Chapter 1 #2
With a serial killer running around the Shelby area, murdering young women, the idea of being watched scared the hell out of Lakin. The Fiancée Killer had to be stalking his victims before he chose them, figuring out when they would be the most vulnerable. Once he chose them, he abducted them.
That was probably what happened to poor Dawn Ellis who’d been reported missing just a couple of days ago. Lakin hoped against hope that that wasn’t the case this time, that Dawn would be found alive.
But until this murderer was caught, like Fay, the barista, had advised Lakin needed to be extremely vigilant…so that she didn’t become the serial killer’s next victim.
* * *
In his entire twenty-six years of living, Troy had never been as scared as he was five weeks ago when he fell off the platform on the oil rig and then felt nothing.
One moment he’d been in excruciating pain from hitting the water and then nothing.
Instant paralysis. He probably would have drowned, too, if not for his coworkers jumping in to save him.
If only he’d lost consciousness, too, but he’d been all too aware of what he might be facing. He’d chosen to face it alone; he hadn’t allowed anyone to contact his family or Lakin.
He would deal with whatever he had to deal with on his own.
He hadn’t wanted anyone to make sacrifices for him like he knew Lakin would, despite all the dreams she’d had since they were kids.
So he’d spent weeks in the hospital waiting for news, for feeling, for anything but the panic that pressed down on him.
And then…
Feeling returned. At first it had been just tingling, but then that tingling had turned painful, like all his extremities had been asleep or frozen and were returning to wakefulness with a vengeance.
While Troy had been reluctant to get his hopes up, the doctors had been cautiously optimistic.
The swelling that had caused the nerve damage in his spine had gone down, and the paralysis he’d experienced had proven not to be permanent.
He still had some tingling in his hands and feet, and he couldn’t move as fast or carry what he normally would’ve on the job.
He might never recover enough to work on the oil rigs again.
And he had to take it easy while the contusions to his back continued to heal or the swelling could return and cause paralysis again.
And next time, the doctors warned, the nerves might not recover as quickly as they had the first time. Or they might not recover at all. And he would be permanently paralyzed.
He moved slowly and stiffly as he pushed open the driver’s door of his truck and stepped into the parking lot of Rough Terrain Adventures, the Colton family business.
The main office was actually a large cabin with a metal roof and a big porch.
An enormous garage sheltered their vehicles and equipment, and several cabins behind it housed family, like Lakin, or were rented to guests.
This place was usually his first stop when he came home.
But this morning, he’d stopped to see a different Colton.
Mitch Colton wasn’t part of the family business—he owned and operated Shelby’s local corporate law practice.
Troy had asked for Mitch’s advice with the situation with his employer, with the safety issues on his job.
He wanted to address that situation as much for his coworkers as for himself.
Mitch had promised he would take care of it.
But Mitch wasn’t the Colton Troy really needed to see.
He missed Lakin so damn bad. He needed to feel the power of the wide smile that lit up her whole face and made her dark eyes glow. He needed to touch her silky dark hair and her soft skin. To kiss her sweet lips.
Every minute he was away from her, he ached for her. It had been even worse when he was lying in that hospital bed waiting for feeling to return, praying that it would. If it hadn’t, he would have even less to offer her.
While she’d gone to college after high school and had a bachelor’s degree in business and accounting, he’d chosen to go straight to work to help support his younger siblings.
Mom had already been working two jobs after Dad passed away.
He’d been injured on an oil rig, too—but fatally.
Mom hadn’t wanted Troy’s help, though. She had insisted that she had everything under control.
And she probably had. She’d always been strong and resilient.
But Troy hadn’t wanted her to keep working so hard.
He would have felt guilty if he’d left her to manage on her own.
As the fifth of seven kids, he used to feel a bit lost in the shuffle.
Helping her and his younger siblings made him feel useful to her and his family in a way that he hadn’t before.
Until he’d started helping his mom, the only person he’d really felt useful to was Lakin, as first her friend in elementary and middle school and then…
Then in high school, he’d realized that his sudden attraction to his best friend wasn’t just unruly teenage hormones but that he really loved her. That he had probably always loved her.
Just like the Coltons had fallen for her when they first set eyes on the little girl their friends had been fostering.
With her thick dark hair and big, deep dark eyes, she was physically beautiful, but there was also a spiritual beauty to Lakin.
She had this sweetness and kindness about her that drew people to her.
Some bad, like the old playground bullies who’d mistaken her kindness for weakness, but mostly good, like Troy hoped he was.
And yet he still worried that he wasn’t good enough for her.
Wanting so badly to see her, he hastened his step as he started across the parking lot toward the office. But the faster he moved, the more he limped as those tight muscles in his back and legs cramped.
“Troy!”
He recognized that voice and turned to find his sister Hetty standing behind him. Then she started toward him, limping even worse than he probably was.
“What happened to you?” he asked, his voice gruff with emotion at seeing his tough sister hobbling. Hetty was only two years older than him, but she’d always seemed so much older and wiser and tougher to him than he would ever be.
“I was shot,” she said, matter-of-fact.
He gasped like a bullet struck him along with her words. “What?”
“Exactly,” she said. “How the hell don’t you know? Where have you been?”
“Working.”
“Bullshit,” she said, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. They were the same green as his and their father’s. “I saw you get out of the truck. You look like you’ve been shot, too.”
He shook his head, then winced as a twinge went from the base of his skull down his spine. “I had an accident. That’s all.”
It was her turn to gasp. “Dammit, Troy. Do you know how Mom would feel if we lost you like we lost Dad?”
He knew. That was another reason he hadn’t wanted to contact anyone after the accident. Not until he knew how much—if at all—he was going to recover.
Hetty answered her own question. “It would kill her.”
“I’m not the only one with a dangerous job. And you’re the daredevil in the family,” he reminded the pilot. “How the hell did you get shot?”
She sighed. “It’s…a long story. There’s been a lot going on since you’ve been gone.”
“But you’re okay now?” he asked, his heart beating fast with concern.
Hetty smiled, and her eyes lit up with a happiness he hadn’t seen in her since their dad died. “I’ve never been better. I’m in love.”
“Really?” Troy asked. She’d always been so tough and independent. “Who’s the lucky guy?”
“Spence Colton.”
Shocked at her declaration, Troy whistled between his teeth. “Did hell freeze over?” For years, she’d fought with and complained about the RTA tour guide, probably mostly because Spence had been so popular, especially with their female guests.
She laughed. “Well, getting seriously hurt puts things in perspective,” she said, then narrowed her eyes again. “Doesn’t it?”
Troy nodded. He just wasn’t sure how to handle that perspective, or how to even move forward with a future that was still so uncertain. Maybe he shouldn’t have come to RTA or even home to Shelby. Maybe he should just stay away from Lakin.
She had so many dreams. She wanted a business of her own, one they could build and manage together. When he’d finally emailed her, he realized she messaged him much more frequently than he did her.
But when he was on the rig, he worked such long hours that he fell into bed exhausted at the end of a shift.
In her emails she’d told him about the old Shelby Hotel going up for auction.
Unfortunately the date of the auction had already passed.
Not that they would have had enough money to buy it and invest in the extensive remodeling the two-story building needed to make it operational again.
Those extensive renovations would also require a lot of manpower.
And right now, Troy didn’t have the money or the physical ability to turn the hotel into the business Lakin wanted it to be.
After so many weeks of not talking to her, he wasn’t sure that he even had Lakin anymore.
After so much time with no contact from him, maybe she’d realized she didn’t need him anymore, that she didn’t want him anymore.
But Lakin, being Lakin, wouldn’t break up via email or text.
She would wait until he was home to do it in person.
“Let’s talk,” Troy said to his sister. “I want to hear about everything that happened to you. Everything that happened while I was gone.”
She glanced toward the office. “You don’t want to talk to Lakin first?”
He wanted to do more than talk to his longtime love.
His body ached for hers; he’d been gone too long.
But then his body just ached a lot now. And he was scared of what the future might hold.
How angry was she with him for being out of touch for so long?
She would also be so upset that they’d missed out on the opportunity to buy the old hotel.
Unfortunately, they wouldn’t have been able to even if he’d been in communication with her.
He was helping his mother with his brother’s college tuition; he hadn’t managed to save enough yet for the future Lakin envisioned for them.
He needed to work a couple more years on the rigs to get enough for them to open and operate something like a hotel, especially one that needed as many renovations as the old Shelby Hotel.
What if he wasn’t able to physically work on the rigs anymore? He might never be able to help make Lakin’s dreams come true.
And then he wouldn’t be the partner she needed and deserved.
“Lakin’s working,” Troy reminded his sister. “Instead of interrupting something, I should wait until she’s done for the day.”
Hetty’s brow furrowed beneath a lock of her thick black hair. “You know she’s going to be thrilled to see you. She always is.”
True. Every time he came home after months spent away from her, it felt like they were on a vacation or a honeymoon.
Lakin’s entire face would light up with a smile and she’d run into his arms, arms that longed to hold her.
She would take some personal days off work, and they would spend as much time as they could in bed or on the couch or in a tent in the woods, just being together in every way.
Making up for lost time was what they called it.
The weeks Troy had spent in a hospital bed, waiting for his back to heal, had been lost time.
While Mitch figured Troy might have a case against the oil company, Troy wasn’t as convinced.
When his dad died, there had been no payout because that would have been an admission of poor safety protocols in the workplace.
And the oil company was not about to admit to violating safety rules.
The lawyer his mother had been able to afford hadn’t found enough evidence to convince a civil court judge to make the company pay them anything either.
Troy wasn’t sure he had enough evidence either.
And if he didn’t, there was no making up for what he’d lost, money, work and maybe even relationship-wise.
* * *
The photograph was more than twenty years old, so it was frayed on the edges and the colors were so faded that it was nearly black and white. Yet the man holding it knew exactly who the people in that picture were.
One of them was him, but a younger, more muscular version with thick hair and a cockiness in the way he stood that he didn’t feel anymore. He knew more now than he had then, so much more. He wouldn’t wind up where he had before; he was smarter now.
He drew in a deep breath and focused on the other people in the picture he held in the palm of his hand.
He’d been studying it for a while as he sat in the battered pickup truck he’d borrowed a few weeks ago.
He knew the other people in that old photograph, too, the dark-haired woman and the dark-haired toddler she held in her arms.
That toddler had grown up and looked like the woman now, almost eerily so, like she was her ghost. The first time he saw her in Shelby, he thought he really had seen a ghost.
But she was real, the young woman. He’d finally found her, and he’d spent the past couple of weeks following her around from the coffee shop she stopped at every morning to her job at the adventure tour company. She lived there, too, in one of the small cabins on the property.
He knew everywhere she went and everything she did now. He’d been watching her to learn her routine and to figure out what he was going to do about her.
Or get out of her.
Because there was a reason that he’d tracked down that young woman. There was some unfinished business between them. And it was well past time that he finished it, and maybe her as well.