Chapter 25
P olly stopped at the counter of The Pancake Bar. She did not like coming here. But that had nothing to do with the food and everything to do with Basil.
The café owner stopped on the other side of the counter and crossed his arms. “Well, well, look who decided to venture into the competition’s territory.”
“We are not competition, Basil. You sell pancakes. I sell coffee and flowers and books and things of substance.”
He scoffed. “I have never seen a single person buy a book from your café. And I, too, sell coffee. Better coffee, might I add.”
She rolled her eyes. People thought it was Polly who created the tension between her and Basil. And sure, she didn’t help things. But Basil had always been the instigator. “Can I order or not?”
“Depends. Are you after the world’s greatest pancakes?”
She bit her tongue to stop from reminding him that title was over thirty years old and had well and truly expired. But the last time she’d done that, he’d kicked her out…and she really needed those pancakes.
“Yes.” God, that was hard to say. “I’d like two of your original stacks, please.”
He smiled like he’d won some sort of game. “Two stacks of the best pancakes in the world, coming right up. And you enjoy trying to pretend they’re not your death row meal.”
Again, he was right. His pancakes were buttery drops of heaven on her tongue, but she couldn’t very well go and tell him that, not when just last week, he’d said her wildflower honey scones tasted like a bee’s apology letter.
The insult hadn’t even made sense, yet he’d thrown his head back and laughed like he was God’s gift to comedy.
“They’re for my mother,” she finally said. It had been two days since that phone call with her mother asking her to stay away from Jonah. And they’d been good days.
“Yeah, yeah. They’ll be ready in ten. Want one of those cinnamon rolls you love so much while you wait?”
Yes, dammit, she did. But then she’d ruin her appetite for the pancakes. “No, thanks.”
He lifted a brow, his lips still curved. “Suit yourself.”
Man , he was annoying. An annoying jerk with the best pancakes she’d ever tasted.
She turned to glance around the shop. David Collins sat in one corner, Anika and Mark at a center table. Anika was leaning in, a flirty smile on her face, while Mark just grinned at her. Then there was a table with the sheriff and a couple of his deputies.
She walked over to Ward.
Their town sheriff glanced up at her and leaned back. “Polly. Something I can help you with?”
“Has there been any progress on the Teagan Kimm case?”
“Now, darlin’, you know I can’t go and give information on an active case.”
Probably because there was no information. “Can you at least tell me if you’ve linked her disappearance to the others? So many women have been killed that this has to be?—”
“Polly.” Ward’s voice hardened, and she didn’t miss his deputies glancing away awkwardly. “Leave it to the professionals. Okay?”
Her jaw clenched. Just because Ward was a “professional” didn’t mean he was the best person for the job.
She’d just reached the counter again when the door opened and Martha Dawson walked in.
God almighty, this was not her morning. She’d assumed they’d left town.
“Hi, Martha,” she said, when the woman reached her. “I thought you’d be back in Houston by now.”
“I went to see you at Bloom, but they told me you were here.”
She needed to vet her staff more. “I already told you, I’m not taking the check, so what do you want?”
Her lips pursed. “I want you to know exactly what you’ve done before I leave.”
“What I’ve done?”
“You began dating a man who was engaged and spoken for.”
Heads turned at the volume of Martha’s voice. Anika and Mark. Ward’s table. Even Basil seemed to pause in lifting plates from a booth.
“That’s not true,” Polly replied, when what she really wanted to do was slap that arrogant look off the woman’s face.
“It is. You’re quite the little homewrecker. And in taking him, you’ve also taken his future. A future that held so much more than whatever he has here. You’ll have to live with that.”
“I’m not going to waste my breath telling you what he’s gained by making this decision, because if you don’t understand by now, you never will.”
“What I understand is that he’s made some pretty poor choices in his life, but allowing you to break up his engagement is by far the worst.”
Jesus. She was delusional. She actually believed that if Polly wasn’t in the picture, he’d just hop on back to Houston and marry the woman they’d chosen for him.
“You didn’t come here to defend your son, so don’t pretend this is all for him.
You came because you can’t stand that he’s actually choosing how to live his life for himself.
You can’t stand that you can’t control him.
” Polly paused. “And you really hate that the only version of him that is ruined is the one you could manage.”
Martha gasped.
“I am very happy with every decision I have made, Martha. And I wish you nothing but the best.” As long as that best was far, far from here.
Martha huffed before turning and storming from the shop.
Eyes were on Polly. Possibly every eye in the restaurant.
She didn’t care. She turned as Basil set her to-go boxes onto the counter.
He cleared his throat. “Uh, everything okay?”
“Do you care?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Maybe.”
“It is actually. Thank you, Basil.” Better than fine. Because, with any luck, Joel’s parents would be out of town by sunset.
When she reached her mother’s house, she grabbed the pancakes and headed to the door. She hadn’t told her mom she was coming. She wanted to surprise her.
Her mother had agreed that it would be good, healthy even, if she remained single for a while. To get comfortable with not having a man to lean on.
It was so much more progress than they’d ever made before.
When she reached the door, she didn’t bother knocking. She used her key to let herself in.
“Mom?”
Something sounded from the bedroom down the hall. The creak of a mattress. And…hushed voices?
Her mother suddenly stepped into the hall, quickly pulling her bedroom door closed behind her. Her hair was disheveled and she only wore a dressing gown.
“Polly.” Her mother’s chest moved quickly, and she tried to smooth down her hair. It was pointless; it looked like a bird’s nest. “I, um, wasn’t expecting you.”
A sinking feeling churned in Polly’s stomach. “Is someone in there?”
“What? No. Why would… I mean, who would be in there?”
Her mother wasn’t making eye contact. Something she did a lot of when she was lying.
“Step away from the door, Mom.”
Her eyes flared. “Why?”
Without another word, Polly crossed the distance between them, reached around her mother, and shoved the bedroom door open.
A bare-chested Jonah sat in the bed, sheets pooled around his waist. “Polly…”
She turned back to her mother, hurt twisting in her chest. “You told me you wouldn’t see him while the investigation was ongoing.”
“I know. But?—”
“No. No buts. He’s part of an ongoing murder investigation. And you lied to me.”
“Darling, you don’t understand! We love each other, and I’ve been supporting him through everything.”
Polly frowned. “Been? You’ve been supporting him. As in, this isn’t the first time since he got out?”
There was a small pause.
She stepped back. “He’s been here each night since he posted bail, hasn’t he?”
“I knew you wouldn’t understand.” Her mother moved closer. “And I just agreed with you about him because I didn’t want to fight.”
“Agreeing with me when you had no intention of following through is still a lie, Mom. I need to go.”
“Polly—”
“I think I’m finally done.” She headed toward the door.
Footsteps sounded behind her. “Done with what? Me ?”
“Done trying to help you. I’m done shouldering your emotional collapses and singing with you at divorce parties and having you stay at my house every time something goes wrong.
I’m done caring.” That part was a lie. She’d always care about her mother.
But she had to figure out how to separate herself from the turmoil that was her mother’s romantic life.
“Why do you care so much about who I date? Why do you make it your business?”
“I don’t.” She spun. “ You do! You come crying to me . You basically hand me the pieces of your heart and ask me to put them back together. You cry on my shoulder, every single time. But I can’t keep doing it!
You want to marry a guy you’ve known for a single month?
You’re an adult, that’s your choice. You want to be with a guy who’s a key suspect in an active murder investigation?
Again, I can’t stop you. But I can’t agree with your actions, and I do not support you. ”
Then she stepped outside, ignoring her mother’s calls as she rushed to her car and drove away.
Joel moved quickly and quietly through the trees, cool air soaking into his skin, Zac close behind.
It was day three of Teagan Kimm’s disappearance.
There was still a chance they’d find her alive, but every day, every hour they didn’t locate her, that chance lessened.
His fisted hands tightened and he sped up his run. They’d spent most of the first two days searching near the water. They hadn’t found her there. So today, they were searching more inland.
He tapped his watch. Three p.m. They’d been searching since six this morning with minimal breaks, but he wasn’t stopping or slowing.
He’d messaged Polly this morning, but so far, she hadn’t responded.
The footsteps behind him sped up, and Zac appeared at his side. “You okay?”
“I haven’t heard from Polly all day.”
“You’re worried about her?”
“I’ve been worried about her since that asshole ran her off the road.”
“Want me to call one of the guys to take over so you can go to her?”
Joel shook his head. “We’ve almost covered our search grid.”
“I wish we could find this asshole,” Zac growled. “The escalation in women being taken this past year is…”
“Fucked up.”
Zac nodded. “Yeah.”
They kept moving—scanning and slowing and speeding up. Making sure they didn’t let a single inch of forest go unsearched.
They were just nearing the end of the area they’d been assigned when Joel spotted it—a foot.
“Zac! Over here.” He sprinted forward and around a tree. And he saw her.
Teagan Kimm.
She lay on her side, completely unmoving, dirt on her face, clothes muddy and wrinkled.
Joel dropped beside her and touched her neck. “I have a pulse.” It was faint but there.
She was alive.
Zac ran a quick, practiced eye over her face. “Cracked lips. Sunken eyes. But I can’t see any bumps or bleeding.” He pressed his hand over her temple. “No major trauma that I can see. Maybe dehydration or drugs.”
Joel lifted his radio. “We’ve located Teagan Kimm. She’s unconscious but alive.”
“Need backup getting her out?” Ryan asked.
“No. We’ll carry her out on the SKED in case of spinal injury,” Joel said as Zac began to take the litter out of his pack. “We need an ambulance to meet us at the outer banks trailhead parking lot. We’re about ten minutes out.”
“On it.”
Once they’d safely slid the stretcher beneath her, they strapped her shoulders, hips and legs. When they were sure she was secure, they took the handles and rose to their feet.
They moved quickly and carefully through the forest to the parking lot.
His feet sank into the dirt, branches scratching against his skin. He ignored the exhaustion that pulled at his limbs. He’d had to push his body through a hell of a lot worse as a SEAL.
They reached the lot just as the ambulance was pulling in. Paramedics climbed out and Joel and Zac lay the woman on the gurney they provided. Zac relayed his earlier assessment to the paramedics.
When the ambulance pulled away, Joel jumped into his truck and Zac got into the passenger side. As they drove to the hospital, Zac called the sheriff’s station.
Ward hadn’t actually been too bad at keeping them in the loop lately. He’d also given them sporadic updates on his search process for Teagan Kimm which was better than nothing.
Maybe he was finally realizing he needed them.
When they reached the hospital, they waited for Ward in the reception area.
Minutes ticked by. When they reached an hour, Joel was so damn pissed, he was a step away from leaving the hospital and going to find the asshole himself.
Yes, it was possible the sheriff was in the middle of something else. But he could have sent some deputies. Hell, he could have given a deputy his current duty, whatever it was, and gotten the hell down here.
Teagan Kimm needed someone stationed by her door. She needed protection. And they needed to know what the hell had happened to her.
An hour and ten minutes after they’d arrived, Ward finally walked through the doors, a female deputy behind him.
Joel stepped forward. “What the hell took you so long?”
Ward straightened, hands on his belt. “Hey. Watch how you talk to me, kid. I got here as fast as I could.”
Bullshit.
“Why are you even still here?” Ward asked. “You did your job, now it’s my turn.”
Joel opened his mouth, but Zac touched his shoulder. “We’re here for any questions you have about where and how we found her. We also stayed to see if you need assistance protecting her and to wait for your update after you talk to her.”
“I’m sorry, boys, anything she says will be strictly sheriff’s business.”
Joel’s eyes narrowed. “As SAR members, we should receive up-to-date information on what is going on in our forest.”
“If something is relevant to you, I’ll let you know. Now, tell me where you found her and in what condition, then you can leave.”
Joel wanted to hit the guy. His fingers actually twitched to the point he had to fist them. Instead, he forced himself to stand there as Zac relayed everything.
The second they were done, Joel stormed out to his truck.
That wasn’t the end of the conversation. Joel and his team would get the information they needed—with or without Ward’s help.