Maverick Sheriff (24 page)
Authors: Delores Fossen
“Sheriff!”
Another voice cried out then, breaking with what sounded like fear.
The deputy pulled Noelle close as he hurried toward that cry.
The flashlights all hit the far left corner of the room. They fell on the man sprawled there. A man who was dead—his throat had been cut. The man stared sightlessly back at them while his blood formed a dark pool beneath him.
The deputy’s hold on Noelle tightened. “Who is that?” he demanded.
Noelle started to shake.
“Ms. Evers...” His voice gentled a bit. “Is he one of the men who took you?”
Tears leaked down her cheeks. “I don’t know!”
Voices rose. Shouted. More men and women came inside the cabin. More lights.
Too bright.
Noelle’s shoulders hunched. She looked down at her wrists. They were bloody and raw. And her hands—her hands were stained with blood. So was her gown. The gown she’d worn to sleep when she climbed into her own bed.
This isn’t my home.
But she couldn’t remember how she’d gotten there. Noelle only knew darkness.
The deputy pulled off his coat. Carefully, he put it around her shoulders. “Tell me what happened.” He was leading her from the cabin keeping his fingers around her arm. “Get me a medic!” He called out to another one of the men swarming the area.
Then she was outside. The night air was crisp, but she could still smell blood.
Because it’s on me.
“I want to go home,” Noelle whispered. “I want to see my parents.” Noelle was seventeen. She was a sophomore at Coleman High School. She was cheering at the football game on Friday. She was—
Noelle’s knees gave way and she would’ve hit the ground if the deputy hadn’t grabbed her. He lifted her up against his chest, holding her tightly.
“Medic!”
the deputy yelled.
She wasn’t just shaking any longer. Noelle’s eyes rolled back in her head as giant shudders jolted through her.
The deputy carried her to a gurney. He and the medic strapped her down. “What the hell is happening?”
“Noelle!”
She heard the scream distantly, but she knew that voice. It was her mother’s voice. Noelle tried to respond, but she couldn’t speak.
“She’s seizing,” the medic snapped. “We need to get her stable!”
The darkness seemed to close in again. She didn’t want to go back into the dark.
Something bad waited in the dark.
Death waited.
But Noelle couldn’t fight, and the darkness took her once more.
* * *
T
HE NEXT TIME
Noelle’s eyes opened, she was surrounded by a sea of white. The scent of antiseptic told her she was in the hospital even before the room came into focus.
She blinked a few times then saw her mother’s tear-filled gaze. “You’re okay, baby,” her mom whispered.
Noelle didn’t feel okay.
“We need to ask her some questions.”
Noelle’s gaze darted to the left at those words. Her father stood close by. He looked pale, and...older than she’d ever seen him.
Right next to her father, Sheriff Morris Bartley stood, his stare on her. He leaned toward Noelle.
“She just woke up,” her father gritted out.
“I know.” The sheriff sighed. “But she’s the only one who can tell us what happened. I got a dead body, and I got her and I need to know—”
The darkness waited.
Noelle gave a hard, negative shake of her head.
“Noelle, how did you wind up in that cabin?” the sheriff asked her.
“This needs to wait,” her father barked.
The machines around Noelle began to beep, faster, louder.
“Who was the dead man? Is he the one who took you? Is he—”
“I don’t remember,” Noelle whispered. Her throat hurt.
She
hurt.
The sheriff exhaled on a rough sigh. His hands gripped his hat. “Start with what you know. Tell me who took you from your house. Tell me how you got to that cabin and how—”
“I don’t remember.” Her voice was even softer now.
The sheriff’s brows shot up. “Did you leave your house willingly? Is that what happened? Did you—?”
He didn’t understand. “I don’t...remember anything.”
Her mother gave a little gasp.
“I was in my room, in my bed.” Noelle’s heart galloped in her chest. The machines raced. “Then I was in the dark.” She blinked away the tears that filled her eyes.
Something happened in the dark. Something bad.
“I don’t remember,” she said again, and it was almost as if...as if the words were a vow.
The machines beeped louder around her. Noelle’s mother pulled Noelle into a tight hug.
And, over her mother’s shoulder, Noelle glanced up and met the eyes of the sheriff. There was concern in his gaze and suspicion.
I don’t remember.
There was only darkness in her mind, and Noelle didn’t know if that was good...or bad.
Copyright © 2014 by Cindy Roussos
ISBN-13: 9781460339060
Maverick Sheriff
Copyright © 2014 by Delores Fossen
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical,
now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.