Finding Hope Page 13

  It had taken her their lawyer, Carson Whitehall, a few days to get into town. His daddy, Steven Whitehall, had passed away several years ago, and Carson had taken over most of the clients, including her gramps.

  She assumed he was a fine lawyer, but he lived in Denver, and everything took forever to get done by phone or fax. It had been more than a week since the funeral, and they were just now meeting in person to read and fulfill the will. Judge Hardeman was sitting in to sign off as a witness and everything. She’d been shocked the old coot had volunteered time out of his day to hear her gramps’s will. They had never gotten along. In fact, the whole meeting was surprising because Carson had originally said they didn’t have to meet. Then, out of the blue, he’d called three days ago and said he had to meet face-to-face and the will had to have a witness to be executed correctly.

  “You okay, sweetheart?” Adrian reached over and squeezed her hand. The truck rumbled along the rural farm road toward the center of town. Snow and ice still whitewashed the land, leaving a breathtaking landscape but dangerous roads.

  “Yeah, I’m just ready for this to be over.”

  “The meeting?”

  She turned and saw worry in his gaze. “Yes, just the reading. Carson is being such a pain about everything. It shouldn’t be this much trouble.”

  Relief flooded his features, relaxing the worry lines on his forehead. Surely he didn’t think I was talking about him? She wanted nothing more than to pretend Adrian Colter was staying in Wolfe Point permanently. But that would never happen. Nobody moved to Wolfe Point, only away from it.

  “It will be okay, Addison.”

  “I know. I just hate being away from the ranch right now with rustlers out there. We should be patrolling, but instead I’m down a ranch hand and going into town to talk to lawyers and a judge who really didn’t like my gramps.”

  “As soon as we get back, I’ll ride with you and give Roger a break.”

  “Thanks.” She nodded and gave him a smile. After firing Carl, Adrian had really stepped up to the plate to help monitor the herds. Normally there wouldn’t be so much to do, but with people stealing her stock, she’d put all her staff on a rotating schedule.

  A haphazard glance into the side-view mirror brought a furrow to her brow. A black dually pickup truck was following them. She couldn’t see the driver, but their neighbor down the road drove a tan pickup. So it couldn’t be him.

  “Can you see the driver in the pickup behind us?”

  “Just some guy. Scruffy looking. Black Stetson. I don’t recognize him, but that’s not saying much,” he answered and chuckled.

  Addison twisted in her seat and looked out the back window. Glare from the snow made it hard to see through the black truck’s snow-covered windshield.

  “I think he’s speeding up,” Addison murmured. “Be careful, the bridge is coming up soon. This idiot is probably going to try and pass us.”

  “He can go right ahead.”

  She sighed and fixed her seatbelt after resituating herself in the chair. Ahead lay the bridge over Willow Creek. It was mostly frozen this time of year, and the bridge was murder to get over if Larry Hankins hadn’t salted it in a few days. The bridge was on town property, so the council paid the general store manager to make sure the bridge was salted at least twice a week during the winter.

  “Here he comes.” Adrian inclined his head to the left, and Addison saw the black pickup cross to the other side of the road and begin speeding up. When it was about equal with their truck, she started to get nervous. Why weren’t they passing? The windows were tinted, and she couldn’t see the driver’s or passenger’s faces.

  Their passenger window rolled down, and Addison caught the glint of a double barrel.

  “Holy crap!” She grabbed Adrian’s arm and pulled him down to the seat, jerking the steering wheel along with him. His driver’s side window exploded with the blast. Glass flew everywhere. The cabin was filled with it. The truck lurched and started down a steep slope. Shit.

  “What the hell?”

  “I don’t know!” she screamed as the truck jolted and then went airborne. The momentum made her nauseous. Gravity went sideways. Airbags slammed into her chest and face. Pain exploded everywhere in her body. A second impact threw her against the passenger window. There was nothing after that.

  ***

  Ares cradled Aphrodite’s body in his arms. He’d climbed into bed with her after Artemis had left with Dionysus. Though she had grown weaker as time had passed, their connection had not wavered. He could still feel the agonizing pain over the loss of the soul mate diamond. It killed him to think that he had caused her pain like this when he’d taken those two un-joined souls from her pool so many years ago. Thinking he could manipulate the Roman wars more easily by connecting a few key players, he had forced Cleopatra the VII, Queen of Egypt, and General Marcus Antoninus’s souls to join.

  It did not work. The magic of souls was outside of his wheelhouse, and he never should have tried to interfere. The outcome turned out to be fatal for both the souls and his relationship with Aphrodite. She’d never forgiven him…until just this last year. Now it was happening again.

  He refused to let history repeat itself.

  Dionysus appeared at the foot of the bed but said nothing.

  “Well?” Ares growled.

  “The nymphs knew where they were. We saw Hera and Zeus. Artemis says she can get it back, but she needs you.” He shrugged and sank onto Aphrodite’s white chaise across the room. “I’m not really the warrior in the family.”

  Ares snorted. “I’ve seen you hold your own.”

  Dionysus shook his head. “This is going to be messy. They are trying to convene with Zeus’s brothers.”

  “Where are they?”

  “The plain of Delphi.”

  “Fuck.”

  Dionysus nodded. “That’s why Artemis wants you.”

  “Stay with Aphrodite and do not let her out of your sight for a second. If you have to take her and leave, then do it.”

  Dionysus nodded.

  Ares phased to his palace.

  Torches flamed to greet him and quickly chased the shadows back to their corners. Chaos and Strife sat in silence, still chained to the floor of his atrium. Good. At least they weren’t in the middle of this mess. He hurried down a corridor and turned into his armory.

  The Plain of Delphi was set apart from the human realm just like Olympus, but the oracle blocked divine powers. Those who came could phase in or phase out, nothing else. No powers. He needed tangible weapons the oracle couldn’t stop. Artemis would be able to use her bow, and he would come prepared with his sword.

  He pulled it from its resting place in the center of the room. Humans had used the great broadsword on more than one occasion. He had bestowed it to several great generals, Atilla, Alexander the Great, William I, Peter the Great, just to name a few, but now it mostly stayed with him. The human realm had moved past carrying swords for fighting. They were mostly decorative now.

  Hephaestus had forged the long double-edged blade for him, and it was unbreakable. The steel was dark, almost black. The edges were serrated, and close to the hilt, the serrated edges turned back on themselves, creating barbs. When the sword was thrust into an opponent, pieces of that opponent would be torn out when the sword was pulled back. The steel grip was wrapped in soft-tanned goatskin. His sign, a shield and spear, was etched into the center of the circular-shaped pommel. It was a cruel weapon and his favorite to use when he was angry.

  He fastened the belt, sheathed the sword, and paused. Something else would be needed. The last thing he wanted was to come before the oracle unprepared. His eyes fell on a jewel-encrusted dagger with a gold sheath. He tucked it inside his belt and phased to the Plain of Delphi.

  The scent of honeysuckle hung thick in the air. The oracle loved the plant, and the whole place literally reeked of it. He sauntered down the marble stairs from the archway that acted as a gate to the realm. The pathway was made
of crushed abalone shells and sparkled brilliantly in the daytime sunlight. The fields on either side of the path were covered with bright kelly-green grass. The grass was short, and sparkling gemstones glistened from every direction between the trimmed blades.

  The oracle had been collecting gemstones since the dawn of time, and she liked to sprinkle them on the ground. She had told him once that she just liked to enjoy their beauty. What else would an immortal oracle do with jewels? She wore plenty of them too. Last time he’d seen her, she’d been covered in them…and not much else.

  “Ares,” a voice whispered from behind him.

  He started and swore under his breath. “I hate not being aware of everything around me,” he said, turning to face Artemis.

  “Tell me about it. I can’t hear or see anything farther than the average human. Fucking oracle and her stupid rules.”

  “That’s why they came here.”

  “I know. So we couldn’t track them. You have to hand it to them; they had us stumped. I mean, really, who can stand to be in this place longer than you have to be? The smell of that damn honeysuckle is enough to make me puke, and I’m smelling like a human. I can’t believe how many people visit her…of course I should say how many men visit her.”

  Ares couldn’t stifle a small chuckle. The smell was nauseating. On that he was in total agreement. But Artemis knew good and well why so many men came to the Plain of Delphi and put up with the nauseating honeysuckle scent —sex. Hot, steamy, knock-your-socks off sex. Couldn’t hold a candle to Aphrodite, but Pythia was quite good. And, for the right bribe, she was available to just about anyone she considered attractive.

  “You slept with her once, didn’t you?” Her tone was cautious, but the question didn’t throw him in the least.

  “A long time ago. You?”

  “Nice try.” She snorted and marched ahead of him on the path.

  Artemis was a virgin goddess, and she did a phenomenal job of keeping up appearances. No one could actually prove otherwise, but it was rumored highly unlikely she was a virgin still. Ares took every opportunity to try and get her to confess, but she was usually on top of her game.

  They crested the last hill, and the Temple of Delphi rose in all its grandeur ahead of them. Bright-white marble columns encircled a giant domed rooftop. The architecture was unlike any on Mt. Olympus; in fact many of the gods gossiped that the oracle had been around since before even the Titans. Crystal panels were set in the dome, creating a rainbow light show inside the temple during the day. Ares had seen it twice, and it was magnificent.

  At night the moonlight seemed to swirl like smoke through the crystal filters. Everything about the place was bewitching and ethereal, except for the fact that Pythia was the only one with any powers. Her realm, her rules. No one was even sure what her powers were, besides the fact that she was the most powerful seer known.

  “Ares, a sword? Really?”

  He coughed. A semi-nude woman materialized in front of them. She was stunning. Her olive skin shone beneath a layer of oil. Dark-black hair flowed over her shoulders and down her back, held in check by dozens of small braids adorned with jeweled chains. Rubies, emeralds, and sapphires hung in corded chains around her neck, partially covering her breasts. Nipples peeked from beneath the jewels like glistening pink topazes. A diamond-encrusted belt was fastened to her waist, and dozens more corded chains of precious gems hung in the formation of a skirt, mostly covering her bare sex.

  He found it odd that he was not the least bit interested. She was naked but for jewelry, and all he could think about was getting the stolen soul mate diamond back where it belonged.

  “Artemis, it is lovely to meet you. I have not had your pleasure before.”

  “It is an honor to meet you as well,” she answered calmly, completely ignoring the other woman’s sexual tease.

  Pythia smiled, showing off brilliantly white teeth. Even her eyes glistened and sparkled like gems. Their purple hue reminded him of amethysts.

  “Greetings, sacred oracle. We have come—”

  “I know. They are all inside. Please follow me, ruby-eyed one.”

  She turned, taking a few steps before pausing and glancing back at him. Her gaze traveled the length of his form, stopping to rest on the sword before returning to his face.

  “I’m warning you. Do not make a mess in my house, God of War.”

  “I will have what I came for, Pythia.”

  “I know.”

  ***

  Addison wriggled. Her joints were stiff. Shooting pain lanced through her shoulder, wrists, ankles. There wasn’t a single place on her body that didn’t ache or burn. Her wrists were fastened behind her back, and her feet were connected and pulled backward as well.

  Someone fucking hogtied me!

  The stale smell of sweat and layers of grime rubbing against her cheek nearly caused her to vomit. It was good her abductors had blindfolded her because seeing what she smelled would probably have ruined the tenuous control she had over the bile rising in her throat.

  Next on the list of problems was that she wasn’t wearing a coat, and the icy winter wind was blowing straight through whatever shack she been placed in. Her face already burned from the cold, and soon she wouldn’t be able to feel her hands.

  Adrian!

  “Adrian?” she whispered. No reply. She couldn’t hear anything at all except the whistling of the wind blowing through the cracks in the walls. “Adrian?” she tried again, this time much louder. “Help, somebody!” she screamed this time. Again, no response.

  With concentrated effort she rubbed her face against the smelly mattress until the blindfold came down over her nose. A few blinks adjusted her eyes to the semi-light. Four wooded slat walls, one with a small window and one with a door, made up her cage. The old cot mattress she lay on stretched across the entire length of one wall. In front of her she noticed the telltale circular hole in the grayish floor.

  An ice-fishing shack! Oh my God! Did they just leave me here? Alone?

  Chapter Fifteen

  Adrian opened his eyes and squinted. A painfully white ceiling stared down at him. Irritating beeps and alarms pushed him further toward consciousness. He turned. Monitors on his left showed his vitals, he assumed. He didn’t need a monitor to tell him he was alive and ready to get out of this hospital.

  How long had he been here? Where was Addison?

  His mind cleared for a moment. The memory of the crash came rushing back —black pickup truck, double barrel shotgun, Addison screaming.

  Shit! Who shot at us and ran us off the road?

  “Addison,” he murmured and gripped the bedrail to pull himself up. His pulse monitor was the first wire to go; then he yanked the IV from his hand. Alarms sounded, and he winced. A nurse rushed into his room.

  “Sir. Please. You have to lie back down. You were in a car accident.”

  “I’m a police officer, and I was shot at. Where is Addison Connelly?”

  She stood with her mouth hanging open.

  “Ma’am!” he bellowed.

  The nurse jumped at his raised voice and blushed. “I’m sorry. I just… I didn’t know you were a police officer, and I didn’t know anyone had been shot at. Oh, God! Addison.”

  He swung his feet over the side of the bed. “Where is Addison? Is she okay?” The nurse looked nervous and took a step toward the door. “Where. Is. Addison?” She froze, her lip quivering as she met his gaze. No. No. No.

  “Please.”

  “She wasn’t in the truck, Officer Colter.”

  “What do you mean she wasn’t in the truck?” Coldness gripped his heart, and he felt bile rising in his throat. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t lose her, especially not this way. “Are they searching for her?”

  The nurse shook her head. “I don’t think so. They didn’t know to look for her. Larry saw the truck on his way out of town and called it in, or they wouldn’t have even known you were in trouble. The storm has pretty much slowed everything to
a standstill around here. You were lucky.” She inclined her head to the snow beating against the large hospital window. “It’s starting to blow over now. Probably will be a few more hours before anybody can get outside. Let me get the deputy for you. He was the one who answered the emergency call.”

  “How long have I been out?”

  She paused at the door and turned back to face him. Dread cut into him like a knife to the gut. “You were admitted yesterday morning.”

  His breath caught. No! He wouldn’t believe it, not yet.

  She dashed from the doorway, and he stood, grabbing the rail to regain his balance.

  He looked around for something to wear, but nothing availed itself. The room had a TV mounted in the corner, a small cabinet, and a single chair. The cabinet was empty, and the chair looked like it had swallowed recycled orange shag carpeting.

  A few moments later the little brown-eyed nurse reappeared with a uniformed man in tow.

  “This is Deputy Miller. I told him that Addison was in the truck with you.”

  “I don’t understand. I remember her being there. Her seatbelt was latched. She shouldn’t have been thrown from the truck,” Adrian started with a rush.

  “Whoa, slow down. You were the only one in the truck. The passenger seatbelt was undamaged and unlatched.”

  “Meaning someone took her.”

  “Or she got out on her own,” the deputy added quickly.

  Adrian glared at him and frowned. What kind of idiot idea was that? She wouldn’t have left him in the truck by himself anymore than he would have left her.

  “Deputy, someone shot at us and ran us into that ditch.”

  “Really? Did you get a look at the driver?”

  Really? That’s all he’s going to say? What the fuck is going on?

  His hands clenched to fists.

  “No, I didn’t get a good look. You need to put out a report on a black Chevy pickup truck. There can’t be that many of them in a town this size. How fast can you launch a search party? Someone has her stashed somewhere, or worse.”