Deadly Holiday Reunion. Lenora Worth
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. She’d built more than a restaurant here. She’d rebuilt her life. Without Jake. Had she ever really needed him?
“I have to keep them away, Jake,” she said now. “You know they raised me after my parents died.” She stopped, stared off into space. “I can’t believe he’s back.”
Jake could tell she was reliving the terrible memories and the awful guilt of knowing one man had killed four young women just possibly so he could get to Ella. One faceless man who now had his daughter.
“I don’t know for sure if it’s him, but the MO is the same.”
“You need to brief me before we get going.”
He cleared his throat and wished he didn’t need to do this. “A whole lot of law enforcement people are out there looking, but I knew once I found that necklace I had to come and check on you.”
Ella whirled to stare at him. “And you also knew I’d want to help.”
“Yeah. I didn’t want you to hear this news from anybody else. I figured you’d strike out on your own to find him.”
“And Macey,” she added before she turned back to her busywork. “I’d have to find Macey.”
He couldn’t lie. “Yes. I really need you to help me figure out the clues and stay on this, Ella. We don’t have much time.”
Ella’s sky-colored eyes met his with a look of defiance, chased by a solid trepidation. “No, we don’t. But if this is him, then neither does he.”
Jake went silent while they both remembered what this man could do to a victim. He could see that horror written all over Ella’s face.
After Ella left the FBI, she came home to East Texas. At first, she only wanted to heal and get her bearings and maybe prove to herself that she still had courage to face those dense woods each day. But weeks had stretched into months and, finally, she’d resigned from her Dallas post and she’d never looked back.
Until now.
Jake followed her, checking weapons right behind her. Not used to him being around and certainly not nearly prepared for what he’d told her, she whirled around and gave him