Jake Read online

  “Nana.” Ursula pulled on Lana’s hand. “Should I get in the car?”

  “Yes, baby.” Lana pulled the door open and Ursula climbed into her booster seat. “Let’s buckle you up.” Satisfied her granddaughter was safe, Lana swung around and got in the driver’s seat and switched on the engine.

  Pulling off the driveway, Lana took one last look around before she drove toward Ursula’s kindergarten. Keeping her focus on the road, she mentally went through what she needed to achieve that day.

  Find my daughter. Lana’s jaw clenched and she ground her teeth together, fighting the rising tide of emotion that would break her if it ever got free. She had to focus on keeping it together for Ursula.

  “You drove past it.” Ursula pointed out the window as Lana jerked back into the present.

  “Damn it.” Lana winced.

  “You shouldn’t curse,” came Ursula’s instant response.

  “Sorry.” Lana took the next right turn and then swung around to drive back toward the school. “Got your backpack? And your lunch?”

  “Got it.” Ursula unclipped her seatbelt as Lana stopped the car.

  Lana got out of the car and went around to the passenger side to help Ursula, but her granddaughter already had it covered as she hoisted her backpack onto her shoulders. “Okay, it’s Friday, so let’s do something fun this weekend. Maybe we could stretch it to a long weekend. I’ll ask my boss. What do you say?”

  Ursula nodded, excited at the prospect of leaving town for a few days. “Can we go and visit the mountains?” Ursula had an affinity for wild places and mountains in particular. However, the nearest mountain range was a three-hour drive away and they rarely had time to make the journey. “Please?”

  “Why not?” The weight on Lana’s chest shifted a little.

  “Really?” Ursula asked as they crossed the street.

  “Yes. We could drive to the mountains, stay in a cabin or something… I’ll see what I can arrange at such short notice.” Lana thought for a moment. “Maybe we could ask your grandpappy to come, too. He might not be able to walk up a mountain, but he sure could do with a change of scenery.”

  “Grandpappy would love to see the mountains. He’s always complaining about staring at four walls.” Ursula skipped a couple of steps, happy at the thought of escaping the town they lived in.

  “Is he?” Lana asked. It was true, her father rarely went out these days, unless it was to collect Ursula from school or to come over for dinner. But Lana had figured it was more from choice.

  “He is. It might make him feel better if he could look out of a window and see the big, big, mountains instead of the house next door.” Ursula flung her arms around Lana and hugged her before running off to join the other children. “Thank you.”

  “You are welcome.” Lana watched her granddaughter until she entered the building. She was safe.

  Retracing her steps back to the car, she drove to work on autopilot as she mentally made a list of what they would need to pack for their mini-vacation. Lana could squeeze in a quick trip to the grocery store for supplies for the journey on her lunch break, but aside from that, they had everything they needed.

  With her car safely locked in the parking lot, Lana strode toward the office building where she worked. Her office was on the fourth floor and she took the stairs as she did every day because it was good for her heart, and since becoming sole guardian to Ursula, Lana had taken her health very seriously. Who needed to visit a gym when you had a young granddaughter to chase around after?

  “Hey, Lana.” Sidney, receptionist, wearer of colorful clothes, and equally colorful hair looked up from her desk in the reception area as Lana walked in.

  “Sid, you’re looking very blue today.” Lana’s attempt at a joke was met with a forced smile. “And how many times have you heard that today?”

  Sidney patted her sky-blue hair. “You’re the fifth today, which puts my lifetime achievement at roughly two hundred.”

  “Sorry. I will try to be more original next time.” Lana approached Sidney’s desk. It was high enough that Lana could rest her elbows on it. So she did. “What do you need?”

  “Blake wants to see you.” Sidney arched a penciled-on eyebrow. “And no, he didn’t give any clue as to what he wanted.”

  “Blake.” Blake Jefferson was the editor in chief of Revealed, a magazine dedicated to unearthing the less-than-savory antics of the rich and famous and revealing them to the nation. Lana swallowed a lot of pride and self-respect to take this job, but the pay was good, and the hours were steady, and it gave her something else, something priceless. Access.

  If she was ever going to find out what happened to her daughter, she needed access to information and those who brokered it. So far, she’d come up with nothing. It was as if her daughter had disappeared off the face of the earth.

  Leaving an already fatherless Ursula with no mother to hold her, and care for her.

  Sidney glanced up at the clock on the wall and tapped her pencil on the desk. “He has a nine thirty meeting. I suggest you get yourself in there beforehand.” The receptionist patted her hair as she looked down at her computer. “Believe me, he will not be in a good mood afterward.”

  “Is he in his office now?” Lana asked as she stood up straight and looked down the corridor toward Blake’s office as if she had X-ray vision and could see through the closed door of the large office at the end.

  “He is.” Sidney picked up the telephone and dialed the three-digit code to Blake’s phone, 956. Lana, along with most of the people who worked for Revealed, all knew the direct number for Blake’s office. None, however, had ever had the courage to dial it. No employee wanted Blake Jefferson’s attention drawn to them.

  Too late, Lana.

  Lana turned her attention back to Sidney as the receptionist said, “Lana Ross is here for you, sir.” Her blue head bobbed once before she ended the call and looked up at Lana. “You can go in.”

  “Thanks, Sid.” Lana winked at Sidney.

  “Good luck,” Sidney mouthed quietly as the elevator door opened and a couple of employees spilled out talking excitedly about getting drunk at a party. Lana couldn’t remember the last time she’d gotten drunk. Or the last time she’d been to a party.

  Boring. Her life was boring. It was made up of work and parenting, to both her granddaughter and her father. Her heart tightened in her chest, but she kept on walking toward the end of the corridor, despite struggling to breathe through the threatening panic attack.

  The closed door leading to Blake’s large corner office loomed before her and a voice inside her head told her to turn around and run. Run as fast as she could because whatever Blake had to say to her, she didn’t want to hear.

  Pausing to knock, she settled herself for her first face-to-face meeting with Blake since he’d welcomed her onboard the Revealed team. That meeting had been awkward and forced. Lana didn’t expect this one to be any better. In fact, it was probably going to be a lot worse since Lana could think of no other reason for Blake asking her to come to his office other than to fire her.

  Blake liked to fire all his staff personally.

  “Come in, Lana.” The door opened and Blake stood back to allow her inside his large office, that was bigger than she remembered it. “Coffee?”

  Lana raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to fire me?”

  Blake’s mouth twitched at the corners, but he didn’t smile. Which was a good thing. With his jet-black hair, streaked with threads of silver and a haunted expression that spoke of a great loss, he was the kind of man a woman could fall for and fall for hard. “No, I’m not going to fire you.”

  “Great.” Her shoulders relaxed as she strolled across the room to look at the view across the city. “Then coffee would be good.”

  “Why don’t you make yourself at home?” He gestured toward the victim’s chair across the desk from his own.

  “Are you sure you aren’t going to fire me?” Lana asked as she took one last look at th
e cityscape before her. Was she out there? Was Kiki in one of the myriad of buildings that made up the city below?

  “No, I’m not going to fire you, Lana. Unless you have something you need to tell me that would make me fire you.” He looked at her directly as he placed a cup of coffee on the desk in front of her and then went around to his own chair and sat down slowly as if he were older than time itself.

  “Then may I ask what you want?” He didn’t answer and she held up her hands to indicate the office. “You don’t invite people in here for a polite chat. This is the hiring and firing room. And since I’m already hired…”

  That haunted face really did crack a brief smile. The muscles pulling his mouth into a small curve stiff from lack of use soon gave up and Blake’s usual thin-lipped expression returned. “As much as I’d like to spar with you, I have a meeting in less than twenty minutes.”

  Lana nodded. “What can I help you with? Should I call you sir?”

  “No, Blake will do just fine. When people call me sir, it reminds me of school.” He sighed and reached for his coffee. “Not a time I remember with any fondness.”

  “So, Blake, do you want to tell me why I’ve been summoned here if not to be fired?” Lana reached for her coffee and sipped it as she watched her boss.

  “I have some information for you.” Blake’s gaze was like a laser-targeted missile.

  “What kind of information?” Her heart hammered in her chest. She wasn’t working a story with any depth right now. She had a few ideas and a couple of leads, but nothing that would draw the attention of her boss. Unless her lack of good stories, good stories, had drawn the attention of her boss. Some people liked searching through other people’s dirty laundry and unearthing secrets they would rather not share. Lana was not one of those people.

  Blake didn’t answer for a moment and Lana let the silence stretch out. He’d answer when he was ready. She concentrated on drinking her coffee. It was good. Rich and aromatic.

  “Why did you take this job, Lana?” Blake asked, knocking her off guard.

  “Because I needed the money and regular hours. The regular hours aren’t something you normally get in journalism.” She didn’t smile or try to put a humorous spin on it. This was not that kind of meeting.

  “And because you hoped to use my resources to find your daughter.” His eyes darkened before he blinked away the pain.

  “Yes.” There was no point lying or trying to sugarcoat it. Blake knew exactly why she was here.

  “And have you had any luck?” Blake asked.

  “Are you going to bill me for using your resources?” Lana asked quietly. She didn’t talk to anyone about her unwavering need to find out what happened to Kiki. But Blake wasn’t just anyone.

  “No.” He placed his coffee cup down on the desk and leaned to the left as he pulled open a drawer and took out a plain brown envelope. Lana didn’t dare breathe as he held it between his fingers and thumb. There couldn’t be more than a couple of pieces of paper in the envelope. It was too thin to hold much more. Or a photograph.

  “What is it?” She had to ask, had to know.

  “Maybe nothing. Maybe something.” He handed it to her.

  Lana hesitated. “What do you know about me?”

  “I know that you lost your daughter. Not dead. At least you don’t believe so. But lost. Gone.” He wriggled his fingers, just as Lana did when she read Ursula a bedtime story about magic and stardust. But what was in that envelope wouldn’t be anything magic and it certainly wasn’t stardust.

  “And whatever is in that envelope concerns her disappearance?” Lana’s fingers twitched. She should simply grab the envelope and tear it open.

  “It might.” He looked down at the envelope. “I’ve held on to it for a couple of days.”

  “You’ve held on to it?”

  Blake lifted his eyes to hers. “I don’t know who sent it. I don’t know if it’s just someone messing with…”

  “Me? Or you?” Lana held her hand out for the envelope. Blake let the envelope go and Lana ran her finger under the flap and opened it carefully. “What is this?”

  What you seek. Is in Bear Creek. The words were scrawled across a photograph of a young woman. A woman Lana didn’t know. On the bottom right-hand corner were a time and a place, it was signed Elliot. Whoever sent the photo wanted to meet in person.

  “That’s what I’d like you to find out.” Blake leaned back in his chair. “I lost a daughter, too, Lana. That’s why I hired you since we both know you are not the kind of reporter who would go through someone’s garbage to see if they are eating carbs.”

  “So you want me to go to Bear Creek and meet this person?” Lana asked as she studied the photograph closely.

  “Here, this might help.” Blake picked up a magnifying glass and handed it to Lana. “You might be interested in the reflection in the glass.”

  The glass Blake indicated was a store window. The photograph itself might have been lifted from the store security camera, but there was no time and date stamp and it was clearer than Lana would expect. As she moved the magnifying glass over the photo, she froze. “Kiki.”

  “That’s what I thought. When I hired you, I did a thorough background check. I saw a photo of your daughter. Of course, when I saw the reflection, I couldn’t be sure. But a parent knows their child.” His voice wavered before he coughed to clear his throat. “What I don’t know is whether the person who sent that photo realized she was in it.”

  “Why don’t you tell me everything, Blake?” She placed the photograph on the desk and slid it back toward him. “And then I’m leaving for Bear Creek.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that.” A ghost of a smile crossed Blake’s face.

  It seemed her weekend trip to the mountains had turned into a trip to Bear Creek. Lana didn’t expect Ursula to complain, there were mountains aplenty.

  Lana didn’t dare let herself hope she might find answers for Ursula there, too. Answers as to what exactly happened to her mom and why she’d never come home.

  Chapter Three – Jake

  “My car broke down.” Heather’s voice was more annoyed than upset.

  “And you don’t have it under control?” Jake turned off the highway, heading along the back roads to Bear Creek. And home.

  He envied his brothers. Max walked the mountains as a ranger to earn his pay and Tad didn’t even leave the grounds of the house as he created his masterful sculptures. As Jake had gotten older, the world of business no longer satisfied him and he longed to leave it all behind and spend his days caring for and nurturing Milly.

  And taking her for rides around the fields on my back, his bear added.

  So why didn’t they? That was the question Jake asked himself every morning as he got out of bed and went through the motions of dressing in a suit when he’d rather wear jeans, and driving to work, while he’d rather stay home.

  Because he was scared it wouldn’t be enough. Jake was afraid that if he stopped working, he would fade away.

  If he’d found his mate it would be different.

  But he hadn’t. She was out there somewhere. She had to be.

  Anything else was unthinkable.

  “Yes, I have it under control,” Heather retorted, jerking him out of his daydream. “The tow truck is on its way. But I need help with the art pieces I have in the car. They’re from the craft barn. I was bringing them home so I could mail them out first thing in the morning. They are too valuable to leave in the car. I could call Tad, but he’s got the kids. Josephine has an appointment and Max is not home yet.”

  “Okay, where exactly are you?” She couldn’t be too far away, the route from the craft barn to the Harrison house wasn’t far. But there were a couple of variations.

  “I’d just passed the animal shelter when the car started to make a knocking noise under the hood. I cruised for a couple of hundred feet before I pulled over where the road widens. Do you know it?” Heather asked as the sound of another vehicle reached
him down the phone.

  “I know it. Is that the tow truck arriving?” They sure must have gotten there fast unless Heather hadn’t called Jake right away.

  “No, it’s another car.” The engine in the background slowed and then stopped.

  “Are you okay?” Jake’s concern grew as a car door opened and then slammed shut. Since the craft barn had opened, many of the artists’ work had rocketed in value. Was it possible someone had sabotaged Heather’s car and was about to rob her?

  His foot inched down on the accelerator and his Porsche leaped forward as he sped toward the animal shelter. He was around ten minutes away…if he stuck to the speed limit. He could shave at least a couple of minutes off that time if he went over.

  “There’s someone coming over to the car.” Her voice wavered and then she let out a sigh. “It’s a woman with a child and what looks like her father. Unless she likes older men…”

  “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Five minutes.” Jake didn’t ease his foot off the gas as he drove around a sharp bend, the tires squealed as his car hugged the road.

  “Slow down,” Heather instructed. “I’m okay and I’d rather you get here in one piece than not at all.”

  “There are some bad people in the world, Heather.” He focused on the road as he guided the car toward his destination.

  “And you need to remember you have responsibilities that stretch farther than work, or me, or anyone else. You are a father and you need to keep yourself safe.” The warning in Heather’s voice hit home and he eased up on the gas just a little.

  “Three minutes.” He turned right onto the road leading to the animal shelter and slowed down a little bit more. He didn’t want to risk hitting one of the volunteers from the animal shelter who might be out on the road taking one of the rescue dogs for a walk. He didn’t want to risk hitting anything, car, person, animal or tree.

  He drove on, as he drew closer the lights of Heather’s car stood out against the shadowy trees. Jake leaned forward, there was the other car. The owner had pulled off the road and parked in front of Heather’s car and was standing near the open trunk of Heather’s car. He couldn’t see Heather, but she might be hidden by the open trunk. He tried not to panic.