Forever Driven: Forever Bluegrass #4 (16 page)

R
iley hummed
as she showered the next morning. It was Saturday, and she was determined to take a full day off. She could worry about what the Senate was doing with the budget, but there was nothing she could do even if she went to Frankfort. The senators were locked in session hashing out the final details for the vote on Monday. They would be unreachable. Instead, she was going to take her first day off in months. Well, unless you counted her hospital stay as time off.

Matt had left a set of towels hanging for her next to the toiletries her cousin Sydney had brought over. Riley turned off the shower and toweled off. She was wrapping her towel around her head like a turban when Matt came in holding her ringing phone.

“It’s Angela Cobb. I figured you’d want to take it,” Matt told her as he looked over her nude body. “On second thought, you can always call her back.”

Riley rolled her eyes. Together they were insatiable. Sex had been something she did with her previous boyfriends, but now she craved it with Matt. He could ignite her body with one touch. She took the phone and smacked his hand away as Matt cupped her bare breast and ran his thumb over her now taut nipple.

“Hi, Angela. What’s going on?” Riley asked, shooing Matt from the bathroom and locking the door. If he were in the room with her, she wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything Angela was saying.

“The Senate is locked away, but I’ve heard from sources they have already included funding for the highway. I’m sorry. It looks like it may come down to the final vote on this one. Who are your staunchest allies? I can contact them to see if you have the support to make an amendment on the floor if it comes down to the final budget vote.”

Riley rattled off her supporters and paced the small bathroom, brainstorming strategy with Angela until her hair was practically dry. “Let’s meet tomorrow. I’ll see what I can find out. How about brunch?” Angela asked.

“Sounds good. I’m moving back to my house tonight since the floors have been fixed, and the house is now completely snakeproof,” Riley joked.

“Oh, I didn’t know you weren’t at home.”

“I kind of shot my floor up. My dad got everything fixed, though. He didn’t want me or my sister susceptible to snakes ever again.”

“I forgot you live with your sister,” Angela said absently as if trying to remember their past conversations.

“I do. But she’s out of town this week for work. Hey, I know it’s not the fancy places we normally go for brunch, but why don’t you come here to eat. We can go to the Blossom Café. It’s good home-cooked Southern food. Your hips may not like it, but your stomach will thank you,” Riley laughed.

“Sounds good. I’ll see you tomorrow at ten-thirty.”

Riley hung up with Angela and sniffed the air. Breakfast. She hurried to get dressed and brushed out her hair before following the smells of coffee and pancakes. Matt stood in a pair of jeans and an old trooper 10K run shirt as he flipped the pancakes.

“I thought you’d be hungry after last night,” Matt winked.

“Famished. And I’m more excited to have you all to myself today. Spring is in full force. Why don’t we go for a horseback ride?”

“Sounds great,” Matt began but was interrupted by a knock on the front door. By the curious expression on his face, Riley assumed people just dropping by didn’t happen often.

Matt went to open the door, and Riley’s cousin Layne rushed in. “I’m going to kill him.”

“I probably shouldn’t hear this,” Matt said sarcastically as he moved to make more pancakes.

Riley just shook her head. Welcome to the Davies family. Aunts, uncles, cousins —they were always around. “What did your dad do now?”

“I found bugs in my office. My
office
!”

“How did you find them?” Riley asked. The Davies cousins were used to finding bugs on their things. Their fathers were just a smidge overprotective. But they had never looked in their work places before. They were usually just GPS devices on their cars, phones, etc. Sure they got mad, but deep down they knew it was because their fathers loved them so much. Plus they were all Daddy’s girls so they couldn’t stay mad long.

“Sophie paid me a surprise visit this morning after I finished with my volunteer patients.” Sophie was Cade and Annie’s daughter and one of the Davies cousins. She was in biometrics and had to travel a lot. She’d been especially absent since Nash Dagher had left. Nash was the security specialist everyone thought would be taking over security for the Ali Rahman family in Keeneston. He had been called back to Rahmi on a special mission for the king almost two years ago. No one knew what, if anything, had happened between him and Sophie. It was assumed there had been something that no one knew about.

“Sophie’s back in town?” Riley asked surprised.

“Yeah. She needed me to make an adjustment on her shoulder. It had gotten dislocated. Before she had even said hi to me, Soph had pulled out some new device and in under ten seconds found all the bugs.”

“Are you sure they’re your dad’s?”

“His initials were on them,” Layne replied dryly.

“Ah, of course. So we wouldn’t freak out when we find them. Did Sophie say what happened to her shoulder or how long she’ll be in town?”

“Nope. I asked, but she wouldn’t say. Her shoulder was bruised, but she just shrugged.”

Riley cut into her pancakes as Matt passed Layne a plate of his. “She hasn’t been around much since Nash left town. I wonder how he is. No one has heard from him in so long.”

Nash had been gone for almost two years and everyone still missed him. He had come to Keeneston as an eager twenty-one-year-old. He was just three years older than Riley, and he had become instant friends with the Davies crew. He had been skinny and weak but full of enthusiasm as Ahmed and Nabi and the Blossom Café put weight and muscle on him. Over the nine years he was in Keeneston, he had turned into an elite soldier. Who wouldn’t with Ahmed and Nabi training him in combat and counterterrorism? He was like a brother to Zain and Gabe, and then he was just gone. He left without saying goodbye. Vanished in the night on a secret mission. Zain had heard from him a year ago, and he’d asked him to tell Sophie he was sorry. Sorry for what, no one but Sophie knew, and she wasn’t talking. It didn’t matter that he was from Rahmi, the small island country in the Middle East that Zain and his family reigned over. Keeneston and all its citizens claimed him as one of their own, and Keeneston didn’t let go of or forget their own.

“He’s fine. I talked to him when you were in the shower,” Matt said with a shrug as he dug into his own late breakfast.

“You what?”

Riley turned to the door to find her cousin Sophie in all her glory standing there shocked. Her strawberry-blond hair fell loose over her shoulders and the inherited Davies hazel eyes flashed in anger.

Matt froze with a forkful of pancakes halfway to his mouth. “Hey, Sophie. It’s good to have you back in town,” he said finally. “Pancakes?”

“Sophie!” Riley called as she hurried to hug her cousin and one of her best friends.

Sophie hugged her back but then zeroed in on Matt as he tried to pay attention to the pancakes he was frying up. “Excuse me. Did you say you talked to Nash? Nash Dagher? The man who left in the middle of the night two years ago without even saying goodbye?”

“Um, yeah. We talk every six months or so,” Matt said as he cleared his throat and kept his eyes on the pancakes.

“Really?” Riley asked, hurt that Matt hadn’t told her. They all loved Nash and everyone wanted to know how he was. “Where is he? Is he okay? Why doesn’t he call anyone else?”

“Um. I mean . . . I’ve only talked to him three or four times in two years. He just wants to be filled in on what’s going on around here. He wanted me to keep an eye out on y’all.”

“Where is he?” Sophie asked through clenched teeth.

“I don’t know. He calls on a blocked number. All he says about himself is he misses Keeneston. Personally, I think he’s undercover. I know something about that, and I know you must keep what you’re doing secret.”

“But why
you
?” Sophie asked, sounding more hurt than Riley had ever heard her.

“We were good friends. And he knew I’d keep an eye on you all. When he calls, he wants to know what everyone is up to and that you are safe. We talk no more than two or three minutes. I guess he knows I’ll get right to the point. If I’m right, and he’s undercover, then he can only get away for a few minutes every once in a while. He doesn’t have time to shoot the shit. And Sophie, you’re always the first person he asks about,” Matt said softly before handing her a dish full of pancakes.

“Yeah, well, screw him,” Sophie said with no force behind her words. “Now, what’s all this stuff about you accidentally coming across a den of vipers?”

“I don’t think it was an accident. I don’t have any proof, just a gut feeling.”

“Well, Mom always says to listen to your gut feelings,” Sophie said before taking another bite of pancakes. “Hmm. You found a guy who doesn’t run in fear of your family
and
who can cook breakfast. Matt, you’re a keeper.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Riley said as Matt gave her a smile and reached across the island to hold her hand. He was a keeper. And Riley hoped she would be able to keep him beside her forever.

M
att was sore
. It had been six months since he had gone riding. They spent the late morning with her cousins and then went out on the trail. They packed a picnic basket and ate a late lunch on the top of a high hill overlooking the farm. That night, they made love and then fell fast asleep back at Riley’s. It was now the middle of the night, and Matt’s sore butt and pounding headache woke him.

Matt tried to blink his eyes open, but he was hit with a wave of nausea that made his head spin. He was so tired. It had been six long months, and all he wanted to do was sleep. He pressed his fingers to his temples in an effort to relieve his headache. Even though his mind was a fuzzy haze, something was urging him out of bed.

With herculean effort, Matt got out of bed but grabbed the wall for support or he would have fallen over. What was causing a trigger in his mind for him to move? He took a deep breath and felt lightheaded. He willed his ears to open and thought he might have heard something, but he couldn’t figure out if he had or not.

“Riley, do you hear something?” Matt asked, collapsing back on the bed as his stomach rolled in protest of standing. “Riley?”

Matt reached out and gave her shoulder a shake. Nothing. “Riley?” he asked louder as he shook her harder. Panic filled him as Riley refused to respond. She wasn’t moving and her breathing was shallow. Everything was in a haze. Matt shook his head. He was dreaming—surely he was dreaming. He pinched himself but it didn’t wake him up.

“Riley!” he yelled as loud as he could. She made the slightest moan but that was enough for Matt to realize this wasn’t a dream. Something was horribly wrong with her. Her face was pale, her breathing was erratic, and her head didn’t move on her pillow.

Matt stood up and wavered. He opened the bedroom door intending to get a cool washcloth for her head when he heard that sound again. It had been in the background of his mind since he woke up but when he opened the door, he heard it clearly. It was a hissing noise.

Not more snakes! Matt stumbled to get his gun before following the sound through the house and into the kitchen. His headache worsened, and he didn’t know if he had the energy to find the damn snakes. Instead he collapsed into a kitchen chair.

A couple of minutes in the brisk air would help him wake up. Matt hefted himself out of the chair and went to open the back door. The kitchen door had a large rectangular window in the top half of it. He wouldn’t have paid attention to what was outside if it hadn’t been for the spark.

Off. On. Off. On. In the distance a tiny orange light appeared and then disappeared. Matt forced his eyes to focus. On. Off. On. Off. It wasn’t a light. It was someone dressed in black flicking a lighter on and off. Why would they . . . “Gas!”

Matt shoved aside the oven and discovered the cut gas line. The house was filling with natural gas and someone was just waiting to set it ablaze. Matt looked out the window and saw the light flicking on and off as the person moved closer to the house.

Adrenaline shot through his body as Matt raced back to the bedroom. He was unsteady on his feet and slammed his shoulders into the walls as he went, but he made it to Riley’s side fast enough and still standing. Turning and looking around the room, he spotted the quickest escape: the window. Matt was about to walk over to open it when he heard the sound of one of the kitchen door’s glass panes breaking. The man must have discovered that Matt had thrown the deadbolt. Matt and Riley were out of time.

Matt yanked the comforter off the bed and wrapped it around his shoulders before he scooped Riley into his arms. He pulled the comforter tight around them and jumped backward into the window. His shoulder hit the window first, followed by his back. The glass might have held strong but with Riley’s added weight to his momentum, it gave way, and he was propelled backward out the window as glass shards rained around them.

Matt held Riley tightly in the comforter as they landed on the pebbled, glass-covered grass wet with early morning dew. He hit hard on his back and lost his breath when Riley’s weight landed a split second after he did. He didn’t have time to give into the panic of suddenly not breathing. He didn’t have time to take a deep breath and fight to get air back into his lungs. Instead, as he gasped to draw in any breath, he rolled over and jumped up with Riley murmuring in his arms and ran. He had only made it a few steps when he heard a
whoosh
and knew time was up.

With the comforter pulled tight around them, Matt clung to Riley as the force of the explosion catapulted them forward. It seemed an eternity as they flew through the air. They slammed into the ground, and Matt moved to shield Riley’s body with his as flaming debris fell from the sky, landing on and around them.

Matt gulped in fresh air as the haze cleared from his head with every breath of untainted air. Smoke billowed into the sky. The house was completely ablaze, like the sun tearing into the darkness of the night. Matt lifted his head and looked at the carnage of what had been a house. To the side of the house, lit by the flames, he saw a shadow dart into the woods.

Rage filled Matt as he ran barefoot to his car. Using his elbow, he broke the glass and yanked the rifle from where he left it a couple days ago for a target practice that never happened. Also in the back seat was his workout bag. He pulled out a pair of athletic shorts and stepped into them while cursing that his shoes had gone up in the fire. With his shorts on, the rifle slung over his back, he only waited long enough to see headlights coming from the direction of Cy and Gemma’s before taking off after the shadow.

R
iley moaned
and pulled the covers over her head. Her head was killing her and she was both hot and cold at the same time. She just wanted to go to sleep, but there was so much noise. The sound of something heavy crashing to the ground had her groaning in frustration as she shoved the comforter from over her head.

What the hell? She wasn’t in her bed, but on the wet ground twenty yards from the house, which was currently on fire. The loud noise she had heard was the roof collapsing.

“Matt!” she screamed as she looked frantically around. She saw him running into the woods at the same time she saw headlights from all the residents on the farm heading her way.

The more she breathed, even with the smoke in the air, the better Riley began to feel. What was going on? Why didn’t she remember anything? And why was Matt running full speed with a rifle into the woods?

“Riley!” her mother screamed out the truck window as her father slammed on his brakes. “Oh my God, honey. Are you hurt? What happened? Where’s Matt?”

Riley looked as some of the workers who lived on the farm immediately began trying to slow the fire, but it was hopeless. The house had blown to smithereens. And Matt was alive and hunting someone or something. It all clicked as Riley scrambled to her feet.

“He left you?” her father yelled over the roaring fire.

Riley shook her head. He would never have left her for nothing. “He’s going after someone. Quick, Mom, give me your robe,” Riley ordered as her mother rushed forward to wrap her in her knee-length, dark red silk robe. Riley was thankful neither her mother nor her father commented that she was naked under her comforter. Her mother moved to pull her into a hug, but Riley placed a quick kiss on her cheek instead before darting around her to retrieve the handgun her father kept strapped under the driver’s seat.

“What do you think you’re doing?” her father asked as he tried to stop her from taking off.

“Matt went into the woods alone to chase the person or people responsible. I can’t leave him without backup, and I know these woods better than anyone,” Riley called back to her parents. She was already running toward the woods as the sound of police sirens melded with the sound of her house breaking apart under the heat of the flames.

Riley saw the layout of the farm as if it were a topographical map in her head. Matt entered the woods on a small path that led to a stream and then followed around the hills to a pasture on the other side. The hills weren’t mountains by any means, but they also weren’t little knolls kids rolled down for fun. Limestone jutted up from the earth to form these mini-mountains. Water trickled down the rock face and into the stream, which then led to the Kentucky River a few miles away.

On the far side of the pasture, three miles away, was a road. Was it possible the arsonist Matt was chasing parked there and hoofed it in? Emergency vehicles from Lexington and Lipston—Keeneston didn’t have its own fire department—wouldn’t pass that road. He or she could make a clean getaway.

Riley ran full speed into the woods with the Glock in her right hand. She splashed through the creek and up the other side, ignoring the pain as twigs and thorn bushes tore at her skin and feet. The path Matt had most likely taken followed the stream around the base of the hill; however, if she wanted to make up time, she had to go up and over.

Riley came to a stop and put her hands on her hips as she looked up at the thirty-foot limestone rock face. She dragged in some deep breaths, finding the path she wanted to take. She had been climbing it since she was a kid, but that didn’t mean it was easy, especially since she was still weak from whatever it was that had knocked her out. Taking a deep breath, Riley tied the gun to her robe with the belt and double-knotted it so it wouldn’t fall off.

Then, one hand after another, she started to climb. The rock hurt her feet, but the old muscle memory was still there. She automatically reached for the strongholds she knew by heart as she scaled up the cold, damp rocks.

M
att’s lungs
burned as he followed the path next to the small stream. He just hoped Cy would call this in so he would get some backup from the Keeneston Sheriff’s Department. He knew they would be busy with the fire temporarily since they moonlighted as volunteer firefighters when needed. Maybe after this, the town would vote to approve funds to have a small fire department. For now, they depended on Lipston and Lexington.

He knew the man had a three-minute head start, but Matt was pushing hard. His feet were numb from pounding the terrain, and his lungs burned from pushing himself so hard. If he collapsed, he wouldn’t be able to protect Riley. That drove him forward as he sprinted through the darkness, lit only by occasional glimmers of moonlight through the leaves of the trees. He wouldn’t stop. They’d have to kill him first.

R
iley’s arms
shook with exertion as she pulled herself onto the grassy top of the hill. Her hands were scraped; her feet probably were, too. Her fingers were cramped in a clawlike grip. She had to forcefully stretch them out just so she could grab her gun.

She untied the belt to her robe and took hold of the Glock, then forced her legs to start running again. It wouldn’t be far, less than half a mile, to the other side of the hilltop. She would then have a view of the pasture below. They kept cows there—around one hundred if she remembered correctly.

Her body was letting her down. She realized she wasn’t moving as fast as she stumbled over a fallen tree limb. The sounds of mooing reached her ears. It wasn’t the normal sound they made as they ate, but the agitated sound she remembered from branding. She wasn’t too late! Knowing she still had a chance at catching the person responsible for trying to kill her and the man she loved spurred her on. She pumped her arms, hurtled over downed trees and limbs and pushed herself until she broke from the woods. She slid to a stop and looked over the pasture. The land was higher on this side, the hill less steep and grassier. There were some trees but not the thick woods or the rock from the other side.

She could see better without the trees blocking the moonlight. She made out shadowed forms of cows, shifting anxiously around. Riley looked to her left. Miles of wire fencing kept the cows contained in the large pasture, unable to roam into the woods. Near the path from the woods was a metal gate, which was now open. Damn, she had missed them!

Her eyes were drawn from the open gate by the mooing of an angry cow. It was hard to figure out which one it was, but there were five that seemed highly agitated. They were shifting restlessly, and their moos held a bit of panic to them. Riley squinted into the herd. Either there was a calf in the middle, or someone was trying to hide in the herd.

The sound of sirens had grown distant as Riley ran. She could still faintly hear them, but she was now far enough away that she could also hear nature. Birds suddenly flew from the trees near the gate to the darkness of the woods. Riley saw Matt’s bare chest come into view. The shadow by the cows rose, and Riley didn’t think as she took off at a dead sprint down the hill. She kept her knees bent as she ran with her feet turned sideways and leading with her right leg to prevent falling. When the shadow raised a gun, Riley slid to a stop. She lifted her pistol and fired without hesitation.