Hidden in the Everglades

“I’m not ready for this.” His voice caught on the last word as his fingers grasped the railing.

Kyra clasped Michael’s arm, wishing she’d been able to prevent Amy from running away this morning at the Pattersons’. But if Amy had stopped, the killer would have shot her in the back. “Remember, I’m here for you. We’ll find your sister, and I’ll make sure she’s safe.”

He pried loose his grip from the railing and peered toward her. “I appreciate your help. I’ve never had something like this happen to me.”

She was all too familiar with a person agonizing over the disappearance of a loved one. “Most people thankfully don’t.”

“Flamingo Cay is a small town. Things like this don’t happen here.”

“They do now.”

Dear Reader,

This is the last book in the Guardians, Inc. series. I have enjoyed trying to put myself in the mind-set of a female hired to protect a person. Although Kyra is tough and knows how to take care of herself, she has a fear of snakes that started when she was a child and had a terrifying experience with one. Even the strongest people have weaknesses.

I love hearing from readers. You can contact me at margaretdaley@gmail.com or at P.O. Box 2074 Tulsa, OK 74101. You can learn more about my books at www.margaretdaley.com. I have a quarterly newsletter that you can sign up for on my website or you can enter my monthly drawings by signing my guest book on the website.

Best wishes,

Margaret Daley

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Jan, who helped me brainstorm this book—thank you

Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.

—1 Peter 5:7

ONE

A wave broke and rolled across the white sandy beach, the warm water bubbling around Kyra Morgan’s feet before receding back into the Gulf of Mexico. The sun peeked over the tops of the palm trees behind her, flooding the day with light. Her favorite time, at dawn when all was still right with the world. Before her day began.

The screech of a seagull pierced the tranquillity. A momentary disturbance until everything went back to a calmness that she’d needed after spending six straight years establishing Guardians, Inc. into a premier international company of female bodyguards. Drawing in a soothing breath, she relished the scent of the sea mingling with the sweet fragrance of the flowers her dad had planted right before his death a few years ago.

This was her time to rest and relax. One week in Flamingo Cay, Florida, where she’d grown up. One week of no work. No emergencies. No—

A click and muffled pop invaded her tranquillity.

Sounds she’d heard as a police officer.

She pivoted, her survival instinct kicking into play as she raced to her beach bag a few yards away. When she reached it, she plunged her hand inside and grasped the handle of her Glock while panning the house next door where the sound of a gun with a silencer going off had come from.

Another pop invaded the early-morning quiet. She started moving toward the noise. Every sense locked on finding the source of the danger.

Suddenly a young man burst out of the hibiscus hedge edging the neighbor’s property, staggering toward her, his face clenched in pain. He clutched his stomach, blood pouring out between his fingers. Stopping, he fell to his knees, a plea in his eyes as they homed in on Kyra.

“Help us.”

Us? Kyra glanced around as she covered the short distance to the young man. He collapsed to the sand, his eyes wide-open, giving her the dead man’s stare she’d seen countless times as a homicide detective. She felt for his pulse and found none.

She pulled her cell from her shorts pocket and dialed 911. “Shots have been fired at 523 Pelican Lane. One man down—dead.”

Another shot, coming from inside the house, sent a spurt of adrenaline through her veins. “Hurry.” She disconnected, stuffed her phone into her pocket and ran toward the neighbor’s back deck—the sliding glass door was partially open. The house was up for sale. She’d noticed the sign out front when she’d arrived yesterday evening. She hadn’t thought anyone was living there.

Every nerve tingled with the threat of danger, but she couldn’t get the young man’s plea out of her mind. Help us. Who else was in trouble?

As she neared the back that faced the water, she slowed, scanning the overgrown yard. The place had a vacant look to it, with no furniture on the deck. She ascended the stairs and crept toward the sliding glass door. Through it she looked inside. Totally empty.

When she stepped over the threshold into the living room, a large expanse of taupe-colored tiles, her heartbeat accelerated. She paused and listened for any noise that indicated where the killer was.

Silence.

Another pop echoed through the vacant house, coming from the hallway that led to the bedrooms. A scream cleaved the air. The sound of pounding footsteps racing down the corridor toward Kyra propelled her into action. She flattened herself against the wall, her gun up, her total concentration on the opening. Heart hammering against her rib cage, she waited.

A teenage girl burst out of the hall and darted across the room, blood on her hands and shirt, her features chiseled in fear. She glimpsed Kyra out of the corner of her eye and gasped, momentarily slowing. Their gazes connected for a few seconds. Kyra put her forefinger to her lips to indicate she keep quiet.

The intrusion of a deep gravelly voice saying, “You can’t get away from me,” leached the rest of the color from the teen’s face. Her eyes grew huge. She sped toward the exit.

Kyra focused on the entrance into the living room while the racing footsteps of the girl resonated through the air. From the hallway a shot sounded, shattering the glass in the door. She glanced toward the girl to see her disappear down the stairs and into the backyard.

Any second she expected to see the killer burst into the living room to hunt down the teen and finish her off. Kyra stiffened, every muscle primed for action.

Five heartbeats later she knew something was wrong. She inched closer to the edge of the wall to peer into the corridor. The thundering in her head pulsated through her mind, sending out an alarm. One, two deep breaths and she swiveled out into the entrance, her Glock pointing toward the bedrooms. Emptiness taunted her.

Followed by a sliver of fear.

Had the killer sensed she was there waiting for him to appear? Did the girl’s gasp alert him? Maybe. Was he now lying in wait for her somewhere down this hall? Or did he flee out another way and was doubling around the house to go after the girl?

Each possibility only reinforced the peril. Kyra eased down the hall, approaching each room with caution. After a visual check from the doorway, she continued her search until she reached the last bedroom, its entrance wide-open. The silence lured her forward, at the same time cautioning her against the action.

The memory of the fright on the teen’s face propelled her toward the room. The girl was no match for a killer. Swinging into the bedroom, every sense homed outward, she scanned the area. A young man lay face up, his eyes closed, his chest barely rising and falling. Blood pooled on the tile floor by him, in front of an open sliding glass door, as a soft breeze blew the curtains.

Had the killer already escaped? Or was he in the bathroom or closet? She slunk along the wall to the first door and threw it wide. After inspecting the empty closet, she quickly moved on. At the bathroom, the door was ajar, and she nudged it farther open. As soon as she assessed no threat, she hurried to the man on the floor to see if there was anything she could do.

Tattoos covering both arms and an elaborate black dagger inked on his neck, the victim, probably between eighteen and twenty-two, wore blue jeans, the bottoms encrusted with wet mud, and a snow-white T-shirt, now saturated with blood from multiple shots to his gut. In her line of work she’d seen lethal wounds. This was one of them.

She placed another call to 911 to let them know a person was critically injured in the bedroom of the vacant house and the shooter had fled the scene possibly pursuing a potential witness. As she hung up, a flash caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. Leaping to her feet, she saw a man dressed in camouflage plunge into the thick underbrush on the right side of the house—into the thicket that led to the swamp nearby.

Was he going after the girl to finish her off?

Kyra couldn’t let that happen. She’d done all she could for the young man, but maybe she could protect the teenage girl from getting killed, too.

She rushed out onto the small deck at the side of the house and scoured the area for any sign of an accomplice or the witness, then followed the assailant into the tangle of vegetation.

Dr. Michael Hunt scrubbed his hands down his face, trying to keep awake after pulling an all-nighter with a patient, a mother who finally delivered her baby boy at 5:13 a.m. this morning. Pouring his third mug of coffee, he wandered toward his bedroom to change, so he could turn around and go back to the clinic for today’s appointments. At least his partner would be back from vacation to help take some of the load off.

The blare of a siren halted Michael’s progress. He glanced toward the front of his house. The sound grew closer. Curiosity led him toward the entryway. He opened his door as two police cars passed his home on Pelican Lane and came to a stop five houses down from his place.

The old Patterson house? Was someone hurt? No one lived there. Hadn’t for the past six months, according to his kid sister, Amy.

He heard the click of the back door and swiveled around, catching a glimpse of his youngest sister hurrying down the hallway. What was Amy doing up so early? She wasn’t a morning person. He started forward to find out where she’d been when the shrill ring of his phone sliced through the silence.

Not far from the table in the entryway where it sat, he snatched up the receiver. “Hello.”

“Dr. Hunt, this is Officer Wilson with Flamingo Cay Police. A man is injured at the Pattersons’ place. He was shot. An ambulance won’t get here for at least fifteen more minutes from Clear Springs. Since you only live—”

“I’ll be there.” Michael grabbed his black bag from a chair nearby and headed out the front door.

The urgency in the officer’s voice prodded him to quicken his pace. As he neared the vacant house, Levi Wilson came around from the side, a frown on his face.

He waved Michael toward him. “There’s a dead man on the beach, but there’s one in the bedroom alive. Barely.”

“Shot where?”

“In the gut.”

Michael rushed up the steps to the small deck on the side of the house. Just inside the sliding glass door lay a young man, faceup. He’d seen his fair share of fatal gunshot wounds. This one looked bad.

Michael knelt on the tile floor next to the injured young man who moaned, fixing his eyes on Michael. The young man’s eyes fluttered right before his head lolled to the side and the breath went out of him.

In seconds, Kyra plunged into the wooded area and found herself ankle-deep in muddy water, a tangle of green vegetation hemming her in. Up ahead, she spotted movement and pressed ahead, branches clawing at her. Sweat coated her face. The realization that she didn’t know which way the young girl had gone hastened her pace, even though the soggy ground weighed each step down. She couldn’t let the killer add another victim to his list.

As she progressed, she spied the trampled bushes and vines where the assailant had run through. Then suddenly she came out onto a path with boot prints, about size eleven, which headed toward the canal. If she could remember correctly, the old pier people in the neighborhood used was in that direction—at least it had when she’d been growing up in Flamingo Cay.

Quickening her pace, she kept combing the area for any sign the killer had deviated from the trail. In the background she heard sirens coming closer but decided to keep going after the assailant. Deep into the green jungle of plants, her old fear began to encroach in her mind, robbing her of her full concentration. She nearly tripped over a half-buried log, managing at the last second to steady herself.

A muzzled pop sounded, followed immediately by a bullet whistling by her ear. She ducked behind a cypress not far from the path. With the loud beating of her heart vying with the drone of the insects, she peeked around the tree. Another pop echoed through the swamp. Splinters of bark flew off the cypress. She waited a minute, inching toward the other side of the large tree. Aiming high in case the girl was nearby, Kyra squeezed off several shots.

The noise of a motor revving came from the canal. Kyra peered in that direction. Through the foliage she saw a motorboat pull away. She hurried toward the old pier about twenty yards away. By the time she got to the bank of the water, the craft had disappeared around a bend going south.

Breathing hard, she bent over and tried to fill her lungs with oxygen. From behind her sloshing footsteps announced she had company. She straightened, bringing her gun up, and whirled to face any new threat.

TWO

Kyra lowered her Glock when she saw Gabe Stanford, the Flamingo Cay police chief, and another officer hurrying down the path toward her. For the first time since she’d heard the muffled noise of the first gunshot she relaxed her tense muscles, rolling her head to work the aches out of her neck and shoulders.

Gabe stopped in front of her, a little out of breath. “This isn’t the way I envisioned us meeting when your aunt told me you were finally coming home for a visit.”

Smiling at the man who had been her inspiration to become a law-enforcement officer, she went to him and gave him a hug. “Me neither. I came back for my first vacation in six years and got caught up in a murder.”

Gabe frowned, peered back at the officer and said, “I’ve got this, Connors. You can go back and help Wilson.”

The large thirtysomething man nodded and retraced his steps toward Pelican Lane.

“What happened here? I was checking the yard by the swamp and heard gunshots.” Gabe glanced down at the Glock.

“I returned the killer’s fire. He ran out of the Pattersons’, and I went after him. He shot twice at me then got into a motorboat and went that way.” Kyra pointed to the south.

“Did you get a good look at him?” He holstered his gun.

“No. He was too far away and his head was turned from me. He was wearing camouflage pants and shirt, boots and a ball cap, pulled down low on his forehead. He was about six feet, slender build. That’s all I got. Sorry.” As a police officer for twelve years before founding Guardians, Inc., she knew the importance of a detailed and correct description of an assailant.

“It’s better than a lot I’ve gotten. Did you see the man kill either victim back at the Pattersons’?”

She shook her head. “I did see him shoot at a girl who fled the scene. I don’t think he hit her. I thought he might be going after her so I took off after him.”

“What’s the girl look like?”

“Sixteen, maybe seventeen. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Black hair.”

“Do you think the killer had her in the boat?”

Kyra shook her head. “Not from what I saw. Is the guy in the bedroom still alive?”

“No, he didn’t have a chance.”

“I didn’t think he would even with immediate medical help. I’ve seen nasty gunshot wounds like he had, and they usually don’t end well.” Remembering the young man on the tile floor by the sliding glass door only reinforced why she left the police force. Six years ago she’d seen too much death and had needed to do something different. She’d still wanted to help make this world a safer place, but she couldn’t continue investigating one murder after another. The Lord had something else in mind for her. Guardians, Inc. gave her the sense she was helping others without being personally involved in so much death.

Gabe began walking back toward the crime scene. “That’s what I thought, but we called the local doctor who lives down the street to help. The victim died before Dr. Hunt could do anything.”

“Michael Hunt, Ginny’s little brother?”

“Yep, he’s all grown up and has returned to Flamingo Cay to run the medical clinic. We’ve needed another doctor in town for quite some time.”

The Michael Hunt she remembered used to follow her and Ginny, her best friend in high school, around generally making life difficult for them. She’d known from Ginny her little brother had gone on to be a doctor, but she hadn’t seen him in years. The last time she’d heard about him, he’d been practicing in Chicago, so she hadn’t thought she would see him in Flamingo Cay.

“Michael came back about four months ago.”

As they neared the edge of the swamp, Kyra’s tension returned, gripping her neck and fanning out along her shoulders. “I thought you were retiring.”

“This is my last year.”

She tilted her head. “Promise? When I was home for Dad’s funeral, didn’t you say that to me? I thought you meant it that time.”

“Two years ago there wasn’t anyone I felt could take over for me, but Wilson is a good man. He should do fine when I retire.”

Kyra emerged from the heavy foliage that marked the beginning of the swamp that made up the Everglades. Flamingo Cay, not too far from Naples, was between the Glades and the Gulf of Mexico with its many islands off Florida’s western coast.

She caught sight of a large man over six feet tall carrying a black bag, standing on the side deck off the bedroom talking to an officer. At that moment Michael glanced over his shoulder at her. For a few seconds their gazes linked across the yard. Then recognition dawned on his face, and he smiled at her, two dimples appearing and bringing back more memories of her childhood. Even as a kid he’d had a great smile—one that drew people to him.

“Tell me what happened here.” Gabe paused in the side yard, returning her attention to the problem at hand.

Kyra reluctantly wrenched her look from Michael Hunt. “I was out on the beach after my aunt left to go walk with a friend at the track. I’d taken my towel and beach bag out there to just enjoy the sunrise and read and relax. Before I had a chance, I heard muffled gunshots. A young man stumbled out onto the beach from the Pattersons’ backyard, collapsed and mumbled something about helping them, then died. I knew someone else was in trouble. I had my gun, so I called 911 and went to see if I could help.”

“You might not be a detective anymore, but it’s hard to get it out of your system.”

“Instinct. I was a cop for a lot of years.”

“Can you tell me anything else about the girl besides age and hair color?”

“She’s pale, not much of a tan, with heavily made-up eyes in black. The color of them, though, was blue. When she glanced up at me, she looked so scared. But she kept going, which saved her life. The killer got off a shot, but she disappeared down the deck steps. I didn’t see which way she went because I was focused on the assailant in the hallway. He never came into the room. He might have sensed me there. Maybe he saw a reflection in the sliding glass door. I don’t know. I checked the rooms down the hallway, and that’s when I found the other victim. Then I saw the killer running toward the swamp. I felt I had to go after him in case he was pursuing the girl.”

Gabe rubbed his chin. “Hmm. The teenage girl could be Amy, Michael’s younger sister.”

“The one Ginny was raising until she went to the Philippines as a missionary?” Her childhood friend’s little sister? If anything had happened to the girl, she would have been at a loss how to tell Ginny.

“Yup. Amy said she would run away before she’d go to the Philippines. She wanted to finish high school this coming year in Flamingo Cay. Michael agreed to come home and take care of her.”

Kyra slanted her glance toward Michael striding toward them. His medium-length black hair lay at odd angles as though he’d run his hand through it multiple times. Even from a distance his blue eyes, so much like the teenage girl’s when Kyra thought about it, lured her in. Compelling. Captivating. Even better than his smile. She dragged her attention away from his gaze, fastening it onto the cleft in his chin, then his full lips, which were tugged in a look of concern.

Gabe greeted Michael with a handshake. “Thanks for coming.”

“I was too late. I don’t think there was anything I could have done, though.” Michael’s look shifted to her. “Kyra Morgan?”

She nodded. “It’s been a long time.”

“Sixteen years. I think the last time I saw you was the summer right before I went to college. It’s good to see you.” He held out his hand to her.

She fit hers in his clasp, and his large fingers surrounded hers. The connection, warm, full of strength, further surprised her. “How’s Ginny doing? I haven’t heard from her since she went to the Philippines.”

“Getting settled in.” A smile leaked through the tired lines about his eyes and mouth, and he wiped moisture off his brow. “I forgot how bad the humidity could get here, especially in the summer. It takes some getting used to.”

“I know. I had planned on spending a lot of time in the water to counter that.”

Gabe cleared his throat. “I hate to break up this little reunion, but Michael, where is Amy?”

“At home. Why?”

Gabe fully faced Michael. “She may have been involved with what went down here.”

Michael’s tanned features paled. “No, that’s not possible. Amy wouldn’t hurt anyone. She won’t even eat meat because animals are being killed to provide it.”

“I saw a teenage girl fleeing from the house. She had blood on her hands and shirt.”

Michael shook his head. “Not Amy.”

Gabe pointed toward the house. “The person dead on the beach is Preston Stevens. Hasn’t Amy been seeing him?”

“Not lately. She promised me.” Panic seized Michael’s cobalt-blue eyes.

“I want Kyra to meet her. If it’s not the same girl she saw in the bedroom, then that’s the end of it. If Amy was there, I need to talk to her. She’s the only one left to tell us what happened before Kyra came on the scene,” Gabe said using his usual laid-back approach, all the while assessing his surroundings and the situation.

She wanted to reassure Michael about his sister, to wipe that apprehensive expression from his face. “I don’t think she had anything to do with either killing. The girl I saw was scared. The assailant I chased into the swamp shot at her but didn’t hit her.”

Michael gritted his jaws together so tightly a nerve jerked in his cheek. “Fine. I’m sure this is all a mistake.” A vulnerability beneath his words infused his voice with doubt.

“You said she’s at home. There’s no time like the present to get this straightened out.” Gabe started around to the back of the house and the beach, skirting Connors, who was with Preston’s body, putting up crime-scene tape while another officer was talking to some of the neighbors outside.