20. Margot
CHAPTER 20
Margot
H ow did everything get so messed up? How did I come out here to share a moment with a man I’m falling for and end up standing on a land mine? Or possibly standing on one. I don’t know. I can’t even focus. Jaxson’s still holding my hand as the bomb squad from a few towns over checks the sand beneath my feet.
They haven’t found another explosive device yet, but that doesn’t mean anything. It’s entirely possible there’s another one hidden somewhere. It makes me sick to think about it. How did this person know it would be us walking through here? How did they manage to place it in the exact spot we would be walking, given how much shoreline there is? A child could have stepped on it.
An innocent party who came down here for a quick stroll.
“You’re clean,” the officer tells me .
Jaxson releases my hand. “Get off the beach.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“You need to be there for Matty.”
My gaze finds my son’s terrified one as he stands beside my dad just above the steps leading down to me. “I need you to be okay.”
“I’ll be fine. Who knows, maybe I’m not on one either.”
But we both know that’s not true. He wouldn’t have stopped moving if he hadn’t felt it. Right?
“Please, ma’am. We need to continue checking the area, and we can’t even consider defusing it if you’re in the area. We need this space clear.”
Tears burning in my eyes, I nod, then leave Jaxson behind as I walk the carefully marked path up the stairs.
“Mom!” Matty runs to me, wrapping his arms around me in a crushing hug. My mom envelops the both of us, then Michael joins in. My father reaches out and takes my hand, so I squeeze his in return.
“I’m okay, honey. It’s okay.” But is it? Jaxson’s still standing on a land mine. What if—no. I shove the fear out of my mind. He’s in God’s hands. And God will bring him through.
“Is Jaxson going to be okay?” Matty asks.
I turn to face the scene that might as well be straight out of a thriller show. The bomb squad tech in his thick suit kneels at Jaxson’s feet and slowly brushes some sand away from his foot. A few seconds later, he stops, then lifts his head and says something to Jaxson.
The former detective lifts his head to the sky, but I’m not close enough to make out his expression. Is he praying? Begging for mercy?
Please, God, don’t let him die. Please don’t let him die.
Dread coils in my belly as the bomb tech raises his hand, signaling something to the other officers on the beach. They exchange looks.
“Oh no. He’s on one, isn’t he?” I ask Michael.
My brother doesn’t say anything, but he doesn’t need to because his expression says it all. He reaches over and takes my hand, squeezing it gently. Reyna is on his other side, while Lance, Elijah, and Silas are all lined up beside her.
Both Lance and Elijah have their heads bowed in prayer, while Silas stares straight ahead, his jaw set. I can only imagine that they must be reliving some horror from their time overseas. Some tragedy they bore witness to or suffered through.
A car screeches to a stop behind us, and I glance over as a woman wearing blue scrubs jumps out and races toward us, her eyes wide in fear. She looks at me, then crosses over to Silas and stands silently at his side.
Bianca. She saved all of their lives on more than one occasion, according to my brother, and relocated here almost a year ago. She doesn’t speak as she joins us, so I don’t either. I stand, hand in hand with Matty and Michael as the bomb tech kneels at his feet again.
Even though we’re a safe distance away, I can feel Jaxson’s gaze locked on me, so I stare straight at him, imagining what would have happened had his phone never rang. It helps to distract from what might be the very last time I see him.
The minutes turn into what feels like hours, before Jaxson finally moves. Slowly, he lifts his foot, and for a moment, I can hear nothing but the pounding of my own heart.
“We’re clear!” the tech yells. The crowd around me cheers, and I let loose the breath I was holding. Michael releases my hand, and Matty wraps his arms around me, crushing me to him.
The adrenaline leaves my body in a rush, and I begin to shake, unable to keep myself stable. Jaxson remains on the beach a moment, then the tech guides him up toward the stairs, likely to avoid any other incidents.
After what feels like forever, Jaxson is making his way up the stairs to join us.
Lance is the first to greet him. He wraps his arms around him and mutters something I can’t quite make out. Elijah is next. Silas offers him a nod before turning and heading for his truck.
Bianca throws her arms around his neck in a crushing hug. “Don’t you know that you can’t die on us yet, Payne?”
He smiles but doesn’t respond. Body stiff, I can all but see the stress sitting on his broad shoulders.
“You good?” Michael asks him before offering him a hug.
“Yeah. Bomb tech said it was a dud,” he replies, looking from Michael to me .
“A dud?” I ask. “I don’t understand.”
“It was a pressure plate, but there were no explosives.”
“Then why make the call? Why scare us?”
Jaxson’s gaze settles on mine. “It kept us from getting back to work on finding Lanetti.”
“There.” My dad finishes writing both of the riddles on a whiteboard he had Michael dig out of his storage shed. Apparently, it was used when he was coaching football. Now it contains a riddle crafted by a killer.
How times have changed.
The bomb squad found over a dozen dead pressure plates all along the shoreline. The man must have gotten out there and placed a bunch, only hoping we’d happen to stumble onto one.
It was good planning, I’ll give him that.
But even refocused, they haven’t gotten any closer to figuring the riddles out, so my father—a former detective—suggested they get more eyes on it. Sheriff Vick is standing in the corner, his thumbs in his gun belt, as he studies the words.
“‘Roses are red, violets are blue, wherever I go, you’re coming too. By the seashore, by the seaside, I’ll be forgotten, swept away by the tide.’” Jaxson reads it for his former partner, Alaric, who is currently on speaker phone.
“The second one?”
“‘Hickory dickory dock, you’ve broken the clock. Time is up, the girl will drown, hickory dickory dock,’” Jaxson says.
“It fits the formula,” Alaric says. “The warden insists that he’s had no visitors.”
“Mail?” Jaxson asks.
“Nothing there. Apparently he doesn’t get letters. I’m driving out to talk to his sister in the morning. She’s his only living relative, though they were estranged.”
“I remember she didn’t even show up for his trial,” Jaxson says. “Thanks for doing this, Alaric. I appreciate it.”
“Anytime. I wrote these down, so let me play with them a bit and see if I can come up with anything.”
“Appreciate it.”
“Talk soon,” he replies.
Jaxson ends the call, then crosses his arms and stares at the whiteboard. We’ve hardly spoken since the beach, and his mood has been volatile at best. Not that I blame him. I’d be furious too.
I am furious.
“We can eliminate the ‘roses are red, violets are blue,’” Lance says. “And the ‘hickory dickory dock.’ Since those are likely just rhyming mechanisms.”
Jaxson leans forward and underlines everything but those two lines. “‘Wherever I go, you’re coming too.’ That’s likely just him pointing out that I’m going to find her.”
“‘By the seashore, by the seaside, I’ll be forgotten swept away with the tide,’” my dad repeats.
“She’s being held somewhere near the ocean. The drowning line confirms that. The tide gives us a countdown clock,” Jaxson says.
“Sure, but Sheriff Vick ran drones and bots all up and down the beach, and we haven’t found anything.” Elijah checks his watch. “And we have less than an hour before the tide comes in.”
“What am I missing?” Jaxson snaps, anger radiating off of him.
“We’ll get it figured out.” Lance looks back at the sheriff. “You still have guys out there?”
He nods. “They’re walking up and down the beach. So far, they haven’t found anything.” The man looks exhausted. It’s not typical Hope Springs action to have a missing person and a killer on the loose, so I imagine it’s wearing on him more than it would the average seasoned detective.
I look at Jaxson. This is personal for him.
“Are there any caves nearby? Coves that get submerged?” Lance asks. “Anywhere someone could be tucked away?”
“We checked them,” Sheriff Vick replies.
“What about that old barn near the Klines’ place?” my dad asks. When no one immediately answers, he turns to look at me. Even with everything going on, my cheeks flush with color. He only knows about that place because he busted a high school party I’d snuck out to that was held out there. Of course, we’d been forced to retreat up to the shoreline as soon as the tide came in.
“I thought that thing was long gone,” Michael says .
“I haven’t thought about that place in years,” Sheriff Vick replies. “It’s possible that it’s been destroyed.”
“It’s somewhere to start.” Hope burns in Jaxson’s gaze. “Where is the barn?”
I clear my throat. “Patrick Kline owned some property right off of Sunny Shells Cove. He had an old barn up there that he’d rent out for weddings, but it would flood anytime the tide came in, and eventually, the wood started to rot. When he passed, his kids never did anything with it, so it was used as a make-out spot for teens.”
Jaxson whirls on the sheriff. “Did you check there?”
“It’s private property,” he replies. “We need a warrant.”
“Then get one.” Jaxson grabs his jacket and heads for the door. I start to follow, feeling beyond helpless, but then decide it’s better to stay out of the way. So even as I want to wish him luck, as I want to tell him to be safe, I simply wrap my arms around myself and remain where I am as Lance and Elijah follow him out.
Michael offers me a soft smile, then kisses Reyna, who’s been silent this whole time, and slips out after them.
“How are you doing?” my sister-in-law asks as she wraps her arm around my shoulders.
“Fine.” But when I look at her, she gives me a smile that tells me she knows I’m not. I note the look she exchanges with Andie.
“Come on. Let’s have some girl talk.” She guides me down the hall and into the bedroom I grew up in. After closing the door behind Andie, the three of us sit on my bed, which still boasts the same fox quilt my mother made for me when I was young.
“So?” Andie urges.
“I told you guys that I’m fine.”
“Margot, I’ve known you nearly my entire life. We all know you’re not. So spill.”
“Lanetti is missing, my B&B was nearly burned to the ground, and I’m falling for a man I have no business falling for.” The words spill from my mouth without a filter.
“I already knew about the first two and I suspected the third. What I don’t understand, though, is why you think you have no business falling for him?” Andie asks.
“He’s one of Michael’s best friends.”
“And you’re mine,” Reyna replies. “Yet you didn’t seem to mind when I married your brother.”
“That’s different.”
“How so?” She crosses her arms.
“You didn’t have a son to consider.”
“And if I had?”
“I don’t know.” I cover my face with both hands and take a deep breath. “It’s complicated.”
“Sure it is.”
“We’re not questioning that,” Andie says. “You both have baggage. He works with your brother, lives at your B&B, and you do have a son to consider. But Jaxson is a good man, Margot. He would never hurt either of you.”
“Not on purpose.” I lie back on my mattress. “He could have died today, and all I could think about was that I didn’t get the chance to really tell him how I’m feeling.”
“I’d be willing to bet he knows because he’s feeling the exact same way,” Andie replies.
My thoughts drift back to the moment on the beach. Right before his phone rang and reality crashed down on top of us like waves eating away at the shoreline. “He told me that he would never hurt us,” I confess.
“See!” Reyna and Andie both yell, then Reyna gently smacks my arm.
I know their perky moods are meant to distract all of us from what’s happening right now. It’s entirely possible they’re walking into a trap. That Michael, Jaxson, and Elijah—along with all of the other men of Knight Security—may not make it home.
And with that in mind, I force a smile because I know they likely need the distraction too. “He told me that I’ve captivated him from the moment he first laid eyes on me.”
“Swoon,” Reyna replies.
“And then he told me that he’d been dreaming about kissing me.”
Andie’s eyes widen. “Did he? Tell me he did.”
“No,” I reply. “He didn’t get the chance.” I close my eyes as tears threaten to spill, reality smothering me once more.
“He will get the chance,” Reyna tells me. “They’ll find her and come home.” She sits up and reaches down to take my hand, then takes Andie’s in her other. “Please, God, keep them safe. Please help them find Lanetti and bring everyone home. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
“Amen.”