Lone Defender (Love Inspired Suspense) (11 page)

“Count to ten, Jonas, ’cause you look like you’re about to blow.” She patted his cheek, let her palm rest there, the gesture as light and teasing as Rayne’s would have been.

Only Skylar wasn’t Rayne, and the contact shot through Jonas like lightning through a stormy sky. Skylar felt it, too. Her breath caught, her pupils dilating as she let her hand drop away and stepped back.

“Remind me to give you the code tonight.” His voice was gruff, his muscles tight as he grabbed juice from the fridge, poured her a glass. “Drink.”

She eyed him over the rim as he phoned the security company, her gaze uneasy and unsure.

Funny. That was exactly how he felt

Or maybe it wasn’t so funny.

He hung up, tried to focus his thoughts.

“I just spoke to Sheriff Smithson. His office is taking over the investigation from the Phoenix P.D. since you were abducted from their jurisdiction. He’d like to interview both of us. He also said he has some of your things. You’re free to pick them up when you’re ready.”

“I’m ready.” She set the empty glass in the sink, brushing past him as she walked out of the kitchen. Just a hint of contact, but Jonas felt it to his core.

He frowned, grabbing his keys and wallet, tossing a jacket
in Skylar’s direction. She pulled it on, hurried to the door, as eager to escape, it seemed, as Jonas was.

By the time he’d locked the door, she was in the truck, her jean-clad legs and boot-encased feet disappearing as she shut the door.

“What did you think of the sheriff?” Skylar asked after Jonas had climbed into the truck and started the engine. Jonas met her eyes. Wished he hadn’t. Everything she felt was written there. Trepidation. Confusion. Curiosity.

It was the curiosity that might get them both in deeper than either wanted to go. Especially since it was a trait he shared.

“Not much. He said he’d been keeping an eye on Redmond, but wouldn’t answer when I asked who the guy’s friends were. Where he hung out.”

“Probably because he was tired of answering me when I asked.”

“That’s what he said.”

“The thing is, I asked a dozen times in a dozen different ways, and all he’d say was that Redmond hung out at the diner where he worked, spent all his time with the people there. No specifics. No names.”

“Maybe he’s hiding something.”

“Or he doesn’t know and doesn’t want to admit it. He’s arrogant enough to think he knows everything about the people in Cave Creek. It might stick in his craw that he doesn’t.”

“It sounds like he didn’t make much of an impression on you.”

“Actually, he didn’t. Not a good impression, and not a bad one, either. Which is unusual. When you’re a cop, it helps to know the good guys from the bad ones. I’ve almost always been able to do it.”

“
Almost
always?”

“There’ve been a few exceptions.”

“Your partner?”

“Yes, though I did think something was up with him the last year we worked together. I thought maybe he was cheating on his wife. Turns out he was cheating on the department.”

“Who else did you mistake for a good guy?” There it was. The curiosity. Pushing Jonas to find out more than he needed to.

“No one important.”

“Which means he was.”

“I never said it was a ‘he.’”

“But it
was
a man, right?”

“If you can call the kind of guy Matthew was a
man,
then yeah.” She crossed her arms over her chest, closed in and off in a way he’d never seen her before.

“You dated?”

“We were engaged.”

“You didn’t make it to the altar, so I guess you saw him for what he was.”

“It’s hard not to see something when it’s right in front of your face.”

“What happened?”

“How about we change the subject?”

“This one was just getting interesting.”

“I can think of some that would interest me more.”

“Like?”

“One of the nurses said you were a Shadow Wolf.”

“And?”

“Were you?”

“I told you I was a border patrol agent.”

“Why’d you give it up?”

“Guilt. My wife and son’s murders were a paid hit, revenge against me for confiscating a few hundred thousand dollars’ worth of cocaine and throwing half a dozen gang
members in jail. My job cost my family their lives. It wasn’t a good trade-off.” Old news, but it still hurt to say it.

“So, they won.”

“Who?”

“The gang.”

“No. We closed them down. I made sure of that before I quit.”

“Glad to hear it, but since they succeeded in getting a successful agent off the playing field, I’m not sure it was a total loss for them.”

“If you’re trying to make me feel better, it’s not working.” He bit the words out as he pulled up in front of the sheriff’s department, yanked the keys from the ignition.

“Why would I do that? You suffered a great loss, Jonas. No doubt about that, but throwing away all the good you did, all the good you
could
do, I don’t think that’s the answer to your grief or your guilt,” she shot back.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” The words were as icy as the cold fury that pulsed through him. He’d had a lot of people say a lot of things about the tragedy, but Skylar was the first to say that he’d let the gang win.

He didn’t like it.

And right at that moment, he didn’t much like
her.

“Maybe not. But if I had a choice, I’d be back on the force, throwing the book at the drug dealing scum who hook people in, shoot them up with lies and poison and then steal everything they have. Unfortunately, the powers that be are worried that I’m a medical risk. They sat me at a desk job for three months after my recovery, and desk jobs just aren’t my thing.” Her smile was brittle, and Jonas’s fury seeped out as quickly as it had come. She had her own pain, her own loss.

“Skylar—”

“What you do is a God-given gift, Jonas. But it’s not my business if you waste it. I’m sorry I brought it up. Come on.
I need to get my things and focus on finding Redmond, so we can both get back to our lives.” She got out of the truck and was halfway across the parking lot before Jonas opened his door.

A God-given gift.

They were the same words Rayne had used.

There’d been a time when Jonas had believed that. A time when he’d truly felt that his ability to track and his success on the field were God-given. Gabriella had believed the same, and her support had only added to the feeling. For the last few years, though, all Jonas had felt was his loss.

Skylar was right. Throwing everything away, changing careers, giving up what he loved hadn’t healed his grief or assuaged his guilt.

All it had done was leave him empty.

He frowned, holding the door open as Skylar stepped into the building. She’d said she needed to get to work so they could get back to their lives, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to go back to what he’d spent the past four years being. It was something to think about, anyway. Maybe even to pray about. It’s what Gabriella would have wanted, and he let the thought warm him as he followed Skylar into the sheriff’s department.

TEN

S
he should have kept her mouth shut.

Should
have.

But she hadn’t.

Apparently, she loved the sensation of opening it and inserting her foot.

And, apparently, she also loved seeing the fury in people’s eyes when she stuck her nose into things that were absolutely none of her business.

She sighed, her heart thumping painfully as she approached the reception desk and greeted the deputy who sat there.

“I’m—”

“Skylar Grady. I’d recognize you from your photos even if we hadn’t met before.” He smiled, his deeply tanned face and short cropped hair vaguely familiar. She must have questioned him when she had arrived in town.

“I’m sorry. The past few days have been crazy. I guess I forgot that we’d met.”

“I’m Deputy Marcus Williams. We spoke for about two minutes the day you arrived in Cave Creek, but I wasn’t in uniform, so don’t beat yourself up about it.” He stood. “The sheriff was hoping you’d get here before his meeting. I’ll take you back to his office.”

“Thanks.” She followed him through a door and into the corridor beyond, Jonas close on her heels. He hadn’t said a word since they’d left the truck.

Not that she’d given him time.

She’d run like a coward, and she still wasn’t ready to meet his eyes.

What had she been thinking?

They were strangers, and his life was his business.

But he hadn’t felt like a stranger when he’d led her up the mesa or down into the desert. Hadn’t felt like one when he’d prodded her to keep going through one of the longest nights of her life, or when he’d handed her clothes to borrow, or covered her with an afghan after she’d fallen asleep at Rayne’s computer. He’d felt like someone who cared, and that made Skylar want to care, too.

And when she cared, she sometimes cared too much.

Which was another ailment that she couldn’t seem to cure herself of.

Deputy Williams knocked on the sheriff’s door, pushed it open and gestured for them to walk inside.

“Good to see you alive and kicking, Skylar.” A tall broad-shouldered man greeted them as they stepped into the room. Silver-haired, with steel gray eyes, Sheriff Rodger Smithson looked ready for battle, his uniform spotless, his boots polished. And despite the cordiality of his greeting, his eyes blazing.

Obviously, he wasn’t happy that she hadn’t left town when he’d told her to. In his opinion, a week of questioning the locals with no results was plenty.

Skylar hadn’t agreed.

Still didn’t.

“It’s good to
be
alive and kicking.”

“I bet. Go ahead and take a seat. I have a dinner meeting
in twenty minutes, and I can’t miss it. We need to cover a lot before then.”

She perched on the edge of the chair, her leg so close to Jonas’s they were almost touching. She tried to ignore him, as she reached for a folder the sheriff slid across the desk. “What’s this?”

“All the evidence we’ve collected so far. It’s not much, but it’s a start.”

She opened the folder, frowning at the two photos that lay on the top of the printed pages.

Three separate photos of three different scenes. Close-ups of bullets that lay spent on the ground. “Were these found in close proximity to one another?”

“Three of them were. The fourth was about a half mile away.”

“It might not be related, then. I only remember three shots being fired.”

“How about you, Jonas? Do you remember more than three shots being fired?

“No.” He leaned in to look at the photos, his knee and arm pressing against Skylar’s, his warmth seeping through the layers of jean and jacket. It was distracting—and it shouldn’t have been. She spent a lot of time with men. Had plenty of guy friends from her days on the force that she still hung out with. She’d been hiking, climbing and camping with dozens of her buddies and she’d never been so aware, so completely and absolutely in tune with a man as she seemed to be with Jonas.

Every breath he took, she felt.

Every move, she noticed.

“One bullet is from my Glock. These other two look like they are from the pistol we took from one of the perps. Phoenix P.D. has it,” Jonas offered, and Sheriff Smithson nodded.

“It was found in the location where you indicated a gun
had been fired. We’re already doing ballistics testing on the gun. We’ll let you know when we have the results. We’ve also traced its serial number to a hunting store outside of Phoenix. It was reported stolen a couple months ago. Could have been in anyone’s hands.”

“What about the fourth bullet?”

“Like I said, it was found a half mile away. We have trackers trying to follow a trail out there, but with all the rain we got last night, it’s difficult.”

“They found the bullets. They may find something else.”

“Let’s hope so. We need more if we’re going to find out what’s going on.”

Skylar spread out the remainder of the file’s contents. The sheriff was right. There wasn’t much. A picture of her rental jeep. A copy of the missing person’s report Kane had filed when she failed to check in with him. A photo of the hotel room she’d been staying in.

She lifted it, frowning as she studied the details. “When was this taken?”

“The day you were reported missing. Once we got notification that you’d missed a conference call with your employer, we sent someone to your hotel room. Took a few pictures just to be on the safe side, but didn’t see anything that concerned us.”

“Was the cleaning crew in before you got there?”

“That morning, but the crew said it looked just like you see it—clean.”

“Then someone cleaned it before they got there. Three thugs broke into the room while I was sleeping, and I grabbed the lamp to protect myself. Slammed it into someone’s head.” She pointed to the porcelain lamp sitting untouched on a table beside the bed.

“Did it break?” Jonas asked, and she had no choice but to
meet his gaze, look into eyes that made her stomach flutter. She shoved the feeling down, forced herself not to look away.

“Yes. I tipped over the chair, too, trying to get out the door, but three against one weren’t good odds, and I was shot full of dope before I could escape.”

“Wish we’d have known all that six days ago. But the room was fine when the cleaning crew arrived. There were no reports of noise or a struggle.” The sheriff frowned, jotting notes on a pad of paper.

“It’s still possible a good forensic team could find something.” Skylar had known plenty of cleaned crime scenes to yield evidence.

“We have a team there now. Problem is, cleaning services have been in and out of the room at least twice. We impounded your rental vehicle, and we’ll check that, too. It hasn’t been rented out again, so we have more hope of finding something there.”

“How about Daniel Redmond? Have you located him?” Skylar asked, and the sheriff frowned.

“I have men searching his place. If Redmond left any clues as to his whereabouts, we’ll find them.”