Chapter 10
Chapter
Ten
Stella rode with Blaze in one of the firm’s Suburbans. The cab smelled like leather and gun oil and the lemongrass scent of his skin. She had given him Nell’s address as soon as they got in the car, and now he was following the GPS directions in silence.
The sun had dropped behind the ridge. Late October light spilled blue and thin across the dashboard, the last warmth of the day already gone.
Stella watched the sky from the passenger window and tried to keep her breathing even.
Her bear paced at the back of her mind, anxious and demanding. Her purse was gripped in her lap.
The cab felt claustrophobic. She could feel the heat of him in the driver’s seat, three feet away, his right hand resting loose on the wheel.
The sleeve of his black T-shirt cut across his biceps, and the tattoos on his arm ran unbroken down to his hand.
His scarred knuckles flexed when he braked at the stop sign.
She made herself look at the windshield.
Her bear was whining about being three feet from her mate, but Stella was not going to let her say it. A young woman she cared about was missing. Going to Blaze had been her last option. The bond could wait.
It was not waiting.
Pine Street was four minutes from Steel Protection. Blaze pulled into the small lot behind the converted Victorian and parked. He killed the engine and sat for a second with both hands on the wheel before he looked over at her.
“Path down to the trail is where?”
“Back of the lot. There’s a connector path through the landscaping that comes out on the regional trail. I came down it once, the day I helped Nell move in last summer. She wanted to show me she could run from her own back door.”
They got out and walked across the lot. The asphalt was patchy, with weeds growing through the cracks. The connector path was a narrow strip of gravel, lined with low rhododendrons, that wound down about twenty feet to the regional trail.
The six-foot-wide trail was lined with alder and Douglas fir on either side.
The alders had gone gold and were shedding into the leaf litter.
The firs held their needles dark against the failing light.
To the right, the trail climbed gently toward Fate Village Park.
To the left, it dropped toward the creek that fed Lake Fate.
The air smelled like wet leaves and creek water and the faint resin of the firs.
They started down the trail. Blaze sniffed the air and scanned the trees on both sides as they walked. About a mile in, he stopped, and she stopped beside him.
“What is it?”
“Picking up a chemical scent.”
She breathed in. Wet leaves. Creek water. Fir resin. Underneath all of it, something else. Sweet. Sharp.
He started off the trail into the forest, and she followed him. A narrow break ran through the underbrush, ten feet off the main trail. It twisted between two firs and opened into a small, flat clearing near a moss-covered log.
The chemical scent was stronger here. Blaze crouched at the base of the log and examined the leaf litter.
He then pulled a pair of rubber gloves out of his jacket and put them on.
When he moved the leaf litter aside, he found a white cotton handkerchief.
He picked it up and lifted it close to his face and breathed in.
“Chloroform.”
The word landed in Stella’s chest. Her knees went unsteady, and she put a hand against the trunk of the nearest fir to keep herself upright.
Blaze pulled a Ziplock out of his jacket and sealed the handkerchief inside. He marked the bag with a black Sharpie and a date. The chemical scent dropped a notch the moment the bag was closed, and the other scents around her came forward.
Lavender soap. Old paper. Nell.
“I can smell her.”
“Show me.”
Stella turned in a slow circle, sniffing the air. She walked to the edge of the clearing, crouched, and moved a handful of dead leaves aside.
Nell’s phone was face down in the dirt at the base of a Douglas fir, fifteen feet from the log where she’d gone down. The case was scuffed. A faded sticker on the back showed a cartoon wren that Stella had given her for her last birthday.
Stella sat back on her heels in the leaves.
Her hands were shaking. Blaze crouched beside her, close enough that she could feel the warmth coming off him.
He took a photograph of the phone before he touched it.
He then lifted it carefully in his gloved hands.
The screen was shattered. The case had split along one edge.
He slid the phone into a second Ziplock, sealed the bag, and marked it.
“Somebody drugged her on this trail. And then threw her phone hard enough to break it against a tree.”
“What do we do now?”
“We bring this back to Dom. Axel takes the phone tonight and pulls what he can.” He stood up. He held out a hand to her.
Stella looked at it for a second before she took it.
His palm was warm and rough with calluses, and the moment her fingers closed around his, the bond hit her like a hot wire under her skin.
Her bear surged. Stella pulled in a breath through her nose and let him lift her up out of the leaves.
Her legs were less steady than before, and his grip stayed firm until she had her feet under her.
He let go. She felt the absence of him on her palm like cold air on a burn.