Rocky Mountain Rescue, Elle James [rooftoppers .TXT] 📗

“Yes, ma’am.” Cage grimaced. “Yes, Emily.”

Emily laughed and shook her head. “Never mind.”

RJ waved toward Max. “Emily, this is Max.”

Max shook Emily’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Emily.”

“Pleasure’s mine,” she said.

“And this is Jake, the man I’ve been telling you about.”

Emily grinned and shook his hand. “I’m so glad to meet you, Jake. Every time I talk to RJ, all she has to say is Jake this and Jake that. Glad to finally meet the man behind the name. I can’t tell you how much happier RJ seems to be.”

RJ laughed. “Who would’ve thought I’d ever find someone to love?”

Emily lifted her chin. “I knew you’d find somebody someday. I’m glad it was sooner rather than later.”

“These three gentlemen are a part of that group I was telling you about,” RJ continued. “The Brotherhood Protectors. They’re the ones who are renovating the basement of the lodge to use as their headquarters here in Colorado. They’re based out of Montana with a branch office here in Colorado.”

Emily grinned. “I can’t wait to see what they’ve done with that old dusty basement.”

“If you want to come with me,” Jake said. “I’ll show you.”

Emily turned to JoJo. “JoJo?”

“Our session can wait,” JoJo said. “Go see the basement. They’ve done an amazing transformation down there.”

“Why don’t we all go down there?” Gunny said. “It’s been a couple days since I’ve been to check out the work that’s been done.”

“You guys go ahead,” JoJo said. “I’m going to gather up the glasses and get them into the dishwasher.”

Max hung back.

JoJo smiled. “I’ll be all right. I’m just going to the kitchen, and then I’ll join you.”

“I can wait,” Max said.

“No, really. I need to make a trip to the bathroom as well. Then I’ll join you downstairs.”

Max hesitated.

“Seriously,” JoJo said, “I’ll be fine.”

He reluctantly turned away and followed the group down to the basement. The workers had been there the day before finishing up some trim work. They were waiting to open the facility until some pieces of equipment were delivered. By the next week, they anticipated being fully up and running.

Emily exclaimed her approval of the transformation.

After several minutes, JoJo still hadn’t shown up. Max headed up the stairs. He didn’t like it when she was out of his sight. Not that he thought anything would happen while they were in the lodge, but she could never be too careful.

He climbed the stairs and entered the kitchen. JoJo wasn’t there. Max went to the downstairs bathroom and knocked on the door. Nobody answered. He pushed open the door. She wasn’t in the bathroom. He climbed the stairs to her room and knocked on the door there. Again, she wasn’t in her room, and she wasn’t in the bathroom across the hall.

Starting to get worried, he went back out on to the porch to see if maybe she had forgotten some items of dishes that she had wanted to put in the dishwasher.

JoJo was nowhere to be seen.

His heart started pounding harder, and his pulse raced. Another vehicle was parked beside Emily’s that hadn’t been there when they’d gone into the basement. It was the one Stover and Curry had used, and they too were nowhere to be seen in the places Max had just checked.

Knowing JoJo couldn’t stay away from the barn for long, Max headed there next, praying she was there and that he found her alone.

Chapter 14

JoJo had had every intention of joining the others in the basement. As she had come out of the kitchen, she’d remembered that she’d left her cellphone in the barn. She hurried out to go find it. While she was there, she could perform one last check to make sure everything was in place for that evening’s activities.

She found her cellphone where she’d left it in the tack room on the desk. After tucking it into her back pocket, she turned to leave, only to find somebody standing in the doorway blocking her exit from the tack room.

“Ah, Ms. Ramirez,” Stover said. “I’m glad I caught you out here.”

JoJo stiffened and forced a smile to her face. “Mr. Stover, what can I do for you?”

His eyebrows rose. “I just wanted to make sure everything was in place for this evening’s events.”

JoJo didn’t like that he was blocking her way out of the tack room. She looked over his shoulder to see his aide Curry lurking in the shadows in the barn. Her pulse quickened. Maybe she was being overly sensitive, but she felt trapped. Cornered like a mouse in a cage. “Everything’s ready, Mr. Stover. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to the lodge.”

“If everything’s ready, what’s your hurry?” He didn’t move out of the doorway. His body completely blocked her escape.

“RJ and Gunny are expecting me at the lodge,” she explained. “Then we’re going over to the Watering Hole to set up for the lunch crowd.”

“Well, then by all means, don’t let me keep you.” He turned sideways in the threshold, leaving barely enough room for anybody to get by.

It was enough for JoJo. She darted between Stover and the doorframe. She brushed against Stover as she squeezed passed him, only to come face to face with Curry. “Do you need something, Mr. Curry?” she asked, her tone a little abrupt.

His eyes narrowed. “There’s something very familiar about you,” he said. “Are you sure we didn’t serve together?”

“I don’t know,” she said, starting to get a little anxious. She needed to get outside into the fresh air with plenty of room to move. “There’s a lot of people in the Army. We may have served together somewhere. Now, please, excuse me. I need to be somewhere.” Anywhere besides there, with these two men.

His eyes narrowed even more, but he stepped aside.

JoJo made a dash for the barn door. She didn’t slow down until she was out in the glaring sunlight. Temporarily blinded, she ran into a wall. Strong arms wrapped around her.

“Hey there, beautiful,” his voice sounded in her