Hunted (50 page)
Authors: Jaycee Clark
Tags: #slavery, #undercover cops, #Suspense, #Deadly series, #sexy, #fbi, #human trafficking, #Kinncaid brothers, #Texas
Jesslyn laughed. Yeah, Maddy would get a kick out of it. Looking both ways, she did a U-turn in the middle of the road. She headed back down the hill and then pulled off onto the dirt road leading to the small community of Meridian, with its properties scattered along the edge and slopes of Meridian Lake. It was only five minutes from either the historical town of Crested Butte nestled in the valley or Mount Crested Butte Resort sprawling across the mountainside.
Her cell phone shrilled, scaring her. God, her nerves. Who the hell was calling her after midnight? She flipped it open. “Hello?”
“I should give you a ticket for that traffic violation.”
Ah, Tinks. “But why waste your valuable time?” she asked, turning on her blinker and driving down Maddy’s road.
Jesslyn smiled. T.J. Stephens was the only female police officer on the small local force and the other friend in their trio. With short dark hair and ice blue eyes, her friend was a no-nonsense, kick-ass woman with a gun. The image was totally ruined by T.J.’s fairy-like build and Minnie Mouse voice. Just for annoyance, Jesslyn called her Tinks. She’d actually lived to tell about it.
“Where are you going? I thought you were still in Denver?” Tinks asked.
“I was. Headed back early. I’m now—hang on.” She down-shifted, her engine grumbling, and turned into Maddy’s drive. “I’m at Maddy’s. We just left The Dime and I forgot to give her her birthday present.”
“Well, better late than never.”
She reached into the back floorboard and grabbed the gift sack. As Jesslyn got out of her pickup, she noticed Maddy’s car door was still open, light splashing along the ground, the repeating ping echoing in the night. “Hey, did she tell you about getting more lilies?”
“No.”
“Well, she did.” Maddy’s purse was lying on the ground. Jesslyn stopped.
Goosebumps pricked her skin. “I think you might want to come over here,” she said into the phone, swallowing.
“Why?”
“I don’t know, something’s not right.”
Jesslyn hurried forward, something urging her on. “Maddy!”
No answer.
“Jesslyn?” T.J. asked through the phone.
She rounded the corner of the house, at the back deck. Her foot slipped on something and she looked down. A dark puddle of liquid gleamed in the moonlight.
Some noise made her look up. The shadows shifted and a man ran at her. He knocked her aside, something slapping her in the face. As she slammed against the side of the house, the present slid from her hand.
“Hey!” she yelled after him.
His footsteps crunched across the gravel. She caught a blur of black clothing and a glint of something in his hand as he darted across the lawn and the beam of her headlights. He stopped, looked back at her. For one instant something dark reached across the space between them and iced through her veins. Then he grabbed up Maddy’s purse and scurried away. The edge of the forest swallowed him.
“Jesslyn!” T.J. was yelling.
Jesslyn realized she’d dropped her phone. She grabbed it up. “Yeah, I’m here. Some guy in black just tried to mow me down. Maddy!” she hollered.
Again no answer.
“Stay on the phone with me,” T.J. said.
Jesslyn could hear the spit and static of the police radio in the background. That was when she noticed the smell.
Sweet.
Lilies.
It filled her nose and her foot crunched a bloom.
Lilies.
Maddy!
Jesslyn hurried up the steps of the deck. “Maddy!”
A hand lay pale in the moonlight.
Oh, God. No.
She dropped to her knees, slid in liquid. She reached a hand out. “Maddy?”
Jesslyn touched Maddy’s chest. When she jerked her hand back, she saw it was wet and sticky.
Blood.
No. Oh, no. “Maddy.”
Sirens wailed across the lake.
Think. Think. CPR. CPR. Oh, God.
Carefully, she leaned over to see if Maddy was breathing. Her chest didn’t move. No air came from her open mouth. Jesslyn’s hand shook as she tried to find a pulse.
There was no beat, no breath, no life.
Please. No. Not again. God, not again. She couldn’t lose someone else.
“Maddy. Maddy!” She pulled her friend’s head onto her lap and rocked.
The coppery scent of blood filled her nose, laced with the sweet smell of lilies.
Funeral flowers. Murder.
It was the perfume of death.
The Kinncaid Brother Series
Read all the books in the
Kinncaid Brothers Series
by Jaycee Clark!
Deadly Shadows
Deadly Ties
Deadly Obsession
Deadly Games
Deadly Secrets
About the Author
Jaycee never really grew up—she still enjoys playing with imaginary people on a daily basis. Sometimes those people are nice, sometimes they're not, but in the end the girl gets the guy, so all is well. Jaycee earned her degree in Elementary Education from Eastern New Mexico University. She lives in Texas with her family, who puts up with her when her characters demand more of her time and appreciates her weirdness—or so they claim. There are also the cats and the corgis, who, in truth, rule the family. When she’s not chained to her keyboard, she’s doubling as a parent, a teacher, a maid, a chef, a chauffeur, a therapist, and promoting her education in human development while finishing her masters in plant elimination.
You can learn more about Jaycee by visiting her website at
www.jayceeclark.com
or emailing her at
[email protected]
. Her newsletter and blog subscriptions can be found on her website, along with links to follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and various other sites.
Contents