Wylde (3 page)

“Kell….” Marcie Hollis, a single mother who worked the diner, was at his elbow, her brow wrinkled, her red hair in a band off her face.

“Yes, ma’am?” Kell asked, ever calm and polite, but something in Marcie’s expression made him light up, instinctively thinking maybe he wouldn’t be having pie and coffee in peace tonight.

“Jade was going to cover my shift for the last hour.” Marcie shifted her feet, which were probably sore and swollen. Here was someone else who made her living the hard way.

Kell gave Marcie a comprehensive look, letting her know that he was aware Jade Moreton stayed out late some nights.
“No, Kell, she’s completely reliable about work and she never breaks a promise to a friend,” Marcie said, clearly worried.

“She up working on Sullivan’s Mountain?” The houses were still technically close enough to be part of the town, so it was under his jurisdiction, though right now only two families lived up there.

“Yes sir, at the Anderson place today, I think.” Marcie went over to the strawberry pie under the dome and stuck one in a plastic package, handing it to Kell as thanks as he got up, abandoning his half-finished coffee.

“Well, I’ll drive on up and see if I can find her, okay?”
“T
HANK
you,” Marcie said, genuinely grateful; he was such a good

man. She wished Kell weren’t gay. Not that everyone knew, since he was discreet, probably going to another town to do his prowling, but she was the former town bad girl. If Kell had liked pussy, she figured she would have known by now.

Damn, what a waste,
she thought as she watched his nicerthan-average ass as he walked out the door.

S
OMETHING
cold and soft brushed Jade’s arm. She gasped, startled, before realizing it was a damn branch! “Thomas, you okay?” Oh, shit, they were totally lost, and she knew Thomas was spooked, which, adding in the gun, was not a good thing. He was convinced someone was up here with them in the woods.

Thomas’s hand jerked from Jade’s grip.

 

It was so dark she couldn’t make anything out, but she thought she heard something breathing.

 

“Thomas, where are you?”

N
OAH
snapped out the light in his office, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He had better get some rest. He was looking forward to breakfast out on the cracked cement of the patio if it were warm enough in the morning. Maybe he and Noah could talk like they used to, before—

Bam!

The sound sent a cold chill down Noah’s back. He snapped on the light again and went to the open doors, peering into the night.
Josh clattered down the stairs from his bedroom, wearing PJs with the solar system on them, his eyes wide and terrified. “Dad! Someone’s shooting in the woods!”

“S
TAY
here!” Noah ordered his son, who was standing close beside

him. “I want to take a look out there.” But his heart was pounding; he really didn’t. Still, he couldn’t have Josh afraid of their new home their first day under its roof! Had it really been a gunshot, or had he imagined it? Hell, he couldn’t be sure it wasn’t a kid with a firecracker!

“
No,
Dad! Please, don’t go out there!”

Noah pushed Josh into his desk chair and cupped his shoulder, holding wide gray eyes. He had to suppress the urge to brush the ash-colored hair off Josh’s forehead. “It’s all lit up around the pool and probably this is just some kind of prank.”

His son gave him a disbelieving look, but Noah squeezed his shoulder and then walked out the French doors. He had to show his son there was nothing to worry about, but he was a bit abashed that his heart continued to thud in his ears. He knew it was nothing, just some kids playing or something. They’d only just moved here, and they had yet to make the adjustment.

Once outside, he walked around the perimeter of the pool, lit to accent what remained of the landscaping. The woods surrounded the little oasis of the house and grounds, towering and hushed, cooling the air. Noah walked to the very edge of his property and peered into the shadows.

After a moment, not really seeing anything, he looked back over his shoulder to glimpse his son’s face peering anxiously from the study window, watching his father. Doubts struck him again. Why had he brought Josh out here? This bad first night seemed to grind his good intentions of a fresh start into dust.

He sighed, deciding to do one more circuit.

 

Something grabbed his arm—
C
HIEF
K
ELL
F
ARRADAY
shifted the gears in his marked official

SUV as he began the curving drive up the slope that switch-backed through Sullivan’s Mountain. He passed one house with glass windows that reflected the lights of his vehicle as he climbed higher.

He felt tension move through his shoulders as he drove, as if some primal warning system was standing at attention. Like most of the locals, he didn’t like this mountain. He couldn’t have said why, since one mountain was more or less the same as another around here, but there was something about
this
one, although he discounted the stories of a Sasquatch in the area, of course. But someone had lifted supplies from a fishing shack belonging to a friend of his, and someone had taken Mrs. Harrison’s groceries right out of her driveway when she was carrying the bags two by two up to her kitchen.

The big truck slid to a screeching halt as he glimpsed light from a turnoff into the woods not far from the Anderson house where Jade Moreton had been scheduled to work today.

K
ELL
shone his powerful flashlight at the back of the Lexus that was perched incongruously in the middle of the unpaved road. The forest loomed on either side of the trophy car, crowding and oddly watchful.

The headlights were still on. Kell checked the door and found it unlocked, the keys still in the ignition.
Gravel crunching under a footfall.

He swung around, his Ranger’s instincts in full battle mode—

His flashlight spotlighted Marisa Anderson, Thomas’s mother. She was leaving the woods with Albert Newton, who owned the general store in town. Oh ho. She flushed on seeing the Chief, but went on the offensive right off. “Is there some problem, Kell?” she demanded, raising a pale blonde brow.

“No problem, I’m just looking for Jade Moreton,” Kell said, not particularly interested in what Marisa was doing with Albert in the woods. In his town, there were a lot of secrets. A lot of people spending time in beds not their own. Much simpler to be gay, he thought. Go, hit some tight ass in another bigger town, and be done with it. “I called your house but only got the answering machine.”

“I’m sure I have no idea where Jade is. She merely cleans my house,” Marisa dismissed. She held Kell’s gaze with cold eyes. She wasn’t a woman he’d like to cross, frankly, since he had the feeling she’d find a way to settle with him, and he didn’t need the aggravation. He’d heard she was the second wife of the very wealthy Mr. Anderson and she intended to stay that way, despite the rumors that she fooled around on the side.

Of course, Mr. Anderson wasn’t a man to mess with either. He was an experienced hunter and fisherman who had a short temper. He had once threatened one of the men in town for drunkenly admiring his wife at a party.

Now Kell watched Marisa Anderson climb into her car, perfectly calm though her pink silk shirt was on inside out. Albert avoided Kell’s searching gaze; he was also married, with four children. He slid into the passenger side.

“Mrs. Anderson.” Kell called her by her last name, irritated, but hiding it. “Did Jade happen to mention where she might be going? She never showed at work and it’s unlike her.”

She slammed her door closed, obviously reading his poorly disguised disapproval. “I believe she used to visit the pool at the abandoned house sometimes.”

Albert sang out, “It’s not abandoned! Someone bought it a couple of months ago.” He looked at Kell. “And we heard something just a while back, Kell. Some kind of noise, like a firecracker. Scared the shit out of me, I can tell you!”

“Noise….” A firecracker could sound like gunfire also. Kell hoped to hell a firecracker was all it was.

Marisa gave Kell a cold look, no doubt partially because she’d importuned him more than once and he’d ignored her. “Could you move your vehicle please?”

A
S HE
watched Marisa’s headlights wink out behind a switchback, Kell paused, looking up the road. If Jade had come up here to use the pool, she might have hiked this road.

Kell cupped a hand to his mouth. “
Jade? This is Chief Farraday!
”

There was no response, but Kell heard the crackle of brush just ahead and saw something slink across the road: a coyote with upright ears and a deep chest, good-sized. Its eyes shone yellow and demonic in the beam of Kell’s flashlight before it disappeared with a snarl.

“Huh. Nice puppy,” Kell muttered to himself. Well, he was coming up dry on finding Jade. Then, he noticed that the coyote had headed up the old construction road used when the houses on this part of the bluff were built. It was full of saplings and brush, but it led deep into the woods.

Could Jade have somehow gone that way?
D
EPUTY
A
LEC
D
ANVERS
drove up the first curve at the base of

the mountain on his regular patrol route, which overlapped the town of Sullivan. The bundle in deerskin his part-Haida grandmother had given him felt oddly warm against the skin of his neck. She’d insisted he carry it when he wound up with this patrol, though she hadn’t said exactly why that was, other than he’d need strength.

Alec didn’t believe in the old ways, but for some reason he’d gotten in the habit of carrying it, especially after the Hindles had abruptly moved away, reportedly because they were scared of the ghost that was reputed to haunt these woods.

When he’d been in town, about to take his break at the diner and spend some time looking mildly in Jade Moreton’s direction, he’d heard Kell had gone up there looking for her.

So of course he’d gotten in his truck and followed.

R
ELUCTANTLY
, Kell went into the woods, still calling periodically for Jade. Something felt off. Why hadn’t she responded? He was worried she’d had some kind of accident up here, perhaps involving the possible gunfire. Had a hunter taken a shot at her?

He stepped over some rocks and his hand reached out to steady his passage, grasping a young tree. Something about the texture caught his attention, and he directed his flashlight on it: something wet. Something fresh.

Instinctively, using instincts honed to hunt men, Kell brought his damp finger to his lips, tasting—

 

Blood.

 

He backed away to take a closer look and stumbled over something soft and still, lying crumpled on the ground.
“S
HIT
!” Noah barked as he took a swing at whatever had him by
the arm.

 

“
Easy,
tiger! You really don’t want to hit the local lawman,” a silky voice warned him.

 

Noah dropped his arm and stared at the tall stranger. “I… what are you doing out here?”

 

“I was searching for a missing waitress, and I found her just now. I’m Chief Kell Farraday.”

The man loomed over Noah, his face burned brown and weathered by the elements. He was wearing a serviceable uniform with a shoulder patch bearing the embroidery
Town of Sullivan Police.
His chocolate hair had streaks of white at the temples, but despite that, it feathered boyishly over his forehead. His eyes were so dark that Noah couldn’t make out the pupils.
Predator’s eyes.
He shivered a little at the bizarre thought.

“A missing woman? My God, we heard something like gunfire from the woods. I was just out here seeing if I could find the source.” Noah followed the other man into the forest, feeling oddly comforted by the presence of this stranger with big hands and a confident air. It made the past few minutes seem… almost fanciful. It hadn’t been anything strange going on, just someone who had been hurt.

The Chief stopped and put his hands on his lean hips, and Noah saw why he’d looked for help. A young woman lay unconscious on the forest floor. The ground around her was torn up.

“Oh, my!” Noah cried out, immediately concerned.

“Yep. Can you run back to your house and call an ambulance? My radio and phone seem to be out because the reception up here’s not working for some reason and I’m reluctant to move her until I know how she was injured,” the Chief outlined. “She could have hurt her neck or back and require special attention.” The lawman knelt to touch the woman’s cool cheek gently. “She seems to be bruised and unconscious, possibly from that bump on her forehead.”
N
OAH
sprinted back to the house. The contrast between the dark, chilly woods and even his primitively landscaped yard was as stark as the North Pole to Hawaii.

“Dad?” Josh hovered as he made the call, reaching out to touch