Barb Han - Ransom At Christmas

EMTs were pulling up outside as Zach came through the front door. Deputies Lorenzano and Peabody were outside standing guard, after having rushed Kelly and Will to the main house.

Will turned and caught a look from his cousin.

“Do you remember Kelly Morgan from elementary school?” Will asked.

Zach shook his head.

Will motioned toward her. Zach had been two grades behind them, so it wasn’t a shock that he didn’t remember her.

“We were classmates. Haven’t seen her since her family moved away from Jacobstown in fifth grade,” he said by way of explanation.

“I just got a call about an abandoned vehicle,” Zach warned. “The owner is missing.”

“We can all see that I’m right here,” Kelly said as she winced.

For the second time, Zach shook his head. “I’m sorry, but the name the car is registered to is Christina Foxwood.”

Kelly took in a sharp breath. “She’s my cousin.”

“When did you last see her?” Zach asked.

Kelly seemed to search her memory. “I can’t remember.”

“Is it safe to say that it’s been a long time?” Zach had a notepad out, and was jotting down a few notes.

“No. We live in the same building.” She massaged her temples as though that might stimulate her thoughts. “I know I’ve seen her, I just don’t remember where or when. I also know that I was forced to drink something and it’s playing havoc with my memory. There was a man. I mean, he’s so hazy but I feel like there was a guy in a tux trying to hurt me. I struggled and got away from him but things are hazy. I feel dizzy and like I might vomit.”

“But you remembered me,” Will stated.

She nodded. “When I saw you. You seemed familiar, so I searched my brain and came up with the connection.”

“Do you have any idea where your cousin might be right now?” Zach asked.

“Not really.”

“Have the two of you spoken to each other?” Zach asked and Will figured his cousin persisted with the line of questions to see if he could spur something in Kelly.

“This can’t be happening.” She had that bewildered look Will had seen earlier when he’d first found her. “Who reported her missing?”

“We know that her abandoned vehicle was found on the side of the road alongside the Jasper property two hours ago. There was blood splattered inside the vehicle.” He held up a hand, as though in surrender. “We don’t know who it belongs to. I put a call in for help from neighboring counties. My deputies are processing the scene but that’ll take time.” He shot a glance toward Will. “Keys were still in the ignition and the vehicle was left running with the passenger-side door open.”

“She wouldn’t just run off and leave her car on the side of the road,” Kelly choked out in between sobs. She bent forward and clutched her stomach, as if she was staving off throwing up.

“I want you to take in a few slow breaths,” Doc soothed, but Will was certain the comforting words fell on deaf ears.

Will moved next to her and, ignoring the sharp look from his cousin, put his arm around her shoulder. She repositioned underneath his arm and she felt a little too right there.

Zach’s cell buzzed. He glanced at Will and Kelly.

“Excuse me,” he said, before moving outside to the front porch.

“What is happening?” Kelly asked in between sobs.

“I’m not sure,” Will said. “But we’ll figure this out. We’ll find Christina and whoever it was that drugged you.”

Kelly looked up at him with those piercing violet eyes. “Promise?”

He nodded. Damned if he didn’t know better than to make promises he couldn’t keep. There was something about being with Kelly that made him feel grounded, connected for the first time since returning to Jacobstown. He needed to hold on to it.

A minute later, Zach stepped back into the room. “I just got a call from a Fort Worth businessman by the name of Fletcher Hardaway.”

“What did he want?” she asked with a mix of shock and disdain in her voice.

“He’s looking for his bride,” Zach informed her. His gaze bounced from Kelly to Will.

Before Will could demand answers, Kelly turned to him with the most lost look in her eyes that he’d ever seen.

“I promise I have no idea what’s going on but I’d know if I was supposed to get married,” she said softly so he was the only one who heard. “Please, help me.”

“Hardaway is under the impression that the two of you had plans to marry today.” His cousin’s words shouldn’t have been a punch to the gut. Will’s stomach lining took a hit, anyway.

He should stand up and walk away from this tangled mess. The feeling of being alive again won, against his better judgment.

“Stay here,” he said to Kelly, pushing to his feet. He squared up with Zach. “Can we have a word outside?”

“I’m afraid not,” Zach said. “That dress is evidence, she’s a witness at the very least and I can’t let her out of my sight.”

THAT DRESS IS EVIDENCE. Those four words hit Kelly hard. They followed “she’s a witness,” and the sheriff’s statement wouldn’t have bothered her if it had stopped there. Kelly’s instincts were screaming at her to get up and get the hell out of there.

The sheriff would stop her.

She already looked guilty without adding to her mounting problems.

Running would only make it worse. So, she fought her fight-or-flight instincts.

Christina was missing. Those words were daggers straight through her chest.

“There was a man in a tuxedo. He made me drink something. It was a clear liquid. He said it was water but it had this awful taste,” she blurted out, figuring she needed to say something in her defense. Her gaze bounced from the sheriff to Will, searching for any signs that either one believed her. For some reason what Will thought especially mattered to her. “I spit it out and then he pushed me up against the wall. Hard. He pushed my head back and poured more of it down my throat. I managed to kick him, break away and run. Everything’s hazy after that, and before is a total wash.”

Will looked at Doc. “Is it strange that her short-term memory seems to be the problem?”

“It depends on what she was given,” Doc Carter said.

“Do you remember where you were when that happened?” the sheriff asked. His voice told her that she wasn’t doing a great job of convincing him.

“Had to be a wedding chapel. Right? I think I was in a bride’s room but I swear I don’t know why I’m the one in this dress.” She pleaded with Will with her eyes. She met a wall of suspicion and it hurt.

“Can you stand?” the sheriff asked.

Will moved to her side and offered a hand up.

She took the offering, ignoring the frissons of heat from contact. They were more complications she didn’t need to focus on right now.

Standing made her woozy. She almost took a tumble, but Will’s hand wrapped around her waist to catch her. She had the fleeting thought that she wondered if the chemistry she felt pinging between them was real. Did he feel it? Those random thoughts had no place inside her head.

Christina was missing.

Kelly glanced down at the bloodstain on her white dress.

Someone was trying to kill her.

She’d trade places with her cousin in a beat because Christina hadn’t turned up and she might be lying in a ditch or an alley somewhere.

Tears spilled down her cheeks.

“Thank you,” she said to Will and her voice came out shaky. She chalked it up to overwrought emotions and whatever had been in the glass that Tux had given her.

None of this could be real.