Page 1 of Outlaw Ridge: Jesse
Chapter One
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From his desk in the bullpen, Deputy Jesse McCain heard the front door of the Outlaw Ridge Police Station open, but he kept his attention on the report he was trying to finish. Tried to shut out, too, the routine chaos around him. Keyboards clacking, phones ringing, the low murmur of his fellow deputies talking and trading updates of their investigations.
Then, the air shifted. The typing and conversations stopped.
Just stopped.
A murmur of shock rippled through the room. Deputy Griff Abrams swore under his breath, and Jesse’s head snapped up, his gut tightening at the sight he saw in the doorway.
A young, blonde-haired woman stood there.
Early twenties, maybe even younger. Barefoot. Her sleeveless white summer dress was spattered in blood. Her wide, vacant eyes swept the room. But what really caught Jesse’s attention were her fingers curled around the handle of a butcher knife, its blade smeared with blood.
Jesse was on his feet in an instant, moving toward her and motioning for the receptionist to take cover behind his desk. “Ma’am, I need you to put the knife down,” he said, lifting his hands in what he hoped would be a steadying gesture to show her that he didn’t have a weapon trained on her.
But Griff and the other on-duty deputies were certainly ready to do just that if this turned out to be a threat. So far, she wasn’t. The woman didn’t move. Didn’t blink. Didn’t seem to register him at all.
“I’m Deputy Jesse McCain,” he said, hands still raised, voice as level and calm as he could manage. Griff moved up behind him. “Can you tell me who you are?”
Normally, Jesse wouldn’t have had to ask that question to someone who came into the police station. In a small town like Outlaw Ridge, everybody usually knew just about everybody, but Jesse was certain, though he’d never seen this woman before.
She didn’t answer his question. She just stood there with that empty look in her pale blue eyes.
With Griff shadowing him, Jesse went closer to her, his gaze sliding over the woman, checking for any signs of an injury. It was hard to tell with all that blood on her, but the blood wasn’t fresh. It had dried and crusted in spots on her dress and right arm. An arm that sported what appeared to be a fairly recent tattoo. He could see the raw, red outline of a heart with an infinity symbol in the center.
“Ma’am, can you put down that knife and tell me what happened to you?” Jesse pressed.
Still nothing, but he glanced over his shoulder when he heard some movement behind him. Jesse was ready to give a silent warning to any of the other deputies who might try to approach and spook the woman. Something that could cause her to try to use that knife either on him or someone else.
Or herself.
But the movement hadn’t come from an approaching deputy but rather the sheriff, Hallie McQueen, who’d stepped out of her office. And she wasn’t alone. Deputy Lauren Whitman, the head of the county’s newly formed cold case unit was with her. They’d all grown up together in Outlaw Ridge, and Lauren and he hadbeen on the verge of starting to date when a horrific incident happened in their senior year in high school. After that, Lauren had moved away, cut ties, buried the past. Now, she was back, but she wasn’t the same girl he remembered.
But Lauren was a cop.
Like Hallie, Jesse knew that Lauren was steady. And Jesse trusted her not to do anything to escalate this situation.
Whateverthissituation was.
He had no idea if this blood-covered woman was a victim, witness or perpetrator of some violent crime.
“Ma’am,” Jesse said, returning his attention to the blonde. “I’m going to need that knife.”
Again, there was no response from her. The woman seemed frozen to that spot, but he saw that her grip had loosened some on the knife. It looked ready to slip right from her fingers. Hoping that it would do just that, Jesse wanted to hurry that along. If someone came walking into the station right now, they could end up being hurt.
Jesse went even closer to her, taking slow and cautious steps while he tried to tamp down the slam after slam of adrenaline going through his body. He homed in on the threat, with all of his training flashing like neon signs in his head.
And he’d had a hell of a lot of training.
First, in the military, followed by a decade working for the elite private security company, Strike Force, and now he’d been a deputy for over a year. He could handle this and hopefully no one would get hurt.
“Ma’am, can you drop that knife?” Jesse tried again.
He went through the gate next to the metal detector, glancing at the receptionist to make sure he was still down. He was. He was all the way down on the floor beneath his desk.
Jesse held out his hand for the knife. “Ma’am,” he prompted.
