Page 59 of The Unknown Colton
“You won’t find her,” he said.
A heaviness settled on Lakin’s heart. She was dead. That had to be what he meant. But again she didn’t trust him for the truth. “I’m not going to pay you for information on her,” she warned him. “So if you’re after money, you’re not going to get any out of me.”
“Then maybe I will go to your Colton daddy,” Jasper threatened. “Or maybe I’ll go straight to the press. They buy stories. They might be interested in one about a serial killer stalking Shelby, Alaska, the way Caroline Colton was stalked and murdered years ago along with her parents. I’m sure the press would love to dig up that family tragedy, probably set up their vans and stuff right outside Will and Sasha Colton’s house. It’s a nice one. I can make sure they find it like I did.”
So he had been outside their house that day. Had he also driven Troy off the road?
“Stay away from my parents,” she said. “And don’t go to the press.”
“Why?” he asked, as if he was only idly curious. “Are you going to make it worth my while?”
“I… I…” Lakin had no money of her own anymore. She’d put it all into the hotel. She couldn’t go to her dad for more, not for this. Not for blackmail.
“I’ll get some money,” she said. But what she really intended was to get Eli and Kansas to track downand arrest the blackmailer. They would probably have to have a recording of him actually blackmailing her, though, so it was more than her word against his.
“It better be more than I can get from the press for selling this story,” he threatened.
“It will be.” She wished she’d been recording this call. If only that had occurred to her sooner… “Where do I find you when I get the money together?” she asked.
“Since all you’ve given me was forty bucks, I’ve been camping outside, not far from your place,” he said. “I couldn’t afford a hotel.”
From the way he saidhotel, she wondered if he knew about the Shelby Hotel. Had he been there that day the window was broken? He had to be the one who’d been stalking her. He knew too much, like where her parents lived. It made her sick that she might have been the one who led him to them.
“Were you here tonight?” she asked. “Did you shoot at Troy?”
He snorted. “Why would I shoot at anyone, girl? That’s not going to get me what I want, which is money enough to start over somewhere. And since I’m still on probation, I can’t have a firearm. It wasn’t me.”
What he said made sense but also made her more uneasy. If not him, who had taken those shots at Troy and why?
“Where can I find you?” she asked.
He named a road that had a riverbank on one sidewhere people often camped. He probably wasn’t alone out there. She would make certain thatshewasn’t alone when she met him.
But she was also going to make sure Troy wasn’t with her or anywhere near her. She didn’t want him putting his life in danger trying to keep her safe.
* * *
Troy jerked awake, imagining he felt that sting against his cheek all over again. But it was just a dull throb, unlike his pulse that was suddenly racing when he realized he was alone in bed.
“Lakin!” he called out.
Maybe she was just in the bathroom. But he jumped out of bed to find it and the rest of the cabin empty. She was gone.
He didn’t think she would have headed to the office this early. Dawn had only lightened the sky a bit; the sun had yet to rise. So where was she?
He grabbed his cell and called her, but her voicemail immediately picked up. She either wasn’t taking his call or she couldn’t.
He called Eli next. “You’re supposed to have someone watching Lakin. Do you know where she is?” He braced himself for Eli to point out that Troy had said he was watching her. He already felt so damn guilty for falling asleep. More than once she’d slipped out of the cabin without him noticing. Good thing he wasn’t a real bodyguard.
“She called me,” Eli said. “And told me where she’s headed.”
“Where?” Troy asked. But part of him already knew and dreaded what her brother was about to tell him.
“To meet Jasper Whitlaw,” Eli confirmed his worst fear.
“Why the hell would she do that?” They’d told her the man was dangerous. He’d been in and out of prison for assault for years.
“He threatened our family,” Eli said.
