Page 23 of Engaging the Deputy (Silver Stars of Montana #3)

“Do yourself a favor,” the deputy told Emery as he rose to leave. “Don’t call Cody. Don’t try to warn anyone involved. Unless you want to join them in prison.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not getting off this couch but to get another beer,” the bike shop owner said. “I worried something like this would happen.” He shook his head and took a gulp of his beer. “They were my friends. My brothers, man.”

“I know. Any idea where I can find Cody?”

Emery hesitated, but only a moment. Maybe he was starting to realize that his friends, his brothers, had pulled him into their illegal activity knowing he didn’t want to be involved.

“Probably down at the hardware store. Whatever he had to move earlier is probably getting moved out the back door of the store as we speak.”

Jaden left Emery on his couch and raced to the hardware store. He took the alley, hoping Emery had been right and he could catch them in the act. But the alley was empty.

The back door of the hardware store, though, was wide open.

He jumped out, weapon in hand, and moved quickly to the open doorway. His heart dropped to his boots as he caught the familiar scent of crab apple jelly.

* * *

Olivia began to surface from what felt like a bottomless pitch-black pit. She became aware of movement, a blinding headache and the hum of a car engine. But what brought her out of the darkness was the memory of Cody in the alley and the realization that her wrists were bound.

She blinked, even though it hurt. Her eyes were the only thing she moved, knowing instinctively she had an advantage as long as her captor thought she was still out.

She didn’t have to look to her left to know who was behind the wheel.

The smell of spilled crab apple jelly on her shoes brought back the memory of the hardware store hallway—and Cody.

Where was he taking her? She could hear him nervously tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.

She didn’t remember ever seeing him this jumpy, this…

strung out? It heightened her fear—just like what she saw in the headlights.

She caught glimpses of a landscape that sent her pulse pounding in her ears.

This was the road to Starling. But why would he take her there?

She thought of the root cellar. The bones the tornado had uncovered. The crime scene team had finished. No one would look for her there—just as no one had thought to look for Evangeline buried down in the root cellar of an abandoned house.

“I know you’re awake,” Cody said with a chuckle. “You never could fool me, Olivia.”

* * *

Jaden felt time racing away from him as he stepped into the dimly lit hallway. He listened as he moved as soundlessly as possible. The closer he got to the front of the building, the scent of the jelly grew stronger—just like his dread and the faint sound of canned music.

Livie had been here. The realization was a scream in his head. She’d been here and something had happened. Had she stumbled onto Cody moving product? Or robbing the place?

Pulling his flashlight out with his free hand, he flicked it on. The glow fell on something on the floor partway down the hall. Broken glass and a smear of red. Not blood, he told himself as he moved toward it.

It appeared that someone had dropped the jelly jar and then fallen? Or been dragged? His pulse thundered in his ears. Chest tight, he called out Olivia’s name, even though he knew if she was there, she wasn’t going to be able to answer.

He checked the building. No bodies. No Olivia. It gave him little relief, though. Where was Cody? He tried his number. It went straight to voicemail. Then he put in a call for backup.

He knew only two things. Cody was neck-deep in the drug operation and he had Olivia.

Cody had driven by the barn earlier. He’d seen Jaden’s patrol SUV.

He would know that it was only a matter of time before he would be going down.

He’d run. Was that what he’d been doing at the hardware store when Olivia showed up?

Had she seen something she shouldn’t have? Caught him getting ready to skip town? What had he done to her?

Jaden thought of the broken jar on the floor, the drag marks in the jelly.

Cody had to have taken her. But where?

* * *

Olivia sat up and looked over at Cody. Her wrists were bound, but that wasn’t all.

He’d tied her bound wrists to the grab bar on the door so she couldn’t jump out.

Nor could she reach the steering wheel or attack him, both options she wished for right now as he slowed and made the turn down the road to Starling.

Her stomach roiled as they rumbled along the road, the headlights giving her glimpses of the destruction ahead.

“What’s going on, Cody?” she asked with a sigh as if bored by all this. Even as her heart raced, she told herself not to panic. She needed to keep all her senses sharp because she was going to get away from him. She had to.

“We’re just going for a little ride,” he said without looking at her.

“You were never a good liar.”

His attention swung on her, his face contorting in anger.

“Like you know anything about me. You left. You have no idea what I’ve had to do to keep from going stark raving mad.

” The venomous response alarmed her. “All I could think about was getting out of here, getting out from under that damn hardware store.”

Her first instinct was to try to calm him down, to remind him that they were friends. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I thought you didn’t mind working with your dad.”

Cory let out a bark of a laugh. “He had me over a barrel. Either I stayed and worked the store, or I walked away with nothing. Nothing. You think he would help me with college? With starting my own business? Not a chance. He started with nothing and made good, so he thought I should do the same.” He seemed to grit his teeth.

“He gave me no choice but to do what I did.”

“No choice?” she asked almost in a whisper. He was driving slower now, but she could see what structures were still standing ahead getting closer against the skyline. As long as she could keep him talking…

The thought almost made her laugh out loud. No one knew where she was. No one was coming to save her. She was on her own. Her only chance to survive was to be ready. If he gave her an opening, she would take it to escape.

Cody looked over at her, and for a moment, he was the boy she’d grown up with. His gaze softened and the fury in his face dissolved. “I started my own drug business.” She heard pride in his voice. “I made something out of myself.”

Drugs? She tried not to show her revulsion as she listened to him talk about getting the supplies up on the Canadian border, hiring friends to bring them down and package them for distribution.

“It was a hell of an operation,” he said proudly. “I should have done it sooner. Maybe you would have stayed.”

She said nothing, gripping her hands together, her fingers white-knuckled.

He’d never understood why she’d left to follow her dream.

He’d just resented her for being able to do it.

As it was, she’d learned that the grass wasn’t greener.

But it had made her figure out what she wanted.

Montana, home and Jaden. And it had brought her back.

Cody looked lost in thought. She knew this wasn’t about the two of them, no matter what he said. Nor about his father and the hardware store. This was about that night in Starling and Rob’s murder. She didn’t know how or why exactly, but she knew. “Who of the old gang work for you?”

He instantly perked up, anxious to talk about his enterprise.

“Angie was my first hire. She’d rented this little barn outside of town to redo old furniture she found at garage sales.

” He scoffed. “I convinced her to use her skills and mine to make more money. She was like me. She wanted more. Her marrying Dean had been a mistake. He was still in love with Jenny. But as badly as she wanted to leave him, she couldn’t until she had enough money to make it on her own. So I helped her.”

They’d reached what was left of Starling. Even in the glow of the headlights, what the tornado had left looked more menacing than it had in daylight.

Olivia shuddered as if she could feel the violence, the death, the disappointment that had happened here. It had left a pall over the place and seemed to invite more of the same.

“Emery?” Olivia asked, afraid of what would happen once he stopped driving, once he stopped talking.

“Emery? That lily-livered SOB?” He shook his head. “He was too chicken to go into business with me. He likes being a deadbeat.”

The pickup slowed to a crawl. Cody brought it to a stop and cut the engine.

There was one name she hadn’t mentioned, afraid that once she did, the ride was over. “What went wrong?” she asked as Cody fell silent. “Sounds like you had a viable business going.”

He looked over at her in the darkness of the pickup’s cab. This far away from town, she could see stars and just enough moon to throw a silvery haze over the landscape. It gave Starling a ghostly presence, making what she knew was coming all the more frightening.

“I gave Rob a job. He was making good money. But apparently it wasn’t enough. He got greedy,” he said somberly.

She knew but was afraid to say it.

He reached for the driver’s-side door handle.

“You killed him.”

Cody froze for a moment. He drew back his hand and turned again to look at her.

“He thought I didn’t know. It wasn’t so much that I could have let it slide.

He was my best earner. He took the most risk, driving up to the border with the furniture he helped Angie redo so we could hide the drugs inside. ”

He looked out into the darkness. She wondered if he was seeing this Starling or the one from Halloween night. “It was all too perfect, things were going too well.” He shook his head. “As my old man often says, best not to make waves when you’re all in the same boat.”