Pray for Mercy (Detectives Kane and Alton)

“Call Father Derry. He’ll have someone pick them up.” Kane stood hands on hips surveying the area. “They have a chicken coop out back of the shelter. The eggs will come in handy.” He walked away toward a shed made of granite and examined the lock and the ground all around. “This looks like a robbery. This lock was forced using a crowbar or similar. As far as I know, bears don’t carry crowbars.” He pulled out his phone. “I’ll call Wolfe and give him the details. Did Carter give you an ETA?”

Jenna shook her head. “He said wheels up in twenty is all.” She checked her watch. “I’d say he’ll be landing in an hour and a half.”

She followed Kane back to the Beast, listening as he gave Wolfe a concise description of what had happened. When she climbed into the passenger seat, she turned to him. “We’ll have time to drive up the mountain and hunt down Cade.”

“He could be anywhere.” Kane headed out the driveway. “You know as well as I do there are trails and fire roads all over this part of Bear Peak. Cade’s girlfriend could live down any one of them.” He shrugged. “We’ll need to meet Carter and get things rolling.”

A rumble came in the distance and, alarmed, Jenna stared out the window. “What was that?”

“I’d say another rockslide higher up.” Kane pointed to a curl of dust rising into the air. “Atohi was concerned about the chances of road blockages, remember?”

Jenna frowned. “Yeah, I called the mayor and told him. He has the opinion that a rockslide is nature running its course and his job is to make sure the roads are passable, but he did say he’d pass my concerns along to the department involved.” She shrugged in frustration. “I might as well have saved my breath.”

“There’s a truck coming.” Kane slowed at the driveway as two white GMCs drove past and headed down the mountain, going way too fast. “That’s Cade and there are two women in the truck behind him.” He pulled out slowly onto the road and waited as the trucks disappeared around the next bend. “I’ll keep back to avoid the rocks spinning away from their wheels. I don’t know about Rio’s ability to get through to his brother for acting like a jerk but as a cop, I can come down hard on him for reckless driving.” He glanced at her. “Unless you have other plans?”

Jenna shook her head, but after seeing Cade drive by, the nagging feeling he was involved somehow in Jolene Darvish’s road rage incident, if not her death, would not go away. “I want to speak to him, that’s

for sure, but the lecture would come better from you. He looks up to you, especially when you agreed to rebuild his motor.”

“Well, it’s no more Mr. Nice Guy, after seeing that display of driving.” The nerve in Kane’s cheek twitched in obvious anger. “We had an understanding, or so I thought, that he’d drive the truck like a responsible adult, not like a spoiled child.”

As they arrived at the bottom of the mountain, Jenna made out Rio’s truck blocking the road. Cade and Rio were out of their trucks and standing nose to nose. At seventeen, Cade was, without doubt, a strong and powerful man. It looked as if he had no intention of listening to Rio and was shaping up for a fight. As Kane backed into a driveway, they sat and watched for a few seconds. Jenna blew out a long sigh. “Maybe we should wait and see if Rio can sort things out.”

When Cade let fly with a blow to Rio’s face and his brother just took it, Kane nodded toward the other truck. “I figure the problem is right over there.”

FIFTEEN

Jenna moved her attention away from the fight. Two women, one maybe sixteen and the other in her twenties, stood leaning against the front of their truck, watching with interest. They were dressed the same, sweaters under denim jackets, blue jeans, and dusty cowboy boots. The girl wore her dark hair in a straight bob with long thick bangs cut in a severe straight line and black lipstick to match her fingernails. The woman had a mess of long dark curls swirling unrestrained down her back. Thick lines of kohl surrounded her dark eyes, giving her the surreal look of a cartoon. Long dangly brightly colored beaded earrings seemed to be the flavor of the day. Raising an eyebrow, Jenna turned to Kane. “Try to diffuse the situation and I’ll go talk to the women.”

“I’ll do my best.” Kane gave the women a quick once over. “The older one is carrying. She’s wearing a shoulder holster. Don’t trust them… not yet anyway.” He moved past the trucks, one hand on his weapon.

Keeping her distance but getting close enough to speak to the women, Jenna kept her expression neutral. “Hi there. Are you Cade’s friends? We’ve been searching for him. Zac was convinced he’d wrecked the truck.”

“Cade’s been stayin’ with us.” The older woman pushed long black curls behind one ear and smiled. “His brother is suffocatin’ him.”

Nodding, Jenna moved a few steps closer. “I’m Jenna Alton and you are?”

“Amber and Kara Judd—I’m Kara.” The older woman lifted her chin. “Cade is seventeen, a man by the look of him, and yet his brother figures he can rule his life.” She moved her dark gaze onto Jenna. “Now he’s ridiculing him by calling out the sheriff to hunt him down like a lost kid. Zac needs to step back and leave him alone. He’s not doin’ anything wrong.”

Moving her attention back to the men in the middle of the road, she frowned as Rio’s vehicle drove away. Kane had taken a nonchalant pose and was talking in hushed tones to Cade, but she hadn’t missed the young man’s clenched fists. She held her breath, hoping that Kane would make him see reason, because, if he made a huge mistake and punched Kane, all bets would be off. Beside her, a few rocks slipped past her feet and she turned to look back at the two girls. Her gaze slid past them and to the shotgun in a rack at the back of their cab. She cleared her throat. “Do you have to be somewhere?”

“Amber needs to go to school. Cade was going to drive her, but he needed to drop by home for a spell.” Kara gave her a slow smile. “He’ll be packing his things and moving in with us this afternoon.”

“Oh, I see.” Jenna chewed on her bottom lip. “All this trouble would have been averted if Rio had known where he was staying. Where exactly is your cabin?”

“Up yonder—we like to keep our whereabouts private.” Kara’s brow wrinkled. “We’re not doing anything illegal.”

Taking in the old truck, Jenna pushed a little more. “You live up here all alone?”

“What’s wrong with that?” Amber’s eyes narrowed. “We like it up here.”

Jenna smiled. “I like solitude too. I live in an isolated area myself. What do you do to get by? I haven’t seen you around town.”

“We trade most times.” Kara shrugged. “And I get work when the rodeo comes to town. That money is all we need to get by.”

The crunching of boots on the gravel caught Jenna’s attention and she turned to see Cade walking toward them. He gave her a nod and she smiled at him. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“How could I not be okay, Jenna?” Cade folded his arms across his chest. “I have two beautiful women to care for me.” He snorted derisively and glared at Kane’s arrival. “I’m not a darn kid. Zac is trying to come between me and my woman. He’s jealous is all, because he can’t keep a woman interested in him.” He turned and took Kara into his arms in a passionate embrace. “Take Amber to school. I’ll call you later.”