Easy Prey (Love-Inspired Suspense) (3 page)

THREE

“T
here’s no sign of Fix Tanner. We searched the grounds and the outlying streets. He’s gone.”

Jonah nodded at Hailey Shelder. “If the cops don’t need help with the bomb investigation, then head home. We can meet first thing tomorrow and regroup, find out if all of this is related, or just coincidental timing.”

The others walked up. Jonah stood in a circle with his teammates: Hailey’s fiancé, Eric, the SEAL, Parker, and the former cop, Ames. “I’ll see you all back at the office. Seven a.m.”

Hopefully he would be able to find an off-duty cop to help keep an eye on Elise. He didn’t think she was being targeted per se, but she’d been attacked and a bomb had gone off. Whether the things were related or not, they still had one common denominator—the zoo she was now in charge of. Jonah wasn’t willing to risk losing her all over again.

Shelder’s lips twitched. “And Elise?”

Ames shot her a look. “You’re such a girl.”

She folded her arms. “So what if I am?”

Jonah sighed. “One of these days I’m going to fire both of you. I’m the boss now. I can do that.”

If he didn’t get it over with now, they were going to keep hounding him for details.

“Elise married my brother, Martin. He passed away eighteen years ago, when he was in the army and I was with the marines. I wasn’t there with him, I was on a different mission when I found out he’d been killed. By the time I got home, Elise was gone. My mother told me she banked the death benefits and took off.”

Parker clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Women.”

Shelder gasped. “She was grieving.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Parker said. His eyes were hard, filled with the shadows of the past. “She still lied by not saying anything about having a baby. That boy is Jonah’s nephew and he didn’t even know the kid existed.”

“But—”

“Enough.” Jonah shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll sort things out with Elise, but it’s not going to be resolved tonight. You guys just worry about Fix Tanner.”

“Is he really Elise’s brother?” Eric asked.

Jonah nodded.

“She’s involved, then,” Parker said.

“Unlikely, but I’m not going to rule it out.”

Parker nodded. “That’s good. Stick close to her, and eventually you’ll discover what she’s lying about.”

Jonah frowned.

Shelder shook her head at Parker. “When did you get to be so cynical?”

Jonah wasn’t going to hang around for them to argue some more. “I’ll see you all in the morning.”

He drove his truck to the hospital where they’d taken Elise. It was hard to decide if he was more interested in seeing her or in getting to know his nephew better.

Nathan.

The boy’s name brought forth the memory of his own father’s warm smile. But then, he supposed that was the point of Elise naming her son after his father. Nathan Rivers, Jonah’s dad, had always had a soft spot for the girl from the trailer park across town.

The first day they’d met Elise, she had been a spindly twelve-year-old on the lakeshore. Her older brother, Fix, was supposed to have been watching her. She’d wandered a mile around the lake’s beach, looking for turtles, before she met up with Jonah, Martin and their father, who had been fishing.

The minute he saw that gap-toothed smile on the girl with the stringy blond hair and she started talking about the symptoms of shell disease in western pond turtles, Jonah had been thoroughly charmed. His dad, too. The old man had suffered a soft spot for little Elise Tanner that was a mile wide and twice as high. But Martin was the one who’d married her.

Now Elise was a stranger, Jonah had a nephew he’d never met and her brother was number one on his list of fugitives to hunt down and drag back in to custody. Never mind figuring out who had hurt her, lifted her keys and stolen files from the zoo office.

Nathan was in the hall. “Hey.”

“How’s your mom?”

“They’re taking X-rays.”

Jonah nodded, unsure what else to do—or say. They weren’t at the point he could squeeze the kid’s shoulder. Nathan was a stranger, despite the resemblance.

Nathan bit his lip. “Were you in Operation Desert Strike just like my dad?” He must have seen the surprise on Jonah’s face, because he said, “I looked it up online. I know all about Iraq back then.”

Jonah said, “I wasn’t in the same part of the country as Martin.” He pushed out a breath, unwilling to think about the gravestone and the empty pool house. Both of them, gone. “I thought your mom left because she didn’t want to know me anymore, or be reminded of your dad.”

After Elise had gone, there hadn’t been much else that made sense. What faith he’d had in a God of love and goodness had died with Martin’s death and Elise’s leaving.

Why hadn’t he tried harder to find her? Maybe he shouldn’t have given her up so easily. Their lives hadn’t been perfect, but maybe their friendship had been worth fighting for. The fact that he’d loved her was irrelevant now—she’d made her choice.

Now she was back, and his father would’ve said God brought them here for a reason, which only made him ache for his dad all over again. Jonah didn’t want to know about a God who orchestrated life like that. He was the one in charge of his own path.

The old man had passed away before Jonah joined the marines. He’d never gotten to see Jonah become a marshal. Never had to live through Martin’s death. Never met his grandson.

Despite everything Jonah could wish to have been different, they were both there now.

He pushed aside the awkwardness and set a hand on his nephew’s shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here now.”

For whatever reason, Jonah would accept the gift he’d been given for exactly that—a gift. It was what his dad would’ve wanted.

Nathan’s cheeks filled and he pushed out a breath in the same way Jonah had done. “This is super weird.”

A smile stretched Jonah’s mouth. “It won’t be for long, I hope.” He let his hand drop. “Did you talk with the police?”

Nathan nodded. “They took my statement. But I was across the zoo and I didn’t see anyone. I didn’t even know that someone hurt my mom. I just saw the fire, and when I came running those marshals handcuffed me. But it’s all good.”

Of course it was. Jonah studied the kid, trying to figure out if looking jazzed was his normal state, or a consequence of the night they’d had.

Jonah said, “I’m glad you’re good.”

Still, he had a feeling things were going to get worse before he figured out what was going on.

* * *

Elise sat up on the hospital bed, the bandages tight around her torso. She wasn’t hurt too badly, just bruised ribs. Not cracked. But the doctor had told her to take it easy and give her ribs the time they needed to heal.

Elise pressed a hand to her forehead. Nothing that’d happened tonight made any sense. A bomb, and a man stealing papers? Taking her keys? Her brother on the run from the US Marshals?

It was like a sick animal with multiple symptoms that didn’t correspond to any one thing. She’d sat up many nights worrying over her furry friends. The worst times were when she had to suffer the helplessness of not being able to fix what was wrong with them.

The door cracked open. Assuming it was Nathan, Elise looked up and smiled. Jonah stopped, still gripping the door handle. His eyes widened and he gave her a tentative smile in return.

Elise rolled her eyes. “What do you want now?”

It was like junior high all over again. Waiting outside for him to give her and Martin a ride home, watching all the cool girls make moony eyes over him. The next day had always been the worst, when she had to deal with their questions and snide comments.

Martin had been in her class, and they’d laughed together over all the attention Jonah got. Martin started to catch the eye of the female population at school after Jonah had graduated, and then things got worse. Still, he’d always said he only had eyes for her.

“I want you to catch me up on everything that happened before the bomb.”

Elise frowned at his serious face. “I was attacked. The police have already been in here, asking me a million questions about it. They want me to go to the police station tomorrow and look at mug shots.”

Now her brain hurt from answering questions, and she was more tired than the time in Idaho when the snow leopard that was in labor had gone into distress. “I have no more answers. I don’t know who took the files and attacked me, and I don’t know where Fix is.”

When she looked at him, she saw Jonah’s face had softened. He set a hand on her shoulder. “Take it easy.”

Seriously? “Where’s Nathan?”

“I’m right here.”

Elise looked at the door. She hadn’t even noticed him standing there. She held out her hand and Nathan strode over to sit beside her on the bed. Apparently it took her getting seriously hurt before the teenager would willingly show her affection in public. Go figure.

She gave him her most stern face. “Are you okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah, Mom.”

She looked at Jonah. His gray eyes were black despite the fluorescent lights, glaring at her with frustration and anger. “You had a baby and you didn’t think to tell me?”

If she’d been standing, she’d have slammed her hands on her hips. “Like you’d even have cared. You left for the marines and never looked back. Not once. Don’t lie to me, Jonah. After Martin died you didn’t even want to know.”

Nathan sighed. “Are you two really going to argue?”

Elise looked back at Jonah in time to see his jaw flex. He said, “Where’s your brother, Elise?”

Eighteen years and that was all he had to say to her? “I haven’t seen Fix since before I left town.” Right after she’d buried her husband, when the best friend she’d needed hadn’t even come home. Emotion stuck like a hair ball in her throat.

She said, “You wouldn’t even be here if you hadn’t disliked Fix from the moment you met him. My brother never did anything but try and impress you and Martin, and you turned your back on all of us. Well, guess what? Apparently you were right about Fix. Congratulations.” Elise poured all of her emotion into that last word.

“This has nothing to do with me. Fix made his own choices.”

“You’re right about that. You only think you have that much power over people. But guess what? We weren’t all put on this planet to sit around and wait for you to tell us what we can and can’t do. We made our own lives just fine without you.”

Elise closed her mouth. The simple fact he was standing in front of her now made her brain twirl like a spinning top, merging losing Martin with Jonah’s...desertion. That had sure been what it felt like. Why did he have to come to the hospital? She’d learned not to need him in her life.

Jonah was looking down at her with a dark expression. He’d never worn that face before, not directed at her. Jonah had always had a serious side that meant he never failed to do what was right. It had been hard to coax a smile, or even laughter, out of him—something that hadn’t happened too often, even in all the years they’d known each other.

Martin had been much more lighthearted. The partyer, always chasing a laugh. Their relationship had been nothing but fun, until Elise lost both of them.

This Jonah was entirely new. The disappointment on his face had formerly been reserved for his mother’s disapproval of Elise’s friendship with the Rivers boys. Elise had never before been the recipient of it from him. He had better not look that way at Nathan.

Jonah studied her. “You’ve changed.”

She clenched her jaw, not willing to dignify that with a response. Elise wasn’t a perky twentysomething anymore. She dressed like what she was—the single forty-year-old mother of a teenager, who also happened to have a hard-earned doctorate in zoology. Her best friend was always talking about makeovers, but who had time for that?

Jonah, however, looked as though he never missed a workout. His T-shirt was tight on his biceps, and the rest of him just looked...incredibly strong. As though life had forced him to weather the years, always leaning in to the wind, trying to control the direction of it with sheer willpower. Had Martin’s death done that?

It was plain to see nothing about her impressed him at all. And why would it? It wasn’t like she’d spent seventeen years trying to catch a new man. She’d been way too busy with work and Nathan.

She said, “I’m not the only one who’s changed.”

“Regardless, I’m going to make sure you and Nathan are safe until we find the guy who hurt you tonight.”

“What about Fix?”

“If you say you haven’t seen your brother, I believe you. But if you hear from him, I need to know. I am going to catch him. I know he’s family, but he’s hurt people since you’ve been gone, Elise.” Jonah paused. “Why haven’t you talked to him?”

Elise looked aside. She’d known she was going to have to explain it sometime. It might as well be now.

“With you and Martin gone it was like Fix lost all the restraint he’d had. Before I left, things were...bad. Cops coming around, asking if I knew where he was.” She bit her lip and looked at Jonah. “When I was told Martin died, I called Fix. He never picked up. I left.”

“I’m sorry.” Jonah’s voice was quiet.

“Can I at least talk to him after you bring him in? I’d like to say something to my brother before I lose the chance.”

Jonah stayed silent for a moment. Then he said, “You have my word.”

After his pronouncement, Elise didn’t figure there was much else worth arguing about. At least not when it was so late, and they’d had such a long day. Tomorrow they would figure out where to go from here. Tomorrow she would look at mug shots and help the police find the bomber. Right now she was so exhausted she just wanted to crawl into bed, pull the blanket over her head and forget she’d ever thought coming back here was a good idea.

But for the one lingering thing she still needed to do—the one thing that would give her the closure to move on with her life—maybe she never would have come back. She’d have found another way to pay for Nathan’s college, or help him do it.

But for the fact that one of these days she needed to finally go visit Martin’s grave.

In the backseat of Jonah’s truck, Elise could barely make out the whispered conversation going on between him and Nathan, who sat up front. Did she want to know what they were talking about?