Abducted (Unlikely Heroes Book 2) Page 5

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Jennie Jones,” Max whispered, turning to look at Jennie. “See, I told you.” They were sitting at the desk in the small den off to the side of the living room. They’d spent the past half hour perusing the FBI’s missing persons’ database webpage until Max had found Jennie’s face. He pointed at her photo on the computer screen. He looked from her to the picture and back again. “It’s you.”

  Jennie’s head spun. She stared at the photo of a young blonde woman. A pretty young blonde woman, not a bruised and battered one. But she didn’t recognize the girl in the photo, wasn’t sure if it was her, even though it looked like her. Minus the cuts and bruises.

  “I don’t know. Are you sure that’s me?”

  Max made a scoffing sound. “I saw you out there with Smokey. You knew what you were doing. Natural horsemanship. I know, because I use it myself. You have to be Jennie Jones. Your necklace says Jennie.” He motioned to the silver necklace hanging around her neck. Max glanced back at the computer screen. A muscle ticked in his jaw. “But I’m not sure if you were really communicating with Smokey through your mind. The jury’s still out on that one.”

  She stiffened her spine. “I was. I told him I’d bring a mare to visit him in the spring if he behaved himself.”

  His gaze shot back to hers. Something flashed in his eyes, then was gone. Jennie wasn’t sure what it had been. Laughter? Disbelief? The man was hard to read.

  Max rose. “I need to call the sheriff. If you’re really Jennie Jones, then your family must be crazy with worry about you.”

  Jennie jolted to her feet as fear clutched at her chest. “No! Wait, I—” She broke off. Her family? Who were they? Did she even have a family? The thought of seeing strangers who were supposed to be her family and whom she didn’t remember terrified her.

  He turned back to her. “What?”

  Her cheeks warmed. “I’m scared. I don’t remember my family. What if…” She swallowed hard. “What if they don’t like me?” What if the person she’d been before hadn’t been likeable?

  Max eyed her, his expression unreadable. “In my experience, few families actually like each other.”

  What did that mean? Jennie stared at his impassive features. Families were supposed to love you, to always be there for you. Right? Why would he think families weren’t supposed to like each other?

  “It doesn’t mean you have to leave with them, Jennie. You can stay here until you get your memory back. Besides, we won’t be going anywhere until the snow plows come out and clear the roads, which won’t be until after the snow stops. And it’s supposed to keep snowing until late Monday night, so it will be sometime on Tuesday, probably the afternoon, before the plows make their way clear out here.” He watched her for a moment, and she swore an expression that looked like sympathy crossed his face, but it was gone so quickly she couldn’t be sure.

  You can stay here until you get your memory back.

  Had he really said that? She knew he was suspicious of her and she sensed he wanted her gone. So why would he offer to let her stay?

  Because he wanted something from her.

  Jennie wasn’t sure how she knew that, she just did. The thought chilled her. Not because she was afraid of him. She didn’t think Max would hurt her. In fact, she knew he wouldn’t. She’d witnessed the good in him. He’d saved her life.

  But something told her he wanted something from her and that’s why he was being nice to her. Why he was allowing her to stay…

  But what could he possibly want from her? She didn’t even remember who she was. The name Jennie Jones didn’t mean anything to her. She glanced back at the computer screen and reread the profile on Jennie Jones. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Age twenty-eight (which, assuming she was Jennie Jones, would make her twenty-nine now). Vanished without a trace from her ranch in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho on June 6…

  Coeur d’Alene? She wracked her brain, but the town didn’t sound familiar to her.

  Jennie had an idea. She moved the cursor to the search engine box and typed in “Jennie Jones missing horse trainer.”

  The page filled with numerous links. She clicked on the first one, her heart in her throat. She felt Max step up behind her. He leaned over her shoulder to read.

  “North Idaho horse trainer goes missing after an argument with her father…”

  An argument? Jennie closed her eyes and tried to remember, but came up blank.

  “Steve Jones was questioned by authorities about the disappearance of his daughter, but police have now ruled him out as a suspect…” Jennie’s eyes flew open as Max continued to read. She stared at the computer screen. Steve Jones. She rolled the name around in her head, but it didn’t sound familiar to her. She scrolled down the screen and stared at the picture of a large stocky man with black hair and eyes. He appeared to be in his late forties or early fifties. Her father? He didn’t look anything like her. No memory came to her as she looked at the man in the photo. Dammit, why couldn’t she remember him?

  “Authorities say Jones was very cooperative with officials and obviously distraught over his daughter’s disappearance. Police found signs of a struggle near Jennie Jones’ car in the garage, but have no suspects. Authorities believe she may have been kidnapped, abducted from her garage. Foul play is suspected. Ms. Jones vanished without a trace.”

  Foul play.

  Jennie moaned as pain crashed through her skull. She closed her eyes. A memory slid through her brain, just a quick flash from her peripheral vision of a man in a hood jumping out at her from behind her car, his black eyes the only features on his face that were visible. She gasped, spinning toward him a split second before something slammed into the back of her head.

  Jennie cried out and slumped forward over the keyboard.

  Her head spun dizzily. As if from somewhere far off, she heard Max swear and then she felt him lifting her from the chair. He called her name. Gently slapped at her cheek. But she couldn’t seem to respond.

  Her head hurt. She tried to lift her arms, but they just hung loosely against her sides. Max carried her from the room. Moments later he laid her down on the bed.

  “Dangerous,” she whispered, staring up at him in a daze. “Evil man. Black eyes.”

  “Dammit, Jennie,” he said softly. “You’re losing it. Come back to me.” He swore again. Groaned. “Please…not like Laura…”

  The last sentence was said so softly that Jennie barely heard him, but it was enough to snap her out of her daze. Laura. His wife.

  His dead wife.

  What had happened to her?

  Jennie took a deep breath and opened her eyes. Max sat on the bed next to her, his face in his hands. He looked…defeated, in extreme pain. Her head still spun, but she fought it back, determinedly pushed the swirling images of the hooded man aside. She had no doubt now that she’d been abducted. And dammit, she would remember it all somehow. Someway. But Max was hurting right now and she needed to help him.

  “What happened to her?”

  He yanked his hands away from his face and stared down at her. There was no mistaking the raw pain on his face. Instead of answering her, he said, “What just happened in there? Did you have a flashback or something? What?”

  She drew in a shaky breath. “Yes.”

  He waited, his gaze intense. “Tell me.”

  Jennie tried to sit up, but her head spun again, so she laid back down. “I was in a garage getting ready to get into my car. Then a man jumped out at me. He was wearing a hood. He had evil black eyes that stared out at me from holes in the hood. Then he hit me over the head with something hard and everything went black.”

  Max held her gaze for a long moment. He ran a hand over his face. “God, Jennie. If you were abducted, then the person you were fleeing from in my car was probably the same man who kidnapped you.” He rose from the bed. “As soon as the roads are cleared, I’m taking you into town.”

  He strode from the room. Jennie lay there for a long moment, staring after him
, not moving.

  The person you were fleeing from in my car…

  In my car…

  That’s what he wanted from her. That’s why he wasn’t eager to toss her out yet. Though it didn’t make any sense to her, apparently the car she’d been fleeing in had been Max’s.

  How had she come to be in Max’s car? It didn’t make any sense.

  A chill crept down her spine.

  There was something Max hadn’t told her. Something major.

  She bolted upright on the bed. Her head spun. She waited until the dizziness passed. Then she stood up.

  Damn him, how did he expect her to remember if he was keeping something from her? He had some explaining to do.

  Jennie stalked after him.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Max finished giving all the information to the deputy over the phone, then hung up. This was too serious to keep a secret any longer.

  The man promised to send someone out to interview Jennie once the storm passed and the roads were plowed. He told them to sit tight until then. The deputy told Max to keep Jennie there until they had a chance to talk to her. But Max wasn’t letting her go anywhere. Not until she remembered everything. He wasn’t letting her out of his sight until he found out if she knew something about Emily.

  A sound at his back had him spinning around.

  “Explain something to me, Max.” Jennie stepped up to him, propped a hand on her hip. “Why was I in your car?” Her gaze locked on his. “Why your car?”

  Max turned away from her. He hadn’t meant to slip like that, but it was too late to take it back now.

  “I don’t know.” He didn’t want to tell her too much in case she was somehow involved in Emily’s abduction.

  She stepped around in front of him, forcing him to look at her. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Hell. He ran a hand over his face. If Jennie had been abducted, it was unlikely she’d helped in Emily’s abduction, because Emily had been gone two years before Jennie had disappeared. But that didn’t mean Jennie didn’t know something. Where had she gotten the car?

  He groaned and sank into his favorite recliner. How much did he tell her? In three years, there’d been no trace of Emily. Nothing. Not even a tiny little clue.

  Until now.

  The car meant something. It had to.

  “My car disappeared three years ago,” he said quietly, watching Jennie closely to gage her reaction. “With my 15-year-old daughter inside.”

  Jennie paled. “Oh my gosh. Max. I’m so sorry.” She took a step forward. “You haven’t seen your daughter since then?”

  “No.” Max’s throat closed up and he swallowed hard. He jerked his gaze away. He hadn’t seen his little girl for three years. Didn’t even know if she was alive. But Jennie had been in his car, so she was somehow connected to Emily. She had to be. He cleared his throat. “You can imagine my shock when I saw my car down in the river when I hadn’t seen it in over three years.”

  “And your surprise to find a complete stranger inside,” Jennie finished softly. “Oh Max, now everything makes sense.”

  His gaze locked on hers. The way she said his name made something tighten in his chest, squeezing the breath from his lungs. It had been a long time since anyone had spoken his name with such…compassion. Hell, he couldn’t remember anyone caring about him in so long. His own family didn’t even speak to him anymore. Laura had been ill for so many years that she hadn’t had the mental or emotional capacity to care about him the way a wife should. Not that he’d complained. It wasn’t Laura’s fault. None of it had been Laura’s fault.

  He’d survived. He didn’t need love. He didn’t need anyone. He had Lucky. And his horses.

  Jennie knelt before his chair. “Now I understand why you don’t trust me. Take me to the car. Please? I want to see it. Maybe it will help me to remember.” Her gaze was earnest as she leaned toward him in the chair, her hands resting on his thighs.

  Take her back down to the river? Was she crazy? It was frickin’ cold out there.

  Max glanced down to where Jennie’s hands rested on his thighs. His legs tingled where she touched him. His heart thumped in his chest. Her scent floated around him, sweetly feminine. He sucked in a breath, felt a stirring in his loins. He jerked his gaze up, looked into those blue, compassion-filled eyes. God, how long had it been since anyone had touched him, gotten this close?

  No, she was not getting to him. He wouldn’t let her.

  “I can’t.” His voice sounded hoarse. “The snow’s too deep and I only have one pair of snowshoes.” He refused to take her out there on a snowmobile. If she knew about the snowmobiles she might try to use one to escape. And he wasn’t done with her yet. He wanted her to think she was stranded here until he got the truth out of her. Until he found out what she knew about Emily. Then, and only then, would he let her go.

  She leaned closer between his spread thighs until she was nearly in his lap, her gaze never leaving his. “Please Max. You don’t know how hard it is not knowing who you are, not remembering anything…” The heat from her body radiated around him until it was all he could feel. “I don’t know who Jennie Jones is, Max. A horse trainer…It doesn’t mean anything to me. I want to know what happened to me. I want to remember. So please, take me down there. Show me.”

  Shit. He couldn’t look away from those gorgeous eyes, the pleading he saw there.

  He gulped in a breath. His gaze shot down to her hands on his thighs again.

  “Get off me,” he said through gritted teeth, refusing to touch her, refusing to admit how much she affected him.

  She was getting to him. And he didn’t like it one bit.

  She pulled her hands away, her face turning bright red, and jumped back. “Sorry.”

  Max leapt up from the chair. He sucked in another breath. Hell, he couldn’t breathe when she was that close. He turned back to her.

  “You have a death wish? Fine. I’ll take you to the car. But be prepared to freeze your ass off, because we might not make it back.”

  Damn stubborn woman. He couldn’t wait until she was gone.

  He strode for the coat closet without a backward glance.

  * * *

  “That’s the car?” Jennie stared down into the river where a dark green car had washed up onto the bank. The roof, hood and trunk were all covered in about two feet of snow. What looked like bullet holes pierced the driver’s side door, the driver’s window had been broken out or shot out, and one rear tire was flat. A bullet? As Jennie stared at the car, a chill crept down her spine.

  Who would shoot at her? And why? Where had she found that car?

  She headed down the hill through the deep snow, slipped and fell on her backside. She slid all the way down to the water’s edge, stopping just before the car’s front left tire. Lucky barked and raced after her while Max followed at a slower pace in his snow shoes. He’d made a path through the deep snow for Jennie to follow down to the river. It had taken about five minutes to get here. Jennie wore the coat and extra pair of snow boots he’d loaned her earlier. It was still snowing, though the wind had calmed down again. Jennie knew he wasn’t too pleased about bringing her out here, but she was growing impatient. She wanted to remember. As soon as she did, she could be on her way and give Max his life back.

  His sad, lonely life.

  Her heart thudded against her ribs. Poor Max. No wonder he was so guarded. He’d lost his wife and his daughter. He was more alone than anyone she knew.

  Except herself. Right now she felt so alone. She couldn’t remember anything.

  Max reached her side. He stared at the car. “I never really took the time to investigate before, because I had to get you back to the house before you froze to death.” He turned his head and looked at her. “You were lying in the driver’s seat. The wolf was in the passenger’s seat. Both of you were bleeding, so the blood that’s in the car is probably from both of you.” He turned back to the car. He walked around to the other side and yanke
d open the door. Jennie watched as he bent down and opened the glove box. He pulled out some papers. Jennie followed him, leaning close to read as he unfolded the registration paper.

  The name Maxwell Montgomery glared up at her like a pulsing strobe light. Her gaze flew to his. The pain in his eyes nearly knocked the breath from her lungs. It was his car. And Jennie had been in it. How? Why?

  She bent down and leaned into the car. Snow had blown in through the broken out window on the driver’s side and sprinkled the seat and part of the steering wheel. What looked like dried blood covered the passenger’s seat and the floor board. There was also blood on the back of the driver’s seat and a blood smear on the front windshield where she’d probably hit her head.

  Jennie closed her eyes and tried to remember.

  Falling snow. Slick roads. A thick forest of pines…

  It was coming. She could feel it…

  The car fishtailed as she yanked the steering wheel to the right, trying to keep it on the winding road. Then she saw the river up ahead. Tried to stop, but the car was going too fast. The road was too slick…

  The car sailed over the edge. Trees flew past at a blur. The river lurched up toward her.

  Jennie screamed and leapt back. Her eyes flew open.

  Max caught her against him.

  “It’s all right,” he murmured against her ear. “I’ve got you.”

  She relaxed against him as her heart rate slowed. She felt safe with Max, though she sensed he didn’t really want to protect her. She knew he would prefer she be long gone. Knew he was only keeping her here until he found out if she knew something about his daughter. But she didn’t. Not yet anyway. But she hoped she could help him somehow.

  Though she was reluctant to leave his arms, Jennie stepped back. She lifted her gaze to his.

  “What did you remember?” His dark gaze probed hers.

  “Driving on a slick road. Lots of snow. Sliding off into the water. And then…nothing.”

  A frustrated look crossed his face. “So you don’t remember where you got the car?”