Lost in Shadows (Lost) Page 13

  “Thank you.” Her lids drifted closed, her breathing slowed.

  He pulled the blinds, darkening the room. Neither the shadows nor the bruises could diminish her beauty. Lust and something raw sucker-punched him. When Nate called, Jeb never expected his sister… He closed his eyes. Nate’s sister. His little sister. You weren’t supposed to think about your friend’s sister this way.

  He needed a distraction. He took her new clothes to the laundry room and sorted darks from whites. Out of the bags, the pile of clothes that took the afternoon to buy was ridiculously small. While the washer got busy, he went to the large kitchen in the main house looking for solid food. Tom stood barefoot, mixing spices into a midnight blue porcelain bowl and humming one of Butch’s tunes.

  “What’s for dinner, grill master?” Jeb opened the refrigerator door. It was blessedly filled with leftovers from the wedding.

  Tom took a fistful of the spices and sprinkled them over the splayed meat. “Flank steaks with a side of this and that.”

  Jeb pulled out a container of mac and cheese and went to the large table that sat at the sunny bay window, grabbing a fork along the way.

  “Miss a meal?”

  He nodded with his mouth full, chewed, then swallowed. “A few of them.”

  “She looks like she’s worth missing a few meals for. Her brother served with you, right? Is she a client?”

  “Pro bono.” He managed the words between bites.

  Tom threw his head back in laughter. “Does Finch know?”

  “We’ve discussed it.” He brought Tom up to speed on his eventful weekend, his mind flashed on the discovery of her bloody body, left to the flames. He wanted to punish the ones who hurt his…not his. He repeated his own lecture. Nate’s sister. Client. “It’s complicated.”

  Tom wiggled his eyebrows and smirked.

  “It’s been one thing after another for two days. The mess, her pissed-off uncle, shopping at the mall, the stalker, the best steak dinner of my life, the stalker again, the fire, her pissed-off uncle again, the stalker once again.”

  “That is a lot,” Tom said. “What did you do to piss off her uncle? How many stalkers are there?”

  “There’s just one stalker. I pounded his face in, and I didn’t do anything to the uncle. I’ve barely had a chance to get started on the case. Carolina has a concussion. She’s sleeping now, but I’ll need to watch her.” He ordered himself to relax. “What’s been going on around here?”

  “Half the town came back yesterday, and it turned into another party.”

  Jeb listened as Tom filled him in on the hijinks of the wedding celebrations. He ate more, and drank water until the sting of the smoke was once and for all quenched. He enjoyed being home.

  The thought came of Carolina waking up in a strange house and how uncomfortable she would be. He stood abruptly, cleaned his place and started to leave, and then went back to the refrigerator and began filling a serving platter. “Carolina might be hungry.” When finished, the white bottom couldn’t be seen. “Call me when dinner’s done, and I’ll come get it.”

  Setting the platter on the bar, he poked his head into his bedroom. Carolina lay in his bed, sound asleep. He backed out of the room and sat down on his leather couch to work. The coffee table held his laptop, his cell phone, and his leather-bound notebook. It was time to make the next call.

  “How is she?” Anxiety laced Nate Walker’s commanding voice with acid.

  “Carolina’s okay, Nate, but we have a problem.” He walked through the events of the previous twenty-four hours with military precision.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Nate shouted at the top of his lungs. He heard crashing in the background. Of what, he couldn’t be sure, but there would undoubtedly be a mess in Nate’s wake. “Jenkins was stalking Carolina? That little…rat-faced…asshole. How did no one know?”

  It occurred to him that Derrick was fortunate Nate was an ocean away. Otherwise, Derrick’s come-to-Jesus moment may have included harps and a pearly gate. “Your uncle had him look into it at one point. Convenient, huh?”

  “Do you think my uncle knew?”

  “No. He didn’t believe Carolina any more than you did.”

  “Don’t you damn me when I believed a law officer and my friend when he said there was nothing going on.” Guilt laced the voice of denial. “It’s easy for you to say I’m an ass for not believing my sister, but you don’t know her.”

  “I know her.” He recalled Mitchell Walker’s callous treatment of Carolina’s concern. “She’s smart, Nate, and sharp. Y’all should have taken that into account before you dismissed her.”

  “Carolina has always been shy, preferring to stay home—”

  “She moved to Washington, D.C. and became one of the youngest journalists to win the Pulitzer Prize.” He stood and started to pace as he defended her. “Y’all cowed her into being who you wanted her to be, clipping her wings so she couldn’t fly—”

  “Don’t tell me about my own sister. She’s everything that is right in this world and deserves to live her life on her terms.”

  “On that we agree.” He took a deep breath and changed the subject. “I’m looking into her clients whose files were taken. Her laptop was stolen, but she uses the cloud for storage. I’ll figure out who is doing this to her. She’s at my farm now. I can work better from here. The house needs serious work, Nate. To my uneducated eye, it won’t be fast or cheap.”

  A dull thud emanated from the other end of the line.

  “What was that?”

  “My head, bouncing off the wall. How am I supposed to do this, Jeb? I’m a thousand miles away and there’s another year left on my contract.” More pounding.

  “We’re handling it. Carolina and I. You trust me. Have faith in her.”

  “I do. Really, I do. So she’s staying with you for now?”

  “She can stay as long as she needs to. The house is plenty big.”

  “Can I talk to her?”

  “She’s sleeping. The doc said it’ll be a few days until she’s up to full speed. I’ll have her give you a call when she’s awake.”

  “Yeah. Thanks, Jeb.”

  “Now, about your uncle. Can I trust him?” As Carolina’s uncle and sheriff, he expected Walker to take significant exception to the attacks on her. His dismissive attitude bothered Jeb. Had he ever treated a victim that way when he wore the star?

  “Yeah. Uncle Mitch can be a hard-ass, but he’ll skirt the edges when it’s to his advantage. He’s sharp and he’s hard. When he hits, few men get up for a second time.”

  “He doesn’t trust me.”

  “Like I said, he’s sharp.” There was a smile in the long distance voice. “I’ll call him.”

  “Give me his number.” He got it, ended the call, and turned to his computer. He began by logging into Carolina’s cloud storage account and copying the files to his system. The estimated download time was four hours.

  The evening sun spilled lazily across the living room when he opened his bedroom door to check on Carolina. She stood at the window, watching the courtyard below.

  “You’re awake. Did you sleep well?”

  She continued looking out the window. “Very well. Thank you. I needed that.”

  He crossed the room, and looked over her shoulder to the courtyard. Katie and Tom had locked their arms and were spinning in a circle, laughing like drunks as Butch picked at his guitar. Tom sent Katie spinning into her husband, who caught her and kissed her flat belly.

  “Do they do that a lot?”

  He snorted at their antics. “Act like idiots?”

  “Laugh. Do they laugh a lot?”

  He hadn’t thought about how much time she spent alone. Without Nate, there was only Emmaline for company. Who did she have to laugh with? He faced her, tucking strands of hair behind her ear. “Yeah. I guess they do.”

  She looked up at him then away, with regret. “I like to laugh, but I don’t think I’m up for a crowd.” Her arms wrapped t
ightly around her stomach as if holding herself together.

  He went to his bathroom, retrieved a deep green robe and held it up, waiting for Carolina to slide her arms through. “Your clothes are still in the laundry, you can wear this for now. I have dinner waiting for you in the living room.” His robe came to her calves.

  “Let’s get some food in you, and you can take another pain pill.” He put his hand on her lower back and ushered her out of the bedroom. “I talked with Nate. You need to call him when you’re ready. He’s beating himself up pretty bad.”

  “Why? I’m so grateful to him for calling you.” She stopped in the middle of the hallway. “Have I told you how grateful I am to you for coming? For bringing me to your home?”

  “I, uh, I’m just doing what Nate asked.” He managed to say the correct answer. He didn’t want her to be grateful. He wanted her to be…what? Content. Safe. Happy to be with him.

  She looked at her bare toes. “Still. I’m grateful.”

  “Here. Look what I have for you.” He looked away quickly and led her into the living room. “I didn’t know what you liked, so I brought you a little of everything.” He went to a platter on the bar and lifted the towel covering it. “Tom is grilling steak for dinner if you’d rather have that.”

  “This looks wonderful.” Her stomach growled in agreement. There was pulled pork, barbecued chicken, pasta salad. There were two fruit salads, and a green salad, and bread. “Is that cake?”

  “Wedding cake. Sit down. The last real meal you had was dinner last night. I thought you might be hungry.”

  She sat on the edge of the couch with her knees together. “When did Butch and Katie marry?”

  “Friday night. This place was packed.” He chuckled. “You would never have known that twenty-four hours before, there were two construction crews working overtime.”

  “Why?”

  “If you look around, you’ll notice the house is still under construction. We moved back in only a month ago. There are a lot of rooms that are just framed. Still, nobody seemed to mind. This wing is mine. My office is downstairs. Butch and Kate live across the courtyard; Tom has the rear wing. The main house has the kitchen, family room, dining room, and a fitness room. I have a small refrigerator and a microwave up here if you need anything. The crews will be back tomorrow, but they’ll be working in the main house.”

  She started with the fruit salad. The first dainty bites quickly gave way to healthy forkfuls. “This is incredible. Kudos to the caterer.”

  “They didn’t exactly have a caterer. Instead of bringing a gift, folks were asked to bring a side dish. ’Course, most brought both. The out-of-towners brought drinks. Traveled easier I guess.”

  “It sounds like such fun.” Her face fell as awareness dawned on her. “You left your brother’s wedding, didn’t you? You missed out on all that fun.”

  He smiled then, unable to keep his fingers from brushing back the wild strands that stubbornly fell around her face. “Don’t sound so sad for me. We had our own fun.”

  She set the plate on the table but he put it right back on her lap.

  “You need to eat.”

  She stared at the plate, refusing to look at him.

  He squatted down until he could look up into her face. “You’ve gone quiet. Talk to me. Remember how you told me I didn’t have to hide from you? Well, I don’t want you hiding from me, either. You want something, you need something, you tell me. Talk to me.”

  She set the plate aside. “I’m ashamed of myself. I never thought about what I had taken you away from. Nate asked you for a favor. I should have sent you away after my uncle arrived that night.”

  He lifted her chin until she looked in his eyes, his focus so intense she couldn’t look away. “Let’s get this straight between us. I went because I wanted to. I stayed because I wanted to. I brought you here because I want you here. Nate might have started this, but everything after has been you and me. Now, how does your head feel?”

  She worried her lower lip, clearly unsure of herself. As she looked into his face, he held still. He didn’t push, he didn’t prod. Eventually, she nodded and lifted a hand to her head. “It does throb. I’m tired but I’ve slept so much, I don’t think I can go back to sleep.”

  “Eat a little more,” he ordered and then hastily left the room. He returned quickly with her medicine, a pillow, and a blanket. “Here. Take these. How does a movie sound?”

  She took the pills, swallowing them with a sip of water. “Perfect.”

  Jeb turned on the television and went to the on-demand movie site. “What do you think of action movies?”

  Carolina shrugged her shoulders, nibbling on a piece of corn bread. “I like some of them, but they are usually loud.”

  “Not if I keep the sound down.” He settled into the corner of the couch and pulled her comfortably against him. “I’ve been wanting to see this one.”

  “Operation Detonation? Um, no. Let’s look at something romantic.” She stifled a giggle when he gagged. “They aren’t all bad. Most are sweet.”

  “We’ll compromise. James Bond. Action, adventure, and romance.”

  “Action, adventure, and sex. Sex and romance are not the same thing.”

  His voice dropped an octave. “That depends on how you do it.” He intended to tease her, but looking into her eyes was a mistake. A serious mistake. Her gaze bore into his, seeing into his soul. He waited for her to turn away, repulsed by the blackness she saw there. She surprised him again by smiling shyly, inviting him closer.

  “What is your idea of romance, Jeb?”

  How would he romance Carolina Walker? “It would start like last night. You in a killer dress with nothing under it, just to tease me through the night. We would have a fancy dinner where everyone would be jealous of me for being with you. We’d take a walk after, along a boardwalk under a bright moon so I could see every bit of you. We would find a small bar with a band that played just for us. I would take you in my arms and wouldn’t let you go until morning.”

  “That sounds…nice.” Her gaze focused on his lips.

  He smiled at the thought of her liking his mouth. “What is your idea?”

  “Norah Jones,” she blurted out. “‘Come Away with Me.’ It probably shows my lack of imagination to love a title song but…I want to walk with you on a cloudy day.” She quoted the lyrics before trailing off.

  “It’s a wonderful picture. You win. You pick the movie.”

  She picked one that had gotten good reviews even if it was described as a lighthearted comedy. Jeb dimmed the lights, sliding farther down and pulling Carolina into the curve of his body. She melted into him and, while it may have been the pills, he let himself think it was his body heat. Together they laughed at the uncomfortable predicament of two friends who didn’t realize they had become much more.

  Sleep called to her. He watched her long, thick lashes fall down only to spring open again. He leaned over and spoke quietly near her ear. “You tell anyone I liked this and I’ll call you a liar.”

  She smiled, patting the hand spread flat on her stomach. “If anyone asks, we watched ‘Blown to Oblivion’.”

  His fingers wove between hers, keeping them connected. “That’s my girl.”

  Chapter Eight

  Jeb started the work week with the call he least wanted to make. Mitchell Walker. He would have been just fine living out his life without speaking with the son of a bitch again. Being an entrepreneur gave him certain freedoms he hadn’t had behind the badge, but it also separated him from conversations and information he needed to know.

  “Walker.”

  “Jebediah McCormick here. We need to talk about Carolina.”

  “Hold on.” There was shuffling in the background, and a door closed. “I heard she went home with you. Where does that happen to be?”

  “Outside Nashville. I’m not hiding her from you. I’m calling from my cell, which means in a matter of minutes, you’ll know exactly where we are. I’m asking
you to keep that to yourself.” Truth be told, it wouldn’t be all that hard to figure out where they were. Walker had his name. A property or company search would quickly lead to Elderberry Farm. Jeb offered the information to gain a foothold in Walker’s hard line. He needed the sheriff to buy into working with him, not against him. “Have you made any progress on the investigation?”

  Walker sighed. The chair creaked beneath him. “Jenkins is heading it up. Hitting a lot of dead ends. We’re gonna need to take your statement. Jenkins said you and he were talking when the truck lit out. Did you get a plate?”

  Jeb appreciated that Walker jumped straight to it. Nate had to have intervened, as Walker now talked to him cop to cop. “No. Did you find anything in the house?”

  “Nothing big. The blood on the island was Carolina’s. The fire ate everything in the kitchen and her office. They splashed kerosene on the walls. Did a poor-ass job of making it look like a kitchen fire.”

  “You think that was the line? Carolina falls asleep in the den, dies accidentally when the tea starts a fire?”

  Walker snorted. “As if we wouldn’t recognize the accelerant.”

  “Or the three-inch cut on Carolina’s head.” He breathed away the memory of finding her, bloodied and unconscious. “We do know something about the perps. They aren’t sophisticated. I’ll put money on it that these boys have done time—stealing, fighting, cheating. Cheap and physical. They were going for the laptop. Saturday was the fourth attempt. Bet they were getting pissed they kept striking out.”

  “Fourth attempt?” Walker’s chair echoed his surprise.

  “I’m convinced that bag-snatching incident was the first attempt. Second was the break-in Thursday. Third, they broke into Carolina’s car while Emmaline had it. They finally succeeded Saturday night.”

  “So they got it. Game over? Is that what you think?”

  He recognized Walker’s tone. Now that he was in the game, he didn’t believe it was over that easily. “If I did, I wouldn’t have taken her out of Kentucky. What they don’t know is Carolina used the cloud for file storage. We have everything they have. Carolina gave me her passcode. I logged in and downloaded everything. I’m focusing on three clients. None are local.”