Protector: The Flawed Series Book Three

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Epilogue

  Enjoying the Flawed Series?

  Also By Becca

  The Father Hunt

  The Father Hunt Sneak Peek

  Enchanter

  About the Author

  The Flawed Series Book Three

  Protector

  Becca J. Campbell

  Published by Surreal Media Studios, 2016.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  Written by Becca J. Campbell.

  Cover Design by Steven Novak. Edited by Jessie Sanders.

  PROTECTOR

  First edition. January 24th, 2016.

  Copyright © 2016 Becca J. Campbell.

  All rights reserved.

  Either a mysterious force was slowly siphoning away Logan Henry’s protective barrier, or something else was terribly wrong with him. He had unleashed a monster, and it was terrifying.

  His gaze was riveted on the television—one of those over-dramatic romance flicks—and for some reason his insides twisted in agony. Logan bit his lip and snuck a glance at his girlfriend, Jade Edwards, sitting next to him on her sofa.

  “Your boss died?” Across the room in the Papasan chair, Cameron Schuyler crossed his legs and reclined a bit, frowning at Jade.

  “Mr. Thompson.” Jade’s words hitched. “He was…so kind…and only sixty-eight. Still so young…” She didn’t cry, but her voice was brittle as she continued to tell Cam about the funeral last week.

  Logan knew she’d been close to Mr. Thompson, but he feared her memories weren’t what caused her sadness today. His feelings kept leaking out, and today they seemed worse. This blasted movie playing low in the background made his chest feel like it would burst, which meant his own turmoil must be contaminating Jade’s mind.

  On the screen, the elderly woman told the old man she remembered. The man hugged and kissed her. And Logan’s eyes pooled. He clamped his jaw and held his breath, trying not to blink, trying to force his mind off the movie, for Jade’s sake if not for his own.

  Still speaking to Cam, Jade ignored Logan’s emotional state, though he knew she could feel it with her heightened sense of empathy. Either she didn’t want to embarrass her boyfriend or she thought the grief was hers alone. She wasn’t watching Logan, and deciphering her own emotions was sometimes still a challenge for her. He hated that he’d lost control of his mood, especially around her.

  Unable to look away from the movie, Logan watched the old woman relapse, forgetting yet again and cringing away from her husband.

  He couldn’t take it anymore.

  Logan pushed off the sofa and cleared his throat. It came out in a rough cough. He turned his back to Jade and Cam and hurried out of the room. In the bathroom, he sagged against the door and swiped at his cheeks with the back of his hands. With slow, deep breaths in and out the emotions gradually faded.

  He cracked the door to listen and make sure they weren’t speculating about his swift exit. He wondered if Jade had yet suspected the out-of-control feelings were his.

  She sniffled.

  “What will happen to the store?” Cam asked.

  “His daughter’s taking it over,” Jade said. “She flew in from Seattle last week, and she’ll be officially moving next month.”

  Logan silently latched the door and breathed a sigh of relief. He splashed his face with cold water and ran his fingers through his shoulder-length, wavy hair.

  What was his problem? Last week it had been the funeral with Jade, and today some movie was making him want to cry. He surveyed his reflection in the mirror and rubbed at the rough stubble on his chin, thinking of this new, intoxicating, strange, wonderful relationship with Jade over the past few months. She’d been slowly coaxing him out of his emotional shell, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about the whole thing.

  “She asks me to open up, and this is what happens,” he muttered to the freak in the mirror. “Open the gates and unleash a flood.” He’d been trying to let his walls down little by little, but every time he did, it seemed to backfire. He had no practice with any of this.

  He tried to ignore the possibility that something serious might be wrong with him. The last thing he needed was another weird issue. He was enough of a freak as it was, with his accelerated hair growth and super strength.

  With one last deep breath, he straightened and opened the door, forcing a casual pace as he reentered the living room.

  “You’re incorrigible!” Jade threw a pillow across the room at Cam.

  Logan ducked out of the way as he crossed to his spot on the sofa, exhaling with relief at Jade’s switch in mood.

  “Hey, Josh can handle it,” Cam said, the trace of a smirk at the edge of his mouth.

  “But the poor guy’s in recovery,” she said. “I can’t believe you hid his cane. That’s so mean!”

  Cam shrugged. “Only for like ten minutes before Mom found it. She’s babying him like he’s five again.”

  “How so?”

  “She goes over there every few days with these massive care packages. When I went up to Denver last weekend, she had a Crock-Pot of food cooking—all just for him. Chloe and Alex spoil him rotten too.”

  A glance at the credits scrolling on the TV told him the show was over. Logan put his arm around Jade and pulled her closer on the sofa. “How is Josh?” he asked.

  “Improving,” Cam said.

  “How’s the physical therapy going?” Jade asked.

  “He complains a lot.”

  “It’s been what, four months since he took all those bullets?” Logan said.

  “November to April.” Jade ticked off months on her fingers. “Five. I’m still amazed how he sacrificed himself to save Alex.”

  Logan glanced at Jade. There was a bit of irony in her words, since just being with other people was a sacrifice for her. She amazed him. A surge of warmth filled his heart, and he snuffed it quickly. Jade glanced his way, and her brows wrinkled for a moment. Funny how cutting his feelings off always got her attention better than letting them slip in the first place. She didn’t approve of him stifling his feelings, but things had gotten a bit out of control with that movie, and he never wanted to shut her emotions down.

  Jade pushed up off the sofa and stood. “I’m going to make some tea. You guys want some?”

  “No, thanks,” Logan said.

  “You got a soda?” Cam asked.

  “Sure. Be right back.”

  A moment of awkward silence lingered after she left.

  Logan scratched at the scruff on his chin. He tapped the toe of his shoe lightly against the rag rug. “So.”

  “So.”

  “Decent of you to come share the updates on Josh.”

  “No problem.” Cam cleared his throat, and his gaze flitted around the room as if searching for a more comfortable perch than meeting Logan’s.

  Logan leaned forward, his forearms resting on his knees. “Any news o
n the Denver kidnappers?”

  “Just that they’ve stopped actively working on the case,” Cam said.

  “They’re giving up?”

  “Pretty much. The trail went cold, and they don’t have any new leads. I think the guys skipped town. Why would they stick around and risk getting caught?”

  Logan thought about how certain details of the events in August and then in November—two kidnappers, two police investigations, and two sets of statements—had been fudged to keep Logan’s, Jade’s, Cam’s, Josh’s, and Alex’s abilities secret. Had that been the right decision?

  “What about the Carlsbad Kidnapper Case? Anything new?”

  “No.”

  “What are we talking about?” Jade entered with a steaming mug in one hand and a soda in the other. She handed the can to Cam.

  “The kidnapper. Kidnappers,” Logan corrected himself.

  “Any news?” Jade asked.

  “It’s been filed as unsolved,” Cam said.

  “Which one?”

  “Both, actually.”

  Cradling her mug in her hands, Jade sank down next to Logan and shook her head. “That was so horrible—Alex getting taken like that, and her dad losing all that money. And Josh…”

  A memory from the night Alexandria Hailey was attacked came surging back to Logan. He recalled sitting in the truck with Cam in a dark car wash bay as they held their breath and listened to the two kidnappers argue. The men had already taken the money, but one of them had double-crossed the other, leaving Alex alive.

  Logan remembered that night like it was yesterday: the cold sweat beaded across his forehead, the icy fear of being discovered, the suppressed outrage. He hadn’t shared the details with Jade because he couldn’t risk letting the intensity of those emotions free.

  He locked gazes with Cam. “Remember what we overheard in that car wash?”

  Cam’s brow furrowed for a moment. “I remember them arguing…”

  “They said they were going after someone else,” Logan said. “Another girl, or woman, or something.”

  Cam nodded. “That’s right. He mentioned a name.”

  Logan frowned. “Kinsey?”

  “No. Kelsey,” Cam said. “I remember, because it was the name of my first-grade girlfriend.”

  “Kelsey?” Jade’s eyes flew wide.

  “Yeah,” Cam said. “Why?”

  Jade’s fingers dug into Logan’s knee. The look of terror in her green eyes planted worry in his own heart.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  When she spoke, her voice was a mere breath that chilled him. “Kelsey is what he kept calling me.”

  “Who?” Cam asked.

  Jade acted as if she hadn’t heard Cam. Her eyes were still locked on Logan’s. “Back in Carlsbad. When I was locked in the cave with that…killer.” She shuddered.

  “Are you sure?” Logan asked.

  She nodded. “I can’t forget it. He said I looked just like her. I think she was important to him.” Her eyes widened. “Do you know what this means?”

  “He’s one of the guys who kidnapped Alex,” Logan said.

  “What?” Cam sat forward so fast he nearly fell out of the Papasan chair. “The same guy? I saw what the dude in Carlsbad looked like, but the only time I saw Alex’s kidnappers, they both had ski masks on.”

  Logan thought of Mr. Hailey purposefully bumping his vehicle’s high beams during the transfer, activating Cam’s déjà vu. If the men hadn’t been wearing masks, Cam would’ve made the connection instantly.

  Jade spoke with urgency, her words spilling out. “It also means we have more on him than we thought, and more than we told the police. We know who he’s looking for.”

  Or already found. A chill passed over Logan.

  “Maybe we can find this Kelsey and warn her,” Jade said.

  “All we have is a first name,” Cam said.

  “We know what she looks like.” Jade gestured at herself.

  Something tightened in Logan’s chest. “Let’s contact the police again,” he said. “We’ll give them this new bit of information that connects the two cases. I’m sure they can handle it.”

  “Like they handled two kidnappings,” Cam said.

  “Maybe this will be the missing piece they need,” Logan said, eyeing Jade sideways. He patted her hand that still clung to his knee, expecting her to readily agree. But she just nodded absently, her forehead still furrowed.

  A sense of unease prickled Logan’s calm. It lingered long after Cam had left when he and Jade settled in to watch another movie. This time Logan couldn’t focus on the show. The events from Carlsbad played over in his mind, and dread tightened within him.

  The image of Jade trapped in that damp cell deep in the caves wouldn’t leave him. He’d put it out of his head for the last seven months, and Jade seemed to have moved on, too. If it were up to him, he’d whisk her away to some remote town where neither of those men would ever find her again.

  Whatever else he did, he would protect her.

  ~

  The following day, Logan and Jade went to the police with the new information, hoping the kidnappers would be quickly apprehended. But a day went by without any news, and then another. When a week had passed and nothing turned up, Jade suggested they do some digging of their own. So they camped out in the college library, staring at a computer screen until Logan's vision went fuzzy.

  Movement from behind another monitor caught his attention. A quick flash of auburn hair and a whiff of a lilac perfume he recognized—or was he imagining that familiar scent? He blinked, but whoever he’d seen was gone.

  “How much longer do you want to stay?” he asked Jade.

  “A little while.” She didn’t take her eyes off the monitor.

  “You’ve been poring over these pictures for hours. First all those missing person reports, the searches, now scanning all these Facebook photos of random women in Denver.”

  “They’re not random.”

  “How can you even see anymore? These screens hurt my eyes.”

  Jade frowned. “I thought for sure I’d find a Kelsey who looks like me.”

  “But you have no idea how old she is or how long ago he knew her. She could’ve looked like you a decade ago and look completely different now. What if she dyed her hair or gained weight or something? We don’t know if she’s even in the state.”

  “She’s got to be close, or Ethan wouldn’t have gone to Denver. He thinks she’s close, at least, whether or not he’s right.”

  “Maybe that was just a stop on his route. Maybe kidnapping Alex was part of the plan somehow. Maybe he actually has no idea where this Kelsey is.”

  “What’s your point?” Irritation flickered in Jade’s voice, and Logan’s own nerves frayed. They’d been sitting here too long.

  “My point is,” he said, “that you might spend hours…or days or weeks searching for this girl and never find her. A first name and a guess at her looks is just a shot in the dark.”

  “If the police won’t look, somebody’s got to.”

  “They are looking.”

  “We both know what that’s worth. Days or weeks: if I find her, it’ll be worth every minute.”

  Logan groaned. “The whole reason they can’t follow this lead is because it isn’t a lead!” He heard the irritation in his own voice but didn’t curb it. “There’s not enough to go on.”

  Jade shook her head. “I’ve got to at least try. If you can’t understand, fine, but I’m not leaving yet.”

  He exhaled heavily.

  She shot him an irritated glare. “Your attitude isn’t helping. If you don’t want to be here, why don’t you leave? Give me some space. I can’t think with all the exaggerated sighs.”

  Logan blinked, temporarily stunned by her shortness. He pulled back, not wanting to start a full-on battle. “Maybe I do need a break. I think I’ll grab something to eat. You want anything?”

  She shook her head, not turning from the computer.

&n
bsp; “Okay. I’ll check back later.”

  Logan left the library, momentarily less concerned about the killer at large than at his own outburst. His annoyance with Jade quickly cooled as he walked across the campus to the student center, and he made a mental note to try and be more accommodating.

  The campus was deserted and dark on this cold April evening as he passed through the rows of pines. The winter’s snow had melted away, but the ground was covered with a delicate lace of frost.

  Glancing at the clock on the wall when he entered the student center, he saw that it was nearly eight—notably late for dinner. They’d been in the library so long neither of them had thought to keep tabs on the time. After browsing the few leftover food items, Logan settled for one of the remaining slices of cold pizza and a cup of lukewarm coffee. God knew he needed it if Jade planned on staying much later.

  He pondered the elusive Kelsey and the man who was after her. Seven months earlier, the guy they knew only as Ethan had terrorized Jade. Logan shook with rage whenever he thought about it.

  Ethan had selected Jade. He’d specifically picked her for some reason—looks, she thought. The man had gone to great lengths to capture her, following them to the caverns in New Mexico and dragging her through all those narrow tunnels.

  Logan hadn’t slept well the first couple of weeks after the incident, thinking Ethan would go after Jade again, maybe come for her some night when she was alone in her apartment. But he never had. Instead he’d apparently shown up in Denver and caused more trouble there. It made Logan wonder. Why had Ethan given up so easily? And why hit Denver, where Jade had friends?

  Logan’s mind went in circles trying to figure out the psychopath. He pressed the heels of his hands to his temples, then ran his fingers through his hair, letting his wrists come to rest on his shoulders.

  “Things not going so well?” The feminine voice startled Logan. He peered up at his visitor, a young woman who flicked long, auburn hair over a shoulder and watched him with pursed lips and a raised eyebrow. Five years ago that creamy complexion and those soft blue eyes had seemed innocuous and welcoming. Today the combination kick-started a throbbing behind his eyes. Despite trying to keep his distance, he saw way too much of her, now that she worked in Colorado College’s history department with him.