Page 2 of Outlaw Ridge: Jesse
This time he got a reaction. The woman lifted her head, her attention landing on someone. Not Jesse though. She looked right past him, and when he followed the direction of her gaze, Jesse realized she had pinned her attention to Lauren. And not just pinned it. Her eyes had gone wide, and her mouth opened in a silent scream.
“Lauren, do you know her?” Jesse couldn’t ask fast enough.
“No.” And then she muttered, “Oh my God.”
Jesse’s pulse throttled up big time. He glanced back at Lauren, and saw that her face had gone deadly pale as if she’d seen a ghost. He wanted to question what had caused her reaction and what she meant by thatOh, my God, but the knife dropped from the woman’s hand, clanging onto the floor.
He moved in, fast, kicking away the knife before he took hold of her. Not exactly restraining her but to stop her from falling. She sank to her knees and let out a low moan that reminded him of a wounded animal.
Griff moved equally fast to glove up and grab the knife, and Jesse heard the sheriff call for an ambulance. Two other deputies, Jemma Salvetti and Callie Brandon, rushed to help Jesse, with Callie frisking the woman for other weapons while Jemma took hold of her arm.
The woman winced, her attention snapping to the spot that Jemma was holding. The inflamed-looking tattoo. Jemma shifted her grip, and Jesse did a cursory check for any other injuries.
He couldn’t see a single cut, especially one that would have caused that amount of blood on her dress, but it was possible she had injuries beneath her clothes. He’d leave that for the EMTs to check. For now, Jesse wanted to see what had put that look of terror on Lauren’s face.
“She seemed to recognize you,” Jesse pointed out, going back through the gate and walking closer to Lauren.
Lauren nodded. “I, uh, need to sit down,” she muttered.
Yeah, Jesse could see that. She’d lost even more color in her face, and her bottom lip was trembling. He knew Lauren couldn’t be having this kind of reaction to seeing blood or someone who’d had a knife. She’d been a cop for a decade, and that was plenty of time to grow accustomed to seeing all sorts of bad things.
“In here,” Hallie said, placing her hand on Lauren’s arm to get her moving back into her office. Lauren didn’t resist, didn’t try to say anything else.
The moment they were inside, Lauren sank down onto one of the chairs. Hallie went in, stooping in front of her. Jesse moved in closer, too, studying her face and wondering what the hell was going on.
“I don’t know who the woman is,” Lauren muttered. “But there’s something about her…”
Jesse exchanged a glance with Hallie, who was watching Lauren with a mix of concern and sharp intuition. He knew the sheriff was good at reading people. So was Jesse.
And right now, Lauren was shaken to the core.
Lauren turned to face them fully, exhaling hard, as if forcing herself to speak. “You remember what happened to me when I was eighteen.” Her voice was steady enough, but Jesse could hear the effort it took to keep it that way. “I was kidnapped and held for a week before I escaped.”
Jesse’s jaw clenched. Yeah, he remembered all right. Every damn detail of it as if it were happening now instead of sixteen years ago.
The whole town had searched for her, him included. He’d been barely eighteen at the time, and they had had plans for a date. Their first one. Before she had vanished. When Lauren finally reappeared, battered and silent, she hadn’t stayed in Outlaw Ridge for long.
She’d left. Left him. Left everything, including the elderly aunt who’d raised her.
Lauren glanced over her shoulder through the still open office door where she could no doubt see the young woman covered in blood. The woman who’d triggered this shock. And apparently had triggered Lauren into telling them what had to be a gut-wrenching recap of the past.
How was that kidnapping connected to this woman?
Jesse hoped they would soon find out.
“There were other girls,” Lauren went on. “I never saw them, never saw him. But I heard them. And then… I got away.” Her throat bobbed as she swallowed again.
Jesse shook his head. “That woman can’t have been one of the other kidnapped girls,” he pointed out. “She’s not old enough.”
He stopped again and realized what was happening here. Lauren might be seeing herself in the woman. When Lauren had escaped her kidnapper and returned to Outlaw Ridge, she hadn’t been carrying a knife, but she had had blood on her clothes and that same shell-shocked look. So maybe just the sight of the woman had given her the motherload of all flashbacks.
Or this was possibly about something else.
Something that twisted at Jesse’s gut when he saw Lauren’s hand, sliding absently over her arm. A long-sleeved top covered her skin, but her fingers weren’t just resting there. They were tracing something.
Jesse frowned. “Lauren…”
She hesitated. Then, with a sharp breath, she pushed up her sleeve. His attention went straight to a patch of smooth skin on her forearm.
