Consolation Prize (Forbidden Men #9)(123)

Since my phone was busy with helping me find Juli, I didn’t call my brother. I trusted that Pick would contact everyone who needed to know, and besides, I kind of wanted to be the first one who found her so Colton would stop hating me, and of course because I wanted to help my favorite coworker, but the Colton aspect made it even more urgent.

It should’ve been a half-hour drive, but I made it in twenty minutes. I pulled into the weed-covered driveway that didn’t look as if it’d been maintained in two years and drove to the end of the lane until I was in front of the house and a couple outbuildings. One of them hosted a whole side of the building with the words Seymour Valley Apple Farm painted on the side in chipping red block letters.

I killed the engine and climbed out.

The place seemed deserted and rundown, except for a single older model truck parked in front of my ride. Evening had fallen and I squinted through the dusk, not sure where to even begin looking. So I cupped my hand around my mouth and yelled, “Juli!”

No one answered.

I began to panic, thinking I’d come to the wrong place. Maybe she was at a different orchard. But the name fit and the place looked as if it’d been foreclosed for a good two years. I jogged toward the abandoned two-story farmhouse with no curtains or shades in the windows, revealing the interior was bare of everything. But when I tried the front door, it was locked. I went around to the back and tried the back door next. Also locked.

I rubbed my face, thinking.

Julianna had called me from somewhere. There had to be a phone inside. Trying not to think about the fact I was breaking and entering, I backed up a few steps and then rammed my shoulder into the back door. Hurt like a motherf*cker. I might’ve dislocated it. What was worse, the door didn’t even budge. Wincing, I eased off my jacket and wrapped it around my fist before going with option two and breaking out the glass.

Once I was inside, I searched the empty house from top to bottom for a phone, but there wasn’t one. And there was no Juli. So I tried the building I guessed had probably once been the storefront for the orchard. After breaking in there and finding no phone, I spun in a circle, stabbing my fingers through my hair.

“Julianna!” I yelled, walking aimlessly around the building. Where the f*ck was she?

I was about to give up all hope when I spotted the storm shelter sticking about a foot above the ground on the side of the house I hadn’t used to get to the back door. And huddled on the ground beside it was a figure. No, wait. Two figures. One was kneeling with its head lowered, the other was lying on the ground next to the first.

“Juli!” I raced forward, skidding to a stop when I was close enough to take in the scene before me.

She sat on her knees, covered in blood, with her head bowed and scarlet-stained hands holding a cell phone to her chest next to some guy sprawled on his back like Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. The dude looked dead, and like maybe he’d been stabbed, especially with that knife sticking out of his throat.

“Juli?” I said hesitantly, easing a few steps forward until I could creep out my hand and touch her shoulder. She jumped as if scalded and began to scream, and yet not scream. I think she was trying to scream but didn’t exactly have a voice left to do so. What came out was just a hoarse release of air.

And then she began to whisper, “No, no, no, no, no,” as she shook her head and clutched the phone in her hands.

I drew my fingers back and skipped away, holding up both hands to let her know I wouldn’t touch her again. Not that she even noticed or acknowledged me.

Beginning to shake out of control, I tugged up my phone and called Pick. “I found her.”

“Oh, thank God,” he breathed. “Is she okay?”

I shook my head. “Man, I don’t even know. There’s blood everywhere, I can’t tell if it’s hers or not. She flipped out when I touched her. She doesn’t act like I’m even here, but she’s sitting upright and rocking herself. I think…I think she killed the guy who took her. He’s lying here dead beside her with a knife sticking from his throat.”

“Holy f*ck.”

I nodded. Yeah. That about summed it up. “Who have you called?”

“Everyone,” he confirmed. “Actually, I wouldn’t think they’d be too far behind you.” And even as he said that I heard a car in the drive, pulling to a stop behind my truck.

“Someone just showed up,” I affirmed. “Talk later.”

I disconnected with him to greet whoever had shown. Surprised to see Julianna’s father jogging toward me, I waved him forward even as I gritted my teeth.

He wasn’t exactly my favorite person at the moment. He’d treated Colton like a criminal since Monday, certain my brother was the reason behind all this. They had clashed tempers so often now, I think we’d had to stop them from coming to physical blows about a dozen times.

“She’s here,” I said, watching his face as he drew close enough to see what had happened for himself.

“Mother of God.” He gulped as if he were going to be sick, then he veered around the dead guy to get to his daughter. “Juli Bug. Baby girl. It’s okay. Daddy’s here.”

But he got the same result I had when he tried to touch her. He jerked away as she started to hyperventilate and scream in the same hoarse cry that tore something up inside me.

While her dad was forced to back away as well, I clutched my head, wishing there was some way to at least calm her down.