Cynthia Eden - Abduction

No? “I could use a friend right now.” A stark admission. “I’ve... I’ve always thought you were my best friend.” And that was why it had hurt her so much when he’d walked away. She hadn’t just lost her lover. She’d lost her friend.

Did he have any clue...she’d used to imagine their wedding? She’d thought they would grow old together. That they would always be an unstoppable team. Because that was how she’d felt when they were together. Unstoppable.

Safe.

She’d always been safe with Hayden. Then he’d ripped away her safety net.

“I will be anything you want me to be,” Hayden promised, his voice a rumble.

Her stare lifted, held his. Did he know why she’d asked him not to touch her? Did he realize just what his touch did to her? Even the careless brush of his fingers over her arm had her tensing. His touch stirred her memories, stirred her. Her heartbeat raced, her breath hitched, and she ached...

For things that she couldn’t have.

“Right now, I need you to be the sheriff who is cooperating with an FBI agent.” Though she had zero jurisdiction. She wasn’t going to point out that fact, though. “I’m in town, you have a cold case, and I want to see if there’s anything I can do to help solve it.”

The faint lines on either side of his mouth deepened. Time had been kind to Hayden. Gone were the boyish looks he’d had years ago. Now, his face was ruggedly handsome, carved and hard.

Sexy.

Especially when he smiled. Hayden didn’t have dimples, definitely not. But he did have hard slashes that appeared in his cheeks when he let himself really smile. Once upon a time, his real smiles had been reserved for her.

A lifetime ago.

“Christy Anderson has been dead a long time, Jill,” he spoke carefully.

“I know exactly how long Christy’s been dead.” She paced toward the window and looked out. She figured this had to be the only sheriff’s office in the country with a view of the ocean. Talk about a prime spot. And, most days, it was a plum job, too. There wasn’t a whole lot of crime in Hope. The occasional bar fight, some drunk and disorderly conduct...nothing too bad.

The last bad thing...well, that had happened to Jill. And to Christy. Because one day—one day—after Hayden and Jill escaped from that little cabin on the edge of the marsh, Christy Anderson had gone missing. Only no one had been there to follow the girl when she was abducted. No one had been there to get her out of that sick jerk’s clutches.

And...less than twenty hours later, Christy’s body had been found on the beach. She’d been found completely dry, covered with a blanket. She’d never touched the water.

Her neck had been broken. Left behind in the dark.

I lived, but she died. And that truth would never leave Jill alone.

“I want to find the man who killed her,” Jill said, nodding her head as she stared out at the waves. Last night’s storm lingered on the surf. “Because if I find him...”

“You’ll find the man who took you.”

Yes. And she’d stop always looking over her shoulder, always wondering... Is he watching? Is he coming back? An FBI agent was supposed to be confident, supposed to fear nothing and no one, but Jill feared far too much.

“You of all people know...” The floor creaked beneath his heavy footsteps. “The odds of finding him—after all this time—it’s going to be nearly impossible.”

She rolled her shoulders back in a shrug. “So maybe I’ll dig into the files. Maybe I’ll spend a few days of vacation searching for evidence that won’t lead anywhere. It’s my time to waste.”

He was behind her. She could feel him. Jill made herself look back. “I need this, Hayden.”

He nodded once, grimly. His hand lifted as if he’d touch her cheek, but then his fingers curled closed as he seemed to catch himself. His fisted hand fell back to his side. “Jill, when are you going to realize that I’d pretty much do anything for you?”

Shock radiated through her. He stalked toward the wide, cherrywood desk that sat in the middle of the office. He pushed the chair back and opened the top drawer. A moment later, he was lifting a yellowed file and offering it to her. “Not a lot is in here, I’m afraid.”

She felt rooted to the spot. “You...you’d already pulled the file?” She knew there was an old records room in the back of the station. As a teen, she’d trailed after Sheriff Peek many times once she’d realized that she’d wanted to go into law enforcement. He’d said she was interning with him...and he’d strode around with his chest puffed out.

The first time she’d met Peek, he’d been tearing into Hayden. It was only later, much later, that she’d come to see the good heart hidden inside the hardened man. And I came to learn just why he blamed Hayden that day. Why so many in the town had.

“I pulled her file the day I took the job,” Hayden answered.

Again, he’d surprised her. “Why?”

His lips twisted in his half smile, the smile that said he was holding back secrets. “Same reason you did. I want to catch the bastard.”

Her heart thudded into her chest. Hayden wasn’t the boy he’d been. Staring at him right then, she saw that his eyes had gone flat and cold, so hard and deadly with intent. This wasn’t the boy she’d known or even the young man she’d loved.

This was the SEAL. Dangerous. Dark.

Almost...a stranger.

“He took you, Jill. You.” Hayden shook his head. “Do you think I have ever stopped wanting to catch him? I won’t ever stop. I know he’s still out there. He thinks he got away clean, but justice comes to everyone. Sooner or later.”

She took the file from him. Her fingers brushed his and a spark seemed to slip though her at that soft touch. She pulled back—too fast—and held the thin file carefully.

“You want to hunt him?” Hayden asked. “Fine, we’ll hunt him. We’ll do it together. This time, we aren’t kids running in the dark.”

No, they weren’t.

“But be warned...there’s not a lot of information in that file.” His words were grim. “The guy didn’t leave a whole lot of evidence behind. He knew what he was doing. He was smart.”

The smart, organized killers were the most dangerous. “I’ve worked cold cases before,” Jill told him. The CARD team members were focused exclusively on child abduction cases. When there was not an active case for them to investigate, then they often turned their attention to older crimes, hoping that they could find a piece of evidence that had been overlooked or that new technology would lead them in a new direction on a particular case. “I know that it’s often like searching for a needle in a very giant haystack.”

His dark gaze dropped to the thin folder. “That’s a small haystack. Peek is a good man, but he was in way over his head with her case. See for yourself. There’s an empty office down the hall you can use. Once you’ve read over the file, we can talk. Compare our thoughts.”

She liked that he wasn’t trying to influence her by saying what he might already suspect. She’d found that it was always better to go into an investigation without another agent’s expectations or suspicions already in the open, those just tended to cloud the situation for her. She liked to see things with fresh eyes. “Thanks.” She turned for the door.

Her hand was reaching for the doorknob when he said, “I missed you.”

Her breath seemed to chill her lungs. “Did you?”

“Yes, I did.” His voice was flat. Stark. Not hiding anything from her. “It’s damn good to see you.”

I missed you, too. She opened the door.

“I won’t make the same mistake again.”

Now she did glance back at him. On this, they needed to be very clear. She’d survived a broken heart once, courtesy of Hayden Black. “Neither will I.” Then she left him.