Chapter One
It was past midnight when his cell phone rang. He hoped it was a call for a mission, and not another call from Trenda, like the one’s he’d been getting from her when he’d been at Declan’s place. She tried to make it sound like everything was all right, but he could read between the lines. There was something going on that she wasn’t telling him, and it was keeping her up at night. He didn’t know if it had to do with their younger sisters or their mother. He hated to hear her struggling to cope, she had enough on her plate with her three-year-old daughter. He looked at the phone and saw a number he didn’t recognize. He picked up.
“Avery here.”
“Drake?” It was a fragile whisper. It didn’t sound like Trenda. Was it one of the twins?
“I’m here, Honey. Is that you, Chloe? Zoe?”
“It’s me, Piper. I don’t have much time. He’s out. He came with friends. Mom let all of them stay.” Drake was having a tough time understanding her. She was crying. “Drake, he was tearing through the place, screaming for me. I jumped out my window.” He heard her take a shuddering breath.
“Why aren’t you at Trenda’s?” he demanded from the youngest of his six sisters.
“I’m pretty sure he’s got men watching her.” Piper’s voice was clogged with fear and tears. “I don’t understand it. I thought he wanted to kill me.”
“Dammit, go to the police, right this fucking minute,” he commanded.
“I can’t. Delmar Arnold is still sheriff.” Somehow, she managed to get herself under control.
Drake closed his eyes in disbelief. She was right, Delmar was as dirty as they came. Piper was also correct not to involve any of their sisters. If he was watching Trenda, there was no telling which of the others he was watching, and they would just end up hurt, or worse.
“Where are you?”
“Remember the old campgrounds where you took us those couple of times?” she asked. He remembered.
“Yes.”
“I’m at the communal showers.”
“How’d you get to the campgrounds?” he asked. He didn’t think his sixteen-year-old sister had a car.
“I hitched.”
Drake felt his head start to pound. His left fist was clenched so tightly he thought he might shatter the bones in his hand. But he couldn’t yell at Piper, she was too close to the edge. Still, the idea of pretty little Piper hitchhiking scared the piss out of him. “Stay put. I’ll be there later today.”
“They told you to never come back. He wants to kill you more than he wants to kill me. Then there’s the sheriff. I don’t want you hurt. I was thinking I could hitchhike to the airport and you could-”
“I’ll be there today.” His tone brooked no argument. Drake thought about February in the Smoky Mountains and knew it would be colder than a witch’s tit. “Are you going to be all right until I get there?”
“My coat was in my backpack, and I took it before I went out the window. The trucker gave me a blanket.”
Fuck, a trucker? She hitchhiked with a trucker?!
“Where are you calling from?”
“I’m using the pay phone and my pre-paid calling card.”
“Baby, can you stay close to the showers, and just hunker down? It’ll be safe there. I don’t want you near the woods, okay?”
“Drake, I don’t want you to come, it’s not safe for you.”
Drake laughed. “Honey, I think I can handle it. The real reason I’ve stayed away is because that’s what Mom wanted, not because of some backwoods sheriff and what some judge threatened twelve years ago. Just stay safe. I’ll be there before you know it.”
“How will you recognize me?” she asked hesitantly.
“Hey, we just SKYPED at Christmas, plus I have your picture in my wallet. It’s you after your play in September. You were Rebecca in Our Town.”
He heard her hiccup.
“Really? How’d you get it?”
“Trenda sent it to me.” How could she even doubt it? “Really. She’d be in trouble if she didn’t. I’ll be there in two shakes, Baby Girl. I love you.”
“I love you too.” The tears in her voice about broke his heart. “My minutes are running out. I gotta go.” The phone went dead.
Drake stared at his phone. Holy hell, he was actually going back to Jasper Creek. He’d just turned eighteen the last time he was there. He started to dial his teammate Clint but stopped. The last thing he wanted to do was get his buddies involved in the shitstorm he was heading into, especially now that they had their women to consider. Nope, he wouldn’t risk them. Not when it was his father who was at the heart of this mess.