Chapter Seventeen
JJ didn’t like regrets. But, well, she was big enough to admit that she had a few.
Pain seared up her leg, her elbow throbbed and something felt like it was in her eye. The only thing that didn’t have any complaints on her happened to be her head. Which was nice, considering she’d had a concussion not that long ago.
Did she regret her almost year-long journey to trying to quietly and calmly find her brother? No.
Did she regret breaking the law, fighting off bad guys and going up against Lawson by herself? No.
Did she regret sharing her life story and current plan with Price Collins, charming deputy with an easy smile and warm hands? Not at all.
Did she slightly, a little, maybe kind of regret not listening to him back at the barn and chasing one of the men all the way into the woods while he dealt with the other, only to fall down a rather steep hill, making herself an easy target for said man? Well, she couldn’t say she didn’t regret it.
She didn’t recognize this man, but made the assumption that he might have been the one who had attacked Josiah Teller after she had left his house.
And that jump in conclusion happened all thanks to the knife he had in his hand as he backtracked to the spot at the bottom of the hill where she was currently struggling.
All the training and skills she had accumulated through the years took a back seat while she scrambled to pull air back into her lungs. The impact of the fall had done more than a number on her.
“Your hands go into your pockets at all, and I cut them off.” The man’s voice came out strong and full of oxygen. He was a few yards away but closing that distance fast.
JJ put her hands up in defense. Her leg muscles worked double-time to push her to stand.
“Un-unarmed,” she managed to say.
The man kept coming.
JJ hadn’t seen the state of Josiah’s house after his attack, but she had seen the man.
The cuts, the blood… She could fight against a knife but, the truth was, knives scared her simply for the fact that she could imagine what a cut felt like.
The pain and sting. It was all too easy to imagine what the man could do without having it actually happen.
“Stop—stop,” she said around a cough.
He still didn’t.
So JJ took a lesson out of her godfather’s page of parenting.
“Chicken—chicken wings!”
Her voice had found some more of its strength. The man she’d just yelled at heard what she said loud and clear.
And it made him slow.
“What?” he asked.
JJ took a tentative step backward.
If she hadn’t fallen, she could have cut off his attempt to pull his knife out. Now? She needed help. Preferably her partner with the gun. JJ, at least, assumed Price had his service weapon on him.
Either way, two people against one very sharp-looking knife sure sounded more strategic than one.
“Spaghetti!” JJ yelled, this time louder than before. “Fruit Roll-Ups, hummus, Pringles!”
The man’s eyebrow rose but the rest of him paused.
She had confused him enough to have him stop in his tracks.
The second he stalled, she went into gear.
JJ spun around and ran along the bottom of the hill, hoping for an easier way up than the tumultuous path she had taken down.
The man cussed behind her. She wasn’t going to be a damsel from a movie and look back.
Instead, she tucked her chin and made fast work of searching out more even ground.
She couldn’t have been that far away from Price.
Once she was at the top of the slope, she could probably see where he was detaining the man from Jamie Bell’s house.
“Winnie Collins!”
JJ came to an almost instant halt.
She whirled around, utterly confused.
The man with the knife also stopped but he kept his knife pointed out at her.
“See? I can yell stuff too.” He moved the aim of his knife to a spot in the distance. “But I’m guessing you don’t have spaghetti or chicken tied up in your car, do you? That’s where our things are different.”
JJ’s stomach dropped past her feet.
Maybe she hadn’t heard him properly?
“Who?”
The man looked fragile by himself. There were wrinkles along his face, a scar at the side of his jaw, and a slight lean to him, like he had an injury somewhere along his leg or back?
Had Josiah managed to wound him during their fight?
The knife, however, was the line in the sand between them.
That was, until he said Winnie’s name.
He said it again too.
“Winnie Collins. Your boyfriend’s little girl.” He smirked. “What? You think we were following you just for fun? I’m here to trade. I can do that with you while my friend deals with dear Dad Deputy.”
The knife didn’t seem so bad anymore.
It was maybe five inches long, some of that the metal hilt. The blade wasn’t serrated and didn’t retract. If she could stay on the back of it, she could handle it.
“She’s in your car? Where’s that? We didn’t see any cars when we came in.”
The man’s smirk was simmering. He thought he had her.
“We hid ours with yours, of course. Since you two seem to be so good at being so sneaky. Too bad the girl didn’t have your stealth.”
Price’s truck was at the western gate of the Becker Farm. The walk to the barn had been around two minutes. They hadn’t gone into the woods but instead skirted them, careful to stay somewhat within the tree line.
JJ pointed in the direction he had.
“You want to trade me for Winnie?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Why?”
Did they know who she was, or had she become a pawn to use against Price?
The man’s smirk melted away at that.
He was impatient.
It probably didn’t help that his friend hadn’t rejoined him. The last they had seen of their partners had been Price wrestling cuffs on the other man.
“We’ll talk at the car,” he growled. “Get going or you and the girl will be sorry.”
JJ didn’t weigh her options. She knew what she needed to do.
She nodded and started in the direction of the western gate. She kept her hands up. The man didn’t hesitate. She could hear his shoes crunching over the leaves behind her.
Then he changed the game yet again.
“You sure acted better than that girl when we grabbed her,” he added. “She was still blubbering when we left.”
JJ stumbled. It slowed her down two steps. The man moved diagonally just behind her.
“She cried that much?” JJ ventured.
The man snorted.
“Buckets. But I guess most girls would lose it when they know they’re in danger. Why? You can’t believe your kid doesn’t have the stones to not make a peep?”
That cinched it.
“No,” she said. “She just doesn’t seem the type.”
* * *
The man had some moves, Price would give him that. He got his cuffs out and on one wrist before the man was a snake in the grass. He slithered this way and that until Price lost his grip.
The second the man realized he was free, he was off and running.
It surprised Price. He thought the man he’d fought in Jamie Bell’s house would have more, well, fight in him.
Especially without the threat of fighting against the speed of a fire.
But the man turned into a rabbit and made quick time of leaving the land next to the barn and running right along the tree line like it was nothing.
Part of Price wanted to change direction and chase after JJ and the other man. The other part wanted to keep up with his suspect for JJ. He was a part of her family’s trouble. Which meant he could help lead them to a way to solve it.
He couldn’t let that lead go.
Not when he was this close.
I’m actually really good at fighting.
JJ’s words from the elevator echoed in his head as he made the final decision to track his guy. Then it was an all-out race.
Price put everything he had into each step. His lungs burned. His muscles complained. The service weapon in its holster at his hip beneath his jacket bumped along for the ride. He wasn’t going to pull it out.
Not yet.
Not when all he had to do was—
They were moving along the curve of the tree line when the open land between the woods and the western gate came into view.
Instead of a big nothing, Price nearly lost his footing when he saw a whole someone trucking it in the same direction as the gate.
It was a woman.
“JJ?” he yelled out, voice strong despite his running.
Thankfully, it carried.
He could see her head turn their way.
But she didn’t stop.
If anything, she picked up speed toward the gate.
It was unsettling.
It also was distracting.
The man he was chasing had slowed.
It cost him the lead.
Price grabbed hold of the back of his jacket and pulled him to stop. They were both going too fast. The move threw off their respective balances and they hit the ground. Price was ready for it though. The man was not.
He yelled out as the ground was unkind to him.
Pain pulsed into Price’s knees and palms, but he was in control right after.
He took the cuffs still attached to the man’s wrist and finished the job.
“Don’t—don’t move,” Price said through clenched teeth.
The man didn’t try. He was making a noise between a whimper and a groan. Price didn’t wait to see if he was hurt or not. He was staring into the distance.
JJ had made it to the gate, but he couldn’t see what she was doing.
Then she switched direction and was coming back at him.
Like a moth drawn to a flame, Price’s feet had him running toward her before he even realized what he was doing.
That run became feral as he realized two things.
One, JJ wasn’t just running. She was running and holding herself. He couldn’t see where it was coming from, but blood stained her shirt. And not just a little.
Two, she was yelling something, and it was a desperate yell. Fear seemed to be seeping from her face right into her words.
And, when she was close enough, that fear went from her and exploded within him.
“Call Winnie!” she yelled.
Price collided with JJ, stopping them both. JJ kept yelling despite being tucked into his chest.
“Call Winnie now!”
All the blood in Price’s body seemed to freeze. He didn’t question her. It didn’t feel like there was time. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and fumbled to unlock it. He had Winnie’s caller ID up and the call started within the space of a terrified heartbeat.
JJ angled herself against him, so her face was pressed against his, phone between both of their ears. Her breathing was ragged. Price would later realize his was too. In that moment though, every fiber of his being was agonizing through a ringback tone that seemed to last forever.
However, it only really lasted two rings.
“Hey, Dad.” Winnie’s voice came through loud and clear.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m bored at work but yeah. Why?”
JJ deflated against him. Price had to reinforce his hold around her. She kept her face against his and spoke into the phone before he could respond.
“Winnie, go give your phone to Corrie,” she rasped out. “I—I need to talk to her.”
JJ reached up and took the phone as Winnie said an unsure okay. She pushed off Price and dug into the bag she had been wearing across her chest. It was covered in blood. She unzipped it and took her own cell phone out. She handed it over.
Corrie answered the phone before she could explain.
“Corrie? This is JJ. I need you to close the coffee shop and drive Winnie to the sheriff’s department. Right now. Don’t stop for anyone or anything. Got me?”
Price had never heard JJ sound so cold.
She met his eye.
“I’ll stay on the line with you until you get there.”
Price understood her phone now.
She wanted him to call the department.
Something bad must have happened. Something more than the blood on her.
Not only had he never heard her sound so cold, Price hadn’t seen JJ look so scared.
He nodded.
Then he called the sheriff directly.
Liam answered quickly.
Price didn’t waste either of their time.
“I need two cars and an ambulance over at the Becker Farm. But, Sheriff, I need you to stay at the department. I’m sending my daughter your way.”
Price shared another long look with JJ.
He didn’t know what was going on but, in that moment, he trusted no one more than the woman who had been leading a double life.