Kitabı oxu: «Deception»

Dedicated to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

who paid my ransom.

Acknowledgments

My heartfelt thanks and gratitude goes out to all those who support my writing endeavors. First I thank my family, of course—my husband and boys who put up with my frequent forays into other worlds without them. We’ve been eating a lot of pizza and fast food lately, I know, but hey, don’t you love it when Mom gets that book money? I also want to thank my dear writing buddies, you know who you are, and my new writing friends—I couldn’t do this without your encouragement and support. And as always, thanks to my amazing editor, Elizabeth Mazer, for her insights into making my manuscripts the best they can be. Last and never least, I appreciate the encouragement from my agent, Steve Laube. Signing me as a client (has it already been over five years?) was a huge validation to me as a writer. Thanks, Steve!

Contents

COVER

BACK COVER TEXT

INTRODUCTION

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

TITLE PAGE

BIBLE VERSE

DEDICATION

Acknowledgements

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

Dear Reader

EXTRACT

COPYRIGHT

ONE

Dead Man Falls

Mountain Cove, Alaska

Edging closer to the precipice that overlooked the plunging waterfall, Jewel Caraway risked a glance down. Vertigo hit. Dizziness mingled with worry.

Meral and Buck should have beaten Jewel to the falls where they had planned to meet up.

“Meral!” she yelled.

The roar of the water that cascaded hundreds of feet below drowned out her calls, sucking them down with the rushing water. A foaming whirlpool twisted where the frothing, tumbling force pounded the pool at its base. Misty spray drifted up and enveloped Jewel in a sheen of moisture. The sound of her voice could never compete with the rumbling growl of the cataract.

She tugged out her cell phone before she remembered she would get no cell signal here. The only signal she ever had was in Mountain Cove proper. She put the cell away, her gaze drawn back to the waterfall.

Powerful and dangerous.

Beautiful and terrifying.

Dead Man Falls was a force to be reckoned with. That was if one were to take the plunge and get sucked into the swirling torrent at the base.

Kayakers had attempted to navigate the drop and failed.

Part of a rainbow, transparent and fading into the mist, caught her attention. Mesmerized, Jewel stood at the edge of the rocky, moss-covered ledge that was flanked by spruce and hemlock, firs and cedars in the lush, temperate rainforest. She watched the churning at the bottom of an endless vortex that would trap anyone or anything unfortunate enough to fall. She wondered what secrets it held in its depths—then flinched at the memory of how she had buried a secret of her own and never thought about it again. That was until Meral, the sister she hadn’t seen since Jewel had eloped twenty years ago, had arrived on her doorstep with her new husband.

And now they were both missing.

“Meral!” she called again. “Buck!”

Uncertainty roiled inside, tumultuous like the falls.

Those two had gotten lost somehow, which seemed impossible. They’d been hiking together when Jewel realized she’d forgotten her water and had needed to go back. They had gone on ahead of her on the well-defined trail, and the plan had been they would stop at the falls and wait until Jewel could catch up. Where could they have gone?

A twig snapped. Before she could turn, a blunt object smashed into her back. Pain erupted along with her scream as the force of the blow propelled her forward.

Airborne, Jewel plummeted through the clouds and mist, feeling as if her stomach had been left behind on the cliff’s edge.

Terror was catching up with her.

The spray of the waterfall engulfed her. At the last possible moment, she dragged in a breath and fell into the jaws of the beast she’d admired with a healthy fear only moments before. The wrath of the whirlpool plunged her deeper, twisting and tossing, bashing her against sunken boulders.

Dizziness and nausea held her captive within the vortex. The pounding water pushed her deeper, then turned her over again in the same way a crocodile rolled its meal to make it tender.

I’m not ready to die!

Lungs burning, Jewel shoved down the fear. The most important thing she’d learned from self-defense classes with local police chief Colin Winters was not to panic. The violent water was nothing more than an assailant bent on harming her. She could only escape by slipping out of its grip. On the fringe of consciousness, Jewel did a flutter kick, swimming with all her might, and forced her body down and deep below the backwash.

Then she felt it.

The smooth water.

She’d escaped!

Disoriented, unable to tell which way she should go, she allowed the current to sweep her downstream and away from the falls. Jewel opened her eyes and fought through her exhaustion to try to swim toward the surface.

I can do this.

But fear and doubt clawed at her, threatening to drag her down and keep her under. Her lungs burned and screamed as she fought her way to the surface. And in that moment, the instance before she breached, she saw rocks and trees blurred at the top of the ledge from which she’d fallen...along with a figure. A human figure.

She’d thought, she’d hoped, that a branch had fallen from a tree and somehow shoved her in the back, sending her over to plummet into the river.

The way the figure stood there, the wide, deliberate stance, she knew...she knew that he or she had pushed Jewel. Intentionally shoved her into Dead Man Falls to what should have been her death. And she hadn’t made it to safety yet. She could still die today in this river.

Why? Why had she been pushed?

The figure disappeared in the thick canopy even as the current dragged Jewel away.

Finally breaching the surface, she pulled in a breath and braced herself for a new battle to survive the river with its multiple tiered rapids and falls.

Jewel couldn’t be sure how long the river had taken her captive. How long she’d allowed herself to be carried away, floating on her back in order to save her energy for that moment, that one moment, when she might have a chance to escape. Except her reserves were almost depleted.

That moment hadn’t come.

How much longer could she keep her head above the rushing torrent?

Her limbs grew tired and numb, even with her effort to conserve energy. She searched the bank for calmer waters to swim toward. A branch to grab. Anything.

She needed out of the water before she hit the rapids and another set of falls.

God, help me!

Just ahead she spotted the trunk of a dead tree, branches sprawling and reaching. This was her chance and likely her last one before the rapids. Before she drowned.

Jewel reached, but the current, ripping and swirling as the rapids approached, twisted her away. She had no control over her own body. Her own life. She wouldn’t be able to grab the trunk.

Jewel was going to die. Despair engulfed her.

Excruciating pain stabbed across her shoulder and back. Her body suddenly jerked and her forward momentum stopped. Something had caught her. Wrenched her from the river’s grasp.

Stunned, recoiling in pain, Jewel twisted around. A branch from the fallen trunk had snagged and cut her deeply, but had saved her life even as it had wounded her. She held on with everything in her.

This was the chance she’d been hoping for. She wouldn’t lose it. After coughing up more water, she dragged in air and allowed a measure of relief to set in. Now to pass the next test.

This was no time to rest. She had to get out of the river.

She gripped the slick trunk and pulled herself up, higher out of the water until only her legs were beneath the surface. Slowly, she inched toward the bank.

Her left hand slipped, and she let out a cry as she slid deeper into the water. But she reached again, grappling with another branch to keep from slipping completely back into the river’s grasp. If only she weren’t already so weak from her injuries and exhaustion.

Finally, she reached the rocky outcropping of boulders hugging the bank and pulled herself out of the river completely. Laying flat across a slick boulder, Jewel rested her gaze on the swift river and its endless push toward the deeper waters of the channel.

I made it out. Thank You, Lord.

Jewel rallied and pushed to her knees to climb over more boulders. Every ache, every bruise, every scratch and sprain screamed in agony as the numbing power of cold water that had served as an anesthetic now seeped away.

Free of the rocky edge, Jewel crawled until the river was no longer a threat and fell face forward into the mossy loam. She clung to the dirt, breathed in the earth. She’d made it this far, and she would be grateful for small things.

She wouldn’t think about getting out of the wilderness. Maybe by now Meral and Buck would have reported her missing.

How long would they wait until they called for help? How long would it take that help to find her?

Terror snaked over and around her like a living, deadly vine and squeezed. It would crush the life out of her if she let it. She shoved her growing fear down and focused on surviving. She’d escaped the river and would draw confidence from that.

But it wasn’t just nature she had to contend with. Another danger loomed out there somewhere. Someone had pushed her into the falls. They could still be out there.

Had they watched the river carry her away? Were they tracking her now, on the verge of approaching to finish her off?

The pain in her back throbbed in rhythm with her innumerable other injuries. If the person who’d tried to kill her found her here now, nearly incapacitated after fighting and surviving Dead Man Falls and the river, Jewel wasn’t sure her self-defense classes would do her a bit of good.

But she held on to the hope they believed she had drowned in the falls as per their intent.

Since Tracy—her friend and previous employee at Jewel’s Bed and Breakfast—had dealt with a vicious stalker about two years ago, a visceral fear had taken over Jewel, a dread that followed her everywhere with the awareness of just how easily danger could get close. It had taken them all far too long to realize that the stalker, who had hidden his appearance from Tracy, had actually been staying as a guest at the B and B.

Jewel had taken the self-defense classes, hoping to instill confidence in her ability to protect herself and to push away fear. Yet now that fear twisted deeper, hooking her full and well.

If help didn’t arrive soon, Jewel would have to spend the night here and rest before she could find her own way out. She crawled forward and into the brush to hide, hoping it would be enough camouflage if the person who’d tried to kill her came looking.

* * *

All Chief Colin Winters wanted to do was take the week off. The month. Or maybe even the whole year. What would it feel like not to answer a phone? Not to have an endless list of problems vying for his attention?

But when his cell rang and he spotted the fire chief’s number, he answered.

“Winters.” Something in David Warren’s voice had Colin on edge.

“What is it?”

“It’s Jewel Caraway.”

Colin’s heart seized up. He couldn’t speak.

“She went into the river at Dead Falls Canyon.”

As police chief, Colin was trained to push down the panic and act. But at this news he couldn’t move, couldn’t think. He pressed his hand against the wall for support. “Is she...”

“Someone called the state troopers, and we have an incident number. North Face Mountain Search and Rescue is on the scene, and I’m calling you. I knew you’d want to know immediately.”

Colin heard the meaning behind David’s words. David was aware that Colin thought Jewel was a special woman. They all did.

They hadn’t found a body, but his relief was short-lived. Dead Man Falls deserved the name.

Colin had already exited his office and was making his way to the back door to get into his Jeep.

“We’re meeting at the trailhead by the mouth of the river.”

Sherry, the dispatcher, called after him. “Chief! Chief!” He ignored her.

“I’m on my way,” he spoke into the phone.

When he plowed through the back door, a truck screeched to a stop in the parking lot.

“I figured you would be.” David leaned out the open window.

Colin shoved his cell in his pocket and climbed in. He’d let the new fire chief drive. Though he was anxious to get to the river and be part of the search, his hands trembled. He wouldn’t be any good at the wheel. Nor did he want David to see how he was struggling with this news. It hit him much too personally when he had no right.

David swerved out of the parking lot and onto Main Street, going over the speed limit, but Colin wasn’t about to stop him. This was an emergency.

“You doing okay?” David glanced his way intermittently.

Colin barely nodded. “What happened? Do you know?”

“According to Tracy, she went hiking with her sister and brother-in-law. I don’t know what happened or how she fell in.”

“She’s a skilled hiker. Knows what she’s doing.” So how did this happen? He couldn’t reconcile this with what he knew about her.

“I hope she’s a better swimmer,” David said.

Colin thought he would be sick. God, please let her survive.

But it seemed impossible.

Twenty aching minutes later, David parked his truck at the boat dock. Colin hopped onto the Warren family boat. Others from the North Face Mountain Search and Rescue team had already left for the scene. But David, who was on the team, too, had stayed behind, knowing Colin would want to be there.

“Thanks, David.”

David started up the boat. “For what?”

“For waiting. For taking me there.”

“Of course. You’ve saved my skin countless times. You were the one to figure out who had put Tracy in danger.”

All part of the job. “Still, I appreciate it.”

“I knew you’d want to help find Jewel.”

The wind whipped over his face as the boat sped away from Mountain Cove. Colin stared ahead, going through all the possible scenarios in his mind, except the worst-case scenario. He couldn’t think about finding Jewel’s body.

The boat ride took far too long, and he was glad others had gotten to the trailhead and started the search before he and David arrived. Kayaks and other boats rested along the shore, all empty, all except one. Cade Warren—David’s brother—stood on the deck hovering over maps. Colin followed David over to the boat and climbed aboard to speak to Cade, who was in charge of the search at the ICC, or Incident Command Center.

“Anything?”

“Nothing yet.”

“Tracy’s here with Solomon,” Cade said. “You knew that, right?”

David straightened. Grinned at his brother. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. Jewel means the world to Tracy. Solomon’ll find her.”

Colin wasn’t surprised to hear the news. David’s wife, Tracy, was trained at search and rescue, as was her dog, Solomon. Plus, she used to work for Jewel at the B and B until the twins came along, and had a close relationship with her employer. It made sense that she’d rush out to help as soon as she learned what had happened.

“Where are they?” Colin asked.

Cade pointed at the map. “Sent them off here to search the riverbank. Later, we’ll be looking...”

When Cade glanced up at Colin, he let his sentence trail off. He was glad Cade decided not to finish. He didn’t want to think about dredging the river or this channel for a body. He was glad he wasn’t in charge of the search.

Hopping off the boat and onto the small deck, he left David and Cade behind.

“Winters! Where are you going?”

“What do you think? I’m going to look for Jewel.” He marched up the trail.

He didn’t have time for pleasant conversation.

“Hold up.” David left Cade behind to follow and jogged up to him.

Colin didn’t wait for him, hiking up a few yards, then veering off into the forest to the left toward the river. That raging, deadly river.

David gripped his arm. “We’ll find her, Winters. Though I have to say,” he added with a frown, “I didn’t realize you were in this deep.”

“What are you talking about?”

Tracy rushed up to her husband. Breathless, she pointed. “I think Solomon’s found something.”

Colin and David followed Tracy through the woods, around trees and fallen trunks, over rocks and boulders to Solomon’s bark and whine. Colin tensed at the dog’s signals. He knew Solomon had finally gotten certified as a cadaver dog.

He braced himself, unsure what they would find—a living, breathing Jewel or her body.

TWO

Something wet slid across her nose, eyes and mouth. Jewel stirred and tried to turn over to defend herself, but a bone-piercing throb coursed through her wrist.

A dog’s whimper and continued licking steadied her breathing. Calmed her fear. She recognized the animal.

“Solomon.” Her voice didn’t sound like her own.

Footsteps, twigs snapping and breaking, resounded through the undergrowth on the river’s edge.

“Jewel,” Tracy said. “Are you all right?”

Relief swelled inside. “Depends on your definition.”

Tracy spoke to someone nearby and then radioed others that Jewel had been found.

“Shouldn’t you be home with your babies? Your twins?” Jewel managed.

“Grandma Katy needs her time with them. Besides, you had to know I would come looking for you. Solomon and I.”

“Jewel!” A familiar, masculine voice joined Tracy’s.

Jewel heard the immeasurable relief in his tone. That ignited her heart. She was alive. She had survived.

“Chief Winters,” she croaked. Colin. She had always called him by his official title to keep personal feelings out of it. To keep her distance. Otherwise, the man could undo her resolve to protect her heart.

Her bruises throbbed with any movement or effort on her part. She squeezed her eyes shut, unwilling to look at him.

“We’re here now, Jewel. You’re going to be okay. You just rest now.”

As other SAR members arrived and focused in on Jewel, they crowded him out and away.

“No! No... Chief Winters.” She reached for him.

He stepped forward, closer again.

“I’m here, Jewel. I never left.” His electric blue eyes pierced hers, concern and relief spilling from them. “What is it? What do you need?”

“Someone pushed me into those falls.”

Anger rose in his gaze and maybe a little disbelief. “Can you describe him?”

“No... I...”

Chief Winters grabbed her hand. “Whoever it was, we’ll find him, Jewel. Don’t you worry. You’re in good hands now. I have to go and make sure nobody else gets hurt.”

Then he slipped out of the way of her search and rescue friends. Jewel endured the poking and prodding and assessing and finally the hefting and assisting her back to civilization.

On the helicopter ride back to Mountain Cove, Jewel closed her eyes, wanting to forget what had happened, wanting to pretend it had simply been a bad dream. Wanting to wake up with a body free of pain and evidence of the nightmare. But she couldn’t let go of the blurred image of the person she’d seen standing at the top of the falls.

There hadn’t been room for Chief Winters on the helicopter, and maybe she was glad about that so she would have time to think about what she’d seen exactly before having to answer his questions. But he was probably searching for who could have done this. Making sure others were warned a crazy person was out there.

At the small Mountain Cove hospital clinic, Doc Harland attended to all her bruises and scrapes. He didn’t like the look of the deep gash along her shoulder and back from the fallen tree trunk’s branches, but she knew that though painful, that injury had saved her life.

That particular gash needed stitches. Her sprained wrist was already wrapped. Doc assured her it would heal within a few days.

“Hold still, dear.” Doc Harland had anesthetized the gash so she couldn’t feel the needle pricks as he stitched her up. “You aren’t afraid of needles now, are you?”

“I can’t stop shaking. My body has a mind of its own. I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize. You’ve had a scare. We’ll give you something to calm you if you like.”

“No, thank you.” Jewel needed to stay alert. Figure this out. “Are Tracy, Meral and Buck still out there in the waiting room?”

“Far as I know. You want me to send someone to check?”

“No.”

“I’ve treated a lot of folks in my life, but never anyone who has gone into those falls and survived. What happened out there?”

“If it’s all the same to you, Doc, I’d like to forget about it.” Jewel stared at the sterile wall. She might want to forget, but she knew she couldn’t.

“I want to run a few tests. Draw some blood. But not today—you’ve already been through enough. I want to see you back in a week to look at those stitches and your wrist. We’ll get the blood then.”

Was Doc wondering if she had some sort of medical condition that had caused her to fall?

“There. All done.” Doc Harland flipped down her gown.

“Jewel?” Meral peeked through the door. “I brought you some dry clothes.”

“Come on in,” Doc Harland said. “I’ll leave you to change.”

Doc Harland nodded and left to give her privacy.

Meral set the clothes—a pair of jeans, teal T-shirt, light jacket, shoes, socks and undergarments—next to Jewel. “I’m so sorry, Jewel. If we’d just stuck together this would never have happened.” She wiped at the remnants of tears on her cheeks.

She started to hug Jewel, but then acted as though she’d thought better of it. Jewel must look terribly beat up and bruised. Admittedly, a hug would hurt right now.

Meral, short for Emerald, was in her thirties and ten years younger than Jewel. She’d been a teenager when Jewel had run away to marry Silas. Beautiful as she was, she looked fragile and pale at the moment.

“Are you okay?” Jewel found herself asking.

“I’m feeling nauseous. Buck insists on taking me back now. Are you almost ready?”

“Sure, I just need to change.”

“You need help with that?”

“No, you go on now. I’ll be out in a minute.”

Meral nodded and left Jewel. Poor thing. She probably didn’t know how to take what had happened. Jewel wasn’t sure she did either. It was hard to comprehend.

Jewel took far too long to get into her clothes. Every movement, every twist and bend of her body hurt. She risked a glimpse in the mirror over the sink.

Big mistake.

She didn’t even recognize herself.

Someone knocked softly on the door. Meral had timed it just right. They were both ready to get home. But how could Jewel let her guests at the B and B see her like this?

“Come in.”

The door opened and in stepped Chief Winters, standing tall and intimidating in his official tan police uniform.

Her pulse jumped.

Whether from being startled at seeing someone other than Meral, or if it was her reaction to Chief Winters himself, she wasn’t sure.

Seeing him here, clearly concerned about her, brought her more pleasure than it should.

She reminded herself he wasn’t here for personal reasons but to question her officially. But she wasn’t sure she was ready. Everything that had happened was starting to blur together.

What had she really seen? Had she simply imagined the figure on the ledge?

Chief Winters stepped completely in and closed the door behind him. His electric blue eyes always saw everything, and now they flashed with a powerful emotion. Before she could define it, the emotion was shuttered away.

What was the man thinking?

Jewel averted her gaze. She didn’t see the chief of police often outside the self-defense class. And in the class she tried not to think about how tall and rugged he was, or the confident air he had about him. He was in his late forties, the same age as her husband, Silas, would have been if he hadn’t died a decade ago. Silas and Chief Winters had been friends, not close, but friendly enough that they were on a first-name basis. And he’d always been warm and friendly to her, as well, and somewhat protective after Silas had died. All the more reason to keep her distance.

Jewel hung her head for a moment, instinctively, hating for him to see her like this, but then she quickly lifted her chin and faced him. She couldn’t let him see how he affected her. She was surprised to see that today something new burned behind his gaze, and it wasn’t warm or friendly. It was downright terrifying.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Checking up on you. You had to know I’d come. How are you, Jewel?”

“Did you find them? The person who pushed me?”

He shook his head. “Not yet. I know you’re tired and hurt, and this isn’t the best time, but I’m going to need you to think about what happened and tell me everything. Start from the beginning. Who pushed you into the falls?”

“I don’t know.”

Jewel wanted to scream. She wanted to cry, but she wouldn’t do that in front of Chief Winters. She missed Silas—wished she had someone here to hold her. She wanted to feel strong arms around her. Someone to tell her everything was going to be all right. That someone hadn’t just tried to kill her, and she was only imagining things. And in a moment of weakness like this, Colin Winters was the only man who could fulfill those needs.

But she couldn’t let him in that deep.

She’d lived in Alaska long enough that she was well aware of how to take care of herself. She’d run her B and B near the edge of the wilderness for more years than she wanted to admit. She wouldn’t give in to that weakness.

I know how to survive.

I can do this.

Chief Winters stared at her, waiting patiently. She’d always liked that about him. But how did she answer his question? What could she tell him that would make any sense?

* * *

Jewel moved to sit in the chair against the wall. Colin didn’t rush her, giving her a moment to think on the details of what had happened.

Some days Colin hated his job, and today was one of those days. He hated having to pry answers out of people—especially people he cared about personally.

“Accidents happen, Jewel. People fall where they shouldn’t all the time, including in the shower, where some die every year.” He hated himself for this, but he had to ask her. He had to be certain. “Are you sure someone pushed you?”

She stared at the floor. Was she thinking it through?

Seeing Jewel like this undid him. Unraveled him from the inside out.

Jewel Caraway was a beautiful woman. One of the most beautiful he’d ever seen, and that included on the inside, where it mattered most. She was beautiful like Katelyn—a woman he’d loved—had been. Had a quiet elegance and grace about her, and the most captivating hazel-green, gold-flecked eyes. Colin shouldn’t be thinking about her in that way, but he couldn’t stop himself. Had never been able to stop himself for as long as he’d known her.