Page 4 of Frankie (Big Northwest #5)

CHAPTER FOUR

JD

" G otta admit, this is not what I expected to see on the cameras this morning." JD stared up into the tree, resisting the urge to grin as Frankie glared down at him.

"Just shut the fuck up and get me down," Frankie snarled.

He moved to the pulley system holding her in the air, and went to work letting out the slack, carefully bringing her to the ground. Once she was down, he began uncinching the net. "How in the hell did you end up in this thing?" He worked the opening past her shoulders. "You know where they all are. You helped set them up."

"I was distracted." Her blue eyes narrowed on him. "For some reason, I needed to burn off steam."

"Me too, but you don't see my ass hanging twenty feet off the ground." He stood back, expecting her to jump up and stalk away, but Frankie didn't move. He lifted his brows. "Were you comfortable up there? I can put you back?—"

"Kiss my ass." Frankie rubbed one hand up and down a leg. "All my limbs are fucking asleep from being in that position for six hours."

He braced both hands on his hips, letting out a sigh. "I don't have time to stand here and wait for you to get moving." He'd already wasted enough of the morning hiking up into the woods to let her down. It wouldn't be long before downtown was overrun with eager visitors champing at the bit to spend some time with the sisters, and he was supposed to be there to run interference.

"No one said you had to wait." Frankie flicked a hand in the direction of town. "Go. I'll get there when I get there."

"Like hell."

Frankie would be fine in the woods. There weren't too many things around that were eager to take on someone like her. But those women lining up in the café and outside the bakery? Those things were feral, and they didn't appreciate when whatever sister they deemed their favorite wasn't where she was supposed to be.

"Come on." He bent down, reaching out to grab her, but Frankie held up a hand.

"If you throw me over your shoulder again, I swear to God I'll take you into the back room at Danny's and you'll leave in freezer paper."

For some reason, the image of Frankie stringing him up and parting him out struck him as funny. He laughed as he adjusted his approach, scooping her up bridal style. Shifting his hold so he could grip her better, JD flashed her the grin he'd been hiding. "You know, Frank, if you wanted to put your hands all over my body, all you had to do was ask."

Frankie's eyes widened at the teasing remark, outrage sparking in their depth. She must have really been feeling the night she spent in the net, because Frankie didn't put up the fight he expected as he tucked her against his chest.

He didn't have the same sort of relationship with Frankie he did with the rest of her sisters. With everyone else, he could tease and taunt, knowing it meant nothing and they would give it right back to him. But things had been different with Frankie from the beginning. While everyone else was like a sister to him, she'd been more of a thorn in his side. A thorn that had a tendency to make his dick hard.

His father had seen what was developing between them and pulled him aside to make it very clear how wrong it would be to act on any sort of feelings he might consider having. So, when Frankie admitted he wasn't the only one feeling a certain sort of way, he shut it down hard and fast.

No way would he take advantage of her. No way would he go against his father's request. Even as a seventeen-year-old kid, he was smart enough to know his dad was the best man around, so if he said it would be wrong to get involved with Frankie, then he'd believed it.

But it turned out, Frankie disagreed. Aggressively .

"You know what? Just drop me right here." Frankie shoved at his chest again. "Send Kenneth to pick me up."

"Right." JD chuckled. "I'm sure that would go over real fucking well." Kenneth was as protective of the sisters as he was. The man would lose every bit of his shit if he dumped Frankie here and walked away.

And Kenneth was not anyone he wanted to cross. His past was contained in a file somewhere with all the words blacked out. The man could make him disappear in an instant.

"It'll go over way better than dealing with me once I get the feeling back in my limbs." Frankie's words were sharp. Intended to be a threat. And they probably were.

He just wasn't scared of her. They'd known each other too long—been through too much—for him to ever believe this was more than just bark. He was more likely to get bit by one of her little dogs.

Now them , he was fucking afraid of.

"I'll take my chances." He dodged a fallen branch, boots gripping the ground as he picked his way through the trees edging Shadow Pine. "But at least now we know the traps work."

They were one of their many lines of defense when it came to protecting the girls from anyone who might intend to do them harm, and he'd been on the fence about whether they were worth all the effort to install. He'd have to figure out how she managed to trip it though, since they were meant to trap people on the ground, not in the trees.

Frankie snorted. "Apparently the cameras have their limitations though."

He tucked his chin, peering down at her. "What's that mean?" He'd been the one to install the trail cameras all through the acreage they'd bought, and so far, he felt like he'd done a pretty damn decent job of it.

Frankie glared up at him. "It means I didn't accidentally get myself caught in the net."

"You said you got distracted." He scanned the woods around them. "What distracted you?"

"It wasn't what ." Frankie's nostrils flared. "It was who ."

His grip on her tightened. "Who the fuck was out here?"

"That's what I was trying to find out when your fucking net deployed." She spat the words at him. Like it was his fault she spent the last six hours dangling in the air.

"If someone was out here, we would've caught them on camera." He sounded more certain than he was. He'd covered as much territory as he could with the trail cams, but there were limits. He couldn't have eyes on every square foot of the forest. It was impossible. But most people would follow an already cut path, and he had ninety percent of those monitored.

"Unless they weren't technically on our property." Frankie looked to the east. "I was trying to figure out exactly where they were when I got stopped, so it's possible they weren't technically within range of the cameras."

A few of the alarm bells going off in his head stopped. "So maybe it was somebody out for a late-night hike. Or they could have been doing some off grid camping." He shrugged, trying to dismiss the worry still niggling in his brain. "Odds are, it was something innocent."

"I'm not big on odds." Frankie shifted in his grip, wincing a little as she wiggled one foot from side to side. "I'm going to come back out here after the morning meet-and-greet. See if I can pick up their trail."

It wasn't a bad idea, actually. But— "I'll come with you."

Frankie scoffed. "Absolutely not." She crossed both arms over her chest. "I move faster on my own."

"Then I guess it's a good thing you won't have to move fast." He looked over her frame. "And I'm going to guess it'll take longer than the meet-and-greet to be back to your normal self." Spending an hour or two scrunched up in one of those nets would be unpleasant, but not the worst thing to go through. Six hours though? Frankie was going to be feeling this for a couple of days.

"I'll bring Kenneth." Once again, Frankie chose Alex's father-in-law as her planned partner in crime. Technically he wasn't the worst choice. Kenneth had done some pretty secretive shit in his life, but the man wasn't nearly as capable of tracking in the woods as he was.

"I'm not sure what made you think my coming with you was up for discussion, but it's not." He met Frankie's hard glare. "Nobody is better at tracking through these woods than I am, and you fucking know it. So stop being a stubborn pain in my ass."

"I'm a pain in your ass?" Frankie scoffed, the sound devoid of all humor. "That's rich."

He knew what she was getting at. "Stop acting put out over what happened last night at the bar. Foster wasn't there to fuck you anyway, so it's not like I ruined a romantic evening for you." Not that he imagined any of Frankie's one-night stands was particularly romantic.

"You don't know he wasn't going to fuck me." Frankie leaned closer. "A man can be after two things."

The thought of Foster finding his way into Frankie's bed crawled under his skin like a knife. "You sleep with that prick and it'll be him you're trying to track through these woods." It was a threat he had no business dishing out. Unfortunately, it was also one he'd probably make good on if push came to shove.

Over the years, Frankie had paraded countless men in front of him, and he'd gritted his teeth and suffered through. Reminded himself he was doing what was right. That the sisters needed someone in their corner who wasn't trying to get between their legs. But then Craig showed up. And Edward, and Adam, and Tate. Each one of them proving the claim Frankie just made.

That a man can be after two things .

Frankie snorted, the sound of her strangled laugh slowing his steps. She tried to cover it with a cough, but eventually gave up and started cackling, her head thrown back. "Oh my God. Can you imagine him out here?"

The sound of her laughter echoed through the trees, rattling across the leaves the same way it did in his chest. It'd been years since she'd laughed like that. Around him anyway.

The most he could hope for from her these days was indifference. She usually did her best to ignore him, but when she couldn't, Frankie dished out glares, snarls, and biting words. Anything she thought would cut him the way she believed he cut her.

As she continued laughing, giving him a glimpse of what used to be, something loosened between his shoulder blades. A tension he hadn't known was there. Probably because it had taken up residence so long ago.

Frankie wiped at her eyes, pulling in deep gulping breaths as she recovered from her momentary lapse. Then it was right back to business as usual, her eyes sharp when they focused on his face. "You can't drop Phillip in the middle of the woods. He's going to find James."

He better fucking find her. The bastard had given Frankie hope, and if he took that from her, no amount of shiny shoes or fancy suits would save his ass. Foster would end up alone and afraid in the mountains of Washington.

"Craig seems pretty sure this guy will be able to track her down." They all knew Craig had hired someone, but now that he'd met the guy, doubts were starting to creep in. James wasn't going to be easy to find, and if anyone did, it seemed unlikely a man like Foster would be the one to do it. The guy had no clue what he was actually dealing with. Sure, Craig might have alluded to the fact that James and her sisters weren't your typical women, but surely he hadn't told Phillip everything.

That would put all the girls in danger. And Craig was as protective of Danny as he was of?—

Clearing his throat to cut off the rest of that thought, JD doubled down on his task of getting Frankie home. Being close to her like this was a bad fucking idea.

Even though the rest of her sisters in town had found men who could be both fiercely protective and in their beds, it didn't mean he should attempt the same. He'd known them too long. Trying to change the parameters of things now would be difficult, if not impossible. Especially considering Frankie hated his fucking guts.

JD let out a breath as he crossed the treeline and reached the grassy field. Only a few more minutes and he could deposit Frankie and go back to his normal day. She would get showered and ready and no doubt walk into the café despising him as much as she always did.

He reached her front door and punched the code in, opening it then stepping inside. Like Kenneth, he knew the passcodes to every building in town. He was one of the trusted few the girls were willing to put their faith in. Another reason he couldn't betray them by pursuing the woman he'd been a little too focused on since the day she stepped out of the woods and into his life.

He carefully lowered Frankie's feet to the floor, keeping one arm banded across her back as she tried to regain her balance. Her pale brows pinched together, lips pressing into a frown as she struggled to remain upright on her own. When he attempted to ease his arm away, she started to go down, both hands latching onto the front of his flannel shirt.

"I've got you." He tightened his grip again. "I won't let you fall."

That had been his goal from the beginning. To make sure the girls didn't fall. He wasn't going to stop now.

Frankie's blue eyes lifted to his, an edge of fear making them wide. "Something feels wrong."

"Okay." He scanned her from head to toe, but the baggy T-shirt and sweatpants she wore hid any injuries that might be there. "Does anything hurt?"

"I mean..." Frankie shrugged. "No worse than normal."

JD stared at her, brows lifting. "What does that mean?" Was she always in pain? The possibility had his gut tightening. Frankie had already been through so much in her life, and he clenched his teeth in frustration at the idea she was dealing with pain daily.

"It means I fucking climb trees for a living and something always hurts when you do that shit." She rocked her head from side to side, rolling her shoulders a little with the movement. "I'm sure it'll be fine. Just help me get to the couch and I'll figure it out."

He glanced at the sofa, wondering how many times she'd sat there, 'figuring it out' by herself, now that her sisters were all paired up.

He'd been so focused on making sure he kept the promise he made his dad, he hadn't considered how alone Frankie was now.

Turning to the couch, he once again scooped her up, carrying her over then laying her across the cushions. Once she was in place, Frankie gave him a fake smile. "Thanks. Bye."

JD straightened, putting his hands on his hips. "Not leaving, Frank." He turned toward the sudden sound of nails scraping across the hardwood. "First I'm gonna let your little heathens out." He leaned down to tuck a pillow behind her back. "And then you're gonna take your pants off so I can figure out where you're hurt."