Chapter Two
Chris prowled the bedroom of her apartment above the art gallery, throwing random items into the suitcase on her bed, her mother’s voice on the phone trying, but failing, to soothe her jangled nerves. “I’m sure the man was only looking at you because you’re so striking,” April Mercer said.
Chris stepped over her dog, Harley, who raised his head and looked at her with brown eyes full of concern. The Rhodesian ridgeback mix had picked up on her mood as soon as she entered the apartment, and he refused to be more than a few inches away from her. “I don’t think so,” Chris told her mother. “He looked familiar. Do you remember that guy who used to stand at the back of the room, glaring at everyone during Sunday-night meetings? Jedediah?” Chris grabbed a handful of socks and stuffed them into the side of the suitcase. A shudder went through her as she remembered the man on the trail.
“Oh, honey, I’m sure it wasn’t him,” April said. “It’s been so long. I’m sure all of those people have forgotten about you by now.”
“Do you really believe that, Mom?”
Her mother’s silence was all the answer she needed. Jedediah and the others hadn’t forgotten about Chris. That hadn’t been her name back them, but that wouldn’t matter to them.
“Would you really remember what he looked like after all these years?” April asked finally.
It wasn’t the man’s features that had been so familiar to her, but the look in his eyes. So full of hate. “He sure acted as if he recognized me.”
“How could he?” April asked. “You changed your hair and had that nose job. And you were twelve years old. You were a child when he saw you last.”
“I know.” She swallowed down the rising panic and forced herself to stop and breathe deeply. “I just... The way he looked at me.”
Harley stood and leaned against her. She bent and rubbed behind the dog’s ears, finding solace in his solid presence.
“He’s just a creep,” April said. “There are plenty of them out there. If you really think he’s a threat, tell the sheriff. Didn’t you tell me he’s a decent guy?”
“Yes. I mean, I’ve only interacted with Sheriff Walker on search and rescue missions, but he has a good reputation.” Still, how would he react if she told him someone she had last seen when she was twelve had been glaring at her? And did she really want to reveal that whole sordid story to anyone here?
“You know you’re always welcome to stay with me for a while if it makes you feel better,” April said.
“I know.” But Chris had already hidden out at her mom’s place three times in the past two years. And at least one of those times had been a false alarm. She had heard the talk from other search and rescue members about how often she was out of town. Everyone seemed understanding, but that was probably because they thought her work as an artist was taking her away for weeks or months at a time. “I’m tired of running away,” she said.
“Oh, honey.”
The tenderness in April’s voice might have broken a weaker woman. But Chris had had years to develop a hard shell around her emotions. “I was just wondering if you had heard anything about Jedediah. If you knew if he had a reason to be in this area.”
“No,” April said. “I try to keep tabs on people, but I have to rely on the few friendly contacts I still have, and they’re understandably reluctant to reveal too much. But Colorado and Jedediah have never come up in our conversations.”
Chris nodded, even though she knew her mother couldn’t see her. “Okay, that’s good. I guess.”
“I’m sorry this happened to upset you,” her mother said. “But I don’t think it has anything to do with what happened all those years ago.”
“You’re right.” Chris let go of the dog and turned to stare at the suitcase, into which she had apparently packed a dozen T-shirts and eight pairs of socks but no underwear or pants. “I’ll just...keep my eyes open, and if I see anyone suspicious or threatening, I’ll tell the sheriff.”
“That sounds like a good plan,” April said. “But know you can come stay with me anytime.”
A knock on the door set her heart racing. Was it Jedediah? Had he managed to find her? “I have to go now, Mom.”
“I love you,” April said.
Harley was already moving toward the door. He hadn’t barked or even growled, but the ridge of hair along his spine stood at attention.
“I love you too,” Chris whispered. She slid the phone into her pocket and tiptoed toward the door, careful not to make a sound. Holding her breath, she peered through the peephole with Harley pressed against her side, his body taut.
Chris exhaled in a rush as she recognized the man on the other side. She unfastened the security chain and dead bolt and eased the door open a scant two inches. “Hello?”
“Chris Mercer?” The doctor who was now working with search and rescue asked. She couldn’t remember his name, but she wasn’t likely to forget his face anytime soon. Blue eyes, curly dark hair, cleft chin—he had definitely made her look twice when she had first seen him.
“What do you want?” she asked.
He held up her day pack. “You left this behind on the trail. I thought you’d want it back.”
“How did you find me?” She didn’t like the idea that a stranger—no matter how good looking or well intentioned—could walk right up to her front door.
“There’s a card for the gallery downstairs in the outside pocket of the pack,” he said. “I asked and the woman at the register told me you were upstairs.”
Chris frowned. She would have to have a talk with Jasmine. “Thanks.” She opened the door wider and reached for the pack. Thoughtless of her to have left it, but that showed how shaken up she had been.
Harley shoved forward and stuck his head out the door. He glared at the doctor, a low rumble vibrating the air.
The doctor took a step back. “Hello, there,” he addressed the dog.
“That’s Harley. He won’t hurt you.” Not unless she told him to. The dog was trained to protect, though most of the time he was a genuine sweetheart. “Just hand me the pack.”
The doctor—why couldn’t she remember his name?—held it out of reach. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine. Can I have my pack, please?”
He handed it over. “You left the trail in a hurry,” he said. “We didn’t get a chance to meet. I’m Rand Martin.”
“Thanks for returning my pack, Rand.” She tried to close the door, but he caught the frame and held it.
Harley’s growl intensified, his body rigid. Rand glanced down at him but held his ground. “First, I want to make sure you’re okay,” he said. “You looked really upset back there on the trail. You still look upset.”
“I’m fine.”
“Who was the man watching you?”
Her breath caught. “You saw him too?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know him?” she asked.
“Why don’t I come in, and we’ll talk about it?”
Just then, Jasmine, a petite woman with short red hair and white-rimmed glasses, appeared at the top of the stairs at the end of the hall. “Is everything okay, Chris?” she asked. Her gaze shifted to Rand, then back to Chris, eyes bright with curiosity.
“Everything is fine.” Chris signaled for Harley to stand down and opened the door a little wider. “Come on in,” she said to Rand. At least if he turned out to be a threat, Jasmine would be able to identify him. Not that there was anything particularly threatening about the doctor. He was older than Chris—early forties, maybe—but he was fit and strong. He exuded calm, and he struck her as someone who would be good to have on her side should Jedediah, or whoever that man had been, decide to show up.
He moved into her apartment, and she shut the door behind him. Harley stayed between them, silent but wary. Rand stopped in front of a painting beside the front door, an eight-by-ten canvas depicting a young girl crouched beside a pool in a mountain stream. A face was reflected in the water—a much older woman meant to represent the girl in her later years. “One of yours?” Rand asked.
“Yes.” She dropped the pack onto the floor beside the sofa. “Do you know the man who was watching me there on the trail?”
He shook his head. “No. But you looked like you recognized him.”
“I thought I did, but I was wrong.”
“Then why were you afraid?”
“I wasn’t afraid.” The lie came easily. She was practiced at hiding that part of herself.
“You were terrified.” He spoke with such certainty, as if he knew her and her innermost thoughts. But he wasn’t saying the words to use her emotions against her as a weapon. If anything, his expression telegraphed understanding. As if he, too, had felt terror before and knew its paralyzing power.
She turned away from him. “I’m a single woman,” she said. “I don’t appreciate when a man I don’t know takes such an intense interest in me.” Would Rand take the hint that he, himself, should leave her alone?
“For what it’s worth, I looked for him on the way down the trail, but I didn’t see him again.” He looked around her place. “I take it he didn’t follow you here?”
She shook her head. She had made sure she was alone before she risked coming here. “Thanks for returning my pack,” she said. “I really have things to do now.” Unpack her suitcase, for one. Maybe do a little research online and try to find out what happened to Jedediah. Could she dredge up his last name from memory? Had she ever known it?
“Would you have dinner with me?”
The question startled her so much her mouth dropped open. She stared. Rand stared back, his lips tipped up at one corner, blue eyes full of amusement. Was he laughing at her? “What did you say?” she asked.
“Would you have dinner with me?”
“No.” Absolutely not.
“Why not?”
“I don’t date.”
“Why not?”
“I just... I’m not interested in a relationship.”
“Neither am I,” he said.
“Why not?” She hadn’t meant to say the words out loud, but seriously, the man was gorgeous. A doctor. He appeared to have a decent personality.
“I’m a trauma surgeon. I have a terrible schedule. I can’t even get a dog, my hours are so unpredictable. Any woman in my life invariably ends up feeling neglected and resenting me.”
“Then why ask me out? I don’t do one-night stands either.”
That little barb didn’t faze him. “Everyone can use a friend,” he said gently.
She hugged her arms across her chest. “You don’t want to be friends with me.”
“Why not?”
“I come with a lot of baggage.”
He laughed. A loud, hearty guffaw. The sound elicited a sharp rebuke from Harley.
“It’s okay,” Rand said to the dog. He crouched and offered his hand for the dog to sniff. Harley approached cautiously, then allowed Rand to pet his sleek side.
Chris glared at him. “What’s so funny?”
“Show me a person over twenty who doesn’t have baggage, and I’ll show you someone not worth knowing,” he said. “Come on. Have a burger and a beer with me.”
The offer tempted her, if only for the chance to have an evening outside her own head. She took a step back. “No. I think you need to leave now.”
She expected him to argue, to turn charming or pleading. Instead, he only stood and took a card from his wallet and offered it to her.
She stared at it but didn’t take it. He laid it on the table beside the sofa. “That’s my number, if you need anything.” He shrugged. “In case that guy shows up, for instance.”
“What are you going to do if he does?”
“I could probably persuade him to leave you alone.”
From anyone else, the words might have come across as a brag. From Rand, they rang true. He wasn’t an overly big man, but he had a wiry strength, and the attitude of someone who wouldn’t back down from a fight. “Thanks,” she said. “But I’ll be fine.”
He nodded and left, letting himself out and shutting the door softly behind him. She locked up, then leaned against the paneled surface of the door. If Rand could find her so easily, Jedediah could too. The thought ought to have renewed the terror she’d felt earlier, but instead, the idea annoyed her. She had told her mother the truth when she said she was tired of running away. Jedediah had been powerful and threatening when she had known him before, capable of hurting her. But she wasn’t a child anymore. And she knew the truth behind the lies he and others had told. She didn’t have to keep running. She could stay and resist.
This time, she might even win.