Page 62 of The Unknown Colton
Will hated getting calls this early in the morning because they were rarely good news. At least it hadn’t woken him up; he’d already been out for his run and was just opening the back door when his cell vibrated.
Sasha was awake, too, in the kitchen. He could hear the pots and pans and smell the coffee brewing. But he stepped back outside to answer the call.
“Good morning, Eli. Or at least I hope it is.”
The hesitation was all the confirmation Will needed that there was nothing good about this morning.
Then Eli asked, “Have you seen Lakin today?”
Will’s stomach pitched a bit, and he was glad it was still empty. “No. Is there any reason she would have been by so early? Why are you looking for her?”
“Uh, it’s just…”
Eli’s breath of relief rattled his phone. “Never mind. Troy texted that her phone location shows she’s back at her cabin.”
“What’s going on, son?” Will demanded.
“We’ll bring you up to speed soon,” Eli promised, and he ended the call before Will could argue.
What the hell was going on? When Lakin stopped by a few days ago, she’d seemed tense and distracted. She’d kept looking out the window, almost as if she thought she was being followed.
His skin chilled at the thought of his daughter having a stalker like Caroline had. Nobody had believed that man was dangerous until it was too late.
Until too many lives had been lost…
That couldn’t be the case with Lakin. Will could not let that be the case because he couldn’t lose any more of his family than he already had.
Lakin had to be safe.
CHAPTER 20
When Lakin pulled up to the cabin, Troy’s truck was gone. That meant he’d driven off somewhere, and she could imagine where: to find her.
Sneaking off without him wasn’t going to keep him safe, especially if he’d been the target all along. She knew he’d talked to her brother Mitch about what happened on the oil rig. Maybe the lawyer had talked to the company and they’d sent someone to shut Troy up. After all, a dead man couldn’t sue them. Not that she was sure he was having Mitch sue for him or just to make the workplace safer.
Troyshouldsue them for his pain and suffering. But when Troy’s mother had sued the company, the case had been dismissed. Now it had cost her a husband and very nearly a son as well. Lakin wanted to make sure that Mrs. Amos didn’t lose that son here in Shelby, either.
Even though it didn’t look like he was in the cabin, Lakin headed inside to see if he’d left a note. Although he probably would have texted instead. She reached for her cell as she approached the door, butfinding it partially open distracted her. Since his truck wasn’t here, she assumed that Troy had left in such a hurry that he hadn’t closed it tightly.
She needed to find out where he was. She unlocked her phone as she pushed open the door to the empty cabin.
But it wasn’t empty. There was the acrid smell of cigarette smoke, so thick that someone had to still be inside. She backed toward the front door, but it banged into her.
Before she could whirl around to see who had been hiding behind the door, a hand covered her nose and mouth with a cloth and blocked her vision. Another smell, cloying and syrupy, filled her nose, smothering in its sweetness.
She tried to wrest herself away, but a strong arm encircled her, keeping her arms locked to her sides. As the smell overwhelmed her, consciousness began to fade. Her phone slipped through her fingers and dropped to the floor.
Then her legs buckled, and she dropped to the floor as well. She blinked, trying to clear her vision, but before she could focus on the face of the intruder, the last of her consciousness slipped away.
* * *
Once Troy had driven a short distance away from the riverbank, he’d been able to pull up Lakin’s location again. She’d gone back to the cabin, so he texted Eli to let him know. Unfortunately when he pulledoff the road to send that text, a tractor had managed to get ahead of him. A very slow-moving tractor.
When he was finally able to pass it, he worried that Lakin might leave the cabin again before he got back to her. Instead of checking his cell again, he pressed harder on the accelerator until he was speeding down the lane to her cabin.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her SUV parked near the porch. She was still home.
And that was what she was to him: home. His heart, where he always wanted to be, was here in her cabin on RTA property or in the old Shelby Hotel. Suite Home would be a sweet home for them.
