Army Ranger Redemption
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Carol Ericson
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Harlequin
HarlequinChapter One
Dread thumped against Scarlett’s temples as she stepped out onto the porch of her cabin. Clouds rolled across the waxing crescent moon, teasing her as light and shadow played across the trees crowding up to her front door. Holding her breath, she hunched forward and squinted into the darkness until her eyes and muscles ached.
Since she couldn’t see a thing beyond the tree line, she tilted her head and listened to the sounds of the forest—a rustle of dried leaves, the snap of a twig, the soft coo of a nighthawk.
Had her mind been playing tricks on her when, from inside the cabin, she’d heard the strangled cry? It could’ve been a wounded animal who’d moved on in his pain and suffering.
She hadn’t been back in Washington one week from her art show in New York and already she was on edge. She no longer had to fear Jordan Young, the man who’d been harassing her. That FBI agent, Duke Harper, had shot him dead to protect Beth St. Regis.
The Timberline Sheriff’s Department had done a clean sweep of her property to make sure Young or his cohort hadn’t planted any more traps. She had no reason to be afraid in her own cabin, on her own land. But she was.
Even before she’d heard what sounded like a muffled scream tonight, she’d been uneasy since her return to Timberline. She couldn’t put her finger on the reason for the feeling, and had dismissed it as leftover angst from going into a dream state to help Beth sort out her own visions. Any time Scarlett used the extrasensory powers she’d inherited from her Quileute granny, it left her jumpy.
Cupping a hand around her mouth, she called out, “Hello? Anyone there?”
Not that she expected an answer, but it beat cowering on her porch. Only the wind responded as it whistled through the branches of the trees.
She huffed out a breath and backed up to her front door. She turned and glanced over her shoulder before stepping across the threshold and slamming the door behind her. The top dead bolt stuck as she tried to click it into place. After four tries, she gave up.
The dead bolt had been Granny’s idea, but Scarlett hadn’t used it in years. Now that she needed that extra layer of protection, the darned thing had rusted or jammed or whatever. She’d have to replace it.
She twitched the curtain back into place and returned to her chair in front of the fireplace, where a crackling blaze welcomed her. Five minutes later, with a book open in her lap and her legs curled beneath her, a loud knock on the front door disturbed the peace and set her heart racing again.
This time she went to the front door with a poker clutched in one hand and her cell phone in the other, even though she couldn’t get cell reception out here. She jumped as a louder knock resounded through the room. Another thing this door was missing was a peephole. Why hadn’t she gotten a peephole installed along with the dead bolt?
She shoved aside the curtain at the window next to the door and peered onto the porch. The light spilling onto the deck illuminated a large man. She swallowed and backed up, but the movement must’ve caught his eye and he pivoted toward the window.
“Are you okay in there?”
Sweeping aside the curtain, her cell phone prominently displayed, she asked, “Who are you? What do you want?”
“I’m Jim Kennedy. I have a place—” he waved behind him “—up the road. I heard a noise and came out to investigate. Was it you?”
Her muscles coiled. He sounded sincere, but it could all be a ploy to lure her outside and... “Jim Kennedy?”
“Yeah, my folks had this place before...before. The Butlers used to live here. Y-you’re not Gracie Butler, are you?”
Kennedy. She knew the name. She’d known the man, or at least the boy—a rough boy, a solitary boy. “The Butlers sold out and moved to Idaho, where Gracie and her husband settled.”
“So you’re a local?”
They couldn’t stand there yelling through the door all night. As she yanked it open, she had the fleeting thought that she’d known Wyatt Carson, too, and he’d turned out to be a psychopath.
The man before her stepped back, his eyes widening as if surprised she’d opened the door. Her gaze raked over his six-foot-something frame. He’d have nothing to fear from wandering around the forest at night.
“I’m Scarlett Easton.” She thrust out her hand. “I grew up on the rez, but went to Timberline High. You were in my geometry class.”
He blinked and heat rushed to her cheeks. Why in the world had she brought that up? She only remembered because she used to copy off his paper sometimes—not because she’d been intrigued by the loner who had a shock of black hair always falling in his eyes and rode a motorcycle.
She cleared her throat. “Mr. Stivers? Sophomore year?”
“Scarlett, yeah. You used to copy my answers all the time.”
Her lips twisted into a smile. “Once in a while. Do you want to come in? I heard a noise, too. A scream, or...something.”
“Sure.”
She widened the door and stepped to the side as he limped over the threshold. She averted her gaze. The limp was new unless he’d just injured himself.
“Did you see anything out there?” The wind gusted as she shut the door, snatching it from her hand and slamming it.
Jim took a turn around the room with his halting gait, running his fingers along a table carved from a log, brushing his knuckles across a hand-painted pillow and studying the watercolor landscapes on the wall. “It’s like a museum in here.”
“Some of the pieces are for sale if you’re interested.”
Snapping his fingers, he said, “You were into all those art classes at school. You got suspended for painting a Native American mural on the wall outside the gym.”
“Some of my best work.”
He leaned forward to study a small painting of a storm-swept Washington coast. “Did you go outside right after you heard the noise?”
“I didn’t say I went outside.” She swallowed and took a step back to the door, curling her fingers around the knob.
“I heard a door slam.” He straightened up and shoved his hands in the pockets of his black jeans. “I figured it had to be the door to this cabin since there aren’t many others around here, are there?”
“N-no.” Did he have to remind her about the isolation of their cabins? And how had he heard her door from a mile away? Since she’d bought this place, the Kennedy cabin had stood empty, but she knew it was a good distance away. She ran her tongue along her lower lip. “Let me get this straight. You heard a scream from inside your cabin, went outside to investigate and then heard my front door slam?”
“No.” He moved in front of the fireplace, and a log rolled off the grate, causing a shower of sparks. “Do you have a poker?”
She reached behind her for the weapon she’d brought to the door for protection and grabbed it. If Jim Kennedy tried anything funny, she had no problem using the business end of this poker on him.
What was the business end of a poker?
He narrowed his dark eyes and they glittered behind half-mast lids. “I was already outside taking a walk when I heard the noise. I took off in the general direction of it, didn’t hear anything else until the sound of a door shutting. I knew the Butler cabin was out this way, so I came over to investigate.”
Rolling her shoulders, she strode forward with the poker in front of her and handed it to him—point first.
He took it around the middle and then prodded the log back into place, where it lit up in a quick blaze. “So, did you go outside after you heard the scream or just open your front door?”
“I stepped outside, but I didn’t hear anything else, either. I’m thinking it might’ve been a wounded animal, and either it died or took off.”
“Maybe. It sounded—” he shrugged “—familiar.”
She thought he was going to say human, because that’s what it sounded like to her.
“It gave me the chills.” She held her hands out to the warmth of the fire, and the flickering flames caught the light from the many rings she wore on her fingers, creating a light show on the wall.
“I’ll let you get back to your book.” He tipped his chin at the book she’d left open on the recliner. “When I saw the lights on, I just wanted to make sure you were okay in here.”
“Thanks.” She led him to the front door and opened it wide for him to pass through. As he crossed the threshold, she inhaled his woodsy, masculine scent. On impulse, she touched his arm.
“Where’ve you been all these years, Jim Kennedy?”
He turned, brushing a lock of black hair from his face, and for the first time she noticed a scar across his forehead.
“Here and there.”
She stood at the door watching him as he walked down the two steps with his halting gait. Just as she was about to close the door, a howl rose from the forest, causing a ripple of fear to skim across her flesh.
“It sounds closer here.” Jim took off with surprising speed, and Scarlett followed him.
“Wait for me.” She grabbed on to his leather jacket, stumbling against his broad back.
“Hey, who’s out here?” Jim crashed through the branches of the trees as he illuminated the ground in front of him with a flashlight he’d pulled from his pocket.
He’d obviously come prepared, and then she saw the gun in his other hand. Prepared for what? She released her hold on him, and he continued forward, thrashing his way through the foliage, off the designated trail.
She staggered backward, twisting her fingers in front of her. What was Jim really doing out here and why did he have a gun? She knew hunting weapons, and that gun wasn’t intended for use against some hapless deer.
As Jim called out again, she found her footing on the cleared path. She should make her way to the cabin and lock herself inside. This time she wouldn’t open the door for anyone—former high school classmate or not. Jim Kennedy could take his sexy self back to here and there.
Tapping the light for her cell phone, she pivoted on the toes of her sneakers and took a step forward.
Then a hand grabbed her ankle.
