Chapter 20
When Lakin pulled up to the cabin, Troy’s truck was gone. That meant he’d driven off somewhere, and she could imagine where: to find her.
Sneaking off without him wasn’t going to keep him safe, especially if he’d been the target all along.
She knew he’d talked to her brother Mitch about what happened on the oil rig.
Maybe the lawyer had talked to the company and they’d sent someone to shut Troy up.
After all, a dead man couldn’t sue them.
Not that she was sure he was having Mitch sue for him or just to make the workplace safer.
Troy should sue them for his pain and suffering. But when Troy’s mother had sued the company, the case had been dismissed. Now it had cost her a husband and very nearly a son as well. Lakin wanted to make sure that Mrs. Amos didn’t lose that son here in Shelby, either.
Even though it didn’t look like he was in the cabin, Lakin headed inside to see if he’d left a note.
Although he probably would have texted instead.
She reached for her cell as she approached the door, but finding it partially open distracted her.
Since his truck wasn’t here, she assumed that Troy had left in such a hurry that he hadn’t closed it tightly.
She needed to find out where he was. She unlocked her phone as she pushed open the door to the empty cabin.
But it wasn’t empty. There was the acrid smell of cigarette smoke, so thick that someone had to still be inside. She backed toward the front door, but it banged into her.
Before she could whirl around to see who had been hiding behind the door, a hand covered her nose and mouth with a cloth and blocked her vision. Another smell, cloying and syrupy, filled her nose, smothering in its sweetness.
She tried to wrest herself away, but a strong arm encircled her, keeping her arms locked to her sides. As the smell overwhelmed her, consciousness began to fade. Her phone slipped through her fingers and dropped to the floor.
Then her legs buckled, and she dropped to the floor as well. She blinked, trying to clear her vision, but before she could focus on the face of the intruder, the last of her consciousness slipped away.
* * *
Once Troy had driven a short distance away from the riverbank, he’d been able to pull up Lakin’s location again.
She’d gone back to the cabin, so he texted Eli to let him know.
Unfortunately when he pulled off the road to send that text, a tractor had managed to get ahead of him. A very slow-moving tractor.
When he was finally able to pass it, he worried that Lakin might leave the cabin again before he got back to her. Instead of checking his cell again, he pressed harder on the accelerator until he was speeding down the lane to her cabin.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her SUV parked near the porch. She was still home.
And that was what she was to him: home. His heart, where he always wanted to be, was here in her cabin on RTA property or in the old Shelby Hotel. Suite Home would be a sweet home for them.
Eager to tell her that and confirm that she was really all right, Troy pushed open his driver’s door and nearly sprinted up to the porch.
But when he neared the door and found it partially open, his heart started beating even faster. He drew in a breath, inhaling something unusual, cloying and chemical at the same time. He coughed, cleared his throat, then yelled, “Lakin!”
His shout echoed off the wood walls and floor. There was no response. Outside not even a bird chirped or a leaf rustled. She was gone.
He wanted to believe that she’d walked to the office, but she wouldn’t have left without closing and locking the cabin door. And then there was that smell…
That chemical smell and a lingering odor of cigarette smoke.
When he stepped through the open door, he saw a big handkerchief lying on the floor. Was that where the smell was coming from?
He didn’t touch it. He didn’t dare because he had a feeling Lakin’s home had just become a crime scene. But what was the crime? Abduction? Or worse?
He couldn’t let himself think that. He couldn’t let himself believe that he wouldn’t see Lakin again, or he would become as paralyzed as when he fell from the oil rig. He wouldn’t be able to breathe, let alone move.
He had to find her.
* * *
The search and rescue team had just gotten a call. Another woman was missing. The last woman who’d gone missing from the Shelby area had turned up just a few days ago. Dead. Dawn Ellis.
This woman could not turn up the same way. This woman was family. Kansas drew in a deep breath, trying to pull herself together, for her family’s sake and mostly for Lakin’s. She had to find her cousin.
So she rallied the search and rescue team. This had to be a rescue, not a recovery. They had to find Lakin.
Alive.