Chapter 19
After picking up Jax from Dawson and Sam’s, Colton found himself headed to Blake’s cabin, reeling with concern and questions. The cabin was secluded, away from the masses, kind of like him. Blake liked his privacy. What was once a hunting cabin – was now his quaint and isolated home that rested just outside of town in a wooded area along Bear Creek.
It was simple but charming, sparse furnishings, very tidy, not a TV that could be seen but plenty of book filled shelves. Colton was always surprised by how simple Blake lived. It actually suited him.
As Colton pulled up out front, Blake was already standing in his yard to greet them. Knowing Blake, he probably had the property rigged with booby traps and alarms, letting him know a mile back that someone was headed up his long drive from the road.
“Hey man, what brings you guys out here?” he asked Colton, giving him the standard “Bro” secret handshake. “Give me knucks, little man,” he said to Jax, putting his fist out to bump with the toddler, who was happy to comply.
Blake may be on the quiet side and a bit introverted, due to his own demons that he kept locked away, but the kids always brought out a side that the group of friends rarely saw from their ultra-macho, gun toting, badass friend. As oversized and intimidating as Blake looked, the kids only saw a big teddy bear they adored.
“Not much, hell…” Colton stopped to correct himself. “Man, I need a favor, a big one,” he finished, hesitation surrounding his words.
“Need a beer for this?” Blake offered. “More importantly, will I need a beer?”
“Go for it, but I’ll pass. We’re headed to Portland with Dawson and Sam to pick up the new equipment, long drive,” he replied. “Look, it’s about Megan…”
“Man, please, don’t bring me your girl problems. That’s Dawson’s department,” Blake said, cutting him off while grabbing that beer after all.
“Coop, it isn’t like that. This is unofficial, official business. I need you to look into something,” Colton said, defeat sliding off each word.
“You’re finally here to talk about it, huh? About time,” he replied, leaving Colton a bit confused.
Blake knew it was only a matter of time before this conversation would take place. Something was going on with Megan. He felt it in his gut and was already a step ahead of Colton.
“Okay, tell me what’s going on. I’ll do what I can. You know that,” he said, tossing back his beer.
“I think there is someone after her. I don’t think the fire was an accident either,” Colton admitted.
Blake sat on the leather chair, nodding for Colton to take a seat on the adjacent matching couch. “Okay, that’s a pretty serious statement. What do you got?” Blake asked, leading Colton to believe he was completely in the dark and unsuspecting.
“You know there have been odd little things, right? She gets pretty anxious and worked up over nothing, or so it seems. Well, she’s trying to hide something,” Colton said, his words full of guilt.
He felt as if he was accusing her of doing something wrong, even though he didn’t know if she was or wasn’t. Truth was, he knew very little about the woman he adored, the woman he loved.
“Okay, so, people can be a little…paranoid in nature. That doesn’t mean anything is going on beyond that,” Blake countered, challenging Colton to give him something he could work with. He had his own ideas about what was going on but wasn’t one to put words in other’s mouths or plant negative ideas.
“True. Look, my gut says something is wrong, really wrong,” he offered. “A while back, I caught her in the back room at her shop, scared shitless. She thought someone had been there, but I couldn’t find anything but a few buckets knocked over that could have been from her. Then there was the John Doe hit in front of her shop.”
Blake interrupted at the mention of the unidentified man, deceased, still unclaimed at the county morgue. “You noticed that? He was looking right at her with that smirk as he was dying—it was odd, out of place. Her reaction…”
“Was off,” Colton finished. He felt like he was betraying her, talking about this, but he knew it was for her own good. “I know seeing something like that is shocking, but she seemed to check out. The rest of the night she was afraid, haunted almost, like she had seen a damn ghost, man.” Colton went on to tell Blake about the rest of the small, but noticeable things he had encountered over the past several months – which she swept under a rug – ending with today’s discovery.
He handed over the newspaper that was left at Megan’s door and the slip of paper he found with Declan O’Reilly’s number on it. The odd discovery when snooping through Meg’s things was that she had very few files or pictures, none of which dated before her time in McKenzie Ridge. It didn’t have to mean anything. For all he knew, there were boxes containing old tax returns, credit card statements, and her birth certificate laying in piles of ash from the fire. His hunch was that he was really reaching and those things just didn’t exist.
“You know this is Declan, Carigan’s brother, right?” Blake questioned with a raised eyebrow and hint of irritation. “You know who he is…why someone would have this number?”
“No, Blake, I don’t. I don’t know much about the guy anymore. All I know is he is always on assignment
, whatever that means! Given you seem to know, I’m going to guess it’s some top secret bullshit that screams danger and blowing shit up!” Colton conceded, showing how worried this really had him. “So, are you going to tell me, or do I get to guess?” he finished with a slice of sarcasm, completely irritated by Blake’s evasiveness.
Blake ran his hands through his hair with a sigh and then rested his elbows on his knees while rubbing his hands together. He wasn’t sure what to say next. He wanted to tell his friend what he knew and what he suspected, but would it do any good or add worry to an already troubling situation.
He tried to keep his own past hidden, afraid to let anyone in so they wouldn’t get hurt, but he cared deeply for the people in his little circle. He would do anything for any one of them, especially if it kept them safe. He had to tell him…tell him everything, even if it revealed a little bit of himself.
“Ball.” Jax’s favorite word and favorite toy had been offered as if to help ease whatever stress was streaming through him. Blake smiled, something he didn’t do often, took the ball and picked the tiny tot up to put him on his knee.
“Okay, I’ll look into it more. Truth is, I already have been. I can’t find a damn thing on Megan Johnson. Everything starts here in McKenzie.” Blake paused to study his friend, gauging how much more he should or shouldn’t say. “I already knew a lot of what you told me, I’ve noticed it for some time, been watching for it even. Do you remember when Jameson and I saw her on the side of the road? Flat tire?”
“Yeah, nail in the tire, no cell service…what about it?” he asked anxiously. “I’m not going to like your answer, am I? You have the smug, this will piss you off look on your face,” Colton finished, unable to decide if he was dreading or intrigued by the pending answer to his question.
“Smug? Screw you, Sparks. Look, when I got the jack out of the trunk, there was a suitcase.” Blake noticed Colton’s blank look and shrug. It may seem insignificant to him, but it was a noteworthy clue in context. “There was also a bag – with a lot
of cash in it – stashed in the side compartment with the jack.”
“Can you, I don’t know, cut to the fucking chase here? You’ve lost me on all this vague, I found a suitcase, crap. We aren’t all GI Joe bad-asses, Coop, what’s up?” Colton fired, fed up with dancing around the issues at hand. He needed answers, and he needed them now.
“She’s a runner. It’s a classic sign. Keep essentials at the ready at all times, and cash is untraceable. You can just up and leave at any minute and be in the wind, completely off anyone’s radar in a matter of minutes, really.” Blake delivered the blow as directly as he could. Straight to the point, no fluff, it was out there.
He waited, gave his friend a chance to process what that meant. Colton was already so invested in Megan and Jax – surely this realization would come with some form of denial and maybe even anger. So he waited, let him reconcile the facts and the emotions that were sure to follow.
“What? Running from what? What am I up against, Coop?” To Blake’s surprise, Colton wasn’t angry but devastated, likely by the idea that the woman he loved could and probably would be just gone one day, untraceable.
Abandonment and loss was no stranger to Colton – they were a thieving whore who stole all that you had to offer emotionally, able to devastate and even ruin you. He hadn’t been ruined…damaged but not ruined. This could ruin him. He had been an orphan his entire life – this could leave him an orphan in love.
“I don’t know. I thought a bad relationship, maybe an ex, but when I couldn’t find a damn thing on her, I figured this was bigger. You don’t just come up with an identity and cover your tracks like that without help. Someone hid her,” he said, holding up the paper with Declan’s name on it. “The day I changed her flat, I noticed a dark car parked just up ahead. It left when we stayed to help. It turned and went the other way. There’s nothing on that road for a few miles, Sparks. Who just sits there and watches a stranded woman and child and does nothing?”
Blake’s story stung. Colton knew something was off, that she had a past that confined her to fear, but this secret? This was huge. This was the type of burden that movies were made of, and she was the star of the show. How did she hide it all so well? More important, why did she hide it from him?
“You said a dark car? A few weeks ago, I caught her completely stunned, another one of those petrified moments of hers. She said it was nothing, but I remember seeing a dark car driving down past her place. Do you think it was the same car? Wait, the fire! You don’t think…” Colton’s disappointment transitioned to some form of fear at that realization. It was the type of fear that instigates a deep-seated demand for action. The kind that felt barbaric almost, an animal marking and defending all that was his from an imminent threat.
His straightened posture, puffed out chest and furrowed brow gave it all away. If it hadn’t been obvious before that he was madly in love with this woman, it was absolutely undeniable now.
“Whoa, before you start beating your chest and go halfcocked with guns blazing, we need to take it down a notch. Got it?” Blake cautioned.
He waited for his friend’s response, lifting his brow as a prompt to answer. He finished his thought at Colton’s returned nod. “I’m certain it’s all related, especially given the accounts you are sharing today, but who and why?” Blake asked.
Colton stood, postured like the halfcocked rooster Blake warned him not to be. “Let’s go find out! Come here Jax.” He reached for the boy, ready to confront the only one who had answers.
“Wait a minute!” Blake said, putting his arm around Jax, indicating they weren’t going anywhere. “If she hasn’t told you anything yet, I guarantee you, confronting her like a pissed off ape will make her run,” Blake reasoned.
“How the fuck do I protect her if I don’t know what I’m protecting her from, man?” Colton yelled.
His plea was desperate, concern and impatience evident in his tone. Blake felt for his friend. It actually pained him to see the devastation and reverence eating away at him with such momentum. As much as Colton wanted to protect his world, Blake wanted to protect his, which was their group of friends and his town. The danger might already be in McKenzie and would be whether Meg ran or not.
“You can’t protect her from anything if she’s gone, man. Don’t spook her. For now, take your trip, don’t say anything to her, and keep an eye out. I’ll call Dec and see how much danger she’s in and if it’s already here. For now, we’ll assume she’s still hidden,” Blake said matter-of-factly.
“If it’s not already here, it’s coming. I feel it Coop,” Colton confessed.
“Yeah, I agree. Do you have cell service out on Mountainview Road?” Blake asked at random.
“Yeah, there’s a tower right there…” Colton didn’t need to finish his answer to see where Blake was going with his inquiry. If cell service was plentiful in the area where Megan had a flat tire, why didn’t her cell phone work? Jammer. Whoever was in that car had a jammer, blocking her signal. She was a sitting duck until fate stepped in and sent Blake and Morgan.
Blake read Colton like a book, saw clarity cross his face as he put the puzzle pieces together. He knew they were dealing with something much bigger than a pissed off ex-asshole. This was sophisticated shit. It was good that they were getting out of town for a few days.
Blake planned to call ahead and give his buddy, Dean with the Portland Police, a heads up, should trouble follow them.
“Hey, Colton?” Blake hollered before he climbed into the truck and drove off. Colton turned to acknowledge him with a half-smile and nod.
“Her tire…those nails were intentional,” he said as a last warning.
“Shit.”
Colton drove home by way of Mountainview Road, clearly a glutton for punishment. He realized there would be nothing to see from the tire incident, but it gave him a few extra minutes to digest all that he had learned and reconcile the emotions it generated. He had no doubt Megan was his one true love. Only problem was that she obviously wasn’t Megan Johnson. So, who was she?
He decided to make a phone call, get someone on his team so he wasn’t fighting these ghosts alone. He needed someone he could count on to have his back. He needed an extra set of eyes.
“Hey, Daws…look man, we’ve got trouble, and I need your help.”