Chapter 8
8
“W hat can you do on your end?” Archer asked his brother-in-law, Travis, after briefing him on the situation.
“Has Annalee been contacted by cell phone?” Travis asked.
“No,” he said. To his knowledge, it was the reason she had a burner phone. “I’ll doublecheck, but I’m certain hers can’t be traced as well as her mother’s.” The fact no one had tried to contact Annalee by text to draw her out using her mother’s cell must mean Becca was out there free somewhere. Right? He needed to run the idea past Annalee once she woke up. Her slow, steady breathing said she’d dozed off.
“My tech contact is still trying to trace the text message you received earlier today.” Travis exhaled a sharp sigh. “It’s not looking good, though. We should have discovered something by now.”
“Encryption?”
“That and a few other terms that are beyond my knowledge,” Travis said. “I’ll send a deputy to investigate the crime scene where your truck is, and I’m on my way to dust for fingerprints on the handgun. I can also put a trace on Owen’s phone while that’s happening.”
Thank the stars for having access to Travis’s resources. “How long will it take to get any results?”
“Real investigations take time, unlike on television cop shows.” The frustration in Travis’s voice said Owen could be dead by the time forensics came back on the gun. “I’ll put out Missing Persons reports on Owen and Annalee’s mother, Becca.”
“What else can we do?” There had to be something more Archer specifically could be doing.
“Stay put, and stay safe.”
Travis ended the call, saying he would be there in fifteen minutes. Kade was wearing a path in the carpet, pacing. Worry lines creased his forehead. Archer imagined he must look as concerned as his brother.
“The others are still searching for Owen,” Kade said. “I told them to exercise caution and not to approach if they found him but to alert the rest of us as to the location before making any moves.” Kade clenched his jaw. “I added Becca to the list of missing persons to keep an eye out for.”
“You heard the call with Travis.”
Kade nodded.
“Staying around here feels like not doing anything at all,” Archer said, even though there was some satisfaction in keeping Annalee safe and within arm’s reach. He never wanted to let her out of his sight again. Until this ordeal is over.
The reminder popped into his thoughts almost as fast. He was gun shy about letting himself think about what would happen to her once they found Owen and her mother—and finding the two of them was the only option Archer would let himself consider. Anything else might condemn their mission, and he loved his brother too much for that.
Had the two of them had their fair share of arguments over the years? Hell, yes. They loved each other, but they were human and brothers. They got on each other’s nerves more than any other of the siblings because of how close they were. They also worked as a team, and that had gotten them through a helluva lot of awful predicaments with Beaumont.
Archer remembered the day he’d walked into the barn to find Owen kneeling while his back was slapped with a racing whip. Welts had risen, looking like an aerial view of the Dead Horse Ridge area. Owen had been eleven years old at the time. He’d taken Archer’s punishment, he would later learn, for not remembering to water the horses. It was the reason Archer had come back to the barn in the first place.
“Get the hell out of here, Owen,” Beaumont had said to Archer.
The bastard had had the wrong kid and hadn’t even known it.
Before Archer could protest, Owen had met his gaze. Teary-eyed, his brother’s tense expression had warned Archer to go away. Coming clean about who had really been responsible would’ve meant both would be whipped. For Archer, knowing his brother was inside the barn, taking a beating meant for him, had been far worse than an actual whipping. Physical pain, he’d learned, was temporary. Emotional scars carved deep grooves in his soul.
At eleven, he’d turned tail and left, but guilt and shame had followed. In fact, it haunted him to this day. Once again, Owen was in danger because of Archer.
“Did you hear me?” Kade asked, snapping his fingers about two feet from Archer’s face.
“Sorry. What did you say?”
“You are doing something. In fact, you’re doing everything you can think of right now,” Kade said. His brother had taken on the role of protector when his now-wife Breanne—Bree to everyone who knew her—had been targeted while pregnant with his child unbeknownst to him. Their situation had a lot of layers to peel back, considering Kade had been under the impression Bree had been pregnant with his best friend’s child—a friend who’d been killed right next to Kade while on a mission. Kade knew about guilt. “The best advice I can give you is not to let those thoughts take hold in your mind… The ones that try to convince you that you’re somehow responsible for all this. You’re not. You were blindsided by the situation as much as everyone else. And, to be honest, it could’ve happened to any one of us.”
It hadn’t, though. This wasn’t the right time to point out the fact to Kade. His brother made perfect sense on a logical level. Emotions were driven by the heart. And his heart had very different ideas about this being his fault.
Instead of arguing, he said, “Will you stay here with Annalee while I raid the office? I’d like to find paper and pencils so we can draw a map of the town and mark any areas we think would be a good place to stash someone. Also, it might be helpful if we come at this problem from Owen’s perspective. Retrace his steps from this morning. Hudson saw him last, so he might be the right person to speak to about where they were and if Owen had mentioned in passing where he was headed.”
“You bet,” Kade said. “Also, I texted Chloe and asked her to swing by the house on her way here. Figured you guys could use fresh clothes, toothbrushes, etcetera. She said there’s a shower in the bathroom off the office here. Said she did some volunteer work here once so she got to know the lay of the land.”
“Thank you.”
“Little things make a big difference in times like these.” Kade’s point was a valid one. “I’ve also arranged for a hot meal to be brought.”
Kade would know exactly what was needed after what he’d been through recently. His older brother had gone into the military hours after his high school graduation. The steady-state influence in the house had been gone in a snap. Life had gotten worse after Kade took off, and Archer had realized how much his older brother had been shielding them from. Being back in Saddle Junction hadn’t felt remotely like home until now, in this moment. Having all the family rally together around him reminded him how much he’d missed out on. How much they’d all missed out on having an SOB like Beaumont for a father. The man had viewed his children much like the racehorses he’d bred. Winners were lauded. Defects made them losers. Losers were cast aside. Life had been black and white for the man.
As for Archer’s mother, she’d taken off after a rough beating. Or so he’d been told. Her absence had focused Beaumont’s attention on his children after that. He and Owen might have been a couple of years younger than Kade, but their brother had taken the brunt of the dysfunctional family dynamic.
“Saying thank you doesn’t even come close to what it means for you to be here, Kade.” Archer embraced his brother in a bear hug. “I missed the hell out of you.”
His thoughts shifted to how difficult it was going to be to let go of Annalee a second time. Losing her twice would rip his heart from his chest.
At least he had a family to fall back on for support.
Who did she have?
Annalee woke with a start. She bolted upright, causing the coats to tumble to the floor. They landed with a swish.
It was pitch black in the room.
“Archer,” she whispered.
“I’m right here,” he said before muttering a curse. The scuffing sound of something on the floor said he’d walked into a chair. A few seconds later, there was light. She realized he was using the flashlight app on his phone to find his way through the dark.
“What’s going on?” she asked, picking up the coats and setting them on the chair where her head had been a few moments ago.
“Your guess is as good as ours.”
Icy fingers gripped her spine. “They found me.”
“We need to hide the backpack.” Archer immediately backtracked to where his brother was standing in the back of the room.
Annalee immediately followed. By this point, Kade also had his flashlight app on.
“We can’t use these for long without giving away our location in the building,” Archer said.
Heart thumping, her pulse shot through the roof as panic seized her chest. Her thoughts immediately snapped to the shooter. “He could shoot through one of the windows.”
Archer nodded before picking up the backpack. His gaze shifted to the paneled ceiling. “It should be easy enough to push one of those open and then tuck the backpack safely above us. Can you two cause a distraction while I work?”
Right. They needed to draw attention.
“You got it.” With that, and reminding herself to breathe, Annalee grabbed hold of Kade’s arm before he led them both into the vestibule. Memories crashed down on her from being here earlier, from the first time she laid eyes on Archer again after believing the two would never be in the same room again.
She shouldn’t have talked about him to her mother over the years, wondering where he’d gone and what his life was like. Her mother had loose lips.
In thinking of her mother, and now that Annalee was thinking more clearly, she realized she should have written down a list of her mother’s exes. It made sense this ordeal would be tied to someone more recent.
Could be an associate of a boyfriend.
The thought quashed the split-second of hope she might be able to solve the puzzle and go home. But what home?
The annoying voice in the back of her mind needed to zip it. She had an apartment if not a home. It was a place to lay her head. She worked under the table at a bar and paid cash for the apartment over the garage of the bar owner. It was a small one-bedroom with a corner kitchenette—not much, but it held the few belongings she wanted to keep. Losing her grandmother’s brooch would destroy her. It was the only thing Annalee had to remember Granny by.
Forcing her thoughts back to the present, she and Kade slipped into the office and behind the desk.
“You can fit in there,” he said, motioning to behind the desk. “Pull the chair in as far as you can. I’ll hide in the bathroom, behind the door. If anyone comes in, they’ll no doubt check the desk. I’ll be able to surprise them from behind.”
“What about Archer?” How could she tuck herself away safely when he was still in the other room?
“He’ll be just fine,” Kade reassured. The words did little to calm her stress levels. He must have picked up on it because he added, “My brother is strong enough to take care of himself. It’ll be better for him if we’re in here and I’m watching over you. He’ll be able to focus.”
When he put it like that, it made perfect sense. She distracted Archer and weakened him because he would step in front of a bullet for someone else, even someone who’d hurt him. That was just the way Archer was built.
Slinking behind the desk made her feel like such a coward. But Kade was right. If Archer believed she was secure, he would be able to focus. Maintaining laser focus could mean the difference between life and death. The man wanted her, not him. Wouldn’t the bastard shoot on sight?
Not if the asshole wanted to use Archer as a bargaining chip.
What else could they use? Annalee had very few possessions, the brooch being the only thing of value, and the value was sentimental, not monetary. Her thoughts bounced back to Granny. She’d passed away when Annalee was seven. A popular belief was that kids didn’t retain memories before age ten. Annalee didn’t believe that one bit. Some of her memories might be fuzzy, but others were strong. The few photos her mother had printed out of the two of them helped. Like the countless hours Annalee had sat on Granny’s lap on the porch in her favorite rocking chair. They’d sipped lemonade from glass straws because Granny had said they had to save the turtles. Granny had possessed a heart of gold. She’d lost her husband to an accident with heavy farming equipment and had taken in sewing and odd jobs to get by.
The sound of gravel crunching underneath tires tightened the knot in her chest. One of two things could happen. The first and best-case scenario would be the person arriving would scare off the shooter. The second, and the one she didn’t even want to consider, would be the person coming to help would end up shot.
Since Annalee couldn’t risk another one of Archer’s family members being hurt because of her situation, she bolted away from the desk toward the front door to warn them.
She expected Kade to say something to stop her, but he was silent. Silent, yes, but also two steps behind her.
Kade’s hand gripped her arm before she reached the door, stopping her cold.
“No,” was all he whispered.
Annalee jerked her arm away and then screamed, “Help!”