Page 16 of Deadly Past

“We should be going.” He panned the area around the church. Every second they were out here in the open like this, he worried the offender might force a showdown.

Rachel let her go. “You’re in good hands, Wynona. JT and I will be praying for you both. Stay safe. The weather is moving in quickly.” She glanced up at skies that were burgeoning with snow.

“Thank you.” Wynona gave both Rachel and JT a hug.

In a matter of minutes, they were on their way to the secluded dock where Declan kept his boat.

Declan watched his truck disappear from sight. He kept telling himself there would be no way for this man to know where they were going, and yet the truth was little comfort. The man who had taken Lacey was coming after Wynona for a reason. There was a connection between what was happening now and what took place twenty years earlier. He and the team just had to figure it out in time to stop the man from hurting her.

“The dock where my boat is moored is straight ahead.” Hope Island was so small a person could drive across it in less than half an hour. Declan had loved the small-town atmosphere of the island, but it didn’t afford many places to hide when trying to escape someone.

He reached the dock and stopped before turning to Wynona. “Wait here. I’m going to unlock the building that houses the boat and then drive inside.” Her fearful eyes held his. “I’ll be right back, but lock the doors behind me to be safe.” He exited and waited until he heard the locks click. Fishing the key to the building out of his pocket, he quickly threw the barn-like doors open and returned to the SUV.

Wynona unlocked the doors as he approached, and he climbed inside and drove the vehicle inside. Turning off the engine, he rushed to secure the entrance once more.

His 28-foot Cuddy Cabin fishing boat was secured there. Together they loaded the food and supplies onto the boat. Declan hit the button to open the door, and the gray ocean beyond appeared. He helped Wynona and Simone onto the boat.

The cat was not a fan of the water even though she’d gone with Declan from time to time. Now Simone voiced her apprehension, and Declan did his best to comfort the kitty before placing her carrier below deck.

As soon as the last of the supplies were onboard, Declan untied the boat and fired its twin engines. They idled outside while he punched the button to close the building once more. Soon, they were in open waters on their way to Breakers.

Wynona huddled beneath her heavy jacket as the spray from the water felt like little icicles stabbing her face. “How far is it to the island?” she asked while scraping back her hair.

“Ten miles. It won’t take us long to get there.”

She turned her attention to him. “How long have you owned a fishing cabin?”

He smiled. “Almost as long as I’ve lived on Hope Island. I remember fishing with my dad before he passed away. It’s relaxing to come out to Breakers, just me and Simone, and get away from everything.”

“I still can’t believe you have a cat.” The amusement in her eyes made him laugh. The cat was about as out of character as it got for the old Declan, at least as far as Wynona obviously remembered.

“You forget about the cat I took care of in Afghanistan. Remember I told you about her?”

Abandoned animals were everywhere in the villages where he and his team of Rangers served. One cat had tugged at his heart—a pregnant mamma cat. He’d taken her in under his care and kept her after the kittens were born. Before he was sent stateside, Declan managed to find all the kittens a good home.

“Oh, yes. Lela, wasn’t it?”

“That’s right.” He’d named Lela after his grandmother. Gran had the same defiant nature as the cat. She had survived two bouts with cancer and was still going strong at eighty-five.

The waters became increasingly choppy the further out to sea they went.

Help us out here, Lord. Declan prayed. Even as he whispered the prayer, his grandmother’s smiling face appeared in his head. After his parents had died in a car accident, Gran raised him from a broken seven-year-old to the defiant teenager who gave her all sorts of grief, but somehow, she managed to get him through high school.

After he’d returned home following the divorce, once more broken, she’d told him to pray. He had. God hadn’t fixed his life, but He had carried him through some bad times.

When Declan had given his life to God, Gran was the first to know. She hadn’t really been surprised.

“Is that it?” Wynona’s voice brought him back from those sweet memories. She had spotted the small Breakers Island.

“That’s it.” Breakers wasn’t much to look at from their vantage point, but it had always been a place of healing for him. Declan came here often.

Though his life belonged to God, his heart was still hurting over his failed marriage. Declan loved everything about Hope Island, but he’d needed the quiet solitude of Breakers. He believed it had been God’s intervention that the small cabin had come up for sale at just the right time when Declan needed it.

“There’s an inlet just past that stretch of beach. That’s where the boat dock is located.” He maneuvered the boat a safe distance from the island’s rocky coast until the inlet appeared. The previous owner had built a boat dock there for safe docking. As he turned the boat toward the dock, he idled it up against it. Hopefully, the inlet would protect the boat should the predicted nor’easter live up to its claims.

“Hang on while I secure the ropes.” Declan hopped out and tied off the boat. “We’ll bring Simone and some of the supplies up then make a fire.” He glanced up at the fading daylight as the snow that had plagued them the entire trip over now whipped down thicker flakes. “Looks like we reached here not a second too soon.” He held out his hand to Wynona.

She clasped it and stepped up onto the dock close to him. Fear replaced the surprise on her face when she stumbled, and he caught her by her arms. “I’m okay,” she murmured in a whisper of a voice. Their eyes held for a long moment before she stepped away.

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