Sawyer's Secret

  Sawyer’s Secret

  Laura Scott

  Copyright © 2021 by Laura Iding

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  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

  Epilogue

  Dear Reader

  Darby’s Decision

  Chapter One

  Naomi Palmer shrank into the corner of the back seat of the car, as far away from the leering man beside her as she could manage.

  She’d thought following the boxy white van would get her a step closer to finding her sixteen-year-old half sister, Kate, but she hadn’t anticipated they’d notice her vehicle behind them and send someone after her. She hadn’t been prepared when a car had rear-ended her, sending her spinning out of control.

  Since her goal was to find her sister, Naomi had gone along with the leering man without putting up a fight.

  A decision she deeply regretted with every passing second and every passing mile. Especially since the white van had disappeared from view around the curvy mountainous road. The Smoky Mountains outside Chattanooga, Tennessee, were beautiful, but she sensed the majestic hills held terrible secrets.

  Was her sister being held somewhere in the mountains? Or had she already been moved to a new location?

  “Where are you taking me?” Naomi tried to keep her voice steady, but she felt her strength slipping beneath the waves of fear and panic.

  What if she couldn’t get away? What if they drugged her, or worse?

  Kate? Where are you? Are you okay? Or am I already too late?

  “You’ll find out soon enough.” The leering man’s guttural voice sent tendrils of dread down her spine. Naomi didn’t dare take her eyes from him. The vehicle wasn’t going that fast, the curves in the road prevented them from speeding, yet she feared jumping from the car could cause more harm than what these men had planned for her.

  A risk she may be forced to take.

  Dear Lord, help me! Guide me! Protect me!

  “Keep an eye out for the road,” the leering man said to the driver. Her pulse spiked as the vehicle slowed as if it was about to make a turn. A quick glance confirmed there was nothing but a dirt road looming up ahead.

  They were going to rape and kill her. The thought popped into her head as she understood the magnitude of her foolish actions. It was now or never. As much as she wanted to find Kate, she couldn’t let these two men hurt her.

  Feeling behind her for the door handle, Naomi took a deep breath, then abruptly lashed out with her foot, catching the unsuspecting leering man beneath his chin with a fierce kick. His head snapped back, hitting the window sharply. At the same moment, she opened the passenger door and rolled out of the moving car.

  Years of gymnastics and cheerleading helped her now. Her teeth snapped together as she hit the pavement hard, but she didn’t hesitate. Rolling with the momentum of her fall, she quickly leaped to her feet and sprinted as fast as she could in the opposite direction.

  The car behind her stopped, and she knew the two men would be hot on her trail. But that didn’t worry her as much as being trapped in the car with them.

  Naomi headed into the dense woods, using the brush for cover. It was difficult going, but she ignored the scratches from the brambles, her desperate gaze searching for a place to hide.

  The two men crashed into the woods behind her. They were large and out of shape, so she felt good about her head start and her ability to lose them. Yet she worried there were more men who could be called in to assist in finding her.

  She refused to let that happen.

  Leaping over low bushes and using the larger trees for cover helped create a bigger gap from the men behind her. They were swearing and blaming each other for her escape, which made her smile grimly.

  When exhaustion finally overwhelmed her, she dropped behind a large tree and took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm her racing heart. She listened intently but didn’t hear anything.

  Because the men had stopped searching? Or because they’d called in reinforcements and were waiting for them to arrive?

  She shivered and took in another deep breath. No sense in borrowing trouble, as her mother liked to say. Naomi would have to take the threats one at a time.

  Peering around the tree trunk, she searched for any sign of the men. Darkness was falling fast, which was both a blessing and a curse. When she didn’t see anything behind her, she decided to keep going, but quietly this time. She desperately wanted more distance between herself and the leering man.

  Her T-shirt was torn, her right shoulder and elbow throbbing painfully from where she’d hit the pavement. She wore running shoes, which weren’t as good over the rough terrain as sturdy hiking boots. Still, Naomi pressed forward, moving silently through the woods.

  Estimating the time to be about eight thirty in the evening, she figured she had barely thirty minutes of daylight yet, maybe less considering her position beneath the thick canopy of trees. Thankfully, the June temperatures were warm. While she wasn’t an avid camper, she took some comfort in knowing she wouldn’t freeze to death if she had to spend the night in the woods.

  Not that there weren’t other dangers. Like more men searching for her. Oh, and wild animals, like mountain lions. And bears.

  Gulp.

  Naomi moved in what she hoped was a parallel path to the road. She didn’t want to meet up with the leering man and his buddy, but she didn’t want to get lost in the forest either.

  Would they expect her to follow the road? Had they gone back to get the car? Were they out on the road, waiting for her to emerge from the brush?

  Naomi wasn’t sure what to do other than continue moving through the woods. Time had no meaning, although her surroundings grew darker and darker as the sun dropped below the horizon. When she stumbled across what looked in the darkness to be an actual hiking trail, she hesitated.

  Use the trail? Or stay hidden?

  Torn with indecision, she glanced up toward the dark sky.

  Lord, help me! Guide me!

  A sense of peace draped her like a cloak. She glanced back at the trail, noting it headed down the slope of the mountain in the general direction where she believed the road to be located.

  Steeling her resolve, she walked along the path, alert to any hint of someone following. She was surrounded by silence, broken only by the occasional hooting of an owl or belching tree frog.

  She felt alone in this section of the woods.

  For now.

  After another ten minutes of hiking, she abruptly stopped when she caught a glimpse of the blacktop mountain road between the trees. Her pulse skyrocketed, and she dropped down along the edge of the trail, intently watching.

  The vehicle the men had used to rear-end her was an older model black Buick. But in the darkness, she’d never be able to tell if the car going past on the road was a Buick or something else. She swallowed hard. Naomi wasn’t sure how long she crouched there, but when her knees protested the position, she slowly rose and continued easing down the trail. No easy task in the darkness that both shielded her and created a treache
rous descent.

  When she rounded a curve, the road disappeared from sight. She decided leaving the trail was probably best, to stay hidden from view.

  But moving through the brush created more noise than she liked. Again, she was torn by indecision. She took one step forward, then another.

  The rumbling sound of an engine made her freeze. It was loud—not a car, she quickly deduced, but maybe a truck. Easing forward to see the stretch of the road better, she watched a pair of high, wide headlights along with several smaller yellow lights along the top roll into view. A semitruck!

  Wait for me! Naomi knew her chance to escape this nightmare was driving right past her. She crashed through the brush and ran as fast as she dared down the trail toward the road. But she was too late. By the time she’d gotten halfway there, the truck was no longer in view.

  No! She bent over, resting her hands on her knees, trying not to cry. She pulled herself together with an effort. Okay, at least she knew this road saw some traffic other than the men in the black Buick who were no doubt still out there trying to find her.

  Naomi continued on the path heading toward the road. Of course, she didn’t see any more traffic go by. She told herself to be glad there was no sign of a dark-colored sedan. Upon reaching the bottom of the trail, she paused by a tree located near the side of the road.

  Another vehicle was approaching. Not the loud rumble of a semitruck trailer, unfortunately.

  Tensing with fear, she eased farther back into the brush, just in case the car was the black Buick. But when she caught a glimpse of a pale car, along with the red and white light rack stretched across the top, she leaped forward, stumbling out onto the road, waving her arms over her head like a maniac.

  “I’m here! I’m here!” Naomi wasn’t sure why she was yelling those words. It wasn’t as if the cop behind the wheel had been out searching for her. “Help me!”

  To her overwhelming relief, the squad pulled over to the side and came to a jarring stop. Tears pricked her eyes as she ran forward.

  “Ma’am? Are you all right?” A tall officer with short dark hair slid out from behind the wheel. She noticed he rested his right hand on his gun.

  “I-I escaped, two men grabbed me, black Buick—” She stopped, realizing she was babbling. “They rear-ended me, then kidnapped me,” she finally managed.

  “Do you have a weapon?” The cop eyed her warily as he moved forward. Naomi knew she looked like a crazy woman, her blond hair snarled from the brush and her clothing ripped and torn.

  She stared at him blankly, then shook her head. “No.”

  The name tag beneath his badge identified him as Murphy. He raked his gaze over her. “What about drugs?”

  “No!” She was growing impatient now. “I don’t have anything because they kidnapped me!”

  “Okay, but I need to be sure, for my safety and yours.” Officer Murphy stepped closer, finally dropping his hand from his gun. He quickly patted her jean pockets, then glanced over her shoulder. “You escaped and hid in the woods?”

  “Yes.” Reaction from her ordeal had set in, and she found herself shivering despite the warm temperatures. “I—think they—were going to r-rape and k-kill me.”

  Officer Murphy’s eyes filled with compassion. He rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, you’re safe now.”

  She gave a jerky nod, still shivering uncontrollably. The cop gently guided her to the squad, opening the front passenger door rather than the rear one, a small gesture she appreciated. “Get inside, I’ll keep you safe,” he promised.

  After sliding into the passenger seat, she rested her head against the cushion and let out a long sigh.

  She believed him.

  Chattanooga police officer Sawyer Murphy couldn’t believe this beautiful girl had managed to escape two men who’d kidnapped her and very likely would have sexually assaulted her.

  He’d been working a local case of a young girl’s disappearance that he believed was related to human trafficking. He wasn’t a detective yet, despite having taken and passed the exam, but that didn’t stop him from doing what he could as a patrol officer. Glancing at the slender woman beside him, he realized she might have been taken by the same men who’d grabbed Louisa.

  “What’s your name?” He started the car and pulled back out onto the mountain road.

  “Naomi Palmer.” She clutched her hands tightly together in her lap as her body trembled.

  “I’m Officer Sawyer Murphy.” He glanced at her again, catching her gaze. The darkness made it difficult to see her eyes clearly, but he knew she was still scared to death. “Are you hurt? It might be a good idea for you to be seen at the hospital.”

  She shook her head. “No need, they didn’t get a chance to hurt me.”

  “But you have a lot of scrapes and scratches,” Sawyer gently pointed out. “I’d feel better if a doctor checked you out.”

  “No doctor.” Her tone was firm, and he was glad to see she’d stopped shaking. “The bruises and scratches are because I rolled out of a moving car and tore through the woods.”

  “You did?” He couldn’t help but admire her determination. “I’m surprised you didn’t break any bones while doing that stunt.”

  She shrugged, a glimmer of a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “I was a gymnast. I learned at an early age how to tuck and roll.”

  “I’m impressed.” He figured a gymnast would know her body well enough to decide if a doctor was needed. “Can I take you home, Naomi?”

  She looked away to stare out the passenger-side window for several long moments before turning back to face him. “Unfortunately, I’m far from home and don’t have any money or a phone. My car was damaged and likely has been towed by now. Honestly, I’m not sure what to do.”

  His heart went out to her. Sawyer knew what it was like to be on your own without a dime in your pocket or anything to eat. Thirteen years ago, when he was fourteen, he’d escaped a horrible foster home run by a man who claimed to be a Preacher but who had physically and emotionally abused him and his foster siblings. When they’d managed to escape the cabin engulfed in a deadly fire, he and the six others who’d gotten out alive had vowed never to go back into the foster system again.

  Had Naomi escaped something similar? Her clothes were nothing fancy, yet she had been a gymnast, so she must have lived with a decent family at some point. Sawyer decided to tread carefully, unwilling to add to the trauma she’d already suffered this day.

  “I can take you to the police station. After I take your statement, you can use our phone to call someone to help you.” He’d been on his way home after a long day, but he wouldn’t hesitate to turn around to head back into town.

  She shook her head and stared down at her hands. It was difficult to think clearly. “I—can’t tell you much about the two men. All I know is they drove a black Buick sedan. And I don’t have anyone to call. If I could get to my car . . .” Her voice trailed off.

  He glanced at her. “Do you know where it is?”

  “No.” Naomi’s voice was so soft he could barely hear it.

  Sawyer sighed and considered his options. As a cop, he knew the best place for her was at the police station. Even though she wasn’t under arrest and hadn’t done anything wrong, she could spend the night there safely enough.

  But he was tempted to bring her to his place. Crazy, since he didn’t know anything about her. Maybe it was the fact that she reminded him of Hailey, Darby, Jayme, and Caitlyn, his foster sisters who’d also escaped the fire. There had been seven of them, and he’d encouraged the boys to pair up with the girls, but instead, the girls had drifted off on their own. Jayme, the oldest, had taken Caitlyn, the youngest, under her wing, while Hailey and Darby had gone off together, leaving Sawyer with Cooper and Trent.

  Thirteen years, yet somehow looking at Naomi it felt like yesterday.

  “A-are you going to take me to jail?”

  Naomi’s question hit him square in the center of his
chest. “No, you’re not under arrest, Naomi. I would like to get you someplace safe, though.”

  She wiped at her eyes and seemed to pull herself together. “Yes, a safe place would be nice.”

  A horrible thought suddenly hit him. Was she a minor? A runaway? “How old are you?”

  “Twenty-six, why?”

  He was shocked but tried not to show it. She was only a year younger than he was. “I—you look younger, that’s all.”

  “I’ve heard that before, but I promise I’m twenty-six.” Naomi glanced at him. “I don’t want to ask for money, but if I could borrow enough for a motel room, just for what’s left of the night, I promise to pay you back.”

  “I don’t mind paying for a motel room, but I don’t like the idea of you being alone.” He hesitated, then added, “I have a two-bedroom cabin that isn’t far from here. If you trust that I won’t hurt you, I have a guest room available, free of charge.”

  “I can’t impose,” Naomi said. She put a hand to her head. “Besides, I don’t really know anything about you. I wish I could remember where my car was. We drove for what seemed like forever.”

  “If your car was towed, we won’t be able to get it until the morning.” Sawyer could see she was hesitant to take him up on his offer, and he couldn’t blame her. She’d been the victim of a terrible crime. The last thing she’d want was to be alone in a cabin with him. “I grew up in the foster system; you remind me a bit of my younger foster siblings.”

  She glanced at him in surprise.

  “I have a better idea.” He pressed on the brake so he could turn around. “We’ll get connecting rooms at a local motel. You’ll have your own space without being alone.”

  “No, really, it’s fine.” She put a hand on his arm, the first time she’d voluntarily touched him. “Your cabin will work, although I don’t usually go home with strangers.”