Love Inspired Suspense September 2015 #1 (52 page)

Jonah and Nathan were across the lake, but she didn't know if they saw her.

A floorboard creaked up the stairs.

“Come and check out the lake,” Elise said. She looked back out, watching to see if Nathan was going to spot her. When he did, she waved.

But Nathan's wave was more frantic. Jonah put his hands to his mouth and yelled... What, she didn't know. Was she supposed to be able to hear him? She pulled out her phone and turned to tell Hailey the two of them were acting bizarre.

The knife flashed as it swooped down at her.

Elise was still turning, so it glanced off her shoulder. Fire sliced through her upper arm and the momentum sent her sprawling backward. A masked man in a dark green army jacket grinned. Elise's shoulder clipped the window and she screamed. One arm flailed as she fell.

And then she hit the water.

FOURTEEN

A
flash in the window was all Jonah saw before Elise fell. Beside him, Nathan choked, “Mom!” The teenager ran the path around the lake.

Jonah followed, arms and legs pumping. When Nathan dived into the lake, the dirty water filled with who knew what debris, Jonah prayed. And he kept running.

He had to find Shelder and get to the man who'd pushed Elise out the window. As much as it pained him that he couldn't be the one to get Elise from the lake and make sure she was okay, he had to do his job first. Nathan was here and able. But he'd never felt torn like this before.

God, help both of them.
The prayer felt awkward, but he pushed the feeling aside.

Jonah pulled his gun. Cautiously and as fast as possible, he entered the barn. Shelder was in the process of standing. He caught her elbow until she had her balance. “Got it?”

She nodded, touching a finger to the side of her head. That was when he saw the blood. “Hit you on the head?” When she nodded, he said, “He ran out the door?”

“Didn't see. Go get him.”

Jonah cleared the barn first, in case the man had hidden instead of running. It only took minutes before he was preceding Shelder outside. Hailey was already on her phone, calling in what had happened and asking for an ambulance.

Nathan, dripping wet, led an equally soaked Elise from the water, both of them coughing. Hailey stowed her phone in her jacket and went to meet them while Jonah circled the immediate area, looking for any sign of where the attacker had gone.

He glanced back to where Elise sat on the ground with Nathan beside her. She had her jacket off her shoulder and Nathan was pressing something against the outside of her arm. She was hurt? Hailey crouched beside them, but Jonah had to search for the suspect.

He'd never hated his job more than he did in that moment.

With a brisk pace, he traced every exit from the barn with no sign of the suspect, or a car. He needed to get as much of a description from Elise and Hailey as they had to put out an alert to local law enforcement. Nothing else could make any good come from this than if they got a usable lead that would give them a shot to catch this guy.

Parker and Hanning pulled into the parking lot. He waited while they strode toward him.

“What happened?”

Jonah motioned back to where Hailey, Elise and Nathan were. “Let's go find out.”

They started walking, and Eric said, “Hailey's okay?”

It was the only concession the man gave to the fact that their teammate was his fiancée. And it impressed Jonah. If Elise was on their team, he would never allow her to be put in harm's way. Yet Eric trusted that Hailey could take care of herself—that she was as much a trained marshal as he was.

Jonah said, “Bump on the head.”

Unlike Hailey, Elise was not trained. She didn't know how to effectively fight for her life. How could she? She'd never had to defend herself. That was why Jonah had to stand guard.

His dad would even say that God had brought them together now, when she needed him the most. Whether that was true, or not, Jonah didn't know. It was a nice thought, given that he wanted Elise to be safe. And he was the one who was going to take care of her.
I'm okay with it, God. I'm glad You've put me here.

Now that he was talking to the Lord again, he could admit God might have a plan going. That He'd designed for Jonah to be here with Elise and Nathan when they needed a protector.

Thank You for gifting me with this job.

Because it was a gift. Elise's friendship was a gift, if he could still have it. His relationship—if he could build something good—with his nephew was a gift.

And he would cherish both.

He stopped in front of Elise and took the cloth from Nathan. It was the teenager's balled-up undershirt. Nathan's eyes were wide, his pupils dilated.

“Sit, yeah?”

Nathan nodded, tumbling on to the concrete so Jonah had to steady him with a hand on his shoulder.

Elise's face was pale also, her breaths short and sharp. Behind him, he could hear Eric and Hailey murmuring to each other. He didn't want to hear what they were saying when it would make him wish for something he could never have. Elise would always love Martin.

“Jonah.” Pain had drawn lines around her mouth.

He realized he was squeezing her arm in his grip. He knelt on the concrete. “We have to keep pressure on it. An ambulance will be here soon.”

She nodded, her lips pressed into a white line.

Jonah turned only his head, only to see Hailey with her eyes on him. Eric pressed a handkerchief to her forehead and she winced. He asked her, “What happened?”

She gritted her teeth. “He came out of nowhere. Totally silent. I could hear Elise moving around upstairs and I was about to head up there, but there was a door I was trying to clear the way to, for a second exit. I felt him there more than I heard anything. When I turned he slammed something into my head.”

Jonah wanted to rail at her for being caught unawares, but he figured Eric would have that talk with her—after he'd made sure she was okay. That was the only thing that stopped him, aside from the fact she looked like she was about to throw up.

Sure enough, Hailey pushed away Eric's hand, turned around and puked.

“Concussion.” Parker pulled a bottle of water from his coat pocket and handed it to her, but Eric intercepted it. “Thanks.”

Jonah turned to Elise. “Are you hurt anywhere else, or just your arm?”

She had bruised ribs already, and plenty of grazes from their near misses the past couple of days. She'd hardly needed this to add to it.

Elise shook her head, but her eyes filled with tears. “The water—” Her voice cracked.

Nathan said, “It was full of debris. When I got to her, she was tangled in weeds.”

Elise sucked in a choppy breath that made him want to pull her into his arms in a hug. Before he could, Nathan wrapped his mom up in a comforting hold while Jonah tried to keep his grip on her injured arm.

The siren signaling the ambulance drew closer.

“Help is here.” He could hear how flat his voice was, and he hated it. Elise needed comfort, but it wasn't like he was going to be the one to give it to her.

It was just a matter of inches and the knife would have made it into her heart. Inches and she would've been a dead woman.

Elise whimpered. Jonah couldn't fight it anymore. He placed Nathan's hand on the compress on her wound, and touched her face instead. “I am very, very glad that you're okay.”

“Me, too.”

If he hadn't seen her fall, they wouldn't have been able to pull her from the water in time. If she hadn't seen them from the window, Elise wouldn't have turned in time to see the attacker and been able to move aside.

Next time, he was going to be there.

Next time, he would make sure he was standing between Elise and her attacker.

Next time, Jonah would take a bullet for her.

But as she turned to Nathan and sought comfort from her son, what he realized she needed was someone to love her.

Too bad she would never let him.

* * *

Elise watched while the doctor finished up the stitches in her arm, slathered goo on it and stuck a bandage on top. Parker stood by the door, arms folded across his chest like this was another day at the office.

Nathan held her good hand with one of his and texted with the other. Apparently his mom getting cut was big news. She squeezed his hand, and he did the same in return, glancing her way. She was glad her son had stayed with her. Not that he could have gone anywhere else, but she knew he wanted to be here.

Unlike a certain other person, who had touched her like she was the most precious thing in the world and said sweet words while he looked in her eyes. And then Jonah just switched it off. Got up and went to work. Leaving her with macho Parker for a bodyguard.

What was up with
that
?

Leaving her to be checked out by the EMTs, not even waiting to know if the cut was serious. Or to find out the extent of her bruises. No, he left her to talk with Detective Manners and his smarmy partner, to tell them what had happened.

She'd wanted to send Nathan somewhere out of the way so he didn't hear it, but he'd insisted he was fine. How much more of this was her son going to be able to tolerate before he freaked out at the prospect of losing his mother, leaving him with no parents? He missed his dad, even though it was also hard because he'd never actually met Martin. She'd told him everything she remembered, many times over, and every year they'd had cake on Martin's birthday. But that wasn't the same as having a dad in his life.

If Jonah wanted to fill that position as Nathan's uncle, he was going to have to actually stick around instead of leaving for work at every opportunity. Clearly the fact that he intended to protect her was all talk. He seemed to be leaving it to his team, like she was just another witness on a case who didn't mean anything to him.

“All finished.”

She gave the doctor a small smile. “Thanks.”

“I'll get you scripts for ibuprofen and an antibiotic to fight off any infection, and you'll be good to go.” He leaned toward her for a second, a gleam of humor in the eyes shaded by bushy gray eyebrows. “I expect to not see you back for any other injuries anytime soon. Okay, missy?”

She laughed. “I'll try.”

It wasn't like she could control the fact that someone kept attempting to kill her. But she could control what was happening at the zoo, and the danger that lay there.

“Let's go.”

Parker's eyebrows rose, as though he didn't intend to move until he decided to do so. “Where to?”

“I want to talk to the mayor.”

Her voice was steady, but the residue of fear was like a dark cloud at the edges of her vision. Like being in a tunnel. Jonah's presence had helped, but now that he was gone, she was being sucked in.

Like the water.

She'd thought the knife and the fall were the worst part—until she'd hit the lake.

Freezing cold had sucked the fight from her. Then she'd tried to move, tangled in weeds. She'd kicked out with her legs, only to jar them against something hard, shooting pain up to her hips.

Elise shivered. Parker handed her the change of clothes someone had brought her. That weirded her out, but maybe it had been Jonah who went through her things. Or a female marshal. Another stranger going through her bags and seeing the sorry state of her wardrobe.

Parker drove them downtown. He led the way to the mayor's office like he was a professional bodyguard. Like Elise was actually someone important.

The receptionist, a perky girl who looked barely older than Nathan, looked up. “Can I—”

“No.” Elise strode past a chuckling Parker and walked straight into the mayor's office. “Dom?”

His chair dwarfed him, his dark hair shiny in the fluorescent light. “I'll call you back.” He ended the call on his cell phone and set it on the desk in front of him. Dom got up and circled the desk, one arm outstretched toward the chairs. “You look like you should sit down.”

Elise took one of the seats. Energy bled from her as she realized how much effort she'd been using just to keep herself upright and alert. “I need to talk with you.”

Nathan took the other seat while Dom perched on the end of the desk. Parker had taken up residence by the door, hands across his chest again. Was that his go-to pose? Maybe it wasn't just because it showcased his muscles. Or maybe he was that shallow. She would probably never know the answer.

“Uh...Mom?”

Elise blinked. Parker smirked, which made her roll her eyes at him out of embarrassment. Was he going to tell Jonah she'd been staring?

She turned to Dom. “We won't be returning to the zoo.” Not just because she'd nearly died. “There are too many hazards for anyone to be walking around. I need the construction crew to clear everything out first. Then we will be able to go in.”

“Ah, yes.” Dom scratched his impressively trimmed facial hair. “About that. Well, the foreman called me a short while ago. I was about to come looking for you. Are you okay?”

He didn't need the ins and outs of what had happened to her. “What did the foreman say?”

“It's about the lion.”

Nathan said, “You mean the tiger, Shera?”

Dom nodded. “The crew won't go in the zoo unless the animal has been caught. I know it's loose, and so far hasn't hurt anyone. Thank the good Lord. But the crew refuses to come in unless you catch the tiger first.” He glanced at Parker, then back at her, his voice suddenly low. “People are starting to notice. They know she's not dangerous, but a tiger can't be free to roam.”

“Shera is very dangerous.”

Dom blinked. “I was under the impression she was old, and blind.”

“That doesn't mean a four hundred-pound animal isn't dangerous. She takes a swing at anyone and they lose. I'm genuinely worried she'll come across a kid wandering the woods.” Elise didn't have time to be hurt, or tired. “I'll take care of that first thing tomorrow.”

“Mom—”

“We'll take care of it.”

Nathan shook his head. “That wasn't what I was objecting to.”

She knew he was worried if she could do it without two weeks of bed rest. But what other choice was there? Animal control could help, but they'd let it go this long. They simply weren't prepared for a loose animal of Shera's nature.

“I want the crew in there ASAP.”

Dom scratched his jaw again. What was wrong now? “I understand the need, but you don't look capable of doing this without help.”

Elise shifted, ready to fire back even if it was the truth. But he cut her off.

“Nevertheless, I understand the urgency. We need this tiger deal wrapped up so you can get to work.”