Love Me Gently (Deer Creek #1)

Twenty-Nine

Cole

The last forty-eight hours had been exhausting, and I was only a witness to the healing taking place. For Trina, I was certain she’d had too much. Falling asleep during the five-minute drive from her parents’ house yesterday back to mine drove the point home to the point that once she’d taken a nap, I’d gotten food in her. After she’d had a chance to relax, I asked if we needed to push back today’s round of mayhem and chaos and difficulty.

She shocked me to my core when she blinked, looking cutely confused by the suggestion, and then asked, “Why?”

Which led us to now, where she was downstairs blow-drying her hair, and I was restless with waiting for Marie to drop off the girls.

This could go so bad in so many ways. With June’s insistence Mom and Dad should live together and Elle’s cautious and always-seeing approach to people, they could take one look at Trina and love her to pieces because she was beautiful and sweet, or they could see how I felt about her and take off screaming, never to return.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I grabbed it. It was the station and since I rarely got called in on my off days and considering this one was from the chief, I took the call.

“Good morning, Sir. You’ve got Cole.”

“Hey, Cole. Got someone here who needs to talk to you. Can you come in? Won’t take long.”

There was a tightness to his tone that made my hackles rise.

“It’s Sunday. This about a case?”

I’d had a couple DUIs over the week, one home break-in, but nothing too out of the ordinary.

“Think we should talk here. Can you come in?”

It could be anything, or nothing… or it could be the worst thing, given the fact I could read our chief like a book, and he wasn’t giving me anything. “Need to get Trina somewhere safe,”

I told him.

He grunted, and it told me all I needed to know. “This gonna go bad for me?”

“Can’t say. We’ll talk once you get here.”

“Be there as soon as I can.”

I ended the call and inhaled a calming breath. It was Wolf. Had to be. Chief didn’t hide things from me like this, and my guess was he couldn’t talk freely. There was no other option.

I texted Marie. They’d still be at church, but I knew her well enough to know she’d see the text. Getting called in. Keep the girls until I say otherwise. Thx.

I headed downstairs, phone in hand, calling Robbie. My parents would be at church, too, and while Trina’s visit with her parents had gone better than I’d expected, there was no way she was ready to head there after a service, not when half the church usually hung out at their house for a potluck lunch. But like me, Robbie and Ashley weren’t weekly churchgoers, especially with all their kids, so I took the chance he’d be home.

Outside of my dad and my partner, I trusted Robbie more than anyone.

Besides, he had guns. Lots of them.

“Hey, what’s up? Aren’t you getting the girls today?”

“Need to bring Trina to your place. Can you keep an eye on her for a little bit?”

“Yeah. What’s up?”

“Think her ex is in town. Chief called me into the station and was cagey on why.”

His voice dropped, and acid came through the line. “That man is here? What for?”

The blow dryer turned off on the other side of the bathroom, giving me only a minute. “Can only think of one thing he wants and she’s not getting anywhere close to him until I have a chat with them.”

“Bring her here. I’ll keep an eye out.”

“Thanks, man.”

“Anything for you two, you know that.”

The bathroom door opened as I ended the call. Trina took one look at me, the phone in my hand, and her softly done, beautifully made-up face paled.

“What’s wrong?”

I tucked my phone into my back pocket. “There’s been a slight change of plans.”

“Marie changed her mind, didn’t she? She doesn’t want me to see the girls.”

She came to me, sorrow and apology stamped all over her, and it didn’t skip my notice that this was the first time she approached me. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not Marie.”

I shook my head and reached for her arms. Wrapping my hands around her biceps, her eyes widened. She also didn’t flinch or tighten as I held on to her. “I got called in to the station. Chief needs to talk to me about something important.”

No way was I telling her what I suspected.

Her large, vibrant blue eyes ping-ponged back and forth between mine. “It’s work?”

“He didn’t say.”

I might not tell her what I suspected, but I wouldn’t lie, either.

“You’re worried, though.”

“Yeah. A bit.”

“Okay. Can I do anything while you’re gone? Get lunch ready or something?”

I shook my head. “I’m taking you to Robbie and Sarah’s. We’ll talk to Marie about getting the girls later.

“You’re… why… Jonathan.”

She breathed his name, and her voice shook with the fear of simply mentioning him. “He’s here, isn’t he? And don’t lie.”

“I’m not sure it’s him,”

I admitted. “But I need you somewhere safe in case.”

“I should go with.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Cole—”

“No, Trina. Absolutely not. You’re not seeing him unless you’ve called a lawyer and had divorce papers drawn up, and I know you haven’t done that, and you’re absolutely not seeing him at all, in person, if I have anything to say about it. And honestly, Chief didn’t say who was there so I need to go and get it figured out, but in case he knows where I live, I don’t want you alone right now until I can get things figured out. So just…trust me. Please?”

I was asking a lot considering a week ago she’d been exercising in case Jonathan came back for her and took her, but that was all the more reason not to leave her here alone, too.

I wasn’t exactly hidden and difficult to find.

“You’ll tell me everything that happens after?”

As she said it, she stepped back. I let her go, hating the doubt in her eyes. “You’ll know what you need to.”

“No.”

She shook her head and ran a hand through her long, straightened hair. “I need to know everything. Every word or I’m coming with you.”

“That’s not safe for you.”

“It’s not safe for me to not know what’s going on. Please…I can’t explain it, but I have to know. Every word.”

Panic was rising, making her breathing come ragged and color her cheeks.

“Okay. I promise. I’ll tell you everything.”

It took me twenty minutes, and while I’d hurried to get Trina to Robbie’s and then double-backed to the station, I’d kept one eye on the road and one eye on my rearview mirror to see if anyone was following. I’d moved quickly to get this done, but hadn’t rushed enough to make whoever was waiting for me think I was scared of them.

Screw Wolf and his money and his southern prestige and all the things he had and the parts of him that made him evil.

I pulled into the station, taking note of the few patrol cars that were there and a black, nondescript Tahoe. The urge to slide my own truck’s keys down the side of it hit hard and fast and I quickly quelled it. Wouldn’t do any good to damage a car that was probably a rental anyway. And I didn’t need Wolf any more upset.

I’d dressed in jeans and a Carolina Ice Kings hockey T-shirt for the day, intending to be relaxed and normal for my daughters’ introduction to Trina and had only thrown on my Carhartt coat on over it along with my own personal 9mm handgun. That might have been overkill, but when it came to this man, I wasn’t taking chances.

The roads were quiet, the town gloomy. More snow was on the way and the slopes would be open any day. This was the calm before the tourist storm, but there was another storm rising inside of me as I opened the doors to the office and was buzzed through the secured door in the front entryway by Eline, our weekend office assistant.

“Chief’s office,”

she said as the buzzer sounded, and I yanked open the door. Considering the size of our town, our station wasn’t large. In fact, I could see the empty desks for all the officers and the offices for Captain and Chief on the far end.

My lip curled as I went straight to Chief’s office. His door was closed, but the wall around it facing the bullpen was all glass so while I’d normally notice his mess of piles of first, this time it was the enraged look on his face while he leaned on his desk, arms crossed over his chest and the back of the man facing him.

A man dressed in a suit, hair well-styled and side-swept, and a body I’d seen before, not only on television, but right before he stopped into an elevator at the hospital.

This monster had nearly beaten the life out of Trina, and for him to have the nerve to show up in this town, demanding time with me, forced every single one of my de-escalation tactics to the surface.

It was either that or end up in one of my own jail’s cells for assault. I had no doubt this man would press charges to the fullest extent of the law. Men like him who got what was coming to him always believed they could do no harm and didn’t deserve a moment of pain.

I didn’t bother knocking but went straight to the door and opened it. Keeping my eyes focused on our chief’s face, I didn’t spare Mr. Jonathan Wolf a single look.

“Chief. You wanted to see me?”

I should have been given an award for how nonchalant I sounded.

“Mr. Wolf here has come because you have something that belongs to him.”

“Huh.”

I settled my hands at my hips and shrugged. “Can’t say I do.”

The man next to me bristled, and I turned to face him head on.

There was no life in the man’s steely and oily gaze. If this was how he’d looked at Trina for so long, it was no wonder she felt so beaten down. The problem was, he was the one covered in filth, not her.

“I believe you have my wife.”

“Ah…my mistake. See, Chief here said I have something of yours, and your wife is a person with her own thoughts and attitudes, so I don’t have anything that belongs to you.”

“She is my wife, and it’s time for her to return to where she belongs.”

Screw him. “She is not a dog you bring to heel, Mr. Wolf. And Trina is perfectly happy where she is, so that’s where she’ll stay. And make no mistake, that choice is hers to make, not yours to demand.”

I wasn’t quite sure that was the full truth, but based on his assessing examination of me, I’d definitely struck a chord. “Not smart, Mr. Paxton. Leaving her alone.”

At least he thought she was alone, but the fact he knew where she was at all was disconcerting.

“Bold of you to threaten me in a police station.”

“What was the threat?”

Smooth. He was smooth. Good-looking for sure, and his suit cost more than I made in a year. In shape, lean, and built. He could have been a wax model in a museum he was so shiny and perfect.

Too shiny.

Everyone had flaws, and I knew his biggest one.

With a sigh, like I was a child, he tugged on one of his dress sleeves. “I would like to talk to my wife.”

“I assume if she hasn’t called you, she doesn’t feel the same.”

His lips pursed and he glanced back at Chief. “I believe I’ll leave you to relay the rest of my message.”

He faced me with a sneer I wanted to punch off his face. “You’ll see me again. And soon. And I’m sure by the time of our next meeting, you’ll have had a change of opinion.”

“Or what?”

Jonathan glanced at Chief, back to me, and grinned. “Test me and find out. Tell Katrina to prepare herself for me. I’ll be seeing her soon.”

I stayed frozen while he opened the door to Chief’s office and strolled right on out the front door. A few minutes later, the Tahoe in the parking lot pulled out and turned left.

“Where’s he going?”

“Said he’ll be staying close to town until his wife comes to her senses and quits her tantrum. I’m assuming he’s got a rental somewhere nearby. We’ll start searching for him, keep men on him.”

“He’ll have his own men somewhere.”

Man like Wolf wouldn’t go up against the law, he’d have someone do it for him. “What’s the rest of the message?”

“You should have told me more about what was going on and what you were involved in. Would have been nice to be prepared, Paxton.”

“Probably,”

I admitted and stayed quiet. Waiting. I’d told them I had Trina and she’d been beaten, and I was taking time to help her out, but I hadn’t gone into the specifics of how I’d gotten her.

Chief sighed. “He plans to press charges against you for kidnapping, trafficking an unconscious adult across state lines. And alienation of affection.”

The last one made him smirk, barely.

“You got anything to say against the first two?”

“Technically, her friends set the plan up, I was just along for the ride. So…an accessory at best? But she is an adult, capable of making her own choices.”

“Not if she was unconscious and drugged.”

A muscle twitched in my jaw. She’d been both, definitely.

Chief scrubbed a hand over his thinning hair and grimaced. “Man like him won’t give up until he gets what he wants.”

“Yeah, but a man like him doesn’t usually show up and make those threats, either. He must have something else at play.”

“Where’s his wife?”

“Trina,”

I stressed, because I was never going to call her that when it came to him, “is safe at a friend’s house.”

“Robbie’s?”

“Dad was still at church and Robbie’s the best shooter I know.”

Chief sighed and looked at his booted feet. “Know you care about her, and I’m not the only one who’s happy she’s back in town, Cole, but this could cause problems.”

Big problems, especially if I was arrested and left Trina unprotected. “How much help can I get ensuring she’s safe?”

He pushed his lips to the side. “I’ll call Boone’s chief and see if he has any men he can spare. Would call the county but we’re turning the corner into an election year, and you never know how politics play into decision-making.”

Our county sheriff’s office was filled with good men, but Jonathan Wolf was powerful, and even the best men could fold under the right kind of pressure.

It was still a risky call. Which meant I’d be calling Kip as soon as I left the station.

“That all?” I asked.

Chief gazed out the window, lingering on nothing and finally brought his gaze back to me. “Folks in town are starting to whisper. Word’s getting out. How’s she doing?”

“Healing, I think,”

I told him. “But she’s got a long way to go.”

“People heal quicker with loved ones around them.”

“Think she’s taken all of that she can get for a while.”

“I think what I’m trying to say is, you keep her hidden away too long, and the gossip that starts won’t help her any. Besides, you get her out and around people, that’s more eyes on her. More of our own looking out for another.”

“Right.”

I got it loud and clear.

It’d be a lot easier for something to happen if she was tucked away on my mountain. Something that could put me in the line of fire, too, and while that was the last thing I cared about, it’d bring more questions to our office, and no one wanted that. He had a point, especially if Jonathan stayed close. “Anything else?”

“Enjoy the day, sorry to drag you in here when I know you got a long one ahead of you.”

I held out my hand and shook Tim’s, and with that done, hurried out of the office, barely sparing Eline a wave as I left.

Kip’s number pulled up, it was already calling him before I climbed into the truck.