An Accidental Family

“They’re not adults, either,” she sniffed. “He looks mature, but Dillon’s only thirteen. And Maddy and Aaron are only eleven. They are children.”

“They look like pretty good-sized boys to me,” he said.

She straightened away from his embrace and her voice took on a note of fierce protectiveness. “These are damaged children who need special care.”

“Like some boundaries, maybe? They’re plenty old enough to know not to sneak out of the camp.” Seth was thinking about how he and Lane had both held down odd jobs by that age.

“Age has nothing to do with it. You can’t expect children to accept boundaries until they feel loved.”

Seth didn’t agree. He believed in accountability, even for kids. But this was hardly the place for a philosophical debate.

She mistook his silence for disapproval. “You can think whatever you like, but I am the one who’s responsible for these children. And it was I who handled this all wrong.”

Seth could understand how she was blaming herself for running off in a panic and searching for the children in the dark woods on her own, without notifying anyone. That was definitely a stupid thing to do. What he couldn’t understand was why she’d done it. But there would be time to sort out all the details when they got to the bottom of the hill.

“We’ve got to get you out of here.” He stuffed the flashlight in his vest and took hold of her arm, leading her forward on the ledge, craning his neck to look down the slope. “The moonlight’s too bright. They might see us on the footpath. We’ll have to stay under cover of trees. Think you can climb back down between those rocks?”

“I came up that way, didn’t I?”

He turned, and in the moonlight he could see her eyes. Again it struck him that they were very pretty.

“Just get me to that ambulance.” She met his gaze dead-on, even though there was quite a difference in their heights. “I need to see the boys right away.”

He was thinking how climbing up the open footpath with a flashlight and going down between the huge boulders in the dark were two different things, but all he said was, “Stay close then.”

As they climbed over the first of the large boulders he heard her suppress a little yelp. Instinctively, he reached back to her. “You okay?”

“I just slipped.”

“Here.” He bracketed her waist with his hands and helped her down. She felt like a tiny doll in his grasp. Her hot breath brushed against his temple as he lowered her to the ground, and he was startled by a surge of attraction.

He set her a respectable distance from him and decided keeping her engaged in talk would calm her—and him—down. “Ms. Chapman—”

“How do you know my name?” she asked.

“The boys. They figured you’d come looking for them.” He glanced back up the dark wall of rock that rose above them. “What made you come all the way up here, anyway?”

“I’ve found them here before. Twice, actually.”

“Doing what?”

“Exploring the caves.” She sighed and swiped at her sweaty brow.

“Did you see anyone else on either of those nights?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“And what about tonight?”

“Nothing except the lights. I should have realized the boys’ flashlights wouldn’t be that bright. But all I could think about was finding them so I could get them back to camp before Lyle realized they were missing.”

“Lyle Hicks?” Seth had dealt with the officious jerk, who made a big deal out of the fact that he was in charge at Big Cedar Camp. The guy’s body language always screamed “hostile.” He crossed his arms like an umpire, issued demands, didn’t like to be inconvenienced. Seth could imagine the effect a guy like Lyle had on wayward boys. He decided that for Lyle Hicks, the embarrassment of having three kids picked up by the cops would undoubtedly be more of an issue than the kids themselves.

“Lyle.” Rainey lowered her head. “Lyle and I aren’t exactly singing on the same page of the songbook. I guess you know that most of the boys who end up at Big Cedar are wards of the state. All have behavioral problems. Many have physical problems, as well. I try to help them, but Lyle, he only wants to warehouse them. He’ll never let me live this down.”

“The guy’s a prick.”

Rainey’s head snapped up, the expression in her green eyes keen now. “Yeah. He is, actually. But how’d you know?”

“We’ve been called about incidents at the camp before. Lyle seems to be more worried about damage control than the kids. Once he asked me if the media monitored our police radios.” Seth took her hand and led her on. “Is Lyle the reason you didn’t report it when the boys ran off?”

“Partly. I thought it would be enough to chastise them.”

Chastise them? If it were up to Seth, he’d chastise their backsides. Coach Hollings and his famous paddle flashed to mind.

“You have to understand how harsh the system can be,” she added. “I didn’t want them to end up… I thought I was keeping them safe with me.”

“Right.” Seth’s tone was sarcastic. “Safe.”

He had pulled her along until they reached a dropoff. He lowered himself over the edge and put the shotgun on the ground to help her down off the rock. When she had her footing, he picked up the gun and pulled her into a narrow cleft between two giant boulders. “Stay close,” he said. “It gets a little rougher now.”

The claustrophobic passage was pitch-black and so treacherously steep that they were forced to half scramble, half slide down.

Rainey used her free hand to steady herself against Seth’s back, and her touch communicated tremors of fear.

“Can’t we turn on the flashlight yet?”

“No. Even between the rocks a beam might be seen. I know where I’m going.”

Seth could find his way through these passages with his eyes closed. From the time he was old enough to ride a bike, he and Lane had explored every nook and cranny of this part of the Kiamichi Range. And he had made many trips up and down this exact passage in the years since Lane’s death, sensing that the answer he sought— KayAnn Rawls’s bones—lay up at the top of these cliffs.

KayAnn Rawls. Her name filtered through the dark passageway like an echo that he couldn’t silence. KayAnn Rawls. The trouble had started with KayAnn Rawls. For years, Seth had made it his mission to find out what had happened to Lane’s girlfriend on the night she’d disappeared. He told himself he did it for Lane’s sake. But lately he wondered if he’d carried this obsession around for so long he couldn’t let go of it even if he wanted to.

And now these boys were involved in this mess. And this woman.

“We’re okay,” he reassured her. But in his mind he had to add, for now. Because navigating down this treacherous path was sure to be the least of their problems.

CHAPTER TWO

AS MUCH AS RAINEY LOATHED confined spaces, she had bigger worries. Inching her way between giant rocks that felt tighter than a tomb, she clung to the back of the cop’s vest and hoped she wasn’t making another stupid mistake.

This guy was a cop, wasn’t he? With her imagination conjuring up thoughts about serial killers pretending to be cops so they could lure their victims into remote, dark places like this one, she forced herself to review the facts.

Badge. Bulletproof vest. Shotgun. But anyone could get their hands on such items, couldn’t they? The voice on the radio. He couldn’t fake that, could he? And he’d known her name…and Lyle’s.

Breathe, she told herself, trying to calm down. But that was hard to do when she was practically plastered against his back. His hands had been all over her from the minute she’d slammed into him, but if he hadn’t kept a firm grip on her, she would have fallen off these rocks ten times by now.

What alternative did she have but to trust this guy, at least for now? Running off into the woods like a crazy woman again?

Finally they emerged onto a level moonlit patch in the path, and she relaxed a fraction.

He resumed his questions. “What drew the boys up here?”

“Those caves. Dillon’s idea, I’m sure.”

Seth nodded. “He’s obviously the leader.”

“Some leader. He’s always getting the other two to sneak out of their cabin, steal things, vandalize property, whatever he can dream up. These aren’t normal boys, Sheriff. I suppose you figured out that Maddy is deaf.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And Aaron…well Aaron’s hard to explain. His problems are complex. Basically he’s a psychological mute. But don’t let his silence fool you, Officer— I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name.”

“Whitman. Seth Whitman.”

“Officer Whitman—”

“Just Seth.” Seth had never been comfortable with that “Officer” bit. His motives for becoming a cop were far from pure.

“Okay. Seth. Aaron takes in everything around him like a sponge. Maddy’s been hurt time and again because of his disability. And Dillon’s one angry boy. He can explode for no reason.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m familiar with that kind.” He’d been that kind himself once upon a time, before Coach had taken ahold of him.

“Honestly, that child.”

“He’s no child.” Seth reminded her, and felt a jerk on his hand for the mumbled remark.

He glanced back to see Rainey Chapman’s pretty mouth tight with disapproval. “Yes, he is. And even if I’m the only one who understands that, I still intend to see that he gets the same loving care that any child deserves.”

In Seth’s opinion what boys Dillon’s age needed was a little more discipline and a little less TLC. The “child” was nearly as tall as Seth, though lanky, and Seth had even noticed the beginnings of a mustache on Dillon’s upper lip. “But I take it he’s a real handful.”

She finally favored Seth with a smile. That flash of pretty teeth in the moonlight sent another surprising ripple of sensation through him. He was definitely becoming captivated by this sprite of a woman.

“More like a budding sociopath. Dillon is creative and charming and athletic. He’s everything a boy that age should be. Except he’s also a manipulative little liar.”

Not entirely, Seth suspected, although parts of his story hadn’t added up.

The terrain was not as steep now, and they were hidden from view of the cliffs by the thick canopy of trees, so he flicked on the flashlight and aimed it at the trail. She came up beside him, and he released her hand, missing her delicate clasp immediately. “So, you last saw the boys in their cabin?”

She nodded. “Around midnight.”

It was now well past two in the morning.

“When I got up to go to the bathroom. I’ve gotten in the habit of doing a bed check every few hours since the last…incident.”

“When was that?”

“Two weeks ago.”

Maybe night after night of bed checks for the last two weeks explained Rainey Chapman’s impulsive behavior. Maybe the woman was too sleep-deprived to think straight.

“What happened that time?”

“They went skinny-dipping. I happened to look in on them once, but they had made up dummies in their beds. I would never have caught them if Maddy hadn’t slipped up. He was signing to Dillon at breakfast the next morning. Aaron and Dillon learned ASL so they could talk to Maddy—”

“ASL?”

“American Sign Language. Maddy prefers it to Signing Exact English. The boys are quite clever with it. They do it so fast, it’s almost like a secret language, you know? Anyway, Dillon slapped at Maddy’s hands, but not before I saw that he was saying something about swimming at the old train bridge—that’s where they’d gone that time.”

“So you can read sign language— ASL—as well?” That would be useful.

“That’s part of the reason I got this job. But boy, was I wrong about helping these kids. I was living in la-la land. Reliving my own childhood.”

“You had a troubled childhood?” Seth frowned at her. He could identify with that.

Her expression clouded for only an instant before she covered up with a light laugh. “No! I’m talking about how I played in the out-of-doors. Out here, in these mountains.”

“You grew up around here?” He’d guess they were about the same age. There was only one high school in the area—the massive one in Tenikah. He would have remembered any girl this beautiful. He was certain he’d never seen Rainey Chapman before tonight.

“Only in the summers. Long story. Anyway, I thought it would be so wonderful to be out here in the country, helping disadvantaged children get in touch with nature. Helping them heal and grow and reach their potential. Turning lives around. Saving the universe, et cetera, et cetera.” She let out another little self-deprecating laugh.

Seth smiled. He liked the way this woman talked, the way she laughed.

“Ouch!” She stumbled on the dark path and clutched his arm.

“You okay?” He pressed a steadying palm to her back.

“Yeah.” Her voice was tense. “Just stubbed my toe.”

Seth took his hand off her back but didn’t release her fingers, justifying the lingering touch to himself—then to her. “Maybe you’d better hold on to me a little bit longer.”

“I guess so.”

As they walked on she sighed heavily. “Anyway, so much for helping the kids. Now it looks like the boys are in worse trouble than they were before I took charge of them.”

Seth ignored her self-recriminations and got back to his point. “So, Dillon reads sign language, as well?”

“Yes. Maddy taught him fairly quickly.”

Seth frowned. So why hadn’t Dillon interpreted for Jake? Trying to control the interview? He was obviously used to manipulating adults.

Seth glanced at Rainey, involuntarily tightening his grip around her slender fingers as he thought about how this impulsive bleeding heart of a woman had spooked the Slaughter boys right out of his grasp. He just hoped the twins hadn’t spotted the commotion at the bottom of the hill. And he hoped they weren’t circling back to get the bones this very minute.

He found himself dragging Rainey along faster as anger and worry drove him. As annoyed as he was at this woman for blowing his stakeout, his fear for her safety and the safety of three young boys was greater.

“Officer? Seth? You’re hurting my hand.”

“Sorry.” He relaxed his grip.

“I’m the one who should be sorry,” she said, as if she’d just read his mind. “I should never have covered for the boys the way I did. I’m afraid I was too soft-hearted. I always gave them one more chance. You see, the rule is if a boy causes trouble at Big Cedar, the next step in the system is the reform school at Werner. I didn’t want boys this young to end up in that awful place, especially with their disabilities. The other inmates there would rip Maddy and Aaron to pieces.” She came up short. “I imagine they won’t let me near children now. And the boys will end up trapped at Werner, anyway.”

Seth frowned, thinking, Not so fast. He was already planning to place the boys under his protection. This woman might have connections that would help accomplish that. “What, exactly, was your job?”

“I work for the DHS—the Department of Human Services.”

“I’m familiar with it.”

“I did casework in the Tulsa office at first. I hated it. It was so bureaucratic. Worse than being an attorney.”

“You’re also an attorney?” Seth had a thing for smart women. He found himself getting more interested in this particular smart woman than he probably ought to be—in more ways than one. It had been a long time since he’d felt this charged up around a female. He glanced back and caught a glimpse of model-trim thighs below the snug jean shorts.

“I was an attorney. In my mother’s law firm.”

“Your mother’s a lawyer?”

“One hell of a one. For a while I followed in her footsteps like a good little girl. It wasn’t exactly a healthy relationship.”

She sounded so disappointed when she said it. He supposed nobody escaped disappointment in this life. He sure as hell hadn’t.

“So somewhere along the way you decided to be a counselor?” When he glanced back her jaw looked stubborn.

“I’m a pretty good one, despite what you may think about this particular mess. I wanted to be closer to the kids, to make a personal difference with them. And I wanted to relocate out here in the Winding Stair, where I was born. Like I said, it’s a long story.”

“Maybe I’ll get a chance to hear it someday.” When he looked back again, the moonlight caught in her eyes and their gazes locked. In that instant, it was as if he knew, and she knew that he knew, that someday he would, indeed, get to hear it all.

She stumbled on a rock and he caught her again. “Thanks,” she said as she wiped the sweat at her temple. “Is it incredibly hot out here tonight or what?” She lifted her pale, tangled hair off her neck, twisted it up, tucked in some stray strands.

“Yeah, it’s hot,” he agreed, studying her. He wondered if she realized how attractive she looked. “The lower the elevation, the worse it gets, but we’re almost there,” he said. “Take a second to catch your breath.” As she propped one hip against a boulder, he was glad it was too dark for her to see him sneaking a glance at her trim little backside. “Mind if I ask how old you are, Ms. Chapman?”

“Call me Rainey, okay? Ms. Chapman reminds me of my days at the firm. Twenty-nine.”

He gave her another once-over, then trained his mind back on the case. “How’d you track the boys up here?”

“I had a pretty strong suspicion that they’d come back. We had taken the children on a field trip to see the Rune Stones. Dillon kept wandering off in the direction of the caves that day. He tried to act jaded, as always, but I could tell he was fascinated by the idea of Viking carvings on the rocks.

“You can see these formations from miles around. It’s like tacking in a sailboat,” she explained, “traveling in one general direction, but in a zigzag pattern.” She chopped her hand in a rising Z. “Eventually you hit your target.”

He nodded. Hunters in these mountains used that strategy.

“And I know this area—somewhat. I spent a lot of summers up in these mountains with my gran.” She stopped, surveying the moonlit valley that opened below. She turned her head to the east, toward Big Cedar Camp. The base of Purney’s Mountain, where they now stood, was well over two miles from the facility. “Dillon claimed the caves were as far as they’d ever gone. But he’s such a colossal liar. It’s hard to say where they’ve been, what they’ve done, what they’ve seen.”

Seth frowned. He hated to tell her what they’d seen. She’d find out soon enough when she helped him question the other two kids.

“Come on.” He took her arm, leading her onto a fork in the path that led down to a clearing. “I need to know what this Maddy kid has to say.”

CHAPTER THREE

WHEN THE AMBULANCE CAME into view, Rainey broke into a run. The sight of the blue-and-red strobe lights smacking against the dark trees brought a fresh lump of fear to her throat. In the passenger seat a paramedic sat, writing calmly on a clipboard.

“The boys?” Rainey breathed as she approached the lowering window.

“Cut those lights!” Seth ordered from behind her.

“Yes, sir.” The paramedic leaned forward to flip a switch. Rainey could hear a man and woman’s muted voices coming from the back.

“She’s the counselor.” Seth’s voice was nearer to her now.

Rainey found his physical presence overwhelming again, as if she were almost preternaturally aware of his every movement. She was dismayed to realize she’d felt off-center ever since he’d first grabbed her in the woods.

She tried to tell herself that she was frightened, but there was more to it than that. She was starting to recognize all the signs in herself. That old jittery euphoria that bubbled up around an attractive man.

And this was one extremely attractive man. She tilted her head to give him a covert look in the light from the ambulance window. Tall, dark and handsome, as they say. He looked like he might have some Indian ancestors. His brows were dark, his skin was bronzed, and what she could see of his hair under the brim of his Stetson looked thick and jet-black. When he caught her looking at him, his dark eyes glinted from the depths created by his high cheekbones.

She quickly looked down.

He was handsome, all right. Possibly the best-looking man she had ever seen. But she couldn’t actually be attracted to this… Dudley Do-Right. It was as if some kind of sick kismet had thrown her together with a good-looking cop. A combo of her best dream and worst nightmare. Because long ago, she’d sworn off cops, and with good cause. No cops. Never a cop.

They made her nervous, these guys who took control of every situation and never admitted even the slightest weakness. Her father’s kind, that’s what Seth Whitman was.

“Oh, the counselor. I see.” The paramedic looked her up and down with a judgmental frown that clearly questioned Rainey’s competence. But when his eyes flicked up to Seth, the guy’s expression became abruptly respectful. “The boys are okay, ma’am.” He jerked his head. “In the back.”

Rainey trotted around and found the double doors at the rear of the ambulance locked. She knocked on the panel.

Seth came up behind her again, reaching above her head to bang on the metal impatiently. “Jake! Open up!” he boomed.

A heavyset, ruddy-faced man peeked around the curtain in the ambulance window, then cracked open the door as he holstered a sidearm. Rainey noted the badge and uniform identical to Seth’s. “Sorry, bud.” The cop looked pointedly at Rainey. “Glad he found you, ma’am. Kath and me were just discussing who to call about these kids.” His gaze slid back to Seth. “Did you come up with anything out there?”

“Not much.” Seth jerked the door open fully. “Let us in.”

The cop flung the other door wide and Rainey felt a wave of blessedly cool air pour out. The ambulance engine was running, with the air conditioner pumping.

“Careful, hon.” The chubby cop offered Rainey a hand up onto the metal step. She looked around, trying to find another place to take hold and then flushed when Seth grabbed her arm.

His grip was strong and warm, and just touching him sent a tight awareness through Rainey’s middle that made her wish she had accepted the chunky cop’s hand instead. Attracted. Definitely attracted.

“Thank you.” She tried to say it with detached dignity, but it came out breathy. Not detached.

As she squeezed past the chubby cop’s potbelly, he emitted an inappropriate hum of approval and she caught him giving Seth a randy little smirk.

“Rainey Chapman. Jake Gifford. My partner.” Seth’s tone was long-suffering.

“So I gathered.” Rainey favored the man with a flat smile and a cool look that caused his leering expression to dry up. She’d been dealing with goatish men all her life.

“Shut the doors,” Seth ordered as he propped a boot on the metal step and hoisted himself inside.

“Think I’ll wait out in the cruiser,” the heavyset cop said. “It’s getting kinda crowded in here.”

With the three boys and a female paramedic, it was actually more than crowded inside the ambulance.

Maddy lay with a cold pack pressed to the side of his head. He looked pathetically thin, with his oversize, white-stockinged feet sticking up at the end of the stretcher.

While Seth had a mumbled exchange with the paramedic, Rainey dropped to her knees beside the child, brushing back his wavy hair to cup one palm on his forehead, signing frantically with her other hand. Maddy signed back.

“What’re they saying?” Seth asked Dillon, who was squeezed onto a narrow bench next to the stony, silent Aaron.

Dillon held up palms with pink-tinged dressings taped on them. “Beats me,” he lied.

Rainey heard Seth unzipping his bulletproof vest. “Ms. Chapman told me you can read sign.”

Dillon shrugged. “Okay. He’s telling her about the two big dudes. How we ran from that cave and all.”

Rainey could only peripherally note what was taking place around her. Her focus was on Maddy, the most vulnerable of her charges. Unlike the other two, Maddy didn’t have his anger to shield him. When she heard how one of the men had struck him with a shovel, she pressed shaky fingers to her lips, feeling unbearable guilt.