Chapter 2 #2
That was why Dad and Uncle Ryan had moved from San Diego and started over in Shelby, where no one knew what had happened. For nearly thirty years, there had been no reminders of that horrible time.
But now…
It was as if that dead killer was starting over, too.
Lakin wondered if Eli was having nightmares again like he occasionally had as a kid.
His nightmares had helped her feel better about the ones she had, like she wasn’t so weak and messed up.
Because Eli definitely wasn’t. She wasn’t even sure he remembered having them, but he and their father had been extra comforting when she had hers.
She hadn’t had a nightmare in years, though. Probably because her memories of the time before Mom and Dad adopted her had faded. She shivered again, wondering why she’d started thinking about those fleeting flashes of a face or voices…
What could her old memories have to do with the current murders? Nothing.
Maybe she was just looking for something to think about besides her tenuous relationship with Troy. They spent so much time apart, and whenever she tried to talk about the future, he either ignored her like he had the past few weeks or he insisted they needed to wait until he saved more money.
Lakin was getting tired of waiting. While she had no intention of buying herself an engagement ring, especially with the Fiancée Killer on the loose, she had bought herself something else.
And she wasn’t a damn bit sorry. She wanted Troy to share her dreams, but if he wasn’t ready, it didn’t matter.
She wasn’t putting her dreams on hold anymore, not even for him.
The thought made her sick again, and she was glad she was drawing closer to her cabin. She’d had some sleepless nights lately as she lay awake, listening for any suspicious sounds, for someone trying to get into her place.
The killer was making her paranoid, and she hated it. Hated feeling like she did now, chilled all of a sudden. Maybe the cabins she’d passed weren’t all empty. Maybe someone had chosen to skip their adventure tour or had returned early.
Or maybe…
Maybe it wasn’t a guest. Maybe someone really was following her and scrutinizing her every move. She shivered, trying to shake off the paranoia. But she glanced back over her shoulder nonetheless.
The wind wriggled some tree branches, but nothing else moved behind her.
Definitely paranoid.
Smiling at herself, she let the tension drain away and slowed her approach to her cabin.
She wouldn’t be living here much longer if she had her way, so she took a moment to study the little wood structure tucked into a stand of pine trees.
She and Troy had had so many magical moments in this place that she would miss it.
Like she missed him…
So damn much that she ached for him. Why hadn’t he come inside the office earlier today? Why had he just driven off again without even a wave in her direction?
She blinked against the sudden rush of tears, and as she refocused, she noticed that her door wasn’t shut tightly. A crack showed between it and the jamb. While she hadn’t always locked her door, ever since hearing about the serial killer, she made certain that she closed and locked it.
Unless…
Was it Troy? She didn’t see his truck parked anywhere, but maybe he’d hidden it to surprise her. But she didn’t feel the way she usually felt when he was near; she didn’t feel any tingling awareness of him.
She felt only fear.
* * *
Hired assassins. Dead bodies and a serial killer. As Hetty brought Troy up to speed on what had been happening in Shelby, he was horrified and worried.
That morning Mitch had alluded to a lot happening lately in Shelby, but the lawyer hadn’t had time to go into detail.
He’d left for court right after his meeting with Troy.
Troy wished Mitch would have filled him in on all this; he wouldn’t have decided to catch up with his sister before seeing the woman he loved.
The woman he was so damn worried about now.
Lakin lived alone in her little cabin that was too far from the other ones at RTA, too far away for someone to hear her cry for help, for someone to rescue her if she needed it.
Scared for her safety, he jumped up from his chair at the table he and Hetty were sharing at Roasters. Even this late in the day, the café was pretty busy with people using laptops or reading books while sipping from their bright blue Roasters coffee mugs.
“I need to check on Lakin,” he told Hetty.
While he’d wanted to give himself some time to figure out how to tell Lakin what happened on the oil rig, he wished now that he’d rushed right in to see her, to hold her, to assure himself that she was all right.
That was all he wanted to do now, make sure that she was safe. He started toward the door.
“Hey,” Hetty called after him. “You should have been worried about Lakin before this. You should have been worried about losing her.”
Losing her?
Because he’d never been good enough for her? He’d known that for years; that was why he hadn’t proposed yet. He wanted to be able to buy her a big engagement ring as well as that business she wanted to run with him. He wanted to be able to make all of her dreams come true.
Was that what Hetty was talking about? That Lakin was going to realize he wasn’t good enough for her? Or that he might lose her to someone like the serial killer going after women in Shelby?
Right now he just wanted to make sure Lakin was safe, so he didn’t bother to ask his sister to clarify. Instead, ignoring the twinge in his back, he hurried out of the café and hopped in his truck. Speeding back to RTA, Troy silently cursed himself for leaving earlier without talking to her.
While he appreciated his sister apprising him of everything that had happened while he was gone, she’d wasted her breath warning him about losing Lakin. He’d been worried about losing her ever since their first date.
But then he’d only been worried about losing her to someone who had more to offer her than he did. Now he was worried about all the other horrific ways that he could lose her.
He hoped Dawn Ellis was found soon. Hopefully she wouldn’t be another victim of the serial killer.
A serial killer in their safe community. Hired assassins who’d shot Hetty.
What the hell was happening in the place he’d always considered the safest? While crime and chaos ruled in other areas, Shelby had always been quiet and controlled with nothing more than petty thefts and drunken disorderly conduct around town.
But now…
Now he just wanted to see Lakin, to hold her, to make sure that she was safe.
He was so impatient that the truck tires squealed as he turned into the parking lot of RTA.
Jumping out of his truck, he limped across the porch of the RTA office, pushed open the door and stepped inside, calling out, “Lakin! Lakin!”
Parker poked his head out of his office and grinned at him. “Hey, Troy, I’m damn glad to see you’re home!”
The Coltons had always been so friendly and accepting of Troy even when they had to know that Lakin, with her beauty and intelligence, could do better than him. But that was the kind of people that they were. Lakin had once shared that their family motto was believe.
The motto had originated because of some tragedy from their past. But it meant that whenever someone told them something, they would believe them until proven otherwise. So maybe they believed he would make Lakin happy…until he proved them otherwise.
“I’m damn glad to be home,” Troy said. And he was happy now that he was back if only just because of everything that had been going on while he was gone. Not to mention that he should just be damn happy that he was alive at all. “Where’s Lakin?”
While he usually would have talked with Parker about RTA business and life in general, he’d already spent way too much time away from his love.
“Ouch,” Parker said with a hand to his chest. “Thanks for making it clear I’m not the Colton you were hoping to find in the office.” Instead of being offended, Parker chuckled. “I totally get it. I’m not the Colton who would like to be in the office.”
Neither was Lakin but her brother didn’t know that yet.
She wasn’t ready yet to leave, though. Or maybe she was, but Troy wasn’t ready yet to help her leave the family business to start their own.
If only he’d been able to save more money, but with helping his younger brother with college and his mother with living expenses, he hadn’t been able to save as much as they needed yet.
And now…if he wasn’t able to work on the rigs anymore…
He couldn’t even let himself think about that yet, about how he would make the kind of money he needed if he couldn’t go back to work. Hopefully Mitch would come up with a plan for him to at least hold the oil company responsible for disability pay while Troy fully recovered from the fall.
“I don’t care where Lakin is,” Troy said. “I just want to see her.”
Parker chuckled again. “You have been gone a long time.”
“And Hetty’s brought me up to speed on what’s been happening around Shelby while I was gone,” Troy said to further explain his urgency to see the woman he loved.
Parker’s smile slid away, and his body tensed. “Yeah, it’s not been good.”
“Or safe. So I really want to check on her, make sure she’s okay,” Troy explained.
Parker smiled again, but then he shivered as if he was chilled. “She just left a little while ago. She wasn’t feeling well. I offered to see her back to her cabin, but she insisted she would be fine.”
While her big brother might have believed that, Troy wasn’t so sure. Nobody was safe with a killer on the loose in Shelby.
* * *
Eli Colton stared down at the young woman’s body, but instead of seeing her, he saw his sister’s face and his aunt’s and his cousin’s. Then he blinked away the horrors of his imagination and his memory and focused.
Dawn Ellis was someone’s sister, someone’s cousin, someone’s daughter, and now she was dead.
He’d hoped like hell that she would be found alive, but just forty-eight hours after she’d been reported missing, she was found here, on the outskirts of Shelby. The town where Eli’s dad and uncle had moved their families because they’d believed it would keep all of them safe from harm.
But here, just off the road, she’d been found—her body staged just like the other victims, with all but her head and left hand buried.
She wore a gaudy fake ring, and she had the telltale marks around her neck from the hands of whoever had strangled her.
When the rest of her body was uncovered, Eli had no doubt she would be wearing a little black dress.
Like she’d just been at her engagement party.
But Dawn Ellis hadn’t been engaged.
Three other bodies had been found buried just like this, wearing similar gaudy rings and black dresses. Only one of them had been identified, leaving two other Jane Does whose families were undoubtedly still looking for them.
Hopefully they would find DNA matches soon, so those people would have some peace, some closure, if there was actually such a thing.
Was it only Eli’s imagination that had him comparing Dawn to the women he loved?
All the victims had long, dark brown hair like his sister Lakin and his cousin Kansas and were roughly the same age.
A lot of women had dark hair and were in their age range, though, so it was probably just a coincidence.
Maybe it was just his fears making him draw comparisons to the women he cared about.
Thinking of Lakin and Kansas, Eli stepped away from the crime scene that the techs were meticulously processing to make some calls. To make sure that everyone he loved was safe.
Kansas picked up immediately. “You found her?” she asked. She was in law enforcement, too, and clearly knew why he would randomly check up on her.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
He gave her the location. “I’ll talk to you when you get here,” he said.
He glanced at his partner Asher, wondering if he should warn him that his nemesis was going to be here soon.
Kansas and Asher did not get along, often putting Eli in the middle of their squabbles.
He loved them both too much to take sides, but he often tried to point out at they were all actually on the same side.
Enforcing the law. While he and Asher were lieutenants in the major crimes division of the Alaska Bureau of Investigations, Kansas was a state trooper and member of the search and rescue unit.
But he would warn Asher in a minute that Kansas was on her way. Right now he had another call to make.
But his call to Lakin went unanswered.
Lakin always answered her phone. Where was she?
And was she okay?