Chapter 17
“Jesse. Jesse!”
The sound of her name sliced through the blessed silence, forcing her back to a reality that included a sluggish brain fog and a nasty coating on her tongue.
With an effort, she managed to lift her lashes, which felt as if they’d been glued together, trying to focus on the face that hovered just above her.
She’d had a few hangovers in her day, but none of them had ever been this bad. Certainly she’d never awakened with no memory of what she’d been doing or even where she was.
Taking a minute, she carefully glanced around, relieved to discover she was in the foyer of the Tap Room, and that there was a flood of sunshine pouring through the door, which was hanging at a weird angle.
At least she was home. Which meant she hadn’t been making a fool of herself in some strange bar.
Next, she focused on the face that was disturbingly close.
It took her a little longer to dredge through the fog to call up a name.
“Noah,” she at last croaked, struggling to sit up.
“No, don’t move.”
She ignored his command, trying to recall why the words sounded familiar. Oh yeah. She’d said them to Bea in this precise spot just a couple of nights ago.
Jesse shook her head, as if she could shake away the fog. “Is this a nightmare?”
Noah leaned back on his knees, an unreadable emotion tightening his features. “You see me and assume you’re having a nightmare? You’re brutal on a man’s ego, Jesse Hudson.”
“No, it’s just …” She let her words trail away, the thought lost in the mist. It didn’t matter. At least not now. “What happened?” she demanded instead.
“I was going to ask you that question,” Noah said.
“I texted you this morning to say that I was coming over to start the repairs at eight. When you didn’t get back to me I was worried, so I drove over to make sure everything was okay.
I was about to knock when I saw you through the back window.
” He glanced over his shoulder. “I kicked in the door to get in. I’ll have it replaced. ”
Well, at least that explained why the door was hanging at a weird angle. And why Noah was at the bar.
“What time is it?”
“Eight thirty.” Noah scowled as Jesse grimly shoved herself upright. He straightened, grabbing her upper arm. “Careful. You might have a concussion.”
She shook her head. It was sluggish, but it didn’t hurt like it’d been smacked. “I don’t think so.”
His brows arched. “Now you’re a doctor?”
There was another sense of déjà vu as he repeated the words she’d said to Bea, only this time the sensation was overshadowed by another memory that hovered on the edge of the fog.
“My head is fine,” she muttered.
“Are you sure? It looks like you fell down the stairs.”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Then what happened?”
“I’m trying to remember.” She scowled, annoyed as the memories began to form only to slip away. Like figments of a dream.
Noah brushed a gentle finger over her cheek. “Maybe if you start from the beginning? What happened after I saw you at the storage locker?”
Jesse took a deep breath, forcing her tense muscles to relax. It seemed an eternity since she’d been standing in front of her dad’s unit with Noah next to her. But his words did jolt the memory of finding the picture of Tegan in Victoria’s wrecked car, and tracking down Kayla Murphy.
“I remember going to St. Louis and—”
“St. Louis?” Noah interrupted. “Why?”
Jesse flinched at his sharp tone. He sounded almost angry. Was it because she’d gone without telling him? Or because he didn’t want her to continue to dig into the past?
“I did some shopping and ate dinner,” she said, deliberately avoiding any mention of her conversation with Kayla. “I just needed to get away for a while.”
“Okay. You went to St. Louis. And then?”
Jesse had a fuzzy vision of leaving the shopping mall and driving back to Canton. She’d been fiercely satisfied to have her suspicions that Victoria was a fraud confirmed. And that there was every likelihood that she was out there somewhere, conning yet another man.
The problem was, she hadn’t had the first clue how to expose the woman.
Or how to track her down to get answers about what had happened to her dad.
That was why she lingered in St. Louis. There was no need to rush home when she was just going to pace the floor in frustration.
And why it was dark when she’d been driving back to Canton.
“Oh.”
“Jesse?”
An icy chill spread through her body. The looming sense of danger that she’d felt since opening her eyes wasn’t caused by her trip to St. Louis. It was the near-death experience on the highway.
“I was on my way home when I realized someone was following me,” she murmured.
“Who?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t recognize the car.”
“Can you describe it?”
Jesse reluctantly forced herself to recall the horrifying moment when the vehicle swerved into her lane. It’d been dark, but the glow from the headlights had allowed her to make out a few details.
“It was light. Maybe silver.”
“Midsize? An SUV?”
“Midsize.” She hesitated. She was certain of the size, but the lines of the vehicle hadn’t been the usual boring style. “But not like a cheap car.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was fancy.”
“A sports car?”
Jesse hesitated again, struggling to describe what she’d seen. It had happened so fast, and she was more intent on avoiding a crash than taking notes on the car trying to run her off the road.
“More like a BMW or Mercedes sedan,” she at last decided.
Noah’s expression never changed, but Jesse sensed his body tense, as if he was bothered by her description.
“You’re sure they were following you?” he demanded. “St. Louis has a lot of traffic.”
“Of course I’m sure.” Jesse frowned at the implication that she was overreacting. “I didn’t notice them until I was almost to Canton. And then …” She shuddered at the memory.
“And then what?”
She licked her lips. Why were they so dry? Her mouth felt like the Sahara Desert.
“They started to pass, but when they were right next to me, they suddenly swerved into my lane. If there hadn’t been an access road there, I would have been forced into the ditch.”
“Damn.” His jaw clenched. “I don’t suppose you called the sheriff to report them?”
“No.” Her tone let him know it was a stupid question. “The car didn’t follow me after I was off the highway. I thought I’d managed to lose them, so I drove here to lock myself in and barricade the door, just to be sure no one could get in.”
He stared down at her. “But they did get in.”
“Yes.” Her gaze drifted toward the wonky door.
She’d been standing in this spot last night.
And she’d seen the moonlight through the opening, right?
“They must have come through the back door. I don’t know how.
I’m sure it was locked, but someone was waiting in the shadows.
They put a gag over my mouth.” She had to stop to clear the lump from her throat.
“I thought they were going to suffocate me. The next thing I knew, you were calling my name.”
“You must have been drugged.”
His words hit her like a slap in the face. Of course. She’d thought that she’d passed out because of lack of oxygen. A stupid theory, but in her defense, her mind was still fuzzy.
“Yes, that makes sense. They must have put something on the rag they shoved over my face.”
“Did you notice anything about them? Man or woman? Was there more than one?”
Jesse considered his question. After the form had leaped out at her, her mind had gone blank. She’d been locked in a primal battle of fight or flight. All she knew for certain was that there was at least one person. Oh … and they whispered in her ear before leaving her on the floor.
“Victoria.”
“Wait. Did you say Victoria?” Noah demanded in confusion. “Your stepmother?”
Jesse pressed a hand to her stomach. The memory of the soft voice made her feel nauseous.
“She told me to leave or she would destroy everything I love.”
“You’re sure it was Victoria? I mean …”
She met his concerned gaze, her lips parting to insist that it’d been Victoria in the foyer with her last night.
Hadn’t she just discovered that the woman made a habit of pretending to be dead before she disappeared?
But the words died on her lips. The truth was that she was nearly unconscious when she heard the whisper.
And there was no way she could swear that it was Victoria.
“No. No, my brain was already fuzzy. I thought it was her,” she admitted.
“But the voice belonged to a woman?” he pressed.
Again she forced herself to concentrate on what she’d actually heard, not what she wanted to believe.
“I’m not sure.”
“Okay.”
As if sensing she’d revealed everything she could remember from the terrifying night, Noah lay a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“Stay here. I’m going to check the building. I doubt if anyone was stupid enough to hang around, but I don’t want to take any chances.”
Panic spiked through Jesse as he dropped his hand and stepped back.
“I’m coming with you,” she announced, her voice too loud.
“Jesse—”
“I don’t want to be alone.”
His features hardened, obviously battling between the urge to keep her safe and the realization that she was still recovering from being drugged.
“Okay,” he conceded at last, turning to glance down the shadowed hallway. “We’ll start at the bottom and work our way up.”
Allowing Noah to take the lead, Jesse concentrated on placing one foot in front of the other. Her body felt oddly lethargic, as if it wasn’t fully connected to her brain.
Noah halted as they reached the door to the cellar, pulling it open and flipping on the light. He glanced over his shoulder.
“You’re sure you wouldn’t rather wait up here?”
She shivered. “Absolutely.”
“Okay. Careful,” Noah grabbed her hand as they slowly climbed down the stairs. They reached the bottom step when he abruptly blocked her way. “Wait. Do you hear that?”