Chapter 19
Lakin knew she was taking a risk sneaking out on her own, but she didn’t want Troy to get hurt again. She didn’t want her family hurt, either, but she had called Eli for help. She glanced at her phone, checking the time. He should have been here already.
He’d told her to wait for him before she got out of her vehicle, but she was impatient.
She needed to record Jasper Whitlaw’s threats and extortion attempt.
Then she could use that to make him leave Shelby and her family in peace.
She couldn’t wait any longer for her brother.
Maybe he was already here. He’d told her that he would stay out of sight so Whitlaw wouldn’t know he was there.
But where was Whitlaw?
Lakin walked around the area where he claimed to be camping, but she didn’t see even a place where a sleeping bag might have lain let alone remains of a fire. It got cold at night in September. Maybe he was sleeping in his truck and just parking it here.
But she didn’t even see any tire tracks.
Had he lied to her?
But why? She couldn’t give him the money she’d promised him if she couldn’t find him.
Had he realized she was lying and trying to set him up? That would explain why he’d given her a phony location.
She might have been relieved that he wasn’t here if she wasn’t more worried about where he might be.
Had he accosted her dad like he had her?
Was he trying to get money directly from the Coltons?
Why did he seem to resent them for adopting her anyway?
She’d been abandoned. It wasn’t like Whitlaw or anyone else had wanted her but the Coltons.
And eventually Troy had wanted her, too. Or so she’d thought. Of course, now she wasn’t as confident of having a future with him as she had been. Actually, after the shooting last night, she wasn’t as confident of having a future at all.
But nobody had been shooting at her. They’d been shooting at Troy. Was he the real target in all of this?
She’d left him back at the cabin, alone and asleep and completely vulnerable.
What the hell had she been thinking? Could she get back to him in time to make sure that he was safe? Or was she already too late?
* * *
Troy jumped in his truck and headed right where he thought Lakin was.
But once he was away from the Wi-Fi of the cabin, her location disappeared, and he wasn’t able to pull up cellular data either.
He had no bars out here; the tower was too far away.
So he had no idea where she was, just where she’d been.
Wandering around the riverbank where he’d pinpointed her location earlier, he wasn’t even sure where he was.
Why would Lakin have met Whitlaw here? Or Eli? Wasn’t Eli supposed to be coming as her backup, to make sure she stayed safe? Had the ABI lieutenant let her down again?
A branch snapped behind Troy, and he whirled around with his fists up to defend himself. They were his only weapon.
But the gun that faced him wasn’t the one that fired at him the night before. Eli immediately holstered his weapon when he saw Troy.
“Of course you wouldn’t stay away like I told you to,” Eli remarked.
“Of course I wouldn’t,” Troy agreed. “Not that there is anything or anyone to stay away from. Have you seen Lakin or Whitlaw?”
Eli shook his head. “I saw some tire tracks, but they appear to be from only one vehicle. Probably Lakin’s SUV.”
“Not Whitlaw’s truck,” Troy said. “Why would he tell her to meet him here?”
“Maybe he knew what she was up to,” Eli remarked. “And wasn’t going to fall for it.”
“What was she up to?” Troy asked. “Why would she agree to meet him? She has no money to give him.” She’d invested it all in the hotel.
Troy would have given her money if she’d asked, though…
and if he’d thought that was really all that Whitlaw wanted.
But now, knowing Whitlaw wasn’t her father, he had a feeling the man had a whole other agenda where Lakin was concerned.
“She was going to record him demanding money in exchange for keeping his mouth shut to the press about my family. If she could get him to admit to that, I could arrest him for extortion,” Eli explained.
Troy chuckled for a moment at her brilliance. She was going to turn the tables on an ex-con. But then his amusement dried up. “So where is she?”
“I don’t know,” Eli said. “I had to take a detour around a logging truck that lost some of its load in the road. So I was late getting here.”
“But like you pointed out, there is only one set of tire tracks here,” Troy said. “Whitlaw drives an old truck. His tread marks would have been bigger and deeper than Lakin’s.”
Eli nodded. “He was never here.”
“I don’t get why he would have told her to meet him here even if he knew what she was up to,” Troy said. “Why this place?” He glanced around at the river and the trees surrounding them.
“I don’t know,” Eli murmured. “Maybe he wanted her away from the cabin. Or away from someone else.”
Troy’s stomach muscles clenched with dread. “I don’t like this.”
“Me, neither,” Eli agreed. “He was threatening to go public with my family tragedy.”
Troy sucked in a breath. “When you said family, I didn’t think about your aunt and grandparents’ murders.
How did he find out about that? And no wonder Lakin agreed to meet him and pay him off.
” With money she didn’t have. But maybe she would have gone to the same person she’d gone to for the hotel.
“Call your dad,” he suggested. “See if he’s heard from her. ”
“I don’t think she wants him to know what’s going on,” Eli said.
Troy suspected she wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to worry their father.
But he knew how much Will and Sasha Colton loved their daughter.
“He’s going to want to know,” he pointed out.
He’d realized too late how many people he’d hurt because he hadn’t reached out when he was injured.
“The people who love you want to show up for you.”
Eli groaned. “You’re right.”
Troy took no comfort from that. He wasn’t going to feel better until he knew where Lakin was and that she was safe. “While you call him, I’m going to head back to the cabin. She probably would have gone back there or the office.”
Eli reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “Be careful.”
Troy nodded. He wasn’t worried about himself; he was worried about her. She’d agreed to meet with a dangerous ex-con in order to protect her family. She didn’t care about her own safety at all.
And finally he could relate to how she felt when he went off to work the oil rigs, doing the same job that had killed his father, knowingly putting himself in danger just as she had done in agreeing to meet Whitlaw.
Troy had to find her before something happened to her. She was the most amazing person, so kind and loving and supportive to everyone. Troy had failed her in so many ways; he just wanted to have the chance to make it up to her.
* * *
Will hated getting calls this early in the morning because they were rarely good news. At least it hadn’t woken him up; he’d already been out for his run and was just opening the back door when his cell vibrated.
Sasha was awake, too, in the kitchen. He could hear the pots and pans and smell the coffee brewing. But he stepped back outside to answer the call.
“Good morning, Eli. Or at least I hope it is.”
The hesitation was all the confirmation Will needed that there was nothing good about this morning.
Then Eli asked, “Have you seen Lakin today?”
Will’s stomach pitched a bit, and he was glad it was still empty. “No. Is there any reason she would have been by so early? Why are you looking for her?”
“Uh, it’s just…”
Eli’s breath of relief rattled his phone. “Never mind. Troy texted that her phone location shows she’s back at her cabin.”
“What’s going on, son?” Will demanded.
“We’ll bring you up to speed soon,” Eli promised, and he ended the call before Will could argue.
What the hell was going on? When Lakin stopped by a few days ago, she’d seemed tense and distracted. She’d kept looking out the window, almost as if she thought she was being followed.
His skin chilled at the thought of his daughter having a stalker like Caroline had. Nobody had believed that man was dangerous until it was too late.
Until too many lives had been lost…
That couldn’t be the case with Lakin. Will could not let that be the case because he couldn’t lose any more of his family than he already had.
Lakin had to be safe.