Jake grabbed her hand, his eyes centered on her face. “Ella, listen to me. He took her. That’s why I’m here.”
Ella’s heart rate surged like a storm coming over the pasture and then crashed into a thundering warning. “Do you know the man who took Macey?”
Jake’s eyes filled with a bright anger and then he nodded. “We both know him. The Dead Drop Killer. He took my little girl. And I need you to help me find her before it’s too late.”
* * *
Ella clutched her hands to the lip of the old oak table. “The Dead Drop Killer? No.” She got up and paced around the big country kitchen, her gaze hitting on her grandmother’s cross-stitching. The lacy white dish towels with the bright red-and-green holly leaves etched on their edges looked perfectly ordinary. “No, no, Jake. He’s...he’s gone. He hasn’t killed anyone in over five years because he’s dead. The trail ran cold after you found me. You know that. You know he was wounded and...he had to have died in those woods, possibly drowned in the lake. You were there the night—”
“I was there the night I found you half-dead and just about out of your mind,” Jake said. “Yeah, I remember everything about that night and everything that happened afterward. But we never found a body, Ella.” He shook his head. “We assumed he was dead but we never actually had proof.”
His eyes held accusation as well as torment. He’d never forgiven her for following her dream, but he’d sure brought home the point he’d tried to make when they broke up way back. Being an FBI agent was dangerous.
And some dangers never went away.
Ella gulped in air, ran to the back window and stared out over the fence line leading down to Caddo Lake. A beautiful winter day waited for her but she could only see the dark, murky memories clouding out the sun. “It’s been so long. So long. We thought he’d drowned. Out in the lake.” She whirled around. “I’m comfortable here now. I found something I could do and I love it. Something to help me heal.”
Jake got up and came to her. Putting his hands on her arms, he stared down at her. “He’s back. And he took my Macey.”
Ella refused to believe that. “How do you know it’s him?”
Jake tugged a small brown evidence bag out of his shirt pocket. “Because of this—the first clue.” He carefully opened the bag and turned it down just enough that she could see what was inside without touching it. “He left me a note that led me to this.”
Ella gasped, her gaze slipping over the necklace. A delicate gold chain with a white daisy hanging from it. The chain Jake had given Ella for graduation their senior year of high school.
The chain she’d been wearing several years after high school and a lifetime later when the case they’d been working on together had gone bad and the Dead Drop Killer had taken Ella and held her here on Caddo Lake with the intent to kill her in the same way he’d killed four other young women. But she’d escaped because she had been trained to survive. Special Agent Ella Terrell. She’d lived, but they’d never caught the man who’d taken her. She’d wounded him during her escape and some had believed he’d crawled off like the animal he was and died in the woods. Some thought the alligators had done away with him. Others had predicted he’d come back one day. Some of the rumors said he still lived in the woods—waiting for her.
Ella had refused to believe those rumors. Just high school kids trying to scare each other. But the Dead Drop Killer preferred young, dark-haired girls. Girls like Macey Cavanaugh. Girls with hair similar to Ella’s—back then. He’d taken Ella to make a point, to show her that he could break her, training or no training, because she’d gotten too close.
At least that was what she believed. Some of the old team members believed she’d been his target all along, but her mind couldn’t comprehend that after four deaths. Why would he want her so badly?
But in the end, maybe he’d succeeded in breaking her. He hadn’t killed her, but she certainly hadn’t been able to do her job anymore. And now Jake was asking her to step back into that world....
She slammed a fist against her old jeans, logic slamming against fear inside her head.
They’d never found his body and they’d never found her necklace. This was that same necklace. Of that she had no doubt. She could see the old, dried bloodstains caked against the links of gold. She hated daisies.
“No, no.” She reached out, grabbed at Jake’s plaid shirt. “No, Jake. He can’t...it can’t be him.”
“I think it is, honey,” Jake replied, the truth charging through his eyes. “I came to you because you’re the only one who can help me find him—and because I’m worried about you. I’ve got a little bit of a head start before a task force from Tyler shows up with the Sheriff’s Office.”
He pushed at the bangs falling over Ella’s forehead. “I’m sorry but I need you, Ella. I’m going to track him.”
His touch was as gentle against her skin as a butterfly’s fluttering wings. But the look in his eyes was anything but gentle. “And this time, when I do find him I’m going to kill him.”
* * *
Jake watched as Ella went around, gathering supplies and firearms. She obviously knew how to take care of herself. She’d been doing it for years now. She had a loyal guard dog to warn her of strangers. Zip had alerted her that someone was approaching when Jake arrived and she’d greeted him there in the barn with a rifle pointed at his head. Nothing new about a Texan carrying a weapon on her own land, but Ella needed the security of protecting herself more than most after what she’d been through.
“You seemed prepared to hold off an army,” he said to settle his antsy nerves. He glanced at the huge Christmas tree by the picture window, memories of other Christmases lighting his mind.
Now she turned to explain, one hand tugging through her burnished gold-streaked hair. Hair that used to be a rich brown. Had she dyed it? “I have weapons hidden inside the house and out in the barn. Even in the open-air dining room down by the lake.” She lifted her chin in defiance, just the way she’d done when they’d fought long ago. “I won’t live in a spirit of fear.”
Jake had to agree with that. God’s people didn’t live in a spirit of fear, but it paid to be prepared, too. “But you live with your grandparents,” he said. “They’ll need to know what’s going on.”
She’d have to send them away. Somewhere safe.
She nodded, went back to gathering supplies. “They’ll be home any minute now. I’ll close down the restaurant for a while.” Her sky-blue eyes went dark. “We’ll set up the command post here.”
Jake didn’t want to rush her, but each minute was precious. He had to talk to keep from screaming. “Uh, so you run a restaurant now. I saw the sign on the gate. Caddo Country?”
Ella’s gaze swept over the den and kitchen in an urgent rush. “Yes, it’s farm-to-table meals by request out underneath the big screened gazebo and outdoor kitchen Grandpa helped me build.” She checked her weapons, grabbed ammunition.
Jake let her do her thing, figuring Ella needed to feel safe and he’d see to it that she was safe. But he could tell she’d left the law enforcement life behind.
