Page 21 of Mountain Captive

“Ambulance?” Chris turned to Rand. “Are you hurt? What happened?”

He touched the back of his head and winced. “Whoever went after you was waiting for me. They knocked me out, but I’m fine. Just a bump on the head.”

Gage moved in behind him. “They got away down the fire escape,” he said. “I didn’t even get a good look at them. Two men dressed in black, covered in flour or something.”

“Most of the contents of a fire extinguisher,” Jake said. “Chris let them have it when they came after her.”

“Good thinking.” Gage studied the footprints on the floor. “I’ll call for a forensics team. Are you all right, Chris? Do you need the paramedics?”

“I’m okay,” she said.

“We’ll need to get your statement,” Gage said. “Jake, bring her in the other room.” He turned to Rand. “We’ll need your statement too.”

Jake directed her in picking her way around the path the intruders had taken when they fled the apartment. She guided Harley, who wasn’t in a cooperative mood, out of the apartment and down the stairs, where she found two patrol vehicles, an ambulance, two paramedics, her landlord and half a dozen curious onlookers.

Rand moved in beside her. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked, his gaze taking her in from the top of her head to her feet.

She nodded and hugged her arms across her chest, having released Harley to sniff around, knowing the dog wouldn’t go far. “I was terrified for a few minutes. Now I’m just exhausted.”

Her landlord, Jasmine, approached. With no makeup on and wearing a sweatshirt pulled over plaid pajama pants, she looked very different from the polished professional Chris was used to. “Honey, are you okay?” Jasmine asked.

“I’m fine. I’m sorry about the apartment doors.” She looked at the doors, both bent inward.

“The cops did that,” Jasmine said. “I guess they couldn’t wait for me to get here with the key.”

Chris shuddered. “They got to me just in time.”

“Who cares about doors, as long as you’re okay.” Jasmine patted her arm. “Don’t worry about it. I have insurance. But is there anything else you need?”

“No, thanks. I’m okay, really.”

“Your friend here looks a little worse for wear.” Jasmine flashed a smile. “Still very easy on the eyes, mind you.”

Chris studied Rand. His face was paler than usual, the fine lines around his eyes tighter, as if he was in pain. And was that blood in his hair?

“Rand, you’re hurt!” she exclaimed.

“I’m okay. The paramedics have seen me.”

“Jake, get Rand’s statement,” Gage said as he joined them. “Chris, you come with me.”

She ended up sitting in the front seat of Gage’s patrol car, reciting all the events of the evening, leaving out the part about her and Rand kissing before he left her and returned to his car. “I’m sure those two men were from the Vine,” she said. “The group has made it clear they want me back.”

“To marry their leader—have I got that right?” Gage asked.

She nodded. “It sounds ridiculous. I’m a grown woman. I’m not a member of the group anymore. They can’t force me to marry someone. Especially since he’s already married to someone else. But logic doesn’t really matter. They think they can make me do this. And they believe they’re above the law.”

“Did the two men who broke into your apartment say anything?” Gage asked.

“One of them called me Elita,” she said. “That was the name I used when I was a member of the group—when I was a little girl. That’s one more reason I’m sure they were from the Vine. No one else knows me by that name.”

Gage made a note. “Anything else you remember about them?”

“I thought the voice sounded like Jedediah. He’s the man who confronted me at the fire the other day. I had seen him on a hiking trail the day before that, when search and rescue responded to a man on the Anderson Falls Trail who had heart trouble.”

“We’ll have forensics go over the place,” Gage said. “You won’t be able to stay here for a while. The front and back doors to your apartment were forced open.”

“How did they get in from street level?” she asked.

---