Kitabı oku: «Stormy Haven»

ONE

Only three more miles...

Rain pelted Jonna Strand as she jogged the wintry Washington shoreline. Her cheeks grew numb from the wet cold as white vapor clouds puffed out of her burning lungs.

But as focused as she was on her run, a subtle alarm snaked up her spine.

She’d learned long ago to pay attention to that sixth sense that forewarned of danger. The alarm going off now had nothing at all to do with the storm that had advanced from far out in the Pacific faster than meteorologists had predicted, catching Jonna off guard.

She remained on high alert—a souvenir from her previous training as an ICE agent. More specifically an HSI special agent—the Homeland Security Investigations division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She’d put that life behind her, but the training remained.

Jogging six miles every day, she made an effort to stay as fit as she’d been while in law enforcement, the job she’d left three years ago. Even brutal winter storms couldn’t keep her inside. Except weathermen had predicted this system would wreak havoc and threaten lives—so maybe she should have stayed inside, especially given that her instincts warned another possible threat loomed.

Up on the ridge overlooking the beach, a man jogged, keeping pace with her. Only a crazy person would be out in this storm. She could almost laugh at that.

But she felt something was off.

Jonna shoved the apprehension aside and focused on her jog. She’d know soon enough if her instincts were right.

God, please let me be wrong.

Just two more miles...

Then she’d reach the Oceanview Lodge, where she and her guests could watch the wind, rain and waves buffet the coast.

Her business thrived on the winter weather drama that drew people from all over the country. Since the lodge perched on a bluff overlooking a rocky section of the beach, her clients were protected from the hazards posed by seriously high waves as they dashed magnificently against rocky outcroppings, or crashed into the beach.

Like today’s storm that threatened high winds, twenty-foot waves and a significant surge in sea level. Citizens of the town of Windsurf had placed warning signs on the beach about the dangers of sneaker waves and ocean swells. Jonna had assisted in the placement of the signs, and she should have been back before the brunt of the storm hit. No matter. She would be okay as long as she kept clear of the sneaker waves.

Never turn your back on the water.

Never turn your back on the past.

The foreboding thought caught her by surprise. In coming back to Washington, she’d tried to do just that. So far, it had worked.

Far from the threats of her past career, she’d found a sense of peace here in Windsurf on the Pacific side of Coldwater Bay. A few small towns bordered the bay and a peninsula separated them from the ocean.

With her training and her trustworthy Sig Sauer P320 Compact, which she had affectionately named Max, she could take care of herself while she enjoyed managing this peaceful lodge—a stormy haven where she could watch the storms from a safe distance.

The inclement weather wouldn’t prevent her from running.

And neither would a stalker. Was her follower the man who’d already abducted and murdered five women along the Washington coast over the last six months? The Shoreline Killer?

If so, then he’d just picked the wrong woman to mess with.

Or was it someone from her past? Her old boss in Miami, Gil Reeves, had contacted her not long ago—to catch up, he’d said. See how she was doing. Then he’d casually mentioned her name had come up in intel chatter. He’d been giving her a heads-up.

It had been three years since she left. Why would anyone care to talk about her, much less find her, then follow her here? She was no threat to any criminal operations these days. There was no reason to attack her and bring an investigation down on themselves.

A violent gust caused her to misstep, but she righted herself and second-guessed her decision to run outside no matter the weather. A wave could wash up and sweep her away, rip her off the beach and take her out into the depths. Or it could wash over her, carrying driftwood that could knock her unconscious.

Either scenario would result in her death.

She had to get back to the safety of the lodge, but another part of her wanted to face off with man on the ridge pacing her.

Except she hadn’t brought Max. So better to head straight home, where she could arm herself.

She was almost there.

Just beyond the rocky outcropping ahead of her, rustic steps led up to her lodge on the ridge.

Dark, angry clouds bled into an equally dark ocean, blurring the line where sky met sea. The breakers rolled in, reached higher and crashed harder. Jonna stayed just out of reach, her breaths coming faster as she ran on the wet sand, her running shoes leaving footprints that quickly melted away.

Salty ocean spray lashed at her, taunting her. The ocean swelled. Her heart hammered as she ran. If she could make it back to the lodge and grab her gun, then she could find the guy and get some answers.

Fear and determination fueled her steps.

Dread surged as a wave towered up and arched over—a sea monster opening its mouth wide, baring ugly sharp teeth ready to chomp down and consume her whole. Jonna barely escaped.

When she glanced over her shoulder at the ridge, the guy was gone. She was alone in the storm after all.

He hadn’t followed.

Had her instincts been wrong? Was she that rusty?

Relief surged as she neared the lodge. She waited until the crashing waves subsided so she could make her way around the rocks.

A gust of wind forced cold into her marrow, despite her rain-resistant cold-weather jogging garb. Running today had been the absolute worst idea.

Before another wave crashed forward and the ocean surged, blocking her path, Jonna had to get past those rocks.

The hooded man stepped around them and aimed a gun at her.

* * *

Ian Brady was too late.

He lunged at the man with the gun pointed at Jonna, ramming into him to at least throw off his aim. Gunfire resounded in his ears. The weapon went off before he could stop it.

Cold, brutal waves washed over them as he fought the man and disarmed him. Thankfully, the receding waves whisked the gun away. A fist filled his vision. Pain radiated across his face. Salt water washed into his nose and burned.

Ian drew from his experience and training to ignore the pain. He shoved the attacker down in the wet sand and pinned his arms behind his back, then lugged him to his feet. He had the man securely contained in his grip. Now to haul him off to the sheriff.

Except Ian was fighting another assailant now. The Pacific gripped them both. Ian floundered as the current ripped the man from his grasp. Tossed him. Icy cold water pulled Ian under. He held his breath, trying to gain his footing again. He met the sand on his knees, broken shells cutting into his flesh as he gasped and choked water. Hands gripped him, and he wrestled someone to the ground.

Too late he recognized the feminine form beneath him. “Jonna!” The woman who ran the lodge where he stayed.

And the woman Ian had been sent to secretly protect.

“We have to get out of here—it’s too dangerous,” she yelled over the cacophonous storm.

Now she was trying to protect him?

He pulled her to her feet. Together they ran away from the angry ocean to the stairway that climbed the cliffside and carefully maneuvered the slippery steps to the landing. They stopped beneath the shelter of her lodge’s terrace. Driving winds and lashing rain accosted them even under the covered porch. At least they weren’t still on the beach. Below, the ocean boiled and waves collided with rocks and blasted the shoreline.

In the distance, Jonna’s would-be killer crawled onto the beach. At first he floundered when another wave tried to take him, then he found his footing and fled. The guy was too fortunate. He was also too far up the beach for Ian to give chase, but he couldn’t just let the man get away so easily. On the landing of the steps, Ian watched the shooter head for another set of stairs up the cliff to make his escape from the raging waves. Ian started to run after him, but Jonna grabbed his arm.

Surprised at the strength in her grip, he turned to face her.

“Come on.” Turmoil lingered behind her brown eyes as her gaze pled with him. “Let me get you inside.”

Jonna acted like the protector here—her law-enforcement background coming through.

“No. He tried to shoot you. I want to catch him and find out who he is. Maybe I can get to him if I take my car.”

Her lips hardened in a flat line as she lifted her chin. “We’ll take mine.”

She guided him around the lodge to a single-car parking garage. They entered to find her silver GMC Terrain and climbed into the unlocked vehicle. She quickly fished the keys from the visor.

The wind rattled the structure. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” he asked. “You could stay here while I search for him.” Ian had only meant to protect her, but he had realized his mistake too late. Still... “The guy tried to kill you, Jonna. Not me. It’s safer if you stay here.” Plus, she’d just finished a six-mile jog and her energy could very well be spent, but he knew to say no more.

Starting the ignition, she sent him a tempered glare. Wouldn’t do to glare at a guest, but Ian had insulted her.

Jonna backed from the garage, then took off down the street. She probably wanted to speed, but rain plastered the windshield, rendering the wipers useless.

“Careful now. I don’t know how you can see anything.”

“I’m being careful. I know my way around. You look for the guy while I drive.” The hint of a bite edged her tone.

Clearly, Jonna didn’t like being coddled. Ian focused on searching for the man. Had he gotten into a vehicle and left the area already? Had someone been waiting for him in a getaway car? If the storm would ease up, maybe he could actually see something, but he had a feeling their efforts were futile. His face throbbed from the punch, and his body ached from the damp cold that soaked through him as he sat dripping in her vehicle.

As if finally realizing it was cold, Jonna flipped on the heat. Chilled air flayed him. It would take a few minutes for it to warm up. Ian almost regretted her move.

“We weren’t that far behind him. I hope he didn’t get away.” He scanned the cars parked in the street and the few driving the road despite the sheets of rain. “Why did the guy try to shoot you?”

He tossed the words out to get her talking. Ian had been sent to protect her from a possible attack, but he wasn’t certain she knew she was being targeted. And even if she did, she wouldn’t expect him to know about it. She didn’t know why he was here, which made his task more difficult.

Her long, dark hair plastered to her head, she glanced his way intermittently. Droplets clung to her pale face. Even drenched she was drop-dead gorgeous.

“I don’t know. But he was pacing me up on the ridge while I jogged the beach.”

Guilt suffused him that she’d been running alone without him there to keep watch until it was nearly too late. He’d assumed she wouldn’t jog today. The old adage about assumptions came to mind. But that wasn’t good enough. She could have died today, and that would be another failure. Another life he’d cost.

“You’re usually out jogging the beach too,” she said. “Where were you this morning? Not afraid of a little rain, were you?”

“No, not a little rain. But I read the warning signs and they deterred me. I wasn’t going to jog in the storm. Why did you?” He really wanted to know the answer to that. He needed to understand her better if he was going to protect her.

“I trusted the weather app I use to tell me when the dangerous part of the storm system would hit. According to the meteorologists, I had a couple of hours to jog. That strategy has worked well enough for me until today.”

“You could have been swept away. There’s no surviving those violent waters.”

“I run a storm-watching inn, don’t you think I know that?” she asked. “No need to worry about me.”

“Maybe we should jog together from now on, if we don’t catch this guy right now.” He’d offered earlier to jog with her, but she’d insisted she needed the time alone since she ran a lodge. So he’d given her the space. If she suspected Ian had an agenda, she didn’t show it.

He watched out the window to see if he could catch a glimpse of the guy. Indecision roiled in his gut. Hired by his uncle Gil, the Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Homeland Security’s Miami field office, Ian was here to watch over Jonna. Uncle Gil had been Jonna’s boss, and even though she’d left HSI, he still felt an obligation to keep her safe. Especially from the criminals she’d angered in her years of service. He’d made it clear he didn’t want Jonna to know Ian had been sent.

Like most law-enforcement officers, Jonna would believe she could take care of herself—after all, she’d been trained to do so—and she would send Ian away. Or worse—she’d hightail it back to Miami, furious that someone had come to Washington to find her. Uncle Gil didn’t want Jonna back in Florida. He’d hired Ian to watch and report if he saw anything suspicious, as well as protect Jonna if necessary.

According to Uncle Gil, three years ago, Jonna had just finished wrapping up a human-trafficking-ring case when she went missing. The department feared she was dead, but then she called Gil and explained she’d been attacked and left to die in a marsh. The guy probably thought he’d succeeded in killing her.

She’d woken up in a hospital in a small town off the Florida coast and walked out before she answered their questions. She didn’t have the answers they were looking for—she didn’t know who had shot her or why. The injury, the whole experience of lying there in the marsh and waiting to die, had been too traumatic. In order to cope, her mind had buried those memories out of her reach.

She resigned over the phone. Gil managed to keep the information out of the media. As far as the man who’d shot her knew, she was dead, that is, if he even questioned or came asking. But recently her name had popped up via an informant—and Gil was worried she would be targeted again.

What could she know that would make her a target?

“I wonder if it’s the Shoreline Killer,” she said. “I need to call the sheriff.”

“Let’s say it wasn’t the Shoreline Killer. Could it have been a disgruntled guest?”

Jonna quirked her face. “Are you kidding me?”

Ian stifled a laugh. “Look, I’m not saying there’s actually anything to complain about at your lodge. Not at all. But didn’t anyone ever tell you that you can’t please all the people all the time? Just humor me. Could someone have been unhappy?”

“Enough to try to kill me? No.”

Ian didn’t think so either but he had to ask. “Any acquaintances outside of the lodge, then? Or...” Is there anyone from your past with a grudge? Ian couldn’t say that or he’d give himself away.

“What’s with the questions? You sound like a detective.”

Maybe he already had given himself away.

“Just a concerned guest, that’s all.” And while his motives were more complex than that, he really was concerned. When Ian had learned that Jonna had gone jogging, he’d rushed out and down the landing steps to join her, even in the storm. That’s when he’d spotted a man watching her from behind the rocks.

A man with a gun.

A man who seemed to have made a clean getaway. Ian didn’t see the shooter anywhere. How could he in this storm? Trees swayed and rain rippled like sheets in the wind. The guy had likely escaped in a vehicle and was long gone.

“Thank you for your concern, but there’s no need.” She sighed and glanced around the interior. “Like I said, we should call the sheriff. I need to find my phone. I hope it survived.”

“You don’t have a waterproof cell? I’d think that would be a priority for someone who lives here.” He sent her a wry grin and tugged his own phone out from a protective pocket. “Let’s see. Looks like my waterproof cell really is waterproof. Let me give the authorities a call and tell them what happened.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll head back. But I don’t need emergency vehicles showing up at the lodge. I don’t want my guests to worry or be afraid.”

“Then you can be glad the shooter picked a location on the other side of those rocks. Your guests probably didn’t see a thing.” What if Ian hadn’t gone after her? His gut tensed.

He’d failed to protect before. He couldn’t let that happen again—had left that life behind so he wouldn’t find himself in this position. He wouldn’t even be here trying if Uncle Gil hadn’t needed someone he could trust. Ian hoped he didn’t let the man down. Or that he didn’t let Jonna down, though she had no idea why he was here.

She drove down Main Street in Windsurf while he focused on his cell and called the sheriff’s department to relay the message about the shooter. Someone would meet them at the Oceanview Lodge in short order.

She steered into her garage and closed the door behind them, muting the sound of the winter storm. The call made, he remained sitting in the GMC, wrestling with how much to tell her.

Indecision and exhaustion weighed on Ian. “We should get back inside and get out of these cold wet clothes. We need to be ready for the authorities when they get here.”

Covering her eyes with her hands, she nodded, then quickly dropped them. Flashed him a tenuous look. “Thanks, Mr. Brady. I should already have thanked you. You saved my life.”

“I know you like all your guests to call you Jonna so it’s not so formal, but then you keep the formality on your end. How about you call me Ian instead? I’d prefer it, actually.”

Ian and Jonna had spent plenty of evenings sitting near the big roaring fireplace in the common area and talking well into the night along with other guests. Still, she’d kept the formality with him, just like she did with all her customers, calling them by their surnames. It went hand in hand with her insistence that she could take care of herself, her determination to keep her distance from others and not let anyone near. Couldn’t reveal any weakness. He understood that mentality. That’s why when he looked at Jonna, he could see right through the tough veneer she projected to the soft side she hid away—a side he very much wanted to know more about, against his better judgment.

Ian didn’t mind the extra barrier between them. He wasn’t sure why he’d removed it now.

“I like to keep the lines drawn so there’s no confusion.” Her brow wrinkled, and she held his gaze for a bit longer than necessary. “All right, Ian. You saved my life on the beach today. I owe you.”

“I think we’re even, considering you pulled me out of the water before the ocean took me.”

Though she shot him a soft smile, a tempest brewed in her eyes. “You wouldn’t have been caught in those waves if you hadn’t been trying to save me. I don’t want to put any of my guests in danger. And I don’t want them to panic either, so I hope you won’t mention this to them if they didn’t see it for themselves until it’s determined they could also be at risk.”

“I won’t mention it. But once someone from the sheriff’s department arrives the rumors will fly.”

“True. I guess we’ll see what happens.” Her brow furrowed. “If it’s the Shoreline Killer, the guests should be told what happened for their own safety. I’ll let the sheriff decide if the guests should be informed.” She faced him, her caramel-brown eyes taking him in. “While I’m grateful for your help, you should know that normally I can take care of myself. It was a lapse on my part. I’ll be more careful next time.”

She got out of her Terrain.

Ian slowly opened the door and climbed out too. While Jonna might believe she could take care of herself, all that tactical training and situational awareness could only go so far when a vendetta became personal. Ian had learned that the hard way.

He didn’t doubt her capabilities, but everyone needed someone to watch their back now and then.

Especially if the man who thought he’d killed her in Florida had come for her again.

Now he better understood Uncle Gil’s directive that he should hang around to watch over her without letting her know he was her secret bodyguard.