Ruthless (36 page)

“Then you’d have to put your clothes on,” she reminded him.

“You don’t want me to put my clothes on?”

“Maybe in a couple of hours.”

Pablo’s Restaurante and Cantina, John Hawkins Parkway, 2:30 p.m.

By the time a final toast was offered in honor of Chet Harper, Jess was stuffed and ready to go home for a siesta. Lori had done an amazing job pulling off this surprise birthday party.

Jess wrapped her arm around Dan’s as they joined the
others in the Old World–style courtyard. Didn’t matter that the party was full of cops; she had decided that life was too short to play that game anymore. She and Dan were in a relationship. The world might as well get used to it.

Sylvia Baron, margarita in hand, strolled up to them. She looked amazing as always in a formfitting jade dress that hit just the right number of inches above the knee.

“I suppose you two celebrated last night?”

“I was too exhausted,” Jess tossed back. The woman was seriously nosy. “I crashed early.” No need for her to know she’d crashed into Dan’s naked body.

Reality swooped in on the heels of that thought. After they left here she had to somehow find a way to get her hands on a pregnancy test. Tomorrow she would be a week late. She had no more excuses for putting off the test.

“They’ve set the date for moving Nina,” Sylvia was telling Dan. “The middle of September. I was hoping for sooner but that didn’t work out.”

“Keep me posted on her progress,” Dan said. “I’m hoping for the best.”

They were all hoping the new clinic in New York would be able to help Sylvia’s sister.

While Dan and Sylvia discussed the Baron family annual Labor Day barbecue, Jess mingled some more. She spotted Gina Coleman chatting with a couple of cops Jess didn’t know, both female. She waved to Jess and then made a path for her.

“Sorry that Atkins Electric lead didn’t pan out.”

“Hey.” Jess held up both hands. “You did the right thing. I was grateful for any and all leads on that case.”

Gina nodded. “You did a great job, Jess. The public loves you. You should let me do a feature on you soon.”

Jess mustered up a smile. “We’ll see.”

Another guest dragged Gina away but Jess was thankful for the reprieve. Too bad she didn’t think to suggest Lori invite Clint Hayes. With the crazy week they’d had, Jess hadn’t gotten to interview him. Lori had scheduled an interview for tomorrow. Jess looked forward to meeting him. She had to fill the vacancy on her team soon. The last few days were proof positive.

Her stomach burned and she pressed her hand there. Maybe she shouldn’t have indulged in that second helping of refried beans. She dug in her bag for the pack of Tums she carried. It was like digging in a box of rocks for just the right pebble. One day she had to get this thing organized. One of these days she had to stop thinking she had to get organized and actually do it.

“Gotcha.” She nabbed the roll and peeled off a couple of antacids and popped them into her mouth. That should put out the fire in her belly. As she dropped the roll back into the bottomless pit that was her bag, she checked her cell out of habit.

She had a text… from
Spears
.

Terrified that he was sending her a photo of one of the women, she opened the text. A link. What? Too curious or too stupid to ignore what was probably a virus-laden ploy to get at her yet another way, she clicked the link.

A map appeared and a red dot lit up. The direction boxes read from current location to… “Oh my God.”

The Burying Tree.

Her bag hit the cobblestone.

Dan’s attention swung to her and he rushed to her side.

“We have to go,” she told him.

Oak Mountain State Park, 6:45 p.m.

Jess hugged her arms around herself, feeling chilled despite the heat. She had no idea how Spears could have known about this place, unless his dark-haired spy had been watching Cagle as well as Jess.

Even if that were the case, how had either of them known Cagle was the Man in the Moon? Was it possible that Cagle was one of Spears’s followers? But what would have been the purpose?

The sun tried valiantly to filter through the trees but hardly any light made it to the ground beneath the
burying tree
. Spotlights and equipment were scattered around the area cordoned off with crime scene tape. The digging was slow. Great care had to be taken to protect any remains discovered.

“I have something!” Harper shouted from the far side of the massive Live Oak.

What a thing for a guy to do on his birthday, but he had insisted on coming.

He set the shovel aside and got down on his knees to dig by hand. He unearthed a plastic wrapped bundle and Jess’s knees went weak.

Dan’s arm went around her and steadied her.

“Olivia Chapman,” Harper said, his voice quavering as he read the name from the article in the plastic photo sleeve. Cagle had marked each of his treasures in the same way.

And that was only the first. Night had enveloped them long before the task was anywhere near done. The spotlights gleamed through the darkness, aiding the search. Each precious bundle unearthed was carefully labeled,
and the names of little girls echoed in the night until all were found.

Tears slid down Jess’s cheeks. She didn’t know what was wrong with her; she just couldn’t help it.

But they were tears of joy… these little girls were going home.

Monday, August 23, 6:00 a.m.

J
ess groaned as she scooted out from under Dan’s arm.

It was Monday morning and there was something she had to do before Dan woke up.

Pulling on her robe, she grabbed the Walmart bag from the sofa and tiptoed to the bathroom.

When she and Dan left the burying tree last night, around midnight after all seventeen sets of remains had been accounted for, Jess had insisted they stop at a Walmart for deodorant.

The man had followed her in the store and she’d had to send him in search of snacks to get a minute of privacy. Hadn’t been too difficult once she’d headed down the feminine products aisle. Dan had been only too happy to go the other way. She had grabbed a pregnancy test and then a box of Tampons and some pads for cover. The nice little officer who followed her around, even when she was with Dan, had turned his head.

The bathroom door clicked shut and she locked it. She hoped he didn’t wake up before she was done with this.

With the package in hand she sat down on the toilet to read the instructions. “Shit.” She needed her glasses.

Praying the door wouldn’t squeak too loud this time she hurried over to the bedside table and got her glasses. While she was at it she snagged her phone.

In the bathroom, she read the instructions. Seemed easy enough. All she had to do was pee on the stick and wait three minutes.

To avoid the possibility of him hearing her tearing the package open she turned on the water in the sink.

She stared at the pink and white stick and wondered how something this innocuous looking could hold so much power.

She sniffed. However powerful it was, the stick’s whole purpose in life was to get peed on. Ha!

She hefted her robe up out of the way and assumed the position.

“Here goes.”

She peed as instructed and then set the stick aside for the prescribed number of minutes.

Three minutes wasn’t that long. She set the timer on her phone.

Then she waited.

Her foot started to tap and she forced it to still.

The idea of what all those families were going through tortured her for a moment. Then her mind moved on to Wanda’s visit.

Was she hoping to be accepted back into the fold?

“No way.”

Still, the idea needled at Jess.

There was one way to put that worry to rest. She tapped Corlew’s name in her contact list. To make sure Dan didn’t hear she turned off the sink and turned on the shower. She dragged the curtain around the claw-foot tub so water didn’t go everywhere.

As soon as Corlew grumbled a what-the-hell, she whispered, “I want to hire you to look into an old case.”

“Jess? Why’re you whispering?” He coughed. “Where are you? Sounds like you’re in a car wash.”

“I want you to look into my mother’s and father’s deaths,” she whispered a little louder. “Find out exactly what happened.” She moistened her lips. “And I want to know who my father was. Who he really was.”

“Is something going on, Jessie Lee?” he asked.

She tensed. “I’m just curious, that’s all. You want me to trust you again? For us to be friends?” she reminded him. “Then you do this for me. Prove you mean what you say.” If he really wanted to make things right, he could do this for her. He was a PI, after all.

“All right. All right. Call me this afternoon and we’ll talk about it. I just went to bed a couple hours ago.”

“ ’Kay. Talk to you later.”

“Hey,” he caught her before she ended the call. “You did good, kid. You might just single-handedly turn the BPD around.”

She was not going there. “Thanks.”

She ended the call and took a big breath. “Get it over with.”

She walked to the sink and stared at the stick lying there.

Two vivid pink lines stared back at her.

“Oh… my… God.”

Her phone slipped from her fingers and bounced on the floor. She reached for the door facing to steady herself.

Positive.

Dear God, she was pregnant.

The deep rumble of Dan’s voice snapped her to attention. She pressed her ear to the door and listened. He was either on the phone or someone was here.

She quickly gathered the packaging, shoved the stick inside, and looked for a place to hide it. For now, she jammed the whole kit and caboodle in the plastic Walmart bag, tied it tight, and then tucked it inside the toilet tank. She grimaced when porcelain rubbed against porcelain as she settled the heavy lid back into place. Then she grabbed her phone, grateful that it had survived.

“Okay.” She stared at her reflection in the mirror over the sink. “You can deal with this. Sit down and talk it through.” Dan would probably be ecstatic at the news.

Doubt plagued her. She hoped he would, at any rate.

Jess stripped off her robe and climbed into the tub. Thankfully the water spraying from the shower was still warm. Feeling numb, she went through the necessary motions as quickly as possible. She dried herself, donned the robe, and emerged with her damp hair stacked haphazardly atop her head. She didn’t care.

Dan had dressed and was waiting for her.

She frowned. “You don’t want to shower?”

“There’s no time.”

Her shoulders slumped. Oh, no. “What’s happened now?”

He closed in on her, took her face in his hands. The anguish in his eyes stabbed right through her heart. “He chose his victim, Jess. Two of the women were found
on the side of the road near a wilderness retreat outside Gatlinburg, Tennessee.”

She wanted to scream. She wanted to throw something. Mainly she just wanted to throw up. “Are they dead?” The tears burst from her. She couldn’t help it.

“No, no, they’re okay. They confirmed that the third woman was being held with them but he didn’t release her.”

Jess closed her eyes against the images of what she knew he would do to this woman.

“You need to get dressed. We have a conference call with Gant in half an hour.”

Every swear word in her vocabulary bounced around in her head. Jess snapped a bra into place and pulled on underwear. She reached for something to wear without even looking.

Her arm fell back to her side. How could she do this?

How could she make her world safe enough for a baby?

She looked across the room to the man who was on his phone rescheduling meetings and doing what he had to do to protect this city… their home. The father of the child she was carrying.

Her hand flattened on her belly.

If Spears learned this news… he would use this child to get to her… to get to Dan.