Page 57 of Outlaw Ridge: Ryker
“She looks like… society,” Emma said carefully.
“She is,” Celeste replied. “Old money. Oil and land and family names that still get whispered in boardrooms. But she hasn’t left her estate in nearly ten years. Hardly sees anyone. Refuses most interviews. No one really knows what she’s doing out there.”
“And what does that have to do with us?” Ryker asked.
Celeste tightened her grip on the phone, thumb tapping back to another image as her jaw worked through something, anger, maybe, or disbelief.
“About four years ago, my mother hired a private bodyguard,” she said. “Not that she needed one. The estate’s locked down tighter than Fort Knox and she rarely leaves. But this guy just appeared one day, and suddenly, he was living there full-time.”
Hell, Ryker got a bad feeling about this and knew where it was going. “Name?”
“Jared Ellis,” she said. “Said he was former military, then private sector security. I ran a background check on him myself, and came up clean. No red flags. No priors. Nothing.” Celeste’s voice dipped lower. “But then I noticed Mom started giving him money. Not a salary.Transfers.Big ones. First every few months. Then more frequently.”
Ryker leaned forward slightly, tension tightening across his shoulders. “How big are we talking?”
“Hundreds of thousands,” Celeste said. “That’s when I started to wonder if he’d conned her. Or maybe…” She hesitated. “Maybe she’s slipping. I don’t know. I confronted her about it. She shut me down. Hard. Said it was none of my business and ordered me off the property.”
“And that was the last time you saw her?” Emma asked.
Celeste nodded. “Two years ago. Haven’t spoken since. She stopped taking my calls. I sent letters. Nothing.” Her voice faltered as she looked between them, then back down at her phone. “I saw a picture of Ethan Ross on the news. The segment said he’s wanted in connection with multiple murders.”
She stopped, swallowed hard, her hand tightening around her phone. “I’m telling you… I’m certain that’s the same man who’s been living in my mother’s house. The man she calls Jared Ellis.”
Ryker felt it like a punch straight to the gut. His mind went immediately to the woman in the photo, Veronica Harper. Reclusive, aging, vulnerable. If Ethan had been there, hadbeen living there, the possibilities twisted in his stomach.
Emma was already moving, her face gone pale with urgency. She pulled out her phone and made the call.
“This is Deputy Bonetti with Outlaw Ridge PD. We need county deputies to do a welfare check on Veronica Harper,” she said. “Possible armed suspect, Ethan Ross, on site. Suspect may be using the alias Jared Ellis.”
Ryker didn’t look away from Celeste. “We’ll find out what’s going on.”
But every part of him was bracing, for what they might have already been too late to stop.
The alarm flickered across Celeste’s face, sharp and real now, not just lingering tension. “I tried to see my mother before I came here,” she said quickly. “This morning, just after sunrise. I didn’t want to waste your time if I was wrong.”
Ryker leaned forward. “And?”
“My gate code didn’t work.” Her voice tightened. “Someone changed it.”
Emma and Ryker exchanged a look.
“I tried the intercom at the gate,” Celeste went on, her hand shaking slightly as she ran it over the brim of her cap. “No answer. And her housekeeper, Marta, she’salwaysthere. Always answers.”
“And this time?” Ryker asked.
“Nothing. Just silence.”
“I considered climbing the fence,” Celeste added. “It’s ten feet of wrought iron and was scabbed with ice. I’m good with things like that, but notthatgood. I would’ve broken my neck.”
Ryker felt the unease rise in his chest. If Ethan had taken over that house, changed codes, silenced staff, then Celeste had walked up to a threat and didn’t even know how close she’d come.
Emma ended her call and nodded to Ryker. “County’s en route now, and I told them to go in heavy.”
“Good,” Ryker said, keeping his voice even though his pulse was thudding in his ears.
Because something was wrong at that house.
And if Ethan had done what Ryker feared, then Veronica Harper wasn’t just off the grid. She might already be gone.
