Chaos in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law Mystery/Romance Series) (21 page)

By the time he reached the panel, Jadyn was already beside him and armed as well. If he hadn’t been so worried, it might have been amusing, both of them standing there naked except for their firearms.

“What is it?” she asked.

“One of the cameras on the back of the house picked up motion.”

“Could it be an animal?”

“Only if it’s as tall as a human. The alarm only goes off if the motion is above five feet from the ground.” He grabbed his shorts and tennis shoes and pulled them both on before dashing to the back door.

Jadyn was only seconds behind him and clothed when he peered out the back window and scanned the yard. The floodlights on the edges of the roof had automatically flipped on when the alarm sounded, giving him a good field of vision all the way to the tree line. Nothing moved. Nothing in the light, anyway.

“I don’t see anything,” he said. “Most likely, he was scared away by the alarm. I’m going to see if I can find footprints.”

“I’m going with you.”

“No. If he’s positioned at the edge of the swamp, you’re an open target.”

“So are you.”

“But he’s not after me.”

“That you know of.”

He shook his head. “This isn’t up for discussion. I’m going outside and I need you inside covering me in case things go south. Go into the guest room and raise the window enough for you to get a good shot off if needed.”

He slipped outside, pulling the door shut behind him before she could reply. Scanning the tree line, he listened for any sound that was out of place, but the noisy night creatures were all he heard. He hurried down the steps into the lawn and headed for the left side of the house, where the camera that had tripped the alarm was mounted. Starting close to the house, he scanned the soft ground for any sign of passage. With the recent rain and his lawn’s lack of good drainage, anything of size would leave an impression.
 

About ten feet out from the corner of the house he spotted the footprints. They were large—a man’s prints—and made by rubber boots. The tracks led out of the swamp to the left and retreated back in the same direction. Automatically, Colt reached back for the small flashlight that was usually attached to his belt and cursed when his hand brushed against bare skin and the cotton waistband of his shorts.
 

The foliage of the swamp was thick and the trees so close together that not a sliver of moonlight entered the area where the man had made passage. Without a good light, no way could he track him. Frustrated and more than a little concerned, he made his way back inside his house.

Jadyn met him at the back door, her anxious expression a dead giveaway to how she felt. “Anything?” she asked.

“Footprints leading out from and back into the swamp. The footprints leading into the swamp were farther apart than the ones leading into my yard.”

“He was running when he left.”

Colt nodded.
 

“What is going on?” Jadyn asked. “I don’t understand any of this.”

Colt’s heart broke a little at the tiny sliver of fear that made it through Jadyn’s words. A stalker was every woman’s worse nightmare, and this one was more brazen than most. He’d entered the hotel in broad daylight to poison her water. Now he’d approached a house belonging to a law enforcement officer.

“Let’s check the camera footage. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

They hurried to the kitchen and Colt accessed the security footage from his laptop, rewinding to a couple of minutes before the alarm tripped. They both leaned forward in their seats, staring at the screen, and after thirty seconds or so, they saw him creeping out of the swamp where Colt found the footprints.

He wore jeans, rubber boots, a long-sleeved flannel shirt, and a ball cap. Jadyn squinted, trying to catch a glimpse of something that might tell her who the man was.

“Damn it!” Colt swore. “He’s got his hat pulled down so far that we can’t see his face.”

He saw Jadyn’s hands clench as she watched the man inch closer to the house. Suddenly, the man froze.

“That must be when the alarm went off,” she said as he whirled around and hurried back into the swamp.

Colt reversed the footage and froze it in frame. “He doesn’t move like a young man.”

“No, and his neck has thickened. He’s definitely older.”

“What about height and weight? I’m thinking six foot, give or take an inch or two, and maybe two hundred pounds.”

Jadyn studied the man and nodded. “That looks about right.”

“Does it match the description of any of the shrimp house people you talked to?”

“Yeah. All of them.”

“Of course.” He sighed. “I’m going to send this footage to my office. Maybe a specialist can do more with it than us.”

“It doesn’t hurt to try,” she said, but Colt could tell she was as disappointed with the lack of solid leads as he was.

She rose from her chair and glanced at the kitchen clock. “It’s almost six. Might as well get dressed for work.”

Colt watched as she shuffled off down the hall. This wasn’t even close to his thoughts of how the morning would go. Last night, he’d thought it impossible to get enough of Jadyn, and he was right. Any doubt he’d had about her attraction to him and their potential together had flown completely out the window. Jadyn St. James was the most perfect woman he’d ever met, and he was going to do everything he could to make her part of his everyday life.

Last night had been incredible and he’d never wanted it to end.
 

Unfortunately, the mind was willing but the body was no longer sixteen. After hours of incredible lovemaking, they’d collapsed in each other’s arms. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept so soundly.

Until the alarm went off.

He opened his e-mail and sent the file to the sheriff’s department. The man had made a bad mistake coming after Jadyn. And if it was the last thing Colt ever did, he would hunt him down and make him pay.

###

Jadyn pulled on her clothes, then sat on the edge of the bed to pull on her work boots. Before she reached for a boot, she lifted the pillow to her nose and inhaled.

It smelled like him—spicy and masculine.
 

She put the pillow back on the bed and ran her hand over the rumpled sheets. If anyone had told her that making love to a man could be like what she and Colt had last night, she would have called them crazy. Now she was a believer. Her night with Colt had been mind-blowing, earth-shattering, and a whole bunch of other adjectives she couldn’t think of at the moment.
 

You’re falling for him.

Her hand flew up to cover her mouth. No. That couldn’t be. She barely knew him.
 

She shook her head. That wasn’t really true. Granted, she hadn’t known Colt for very long, but she was pretty sure she knew what kind of man he was. What he stood for and believed in. Was that enough to fall for someone? That and a compatibility in bed that boggled the mind?
 

She reached for her boots. This was not the time to get ahead of herself. They had to find Clifton Vines and figure out who was stalking her. Both of those were potentially life-threatening issues and besides that, it was their job to fix things. Colt wasn’t going anywhere. They had plenty of time to work out what was between them. There was no need to rush.

No need to deal with all the feelings she’d been throttling for weeks now.

She pulled on her boots and exited the room. The bathroom door was closed and she could hear water running in the sink. She headed into the kitchen and dug around for coffee to brew, then located a couple of thermoses in the kitchen cabinets. Colt’s laptop was open on the kitchen table, so she sat down in front of it to check her e-mail.

The browser was open to Colt’s e-mail and she glided her finger over the touchpad to close the window. But before she reached the X, her eyes caught sight of the words “Hey Sexy” from someone named Maria. She glanced at the hallway but the bathroom door was still closed.
 

She knew she shouldn’t open it. Whatever was in the message, it was private and intended only for Colt. But for the first time in her life, she threw logic and ethics both right out the window. She hovered for several seconds and finally clicked. The e-mail opened and she began to read.

Hey Sexy,

I know you said when you left NOLA you were done with big-city crime, but I’m hoping I can change your mind. Our old boss Captain Franks is creating a task force specializing in special victims of violent crimes. I know how much you valued your work on those types of cases and always wished there was a special division for them. Well, now there is. Ace and I have already been accepted into the unit, but there’s one more space.

It’s yours if you want it.

It’s the job you always wanted, and it couldn’t be offered under better circumstances. Franks practically foamed at the mouth at the thought of getting you back on his team. And he’s not the only one who feels a little weak at the thought of you returning.
 

I miss you, Colt.

I know I didn’t do a good job showing you how important you were to me, and it’s my biggest regret. When you left, I thought I’d be able to handle it, but I was a mess. And you know me. I don’t do sentimental.
 

I guess that means I care for you. A lot.

We were great together once before—on the job and off. I know we can be great together again.

Maria

Jadyn felt as if someone had reached into her chest and squeezed. Of course, she’d known Colt had other women in his past. How could he not? But it sounded as though whatever he’d had with Maria was far more than a passing fling. Maryse had hit the nail on the head with her call that Colt’s failure to expound on his New Orleans time was due to a woman. Jadyn had called the law enforcement part.

Colt had told Jadyn he left New Orleans because he was weary of seeing the horrible things people did to each other, but if the past months were any indication, he hadn’t gotten the respite he was looking for in Mudbug. And if a job he’d always wanted was on the table and all he had to do was ask, what was stopping him from leaving?

Unable to stop herself, she opened another window and Googled Maria. News stories of the very accomplished detective flooded the screen. She clicked on one of them and her heart fell even more. The woman was so gorgeous she didn’t even look real. If Jadyn hadn’t known any better, she would have thought it was a photo of an actress playing a cop on a Hollywood movie set. She closed the window without reading any of the articles. The headlines alone let her know that Maria was not only beautiful but a total badass at her job.

She switched back to the e-mail and marked it as unread, wishing she’d listened to her conscience and never opened it in the first place. She jumped up from the kitchen table and turned to stare out the front window at the sun coming up over the bayou.

What have I done?
 

She’d given her body and a good chunk of her heart to a man who had never given her the first indication that he was interested in anything long-term. With the job he’d always wanted and the stunning, accomplished woman he’d once cared for waiting for him in New Orleans, Jadyn couldn’t help feeling she would be a distant second.
 

“Are you ready?” Colt’s voice sounded behind her, causing her to jump.
 

“Sorry,” he said as she turned around. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“I guess I was lost in thought,” she said.

He circled his arms around her and pulled her in for a soft kiss. “We’re going to figure this out. No one is going to get to you. Not on my watch. Not ever.”

He squeezed her in closer and she buried her head in his chest. She knew he meant every word he said. Now.
 

The question was, would he feel the same way after he read the e-mail?

Chapter Fifteen

“Wake up!”

Taylor bolted upright in bed just as Helena dropped through the ceiling and slammed into the mattress, sending her vaulting off the bed and onto the floor. She was still only half-awake when she struggled up from the floor and glared at Helena over the edge of the bed. She was almost sorry she did.

The ghost wore a flight suit, but Taylor was fairly sure a person of Helena’s size had never been in the cockpit of an airplane. Her head was covered with what looked like the helmet from a space suit, and she wore a backpack that looked as though it contained a parachute. Mildred and company hadn’t been kidding about the wardrobe thing. She hadn’t seen anything this out-there since she’d last visited Aunt Freda in the mental hospital.

“Sorry,” Helena said, at least having the decency to look a little sorry.
 

“If that’s the way you wake people up, I can see why someone killed you.”

Helena rolled her eyes. “Like I haven’t heard that insult before. You’re really not a morning person, are you?”