Backcountry Escape

This was ludicrous. “How? When she didn’t even know the sister existed?” Gage demanded.

His brothers gave him that look. The you should know better, Gage look. Because he was a cop. He knew how to investigate a suspicious death, and Felicity tripping over her alleged half sister was certainly suspicious.

He looked at Felicity. She’d made him promise that she wouldn’t get elbowed out of dealing with this herself, so he waited for her to bring it up.

Though mostly he wanted Grandma Pauline to shove her full of brownies while he took care of everything.

However, he had enough women in his life to know they didn’t particularly appreciate that method. Besides, he’d promised. So… He all but bit his tongue.

He gave Felicity a go-ahead nod, and then gestured when she simply stared at him. She blew out a slow breath.

“It could be Ace,” Felicity finally said. She looked down at the plate and the brownie on it, but her voice was clear and steady no matter how little eye contact she made.

“How?” Jamison returned.

She looked up and met Jamison’s gaze. “I interfered. I helped Nina and Cody. I don’t know how it’s Ace, but I know why it could be. It makes sense.” Her gaze shifted to Gage, looking for some kind of support or backup.

Me not Brady. Which was very much not the point. “Obviously, the timing of the first one doesn’t work, but it could be a copycat type thing. It could be a way to make it look like she’s involved—and I think the family connection only makes that more plausible.”

His brothers mulled that over.

“Possibly a setup. To get Felicity in trouble. A punishment for interfering,” Jamison said, clearly trying to work out the logistics. “I buy that. It’s Ace’s MO. But how would he have orchestrated it? Since the attempt on Nina’s life, we’ve been keeping tabs on everyone Ace talks to.”

Gage had thought about that on the long, silent drive over to Grandma Pauline’s. “We keep tabs on everyone who visits him in jail. Not who he talks to inside. He could be paying off a guard or threatening another inmate. Problem is, until Ace is sentenced and sent to a more secure facility, he has ample ways to outwit the system and us.”

“His lawyer keeps getting the trial pushed back,” Tucker said, disgust lacing his tone. “They’re going to drag it out as long as they can.”

“Don’t you have any informants on the inside, Detective?” Gage asked, infusing the word detective with only a little sarcasm.

Tucker rolled his eyes. “Not anyone I’d trust enough to tangle with Ace.”

“What do we do?” Duke asked. Demanded.

“The park forced me to take a week’s leave of absence, and then they’ll reevaluate,” Felicity said miserably.

“So, you’ll be home.” Duke didn’t have to say where you belong for it to be heard echoing in the silence.

Felicity smiled at Duke, but surely everyone saw how sad that smile was.

“There’s not much we can do right now,” Jamison said, always the de facto leader, no matter the situation. “Tucker will keep his ear to the ground when it comes to the investigation. Cody and I can look into getting some more information about who Ace talks to in the jail.”

“What about…” Gage hesitated at the word father, considering he barely liked to call his own one. “Michael Harrison. Where did this guy come from?”

“He was the victim’s father.”

Gage shook his head. “That’s an awful big coincidence. There was a reason Felicity was removed from his care. Was this girl?”

“Okay, point taken. We’ll look into both of them.”

“And what will I do?” Felicity asked, and though Gage thought she tried to turn it into a demand like Duke had done, it didn’t quite hit the mark.

“Come home and rest, girl,” Duke instructed.

Gage opened his mouth to come to her defense because he’d promised, but she shook her head.

She smiled at her foster father. “That’s a good idea, Duke.”

They both stood up from the table, and since she hadn’t taken even a single bite of the brownie Grandma had put in front of her, Grandma immediately shoved a plastic container full of brownies into her hands.

Felicity smiled and gave Grandma a one-armed hug. “Thank you, Grandma Pauline.”

“You eat, you hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Felicity glanced back at Gage. “Keep me up-to-date?”

He ignored the fact he got a little something out of her asking him and not Brady. He was very good at ignoring things he didn’t particularly care for.

He gave her a nod, and Duke, Rachel and Felicity left Grandma’s kitchen. Leaving Gage with his brothers and Grandma.

Dev stood first. “I’ve got work.”

“I’ll help,” Gage offered. “I was supposed to anyway.” He paused and looked at Jamison, Cody and Tucker. They had the best ways to get information. Gage had a few buddies over at Pennington, but Tucker knew the detectives. Jamison and Cody had been integral in getting Ace arrested in the first place, so they had a lot of ways to find information on the Ace side of things.

Gage rode the road. He had a bit too much of a mouth on him to receive the promotions Tucker and Brady seemed to rack up without even trying.

It didn’t bother him. He preferred the in-the-trenches view from the bottom, but right now the lack of resources to get information made him superfluous.

So why not sweat away some frustration on ranch work? He’d spend the night, check in on Felicity tomorrow morning, then head back to his apartment to pick up his take-home car for his evening shift.

If that itch between his shoulder blades stayed there all through the afternoon and night, well, he’d deal.

WHEN HE WOKE up the next morning and trudged down to breakfast, Brady was waiting at the breakfast table. Gage rubbed bleary eyes and knew the news was bad without even a word passing between them.

“They searched Felicity’s cabin,” Brady said without preamble.

“And?”

“They found evidence of clothing being burned in the fire grate outside the cabin. They’ve collected some hair they found—clearly not Felicity’s.”

“Doesn’t mean it’s that woman’s hair. That doesn’t mean anything. Good Lord, she’s not a suspect.”

“They’ve sent the hair and what was left of the burnt clothes in for DNA testing,” Brady said, his calm poking at Gage’s agitation.

Brady sighed and shook his head, showing his first sign of emotion. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“So do I.” It smelled of a setup. But not enough of one to tip off cops who didn’t know Felicity. Or Ace, for that matter.

“We’ve got to get her a lawyer,” Brady said. With a straight face and everything.

“A lawyer? Are you insane? We have to get her out of here.”

Brady’s expression went carefully blank. “You can’t run from the police, Gage. You are the police.”

“Yeah, and I know this is garbage. You know it. Felicity wouldn’t hurt a fly, and I’m not going to let her be arrested and God knows what else. Can you imagine her stuck in a cell somewhere? It’s not happening.”

Brady didn’t move even as Gage paced the room. Cody often called them two sides of the same coin. The way they reacted, or acted in general, was often in big sweeping opposites, but when it came to it—twin junk or just the way life worked—they were the same deep down.

They might not react the same, but they understood.

“Where would you go?” Brady asked, without Gage even having to say he’d be the one to hide her.

“I don’t know yet, but I’ll figure it out.”

He had to.

Chapter Four

Felicity woke up in her childhood bed. There was a deep, soothing relief in that familiarity, that cocoon of safety…for about five seconds before the anxiety started to creep in.

Luckily, there was plenty to do to keep a mind occupied when you woke up on a ranch. Though Duke and Sarah ran the cattle operation with their seasonal workers, Felicity knew a chore or two could always be picked up.

It wouldn’t keep her mind from running in circles, but it might help exhaust her enough she could manage a decent night’s sleep tonight instead of tossing and turning as she’d done last night.

She rolled out of bed and looked around the empty room. She’d once shared it with Sarah, but when Liza, Nina and Cecilia had all moved out, each of the remaining girls had gotten their own room instead of sharing with one other sister.

Felicity had learned how to be alone, but she did it best and most comfortably when she could be outdoors. When she could listen to birdsong and watch the stars move across the sky. When the fresh air and unique landscape made her feel awe at her place in the world.

Indoors, alone was just alone. Too quiet and too claustrophobic.

The thought had her walking into the hallway, determined to find someone to eat breakfast with and then find chores.

She ran into Rachel in the hallway and raised an eyebrow at her notoriously bad-at-mornings sister. “Aren’t you up early.”

“That class I’m teaching at the rez this summer started last week.” Rachel yawned. “It might kill me.”

“I thought you were going to stay with Cecilia while you did that.” As a tribal police officer, Cecilia lived on the rez. Though she wasn’t Duke’s biological daughter, she was Eva’s niece. Neither Cecilia nor Rachel would have ever said it aloud, but they had more of a connection with each other than with her, Sarah, Liza and Nina. Blood mattered, even in a foster family.

“I’ve been spending weeknights with Cee, and weekends here. But Daddy was grumbling last night so I stayed an extra night. I’m staying there the rest of the week after class today.” Rachel yawned again, then her eyes brightened. “Hey, drive me over instead of Sarah? You can spend a few nights with us at Cecilia’s, take your mind off everything. We’ll have a sleepover. Sarah won’t stay because of the ranch, and Liza and Nina have their girls to worry about, but the three of us could have fun.”

“I don’t—”

“I won’t take no for an answer.”

Felicity smiled. It wasn’t such a bad idea. She could clear her head, enjoy her sisters. Maybe Rachel and Cecilia had a deeper connection, but Felicity only seemed to feel that when she was alone and overthinking things. When they were all together, they were sisters.

Maybe all those thoughts about deeper connections were more her own issues than the truth.

“Well, then I guess… Damn, I don’t have a car.”

“We’ll take Duke’s. He can use Sarah’s truck for the weekend. You drop me off at the school, then you can do whatever. I’m sure the park will let you go back to work next week once the police have figured this out.”

Felicity smiled, though she was not at all sure. Nothing about what was going on felt like last time. Last time had been a shock. It had been scary and a little traumatic, but she’d been able to convince herself it was a one-time thing. She’d just had the bad luck to be the one to find him. Bad luck was life.

Twice in two years felt a lot less like random bad luck.

“Come on,” Rachel said, slipping her arm around Felicity’s taller shoulders. “I’ll make you breakfast. Pancakes.”

“You don’t have to go to all that trouble.”

Rachel shrugged. “Daddy and Sarah will sing my praises. Neither of them are very good at taking care of themselves.”

“What do they do when you’re not here?”

“I’m hoping one of them learns through sheer necessity. I guess we’ll see.”

They headed downstairs together. Though Rachel was legally blind, she knew the house so well she didn’t need her support cane when walking around inside and most of the grounds outside, as well.

Duke and Sarah were likely already out doing chores, but they’d be back in a half hour or so to eat and get more coffee. Felicity set out to help Rachel make pancakes and they chatted about Rachel’s art class.

It felt good and normal, and Felicity almost forgot all her worries. Everything would be fine. She had a great family. Maybe the real issue wasn’t so much what had happened, but how she’d allowed herself to feel solitary and singular when she had so many people who cared about her.

Since she hadn’t done anything wrong, she just had to wait out the investigation. Maybe the time off would even be good for her. She’d been so focused on having her dream job that she’d neglected her family.

She’d spend time with her sisters, with Duke, do some work around the ranch, and when she was cleared to go back to work, she’d focus more on balance.

As she turned to put the bowl of strawberries she’d just cut up on the table, she saw a truck cresting the hill to the Knight house. Not one of Duke’s trucks.

“Who is it?” Rachel asked.

“Gage.” Why he was suddenly the one in charge of this whole thing, she didn’t know. She’d called Brady originally because she’d wanted someone to take care of it, but Brady wouldn’t have just taken care of it—he would have taken over.

She’d thought she’d wanted that in the moment, but she realized as Gage’s truck pulled to a stop in front of the house, she was glad Gage had included her. He’d encouraged her to speak. He believed her theories. It felt more like she was on even ground with him.

“It’s early,” Rachel commented. “But that doesn’t mean—”

“It means he has bad news. If it’s bad news, it’s about the dead woman.” My sister. Felicity really couldn’t wrap her head around that part yet, so she kept pushing it away. Kept pushing the involvement of her father out of her mind. Over and over again.

Despite knowing it was coming, the knock on the door made Felicity jump.

“We could pretend we’re not here,” Rachel offered.

“It would only delay the inevitable. Besides, he knows we’re here.” Felicity steadied herself on a deep breath before opening the door.

Gage looked disheveled, which wasn’t that out of character for him, but considering the circumstances it felt foreboding. His grave expression didn’t help. Gage was almost never grave. He was the one who cracked a joke to break the tension or told a bizarre story to take everyone’s mind off things.

Brady was the grave twin, the one who took everything seriously and was weighed down by it. She’d always admired Brady’s willingness to accept responsibility.

But wasn’t trying to lift the weight of a room its own kind of responsibility?

“Pack a bag,” Gage said, his voice rough. “You’ve got five minutes before we need to be on the road.”

Those harsh words, with no preamble, had Felicity frowning at him. “What are you even talking about?”

“We have to go. Now. Unless you want to spend the night, or a few nights, in jail.”

GAGE SHOULDN’T HAVE put it so bluntly, but time was of the essence. He hadn’t even had his coffee, which might have accounted for some of the bluntness.

“Go pack your things, Felicity,” Rachel said when Felicity stood motionless.

Felicity left the kitchen at Rachel’s words, and Rachel turned back to whatever she’d been doing. It looked like making pancakes.

Gage didn’t know what to say in the face of a nice domestic morning Felicity should have been able to share and enjoy with her sister. This was really more of a do situation, and the fewer people who knew what they were doing, the better.

When Rachel turned back around, she held two travel mugs he was pretty sure were filled with coffee. Thank God.

She held out both to him. He stepped toward her and took them. She angled her head up, looking at him thoughtfully even though he knew she couldn’t see him clearly.

The scars that had caused her loss of sight were such a part of the face he knew so well, he only noticed them now because things were bad. It made him think about all those years ago when a freak mountain lion attack had taken Rachel’s sight.

Grandma had started teaching them all to shoot the next day—Wyatt brothers and Knight girls side by side, armed with various guns and starting at ten paces away from a row of tin cans balanced on a fence.

When bad things happened, you did what you could to learn how to protect yourself from the next one. That was the lesson of his life. That was why he’d become a police officer. He knew what awful, horrible things could happen—from animal attacks to cold-blooded murder—and he’d wanted to be one of the ones who set things to right.

Sometimes he had. Sometimes he hadn’t. Life wasn’t perfect, and being a cop didn’t mean he could fix everything, even if he wanted to.

But he could fix this for Felicity. First, he had to get her out of harm’s way. Then the Wyatts would work to make sure this got cleared up. But he simply couldn’t stand the thought of her in a holding cell. Not Felicity.

“You’ll take good care of her,” Rachel finally said.

It wasn’t a question, so he didn’t answer it.

Felicity returned with a backpack. She’d changed into jeans and a T-shirt and was wearing her hiking boots, which was a good thing. They’d be doing some considerable hiking. “You’ll need a coat. Light one, but a coat nonetheless.”

“Where are we going?”

“We’ll talk about it in the truck.”

She blew out an irritated breath as she walked away and then returned with a windbreaker. “Good?”

He nodded.

Felicity turned to Rachel. “Duke is going to—”

“I’ll handle Daddy. You be safe.”

They hugged briefly, then Felicity turned to him, grasping the straps of her backpack, a grim determination on her face. “All right. Let’s go.”

He led her out to his truck. He’d fixed Dev’s camper shell onto his truck bed and stuffed it full of a variety of things. Hunting gear, fishing gear, ranch supplies. Hidden under all of that were two backpacks set up for backcountry camping. Brady was under strict orders to pick up the truck at the drop-off point and park it at the local airport. Make it look like he was really taking the vacation he’d lied to the sheriff about.

They reached the truck and got in. Felicity hadn’t asked any questions—not that he would have answered them until they were in the truck and on their way.

She hefted her backpack into the back and folded her hands on her lap. She looked straight ahead as he started the engine.

Gage began to drive, knowing he should explain things. Instead, he took a few sips of coffee to clear his morning-fogged brain and waited for Felicity to demand answers.

“Where are you taking me?” she finally asked, which wasn’t the question he thought she’d lead with.

“I figure you know some pretty isolated areas in the park we could hike to and camp without anyone finding us.”

“If you backcountry camp you have to get a permit,” she said primly.

He wished he could be more amused by it, but in the moment he could only be a little harsh. “Felicity. You don’t honestly think I’m going to waste my time with a permit.”

“It’s about safety and the park’s environmental integrity. We have to know how many people—”

“Well, safety and the damn environment are going to have to take a back seat.” He spared her a look, hoping it got across how dire this situation was.

“I’m a suspect,” she said flatly. “We already knew that was a possibility.”

God, he wished that was all it was. He rubbed a hand over the scruff on his jaw. He hadn’t had a chance to shave this morning, and it didn’t look like he’d be shaving any time soon.

“It’s worse than that.”

She swallowed. Her words were careful as she spoke, and he knew she was trying to keep her stutter under control. “How so?”

“The investigators searched your cabin.”

“I d-don’t have anything to hide. What does that matter?”

“They found some things anyway.”

“What? How?” Felicity demanded, outrage making her cheeks turn pink. He liked it much better than the stutter, which sounded more like fear than fight.

“Someone is setting you up as a murderer.” He shifted his gaze to the road. “Still want to get that permit?”

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