Easy Prey (Love-Inspired Suspense) Read online

  She swiped her notepad from her backpack and started making a list. They could clear debris, but soon enough they would need a construction crew with heavy equipment to remove what was unusable. After that the crew would have to start reconstruction of the buildings and the animal enclosures. There was a lot that had to be done before the zoo could reopen, but this would help her start making a list on paper.

  Jonah looked aside at her. “Can I ask you a favor? I was thinking maybe you know some people Fix used to hang out with. Anyone I wouldn’t know to talk to.”

  Elise tried to think if there were friends of her brother who might still be in town. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to know who is here and who isn’t.”

  “What about your mom? Could she have stayed in contact with Fix? Did she ever mention him?”

  She stilled. “Are you working right now?”

  Jonah shook his head. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I mean, you’re interrogating me. You want information, so you’re working me right now.”

  “Elise—”

  “For your information, I have not once in the whole of Nathan’s life said one word to my mother. Apart from the fact that her trailer never had a phone, and I haven’t been back here, I don’t see how you’d think I would even keep in contact with that woman.” She sucked in a breath. “You know, Jonah. Of all people, you know.”

  His gaze dropped, and why not? Jonah had been driving the truck half the times they’d had to pick her mom up from whatever bar she’d passed out in. Fix had always been conveniently too busy to deal with her, which left the baby of the family—though she’d been in high school—to head across town after midnight. Jonah had never let her go alone.

  There had only been one time Martin had been busy, but that wasn’t important, and he’d loaned her Jonah’s truck.

  “I’m sorry.” He sighed. “I’m here to protect you, but I’m also here because there’s a chance Fix will show up again. It’s where he was running to last night. I’m not going to lie to you, Elise. My team and I are working right now.”

  “And I’m the job?”

  He looked disappointed. “On paper maybe. But you know that’s not the truth. You’ve nearly been hurt twice in as many days. I’m looking for Fix, but there’s no way his running into the zoo yesterday was a coincidence. If it was, I’d be seriously surprised.

  “Until I know for sure the threat against you has been resolved, or that it has nothing to do with my case, I’m your shadow.”

  “And if it has nothing to do with my case?” Elise didn’t know that she liked it being called that. A file was too bland to represent her nearly being killed.

  “I’ll have to turn your protection over to the police, just like the investigation into the bomb and the reporter’s death.”

  She swallowed.

  “The initial report said he died early this morning, hours before you were shot at by my mailbox.” His voice was low, but full of determination. “That’s why I’m here, because for some reason you’re wrapped up in this and I’m going to find out why.”

  Elise’s voice came out breathy. “He was murdered?”

  Jonah got close. “Nothing is going to happen to you.”

  She should just leave. Why had she even come back? Elise didn’t care about construction, or renovation. She wanted to look after animals, not revamp a zoo that had been run down years ago in a town she hadn’t liked when she lived here. And she’d brought her son to this place?

  Her breath was coming in gasps. “You need to take Nathan away from here.”

  Pain filled her chest. It felt like her heart was breaking. She wanted her son with her, but if she was in danger the last thing she wanted was for Nathan to be in a killer’s crosshairs.

  “Mom—”

  She looked up, her gaze filled with Jonah—full grown, and capable of keeping her son safe when she couldn’t. “He can’t be with me.”

  “He can go to my mother’s.”

  “No.” Nathan’s voice was firm.

  Jonah glanced at him, so Elise did the same. She saw the confusion warring on his face. “You don’t have to go anywhere you don’t want. But I need you safe, and right now that isn’t wherever I am.”

  Nathan bit his lip. “I could go back to Jonah’s.”

  Whoever had tried to shoot her that morning might be watching the house. Waiting there for her to come home, and shoot Nathan by accident.

  Elise shook her head. “I don’t think that’s an option now.”

  “My mother’s house is secure. She wants to meet you.”

  Nathan lifted his chin. “Well, I don’t want to meet her.”

  “Nate—”

  “My name is Nathan.” Her son sucked in a breath. “And if you’re going to send me to your mom’s, then you might as well drop me off in that trailer where my mom grew up so I can be abused like she was.”

  Elise took a step toward him. Nathan shot her a hard look, and she stopped. He wasn’t protecting himself; he was trying to protect her from having to revisit the painful parts of her past.

  Nathan turned back to Jonah. “You just want to drop me off so you don’t have to worry. Well, you can forget it. I don’t want my mom or me anywhere near either of those women.” He turned and strode away. Eric Hanning followed, keeping a distance, but Elise was confident the marshal wasn’t going to let her son out of his sight.

  Jonah stepped in front of Elise, his eyes hard the same way her son’s had been. “What on earth did you tell him that my mother did to you? He thinks she’s some kind of monster.”

  *

  Jonah folded his arms. He really wanted to know why Elise had essentially poisoned Nathan against his grandmother. Sure, Bernadette Rivers hadn’t always been the easiest person to get along with, but this was excessive.

  “He’s protecting me.” Elise pushed out a full breath. “It was bad. I didn’t embellish. I only told Nathan the truth. He’s been the man of the family his whole life, and I’ve tried not to rely on him, but he’s a good kid, Jonah. He’ll try to protect me anytime he thinks I’m going to get hurt or upset. It’s who he is. And he might not be able to protect me from bullets, but he can keep me from this. It’s his way.”

  Jonah figured a good slice of Nathan’s honor had come from his father, and his grandfather. But part of it was also down to Elise. She brought out those feelings in anyone who knew her. Not because she was the victim, or she had been when she was a child. Nathan saw something in her that was worth protecting, the same way Jonah and Martin, and their father, had.

  He was proud of the way Elise had raised his nephew. The kid was going to be a noble man who took things in stride, and understood the importance of family.

  “Dom told me your mom wants to make amends.”

  Elise didn’t look like she thought too much of that. He could appreciate how it might seem like too little, too late, if his mom had truly been bad enough to make Elise gun-shy to the point she didn’t want her or Nathan around Bernadette.

  “I know it was bad.” Jonah gave her a second. “She told me she got saved recently.”

  Shock flashed across Elise’s features. “She did?”

  “I’ve seen a change in her. It’s okay if you want to protect yourself from being hurt again, or more, and if you want to protect Nathan. Maybe not right now, given everything that’s going on. But at some point it might be worth giving her the benefit of the doubt.”

  Jonah didn’t know how else to convince her. Elise looked so vulnerable, staring up at him with those huge brown eyes. It was like gazing into a past that had always pulled him in like a magnet. Her presence in his life anchored him the way nothing in his life ever had before.

  At once he realized what it was that had been missing for so long. The pain of losing his brother, and Elise at the same time, had left him aimless. He’d walked through the past eighteen years with nothing to center him, no anchor to give him a reason to come home at the end of the day. He’d l
ived for work, because that was all he’d had. His mom had moved on, finding new love with Dom, while Jonah had only known the yawning expanse of loneliness.

  Hailey stepped up beside him, breaking the moment. “I can take Nathan to my dad’s place. It’s a full house, but one more won’t make a difference and he’ll be safe for the time being.”

  Jonah waited, allowing Elise to be the one to make the decision. She looked at him, and he nodded. He’d been content to stay out of it, and she’d included him. For the first time since he’d seen her the day before, it felt like maybe they could be on the same team—and the same page.

  Elise turned to Hailey. “If it’s fine with Nathan, it’s fine with me. He’s almost an adult. I’m confident he’s able to make the decision for himself.”

  Shelder strode away, shoulders back and head high in her “work” stance.

  “So I—”

  His phone rang.

  “Sorry.” What she’d been about to say was going to have to wait. “This ring tone means it’s one of my team.”

  She stepped away, going back to her debris while Jonah answered the call from Parker. “Rivers.”

  “Fix’s personal effects are in the back bedroom of his mom’s trailer. We found the girlfriend—who is pregnant, incidentally—also living there. Claims she hasn’t seen Fix, but it’s obvious he’s been there recently.”

  “And the mom?”

  Elise glanced over, but Jonah didn’t give away that he was talking about her mother.

  Parker said, “Isn’t here. Don’t know where she is.”

  Jonah had a few ideas where she might be, although how she was still up to her same old ways all these years later without detrimental effects on her health was anyone’s guess. “See if you can find out. I’m guessing cooperation is a long shot, but it’s worth a try.”

  After Jonah hung up, he tried to figure whether Elise would want to know she was going to have a niece or nephew soon—assuming the girlfriend’s baby was Fix’s. Who knew?

  “What is it?”

  He must be tired if he was off his game enough that he was giving his thoughts away with his expression. He needed to be able to school his features better. Not to deceive Elise, but because his job required it. If he started slipping around Elise, it would start happening when it really counted.

  Jonah rubbed his hand across his side.

  “You keep doing that. Is something wrong with your stomach?”

  “I was shot.”

  Elise gasped, covering her mouth with her hand.

  “It was a few weeks ago, during the flood. It’s mostly healed, but it still hurts. If I’ve been moving a lot, or if it’s been a long day.”

  “Do you want to sit?”

  Jonah looked around at the sodden pieces of wood, drywall and bent enclosures. “No, I don’t want to sit.”

  Elise’s face morphed into disappointment. “I’m only trying to help.”

  It wasn’t help; it was care. Something Jonah didn’t exactly know how to accept. He hadn’t had much experience with people caring for him. When he was sick, he just opened a can of soup and microwaved it. When he was better, he went back to work. That was it.

  Elise was looking at him with entirely too much heart in her eyes. It was going to make him say something he shouldn’t, or admit too much.

  “Fix’s girlfriend is pregnant.”

  Elise blinked and her eyes widened. “She is?” She hesitated. “Who is it? Do I know her?”

  “Janessa Franks.” Jonah didn’t remember her from school, but Elise might.

  “Huh.” Elise glanced aside, like she was trying to remember. “Maybe when I see her face I’ll recognize her.”

  “You’re going to see her?”

  “Why wouldn’t I?”

  Jonah shrugged with his mouth. “Maybe because she’s living in one of the places you said you were never going to go.”

  “I’m not going to exclude her from my life. She might need something.”

  “You don’t even know this woman.”

  “Why are you questioning that I would help her? She’s family.”

  Jonah huffed out a breath. She was the same way with animals, unrelentingly compassionate even when she’d been bitten. Repeatedly. The woman just wasn’t going to quit giving until it killed her.

  “Same old Jonah.” Elise laughed. “You just can’t share your real feelings, can you?”

  “Who says I’m not sharing them? Maybe you’re just looking for the wrong thing.”

  She frowned. “What are you saying?”

  Jonah shrugged. “Never mind.”

  If she wasn’t going to try and figure it out, then it wasn’t worth explaining and making a complete fool of himself.

  “Let’s just get some of this done.”

  He turned in time to see a dark-dressed figure sprint between the remainder of two buildings. A man.

  “Stay here.” Jonah ran after him.

  NINE

  Jonah’s boots pounded the concrete and Elise watched him follow the dark figure until he was out of sight. Stay here? That was all she was supposed to do? She glanced around, surveying the run-down zoo with the eyes of someone who’d had a harrowing two days. And it wasn’t over.

  She shivered, her gaze darting from shadow to shadow without stopping as she turned in a circle. Silver eyes flashed with the reflection of the setting sun, and Shera padded into view. Elise stepped, slow and careful, toward her. She crouched. Would the old tiger even recognize her scent?

  The tiger’s footfalls were hesitant, as though she knew there were hidden obstacles everywhere that her blind eyes couldn’t see. Elise let her breath out slowly. Shera tilted her head and then walked closer.

  Elise kept her voice low. “I should have got the tranquilizer from my backpack.” The animal didn’t know she was planning to subdue it. “I only wanted to say hi.”

  The tiger stopped arm’s reach away from Elise.

  “I don’t have any food. You look hungry.” Which, with a tiger, was never good. “I feel bad for the local wildlife, or whatever else you’ve been snacking on.”

  The tiger waited. Elise looked down one side and then moved right without stepping to look down the tiger’s other flank. “You seem okay. I don’t see anything that needs treating, but you’re probably cold. How about I—”

  Shera shifted, her sightless gaze moving to peer over Elise’s shoulder. The tiger was off and running before she could even react. Elise turned to scold Jonah for scaring her away, but it was Fix who stepped into view.

  Her brother had aged far more than the almost twenty years since she’d seen him. He’d been lanky but healthy the last time she’d seen him. Now he was thin, too thin. His hair hung in clumps, covering the top of his ears and his forehead under the threadbare knit cap on his head. His old army jacket was frayed and hung loosely over dirty jeans and scuffed boots.

  Elise had hardly lived the high life as a single mom struggling in a small sanctuary that existed on donations, but she knew then she’d fared better than her brother.

  “Fix.”

  He kept walking until he was right in front of her. Elise backed up a step, intimidated by his stance. She saw his eyes flare at her retreat, and decided she’d better hold her ground.

  “Fix.”

  Jonah was off chasing him. What was he going to do when he found them? Her brother needed to go, but she wanted time with him, too. What was she supposed to do?

  Her brother looked her up and down. “I heard you were hurt, but you look like you’re doing okay.”

  Elise’s side was bruised from the attack, but he probably didn’t want the whole story. He looked ready to get out of there. “Why are you in so much trouble? The marshals are after you.”

  Fix glanced around. “Got in deep with some guys. They’re into everything. First I was doing odd jobs because I need the money. Janessa found out she was pregnant, so I needed more. Doctors’ appointments and vitamins and all that stuff.” He
sniffed. “Now they’re trying to get me on some stupid charge that was overblown by the police.”

  Elise doubted it was a mistake if Fix’s darting eyes and evasive twitching were anything to go by. If it was the police who were chasing him, then maybe. For Jonah and his team of marshals to be involved meant it was a big deal. Fix had to have skipped a court appearance or be evading arrest to be on the run from a fugitive-apprehension task force like the one Jonah ran—or so Hailey had explained to her when she told Elise what their team did.

  Fix’s mouth moved from a pressed line to curl up the way it did when he wasn’t impressed. “I see you don’t believe me. Don’t much care, though. I heard you were all tight with Marshal Rivers. Yeah, just like old times, right?”

  Elise stood her ground. “Does Janessa need anything? I can help.” She wasn’t going to tell him about Nathan. Not when she wasn’t even certain she was safe around her brother. Her own flesh and blood.

  God, why did You give me a family that barely tolerated me when things were good?

  “We don’t need your charity. You’re probably raking it in, or getting close to Rivers again, working on your big payout, huh?”

  “It’s not like that. It never was.” Elise sighed. “You knew that then. I don’t know why all of a sudden you’d think that now.”

  “I know you always thought you were better than us. Trailing after those rich boys like hundred-dollar bills would fall out of their pockets. Thinking you’re better than where you came from.”

  “I am better than where I came from. And so are you. For that matter, so is Mom. She just never cared to do more than drink away her life.”

  “You betrayed her. You spat on our family even before you married Martin, then you moved in to that mansion so you could better pretend to be one of them.” Fix’s eyes flashed. “Why couldn’t you just stay away? Now the feds are breathing down Mom’s neck. Janessa is stressed out, and it’s not good for the baby.”

  “I never meant for her to get upset. I didn’t tell Jonah to send his people to the trailer. None of this has anything to do with me.” She lifted her arms and then let them drop back to her sides. “If anything, this is about you evading capture.”