LITMIR.BIZ

       ONE

      “I need you to help me find my daughter.”

      Ella Terrell hushed her barking German shepherd and stared up at the tall man standing with his cowboy hat in his hand at the door of the barn.

      Jake Cavanaugh.

      “What?” Her pulse quickened, causing her to put down the rifle she had aimed at him and squint into the sun. Even though he lived and worked a few miles away in Tyler, Texas, she hadn’t seen him or heard a word from him in over five years. Pushing away the dark memories surfacing in her mind, she asked, “What are you doing here, Jake? What do you mean?”

      He shifted, turned to glance around the tree-lined yard toward the house, the star emblem on his Texas Ranger badge flashing gold. “Look, I don’t have much time and I haven’t slept all night.” Then he lowered his head but lifted his gaze to her. “Ella, I need your help. Somebody took Macey.”

      The plea in his golden-brown eyes did her in. Jake had never been good at asking for help. Which only showed how desperate he must be to come to her. Ella had left the FBI a few years before, but if Macey was missing, she’d help Jake find her.

      Ella nodded and took him by the elbow to guide him up to the house, her big dog trailing behind them. “Let’s get inside and talk.”

      When they reached the house, Ella hurried up the porch and waited as Jake pushed his way past the big evergreen Christmas wreath hanging on the door, his broad shadow temporarily blocking out the warmth of the Texas sun.

      Once inside, he pivoted back to stare at Ella, his expression dark with worry. “Macey was kidnapped last night.”

      Macey, the daughter he’d had with another woman after he’d broken off his engagement to Ella. Having a child at nineteen hadn’t been easy. Having a wife who got sick with cancer eight years later had been the worst. Jake’s wife, Natalie, had died and left him with a little girl to raise.

      Ella rubbed a grubby hand over her ponytail then snapped into action. Putting down the rifle she always kept with her when she was working alone, she motioned toward the kitchen. “C’mon in and tell me everything.”

      Giving her a thankful nod, Jake stepped into the old farmhouse and did a quick sweep of the staircase and den.

      Sensing his agitation, Ella motioned to the long dining table between the den and kitchen. “My grandparents went into town for supplies.” She pointed to the big dog that had followed them inside. “Just me and Zip. I have fresh coffee.”

      Jake plopped down on a chair and laid his hat on the table near a glazed pot holding a bright red poinsettia. He looked exhausted. His eyes, always a bright golden-brown that reminded her of a cougar, looked washed out and dull. He looked a lot older than his thirty-four years. She couldn’t help but compare this Jake to the one who’d angrily told her close to sixteen years ago that they couldn’t get married if she was going to become an FBI agent like her daddy. She remembered every word of their conversation.

      “But, Jake, we’ve talked about this. It’ll be years before I can prepare to take the applicant test. We’ll get married after we graduate college, just like we planned. Once we’re done with school, we can both work toward our careers.”

      “And what about a house full of children, Ella? We’ve talked about that, too. I know you want to follow in your daddy’s footsteps, but I thought you’d get over that notion once we got married. It’s too dangerous and it’ll be hard on a family.”

      “And I’ve supported your choice to become a Texas Ranger, but I guess I was the only one being honest about things. I want children but I also want to work for the FBI. You’ve always known that. Why are you worried about children now? If you get to be a Ranger, why can’t I do what I want? We can still have children.”

      He’d refused to listen, had accused her of not really loving him. Ella figured underneath the bluster of his complaints, he’d really been trying to protect her and maybe keep her from doing something out of a sense of duty, but they’d been young and stupid and stubborn, and neither of them had backed down. So they’d broken up during the summer they’d planned to be married.

      Maybe now they’d both aged and become a little wiser, but she could still see the stubbornness in the set of his jaw and the gleam of his eyes. It was the same stubbornness she’d seen when they’d teamed up again five years ago to track a killer. After that ordeal had ended...they’d gotten close again.

      But Ella didn’t want to think about all the reasons she’d had to say no to Jake a second time. Maybe she wasn’t the marrying kind, after all.

      Ella brought him his coffee and sat down with her own cup, memories of his sweet little daughter churning in her soul. Of course, Macey would be a teenager now. Her hand rubbing Zip’s soft fur, she asked, “What happened, Jake?”

      “She...uh...” He took a breath, pinched two fingers over his nose. “Somebody took her. Out of her friend’s car. Last night at the mall.”

      Ella nodded, trying to encourage him to go on. Jake wasn’t one to show emotions so he had to stop and clear his throat several times.

      “Have you heard anything? Seen anything?” And because she couldn’t stop thinking it, she added, “And why do you need me, Jake? You’re a Texas Ranger. You’ve tracked criminals all over this state. All over the country.”

      She knew firsthand how good he was at his job. He’d found her once when she was near death. She wouldn’t think of that, or of how she’d broken his heart again after he’d found her. What it must have cost him to come here for her help.

      Jake held his coffee mug with both hands, his head down. “This is different. This is Macey.” He gave her a glance that told Ella he wanted to say more.

      “Why’d you come to me?” she asked again, her mind already clicking back into a professional mode. “You know I left the FBI, right?”

      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

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