The only man she can trust to save her…

is her son’s secret father!

Searching for her missing aunt in remote Alaska, Cassie Hawkins and her little boy are thrust into a killer’s sights. Now their only safe harbor is Jake Stone, the man she loved and left…but never told about their son. With the mountain trails hiding deadly mysteries, can Jake guard the woman he’s always loved—and the child he didn’t know he had?

SARAH VARLAND lives in Alaska with her husband, John, their two boys and their dogs. Her passion for books comes from her mom; her love for suspense comes from her dad, who has spent a career in law enforcement. When she’s not writing, she’s often found dog mushing, hiking, reading, kayaking, drinking coffee or enjoying other Alaskan adventures with her family.

Also By Sarah Varland

Treasure Point Secrets

Tundra Threat

Cold Case Witness

Silent Night Shadows

Perilous Homecoming

Mountain Refuge

Alaskan Hideout

Alaskan Ambush

Alaskan Christmas Cold Case

Alaskan Mountain Murder

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

Alaskan Mountain Murder

Sarah Varland

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-0-008-90713-6

ALASKAN MOUNTAIN MURDER

© 2020 Sarah Varland

Published in Great Britain 2020

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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The gunshot scattered dust at her feet.

“Get down!” She tackled her son. Their son.

“Was that a gun, Mommy?”

That was a question she never thought she’d have to answer. Her heart beat a terrified rhythm and then there was a weight on top of her. Jake. He’d dived on her to shelter them.

Cassie needed time to figure out what that meant, but the gunshots continued.

“What do we do?” she asked Jake. Why had she assumed they’d be safe from the killers here? Maybe because coming after them didn’t make sense. Unless they’d come close to finding something. But what?

Finally, the shots stopped and stillness returned to the woods.

The boy started to cry and Jake calmed him. Then he turned to her. “We need to move.”

At Jake’s word, they started hiking, faster, and Cassie kept vigil, looking for a threat she knew was out there somewhere.

Someone had shot at them today and could still be watching even now.

And she was their prime target.

Dear Reader,

Thank you for coming along to Raven Pass and the first book in this series. This series was created while I was spending some time in the little town of Girdwood, Alaska, and got to thinking about what it would be like to set a book in that town, set in a forest among the mountains. Alaskan Mountain Murder is a result of that and I’m so excited it’s out now and in your hands!

In this book, Cassie and Jake struggle with their past choices and how those have impacted the future. They wrestle with how to trust each other again, and Cassie in particular wrestles with her faith in God.

Have you ever felt like it was too late for God to use your past? Or like because you’d made some poor choices God couldn’t redeem your past? God is in the business of making beautiful things from situations in which we aren’t sure how to find Him. I hope this book reminds you of that.

I love to hear from my readers! You can find me online at Facebook.com/sarahvarlandauthor, or send me an email at sarahvarland@gmail.com. Thank you so much for reading this book and for supporting authors in general. We couldn’t do what we do without you.

Sarah Varland

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

—1 John 1:9

To my family. Thank you for everything.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Introduction

Dear Reader

Bible Verse

Dedication

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

About the Publisher

ONE

The sight of the front door hanging open, crooked on its hinges, was the first time Cassie Hawkins let herself consider that something might be really wrong. As she sat in the relative safety of her rental car staring at her aunt’s home, she wondered if she should go in this late at night. She’d gotten the phone call as her aunt’s next of kin—more like a daughter than a niece after all the years Cassie had lived with her—that she was missing. But it was Alaska, people went missing often in innocent ways that still had them coming home eventually. Hikers got lost. Plans changed and independent Alaskans forgot to tell their friends.

Cassie couldn’t say that she’d heard of many disappearances beginning with open house doors that ended well. She swallowed hard and started to step out of the car. She had one foot on the Alaskan ground she’d sworn years ago never to return to when she hesitated, climbed back into the vehicle. Was it safe to go inside?

Her gaze went to the seat behind her, where six-year-old Will was dozing soundly, his cheek pressed against the headrest of his high-back booster. He’d fallen asleep just after they’d left the airport in Anchorage, before they’d headed south on the Seward Highway. She’d driven the familiar curving road in silence, appreciating the sweeping views of Turnagain Arm and the mountains that guarded it, even as her chest tightened at the idea of being this close to Raven Pass. To home.

To Jake Stone.

She exhaled a long breath, all the weariness of the last few days tangled up in it. She couldn’t leave Will in the car, not when no one seemed to have a good answer for how her aunt had disappeared. If there was foul play involved—and the state of the door on the house made her uncomfortable—she couldn’t risk her son. He was all she had.

That and an overwhelming sense of guilt that her former fiancé had no idea he existed.

Her stomach turned and she swallowed hard. She should go to Jake’s house first, before she did anything else, before she let Will out of the car and small-town tongues started talking. She hadn’t meant to keep Will from him, not really. But as she’d let more time pass without having that necessary conversation—one that was too important for a phone call but that she’d never worked up the courage to have in person—it had gotten more difficult to face the inevitable.

He needed to know.

Cassie climbed back into the car, shut the door and pulled out of the driveway, checked her rearview as she navigated back onto Raven Pass’s main road.

There. Behind her on the side of the road. Hadn’t she seen that gray car before? It had been behind her on the highway earlier. And hadn’t they stopped for gas when she’d stopped in Girdwood, just fifteen miles or so back?

And now they were in Raven Pass too, right here near her aunt’s house?

She took a deep breath, felt her heartbeat slow and steady as she braced herself for a crisis. Cassie had many faults, she was well aware of them, but when something went wrong, it was like her mind buckled down, readied itself for battle.

It was what had made her want to be a doctor all those years ago, the suggestion she could use that skill to help people.

If only she’d gotten the chance. But life was too short to waste on regrets. And besides, she wouldn’t trade Will for all the degrees and dreams in the world. Jake would tell her that God had a way of redeeming situations and turning challenges into blessings. He’d always said things like that when they were dating, spoken of God like He cared about her.

Cassie? She’d never been sure.

Out on the road, she put the rental car back in Drive and headed forward, toward Jake’s house, her eyes flitting between the road in front of her and the rearview mirror.

The gray car followed.

Cassie swallowed hard, increased her speed as the other car did the same. She led the car back out of town, onto the Seward Highway. Her eyes went once again to Will’s sleeping face. She’d do anything to protect her son. But what if it wasn’t enough? She couldn’t lose him.

Please, God. She fumbled with the words. Jake had tried to introduce her to the God he loved, but Cassie had never quite understood. How could Jake talk to God as though He were right there, a friend, and not a far-off Being who created the world and existed somewhere far away.

Still, it was worth a try. Hopefully that would count for something and if He was there as Jake insisted He was, He’d help her somehow.

The car edged closer and Cassie reached for her cell, which was sitting on the dashboard. She’d not bothered to sync it to the rental’s Bluetooth system when she’d picked up the vehicle. Keeping her eyes on the road, she wrapped her fingers around the slick, cool phone.

It slid from her hand to the floorboard. She glanced down, looked back up again in time to swerve back right and miss the truck she’d almost hit head-on in the attempt to get her phone.

She’d have to call the police later. Right now she was on her own.

There were no turnoffs that were a good place for losing the tail, not unless she could drive around Girdwood and lose him in one of the neighborhoods filled with houses and vacation cabins.

Otherwise her option was to drive on the dangerous Seward Highway all the way back to Anchorage with him on her tail. Some of the curves of the road hugged rock cliffs on one side, where the mountain itself had been blasted to build the highway, and the ocean on the other. It wasn’t a risk she was willing to take.

She’d have to try to lose him. Cassie turned right onto the Alyeska Highway, a generous name for the two-lane road that led to the resort town of Girdwood, the town nearest to Raven Pass, and pushed the engine as far over the limit as she dared. Drawing someone’s attention with her speed could help her, but on the other hand, this was a town where many people walked and rode their bikes and she didn’t want to risk hitting anyone. Even this late at night people could be out, though it seemed hardly anyone was.

No matter how many turns down obscure neighborhood roads she made, Cassie couldn’t shake the tail. And she couldn’t make out any of the driver’s facial features either.

This had to stop. Every minute that swept by her heart beat faster and she felt her body temperature rising. She only had so much longer to be able to hold it together.

She’d go back to Raven Pass, to the police department there. She should have thought of that in the first place. She’d just been so determined to try to lose her tail. All she could do was try to make better decisions now, and that started with finding a police department. Since Girdwood had no department of its own, Raven Pass was her best bet. She needed to go back.

Pressing the gas pedal hard and gripping the steering wheel like she had NASCAR aspirations, she drove hard, back toward town.

She’d just made it past the Welcome to Raven Pass sign when the gray car accelerated, and Cassie hit the gas but braced herself for impact in case she’d reacted too slowly.

She had.

The crash was an instant of crunching metal and pain in Cassie’s head, and the car threatened to spin out as she fought the wheel for control. After seconds that seemed like minutes, she won, and the sedan slowed to a stop on the side of the road. She was grateful it hadn’t been a hard enough jolt for the airbag to deploy. There were no other vehicles in sight, probably because she’d had the brilliant idea to come to town right after her flight got in, which meant it was just past midnight, not exactly the prime traffic time of day. She should have spent the night at a hotel in Anchorage and waited until day to head to Raven Pass, but then how could she have known she’d be followed? Run off the road?

Cassie twisted in her seat to look in the back, thankful to see that Will looked uninjured. He was awake, his eyes wide, his cheek still marked with wrinkles from being pressed against the booster seat, an image that turned her heart upside down with sheer love.

She had to keep him safe.

“Did we get in a wreck?” he asked, his eyes wide, voice wavering.

If only she had the time to reassure him fully, but the door of the gray car behind them was opening. And she had no choice but to run.

“Listen, baby,” she said as she unbuckled his seat, “when I open your door, I need you to run as fast as you can, okay? We’re going into the trees there.” She motioned with her finger toward the dark spruce woods. Memories fought to surface—hiking the woods with Jake, finding places where they could talk—and not talk—without interruption. Would the memories always feel so suffocating? She’d felt numb in Florida. Up here though, she felt everything as deeply as ever. Every ounce of love she’d ever had for him, the regret at her rash decision to leave town.

But time couldn’t be turned back.

And right now her focus was keeping her son—and herself—safe.

“Ready?” she asked him, taking a deep breath.

“Ready, Mom.” His little voice was confident. Trusting.

Please, God, don’t let me let him down. She tried another prayer, remembering the way Jake had talked to God.

“Go!” She threw her door open, then quickly yanked his wide, and they both took off into the woods.

“Hey!” her attacker yelled—the voice was male, but she didn’t notice any more than that in her hurry to escape—but they didn’t turn around. Instead they ran, straight for the path Cassie remembered, which would take them to town—where it came out she couldn’t remember, but someone would help her. It was a tight-knit community, where you could count on your neighbors.

And hopefully find safety.

They ran until Will started to lag and then Cassie picked him up, his head resting on her shoulder as she pushed herself as fast as she could with a sixty-pound boy draped across her.

Ignoring the burn in her legs, the sharp pain in her lungs as she gasped for breath after breath, exhaustion and adrenaline fighting for dominance, Cassie closed the gap between where she was and town, glancing back now and then to see if she was being pursued. Once she’d seen someone, large and tall, dressed in dark clothes with a ski mask, and since then she’d pushed her pace harder. As the woods grew thicker, her pace slowed by necessity, and she stepped off the trail, staying close enough to it that she knew where she was—at least she thought so—but hoping her pursuer wouldn’t be able to find her, even if he did catch up. The path she made through the trees was tight but it worked, twisting around large stalks of the thorn-laden devil’s club plant.

The darkness of the woods grew thicker as she approached Fourteen-Mile River. The main trail had a bridge, but since she’d been avoiding that path, she’d have to run through the river and soak her legs. Better than being caught by whoever had been after her.

She splashed through the water, the icy cold like a thousand needles in her skin as she ran. Not far now, maybe a quarter of a mile till the path would end. She just needed to figure out where she was going to come out in relation to town, and plot her path to the police station. Or just find the first house and ask for help and a phone to call the police. She’d decide which when she got there.

Cassie glanced back one more time, saw the tall man dressed in dirty jeans and a jacket, a ski mask on his head. He was closer now than he had been, and she could see a large gun in his right hand.

Any doubts about whether she was justified in running, about whether or not her aunt had disappeared naturally, fled from her mind.

Something was going on in Raven Pass, something that had put her aunt, and now Cassie and her son, in danger.

She was fueled by adrenaline now, keenly aware that it would fade soon and then she’d be at his mercy.

Cassie was determined not to let it happen. So she kept running, pushing through the last bit of crowded forest onto a gravel path, lifting her eyes to look straight at the house in front of her.

Light green with dark green trim. An octagonal window above the front door on the second story.

She’d run straight to Jake Stone’s old house. Just like old times, like she could still count on him to sweep her into his solid arms and tell her everything was going to be okay.

Those days were long gone, and Jake had surely moved out of his parents’ old home, but she needed help, and needed it now. She felt convinced whoever was after her wouldn’t hesitate to snatch her even from here, on the edges of town where someone could see. Why else would he have worn a mask to conceal his identity?

She needed to get inside that house. Call the police. Sort this out.

So she didn’t hesitate any longer. She sprinted across the street, and threw open the door, just like she would have without hesitation seven years ago—when the Stones had treated her like part of the family, when it had been assumed she and Jake would follow through on their engagement and maybe one day live in this adorable house in Raven Pass.

Back before everything blew up. And Cassie had been left holding the fuse.

She could only pray his parents had forgiven her, but even if they hadn’t, they were decent people. They would keep her safe, she was sure of it.

She shut the door hard behind her and locked it, then set a wide-eyed Will down beside her.

“Are we okay, Mom?” he asked in a shaky voice.

“We will be, sweetie. Stay right here, okay?” Cassie moved toward the kitchen, hoping they still had a landline.

And ran straight into a solid person. Tall. Much, much too solid to be Jake’s dad.

And found herself looking right into the sky blue eyes of the man whose heart she’d broken seven years ago. Jake Stone.

“Cassie?”

Jake barely managed to sputter out her name, the one he hadn’t spoken aloud more than a handful of times in years. He’d imagined what it would be like to see her once more, maybe even let himself have the slightest daydream about her being against his chest like this again.

But deep down he’d known the latter would never happen, and the former probably wouldn’t either. He’d heard her aunt was missing and he’d let himself wonder if Cassie would come but hadn’t really thought she would.

Now she was in his house. And there was a little boy standing beside her.

A little boy who looked… Jake swallowed hard. Seven? Six?

She hadn’t said a word to him about the boy yet, but Jake saw his eyes in the boy’s face, saw his own childhood expression mirrored.

“What are you doing here?” He put his hands on her upper arms, gently, and stepped back, looked her over. Her brown-sugar hair was tangled around her face, which was red, like she’d been exercising.

“My aunt is gone. I’m in town because of that, but when I went to her house the door was open and I don’t know why. Someone followed me here.” Cassie turned quickly, looked behind her though nothing was back there.

“And you ran here…?”

“I didn’t come here on purpose.” Her cheeks reddened further. “Listen.” She cleared her throat, her tone switching to the all-business one she used when she was uncomfortable. “I’m sorry to have bothered you, but I went to my aunt’s house and the door was open, and there was a car and they followed me and ran me off the road…” She glanced back again. “They chased me through the woods, even through Fourteen-Mile River when I crossed it. I needed to get help and this was the first house I saw. I’m sorry, but please. Don’t send us away yet, not until the police come.”

Jake felt his defenses rise, his shoulders tense. She’d hurt him, sure, probably more than anyone realized. He glanced at the small boy beside her who still hadn’t said a word. Swallowed hard. Either way, this was another layer to the hurt. Had she cheated on him? Or…

It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that they could have made a son together. Jake had had good intentions, had his standards and his plans to wait until they were married but it had grown harder and he hadn’t resisted temptation as well as he should have.

Cassie didn’t share his level of faith, and had said she loved him and that was what had mattered. But still, whether she believed in God or not, it had been his job to keep their relationship on track. He’d failed her.

Had that been the beginning of the end?

“Jake?” Her nervousness was displayed across her features.

What kind of cruel person did she think he was to wonder if he would send her away while she was in so much danger? Especially when she had her son with her. If anything, with the way he was feeling right now, it would be a struggle to let her leave.

Not that she needed to know that. No, she’d lost the right to know his innermost feelings and thoughts when she’d left him and Raven Pass in the dust years ago. Besides, the first thing he needed to do was call the police. He slipped the cell phone out of his pocket, dialed 911 and reported the incident as Cassie had told it to him. He thought he noticed her relax a little from her place beside him, but she still looked behind her several times a minute, her grip on the boy’s shoulders seeming to get tighter. The boy squirmed. “You’re squashing my bones, Mom,” he finally said in a dry tone.

“Sorry, sweetheart.” She looked down at him, squeezed him against her in a hug. Cassie as a mom. The sight was a gut punch. She seemed good at it, comfortable with motherhood. He’d always known she would be, despite her doubts because of her own upbringing.

“Do you have any kind of description of the guy who was after you? That might help the police.” Why that was the question that came out when he had a hundred others overwhelming his mind, he didn’t know, but she looked relieved. Because she wanted to think through the trauma she’d just been through and start to process it? Or because she was glad he hadn’t tried to steer the conversation to anything personal?

She shook her head. “It was a man, probably six feet or taller. But he had a ski mask on, so I don’t know anything about his appearance beyond that.”

This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment crime then. He’d been prepared. Had he been intending to snatch Cassie? Kill her? Or had it just been his plan to watch her and then something had triggered him to go after her?

After them? Did her would-be attacker know she had a son?

“Wait, did you say your aunt’s door was busted open?” He frowned. He’d been over there the day of her disappearance with the Raven Pass Search and Rescue Team, of which he was a part, and her house had been in pristine condition, just as she’d left it, with the exception of the few odd things they usually found when people disappeared or died suddenly—a cereal bowl in the sink, a glass on the counter, signs of a life paused midstream.

“Yes. I knew she disappeared, but I was led to believe it could have been accidental, not…whatever this is.” Cassie shook her head and Jake watched as the frown between her brows deepened, small wrinkles on her forehead pinching as her expression darkened.

“Her door wasn’t open the other day,” he said, wondering as the words left his mouth if this was the best way to let her know that he was involved in the search for her aunt. Too late now, he guessed. Cassie wouldn’t have appreciated being danced lightly around anyway. She’d always insisted she could handle the truth straight. And maybe she could. Jake had tried that once, had told her the dreams he’d had of the two of them, the family he imagined, and though they’d been engaged, she just left. Had she not wanted kids? Had the future overwhelmed her so much? Or had it been him?

He didn’t know, but the irony was inescapable and cutting. She’d gone. Had a kid without him.

It was a knife in his chest, one he felt every time he took a breath.

“Why were you there?”

May as well answer her. “I’m on a search-and-rescue team and we’ve been looking for your aunt.”

“I thought the police were looking?” Her eyebrows were raised.

“They are. It’s not unusual for them to utilize our resources out here. It’s rough country, you know that. Teamwork helps people get home safely.”

“Search and rescue? What happened to med school?”

The knock at the door announced the police officer’s arrival, and Jake was spared at least that question. This conversation was exhausting to have with the woman he’d loved enough to want to spend the rest of his life with, now that she was acting like a virtual stranger. But one who was intensely familiar with his past.

Was his past.

Jake moved to the door but noticed Cassie had tensed, her shoulders edging toward her ears as she pulled the boy closer to her again. “Cassie, it’s the police, okay?” he said once he’d confirmed the assumption through the peephole in the door. “You don’t have to worry right now.”

She swallowed hard and he watched her light green eyes flick glances around the room. She’d delivered her account of what had happened with remarkable calmness and clarity, but she was rattled, no doubt about it. Seven years ago he would have sat down with her, made her some coffee that was mostly cream, the way she liked it, and then listened while she processed out loud, the way she always did.

But everything between them had changed now and he felt like someone who didn’t understand what his next step should be. There was too much between them—had been at one time anyway—for him to be comfortable just sending her off with the police and not seeing her again, not following up at all. Then again, she’d left, hadn’t she? Left him. Who was to say she wanted him to care anymore, on any level?

He needed to remember to keep ahold of his feelings, remind himself that she hadn’t come to his house on purpose. It was coincidence, maybe some part of her subconscious at the absolute most. But she didn’t want his help. Not specifically. That was critical for him to remember.

However, at the same time…they needed to have a conversation. There were two explanations for the boy with her—either he was his father, or she’d betrayed him worse than he’d imagined, being with someone like that so soon after their breakup, or even before. One way or another he needed to know, and he couldn’t even wrap his mind around either option being true. But at the moment his main focus was on reporting this to the police and getting together a game plan to make sure Cassie didn’t have to have that kind of fear in her eyes again.

The knock came again, more forceful this time, and he hurried to open the door, having confirmed that it was the police.

“Jake. Morning.” Levi Wicks was one of the officers Jake knew best, having worked with him on a search-and-rescue case several months back. Of all the officers who could have responded, Levi was the one most likely to welcome Raven Pass Search and Rescue’s help.

“Morning, Officer Wicks.”

Levi rolled his eyes at him, but Jake wasn’t teasing him by using the title, just wanted his friend to know he respected his position and didn’t take their friendship for granted.

“Good morning, Jake.” The other officer, Christy Ames, smiled at Jake, then looked past him. “Cassie?” Her eyes widened. Jake sometimes forgot that some of his friends now had been their friends when he and Cassie were a couple. Raven Pass had grown and changed enough in the years that she’d been gone that he sometimes lost track of how many people had been in high school with them, watched them fall in love and then been around to witness the aftermath of Cassie’s departure.

“Hi, Christy.” Cassie attempted a small smile.

“You two know each other?” Levi shook his head. “I’m never going to get used to how small towns work.”

“We went to high school together,” Christy explained, then looked to Jake. “This is the woman you called and told us about who was almost abducted? And you didn’t specify who it was?”

“I figured you’d find out when you got here.” Jake shrugged.

Christy gave a slight shake of her head, then moved toward Cassie. “Rather than have this conversation standing in the entryway, why don’t we move to the living room. Sound good to you, Jake?” Christy led the way, having visited his house in high school with Cassie. His parents had left town several years back, choosing to move deep into the Alaska wilderness near Anaktuvuk Pass. Most people his parents’ age left Alaska for the warmth of the south. They didn’t opt for more Alaska when they moved, but that was just his parents. If he could be half the adventurers they’d always been, he’d be happy with his life.

Without consciously meaning to, he looked at Cassie. At the little boy beside her.

Once upon a time, he’d assumed being happy had meant being with Cassie. Funny how dreams changed. Some came true and some disappeared quicker than frost on a late spring morning.

All he could do was move on. Just like he’d been trying to do for years.

Only to end up where he was today, with Cassie back in his house, tangling up his thoughts and feelings, and making him feel like no time had passed at all.

TWO

Both officers, Levi Wicks and Christy—who Cassie was having a hard time believing was the same person she’d known in high school—were kind in their questioning, but Cassie still felt as if her head were spinning. If only she’d gotten a better look at the man. She’d done everything she could, they assured her, and while Cassie knew in her head that their words were true, she still couldn’t quite shake her guilt for putting Will in that situation. She’d had no inkling they’d be facing this kind of threat in Alaska, or she’d have… What? She had friends in Florida, ones she’d trust with Will, but not for such a long period of time. So she’d had no choice but to bring him with her. He was in the room with them now, hearing things no six-year-old should about danger, but he was playing a How to Train Your Dragon game on her phone, which Officer Wicks had brought since they’d stopped by the scene of Cassie’s accident on their way, so she could only hope his little mind was full of Night Fury dragons and not this conversation she was having with the police.

“We’ve been working this as a typical missing persons case, but no one had reported the damage to the house that you’ve just told us about,” Officer Wicks told her. He glanced down at his phone. “Excuse me just a minute.”

He stood and walked to another room to take the call, then came back.

“That was one of the other officers confirming what you said about the door and telling me about the rest of the house.”

“Was it more than just the front door?” Cassie asked, having not gotten far enough in her thoughts to wonder about that.

“Yes, the house has damage in several rooms. The office and the bedroom look like a tornado blew through, but jewelry and electronics are still there, so it’s not a random break-in.”

“Which means we need to change the way we are running the search also,” Jake said. “We’ve been looking for her, but the assumption was that there was a good chance it was a hike that went wrong.”

Did that change how the search-and-rescue team worked? Cassie wouldn’t have guessed so, but then again she didn’t know much about that kind of work.

Office Wicks spoke again. “The sooner you can meet with your team and brief them, the better. They need to know to be on guard also, in case any evidence they might uncover could make them targets.”

Jake nodded. He was still worried; she knew by the way the corners of his eyes crinkled, the blue in them shadowed ever so slightly. He looked at Christy, who seemed to understand better than Cassie what was bothering him. A fact which bothered Cassie far more than it should have when this was a man she’d given up every claim to years ago. And had driven a bigger wedge between them by keeping Will a secret, something they hadn’t talked about yet but would need to. Jake had been kind to Will, calm in his presence. Had he guessed his age? Could he see a resemblance and know it was his son? Cassie didn’t know—she’d never considered how any of this would play out, at least not in any realistic sort of way. Or did Jake think she’d been unfaithful?

That idea hurt. She would have never been untrue to him. She’d loved him, completely.

“Cassie, you need to stay with someone.” Christy didn’t bother softening the words with any kind of preamble.

“I had been planning to stay at my aunt’s house.” She scooted forward to the edge of the couch she’d been sitting on. “If you’re done with me now, I’ll just head that way.” Because if the police were finished taking her statement, then they’d be leaving soon, and no way was she sitting here alone with Jake. The conversation they needed to have could be done…another time. Right? She’d already been in his house too long and she couldn’t deal with the growing tangle of confusing feelings inside her, the guilt tormenting her.

God, forgive me. I should have told him about Will sooner.

A third prayer to a God she had never been sure existed. Cassie wanted to sort those feelings out later, figure out why it was starting to feel natural. She wished she could talk to Jake about it.

Looking over at him, his broad shoulders that had always been there to help her carry any burden she’d faced, his clear glacier-blue eyes that had never once lied to her, it was hard to remember why she’d left.

And then she remembered it had never been Jake. He’d never been the reason.

It had been all her.

They’d had their future planned. She’d doodled her first name and his last name all over her wedding notebook, had filled it with ideas for their day. And then somewhere along the line she’d realized she wasn’t just planning a wedding, wasn’t just falling in love. She was about to spend the rest of her life as someone’s wife. Jake’s wife. She’d been raised by just her dad—well, he’d had some help from his sister, her aunt who was now missing—after her mom had left him when she was two. He’d done an amazing job and had tried to give her everything she could ever need, but she had still never quite felt like part of a family. Not the kind like Jake had. Maybe that was why she’d gravitated toward him in the first place, his idyllic life, though as she’d gotten to know him and had started a relationship with him, she’d fallen head over heels for the man himself.

And then she’d realized that as much as she wanted a family, she had her mom’s DNA, her blood in her veins and…what if she turned out like her? Left Jake and some sweet blue-eyed baby? Besides that, here in town people would have expected her to be his support as his wife. She’d had dreams of her own, wanted to be a doctor just like Jake had. She couldn’t reconcile her dreams with being a traditional wife, and she’d wondered if that’s what had sent her mother away, wanting more, feeling trapped, even by love. She’d panicked. So she’d left, given them both space to pursue their dreams.

But she’d left without explanation, and she could only assume she’d broken his heart. She’d certainly broken her own.

They were all staring at her, she realized after a minute or so of being lost in her own personal memory lane.

“Would you be open to the possibility of staying somewhere else?” Officer Wicks asked, and she guessed she should be thankful he was asking and not ordering her. Not that police were allowed to order people around for no reason, but she understood the fact that she was risking her safety by going back to her aunt’s house.

But what other options did she have?

“If you both feel it’s necessary, I can consider something. I certainly don’t want to endanger Will.” She addressed her comment to the officers, hoping that despite what she’d heard about Jake getting his team involved, whatever that meant, that he’d stay out of this particular conversation.

“Then it’s settled, you’ll stay here,” Jake spoke up.

She felt the blood rush to her head and a wave of dizzy panic hit her. Cassie swallowed hard, blinked the feeling away. “I’m not staying…”

“All nice and professional. My parents turned the upstairs into sort of apartments. You’ll have privacy but I’ll be close by. The two of you will be safe there.”

Cassie opened her mouth to argue. Closed it again.

Seeming satisfied, Christy and Officer Wicks both stood and moved toward the door before Cassie could decide what to say, how to protest. She wanted to stop them, demand that they stay, but what, was she afraid to be alone with him? Surely not. Even if her…feelings hadn’t dissipated over the last decade, she was an adult. She knew when relationships weren’t healthy, and she wasn’t good enough for Jake. That should keep her away from him no matter how much looking at him, being in the same room with him, made her wish she could forget all the reasons she’d ended it in the first place.

And she would stay away from him.

Even if it was going to be infinitely harder to do while living in his house.

“Remember, if you think of anything else that could help, description-wise, give us a call anytime, okay?” Christy handed her a business card, which Cassie took as she felt herself nod. Then she stuck the card in her back pocket.

“Thanks for coming out,” Jake said, then the two officers left. Jake shut the door behind them.

And it was just the three of them. Mother. Son.

And Father who didn’t know he was one.

“We need to talk.” Jake could feel the charge in the air between them, a thousand levels of awkward and the invisible scarring that came from being so close to someone in the past only to have your shared life ripped in two and not see her again for seven years.

And she came back in danger. Needing your help.

And with a son.

“We do.” She agreed before he could follow his train of thought any further. His heart skipped a beat. Nodded. He waited for her to start, looked over at the kid who was still playing on the cell phone.

“Will?” Cassie waited until he looked up to continue. “We’re going to stay here. I…I knew Jake when I lived here before.”

He nodded. “Okay.”

“We’re going to stay here, okay?” she repeated, as if stalling for time.

“Because the guy was chasing us earlier?”

“Yeah. It’s safer if we aren’t alone, all right, bud?” She moved closer to him, pulled him into a hug and kissed the top of his head, then drew a breath.

“Maybe we could stream a movie for him?” she asked Jake. Jake nodded, understanding that whatever way this was going, Will didn’t need to hear the conversation. He turned Netflix on, scrolled through the kid options until he got to one about dragons, at which point the kid reacted enthusiastically and he offered him his Bluetooth headphones. There, they were now functionally alone. At least enough to finish this conversation.

“So…” Cassie trailed off as she took a seat on one of the chairs, her shoulders tense as she perched on the edge of the cushion. She wasn’t in any better shape than Jake was. He took a deep breath, tried to convince his shoulders to un-hunch.

“Please don’t do that, Cassie. Just…” Just what? He couldn’t very well tell her to spit it out, not when it was something this important.

“Sorry. I’m sorry. You need to know.” She took a breath.

Jake braced himself the best he could.

“He’s yours, Jake.”

He’d have said five minutes ago he was prepared to hear either, but there was no way a man could process this well. At least not that Jake could figure out. He stood, walked across the room. Back to the chair. Across.

Run. He could go running. His feet on the trail through the woods, using his body and his mind to the limit would help, but he couldn’t leave Cassie right now. Or Will.

His son.

Air. He needed air. He walked to the kitchen, as far from Cassie and Will in the living room as he dared to go without feeling like he was putting their safety in jeopardy.

After a few minutes he started back toward her. “Cassie…” He trailed off. What was there to ask? He let his eyes go back to Will, took in his features with the knowledge that he was his. His son. Again, the words echoed in the hollow spaces inside him, the ones Cassie’s leaving had caused. He had more family? Someone counting on him?

He opened his mouth to ask her another question when someone knocked on the door. He watched her shoulders tense.

“I’ll answer.” He stepped toward it, willing it to be someone who’d go away quickly. He didn’t want this conversation interrupted.

THREE

A knock sounded at the door before he could ask whatever question had been on his mind. Cassie sat up straighter, feeling every muscle in her back and shoulders bunch up and ache. Logic told her the man after her wasn’t the kind to knock, but the idea of facing him again, or facing anyone unexpectedly, made her tense.

Jake opened the door. Stepped outside. Cassie waited. A girlfriend he wanted to prep for Cassie’s sudden reappearance? She hadn’t even let herself consider that Jake could be in a relationship, but of course it made sense. Jake was a good man, the kind who deserved a family. One that lived with him, let him be the husband and father he’d always dreamed of being.

He stepped back inside, blew out a breath.

“Someone you need to talk to?” Cassie tried to keep the hurt out of her voice, reminded herself she deserved anything she had to face. She’d made her choices and believed fully that meant she had to live with them.

“They want to talk to both of us actually.” He ran a hand through his hair. Cassie had rarely seen him so rattled, but of course the news of his son, her appearance, the threat against her…it made sense it would take a toll.

“Who?”

“My team. The one I mentioned earlier.”

“The search-and-rescue team?”

Jake nodded. “They brought dinner.” He laughed. “A really late dinner.”

Cassie inhaled, held her breath for a second and let it out slowly. “Okay.”

“We’ll talk more later?”

His eyes, the ones she’d once loved looking into, losing herself in, were unreadable. Maybe it was good for him to have time to process her news, but Cassie needed to know if he forgave her. There was no way to have that conversation when there were people here, and Cassie understood that the case took priority. Assuming they’d come to work, she needed to let them do so.

“Okay,” she said again. She nodded. Jake held her gaze for one more second, looking like he was staring straight down to her heart and reading her thoughts the way he used to. But neither of them said anything. Whatever connection they’d had once was severed now.

Wasn’t it?

Jake opened the door.

“Two pepperoni pizzas, and one ham and pineapple!” A woman walked in, tall and blond, and held the pizza boxes up with a flourish. Then her eye caught Cassie’s.

“You must be Cassie. Awful night you’ve had.” Immediately her expression changed from triumphant and teasing to compassionate. “I’m Piper McAdams.”

More people pushed in behind her. Two more women, one with dark hair and skin that was a shade or two more tanned than Cassie’s Alaska-toned coloring. And one man who was a little shorter than Jake’s six feet three inches, but not by much. He had broad shoulders, like a swimmer.

Piper kept talking as they entered. “This is Adriana Steele—” the woman with dark hair smiled at Cassie “—and Ellie Hardison.” The second woman waved at Cassie. She looked like her eyes had a story and Cassie was curious about it. Of course, she was curious about all of these people. None of them was familiar to her, so they must have moved to the area within the last decade. “And Caleb Gaines.” Piper pointed to the last man.

Jake took the pizza boxes from Piper and set them on the table. “This is the team, Cassie. Raven Pass Search and Rescue.”

Cassie was impressed. Already, less than a minute in their presence, she could tell they all had very different personalities, but they must have figured out some way to work together in their searches. That took a unique kind of teamwork and community and she was excited to see it in action. It was the kind of group that would be interesting to work with. She may not have become a doctor as planned, but she’d gone to school at night, finally gotten her BSN and enjoyed working as a nurse. She knew from those experiences how important good teams were, how working in sync with each other led to good outcomes. Of course, pediatric nursing wasn’t quite the same as helping with possible medical emergencies in the backcountry and she knew that, but it would be interesting to try.

If she’d stayed, would she have changed career paths and become a nurse despite her initial plans? Life didn’t turn out like you planned; she’d learned that long ago. But seeing the interesting combination of personalities as they all gathered around the table made her wonder what it would be like to work with a team like this.

If she stayed, would they make a place for her?

Cassie slammed that mental door immediately. She was not staying. In fact, she should have been leaving in the next few days, but the police had advised her not to leave the state until they figured out who was after her. Going back to Florida would complicate their case and make it difficult for her to stay safe, even more than it would be here. Not to mention the fact that she wouldn’t dream of leaving until she found out what had happened to her aunt.

Just because she wasn’t able to leave Raven Pass behind her yet, didn’t mean it wasn’t inevitable though. She needed to remember she was an outsider here, that she had work and a life waiting for her thousands of miles away. While she was going to be around these good people, so that Jake could keep her safe, maybe she shouldn’t offer to help too much or get too close, learn anything that would make her wish for their camaraderie. Something she just couldn’t have. She had Will, that was enough. She needed to be thankful for what she had and let go of the what-ifs. There was no sense in dwelling there.

“Cassie, come join us.” Piper motioned her over to the pizza, still smiling. “We’re going to talk about the search for your aunt and how our game plan for tomorrow is going to change from what it was.”

Cassie looked over at the table where Adriana had already unfolded a map and was pointing at something.

“Can you show me where you’ve already searched?” She’d known this area once, had grown up close to her aunt. Maybe she’d be able to help pinpoint where she could have gone.

She owed it to her aunt to try.

“Sure, come on over.”

So Cassie took a deep breath, braced herself the best she could, offered a small smile and joined the group.

And hoped it wasn’t going to lead to connections, to friendships that would make leaving them break her heart.

Cassie hadn’t slept this badly since she’d left Jake, but every night noise, every sound in the dim Alaska night, seemed to come through the windows and to her ears. Beside her, Will slept soundly. At least that was something. She turned over again, closed her eyes and tried to relax.

No success.

Maybe it wasn’t the sounds outside that were keeping her awake at all, but the questions she had. For Jake. For herself. They hadn’t been able to talk at all after the rescue team left. It had been too late at night, so they’d both agreed to talk again tomorrow. So that unpleasant conversation was put off for now, but the uncertainty lingered.

Why was Jake working with a rescue team instead of in medicine? He’d explained some, but not nearly all of his reasoning yesterday, she felt. Could she ask him for more details or was that prying? She was unsure of the etiquette when addressing one’s former fiancé.

But those weren’t the questions that kept her awake, though they were the ones that tugged at her heart, made her wish she could go back in time, and…what? Change something?

The questions keeping her awake were more urgent. Why would someone have abducted her aunt? If that was what had happened, which looked fairly likely given the break-in at her house. Cassie didn’t believe in coincidences.

She finally gave up the idea of sleep just past three in the morning and headed down the stairs, back to the main part of the house. She’d seen Jake put leftover pizza into the fridge. Maybe trying to eat a little more would help her sleep.

Down the steps she crept, not wanting to wake Jake.

She heard noise as soon as she made it to the living room and there he was, standing from a chair where he’d apparently been sitting by the fire.

“I’m sorry. I tried to be quiet.” She offered the words to ease the awkward feeling she had every time they were alone. Though clearly if he was down here, she hadn’t woken him up and he’d been awake already.

“Can’t sleep?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I thought I’d get a snack.”

“There’s leftover pizza in the fridge,” he offered.

Cassie nodded. “That was my plan.” She walked to the other room, looking back over her shoulder at him. He’d sat back down again. Was it too soon to clear the air and try to talk about why she’d left?

Not that she planned to explain why. She didn’t understand herself well enough to attempt that. But she could at least apologize…

She took a deep breath, tried to work up her nerve. Maybe she’d talk now, before she got her snack. “Hey, Jake?”

“Shh.” He cut her off, but from the look on his face, it wasn’t because he didn’t want to hear what she had to say. It was because he’d heard something and he was on alert—his shoulders were tensed. He had been sitting with his back against the back of the chair but now he was leaning forward.

“What?” Cassie whispered, but Jake was already up, moving to one of the front windows. Instinctively she stepped back against the wall, into a darkened corner.

He walked from the first window to the second.

This time she heard the noise too, but it sounded like it was coming from the back of the house, not the front where Jake was.

“Jake,” she whispered as loud as she dared, motioning with her head behind her.

“Get upstairs. Hide.”

His tone left no room for argument as he moved toward the back door and Cassie hurried to the stairs, keeping her back against the wall. He hadn’t needed to tell her to go up there. Her son, their son, was in that room and nothing would stop Cassie from doing her best to protect him.

As she rushed up the stairs, she tried to pinpoint where she’d heard the noise but all was quiet.

She opened the door of the large closet in the bedroom, pulled Will from the bed and settled him in the corner of it. He slept harder than anyone she knew, something for which she was extremely thankful right now. Then she pulled the door shut behind her.

Please don’t let him find me. Another prayer. She didn’t have time to analyze why praying seemed so natural here. She felt less alone somehow, which was interesting since she wasn’t even sure what she believed about God.

Cassie tried to be as quiet as possible, but it seemed like every time she shifted it was the loudest sound she’d ever heard. She tried not to move so much, made an effort to even slow her breathing down enough that it wouldn’t make so much noise either.

She heard a door open, the creaking loud like one of the main heavy doors downstairs to the outside. Relief flooded her and she almost called out to let Jake know where she was. Hadn’t he gone outside? So it would make sense if he had that he’d come back in once he’d checked things out and determined everything was okay.

At the last second though, she stopped herself. It could just as easily be whoever was after her. She knew that. So instead she didn’t move, didn’t make a sound.

Whoever had come inside didn’t speak either. Did that mean the chances were more likely that it wasn’t Jake? She swallowed hard and hoped her logic was faulty, but somehow she didn’t think it was.

There were footsteps, then a creaking noise, followed by another creaking noise. The stairs? Was he coming up to her room? Her heartbeat, already going faster than she was comfortable with, pounding in her throat in a way that made swallowing difficult, sped up even more. Cassie swallowed hard. Waited.

There was silence for a period of time, and she tried to guess how many minutes had passed, in case it mattered later. Two? Three? He hadn’t been upstairs long by the time she heard creaking again that seemed to indicate he was going back down the stairs. But he’d been up there longer than was necessary just to look inside her room and see that she wasn’t in it. Had he been taking the time to search for her? Or was he setting up some kind of trap in the room where she was supposed to be safe?

Her current line of thinking made Cassie shudder. She wasn’t much of a risk taker these days. The amount of risk now being asked of her… It was a lot to take in. More than she wanted to handle.

The stairs creaked again. Wait, was he coming back up? The footsteps grew louder and came closer. Cassie felt her heartbeat skip.

Another door opened.

“Hey!” That was Jake yelling now.

The footsteps moved faster, back down the stairs? Cassie heard the pace quicken like whoever had come inside first was running. Then the front door opened. She heard more running and imagined Jake chasing him, which was her best guess as to what was going on right now. Fear for his life enveloped her. What if he was killed keeping her safe? She wouldn’t be able to live with that knowledge.

Easing forward out of her crouched position, she reached for the door and pushed it open again, then stood, looking for something on the shelf to use as a weapon. All she saw were cans of vegetables in doomsday-prepper sizes. It wasn’t unusual for Alaskans to keep emergency food and water stored in closets, in case of earthquakes or other natural disasters that could cut Alaska off from the road system or the port. She grabbed a Costco-sized can of green beans from the shelf. It wasn’t much as far as weaponry was concerned, but it was better than the nothing she currently had.

The bedroom was empty, still dark. Did she dare leave Will? She decided the answer to that was no, but crept closer toward the door, where she could lean out of it and see down the stairs and into the living room. From her vantage point, she saw that the door was open.

For the first time, Cassie remembered her phone was in her pocket and called 911 to report that they’d had an intruder. She wasn’t able to give more details, but they said they’d come right over.

She started to move back into the bedroom, then movement caught her eye. She raised the green beans.

“What are you doing?” Jake stood in the doorway. He was out of breath, but it didn’t quell the emotions in his voice. He cared about keeping her safe. Sure, she’d known he was a good guy and always, always did the right thing. But something in his tone just now made her wonder if…

No, he couldn’t still care about her beyond how he’d feel about anyone in danger. She shouldn’t even let her mind go there.

“Didn’t I tell you to hide?” he continued.

She cleared her throat. “I heard noises.” It was a lame excuse when she said it aloud. “Did you see him?”

Jake shook his head. “I went outside to check and didn’t see anything, but when I came inside I thought I heard something. I yelled and then heard him run down the stairs. He must have come in when I stepped outside, like he was watching me for a chance to come in.” He shook his head again. “Beyond stupid of me. I should have stayed inside. Anyway, I stood for half a second longer than I should have, trying to decide if I should come up and check on the two of you or chase him. By the time I decided catching him was top priority, I couldn’t catch up.” Jake’s features were colored with emotion. “He had a car waiting just down the road and he had too much of a head start.”

“What kind of car?” Cassie asked, not that she knew what anyone around town was driving these days, so the answer really wouldn’t tell her anything.

“A black SUV—a Toyota, I think. It was too dark to be sure.”

Just as she’d thought, the information was meaningless to her since she didn’t know anyone’s cars anymore.

The last thing she wanted to be was a damsel in distress who needed help, but tonight she was at a loss and she didn’t like the feeling. “I called the police,” she offered as her one contribution.

“The police may want to talk to you again.” Jake shook his head. “I’m not sure. Maybe they’ll just be able to see if he left any evidence.”

She felt self-conscious enough around Jake in her pajamas, though they were a long-sleeved shirt and pants that one of the women on Jake’s team had left for her. Her suitcase of belongings she’d brought to Alaska was still in her car, abandoned when she was being tailed. Cassie had to remember to get the car tomorrow. Will would need a change of clothes also, although for tonight he’d been delighted at the idea of sleeping in his blue jeans.

“I think I’ll change.” She didn’t have a bathrobe or anything like that, so switching back into jeans seemed like her best option.

“I’ll wait in the hall.” Jake folded his arms and leaned back against the wall across from her bedroom door before she could argue. Having him close made her feel stronger, although she wasn’t sure she wanted to admit it. When he was here, she felt as though she were on solid ground, could make more confident decisions. Even though she’d been reminded of her mortality multiple times today, being near Jake made her feel she could stop and think while she decided how to work this problem.

She liked this feeling too much. Always had. It wasn’t safe to depend on a person that way, was it? To know you were better because of them, to be used to having that person in your day…

Because she’d learned the day her mom disappeared that people weren’t always dependable, they left.

It was entirely possible, if she tried to emotionally dissect the past, that it had been part of the problem with Jake—the fact that there weren’t problems. He was her better half, the one man she wanted to be by her side forever. She’d always been able to count on him, and that scared her. Shouldn’t she have learned from her mother’s abandonment not to count on anyone?

Had she invented the problems she’d worried about to give her an excuse to leave? The fact that they’d both wanted to be doctors, that she’d wanted to make her own way in the world. Was it really just as simple as her having a fear of being left, of getting hurt again?

Cassie sighed deeply, letting her shoulders fall. Analyzing it wouldn’t do a bit of good. Nothing she could do would allow her to go back and change the past. Puzzling out their history together just confused her when she needed a clear head now more than ever.

So she pulled her clothes back on, resolved that she was going to do the best she could to help solve this case and get back out of Jake’s life. As much as she’d messed it up the first time around, she owed him that much.

Now to figure out how she could help when she hadn’t the slightest clue how to search for missing persons or how to hunt down attackers.

The rest of the night passed without incident. Jake knew, because he sat outside Cassie and Will’s door as the dusky summer shadows darkened and then lightened again almost in the blink of an eye. He sat there, wondering if she was sleeping, trying to sort out how they were going to handle this situation.

Her attackers meant business, Jake didn’t doubt that at all. He stood and stretched, moving toward the stairs to make some coffee, now that it was fully light and a time of day where people were up and attackers would be less likely to strike. Whoever was after her was fairly coordinated, had a plan. Their execution had failed, for which Jake was thankful, but the hard truth was that he’d been unprepared last night. He wouldn’t let that happen again.

Movement behind him as he reached for the coffee carafe to fill it with water startled him and he whipped his head around, arms coming up in a defensive stance.

“Easy there, killer.” Cassie’s face almost cracked a smile. She looked tired, dark circles growing under her eyes. That answered that question. He was almost certain she hadn’t slept at all.

“Not funny, given last night.”

Her face sobered. “You’re right. I wanted to talk to you about that.”

“Last night?” He held his breath, waiting to hear if she wanted to talk about the people after her or their son. He needed to discuss Will, but he didn’t know if he was ready to face the hurt that conversation would bring. In an odd way, it was easier to talk about the people who were out to get her, or her missing aunt.

Jake busied his hands making the coffee, finding it hard to see her standing there, all vulnerable and beautiful and so close to him he had to catch his breath.

“I want to help.”

He breathed out. He’d been prepped for it. Cassie wasn’t a woman to sit on the sidelines.

“It’s going to be dangerous, you know,” he started, noting the way her eyebrows went up in immediate reaction to his words. He raised his hands in mock surrender. “Hey, I’m making sure you understand.”

“Is there anything about my life right now that doesn’t strike you as dangerous?”

Something had changed in her since last night. Her fire, one of the things he’d loved about her way back when, had returned with an extra spark. Yesterday she’d seemed defeated. Tired. Today she was ready to fight, and it seemed to bode well.

He was confident in his team, but having her along would help them too. She knew her aunt, knew the areas she was likely to frequent, could tell them about how she would have thought and made decisions if she was on her own or hiking somewhere against her will. With the new information they’d learned about the disappearance likely being intentional and relating to foul play, they’d change how they searched, shift their parameters. Raven Pass Search and Rescue was good at what they did. They’d find Cassie’s aunt. Jake wasn’t naive enough to be sure she’d be alive when they got there though, something he wasn’t sure if Cassie had considered.

“What?” Her facial expression wavered, and he wished he knew her as well as he used to. If he did, he might be able to tell what she was thinking. She was being so brave, handling what yesterday had thrown at her with spunk and grace.

Without thinking, he brushed back a piece of hair from her face. Her eyes widened and she blinked in that way only a woman can, not seeming to know how attractive and innocent she looked.

“Jake…” Her voice trailed off as the impact of years of missing her and of the danger in her life suddenly threatened to overwhelm him, and he stepped closer to her. She lifted her chin, only millimeters, but enough that it almost read like an invitation.

He bent closer, his eyes on her lips.

Stopped.

Their eyes met, and if hers had been unreadable before, he felt like now was the opposite. Her eyes were like clear pools, full of open honesty. He suspected the same could be said of his.

The truth he saw in her eyes, knew was reflected in his own, was this: neither of them was over each other.

But that didn’t make rekindling something a good idea. It was still a terrible one. He’d learned his lesson the first time she’d broken his heart, thank you.

He pulled away, turned to the coffee maker and pushed a button to start the brew cycle, then turned around to face her. “Your aunt may not be alive when we find her.”

“I know that. Why tell me something fairly obvious?”

“I wanted to make sure you’d considered that before you offered to help.” Jake shoved a hand through his hair, shaking his head. And break whatever craziness had come over them that had almost had them kissing in his kitchen a day after he saw her again for the first time in seven years.

“Listen, Jake, I think things through now, okay? I have to.”

“Then yes, we’d like your help.” He tried to sound as professional as he could, though admittedly he’d probably lost any measure of professional distance earlier when he’d had to fight the urge to kiss her.

But it hadn’t just been him, had it? He’d seen it in her eyes too, in the tilt of her chin.

Still didn’t make it a good idea. He should have learned from having her hurt him the first time.

He tried again. “Truly, Cassie. It would help a lot to have you there.”

The defensiveness in her posture seemed to ease some. Her shoulders untensed. “Thank you.”

He nodded.

“I’m going to go get ready. I’m guessing we’ll leave soon, right? I don’t want to sit around drinking coffee while my aunt is out there, in who knows what kind of shape.”

“I’ve got travel mugs for the coffee. We can go as soon as you’re ready.”

She hurried up the stairs and Jake went to his own room to shower and change, praying as he did that God would be with their search today. Not only for them to find Cassie’s aunt, but for God to keep them safe.

Physically.

And their hearts.

For a minute this morning, Cassie had thought he was going to kiss her.

Then just as quickly as the moment had begun, it was over and Jake was even more reserved than he’d been the day before. Cassie had avoided being alone with him for the rest of the morning, relieved beyond words when Will woke up, and even more relieved when it was time to go meet Jake’s team for the day’s work.

They’d pulled into her aunt’s driveway and Cassie fought regret at the years she’d spent away from home. What if she didn’t see her aunt again? She could never go back and give them more time together, and the thought overwhelmed her.

“We’ll do the best we can, okay?” Jake squeezed her hand, let go as quickly as he’d grabbed it.

But it was something, a show of kindness in a day that Cassie could already feel was going to be difficult, and she appreciated that.

She hadn’t explained much to Will, who was going with them. Jake had talked to a friend at the police department who agreed that it was safest for him to be with his mom, but that location didn’t matter right now. They seemed to be in some degree of danger, no matter where they were, as the intrusion in the house last night had proven. Will knew Cassie’s aunt was missing, but she’d been vague about today’s events, mostly framing it as a hike they were going on.

He was interested, knowing she’d lived here before. Why hadn’t she realized how curious he was about her past?

It further reinforced the need to tell him more of his own history. Like who his father was. She’d spoken of Jake to Will. She hadn’t wanted her son to think he didn’t have a dad, or wonder too much. So she’d told him stories—the good ones—and about what a good man his father was. Because it was true. Her leaving had never had anything to do with Jake’s character. At least not his flaws.

No, Jake had always been perfect. Maybe sometimes too perfect for someone like her to feel like she measured up.

“You’re sure you know where you’re going up here? It’s been a long time,” Jake said.

“I’ll manage fine.” She moved away from him, turned her attention to making sure Will was ready, that his shoes were tied tight enough and that she herself was able to maintain some level of composure. Jake’s questions echoed her own. Was she sure that she would be able to help? Cassie didn’t even have an answer for herself. But she knew these trails, she knew her aunt, and she had to try.

Most of Jake’s team arrived in an old red Jeep. Piper, who was driving, parked it and she, Ellie and Caleb piled out. They were missing one. Adriana, Cassie thought.

“Where’s Adriana?” Jake asked, confirming that Cassie had indeed remembered the absent member’s name correctly.

“She rode with the police. They are meeting us here because they want to come too.”

“They’re letting her dog ride in the police car?”

Piper shook her head, and then Cassie noticed a leash and a dog jumped out. Some kind of Lab mix, maybe. “Babe rode with us.”

“Babe?” Cassie raised her eyebrows, unable to reconcile the serious woman she’d met with a dog named Babe.

“As in Babe Ruth. Adriana’s a huge baseball fan, especially the Yankees,” Ellie explained.

A police cruiser pulled up before Cassie had the chance to respond, which was probably good because she knew very little about baseball and even less about the Yankees. Will had asked to play T-ball last year for the first time and Cassie had almost signed him up but had to back out at the last minute because she couldn’t work it around her job and daycare schedule for him. Yet another thing he was missing out on because he didn’t have a dad. Or, well, he did but not in his life.

Another failing that was hers alone to own.

She looked back at the police car. The driver’s side door opened, and Officer Wicks, who Cassie had met the day before, stepped out. Adriana climbed out of the passenger side and immediately went to her dog and started petting him like they’d been separated for days instead of maybe half an hour at most, Cassie guessed.

“Everyone ready?” Jake asked the group as a whole, then directed his attention to Officer Wicks. “Officer Wicks, you ready?”

The man appeared to have given up on Jake using his first name when they were working, because he didn’t make nearly as much of a face as he had the night before.

“I’m ready when the rest of you are,” Officer Wicks answered. “Thanks for letting me join you. I don’t intend to interrupt your usual search procedures. I just want to be on hand in case we find…any evidence of a crime scene.”

His eyes darted toward Cassie and she heard the unspoken message, gripped Will’s hand a little tighter though she hadn’t meant to. Jake didn’t expect to find her aunt alive.

But Cassie had to believe. Had to try anyway.

Officer Wicks continued. “I also want to be on hand to observe some of the…unorthodox methods your team uses to search, to assure the department and anyone involved in a trial later that you were supervised.”

Cassie thought she saw Adriana bristle from where she stood beside her dog. Was that what he meant, he wanted to supervise the use of the dog? She sure seemed to have taken something personally. Or maybe she was one of those people whose facial expressions didn’t always display what they were actually feeling.

Officer Wicks looked in Adriana’s direction, and to Cassie it almost looked like he wanted to say something to her and then shook his head slightly. Interesting. The vibe between them intrigued Cassie’s secret romantic side and she wondered if anything was going on between them, or if it was just tension she was misreading.

“Anyway, I’m ready.” Officer Wicks looked back at Jake.

“Okay. Cassie is going to take us on some of the trails her aunt used to use. Follow her. This area overlaps our previous search area to a degree, from what she told me, but then branches off into an area where we didn’t go. She sketched out a map for me and I emailed each of you a copy in case we get separated for any reason, or we need to split into groups. Be aware, some of it’s pretty overgrown.”

“That’s good news for me,” Adriana mumbled as they all started walking and she came into the line just behind Cassie. Cassie guessed she was in the front because she was leading, and then Adriana was next because of the dog. Cassie was enough of an animal person to think it was cool that the dog could help in some way.

Will looked over at the dog and, reading his mind the way moms do, Cassie reminded him not to pet it and told him that the dog was working.

Cassie looked over at Adriana after walking in silence for a minute, too intrigued by her work with the dog to resist asking the question. “What did you mean earlier about it being good news for you?”

Adriana motioned around them. “In an area like this, the scent disperses quickly and mingles with other scents. The integrity is degraded a lot sooner. In an area like Jake is describing, with thick brush, the scent could get trapped and will linger much longer, making it easier for Babe to identify the scent he’s looking for.”

“So he’s a search-and-rescue dog?”

“Yes.”

Though she was trying to keep her hope from rising too high for fear of the crash that would come with disappointment, Cassie felt her expectations lifting anyway. The idea that the dog was trained to do something humans couldn’t fully understand intrigued her.

“Mind if I join y’all up here in front?” Jake’s voice was barely winded despite the fact that Cassie was keeping a pace that had her catching her breath frequently. Will was up for the challenge—he was the very definition of an active boy—and Cassie knew she shouldn’t have been surprised to see Jake not breaking a sweat, face completely relaxed and not betraying any effort whatsoever.

She was also surprised anew by how good-looking he was. He’d been handsome before. But this new fully grown man version of Jake was even more attractive, so much so she was startled whenever she glanced at him.

“Sure, if it’s fine with Cassie.” Adriana looked at her and Cassie found herself wanting to tell the woman the whole story. Right now no one but her and Jake knew the truth about Will and it was weighing on Cassie. She needed a friend. Maybe Adriana wouldn’t mind being one? She was certainly perceptive enough, in a way Cassie couldn’t quantify. Much like the way the dog had skills no one could quite pinpoint, Adriana seemed like the kind of woman who saw things others couldn’t. Cassie was certainly under the impression that Adriana knew there was more to Cassie and Jake’s relationship than old friends.

“It’s fine.” Such a multi-purpose word, fine. Able to mean everything from yes, this is great, I don’t mind at all to actually it’s not fine with me at all but sure.

Her current use of fine was leaning more to the second.

“Great.” Jake smiled at her, still looking wary, like he was scared to get close to her, even while they were hiking. But the weird vibe from this morning, after the “almost kiss,” was gone.

She braced herself for conversation with him, but he looked down instead, started talking to Will.

“So how’s it going with you today, little man?”

“I’m not a little man. I’m just a kid. I’m six.” Will picked up a stick from the side of the trail. “See this? It’s my gun in case we see any bad guys.”

She resisted a comment about bringing a stick to a gunfight, but still felt herself crack a slight smile. With any luck, there wouldn’t be any bad guys today. Really, she didn’t even think they needed luck. It was broad daylight and they were a large group. She didn’t feel any of the foreboding that she had last night, and while she knew she needed to keep her guard up, she felt confident that today was, at least, a chance to breathe.

“Have you been on hikes like this before?” Jake was asking Will. Talking to his son and not telling him who he really was. Cassie needed to have a conversation with Will, explain the truth to him as soon as possible.

“No, we don’t hike in Florida. Mom just goes to work and I go to school, and then we go home.”

Jake’s eyes swung to Cassie’s. His eyebrows were raised and she heard all of his questions. Yes, she’d once been a more active, adventurous person. Yes, time had changed her. A lot.

“Well, I’m glad you’re getting to hike here. I loved hiking when I was a kid.”

“I like it so far. Especially because Mom said when you hike, you get snacks. She packed marshmallows for me.”

“That’s great, bud!”

“My name is Will.”

“Not so much into nicknames, are you?”

“Not when they’re not my name. But I do like marshmallows. Did you pack any?”

Jake laughed, his face looking more relaxed than Cassie had seen it in years. All of this, the entire interaction between him and their son was too much for her heart to handle. She smiled a little, ignoring the stabbing in her chest, and then focused her attention on the trail, letting Will lag behind her slightly. “You’ll stay with him?” She double-checked with Jake.

He met her eyes and nodded.

She pushed her pace harder, letting the burning in her legs and lungs drown out the pain in her heart.

And letting all of it push from her mind the idea that she was being stalked by someone who wanted to bring her pain.

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