Missing in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law Mystery/Romance Series) (21 page)

“You afraid Bart has cooties?” Colt’s voice sounded right next to her.

“Everyone has cooties,” she said. As she turned to look at him, she realized just how close to her he stood. Her pulse ticked up another notch as her gaze swept down his perfectly chiseled chest.

He dropped his hand to her bare shoulder and set her skin on fire. “We’re going to get out of this. I promise you.”

“I hope our clothes dry first. Otherwise, it’s going to be an odd rescue picture in the
Mudbug Gazette
.”

He looked her up and down and smiled. “At least one of us looks good in a toga.”

“Yeah, but I think women may argue about which one.” The words flew out of her mouth unbidden, and the mortification was right behind. Not since she was a teenager had she said anything so embarrassing.
 

And true. Which was completely beside the point.

Colt’s eyes locked on hers and his hand moved up to stroke her neck. When he leaned in, she knew he was going to kiss her.
 

Chapter Twelve

Never in her life had she wanted something more, and when his lips brushed against hers, her body exploded in a tingling frenzy. Such light contact had flooded her with emotions she’d never felt before—emotions so strong they frightened her as much as they excited her. He pulled her closer to him and deepened the kiss. Through the thin sheet, she could feel the heat coming off of him and a flush ran through her, setting her entire body on fire.
 

You have to stop!

Her mind shouted out in desperation, but her body refused to listen and pressed closer to him until his bare chest touched her thinly clad body. He groaned and wrapped his arms around her, then began kissing her neck, working his way down.

And that’s when she heard the voices outside.

“Colt! Jadyn! Are you in there?”

Colt jerked his head toward the window and released her. Cool air passed over her as he moved away and to the window.

“It’s Maryse,” Jadyn said as she hurried up to join him. “I’d know her voice anywhere.”

She peered out the window and watched as two flashlights bobbed up the path from the deck. “I can’t make out who’s with her but she doesn’t sound like she’s under duress.”

Colt nodded. “I’d like them to move in a little closer first. “

“Colt! Are you here?” a man’s voice boomed out of the darkness.

Colt let out a sigh of relief. “It’s Luc.”
 

He opened the front door and yelled out. “We’re here and it’s safe.”

Maryse broke into a run and took the steps two at a time. She barreled into the cabin and grabbed Jadyn in a hug so hard, she might have bruised a rib.
 

“Oh my God!” Maryse said as she clutched Jadyn. “We were so worried. I was afraid…”

“I know,” Jadyn said.

Maryse released Jadyn and sniffed, then finally caught sight of Jadyn’s wardrobe. She stared for a moment, then turned to gawk at Colt, apparently struck speechless. Luc, on the other hand, had no such issue.

“Fancy uniform,” Luc said, grinning at Colt. “Is that the new sheriff department issue?”

Colt laughed. “I don’t think I’d want to work in the swamp wearing this getup.”

“I don’t know,” Maryse said. “You’d probably run into more trouble on Main Street with that getup. We saw your boat sunk next to the pier. What happened?”

As Colt filled Luc and Maryse in on everything that had happened, Jadyn reassembled their firearms. Luc occasionally stopped Colt to ask a question, but Maryse stood silently, her expression growing more and more troubled as the story progressed.

“Did you get a look at the shooter?” Luc asked.

“No,” Colt said. “It was too dark.”

Luc frowned. “You two were lucky—damned lucky. If you hadn’t moved just when you did or if he was a better shot, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“I know,” Colt said. “Man, you don’t know how happy I am to see you guys. We figured we were stuck here for the night.”

“Is it safe to leave?” Jadyn asked. “He could still be out there.”

“I think he is, or was,” Luc said and told them that he’d gotten a glimpse of a boat hidden close to the bank.
 

Maryse bit her lower lip. “Do you think he’ll try again?”

Luc shook his head. “He’s not going to get the chance. I’m going to radio all the others and get them over here. One man can’t take out a caravan. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Colt grabbed his clothes from the back of the kitchen chair and headed for the bathroom. “Let me throw on my clothes and I’ll be right behind you.” Less than a minute later, he was hurrying out of the camp after Luc.

“So,” Maryse said as she watched Colt shut the door behind him, “quite a body on our sheriff.”

Since Jadyn had just been thinking the same thing, she knew better than to look Maryse in the eye. “Aren’t you married?”

“Yep, as married as last time you asked me. And still not blind.”

Jadyn sighed. “Yes, he’s got quite a body.”

“It looks really good in a sheet. How does it look without one?”

“I don’t…we didn’t. Jeez, Maryse!”

Maryse shook her head. “That’s disappointing. In the movies the hero and heroine always have sex when they’re about to die. Hell, come to think of it, the first time Luc and I had sex we almost died right after.”

“Seriously? Now that sounds like a story worth telling. Much more interesting than Colt and I wearing sheets and eating ravioli while our clothes dried.”

Maryse grinned. “As soon as things are back to normal, I’ll tell you over dinner and a beer, but you’re buying.”

“It’s a deal. I guess I better go change myself.”

“Unless you plan on riding home like that.”

Jadyn headed to the bathroom and shed the sheet. The clothes were still wet, so she skipped the undergarments. She had some difficulty getting on her damp jeans but finally managed to pull on her clothes and boots. The rest she carried back into the main room and shoved into the trash bag along with the ammo and holsters. She picked out the driest of the rounds, reloaded magazines for both her and Colt, and shoved her firearm into her waistband.

“Do you think the rounds are dry enough?” Maryse asked.

“Yeah. They should be fine.”

Maryse started to say something but before she got a word out, Luc and Colt came back in the camp.
 

“Four boats were within twenty minutes of here. The first two are only ten minutes out. We’ll head out when they arrive. The others won’t be far behind them.”

Jadyn nodded, her desire to be back safe in the hotel with Mildred fawning over her almost overwhelming her. It was a strange feeling for someone used to being on her own, but also a welcome one.
 

“Can you ask dispatch to call Mildred?” Jadyn asked Luc.

“Already did it,” he said.
 

“Thanks,” she said. “I didn’t want her to worry any longer than she had to.”

“Ha,” Maryse said. “She’ll worry about us until we’re all back in Mudbug, showered and in our beds.”

A spotlight flashed through the doorway and three blasts from a marine horn sounded.
 

“We will be shortly,” Luc said. “Get your stuff and let’s get out of here.”

Jadyn grabbed the trash bag with their supplies, their ammo and some of their undergarments, and turned to follow the others out.

“Wait!” Colt drew up short. “The sample from the couch.”

He pulled out his pocketknife and cut the remaining bloody section off the couch, then grabbed a Baggie from the kitchen and locked it inside.
 

“What’s that?” Maryse asked.

“We found blood on the arm of the couch. We wanted to test it, in case…”

Maryse nodded but Jadyn could see how troubled her cousin was at the thought of something bad happening to Raissa.

Jadyn was troubled too, but not only about Raissa.

At the pier, Luc quickly filled the other men in the search party in on the shooter. There were several exclamations and a couple of muttered threats against the perpetrator, but all seemed to understand the importance of returning in a group and the imperative to keep a close watch the entire time.

Since they had no reason to assume the shooter had targeted them personally, Jadyn and Colt both rode with Luc and Maryse third in the troop of four boats. The party pushed up the bayou as quickly as possible, all eager to get back to the safety of the town. Jadyn sat on the rear bench with Maryse, who directed a spotlight at the bank as they passed. Jadyn had no doubt her cousin was looking for Raissa, and her disappointment at the failed search increased.
 

Suddenly, Maryse jumped up from the bench and grabbed Luc’s shoulder. “Stop!”
 

Luc held up his hand to alert the boat behind him, then cut the power on the boat. “What is it?”

“I saw something on the bank. Something white.” She lifted the spotlight and cast it across the bank behind them. “See there, just inside the tree line.”

They all peered at the lump of white that was illuminated by the spotlight.

“I can’t tell what it is,” Luc said. “I’ll pull closer.”
 

He yelled out his intentions to the other search party members and asked them to stay put, then carefully directed his boat to the bank.
 

Colt jumped onto the bank, drew his weapon, and headed for the lump of white. He leaned over the lump then sprang back up. “It’s Raissa!”

Maryse clutched Jadyn’s arm. “Is she alive?”

“Yeah, but we need to get her to the hospital fast.”

Luc jumped out of the boat and went to help Colt lift Raissa. Maryse grabbed the CB and called the sheriff’s department dispatch, asking them to send a helicopter to meet them at the dock. While she called, Jadyn dug some life vests from beneath the bench and made a bed of them across the bottom of the boat.
 

A couple seconds later, Colt placed Raissa on the vests and Luc took off, slowing only to tell the men that Raissa was found and injured and to move as quickly as safety allowed. Jadyn sat beside Maryse in the bottom of the boat next to Raissa and checked her vitals. Her pulse was weak but steady, her breathing shallow. Her wrists were marked all the way around and had bled in some places. Jadyn lifted her pants legs and found the same marks around her ankles.
 

But the most distressing thing was the purple lump on the side of her head.

Clearly, she’d been conscious when she escaped, probably losing her captors in the swamp, but had the head injury caught up with her and caused her collapse? And was there permanent damage?
 

Two unconscious FBI agents, and no hard facts as to why.

She could only hope that Raissa awakened soon and had some answers.

###

Jadyn was in the midst of a dream where she and Colt were stranded in a camp, but this time, his sheet was gone and he hadn’t been stopped at a single kiss. He had just ripped off her toga when someone started knocking at the door. Seriously?

It took her several seconds to realize that the scene with Colt was a dream and that someone really was banging on her motel room door. A second later, she locked onto Mildred’s anxious voice and popped out of bed, flinging open the door.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Raissa is awake! We need to get to the hospital. And keep it quiet, if you can. I’d like to get out of here without having to deal with Helena. I’ll tell her when we get back.”

Jadyn waved Mildred inside the room while she threw on jeans, T-shirt, and tennis shoes. “Won’t Agent Ross be there?”

“He’s on his way, but Raissa has already made it clear to her doctor that she will not speak to the FBI until she speaks to her friends.”

“But I’ve never even met her.”

“Doesn’t matter. Maryse and I want you there. Raissa would too if she’d already met you, especially after what you risked searching for her. So hurry up. I’ve called a friend to cover the front desk for me.”

Jadyn pulled her hair back in a ponytail and grabbed her weapon and wallet. “What are we waiting for?”

Mildred hauled butt downstairs and grabbed her purse off the front counter, nodding to an older woman with curly gray hair. Jadyn had to pick up her step to keep up with the hotel owner and knew Mildred was anxious to see for herself that Raissa was alive and well. Once she’d been admitted to the hospital the night before, the staff refused to let anyone see her and they’d all gone home, worried but hopeful. The fact that Raissa was awake and talking was the best news Jadyn could have possibly awakened to.
 

Jadyn had planned on driving, but before she could pull her keys out of her pocket, Mildred jumped into her still-dented car and waved frantically at her. Not wanting to hold things up any longer than she already had, Jadyn hopped into the passenger’s seat.