Dana Mentink - Hazardous Homecoming

Ruby set off in a jog. “I’ve got to tell him that locket has to go to the police.”

“No,” he called, but she trotted down the slope and disappeared through the densely clustered shrubs.

He followed after her, brushing aside the branches that obstructed his path. She stood, hands on hips, in the grass that had overtaken a broken birdbath filled with green water. “Where did he go?”

The sliding door was closed and Cooper peered into the darkened living room. “Seems like he could have just stayed inside and ignored us. No real reason to...” He felt a stirring in the air, a strange electricity that made him spin around.

Ruby stared at him with eyes round and terrified. A hooded figure wearing a bulky jacket embraced her from behind, one wiry arm around her shoulders and the other with a box cutter pressed to her neck, wicked steel against her creamy white throat.

FOUR

Ruby clung to the arm that circled her neck, feeling the hard muscles taut with anger and the edge of the blade pressing her windpipe. A man? A woman?

“Why are you here?” a voice whispered in her ear.

“I’m...” Ruby was too scared to push out any more words. She swallowed, trying again when Cooper stepped closer, palms up in a placating gesture. “Sorry if we scared you. We don’t want to cause trouble. Just looking for Lester Walker. Is that you?”

A grunt.

Cooper nodded. “Okay. Your wife is in the hospital right now. We were coming to give you the message.” He pointed to Ruby. “She was going to tell you. How about you let her go now?”

“How about,” her attacker snarled, breath hot on her neck, “I cut her throat?”

Cooper moved closer, his tone harder now. “You don’t want to do that. I understand you’re upset. Our fault for trespassing. We’ll take you to Josephine. No reason to hurt Ruby.”

The arm tightened around Ruby’s throat. “I think there’s every reason.”

“Lester, please. I know you suffered a terrible loss, but there’s new evidence. This time we found her locket.”

“Police and investigators can make evidence say whatever they want.”

The stranger’s grip tightened. Ruby struggled to breathe.

Everything happened in a blur. Cooper leaped forward. Lester loosened his hold a fraction, and Ruby stomped down hard on a foot. With a loud groan, Ruby was shoved forward into Cooper’s chest and they went over backward onto the ground. She could hear Lester running away.

Ruby felt the breath explode out of Cooper as her elbow drove into his stomach. He rolled away and was on his feet in one fluid movement.

“No, Cooper. Don’t go after him,” she yelled, shoving the hair from her face and trying to scramble to her feet. By the time she did, Cooper was already gone, disappeared into the dark stand of firs.

She listened, hearing nothing but the wild beating of her own heart as it knocked into her ribs. A cold wind seemed to reach through her skin and chill her from the inside out. With shaking fingers, she picked up her cell phone. No signal. It shouldn’t have surprised her. She moved to a spot farther away from the trees and managed to get a few bars and call 911.

When the dispatcher answered, she tried to corral her stampeding thoughts. “This is Ruby Hudson. A man, I think it was Lester Walker, attacked me with a knife on his property and...and Cooper Stokes took off after him.”

No she wasn’t hurt.

Yes, she was safe at the moment.

But what about Cooper?

She should go after him, but her brother would say summoning help was the most important task. Every minute wasted worsened the disaster.

Like every minute she’d spent calling for Alice that long-ago afternoon in the dark woods before she’d raced home to tell her family. Panic rose inside and she forced herself to talk slowly, though she wanted nothing more than to click off the phone and sprint after Cooper.

When she was through the litany of questions, she could stand no more. After promising the dispatcher she would head back to her house and wait for an officer, she pocketed the phone and made for the break in the trees. The sky was near black and the interlaced branches formed a living ceiling that crowded out the starlight. Pine needles cushioned her steps. She bit back a scream as a figure stepped through a gap in the branches. Cooper.

“It’s you,” she said, stupidly.

He did not seem injured, just winded. “Whoever that was, knows the woods better than I do. Lost me easily when the sun set. Runs like a deer.”

“It had to have been Lester.” Ruby put her hands on her hips. “Why did you do that? Run after him when he was obviously disturbed? That was crazy.”

Cooper blinked. “He held a blade to your throat.”

“And getting yourself stabbed would have erased that somehow?”

He moved close, his eyes gleaming silver in the gloaming. “Blade,” he repeated slowly, “to your throat.”

The fire in his eyes awakened a strange warmth in her body. Blood pounded through her veins, sending tingles through her stomach. “Misplaced gallantry.” Gallantry she did not deserve nor want.

“Not gallantry.” His shadow mingled with hers. “Justice.”

“There isn’t any justice, Cooper.” Her voice sounded so breathy and sad, she almost didn’t recognize it. “Haven’t you learned that by now?”

“Sometimes there is, Ruby, but it’s a long time in coming.” He reached out, and she held her breath as he plucked a twig from her hair and sent it floating to the ground.

Tears crowded her eyes. “After what happened to Alice and Peter, you should know better.”

“Whoever took Alice will get his punishment eventually. I’m just hoping I can do my bit to set things right now. If that means I have to step up and chase a crazy old guy now and then, I’m game for the challenge.”

He reached for her and his palms grazed her shoulders so tenderly, so tentatively, it weakened her.

“Cooper,” she breathed. “You scared me.”

“I’m honored that you care.” He trailed his fingers through her hair.

“I don’t...” She wanted to push closer, to keep him close, to trust him. Panic prickled her skin. She could not allow the strange thud of weakness to undo her. She jerked away. “What if you learn it was your brother who took Alice?”

He stiffened. “I won’t, because he didn’t.”

“You can’t know that.”

“I know my brother like you know yours.”

Pine needles drifted in the breeze, coming to rest at her feet. She was suddenly bone weary. “Sheriff’s people are going to meet me back at the house. You’d better come, too.”

He stopped her with a hand on her arm. “One thing.” He tipped her chin back and leaned close.

Her eyes closed as his breath played over her neck. “Wanted to be sure he didn’t cut you.”

“I’m okay,” she said, but she could feel her knees trembling. From his touch? Or the aftermath of Lester’s rage? She was not sure as they picked their way through the trees.

* * *

Cooper answered all Sheriff Pickford’s questions as did Ruby until it was nearly ten o’clock and he could no longer suppress a yawn. Pickford promised to have his people find Lester Walker and bring him in.

“He’ll come back to the house sooner or later and we’ll get him. In the meantime, we’ll search the house for the locket.” Pickford eased his bulk out of the kitchen chair. “Need a ride back to your cabin, Cooper?”

“No, thanks. I’ll walk.”

Ruby shot him a look. “What if Lester is still out there and he finds you?”

“I’ll win him over with my easygoing charm.” Cooper enjoyed her exasperated eye roll.

“He has a knife.”

“A box cutter, actually,” Cooper said, “and I’m scrappy. I’m pretty sure I can take him.”