The Sierra Files Box Set: Books 1-3: Plus a bonus Christmas novella!
The Sierra Files Box Set
Books 1-3, Plus a Christmas Novella
Christy Barritt
Contents
Pounced
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
Hunted
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
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Pranced
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
Rattled
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
Also by Christy Barritt:
The Sierra Files:
Squeaky Clean Mysteries:
Holly Anna Paladin Mysteries:
Carolina Moon Series:
Cape Thomas Series:
Standalones:
The Gabby St. Claire Diaries:
Complete Book List:
About the Author
Chapter One
“I’m Sierra Nakamura, and I’m here in the Great Dismal Swamp in Southeastern Virginia. I’m here to tell you about a problem that everyone should know about.” I paused and stared at the camera for dramatic effect. “The disappearance of the Hessel’s Hairstreak butterfly.”
Chad lowered the camera and gave me a “what the what?” look. “Wait, aren’t you overstating a bit? I mean, everyone should know about this? It’s a butterfly.”
I scowled at my boyfriend. Why couldn’t he see how important this was? This was a beautiful creature on the brink of extinction. “I’m not overstating it. This is a growing problem of which people need to be made aware.”
His head dropped toward his shoulder in exasperation. “It’s a butterfly. And good job not using a preposition at the end of your sentence.”
I sighed and brought a hand to my hip. “Cut the tape.”
“It’s all digital. There’s no tape.” His eyes sparkled. He loved getting under my skin. And he was good at it.
“You know what I mean. Don’t make me regret asking you to come out here and help me.” Truth was, no one else would trudge through the swamp to help me make this video. I’d begged all of my colleagues at Paws and Fur Balls, but they’d all feigned excuses as to why they couldn’t come. They had protests to organize. Riots to start. Undercover investigations to perform. Even my colleagues, apparently, didn’t see the merits of butterflies.
To me, butterflies represented all that was good in this world. They stood for the chrysalis of change, the beauty of dreams, the transforming power of hope in our lives.
“Did you just say, ‘Don’t make you regret it?’ How about me regretting saying yes?” He slapped another fly on his neck. “If I see a bear, I’m out of here.”
Sure, bears were wildly popular in this desolate stretch of swampland. It was an ecosystem of its own out here, filled with murky puddles of black water, indigenous plants, drapes of moss covering low hanging branches from cypress trees. Our chances of actually seeing a bear were low.
One thing was clear: We were outsiders here. Nature had staked its claim on this land, and we were invaders on foreign soil.
“I’ll take a shark to a bear any day.” Chad’s voice sounded scruffy, which matched his surfer look. His nose was peeling from too much sun. His “soul patch,” as they called it, was getting just a little too long. His hair was bleached from hours of being at the ocean, and he wore an old tank top that looked like it had been around for at least a decade.
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. And just swat the flies away. You don’t have to kill them. There are kinder ways of doing things.”
“I’m for real when I say this, but rest assured I’m saying it with the utmost affection.” He stepped closer and tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear. “I will never understand you, Sierra Nakamura. Flies are a menace. You’re the only person I know who thinks it’s evil to flatten one. Next you’ll be trying to save mosquitoes, too.”
“Mosquitoes have a purpose in our ecosystem—”
He cut me off with a quick kiss.
“Never mind.” Chad shook his head. “This nature that you know and love so much is eating me alive. I guess it’s more important that bugs survive than if I survive.”
If I were honest, I kind of wanted to swat at a few flies myself. Not that I would ever admit it. But between the heavy humidity, the glaring sun, an uncooperative crew (that would be Chad), and bugs that surrounded me like I was road kill, I felt irritated.
Guilt flashed through me for a moment when I realized just how miserable Chad was out here. I was so fortunate to have him in my life. We truly balanced each other out. He was hardly ever serious; I was always serious. He had not a care in the world; I had every care in the world. He laughed at problems; I drew on every ounce of my energy in an effort to fix them. Somewhere in that place called “Polar Oppositeville,” we’d fallen in love. I was pretty sure that arguing and snipping at each other was our love language.
I had other things to think about at the moment, though. “Let’s get this over with.” All this talking just meant the longer we’d be out here. I could have this over by now if he would stop arguing.
“I still don’t understand why you’re doing this. You’re an animal rights activist, not a conservationist. I totally get trying to stop animal cruelty. What I don’t understand is trying to stop nature from having its way.”
“There’s overlap between my job and conservation. Besides, Sage Williams was supposed to do this, but she left us high and dry.”
“What do you mean high and dry? You mean, we’re in the swamp sweating like pigs and she’s not?”
He thought he was so clever. “No, I mean she didn’t show up at work on Friday, she missed that event we had on Saturday, and she still didn’t come in today, which is why I’m here. She probab
ly found another job that she liked more. Maybe it even paid more. She was so flighty. I knew we couldn’t depend on her.”
I couldn’t stand unreliable people. These butterflies were depending on someone to speak for them. That person was supposed to be Sage, and she’d let them down.
Sage always seemed distracted. She missed work more than she was there. And, unlike the rest of the employees, she didn’t bother to try and work collaboratively on projects. No, she liked to do her own thing.
Chad raised the camera. “Ready to take two?”
“Absolutely.” I pushed a black hair behind my ear and sucked in a deep breath. I had won a debate match my junior year at Yale. I could do this video. It would be put on the Internet and linked to our website. My hope was that it would go viral.
I launched into my spiel about the importance of these butterflies and how since a hurricane and a fire in the Great Dismal Swamp had wiped out a majority of the Atlantic White Cedars, which were the butterfly’s primary habitat, these beautiful creatures were becoming endangered.
I ignored the flies that nosedived at me. I ignored the decaying stench of the swamp surrounding me. I blocked out the blistering, wet heat that made me feel like I was swimming through the air with every movement.
For the final shebang, I decided to lean against a downed tree behind me. It was what all the great documentarians did on TV. They looked smooth, at one with nature, in their element.
Only I aimed wrong when I leaned in. The root was more brittle than I thought, and it crumbled at my touch. That small, simple act led to me falling downward and hitting a patch of murky water.
“Whoa!” Chad put the camera on a nearby stump and grabbed my arm. “This is going to be a smelly ride home. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine—” Just as I started to say the words, I looked down at my hand and nearly screamed. “Leech!”
I grabbed the slimy little sucker, pulled it off of my skin, and threw it as hard as I could into the wild. I frantically searched for more, sufficiently freaked out and absent of the usual cool I prided myself in.
When I looked up, amusement danced in Chad’s eyes. “A leech, huh?”
I shuddered again. “Yes, a leech. A blood sucking leech.”
He stepped closer, shaking his head with exaggerated concern. “How about the poor leeches? Certainly there was a kinder way to treat that poor creature.” Chad flashed a satisfied grin.
“Please don’t tell a soul that I just did that. My reputation would be ruined.” Seriously—the thought horrified me.
He kissed my forehead. “It makes you seem more human.”
“I seem perfectly human now.” What wasn’t perfectly human about giving your every breathing moment to saving the lives of creatures that couldn’t speak for themselves?
“That could be debatable.”
I scowled, knowing it was time to change the subject. “Okay, Smart Alec. My glasses flew off when I fell. Help me find them. Please.”
Of course, it was hard to find my glasses without my glasses. Thankfully, Chad was with me. I really hoped they hadn’t flown into one of those puddles. I got shivers just thinking about sticking my hand into that water. Mostly because of, well . . . leeches!
He squatted down and parted some grass to look for my plastic frames. “This reminds me of a scene from Scooby Doo. You know, when Velma loses her glasses and everyone is searching for them. Only, that’s usually when the bad guy comes in and starts chasing them.”
“The difference is that there’s no mystery here. The reasons these butterflies are disappearing are noted and logical.”
He parted some more grass. “Don’t you think that nature just sometimes takes its course? I mean, is the world going to be that much worse of a place if there are no butterflies?”
He would never understand, and frankly I was tired of explaining. “Let’s just find my glasses and get out of here.” I stepped over a puddle of water, grabbing a tree trunk to steady myself. My skin still crawled when I thought about that leech. Blood sucking devil.
Still, I shouldn’t have thrown it. I should have responded in a more levelheaded manner. I’d work on that.
“Do you see them?” Chad asked.
I shook my head. “They might have flown over there.” I pointed in the distance.
I looked beyond the huge oak tree that had fallen. Its root system was probably twelve feet wide, and the roots stood on end like Medusa’s snakes. “If I can just get over there.”
“By the way, there’s something I want to talk to you about later.”
I glanced back at Chad. He was down on one knee. He almost looked like he was proposing. I mentally laughed at myself. He was just searching for my glasses.
What surprised me was that my heart had actually raced there for a moment. I fingered the grass around the ring finger of my left hand. Chad had made me a “ring” out of sand reed during a walk at the beach last night. He’d just been being silly and spontaneous.
Then why was I still wearing it? Why did I smile every time I looked down at it?
I remembered that Chad had said something, and I hadn’t responded.
“Sure, we can talk later,” I muttered. “What’s on your mind?”
I leapt across another patch of black water and reached the other side of the tree. There! My glasses lay lopsided against the tree trunk.
“It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while now,” Chad said.
I grabbed my frames, slid them on my nose, and blinked a few times as my surroundings became clearer.
That’s when I screamed.
Sage Williams hadn’t found a better job.
Sage Williams was dead.
Chapter Two
I sat at my desk, staring at the wall in front of me. I tried to concentrate on the faded white paint, but instead, all I could see was Sage’s dead body.
Dead bodies were my friend Gabby’s specialty. Not mine. I preferred fighting for the lives and wellbeing of innocent animals. Gabby, on the other hand, had started as a crime scene cleaner and recently gotten a job with the Medical Examiner’s Office. Budget cuts had cut her new career short, but I was sure she’d be back to acting as a professional investigator in no time.
I’d been back at the office for an hour. After finding Sage, Chad and I had called the police. They’d come out along with a whole crew of forensic people, an ambulance, and even a fire truck. They’d taken our statement, asked lots of questions, gotten our contact information, and finally let us go home, get cleaned up, and return to our day.
Chad had to get back to work with his crime scene cleaning business. With my best friend and his partner out of town for a vacation—the first I’d ever known Gabby to take—he was especially busy this week. He probably shouldn’t have taken time to even help me out today, but he’d been gracious.
In return, I’d promised I’d go to a barbecue with him and not say a word about all the animals people were eating there, each of the guests not giving a second thought to what those creatures had gone through to go from the farm to their grill. But, oh no, I wouldn’t be the one to bring it up. Nor would I show them pictures. Nor would I try to fundraise for my efforts.
For once, I’d try to be normal.
Maybe that’s why my friend Gabby and I got along so well. Normal wasn’t in our vocabulary, and neither of us cared. That made us a friendship match made in heaven.
“I heard about Sage.” My coworker Kyla stopped by my desk and peered at me, obviously hungry for some gossip. The woman was in her early twenties and her long, slick hair matched her body, which was tall, thin, and gangly. She had a hippy vibe going and always had enough time to talk about office scuttlebutt.
“Terrible, huh?” Kind of like that puppy mill I’d discovered a few weeks back. I was still trying to wrap up that investigation.
“Who would do something like that?”
I shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. If I had to take a guess, I’d say Sage wan
dered into the middle of a drug deal. I’ve heard they happen out there in the swamp. It’s the perfect place for it because no one is there except for some bugs and bears. A drug dealer’s dream.”
Kyla leaned closer. “You heard about that fight that Sage and Donnie had, right?”
I shouldn’t be curious. I shouldn’t ask. But I did anyway. “What fight?”
“Yeah, it was just last week. I came in early—hard to believe, right?—and I could hear them arguing all the way from the parking lot.”
To hear it from the parking lot was unusual. The small office space lent itself to many overheard conversations when you were inside. But outside? Wow.
I lowered my voice. “What were they arguing about?”
“I wish I knew. I just know that Donnie was screaming at Sage, and she was screaming back.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard Donnie scream at anyone.” Donnie was the capuchin monkey of the human world. He was Mr. Mild Mannered and even dressed the part, often wearing neutral colors that made him easy to overlook. He was in his late thirties and, though his forehead lacked hair, his eyebrows and the rest of his body had an overabundance.
Kyla shrugged. “Well, the façade we put on out in public is sometimes at odds with who we really are.”
That was an interesting statement for Kyla to make.
Facades weren’t my thing. Not to sound full of myself, but you pretty much got what you saw with me. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Life was too short to keep my mouth shut or to not fight for what I believed in.
I looked over by the reception area, separated from our desks by a glass door with two glass panes on either side, and nodded toward the man there. “I see that Rupert is paying his biannual visit to the office.”
Rupert had started Paws and Fur Balls and officially served as CEO. I didn’t know much about him. He was pretty laissez faire with us, more of a numbers guy than a crusader when it came to running the company. He concentrated mainly on fundraising for us.
Whenever he was in the office, we all put on our best work faces. Except for right now. At the moment, I didn’t even care if he noticed I was staring absently into space. I had bigger worries—like the fact I couldn’t get Sage’s dead body out of my mind.