’s funeral.

A sudden chill, much colder than the air around her, slid up her spine.

She searched the woods again for his tracks, but they were now long gone.

“Rich!” she called.

She was torn about what to do. Should she keep searching until she found him or go back for help? Either decision could be the wrong choice. She could be too late to save him either way.

God, what should I do? I can’t just leave him out here. He needs help now!

Indecision twisted her insides.

Another snowmobile approached. Friend or foe? Who else would be up here besides her, Rich and whoever was the reason he’d fled the house?

Run!

Her mind screamed but her legs struggled to respond.

As the rider parked next to Rich’s snowmobile, she backed away and pressed her hand against a tree trunk as though she could turn it into a weapon if needed. A knife in her pocket her only real weapon, she slipped her other hand around the hilt, wishing for the gun she’d left in her bedroom.

The rider slid from the snowmobile and pulled his visor up. Familiarity wrapped around her.

She didn’t think the man was Coop or Gray, or anyone else from the Wilderness, Inc. crew. She stepped closer. “Who... Do I know you?”

But then she noticed his eyes. Those ice-blue eyes like the color of snow in the shadows—she would never forget them.

He pulled his helmet off, his own surprise at seeing her still registering on his rugged features, his winter-wheat hair thick but mussed from the helmet.

Zachary Long.

Gone were the smooth but chiseled features of the younger man she’d known and loved. A pang shot through her. Ten years had changed him significantly. His handsome features were stronger, the sharp look of life’s experiences and losses evident in his gaze, and it almost sucked the oxygen from her.

“Olivia?”

His voice wrapped around her, cradling her against the shock of seeing him. “Zach. What...what are you doing here?”

Olivia shook off the rush of emotion. “No. Scratch that. It doesn’t matter. I need to find Rich. He’s bleeding somewhere out there. I don’t know where. The weather is turning bad and I have to find him!”

Lines creased Zach’s forehead, growing deeper between his brows. He acted as if he wanted to ask questions but thought better of it and gave a subtle shake of his head.

“Let’s get some help.” He removed his gloves and pulled out his smartphone. “If I can’t make the call, I’ll try a text. Something has to go through.”

Olivia wanted to laugh at that, except this was no laughing matter.

“Who could I text locally—”

Bark exploded from the tree next to her.

* * *

“Get down!” Zach hadn’t been sure he could find the old Kendricks vacation place when Rich had left his cryptic and urgent message about meeting him there, but he’d been a detective in Portland long enough to know when to heed that sense something was wrong.

And he’d just gotten his confirmation.

The sound of gunfire still echoed from the shot. Zach’s mind registered the danger as reflex took over.

He lunged for Olivia and threw her to the ground, pinning her under him to protect her. He remained in that position, waiting, listening.

“Why is someone shooting at us?” he whispered through the opening in her helmet, his face close to hers. This could have everything to do with Rich and his message.

“Get off me!”

Her harsh tone startled him. He’d only tried to protect her. Apparently she didn’t need protecting. Didn’t she understand it was second nature to him as an officer of the law? Make that an ex-officer, ex-detective with the Portland Police Department.

He rolled away. “Stay down.”

Zach crept over to hide behind the snowmobiles, trying to get a look at who had fired the shot. Olivia crawled over to him and another bullet pinged against the snowmobile closest to her. Another hit the tree behind him.

To let the assailant know Zach had come armed and prepared, he reached for the weapon in his shoulder holster, chambered a round and fired toward the shooter to hold him off. Even though he was no longer a detective, he still carried a weapon, his concealed weapon permit legal anywhere in the state of Oregon. This incident confirmed the necessity.

He hoped the rounds he fired would hold off the shooter while he and Olivia made a quick plan.

“I said to stay down.” He turned to look at her, softening his expression. She didn’t seem to notice he’d snapped at her, but under the circumstances, that hardly mattered.

She glared at him. “I’m not a child.”

Take that back. She had noticed his harsh tone. “Someone is shooting at us. At you. What’s going on, Olivia?”

“I don’t know.” She crouched behind her snowmobile, a few feet from him.

Entirely too far away for him to adequately shield her if needed.

“We can’t stay here.” He searched the woods around them to make sure they were not being ambushed from behind.

“But we’re safe behind the snowmobiles for now, aren’t we?” she asked.

“If there’s more than one shooter, we’re going to get pinned down if we sit here.”

Zach listened for movement, but all he heard was the gentle sound of snow falling through the trees. Unfortunately, the soft white stuff created a cushioned ground and would likely mute the shooter’s approach if he decided to move in.

“What do you suggest?” Olivia inched close enough for him to see the flecks of gold in her warm cinnamon eyes.

Zach used to vacation here with his best friend Rich—Olivia’s brother—and his family. A lot had happened since the last time he’d been here. But he’d never forget that special summer fourteen years ago when he was seventeen and Olivia had turned fifteen—it had been the first time he’d thought of her as more than Rich’s kid sister. Four years later he was on the cusp of entering the police academy and proposing marriage to Olivia when it all fell apart. Not now! Not now... Terror filled her eyes, yanking him back. Gripping his heart and squeezing. He shoved the memories away. “I’m thinking.” He peered around the bow of the vehicle. Nothing. He saw nothing but wilderness.

“Well, think faster.” Olivia slid away from him.

“I don’t know the area like you do,” he said. “So you’re going to have to lead us out of here.”

“You mean on foot?”

He nodded. “We’re not getting out of here on the snowmobiles, at least not yet. We’d be too exposed if we got on them now. We can’t risk it.”

He eyed the area on this side of the vehicles. Through the white-frosted evergreens he spotted a slope.

Zach gestured toward it. “Where does that lead?”

“There’s a dip down to a small brook.”

“Where will it take us?”

Olivia shrugged. “Away from here.”

A spray of bullets splintered the trees near them. A semiautomatic. Once again, Zach’s protective nature reared up and he reached for Olivia, wrapping his arms and body around her like a shield to cover her.

The shooters—and now he was certain there was more than one who carried rapid-firing deadly weapons—weren’t backing down.

If Rich had only given him more information he could have prepared.

He couldn’t have imagined he’d be following a trail of blood and snowmobile tracks to find Olivia out here in the wilderness searching for her brother. And now as he looked at her, he saw the girl he’d once loved had grown into a beautiful, capable woman. Her reddish-brown locks spilled from beneath the helmet, curling around the collar of her black-and-pink snowmobile suit, and the eyes that stared at him now could hurt him all over again if he let her.

But that wasn’t important.

What mattered most was that he had to keep her safe and track down her brother before the shooters killed them all. And find out why someone was shooting at them. Olivia and Rich’s life depended on Zach now. The irony! He’d relinquished the job he loved and was no longer a police officer or a detective.

Maybe he was no longer officially sworn to protect, but the motto remained in his bones.

If only he hadn’t failed to protect when it mattered most.