Wylde (12 page)

“It keeps them moist. They’re good, trust me.”

He poured Kell a cup of coffee, not asking if he wanted decaf, since he had an idea that he’d get an emphatic rejection to that suggestion. Then while Kell watched, he sliced a fresh brownie slathered with thick glossy icing.

He passed both to Kell and sat down, sipping from his own cup.
Kell picked up the brownie and looked at it suspiciously. “You baked it yourself?” he asked.

“Yep. Try it. I haven’t killed anyone yet with my cooking.”

Kell took a bite, and the tired lines on his face relaxed a little. “Huh.”
Noah’s lips pressed together, suppressing a smile; Kell liked the brownie. But he wasn’t prepared for his Chief to lean forward and touch his arm. “Please let me take care of you, baby. It would kill me if anything happened to you or Josh.”

“A
MISSING
person in our town, yes. And I think it has to go back

some time, Daniel,” Kell spoke softly into the phone in Noah’s home office, gazing out at the woods as the sun flamed yellow and orange through the top branches. It was beautiful here, but his neck was stiff from lack of sleep and the tension of staying up all night.

He’d rested with his gun lying on the bedside table of Noah’s guest room.

Noah had been stubborn about coming down from Sullivan’s Mountain to stay with him. He had all kinds of excuses, and Kell guessed they were good ones; after all, the other man barely knew Kell, and Kell’s house was not as large as Noah’s. It didn’t even have an extra bedroom where Noah and Josh might stay, but he broke out in a cold sweat when he thought of them all alone up here. So he was staying, even if he had to sleep out in his truck to watch over them. Fortunately, that hadn’t been necessary, as Noah had offered him the use of his guest room again.

Now Noah walked in wearing a robe, his hair in soft curls around his face, sipping some hot, dark Seattle coffee. Kell immediately felt the familiar stirring of his sex, as if he were an animal catching the scent of his mate.

Noah handed him some coffee, the crisp roast of high-end beans rising between them like the finest incense. Kell sipped, feeling ridiculously like he was caught in a romantic coffee ad, but it didn’t stop him from reaching out to smooth a reverent hand through Noah’s silky hair. He stopped short of closing his eyes and pressing against Noah to breathe in his scent only because he was still on the phone.

Simmering, he watched as Noah flicked him a shy glance before giving a tactful nod, leaving Kell to finish his call. The blond picked up a fluffy jumbo towel and retreated out the French doors for a morning swim.

Kell watched him with narrowed eyes as he listened to Daniel continue, “You asked Alec and I to dig into the town’s past and see if any of the citizens ever just up and… disappeared. Well, turns out you might have something, Kell.”

“Hmm, that would be good, since so far I feel like we’re in the dark. We need some facts, not vague stories
,
” Kell said, frowning. “So what did you and Alec find out, going through the town records?”

Do you think we’re safe here?
Noah had asked him. Maybe not, but Kell was going to do something about that, by damn.

“Well, the old man who lived in Noah’s house, Mr. Butler, was an avid gardener. I’m sure you’ve seen remains of his work since it’s rumored your truck is up there….” Daniel coughed but Kell said nothing. He’d figured that people would start to talk about him and Noah soon enough. “He was a bit of an eccentric, judging by the purple pool. And for one year before he was discovered dead in that house, he had a grandson registered for homeschooling. There is no record of him after Butler’s death.” Kell heard the creak of a chair over the phone and pictured Daniel leaning back, no doubt as tired as Kell was. “So there may have been a seven-year-old boy up there at one time and I can’t find any trace of him showing up in the system for the State of Washington after the homeschooling records ceased.”

“What the hell? How could that happen?” Kell demanded. Seven years old?

“I don’t know, Kell. It’s very strange. But you know Sullivan’s Mountain has a lot of unexplored forest, including lots of box canyons. It’s easy to get lost up there.”

“But not easy to survive. A child… how would he even find food?” Kell blinked. “You think this might be our ghost?”

“That’s your job, Chief,” Daniel said. “It’s as likely the boy didn’t survive, or he might have run away or some other relatives came and claimed him.”

“Uh huh.” Kell found it hard to believe folks in town hadn’t had any contact with this boy, especially since years ago, it would have been an even more intimate place. “Who might have met the child around the time he would have been here to take that home schooling?” Kell asked.

“I think our librarian had just started around then,” Daniel mused. “I’m not sure if any of the teachers at the school would have, since the boy was being home schooled. In fact, it seems like old man Butler went to a lot of trouble to keep the kid at home. Even back then you had to do a lot of paperwork to go that education route.”

“Hmm. Well, everyone who knew the old man says he was an eccentric. Anyway, that’s one old mystery,” Kell noted in a tired voice. “The bigger one is who killed Morley and left that strange message in the Anderson’s garage.”

“No luck getting Noah and his son to come into town, huh?”

Shit. There were no secrets in this town. Had he been that obvious? He guessed so, but for some reason, his orientation had never bothered people here much. Maybe because Kell had always been matter-of-fact about it. Discreet when he had to be, like when he was in the army, but otherwise, he felt it was his business, and his business alone. Plus, folks liked how he did things, capable but not on everyone’s ass. He let the townsfolk keep their secrets, and they tolerated his.

“No, not yet. You can reach me here if I’m not in the office or in the diner.”

 

Daniel’s voice smiled. “I met Josh in the library the other day. Smart kid. Interesting collection of books he was taking out.”

Remembering the Victorian courting book by his bedside, Kell flushed. Damn, his wooing Noah really was all over town! He hoped Noah remained oblivious, or it might make him even more gun-shy. He muttered, “Yep. Get back to me soon if you learn anything more. And by the way, what was the kid’s name?” Kell asked.

Daniel told him.
“J
UST
where do you think you’re going?” Alec said that morning as

he caught Jade before she could enter the woods on the rise above her house. He’d been heading up the mountain to confer with the Chief but on a hunch had stopped by Jade’s to make sure she wasn’t getting into trouble. Well, that and drop off what she was missing— company.

“What are you, my stalker now?” She glared at him, and he sighed. He’d thought they’d reached a point of almost-friendliness, but with Jade, it was always one step forward and two steps back. And he was tired. Tired and worried. When he looked at her dark, wild hair and red lips, her beauty was sometimes overlaid with pictures of finding her body in bloody chunks in the forest. It made him sick, those flashes. Were his visions real, or was he just living the same fears he knew were riding his friend Kell about his new love interest? Hell, Alec hadn’t been surprised when the Chief told him he’d be camping out at the Matthews’s house. He was thinking of doing that for Jade and risking her wrath.

Throat tight, he studied her, taking in her smooth, glowing skin, her lean body, ripe and female but unharmed. She was okay, and he was going to make sure she stayed that way, no matter what. He could understand how Kell felt about Noah, the need to protect. “If I have to be. Come on.” He took her arm.

His touch seemed to set her off, so she tried to swat him, but her narrowed eyes signaled her intent; he knew her too well. He swung her into his arms with a laugh.
“You’re in-fucking-sane, Danvers!” she huffed.

“I want you to meet my grandma,” he said, liking the feel of her in his arms.
“I’ve met her, you dork, remember? It’s a small town.”

“But now I’m courting you for real, and besides, she offered to come by and visit with you today. Company, right?”

She gaped at him. “I’m not a personal charity project. Put me down!”
“Jade.”

“It’s embarrassing to be hauled around by you in front of your grandma,” Jade hissed.

“Oh.” Alec placed her on her feet, watching her stalk toward her porch, ignoring him. He guessed he’d pissed her off. The thought somehow didn’t depress him the way it did when she just ignored him. He hid a grin and followed.

His grandma Ruth was smoothing wrinkled hands over her jeans, enjoying the sunshine on Jade’s porch. She was wearing some silver earrings with a killer whale inscribed and a long necklace made of Peruvian pink opal nuggets Alec had purchased for her on a trip to South America while he was still in the army. He had bought an identical strand for Jade, but it was resting in a bedroom drawer in his house.

R
UTH
wore her long hair in a French braid, dark eyes outlined with blue eye shadow the same shade as her T-shirt and jeans. Those eyes fixed on Jade, seeming to strip away her layers and
see
her.

She was used to that look from Alec’s Grandma Ruth, who had taught math to most of the kids in the local high school before she retired. She reached out and took the older woman’s hand. “Your grandson? Is acting like a macho jerk.”

Ruth nodded. “He has a thing for you; everyone knows. And he knows no man stands a chance with you unless he stands up.” “Hey, I’m not sure he stands any kind of ‘chance’, okay? I live alone because I like it and I’m doing fine on my own.”

“Yep, I get that. But Alec asked me up here to help him find your dog,” Ruth said. “Will you let me help you? You never were one to lean on folks, even when a smart woman would accept a little help.”

Jade blinked, leaning against one wooden pillar on her porch. She wasn’t sure what the old woman meant, except it was rumored she had supernatural gifts. “Right. Well, I think the best way to find Beau is to head up the mountain and call his name,” Jade said. “Which was what I was doing when your grandson interrupted me. Beau has disappeared sometimes in the past for a few days, but I guess I’m just spooked and a bit worried about him right now.” She cocked a derisive brow at Alec, but he’d settled against the other porch pillar, seemingly content to watch and listen to Jade’s conversation with his grandmother.

“You can’t shake Alec off your trail. As for the ghost in the woods, you did him a kindness once, and time will come when you’ll be tested again.”

Jade felt unsettled at the certainty in the woman’s voice. She remembered now that Alec had some native blood, and his grandmother was half Haida, some kind of medicine woman.

“A kindness? I have no idea what you mean. But this is my place,” Jade said flatly. “I’m staying.”

Alec sighed and rubbed his neck, his hand going to the leather bundle he wore over his uniform. Jade took a minute to admit he looked mighty fine. Tall, dark, a muscled chest that was hinted through his clothing, and the shine of his eyes on her was soft.

“Didn’t sleep well, worrying about the ghost?” Jade poked him.

“Jade, you haven’t been to town yet so you probably don’t know, but….” Now Alec looked really unhappy. “I came out here to check on you because a strange message was found in the Anderson’s garage just after dusk last evening.”

Jade swallowed thickly. “Shit, after that kid got lost in the woods they had more trouble?” Jade didn’t like Marisa Anderson much, and Thomas had acted like a bit of a twit, but damn.

Alec’s lips tightened. “Yeah, a word written in blood.”

K
ELL
took a minute to finish his coffee, drifting through Noah’s new office, one of the rooms that had been furnished; Noah had told him they were leaving some empty to have renovated as soon as possible. Kell admitted to himself he was curious about the man he was so inexplicably drawn to. He guessed it was a combination of old-fashioned lust, wanting to be inside Noah, wanting to ride him, and the protectiveness brought on from his job.

They’d met under extraordinary circumstances, Kell hunting for a lost kid the night Noah had moved in. From his experiences in his Ranger days, he knew that those heightened feelings had probably intensified his attraction to Noah. It was raw, hot, primal. He wanted to tangle his fingers in Noah’s hair, hear him cry out as he surrendered to Kell.

There were pictures on the bookcases, mainly of Josh at different ages, judging by his missing baby teeth in some of them. He beamed out from the photographs, the lighthouse at the center of Noah’s life. There was one older photograph of a lovely woman with dark hair and a face shaped vaguely the same as Josh’s. His mother? Kell realized he didn’t know the story there, and he wanted to.

He wanted to know everything about Noah. When he put his coffee cup down on Noah’s desk in preparation for going outside and talking to him, a letter to Noah fluttered to the floor. Kell bent to pick it up and replace it.

He didn’t mean to look, but something caught his eye.