Page 38 of Outlaw Ridge: Ryker
Determination.
“Ryker,” a voice cut in.
He turned where Jesse stood in the doorway. One look at him and Ryker knew something was wrong.
“Talk to me,” Ryker said.
Jesse didn’t waste time. “We just got another call,” he said. “We have another dead body wearing a mask.”
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Chapter Nine
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Emma listened closely as Jesse laid it out.
“Call just came in from Janette Ward,” he said. “She’s staying at a rental cabin just outside town. Said she came back from getting groceries and found a body on the property.”
Emma frowned. “Janette lives in Austin. What’s she doing staying near Outlaw Ridge?”
Jesse shook his head. “No idea. She didn’t say.”
Ryker was already pulling on his coat. “That’s something we’ll find out soon enough.”
Emma grabbed her own jacket and followed Ryker out into the cold morning air. The sky was still dull with leftover gray from the storm, but the sleet had stopped. The ground was wet, the air sharp.
They crossed the lot to the cruiser, climbed in, and Ryker started the engine without a word. Emma glanced in the side mirror and saw Jesse and Hayes moving toward the second cruiser. They’d be right behind them.
Another body. Another mask.
And this time, Janette was at the center of it. Yes, they definitely needed to find out why Janette was on their turf.
Ryker drove with one hand on the wheel, eyes scanning the road ahead. The cruiser moved fast but steady over the damppavement, tires humming as they cut through the quiet stretch of highway just outside town.
Emma sat in the passenger seat, hands folded in her lap, gaze fixed on the landscape as it rolled past.
The rental cabins were about a mile out, tucked near the creek where the trees grew thicker and the air always felt cooler, even in summer. She knew the area. Not the kind of cabins meant for hunters or hardcore outdoorsmen. These were high-end spots. Big windows, wraparound porches, overpriced wine in the mini fridge. Romantic getaways for couples who wanted to pretend they were in the wilderness, without actually having to rough it.
It was the kind of place someone like Janette might rent if she wanted quiet. Or if she wanted to hide.
The road narrowed as they turned off the main stretch, gravel crunching beneath the tires. The creek came into view on the right, water dark and running fast from the recent sleet.
Emma’s heart thudded in a rhythm too quick and too familiar.
She didn’t say it aloud, but she was hoping,really hoping, this body turned out to be a dummy. Like the one with the mask. Like the sick joke someone had left behind at the Calhoun place.
Because she’d seen enough real death lately.
And she had a bad feeling they were about to see more.
The cabin came into view around the curve in the road, modern and polished, with clean cedar siding and a wraparound porch overlooking the creek. A single SUV was parked in the gravel drive, engine off, windows fogged slightly from the cold.
Emma spotted Janette behind the wheel.
The woman was hunched forward, eyes darting around, and when she saw them pull in, she threw open the driver’s side door and climbed out fast, one hand clutching an umbrella by theshaft, pointy end forward, like she meant to stab something with it. There was that tight coil of panic in her eyes.
Ryker stopped the cruiser, and before either of them could get a word out, Janette rushed toward them, umbrella still raised like a makeshift weapon.
