Appalachian Abduction (Lavender Mountain Book 2; Appalachian Magic) Read online

  A small-town cop must protect

  a beautiful rogue undercover detective.

  Trespassing, fleeing a peace officer...hell, she’d aimed a gun at his chest! Officer James Tedder can’t help but admire her fight. And undercover detective Charlotte Helms will never quit. She’s on a personal mission: rescue her best friend’s daughter...and bust the child-trafficking ring that lured her away. When they’re forced to become partners, James must trust Charlotte to have his back. But can he trust her with his heart?

  Charlotte Helms had stormed into his life like some badass angel of justice, shaking up his quiet, orderly world.

  “Do you have a girlfriend or—” her face tightened “—a wife?”

  “Nope.” He’d had a fiancée this time last year, but Ashley had brushed him off with a Dear John letter while he was in Afghanistan. Not that he could blame her frustration with his absence, but it rankled. Last he’d heard, she was already engaged to another man.

  “What about you?” He’d assumed she wasn’t married, but what did he really know about her?

  She snorted. “Hell, no.”

  Irrational relief flowed over him.

  “My profession doesn’t exactly lend itself to maintaining close, personal relationships,” she continued. “Haven’t even seen my own parents in months.”

  “That must be hard.”

  “Yeah, it’s tough.” Charlotte sighed and ran a hand through her long hair. “It never used to bother me, but lately...”

  APPALACHIAN

  ABDUCTION

  Debbie Herbert

  Debbie Herbert writes paranormal and romantic suspense novels reflecting her belief that love, like magic, casts its own spell of enchantment. A 2017 Rita finalist, she’s always been fascinated by magic, romance and gothic stories. Married and living in Alabama, she roots for the Crimson Tide football team. Her eldest son, like many of her characters, has autism. Her youngest son is in the US Army. A past Maggie Award finalist in both young adult and paranormal romance, she loves to hear from readers!

  Books by Debbie Herbert

  Harlequin Intrigue

  Appalachian Prey

  Appalachian Abduction

  Harlequin Nocturne

  Bayou Magic

  Bayou Shadow Hunter

  Bayou Shadow Protector

  Bayou Wolf

  Dark Seas

  Siren’s Secret

  Siren’s Treasure

  Siren’s Call

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com.

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  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Charlotte Helms—A dedicated undercover cop who’s traveled to the north Georgia mountains to help a young girl escape from a human-trafficking ring. She trusts no one, not even the small-town deputy whose help she needs to find the victim.

  James Tedder—After returning from his last military deployment, he wants nothing more than to settle down to small-town life as a deputy sheriff. He suffers from PTSD and has withdrawn from close relationships—until the fiery redhead arrives in town. She’s an enticing mystery, one he would love to solve.

  Maddie and Richard Stowers—A rich couple from Atlanta who own a luxurious cabin in the exclusive Falling Rock community on Blood Mountain. They’re respected members of the community, so no one believes that behind their closed doors at the luxury mountain retreat there might be young girls imprisoned for the human-trafficking trade.

  This book is dedicated to all my author friends who help me,

  especially: Gwen Knight, Lexi George, Ash Fitzsimmons,

  Michelle Edwards, Tammy Lynn, Fran Holland and

  Audrey Jordan!

  And, as always, to my husband, Tim, my dad, J.W. Gainey,

  and my sons, Byron and Jacob.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from Lawman from Her Past by Delores Fossen

  Chapter One

  Only one road climbed Blood Mountain to the exclusive Falling Rock community and its luxury mansions. But Charlotte had no interest in accessing the gated community through the pretty lane lined with oaks and vistas of manicured lawns and gardens.

  No, the backside view of the swanky neighborhood was where she’d find clues to the ugly mystery of Jenny’s whereabouts. And to get to this precious vantage point in the hollow, she’d hiked a good two miles down from neighboring Lavender Mountain. She raised her binoculars and focused on the nearest cabin’s massive wooden deck.

  Nobody milling about there.

  She slanted them to the cabin’s impressive wall of windows, hoping to catch a glimpse of Jenny—or any other young teenage girl, for that matter. The bastards.

  Still nothing.

  But she wasn’t discouraged. If nothing else, her career as an undercover cop had taught her patience. She waited and, after a few minutes, scanned the row of houses yet again before dropping the binoculars and taking a swig from her water bottle.

  Faint voices rumbled through the air, low, deep and indecipherable. Quickly she raised the binoculars to search for the source. But the field glasses weren’t necessary. Near the base of the cabin, only one hundred yards away, stood two men armed with shotguns and wearing walkie-talkies belted at their waists. Where had they come from?

  Suddenly the muscular guy on the left raised an arm and pointed a pair of binoculars at her.

  Oh, no.

  She’d been spotted, despite the fact that she was dressed in camouflage and had tucked her red hair into an olive ski cap. The man on the right raised a shotgun to his shoulder and scanned the area. Charlotte dropped to the ground on her stomach, praying she was out of sight. Three deep breaths, and she raised her binoculars again. The men had disappeared.

  Strangely, she wasn’t comforted by that realization. They could be creeping their way downhill to find her. Time to get the heck out of Dodge. Charlotte tucked the binoculars and water bottle into her backpack and withdrew her pistol. Not the standard-issue one provided by the Atlanta Police Department—they’d forced her to turn that in—but the personal one she always kept stashed in her nightstand. If they found her, she’d be ready for them. The cool, hard wood snuggled in her right hand provided a surge of comfort, just as it always had on those nights when she’d been home alone and whispers of danger made her imagine some ex-con had discovered where she lived.

  Charlotte eased the backpack onto her shoulders. Cocking her head to the side, she paused, listening for anything out of the ordinary.

  Wind moaned through the trees, and dead leaves gusted in noisy spirals. Then she heard it: a methodical crunching of the forest underbrush that thickly carpeted the ground. At least one of the men was headed her way.

  Damn
it.

  She jumped to her feet and ran, heart savagely skittering. Its pounding beat pulsed in her ears, loud as the echo of dynamite. A slug whistled high above her, and bark exploded from near the top of a pine sapling eight feet ahead.

  Did they mean to kill her or merely frighten her off? Because if their aim was the latter, it was working. Charlotte kept running, this time darting behind trees every ten yards or so. No sense providing them with an easy target. The path seemed to stretch on forever, though, and a stitch in her side finally screamed in protest at the brisk pace. Charlotte stumbled behind a wide oak and sucked oxygen into her burning lungs.

  Another shot rent the air, but she couldn’t tell where the bullet landed. Hopefully not anywhere nearby. She pushed off and ran once more. Wind blasted her ears and cheeks, stinging her eyes as she sped down the trail, mentally calculating her best escape. If only she knew how close they were.

  There were three options. One, return to the nearby abandoned cabin and hope they didn’t see her sneak inside. Two, if there was enough time, hightail it to her truck hidden in a copse of trees and take off. The problem with the first two was that her cover might be compromised if she were spotted. The third option was riskier, but it would leave her free to continue her planned surveillance.

  Another shot torpedoed by like an angry hornet, grazing the side of a nearby oak. This shot was much closer. Again, she ran. Gnarled roots gripped her right foot and she fell flat. A pained cry slipped past her lips. She stared down at her twisted knee and the ripped denim on the outside of her right thigh where brambles and rocks had cut deep. Blood oozed and created a widening stain on her pants. Her right temple throbbed and she knew a knot would form on her scalp. Charlotte swallowed hard, pushing back the sudden stab of dizziness that narrowed her vision. No allowing the blessed relief of unconsciousness to take hold. The things men like them could do...she’d seen way too many victims and knew a thousand ways evil people could inflict pain upon another.

  Focus. You can’t let them catch you.

  Option three it was, then. Quickly she ripped off her jacket and pressed it against her wound. Couldn’t let blood drip to the ground and become a trail that would lead the men to her. Not to mention the danger of passing out from blood loss.

  She hissed at the wave of pain that slammed into her knee. It was as if someone had tripped a live wire inside her that burned through her veins and traveled up and down her body. Even her mouth had a metallic, coppery taste. Charlotte spit a mouthful of blood, clamped her teeth shut and crouched low. Plenty of time later to moan and groan. Right now she had to find cover.

  It hurt like hell, but she managed a stumbling trot, forsaking the main path and stumbling through shrubs and bands of trees. Winter was a hell of a time to seek shelter in the Appalachian forest. The plants were practically stripped bare, their only foliage a few withered, stubborn leaves that had not yet broken loose. But there were patches of evergreen shrubs and small pine trees still to be found. She’d checked on that in her earlier recon of the area.

  “Where’d he go?” one of the men shouted from afar.

  The answering voice was much closer. “Lost sight of him.”

  She dove behind a clump of rhododendrons and curled into a tight ball. If they hadn’t seen her, she had a chance. Her breath sawed in and out—to her ears, loud enough to doom any hope of going unnoticed. She crossed her left hand over her thigh and pressed down on the wound to staunch the bleeding. Those damn briars ripped flesh like tiny surgical knives. The pistol was in her right hand, loaded, with the safety off. If they came too close and found her hidey-hole, she might be able to fire at them first.

  They tromped through the area and continued the search. Subtlety wasn’t their strength.

  “You go that way,” one of them shouted, pointing in the opposite direction, “and I’ll head this way.”

  A tide of relief whooshed through her body. One would be easier than two if it came to a showdown.

  Footsteps approached, and she rounded into herself even tighter, not daring to breathe.

  Please don’t stop. Keep walking, she prayed as the nearest man stomped not twenty yards away. He wore black leather boots and dark denims—that much she could see—but she didn’t dare lift her face and examine him further.

  He stumbled on a rock and tumbled forward several steps, managing to catch his balance at the last minute. “Damn it,” he snarled, then yelled, “Anyone out there?”

  Right. Like she was going to raise her hand and pop up like a jack-in-the-box to answer him.

  “If you can hear me, you were trespassing. Stay away from Falling Rock, got it? Hey, Ricky, let’s get back to the house,” he called to his fellow tracker, then walked back toward the main trail.

  Another voice, deeper and more gravelly, spoke. “Probably just a hunter, anyway.”

  “I didn’t see no shotgun on him, but he was wearing camouflage. Scrawny little fella.”

  “Might not have been hunting animals. Could be one of them ’sengers.”

  What the heck was a ’senger? Whatever they were, she was grateful they provided another plausible explanation for a person roaming the woods in camouflage attire.

  Her breathing slowed at the sound of receding footsteps. Today had almost been disastrous, and she wasn’t in the clear yet.

  If those men were smart, they’d linger a bit, hoping that their prey would be cocky enough, or stupid enough, to reemerge on the trail, mistakenly believing the danger had passed. But six years on the force had honed her methods and instincts. Never believe your opponent isn’t as smart, or smarter, than yourself, she’d been warned.

  And so she waited. As shock and adrenaline faded, the pain in her knee and temple increased. As soon as she got to the cabin, she’d clean the wound and patch it up with the first aid kit she’d brought along. She also had Ace bandages to wrap her knee. It had to be a superficial injury, since she’d been able to put weight on her leg and run. The air chilled her skin, although not enough to counteract the burn of ripped flesh. Were the men still lying in wait? She wasn’t sure how much longer she could stay. Every moment the wound went unattended increased the likelihood of infection, and she desperately wanted to take something for the building headache.

  Gingerly Charlotte rose and tested putting weight on her right leg. A bolt of pain traveled up from her knee, and she bit her lip to keep from crying out. Hurt or not, she had to leave. Those men might return with a larger force. And even if her damn cell phone worked out here in the boonies, who could she call? Right now, she was a pariah to her coworkers, and if she called the local authorities, they’d pepper her with questions.

  She gripped her pistol more tightly and set off toward the main trail. Once she got there, she’d walk along the outskirts until she was sure the men were truly gone.

  The trail looked as forlorn and barren as when she’d first hiked it that morning. Charlotte ran a hand through her hair and then stopped cold. At some point, her hat had been blown away by the wind. Good thing the men were gone. Now she needed to push through the pain and walk. She could do that. There was no choice.

  It appeared she’d survived this encounter. Sometimes the best option was to hide and live to fight another day. Justice delayed beat justice denied. Besides, it wasn’t as if she harbored a death wish, though death would be preferable to what these men were capable of doing.

  They might have succeeded in running her off for the day, but she wasn’t giving up. She couldn’t give up. Not today, not ever. She was the last, best hope for Jenny and the other lost girls.

  * * *

  THE NEAR-DESERTED roads suited James just fine. October, while beautiful in the Appalachians, had drawn crowds of tourists flocking to view the scenic foliage. But November’s gray skies and biting wind meant that Lavender Mountain was back to its usual calmness—and he could sure use some peace and quiet. Returning fr
om Afghanistan hadn’t exactly led to the grand family homecoming he’d once envisioned. Instead, murder had wiped out half his family before he’d even set foot in Elmore County. That tragedy, combined with what the doctors deemed a mild case of PTSD, had left him edgy and filled with uncertainty about the future.

  With no conscious plan, James meandered the deputy sheriff’s cruiser up the mountain road, and he startled at the sudden sight of his father’s old cabin. How often had he done this very thing on routine patrols? Ended up driving right here, precisely at the place he’d rather not be?

  He shook his head in disgust and hit the accelerator. Memory Lane had zip appeal.

  Twenty yards down the road, a flash of beige slashed through his peripheral vision. What was that? He did a U-turn and craned his neck, searching the brown-and-gray woods. There, he spotted it again. Curious, he pulled onto his father’s old property and exited the cruiser, shrugging into his jacket. He strode along the tree line until he solved the riddle: someone had parked their truck toward the back of the property behind a couple of large trees. He retrieved his cell phone and hurried over on the off chance that someone might be injured or stranded.

  It was locked, but he peered in the tinted windows. No clues there. The interior was practically empty and spotlessly clean. He headed to the back of the truck and took a photo of the license plate. He’d call in the numbers shortly.

  No damn reason it should be here. No good reason, anyway. Frowning, he went to the cabin and pulled out his keys. Better make sure some squatter hadn’t decided to take up free residence.

  He inserted the key in the lock, but it wouldn’t turn. James withdrew it and checked—yes, this was the correct key. Someone had changed the locks. He felt a prickle of unease mixed with anger, and the twin emotions churned in his gut. Anger won.

  “Open up,” he bellowed, rapping his knuckles on the old wooden door. “Sheriff’s department.”

  Silence.

  He stepped back on the porch and noticed for the first time that every window was taped up with plain brown wrapping paper. This was his place, damn it. He’d chosen not to live in the cabin he’d inherited, but that didn’t mean just anyone could help themselves to it and move in. James rapped on the door again, louder. “Open up now, or I’ll break down the door.”