Shadows at Sunset: Sunset Trilogy ~ Book 1 (9 page)

“Like just now? He seemed to talk to me more than you.” I felt a pang of satisfaction and, for a moment, I thought smoke would puff out of her ears by the fury that raced across her face. “You’re actually worried that I’m competition. He’s not some kind of property you can buy, you know. He’s capable of deciding who he wants to spend time with. And you’re afraid that he’ll pick me over you? Thank you. I’m extremely flattered.”

“You bitch,” Marlena fumed.

I stepped back, wondering if she was about to take a swing at me.

Mike suddenly appeared behind Marlena. He wasn’t very tall, but his bulk made up for it. He was stocky and powerful, and I could tell by his expression that he wasn’t amused. “Is there a problem here, ladies?”

Marlena narrowed her eyes at me before turning around to Mike. Her anger instantly folded into feigned innocence. “No, sir,” she replied, smiling. “I was just leaving.”

She waltzed back to the table, took one last sip of her Diet Coke, and stormed out of the restaurant, not bothering to leave any money for her drink.

“You okay?” Mike asked me.

At that moment, I noticed how fast my heart was pounding. It had probably been beating out of control this whole time, but I had been too busy concentrating on defending myself to notice. “Yeah. I can’t believe I just stood up to her.”

Mike smiled like a proud father. “Me, neither. We don’t need the likes of her in here if she’s going to treat my staff like that. Not to mention not pay for her drink. Don’t ring up her soda. I don’t want that coming out of your tips.”

“Thanks, Mike.”

“No problem. I’m proud of you for not backing down. You done good, girl.” He winked before heading back to the kitchen.

I stood in place for a minute as my heart rate returned to normal. I still couldn’t believe what had happened. My confidence surprised me.

I wondered what Marlena was thinking right now. She was probably as shocked as I was that I had the nerve to stand up to her.

“Hey, Laken!” Mike shouted across the restaurant. “Your dad’s on the phone.”

My attention returned to the pizza I was still holding as I realized I hadn’t even heard the phone ring. I hurried over to the kitchen, set the plate on the counter, and rushed over to the phone next to the register. “Dad?”

“Laken, I’m looking for Noah. He left here about an hour ago to visit you and get a late lunch. Have you seen him?”

“Yeah. He was just here. But he got a text from you and then rushed out the door. He should be at the station by now.”

“I’m not at the station.” Sirens sounded in the distance on the other end of the phone. “Oh, there he is. Never mind. I’ve got to go.”

“Dad, what’s going on?”

“I can’t talk now, Laken. I’ll see you at home tonight and tell you everything. I love you.”

A feeling of dread washed over me. I remembered the dark worry in Noah’s eyes when he had read my dad’s text. Suddenly, I forgot all about my confrontation with Marlena. “I love you, too, Dad.”

As I slowly hung up the phone, a sickening feeling settled in my stomach. Something was going on, and I would have to wait to find out what it was.

***

The house was empty when I returned from my shift. I took a long hot shower, washing the greasy pizza smell out of my hair and off my skin. After brushing the tangles out of my wet hair, I slipped into a pair of blue pajama pants and a white hoodie.

Silence loomed through the house when I headed back downstairs with a book in my hand. As if a teenage vampire novel could take my mind off whatever it was my father hadn’t told me. I set it down on the kitchen table and opened the refrigerator to grab a ginger ale. As I filled a glass with ice, my mother shuffled in through the door from the garage, a few shopping bags in her hands. She pulled her sunglasses off and put them with her purse on the kitchen desk built into the cabinets, her keys clanking against the countertop. “Hi, honey,” she said. “How was your day at work?”

I popped open the can of soda and poured it into the glass. “Fine. I saw Noah today. He came by the pizza shop for a late lunch.”

“Oh, that was nice.” My mother placed her bags on the desk chair before turning back to me.

I was dying to ask if she had talked to my father in the last hour or so, but I refrained. “Did you go shopping?”

“Yes. Nancy and I went over to the outlets. I was thinking about taking you there this weekend for some new school clothes. Are you working on Sunday?”

“Not unless someone asks me to pick up their shift. I’d love to go if I don’t end up working.” I paused, deciding it was time to just come out with my questions. “Mom, have you talked to Dad this afternoon?”

Her expression grew somber. “Yes, about an hour ago.”

“Something happened today. While Noah was at the restaurant, he got an urgent message from Dad and then he bolted without saying a word. Mom, what’s going on?”

She took a deep breath. “You better sit down for this.”

I sank into a chair at the kitchen table. “Okay, now you’re scaring me.” Nothing could have prepared me for what she was about to say.

“A couple of hikers decided to explore the back country off the trails today. They found a body.”

“What?” I wasn’t sure that I had heard her correctly. It sounded like she said a body had been found in the mountains that we called home. As far as I knew, that had never happened here, at least not in my lifetime.

“And that’s not all.”

I cringed, not sure I wanted to know anything more at this point. “There’s more?”

“A little boy’s shoe was found near the body.”

“Ryder,” I whispered.

She nodded. “It looks like Ryder didn’t wander off, after all. It looks like he was taken.”

It made perfect sense. I knew a little boy, just barely three years old, could never have walked that far up the mountain by himself. Not to mention that his mother was certain she had left him in a secured backyard with a locked gate.

But with those answers came more questions. I frowned, thinking about what this meant. “Why would anyone take a little boy out of his own backyard? Does Dad know who this guy is? Is he from town? It was a guy, right? How did he die?”

My mother shook her head. “Slow down, Laken. You’re asking too many questions, and I don’t have any answers. Your dad only had a few minutes to let me know what was happening. I don’t think he knew much yet.”

“He’ll know more by the time he gets home, right?”

“I’m sure he’ll have some answers, but it may take a while for them to unravel all of the details of what happened.”

An unsettled feeling washed over me. “Oh.”

“Well, I’m going to put my things away. You’re not the only one starting school next week,” my mother said. Even though she changed the subject, I could tell she was still thinking about the body that had been found today. She picked up her bags and started to leave the kitchen, but stopped and turned. “What are you in the mood to have for dinner tonight?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll just make my own dinner when I get hungry.”

Acknowledging my answer with a nod, she disappeared around the corner.

I twirled my glass, clanking the ice against the sides, and sipped the remaining soda. After finishing it, I grabbed my book and headed upstairs to my room to wait for my father to return home, hopefully with answers to at least some of my questions.

***

I often spent long hours in the comfort of my bedroom, and this afternoon was no exception. My bedroom and bathroom were the only rooms on our second floor, giving me the privacy most teenagers only dreamed of. I had selected the oak furniture, pale purple comforter set with matching curtains, and the silvery gray paint for the walls. The hardwood floors surrounding the huge white throw rug under my full-sized bed were scuffed enough to give a distressed look. Some people paid good money for that look, but my floors looked like that from years of old-fashioned wear and tear. Over my headboard hung a large white-framed print of a gray wolf standing ankle-deep in the snow as fluffy flakes fell from the Rocky Mountain sky. Framed photographs that I had taken of moose, bears, foxes, and owls lined the other two walls. My desk sat facing the only window in my bedroom so that I could glance out into the backyard as I did my homework. I loved gazing outside as I sat at my desk, but it often backfired. The mesmerizing snowflakes drifting down from a winter sky were enough to cause me to forget whether I was trying to solve Algebra problems or write an essay.

I spent the afternoon in my room trying to read with little success. The text messages coming in on my phone were distracting. One from Ethan and another from Brooke, both asking the same question. Had I heard that a body had been found in the woods today? News like that spread like wildfire in our town. I didn’t answer either one of them. I was certain that as soon as I did, they would fire back with the same questions I had asked earlier and still had no answers to. As much as I loved both of them, I needed a little time to process this. It hit too close to home in so many ways. I felt like I was at the center of this since I was the daughter of the town sheriff and I had been the one to find Ryder.

A soft knock sounded on my bedroom door. Tossing my phone aside, I propped myself up against the purple pillows that matched my comforter. “Come in,” I called.

My father stepped into my room, his hair disheveled once again and his eyes worried. He sat down in the wooden chair at my desk, facing the backside and resting his arms on it. He sighed as I met his uneasy brown eyes. “Your mother said she told you what happened today.”

“Yes, she did. But she didn’t have any details. Do you know who it was?”

“No. He wasn’t from around here. He had an ID on him, so we now know he was from a pretty rough part of Boston. We think he took Ryder last week because a little boy’s shoe was found about thirty feet away from him. Of course, we can’t be sure until we check with the Thompsons, but I can’t imagine that it isn’t his.”

Fear raced through me. I had really hoped that I was wrong and that Ryder had just wandered off like my father originally thought. Knowing Ryder had been taken chilled me to the core. “Why would someone take a child out his backyard?”

“I have no idea. I think that’s the worst part of this whole thing. Frankly, it makes me sick. Children should be safe in their own backyards, and in this town, they always have been. At least until now.”

My father had addressed all of my questions except for one. “How did the guy die?”

“We can’t be sure until the coroner finishes with him, but it looked like he fell down a ravine and hit his head on a rock.”

“Wow. Really? He must have been even clumsier than me.”

As if it was even possible, my father’s frown deepened and his voice grew more serious. “I don’t think he just suddenly tripped and fell, Laken. I think he fell because he was chased.”

“Chased? By who?”

“You tell me. He had bite marks on his forearms. They were about the size of a wolf bite. Do you think Dakota did this?”

“What? I don’t know. Maybe, if he was trying to protect me or Ryder. But he was with me all night. He ran ahead a few times, but I don’t think he had enough time to chase this guy down in the few minutes he was out of sight. Unless it happened after I got home with Ryder.”

My father ran his hands through his hair. I could tell that this weighed heavily on his mind. “I have mixed feelings about this. First off, all I can think of is that this guy was out there that night while you were traipsing through the mountains, alone.”

“I wasn’t alone. Dakota was with me.” And an owl, a black bear, and possibly other animals.