* * *
Brice barely held on to his temper through the security detail's report. They'd had three men guarding Janna, three men, and somehow she'd slipped through their fingers. He wanted to scream at them, to fire his whole damn security firm, but that wouldn't accomplish anything. Instead he had to behave calmly, rationally, while he was driven slowly mad by images of Janna in danger, or hurt.
"I want all of your available men out looking for her. And I want your boss to hire extra men to put on the hunt for my cousin. I'm through fucking around. Find them both, or you'll all be looking for new careers. Am I understood?"
The men had nodded, then slinked out of his office to get back to the search. Brice closed his eyes and concentrated on his breathing for a few moments, trying to get his fear under control. She was probably fine, just giving him the finger for refusing to call off his men, but he couldn't risk it. He called Tony and ordered him to alert local law enforcement about the situation. Then he jumped into his car and rushed over to the co-op, determined to find out where Janna was.
The girls at the co-op were less than cooperative. One in particular, a slim southern beauty named Shelby, seemed to take a perverse joy in riling him. "Why Mr. Masterson, you should be ashamed of yourself, spyin' on your girlfriend like that."
"Look, I appreciate your opinion, but right now Janna could be in danger. So if you know where she's gone, it would help if you'd tell me."
Shelby frowned, and Brice could see that although she was upset at him on Janna's behalf, she might also be worried about her friend's safety.
"Well...." she drawled out, "I don't rightly know where she's at exactly. But if I was a gambler, I'd bet on somewhere real remote, real quiet, somewhere she could relax with good friends and not have to worry about a group of muscled-out security dorks following her around."
Shelby smiled at Brice and patted his shoulder in a friendly manner before heading towards the stairs. "You're a smart boy, at least according to Janna. You'll figure it out real soon, I'm sure." With those words, she made her way upstairs and out of sight.
Lightning struck his brain. Somewhere remote, quiet, with friends. His hands shaking, he pulled out his phone and dialed Caleb's number.
"Hello?" The ranger's gruff voice greeted him.
"Caleb, it's Brice calling."
"Hey, Richie Rich, how's it going?"
"Not so good at the moment. Is Janna there?"
"No, afraid not," Caleb replied. "But she's supposed to be here any minute now. Want me to have her call you back?"
"I doubt she will. Just keep her there until I can get out to you, okay?"
"Sure, no problem. Anything wrong?"
"I'll explain it all when I get there. See you soon." Hanging up, he ran back to his car and sped off in the direction of the Masterson Memorial Parklands Project and the woman who'd stolen his heart.
The Aston Martin sped through the night like a gleaming silver bullet. Brice took the mountainous curves too quickly, but he couldn't force himself to slow down. He had to see her again, had to see for himself that she was all right.
It was unsettling, how much relief a security team had bought him. Even if Janna had been avoiding him, he knew from the team's reports that she was safe. Protected. And when he'd gotten the call that they'd lost her, that she'd somehow escaped them, Brice's heart had skipped several beats. Now he couldn't rest until he saw her again until he held her in his arms. If she would let him.
After what seemed like an eternity he made the turn onto the gravel road that would one day become the park's main entrance. Racing down the narrow drive, he slammed on his brakes when the road widened into a small lot in front of a familiar cabin. Brice pulled up next to Caleb's truck, a frown marring his features. Dani's Subaru was parked next to the truck, but there was no sign of Janna's old Volvo.
Brice jogged to the house, taking the steps to the porch two at a time. Before he could bang his fist against the door, it opened, and Caleb greeted him with a warm smile. "Well if it isn't Mr. Moneybags, I mean Masterson, gracing our humble doorstep."
"This used to by my doorstep, remember?" Brice said, forcing a lightness into his voice that he didn't feel.
"It's good to see you again," Dani said, pushing past Caleb to pull Brice into a gentle hug. "Although I hear there might be trouble in Paradise."
"That's putting it mildly." Brice scowled, scanning the room around him. "Janna's not here yet?"
"Nope." Caleb noticed Brice's agitation and his brow furrowed. "We've been expecting her, but we figured she just got delayed in town. Is something wrong?"
"Maybe. Dani, have you tried calling her?"
"No." The professor whipped out her cell and dialed Janna's number. "No answer," she said after a few moments. "Should I leave a message?"
"Yes. Ask her to call you back immediately."
"What's going on?" Caleb asked, pulling Brice aside.
"Long story. The short version is, my cousin Chester's sworn revenge against me for bringing down Uncle Wesley, and I think Janna might be his target. She gave her security detail the slip today and hasn't been seen in a couple of hours."
"Security detail?" Dani asked, approaching the huddle. "Janna has a security detail?"
"Yeah. I hired them when I found out Chester might use her to hurt me."
"Then why would she give them the slip? Janna's never been one to play with her own safety."
Brice ran a hand through his blond waves, holding in a groan. "I fucked up. I didn't tell her that I'd hired them, and when she found out, she went ballistic. I don't even know if she believes she's actually in danger. She implied that she doubted the threat was real."
"None of this makes any sense." Dani shook her head, wandering towards the kitchen. "Coffee?"
Brice took the cup she extended towards him and pulled out a chair from the kitchen table. Dropping into it he took a sip, unsure of how to explain the whole clusterfuck. "I didn't want to alarm her, didn't want to give her another thing to hold against me, so I didn't tell her I'd hired security. Then during one of the briefings, the team told me she had spent the night at an...associate of mine's house. I got the wrong idea about it, confronted her, and then had to tell her how I found out."
"And the shit hit the fan." Caleb finished.
"More like exploded all over it. She chewed me out, demanded that I call off my thugs. I told her I couldn't, not until the threat was neutralized, but she thought the whole thing about my cousin was just a convenient excuse, and that I'd had her followed because I didn't trust her."
"And so she escaped your watchdogs and is headed out here, where she no doubt knows you'll find her sooner or later." Dani's smile was wry. There was no humor in the situation.
"It didn't take too long to figure out where she was headed. What worries me is, why isn't she here yet?"
"I'll try her phone again." Dani dialed, held her breath, then shook her head. "Still no answer."
"We should look for her," Caleb weighed in. "There aren't that many roads around here, and I'm pretty sure she'd take the most direct route. Maybe she got a flat tire, or spun out."
The ranger made a good point, but Brice shook his head. "I drove up the most direct route, and I didn't see anything. If she'd had a flat, I would have passed her on the road or your driveway."
"But you probably weren't looking very hard. If her car went off the road, it could easily be hidden by the trees. It makes sense to start looking now."
Brice nodded in agreement. "It's better than sitting here and waiting."
"I'll stay here and keep trying her phone, in case she answers or shows up." Dani's face showed her anxiety. Janna was her closest friend, and if she were in any danger, Brice knew the spitfire professor would come to her aid, with her fist if necessary.
Caleb and Brice piled into the forestry truck, and the ranger passed a high-powered flashlight his way. "Keep it trained on the tree line. Look for flashes of reflected metal."
Brice pointed the beam out into the trees, hoping that they were both overreacting. "The vegetation is so dense; there's no way she could have gotten her car in here without leaving a huge hole in the greenery."
Caleb's lips thinned in frustration. "That may be true, but if she's somehow become lost in the woods, she could be walking out there and might see your light."
"Good point." Brice followed his instructions, even though he didn't think she'd gotten lost in the forest. It was more likely her car had gone off one of the tight curves in the road. By the time the gravel driveway let out onto the paved county road, Brice had spotted nothing in the trees.
Caleb began heading in the direction of Alsea, creeping along at a snail's pace. He'd pulled out another flashlight and trained in on his side of the road. Together they scanned the area, sweeping the trees, looking for any sign of Janna or her car.
They'd only gone a couple of miles before Brice spotted a break in the greenery. The soil on the side of the road was muddy enough that it had maintained a set of tracks even through the slight mist of rain they'd experienced all day. "Over here," Brice said, his voice harsh, his stomach feeling like he'd swallowed a stone. "There are tire tracks going off the road."
Caleb pulled over and parked, making sure his hazards were on in case another motorist came around the bend in the narrow road. The men climbed out of the truck and made their way to the side of the road where the tracks began. It was dark and wet, but it took only moments for Brice to discern the outline of Janna's rusty old Volvo at the bottom of the embankment. In that second the world went white, his heart bursting through his chest and exploding into flames in front of him.
At least it felt like it did.
He didn't even realize that he'd tried to rush down the steep slope until Caleb pulled him back. "Wait!" the ranger shouted, shaking him. "Don't go charging off. You'll slide down the hill and injure yourself."
"She could be down there hurt!" Brice realized he'd nearly screamed the words, but he couldn't control himself.
"I know." Caleb remained calm. "And if you get hurt too I won't be able to drag you both back up this hill. Let me at least tie a guide rope before we go down, or we might have trouble coming back up again." The ranger pulled a length of nylon rope out of the case in the back of his truck. He secured it to a thick tree, then gestured for Brice to grab hold of it as he had.
Brice was instantly grateful that Caleb had insisted on the rope. The slope was very steep, the ground loose and muddy, and they stumbled several times climbing down to the car. Time slowed down, and Brice felt like he was moving through molasses. Every second of delay he imagined a thousand terrible deaths. It was his fault, all of it. If he hadn't driven her to flee, she'd never have gone off the road. She wouldn't be sitting down there now, maybe bleeding.
Maybe dead.
After an eternity they reached the Volvo. Caleb headed for the passenger side, while Brice tugged on the driver side door. It was a struggle to get it open, due to the vegetation crowding the car on all sides. When he'd opened it enough to wedge inside, he pressed himself into the gap, praying that Janna wasn't too badly injured. Or worse.
Brice was so confused by what he saw that for a moment he couldn't process it. He heard Caleb pulling the other door open with a groan, and finally looked up when the ranger stuck his head into the car. "She's not here."
The ranger's eyebrows rose in surprise. After a quick sweep of the interior, he nodded, and both men stepped back from the car. "This is strange," Caleb said, then held his hand up to stop Brice as he started walking back around the car. "Wait. Maybe she walked away. Check the ground for tracks."
Brice nodded and trained his flashlight on the ground around him. The large prints left by his loafers were obvious. They were also the only tracks he could see. He scoured the ground around him and let out a groan of frustration. "Nothing here."
"Nothing on my side either." Caleb peeked through the back windows. "I don't think she went off the road. Not by herself anyway."
"What do you mean?" Brice was frantic. It was as if his mind couldn't process the events unfolding around him.
Caleb pointed to the front of the car. "The Volvo went off the side of the road and kept rolling until it hit this tree." Brice nodded. That was self-evident. The rusty brown car was crumpled like a discarded soda can in the front where it had hit the tree.
"If Janna had been inside, there should be some sign of her presence. This car's too old for air bags, so I wasn't expecting to see them, but if someone runs head-on into a tree, you've got to expect some kind of injury. There are no traces of blood in the car's interior."
"Maybe she was wearing her seatbelt and wasn't badly hurt."
"That's possible I suppose. But if she wasn't hurt, then we have to assume she got out and walked away from the crash. You saw how hard it was to open the doors. If she'd climbed out on either side, you'd think she would have had the same challenge -- fighting the brush to get the doors open. But nothing had been disturbed before we got here. It's like the doors were never opened after the crash."
"And there were no footprints." Brice nodded, catching on quickly. The realization that Janna wasn't in her car when it went off the road provided him with a fleeting sense of relief. It was immediately crushed by a deeper, more ominous fear.
Fighting off the panic that gripped his insides, Brice swung his flashlight around him, not willing to accept the thought that gnawed at his brain. He struggled back up the slope with Caleb behind him, both slipping and sliding until they were covered in mud. When he reached the top, he shined the flashlight along the woods that lined the dark road.
Maybe she'd somehow made it out, somehow climbed to the road and was making her way on foot. The rain could have washed out her footprints.
Suddenly his light passed over something reflective. It was small and shiny, laying a few feet from the road in the tall grasses. His heart in his throat, Brice bent down to retrieve it.
The casing was cracked, but when he tapped the screen, it still lit up. The background displayed a dazzling array of greens. No doubt a snapshot of one of her paintings. Finding her phone let the wild animal called terror out of its cage.
Caleb noticed the blood draining from his friend's face, and his eyebrow lifted in inquiry. "What is it?"
Brice took a deep breath, unsure if he could even vocalize the words. "He's got her."