Page 4 of Engaging the Deputy (Silver Stars of Montana #3)

Deputy Jaden Montgomery was already out assessing the damage left behind from the windstorm. Power was nonexistent in some areas and there was reported damage to a few buildings, including a couple of old barns that had lost their roofs. But no injuries or loss of life.

Until he got the frantic call from Starling.

“We need help!” Emery Jordan had cried. “We’re out here in Starling, what’s left of it. I can’t find Rob. I can’t find the others. Oh, man, it’s really bad here. The town is almost completely gone. The tornado…” His voice had broken.

“How many of you are out there?” Jaden had asked and then told Emery to sit tight, that he was on his way.

Starling was the last place on earth he wanted to go on Halloween night, of all nights.

He had enough bad memories of the place.

His parents had been members of the anti-government militant group years ago, long before Elden Rusk had left and the community had scattered, some a lot farther than Fortune Creek, where he now lived.

He had no desire to recall one of the darkest times of his childhood and had avoided going anywhere near Starling.

He knew teenagers often went out there in an attempt to scare themselves with the ghost stories and alleged sightings of Elden Rusk.

Kids! But Emery Jordan wasn’t a kid anymore.

What had a bunch of them been doing out there at their ages?

As he drove toward the abandoned community, the closer he got, the more eerie it felt.

But he hadn’t expected almost total destruction.

In his headlights, he began to see the piles of debris the storm had left, houses leveled to the ground.

It looked as if a bomb had gone off, turning some buildings to kindling and sending others hurling off their foundations to pile up a quarter mile away.

The devastation shocked him, not that he hadn’t hoped years ago that the place would disappear forever. Reports of a tornado had come in late last night. But they usually did little more than tear up a barn or shed, wipe out a few telephone poles.

The brunt of the storm had missed Fortune Creek, yet had pretty much wiped Starling off the map, from what he could see in the moonlight.

According to Emery, he and seven other twentysomethings from the closest town of Libby had been partying in the empty buildings when the storm had hit.

Right now, five of them were missing and others had minor injuries.

Jaden had called in medical help as well as a search party on his way to the scene. As he came over the rise, he saw a van sitting sideways in the road and a pickup lying on its side, buried in debris. What appeared to be the roof of a house had piled up beside the road.

A bad feeling settled in his stomach as he parked and got out.

* * *

Olivia screamed. She would have kept screaming for help, but Cody pulled her to him in a tight hug.

“No one can hear us down here,” he said. “Do you have your phone?”

She shook her head, her mind whirling like the tornado. They were trapped in a dirt hole with human bones. It was too easy to imagine her own bones decaying down here when no one found them. She was trying so hard not to cry, not to panic, but it was useless. She’d never been so terrified.

“I left my phone in the truck,” Cody said.

It was still dark outside, except for the stars and moonlight.

She had no idea what time it was without her phone.

Why had she left it and her purse in the truck?

Because they’d only been going for a walk?

Who’d known a tornado would hit and they’d end up almost buried alive in an old root cellar?

She shivered, avoiding looking at the pile of bones as she tried to pull herself together. “You think it’s Evangeline Rusk?” Olivia asked, her voice trembling.

Cody shook his head. “It could be anybody.”

“Hello!” she called, her voice echoing, her throat raspy. “Anyone out there? We need help!” No answer.

It didn’t help that Cody was trying so hard to reassure her. “Someone will come looking for us.”

“If anyone is still alive.” Her eyes burned with tears.

“Let’s just keep our cool. I’ll see about using some of the shelves as a ladder, but we have to be careful, so we don’t make the dirt cave in any more, okay?”

She nodded, trying not to think about the rest of the dirt walls toppling down on them.

“Hey,” he said, putting his hands on both of her shoulders. “Breathe. You’re fine. You’re here with me.”

Her vision blurred but she nodded again.

His words both soothed and hurt. Earlier, Cody had been angry with her, unforgiving.

But he’d saved her during the storm. Probably saved her life by insisting they find a place to ride out the storm.

He was still trying to protect her. “I’m so sorry,” she cried.

“You’re okay. We’re okay.” He held her tighter.

“You saved my life,” she said, sobbing into his shoulder.

“Not yet,” he said. “Come on.” He pulled back to look into her eyes before taking the tail of his shirt and gently wiping her face. “Even now, you look beautiful.”

She scoffed but made an effort to stop crying. She’d always prided herself on her strength and determination. Where was that woman right now?

“Can I help you with the shelves?”

He smiled. “That’s the girl I used to know,” he said. “Too bad we found old bones instead of the gold.”

The silence was getting to her. Where were the others? Suddenly, she was even more afraid. “What if everyone is—”

“Hey,” he said. “They’re probably just like us, digging themselves out.”

“Sure.” Except she didn’t believe it. It was too quiet.

* * *

As he walked up the road, Jaden spotted three of the survivors huddled together by the van.

They were some distance from the demolished community, as if wanting to be as far away from it as possible.

The largest of the group rose as he approached.

He recognized Emery Jordan, but not the two young women with him.

They were all filthy—their faces blackened with dirt, their clothing torn and dirty—but they didn’t appear too badly hurt.

Emery, he saw, had what appeared to be superficial cuts and bruises, except for the one leg he was favoring. Mostly, he looked scared as the deputy walked toward him.

Jaden felt the weight of the quiet that had settled over the place. It made his skin crawl.

As he reached them, the two young women began to cry, holding tight to each other. “My mother’s going to kill me,” the brunette sobbed.

Seeing that they didn’t appear to need medical attention, Jaden pulled out his notebook and took down their names, Tammy Bell and Whitney Clark.

Both were underage to have been at a party where alcohol had obviously been served.

Both said they had already called home and their parents were on their way to get them.

“I can’t find Rob,” Emery said. “He was there one minute and then…” He put his head in his hands.

“Give me the names of the others with you,” Jaden said.

“Cody Ryan and Olivia Brooks. Rob Per—”

“Olivia Brooks?” Jaden stopped him. “She’s back in town?” This was definitely news to him.

“Yeah, she’s back,” Emery said, sounding like it was no big deal. Probably wasn’t to him, but then, he’d never been engaged to her. “Rob Perkins, Dean Marsh and Jenny Lee.”

“Where was the last time you saw the others?” the deputy asked.

“Cody and Olivia went off that way,” Emery said, waving toward what was left standing of Elden Rusk’s house on the side of the hill.

“Jenny Lee and Dean Marsh were here at the truck. Rob Perkins and I and the girls went down by the creek.” His voice broke with emotion. “I thought we were all going to die.”

Jaden looked up the hillside to where Emery had last seen Olivia headed. Even from this distance, he could see that only some of Elden Rusk’s house was still standing, while the one just below it on the hill, where Jaden and his family had lived, was completely gone.

He desperately wanted to go looking for Olivia himself, but three other vehicles arrived. He needed to talk to the EMTs and search and rescue personnel. Too many people were still missing.

* * *

“Did you hear that ?” Olivia whispered as she lifted one end of the heavy shelves and turned them to stand against the wall of dirt. “Voices.”

He’d heard the voices and was as anxious as she was to get out of this root cellar. “It’s probably the others.”

“Maybe someone called for help,” she said excitedly.

“Told you we would be found.”

“But we aren’t staying down here until they do, right?”

He shook his head. That was definitely not part of his plan for the night.

“I’m going to help you climb out. Just stay low when you get near the top.

Lie on your belly and crawl away from the edge so it doesn’t cave in any more than it has.

” All he needed was for her to topple this damn hole on top of him.

She looked scared again. “You’re going to be right behind me, aren’t you?”

“Right behind you,” he assured her, hoping that the shelves held enough to get her free. “Once you’re out, head for the road we drove in on. If someone called for backup, that’s where they’ll be.”

“I’m not leaving you down here,” she said.

“Olivia—” He cursed under his breath. How had he forgotten how stubborn she could be?

“No. I might have left you once, but not again. Especially not like this.” She shook her head adamantly. “We’re both leaving here together.”

He didn’t want to argue, so he agreed. He didn’t want to waste the time. The root-cellar walls felt unstable. He didn’t think either of them should stay down there any longer than they had to.

“I’m going to be right behind you,” he told her. “Just climb up and out. Don’t look back.”

She mugged a face at him, and for a moment, he thought she was hesitating because there was something she needed to say to him. “There’s plenty of time to talk when we’re out of here, okay?”

She nodded, grabbed hold of the old shelving and, with his hands guiding her upward, climbed, not hesitating, and was up and out before several of the wood shelves broke apart. The nails used to hold the boards together had barely held with her light weight.

Not a good sign, he was thinking when he realized that she’d just disappeared over the edge of the hole when she appeared again. She’d taken off her coat and, lying on her stomach, was dangling it over the side. “Your turn,” she said, a dark silhouette against the lightening skyline.

“The shelves aren’t going to hold me. I can hear rescuers. Go get some help.” He didn’t mean to snap, but he knew the clock was ticking and she was determined not to leave him. If only she’d felt that way six years ago. “Go! Please. I’ll wait right here for you.”

She hadn’t been gone but a few moments before he moved the last shelving unit over against the wall. He hadn’t told Olivia, but the last thing he planned to do was stay down there if he could help it. He could hear crying and someone calling Rob’s name.

His weight broke the first shelf right away, but he’d gotten high enough that he could see over the rim of the root cellar in time to glimpse a dark figure move past. He started to call out but stopped himself.

The person wasn’t going for help—but in the opposite direction, deeper into the nearly-destroyed Starling community.

Just before disappearing from sight, the figure turned, as if looking back in Cody’s direction. Cody dropped out of sight, hoping he hadn’t been seen. He was trapped in this hole. If anyone wanted to harm him, it would be like shooting fish in a bucket.

* * *

Once Jaden gave the information he had to search and rescue, they began grabbing their gear.

He turned to Emery. “How did you and Rob get separated?”

Emery wiped his nose and looked down the hillside. “Whitney and I went over to that small house by the creek to give him and Tammy some privacy.”

Jaden looked to Tammy, who was huddled with Whitney on a large boulder beside the road. “You were with Rob when the storm hit?”

“We’d been visiting down by the water. I got scared and went to find Whit. She’d come looking for me, so we ducked into that little stone shed.”

“Rob didn’t go with you?” the deputy asked.

They both shook their heads, but he caught her sneaking a look at Emery.

“You stayed where you were, didn’t go looking for Rob and Tammy?

” He saw Whitney and Emery share a glance, both looking suspicious.

“I can tell that there is more to the story. I need the truth.”

Emery sighed. “Whit was panicked about her friend. I tried to get her to stay where it was safe, but she took off.”

“You didn’t go after her?” Jaden asked.

“I’d had so much to drink,” Emery said in his defense, “I was having a hard enough time just standing up, and then all hell broke loose.”

The deputy wasn’t through with these three, but he figured whatever they were hiding would come out eventually.

He’d been waiting impatiently for news on Olivia Brooks and was becoming more anxious by the minute when his cell phone rang.

He saw it was the head of the search and rescue party and quickly picked up, afraid the news wasn’t going to be good.

“We found Rob Perkins. I think you’d better come take a look. It appears his death wasn’t accidental.”

“I’ll be right there,” Jaden said, taken aback. What had been going on out here even before the tornado?