Finding Forever (Smoky Mountain Lawmen Book 1) (2 page)

BOOK: Finding Forever (Smoky Mountain Lawmen Book 1)
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Ben
glanced around at the crime scene techs packing up their equipment and
spectators that the police presence had drawn.  “All my files on this case are in
Richmond.  I’ll call my office and have someone drive down with them tomorrow,”
he answered.  “In the meantime, get statements from the hikers who found her
and interview park rangers who work this area and find out if any of them have
noticed anything unusual.

“Sheriff,
this is your territory and the people know you, so why don’t you handle crowd
and media control.  I’d like to take Detective Mabley and head to your office
to try to run down the woman’s identity.”

Sheriff
Raymond gave one short nod and walked off to delegate interviews and handle the
inevitable press that came with a case like this.  Ben turned to Tristan and
swirled his finger in the universal “saddle up” gesture.

“You
lead, Mabley.”

 

Chapter 2

 

Gemma
glanced up as the front door opened and two sets of heavy footsteps made their
way across the hardwood floors to where she was ensconced in the kitchen
putting the finishing touches on dinner.  Tristan had called earlier to say
that the feds were involved in his case and that he was bringing the lead agent
home tonight.  She had immediately rummaged through the freezer to pull out the
enormous steaks that Tristan insisted they always keep on hand, knowing that
after a day spent canvasing for and cataloging evidence the two men would be
ravenous.  She heaped vegetables onto plates next to the cooked steaks and slid
them onto the table just as the men walked into the kitchen.

“Smells
great, Sis,” Tristan said, giving her a peck on the cheek.  “Major, this is my
sister, Gemma.  Gemma, this is my former CO, turned FBI agent, Ben Davidson.”

Gemma
felt her heart hiccup in her chest as she smiled at the newcomer.  A movie
star, handsome man was not what she expected when she thought of federal agent. 
Eyes the color of turquoise sea glass studied her from a ruggedly handsome,
tanned face.  Silver streaked his dark hair at his temples and laugh lines
bracketed his eyes and sculpted lips.  He was a tall man—at least a couple
inches taller than her brother and built just as solidly. 

Agent
Davidson returned her smile.  “Ma’am.  It’s nice to finally meet you.  Tristan
used to talk about you a lot when we were overseas.  And thank you for the
hospitality.  It’s nice not to have to try to find a hotel room in the area at
this hour.”

Gemma
felt her face flame. 
Good lord, the things the man had probably heard about
her
!  She’d had a colorful childhood and adolescence.  The phrases
“accident prone” and “disaster magnet” came to mind.

She
cleared her throat and forced her smile to stay in place.  “Yes, well, I’m
hoping everything he said about me was good, but I know my brother and I do
hope you won’t let his stories cloud your judgement of me.”

Agent
Davidson laughed.  “It wasn’t all bad, I assure you.”

“Good.” 
She motioned to the table.  “Won’t you please sit down?”  She gestured to her
brother.  “You too, Tris.”

She
offered both men a beer, grabbed the basket of fresh biscuits off the counter
and sat down.  Gemma watched both men tuck into their meals.  They ate like it
was their first meal in days.  Within minutes both steaks were half gone, while
she’d only managed a few bites of her much smaller filet.  Once they had all
appeased their initial hunger, Gemma asked them about their case.

“I
take it from the fact that the feds are involved this is more than a simple
case of a hiker wandering off the trail and falling prey to Mother Nature?” she
asked.

“Yeah,”
Tristan answered.  She could tell from the way his face shut down that it had
been a grisly scene.

“Do
you know what happened?”

“We’re
still piecing it together,” Agent Davidson answered.  “We don’t even know who
she is yet.”

Gemma
shook her head.  That was so sad.  No one deserved to die the way she suspected
that woman had.  Then to be unidentified and left to the elements—Gemma could
hardly fathom it. 

“We’re
hopeful though, Sis.  She was found pretty quickly,” Tristan glanced at Agent
Davidson.  “Quicker than what we think the killer intended and that may help us
catch him.”

Gemma
certainly hoped so.  The prospect of a killer roaming their quiet hills was
disconcerting.  She herself spent a lot of time both hiking and riding the
trails in the area.  She would be thinking twice now about going out unarmed
until the killer was caught.

           

Ben
glanced up from the file he was perusing later that night as his hostess
shuffled into the kitchen clad in pink pajama pants and an oversize t-shirt
that hinted at the curves beneath.  She had removed her chestnut colored hair
from the ponytail it had been in earlier and it now spilled down over her
shoulders and back in silky waves.  Ben was disconcerted to find that he had
the urge to see if the tresses felt as soft as they looked.

She
offered him a small smile and looked at him through slightly sleepy eyes. 

“Did
I wake you?” he asked.

“Yes. 
But don’t worry about it,” she hastened to reassure him.  “I’m not used to any
kind of noise in the middle of the night, so the slightest sound will wake me
up.  Tristan sleeps like the dead and it’s a rare occasion that he gets a call
out this late.”

“Still,
I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to chase you from your bed.”  Ben groaned inwardly the
moment the words left his mouth.  Images of her in bed
without
the
oversize t-shirt flooded his brain.  He never would have guessed he’d have this
kind of reaction to Tristan’s little sister.  When Tristan had suggested Ben
stay with them Ben hadn’t thought anything of it.  Tristan’s stories had led
him to think of Gemma as a twiggy adolescent with braces and not a lot of
grace.  What had confronted him when he’d walked into the kitchen had been the
absolute opposite.  Whatever Gemma Mabley had been as a teenager, she had
outgrown it to become a stunningly gorgeous woman.  He felt like he had been
poleaxed when he had seen her standing there next to the table, a hesitant, but
welcoming smile on her pretty face.

And
she is entirely too young for you and clearly not the kind of woman who does
casual relationships
, he thought to himself.  Ben steered
clear of women like her.  He didn’t do permanent.

Ben
shoved thoughts of Gemma’s curves and bright smile to that special lock box in
his brain only to have the door shoved right back open again as she stretched
into a cupboard to pull down a glass.  Her shirt pulled taught against her
curves and Ben could see that she didn’t sleep in a bra.  He quickly looked
away and willed his libido under control.  Sexy or not, she was off limits.

She
waved off his concerns about waking her and moved to walk behind where he sat
to get to the sink.  “I was thirsty anyway.”

She
never made it past him.  Ben watched as her gaze landed on the file in front of
him.  It was open to a close-up image of the woman’s face after she’d been
pulled down from the tree.  Gemma’s face turned ashen and the glass she’d been
holding slipped through her fingers to crash to the floor where it shattered. 

“Gemma?” 
Ben stood, intending to block her view of the file spread out on the table.  He’d
never meant for her to see those grisly images.  She had other ideas though and
reached around him to shakily pick up the photograph.

“Is
this the woman whose death you’re investigating?” she asked.  Her voice was a
mere whisper.

Ben
nodded, frowning.  He grasped her arms to keep her upright as her knees
threatened to give out. 
Christ
.  She looked like she’d seen a ghost.

She
stared at the picture several moments longer before her gaze connected with
his.  “I know her,” she uttered.

Ben
was floored.  “How?” he demanded.

His
sharp tone seemed to snap her out of the fog she’d been in.  She drew in a
shaky breath and broke his hold to lay the picture back on the stack of papers
before focusing on him again.

“Her
son, Caleb, is one of my patients.  Her name is Diana Lowell and she lives in
Asheville with him and her mother, Marcie Trent.”  She sank into his vacated
chair and covered her face with her hands.  “Oh my God.  I can’t believe this.”

Ben
squatted in front of her and pulled her hands away from her face to tuck them
between his own.  “What do you mean, one of your patients?”

“I’m
an equestrian therapist.  Her son is a high-functioning autistic and she’s been
bringing him in twice a week for nearly three years.  The riding helps him work
on his social skills by helping him tune in to another’s emotions, human and
animal alike.  Oh, he’s got to be devastated.”

Christ

It was always bad when there were kids involved.  He mentally went over the
list of missing persons he and Tristan had compiled earlier.

“Gemma,
are you sure this is her?  She wasn’t on our missing persons list.”  He reached
up to cup the side of her face to bring her gaze back to his from where she’d
been staring at their clasped hands.

She
nodded.  “It’s her.  And she wouldn’t be.  I saw her Thursday morning when she
brought Caleb in for his session.  She’s a nurse at Mission Hospital in
Asheville and she said she was getting ready to head to Atlanta for a nurses’
conference.  She and Caleb live with her mother.  If she dropped him off after
his session and left for Atlanta as planned then Marcie wouldn’t know anything
was wrong.”  She jerked her hand out of his to cover her mouth as she choked on
a sob.  “Oh God!  They don’t even know she’s dead!”

Ben
gathered Gemma close as she fought for control.  One thing Tristan had gotten
right in his description of his sister was her compassionate nature.  The woman
felt everything for everyone.  When she finally pushed back, he kept his arms
loosely around her to provide moral support.

Gemma
wiped her eyes on her t-shirt and sniffed loudly.  She felt like she was in the
middle of a nightmare. 
Diana was dead
!  It just didn’t seem possible. 
Especially not this way.  Diana was a sweet woman who was doing her best to
help her son have every advantage he could to live in a world that to him was
overwhelming.

And
poor Caleb!  His mother and grandmother were his world.  Without Diana, Gemma
feared that Caleb would sink further inside himself to a point where Marcie
wouldn’t be able to reach him.

She
vaguely became aware of strong arms surrounding her.  Gemma looked up to find
herself eye level with Agent Davidson’s strong neck.  She followed the solid
line of his jaw up to his remarkable eyes.  Through her haze she marveled at
how clear they were.  The color was nearly solid with no flecks of brown or
gold marring their clear blue-green surface.

He
reached one hand around to brush her hair away from her face.

“Are
you alright?” he asked.

Gemma
let the smooth whiskey tones of his voice wash over her and push away some of
the grief.  It helped her pull herself together and focus.  She needed to help
Caleb and the best way she could do that right now was to help Ben and Tristan
find his mother’s killer.

She
nodded and pushed him back enough that she could stand.  “I’ll be okay.”  She
lifted a foot to step around him—she needed to move if she was going to keep
the restless energy that now filled her at bay—but she never got the chance to
set it down.  Instead, she found herself whisked off the ground by the same
strong arms that just seconds ago had been wrapped around her.

“Agent
Davidson!”  Gemma clasped her arms around his neck on instinct.  “Put me down!”

“There’s
glass all over the floor.  And it’s Ben.”  His boots crunched over the broken
glass as he carried her out of the kitchen to the living room where he
deposited her on the couch.

“Where’s
your broom?”

“Let
me grab some slippers.”  She started to rise, but he gently pushed her back
down. 

“Sit. 
I’ll get it.  Now, where’s the broom.”

Gemma
took one look at the hard cast to his face and decided not to argue.  They must
teach them that look at basic training.  She’d seen the same look on Tristan
numerous times in the last decade.  “There’s a mudroom off the back of the
kitchen.  It’s in the closet in there.”

He
pointed a finger at her.  “Don’t move.  We need to talk about your friend.”

Gemma
nodded and sank into the cushions.

When
he returned a few minutes later he had the file, a bottle of whiskey, and two
tumblers with him.  He wordlessly laid the file on the coffee table and handed
her one of the tumblers.  Gemma gratefully accepted the amber liquid he poured
into it.  She needed the fortification for this discussion and took a hearty
gulp.

Ben
took a sip of his own whiskey before settling back against the couch.  “Was
there anyone she’d mentioned lately?  Someone, new in her life or that had made
an impression—bad or good?  Or anyone from her past that had resurfaced?” he
asked, jumping right in.

Gemma
took a deep breath and thought back.  “She did mention a man she’d met.  She
said they’d made plans to go out for dinner after she got back from her
conference.” 

Ben
frowned.  “Tell me about him.  Did you ever meet him or see a picture?  Did she
tell you his name?”

“She
didn’t say much about him, but that’s not unusual for her.  She didn’t date
much because of Caleb and tended to be very private.  She did say that dinner
date was going to be their first real date.  As far as his name she only gave
me a first name—Andrew.  I never saw a picture, but I did ask her what he
looked like.  It could be any man, though, Ben.  Light brown hair, average
height, average build, white.  That’s all I know.”  God, she wished she could
help more.  Diana was so secretive, but she’d had reason to be.  Her ex-husband
had done a number on her.

BOOK: Finding Forever (Smoky Mountain Lawmen Book 1)
2.18Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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