THE SOUND OF Gabe’s laughter filled the inside of her car and she turned up the volume, smiling.
When he managed to calm down, he said, “You’re a typical cop, then?”
“Who doesn’t like donuts?”
“They’re not exactly nutritional.”
“Oh, no.” She wanted to roll her eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those people.”
“What people?”
Caisey shook her head, even though he couldn’t see it. “I saw it in your cabin, but I didn’t want to believe it. Green tea. Fish. Whole wheat bread.”
“What’s wrong with all that?”
She smiled. “Uh…nothing if you’re part rabbit, or training for the Olympics or something. You’re not are you…training for the Olympics?”
“Not the last time I checked.”
“Good. Because I hear it takes up a lot of time and you probably have enough on your plate as it is.”
Gabe laughed. “So you’re serious about your faith then?”
“Random segue back into talk about religion. Okay. Yes, I’m serious about it. I don’t completely understand everything, but I don’t think we ever really get to that point. That’s why we have to accept we can’t figure it all out and make the choice to just believe anyway. How about you?”
“I never had any connection with God or a church, not growing up. Except for Mitch. He talked to me about his faith, but I just dismissed it. Your dad was actually the one who told me I wasn’t ever going to have peace about my life if I didn’t know Jesus. He told me to find a church where I felt accepted and make friends. Be part of something, otherwise I was going to live my life disconnected with everything and everyone.”
That made sense. Her dad had a passing affiliation with ‘church’ as an institution, but she’d never seen that it was anything more than that to him. It made sense he would encourage Gabe to find friends and not be a loner forever. But it was certainly not the relationship she had, where she couldn’t imagine not going to services, or not have God be present in her life.
Still, there felt like there was something missing in her experience. Like she should know…more. Feel more. A lot of the time she was just too busy to make time for Bible reading and more than a quick prayer, but it seemed like there was so much more to Christianity that she’d so far failed to connect with.
Caisey wanted to know what Gabe had found. “So you discovered something there?”
“It was new people and a new place, a new town and a new life but something about it was like coming home for the first time and I realized that was God. I started to bring Him into every part of my life and suddenly I could rest. I had joy for the first time in…I don’t know how long.”
Caisey changed lanes. There was something about this guy that she just couldn’t walk away from. She couldn’t see how she could move on with someone else with Gabe out of her life when she felt like this. God was going to have to make a way, because she sure couldn’t see one where his uncle didn’t find and kill him because of her.
When his voice came through again, it was heavy with emotion. “Okay, enough of the heavy stuff. Tell me, crunchy or smooth peanut butter?”
**
Gabe’s phone beeped again. He pulled it away from his ear and looked at the flashing red light, accepting the inevitable. It was about to die. “Almost out of battery.”
“Okay.” Caisey’s voice sounded disappointed, which actually made him feel better.
“When I get to a store I’ll get an untraceable phone and call you.”
“Sounds good.” She paused. “Take care, okay?”
“You too.”
Gabe hung up and looked down at his dash. The gas gauge was low. He’d have to find somewhere to fill up soon. The car slowed. He looked at the rev counter and sure enough, it was dropping off. But his foot was still on the gas pedal. What was going on?
He fought the stiff steering to the side and came to a stop.
Headlights pulled over behind him.
**
Caisey stretched, her head full of fog and the entirety of her body tight like she’d been holding it tense all night. Her pillow. Her bed. She smiled, rolled to see what time it was and lifted up on her elbows. Ten forty-five and it was light outside.
Time to get up.
She needed a new service weapon. Although, a shower first was probably a good idea, since she stank.
After she blow-dried her hair enough it could dry the rest of the way on its own, she got dressed and grabbed the key for her dad’s gun safe. The inside of the safe smelled like her dad. Polish. Oil. Her dad’s old hunting rifle was tempting, but could be construed as overkill. And it wouldn’t fit in her boot, either. She picked out an old revolver, loaded it and stuck it up on the shelf in the closet safe. Her dad’s backup weapon, a .38, was on the highest shelf where she’d put it after they gave it to her along with the stuff he had on him the day he died.
“Hey, you’re awake.” Caisey spun. Jenna raised both hands, her eyes wide. “Don’t shoot.”
She didn’t dignify that with a response, but grabbed a small caliber gun from the safe and knelt to wrap the holster around her ankle, covering it with the leg of her jeans. Some people might think it was weird to be armed in your own house, but when you got out of the habit that made you liable to forget, and forgetting got you killed.
“Did you sleep okay?”
“I’m thinking that isn’t the question you really want to ask me.” Caisey remembered the rush of wondering if it was really him or not. “I saw Gabe.”
Jenna’s jaw dropped.
Caisey grinned and told her the story. “Only he hasn’t called yet.”
Jenna was still smiling. “He will.”
An hour later she set up shop in her dad’s old office. In his chair, behind his desk. The whole room was kind of neglected. The print on the wall was still the same guy on a motorcycle riding off to the mountains. It was cool and all, but totally eighties. Jenna clearly dusted the bookshelves and desk, since she used the computer and phone sometimes, so it was clean. But it was still eerie being in here.
It took her two hours while the phone charged to clear out her email and type up her notes about what happened in Buckshot for her boss. She typed a separate statement for the Colorado State Patrol about specifically what happened with the sheriff. Liam had sent an update saying the state police arrived and this morning they were going out with cadaver dogs to locate the sheriff’s body.
She texted him and in thirty seconds her phone rang. “Lyons.”
“You got home okay?”
“Yeah, thanks. How’s it going with the state guys?”
“Can you get a location on my phone?”
“Sure.” Caisey tucked her cell between her shoulder and cheek and typed. The webpage loaded. She entered Liam’s number and waited for the signal to show up. “What’s going on?”
“We’re at the location you gave me, but there’s no body.”
Caisey started. “ATV tracks?”
Wind buffeted the phone line. “Two grooves in the dirt, plain as day. The ATV is even here, so they’re looking at that, but there isn’t much else to process.”
“My gun?”
“Haven’t seen it yet, but I’m guessing it’s downriver.”
Caisey stared at the map image of the ravine and the edge on which she’d stood. She could still feel the warmth of Gabe behind her, and the surge of anger that someone wanted to harm him. “But no sheriff?”
“The dogs have nothing, so there’s no body hiding in the brush and he can’t have rolled too far.”
“Blood?”
“Nothing.”
Caisey held her fingers still. She bit her lip. “I shot him.”
There was silence on the line. “Not even you would joke about something like that.
But then where is he? Do I need to get the state guys to launch a manhunt?”
“If you do, will you be coming home?”
Liam sighed. “We found the primary crime scene for the niece. A rancher called in a mess of blood in one of his disused barns.”
Caisey didn’t need that mental picture…but there it was. She blew out a breath and thought of Hawaii. “So it looks like the sheriff killed Emma?”
“That’s the theory we’re working with.”
“Great.” Caisey sighed. “If he’s alive, he’s going to be ticked.”
Liam hung up.
Caisey left the office, since it was weird being there. Instead, she wandered the house trying to think of something to do. Her leg hurt, so she just ended up watching a nineties movie she’d seen a bunch of times. The Mummy wasn’t even scary anymore, or funny.
At dinner she sat at the head of the table, despite the look Jenna gave her. They hardly ever used the dining room, except for holidays.
Her friend didn’t let it go. “What is up with you?”
Caisey’s head whipped around. “Nothing’s up. I’m wondering what’s up with all of you.”
Jenna set the steaming dish of lasagna on the table and sighed. “So where’s Gabe tonight?”
Caisey shrugged. “How should I know?”
Jenna’s face fell. “He didn’t call?”
She was trying not to be worried, or—truth be told—a little bit annoyed that he hadn’t called yet. He was the one who said he was going to get a new phone and call her. But no, he’d disappeared again. Just like the last time. So, was she supposed to wait another seventeen years until she saw him again?
Jenna swiped off her oven mitts. “Huh…I guess I just thought—”
“I know what you thought.”
Grams came in, pulled up short, and eyed both of them like she knew there was tension. But they weren’t going to talk about it. Gabe was gone. The end. Jenna could get as excited as she wanted at the idea Caisey had spent days with him, but it was over now. For the sake of keeping them all safe, Gabe was out of her life.
If his uncle came looking she would pull the trigger, knowing it meant the threat to her family was eliminated. But he was just one man and there would always be others. No let up. No break. That was why she was an FBI agent—to be as prepared as possible against the danger.
“Are you okay?”
Caisey blinked and looked at Jenna. She could feel moisture on the back of her neck and her hairline, so she took a sip of ice water and tried to smile. “Sure, I’m fine.”
“Look who’s here!” Jake strode in, hand in hand with a blonde and slender teen girl who resembled a pixie. “This is—”
“Natalia.”
The girl’s eyes landed on Caisey and she gasped. “Special Agent Lyons.”
Jake pulled up short. “You two know each other?”
Without taking her eyes off Natalia, Caisey nodded. “Yeah, Jake. We’ve met.”
“Well then.” Jenna’s voice wavered. “Dinner will be all the more enjoyable now we know that some of us have met.”
Caisey glanced at her friend. Jenna looked mad. What was that about? Jenna saw the look on Caisey’s face, but looked away and smiled and dished out the food like a mom was supposed to. Hopefully the lasagna was good enough to take away the taste of way too many unspoken questions. It was probably some weird ‘mom’ thing that made her ticked because she didn’t know her son’s new girl and Caisey did. Why couldn’t Jenna say something if it was making her this mad?
The prospect of everything that happened with Natalia becoming their dinner conversation made Caisey’s leg twitch. Then, in a few years, Jake would marry Natalia and then every Thanksgiving until her death, Caisey would have to sit across the table from the head of Denver’s Russian mafia.
She shoveled in bites of Caesar salad, just so she didn’t say something…anything that would make everyone at the table immediately start yelling at her.
Grams turned to Caisey. “How was your trip, Case?” Her fork was trailing the spaghetti and plain tomato sauce Sarah had probably made for her especially, knowing they would sit down to dinner. The home assistant probably coordinated with Jenna just so that Grams could eat the same kind of meal they had.
Caisey nodded around a mouthful of lasagna. Jenna was a good cook, not like frou- frou good which was pointless, but solid. And a whole lot better than Caisey could ever do it.
“It was fine, Grams. Eventful.” Caisey smiled. “I probably need another week of vacation.”
“You’re going back to work? When?”
Why was Jenna so surprised? Jake and Natalia weren’t even paying attention. They were busy sending each other moony looks while pretending to eat.
Caisey shrugged. “I should stop by the office tomorrow, just to check in. See if anything came up on any of my cases while I was gone.” She looked around the table. They were all silent, staring at her. She set her fork down. “You know what? We forgot to say grace.”
There was more than one startled look, but she ignored them and bowed her head.
“Precious Lord, we thank you for the many ways you’ve blessed each of us. Thank you for bringing us together at the end of this day. I ask for your protection on each of the people at this table. Guide us and give us your wisdom in all things. Amen.”
“Amen.”
The quiet was only broken by the sound of forks tapping plates and crunching lettuce.
Caisey’s phone buzzed. Thank heaven for that. “Excuse me.” She stepped away from the table and walked down the hall. “Special Agent Lyons.”
“It’s Burkot. I’ve got an update from the State Patrol. They want to bring in Marshals to find the sheriff, since they claim they don’t have the manpower.”
“Did you get the latest from Conners?”
“I sure did. And isn’t that a fine kettle of fish if ever I’ve heard one. Shoot a guy at point blank and he walks away.” Burkot huffed. “Maybe you need to hit the range if your shot’s that sideways, Lyons.”
“I’ll be sure to do that, sir.” She was due for some time at the range, anyway. And her quarterly qualifying was coming up. “Was there anything else?”
“Why, you got a hot date?”
“Yeah with a lasagna.”
“That’s my girl.”
Caisey hung up the phone laughing. Burkot hadn’t called her that since she was a kid. Those years felt like a lifetime ago, which they were—Jake’s. Most everything could be measured pre- and post-Jake, or along with whatever stage of life he’d been at. In two years he’d be out of the house and then what would she do? Caisey would be a thirty-something single federal agent with no prospects except the likelihood of being shot on the job. Like her dad.
Caisey grimaced.
“Something funny?” Jenna leaned against the arch that led to the living room.
“What’s funny is that Natalia even thinks she’s good enough for Jake.”
The minute she said it, Caisey slapped a hand over her mouth. Jake appeared behind Jenna, his eyes hard. “That’s your opinion, but it doesn’t make a difference to how I feel.” He crossed his teenage arms. “Mom likes her.”
“Your mom likes the mailman.”
Jenna gasped. “Joe is a nice man.”
Caisey turned her focus to her friend. “He’s creepy and he smells like a hobo.”
“Well, maybe you need to pray for more love in your heart, because clearly something happened that made you immediately dislike everyone you don’t know. Oh wait…except one guy you met once a billion years ago and decided to fall in love with even though you only went on one date.”
“Is that really what you think of me? Do you think I wanted to be unable to fall in love with anyone else for the past seventeen years?”
Jenna crossed her arm. “You forgot cynical.”
“That’s a good thing. You would invite the Unabomber to dinner because you thought he needed a warm meal after living in a mountain cabin in Montana for so long. Never mind that he killed people.” Caisey stepped away, rubbing the spot behind her ear that was pounding again. If something happened to any of them, she didn’t know what she would do. When she opened her eyes she looked at the carpet.
“What is up with you?”
Caisey sucked in some deep breaths. “I don’t know.”
“Well you need to figure it out.”
Uh-oh…that was the mom tone.
“And then you need to apologize to Jake.”