by Connie Mann
When she opened them, Kimberly was giving her the kind of once-over that made her want to squirm, but she held her ground.
“Where’s Handsome?”
“Out on another call. Charlee says a child fell out of a kayak near the Outpost.” Her heart hurt just thinking about it.
Kimberly gasped and made the sign of the cross, murmured a quick prayer. Then her gaze sharpened. “How’s it going, living with him?”
“I’m not living with him. We’re sharing space as part of an operation.”
“Uh-huh.” She crossed her arms and nodded toward the local paper where a picture of them was featured in a collage with several others. “That was quite the dress you had on. And he didn’t look too shabby in that tux, either.”
Delilah decided a change of subject was in order. “Someone drugged me”—at Kimberly’s gasp, she held up a hand—“but I’m fine.”
Delilah was spared having to rehash the whole thing when there was a knock on the door.
“Patient in room three for you, Ms. Gaines.”
Kimberly stopped muttering long enough to say “Be right there” before she gave Delilah a stern look. “You keep Hollywood close, you hear? Now is not the time to wave your independence like a flag, not when crazy people are trying to kill you. He’s a good man. He’ll keep you safe.”
Delilah followed her out and headed for her truck. It was true. Josh was a good man, and he would keep her physically safe. It was her foolish heart that was in danger. She shoved the key in the ignition and tucked all thoughts of him into a tidy little box in the corner of her heart to deal with later. She had other priorities today.
A wide grin split her face.
In less than four hours, Mary would be safe.
Chapter 30
Hunter, Sanchez, Fish, and Pete were already at the Outpost when Josh arrived. Hunter and Sanchez had just launched their patrol boats and were trying to get last-known-location information from the frantic parents, a couple in their forties. The wife wore a long cotton dress and twisted the ends of her braid in her hands. Her husband wore jeans and thick boots, face hidden under a ball cap like the one they’d found near Delilah’s camper.
Charlee, looking pale, hurried over and briefed him. “They were the first ones here when we opened this morning. Two adults and two teens, boy and a girl. They rented four kayaks.”
Josh looked around. “I thought the boy was missing. Where’s the girl?”
“Don’t know where either one is. Just the parents came back.”
His eyes narrowed as he studied the parents. “They say what happened?”
“Just that the teens got ahead of them, and when they came around the bend, they found the empty kayaks.”
“Hollywood! Let’s go!” Hunter called from his boat.
He hopped aboard, and Fish boarded Sanchez’s boat before they took off down the river, single file.
Nobody said much as they headed toward the area the parents had described, scanning every little cove and bend for any sign of the teens’ kayaks.
Once they reached the location, a large cypress tree someone had nailed pieces of wood to as a ladder, Hunter and Sanchez slowed to an idle. Just as the parents had said, they found the first kayak but not the second.
Josh pulled his FWC ball cap lower and squinted into the shadows as Hunter pulled alongside it.
Fish cupped her hands around her mouth. “Tommy! Alice! Where are you? We’re here to help!”
They waited, but there was no response.
“Sanchez, you guys go downriver, see if you can find that other kayak—and hopefully the kid who was paddling it. Hollywood and I will check this area more thoroughly.”
Hunter nosed his patrol boat into the banks next to the empty craft, and Josh tied both to a tree.
“Tommy! Alice! Let us know you’re okay!” Josh called.
Still nothing.
He scanned the shore but didn’t see footprints or any signs that anyone had been here recently. But then he glanced across the river, and his heart slammed into overdrive. “There!” He pointed. “Get me over there.”
Hunter didn’t hesitate. As soon as the line was clear and Josh hopped back into the boat, he motored in the direction Josh was pointing.
When they reached the opposite shore, Josh stripped off his utility belt and unbuttoned his shirt.
“What are you doing?”
“I’ll dive down, just to make sure.”
They’d both spotted what looked like a length of rope extending from a cypress tree and disappearing under the water.
“Let me get the dive team out here.”
“You know we don’t have time.”
Hunter blew out a breath and accepted the phone Josh handed him. He tucked it in the front compartment along with Josh’s utility belt. “Be careful.”
Josh didn’t hesitate, just dove into the tea-colored water, dreading what he would find.
* * *
When Delilah left the clinic, she knew she’d go crazy if she didn’t find something to occupy her mind until the meeting. Her phone calendar chirped a reminder that she had a progress report due, so she parked the truck and went with her favorite distraction—time with Oscar—and hopefully the missing mamas.
There was no cell service, so she sent Josh a quick text with her whereabouts before she slung her backpack over her shoulder and set off.
Walking through the forest as she’d been taught, quietly, eyes on the ground to look for snakes, she kept her ears cocked but didn’t hear her furry friends. She didn’t find any sign of them where she’d last seen them, either.
She was hot and sweaty and her essential oil had worn off by the time she turned back. But then she heard it: the faintest chattering, a whisper of sound on the breeze. She paused to see if she could tell which direction it came from, then followed the rustling leaves north, surprised when she emerged in a clearing near Mooney’s Pond. The forest opened up around the oblong body of water, and she ducked behind a tree when she heard another sound. A voice, young and distinctly female.
Mary? Her heart pumped with hope, and she was ready to burst from her hiding place when the girl stepped from the shadows. She wore an old-fashioned, long cotton dress with flowers on a bright yellow background, her hair in a thick braid down her back. Mary was taller, more slender.
Disappointment slammed through her, and she eased out of sight. It wasn’t Mary. Who, then? She pulled out her camera and used her zoom lens to focus on the teenager’s face and snap a few pictures. Unless she missed her guess, this was the same girl she’d seen riding bikes with a boy the day she’d found Mary’s doll at her parents’ campsite. Did she know where Mary was?
Delilah was shoving her camera into her bag, prepared to confront her, when the girl aimed binoculars into the trees and started calling, “Come here, mamas. Don’t be shy. I brought food. You’ll like it.”
A stern lecture about feeding wildlife crowded Delilah’s tongue, but she stayed put when several monkeys swung down from the trees. Were these the missing mamas?
As the monkeys approached the girl, Delilah scanned their faces with her zoom lens, and a hot jolt of relief shot through her. Yes! Oh, thank goodness, they were back. But where had they been?
The girl tossed a handful of what looked like nuts to one of the mamas, but before she could come get it, the alpha male let out a screech as he leaped down from a nearby branch and scooped up the food, scolding the whole time. The mothers scampered back into the trees, chattering in protest.
Once the mamas had fallen back in line, the alpha male climbed back up the tree and sat on a branch while he chewed the nuts, eyes darting from one mama to the next, a stern warning in his gaze.
Delilah waited, eyes on the male, until suddenly, the babies appeared. They emerged from their hiding places behind limbs and leaves and c
limbed onto their mamas’ backs, jumping and playing without a care in the world. Where are you, Oscar? She couldn’t find him.
Once the male finished eating and quit scowling, the troop resumed their usual activities. While the adults groomed one another and ate, the babies leaped from tree to tree, cavorting like children.
When Oscar’s sweet face finally appeared in her viewfinder, unexpected tears threatened. There you are, sweet guy. The mamas were all there, too, and she let out a relieved sigh. They were all right.
She must have made some sound, because the girl’s head suddenly whipped in her direction. For one moment, their eyes met, held. The girl’s widened in fear just before she leaped up and disappeared into the forest.
“Wait! Don’t go!” Delilah ran after her, determined to catch up, but as before, the girl was quick. Delilah swerved around trees, and despite her best efforts, she came around a huge cypress and stopped, scanning the area. The girl had disappeared.
Frustrated and panting, Delilah searched the area for several more minutes before she gave up and headed back to her truck.
Thank goodness the mamas were all right. But why had the girl looked so scared?
Chapter 31
Josh clutched the T-shirt he’d pulled from the river bottom as they slowly headed toward the Outpost, the empty kayak in tow. The shirt matched the description Tommy’s mother had given them, and it made the knot in the pit of his stomach tighter. The dive team was on its way.
Hunter checked in with Sanchez and Fish. They hadn’t found any trace of the missing siblings, either.
He glanced at Hunter. “Something seem off about this to you?”
“Everything seems off. Parents claim they didn’t have their cell phones with them, which I can understand. But they didn’t check along the riverbanks, just headed back to report it?” He shook his head in disbelief.
“And how do both kids disappear? If one fell in, wouldn’t the other have tried to help? It’s unlikely they’d both drown.”
“Stranger things have happened.” Hunter narrowed his eyes as they scanned the banks, stopping to poke at half-submerged snags, looking for something, anything that would tell them what happened and, most importantly, where the kids were now.
They rounded another of the many bends in the river, and Josh straightened as something caught his eye. “Hang on. Go back.” He pointed, and Hunter put the motor in reverse.
He squinted into the gloom and made out what looked like a scrap of yellow fabric. Hunter brought the boat close enough that Josh hopped onto the bank and pulled it from the branches it was tangled in. “Didn’t the mother say Alice was wearing a yellow print dress?” He held up the cloth.
“She did.”
Josh scanned the ground. “I’ve got footprints. Two sets.” He followed them away from the river, the muddy ground making it easy to follow their trail. The mud turned to solid ground, and several yards later, the footprints ended at a set of tire tracks. He reached for his phone to snap a picture and realized it was on the boat.
When he returned for it, Hunter was scowling. “Let’s go. Charlee just called, said the teens called their mother and told her they were fine.”
Josh climbed aboard and regarded him steadily. “Just like that? No questions, no explanation?”
“None they gave Charlee. But they’ll have to do better with me if I find out they tied up my squad for no reason.”
Chapter 32
Delilah kept one eye on the dashboard clock, hands clenched around the wheel. It had taken longer than expected to get back to her truck, but she couldn’t be late. Not when Mary was finally participating in her own rescue. She had to get there in time.
As she neared the meeting spot, a weird sense of déjà vu floated over her as her father’s safety instructions from childhood and Josh’s more recent admonitions echoed in her head. She parked several hundred yards from the river and made sure the truck was not easily visible. Just in case. She still had no cell service, so she sent Josh another quick text: Found note. Meeting Mary 1 p.m. at river tree. She said to come alone.
She eased the door closed, tucked her phone in her back pocket, and headed for the rendezvous. As she slipped from tree to tree, she identified the forest creatures and tried to discern any noises that indicated a human in the area. All she heard were the sounds she expected.
The river came into view, and anticipation flooded her. Finally, finally, she’d have her sister with her. She couldn’t wait.
She picked up the pace, ready to wrap Mary in her arms and whisk her to safety. She took another step and suddenly found herself upside down and flying into the air.
Her upward trajectory stopped with a jolt, and she swung, suspended high above the forest floor. Her heart pounded, and it took a moment to figure out what had happened. She was up in a tree, trapped inside a makeshift game net. She hadn’t seen it and had stepped right into it, no doubt triggering a hidden mechanism that scooped her up.
She wrapped her hands around the thick rope that formed the web. “Think, Delilah. There has to be a way out of this.” She reached for her cell phone, but it wasn’t there. She looked down, way down, and glimpsed it lying on the ground below. It had no doubt fallen out of her pocket when she got scooped up.
Okay, fine. She could handle this. All she had to do was slip out of the net. Once she did, she could shimmy up the rope and climb onto the branch from which it was suspended. She started climbing, using the small openings like rungs on a ladder, confident that once she reached the top, she could figure out how to wiggle out and escape.
But her optimism turned to terror when a male voice spoke from below. “Hello, Delilah. I’ve been waiting for you.”
* * *
Hunter drilled Mr. Simms with a hard look. “You’re telling me Tommy and Alice called a friend to come get them, set their kayaks adrift, and took off without a word to you?”
The man nodded soberly, though a muscle ticked in his jaw. Beside him, his wife continued to wring her hands as she’d been doing since they’d returned to the Outpost.
“Does this sort of thing happen often?” Hunter asked.
The wife said, “Sometimes,” at the same time as her husband said, “No.”
Hunter didn’t miss the quelling look Simms shot his wife or the way she ducked her head. Hunter turned to her. “What did you mean by that, ma’am? What else has been happening lately that’s odd?”
She glanced at her husband, then back at Hunter and shrugged. “Just being more unpredictable is all. I guess it comes with them both being teenagers. They’re just over a year apart in age.”
Josh stood off to the side, Hunter’s growing frustration matching his own. “And where are Tommy and Alice now? We need to speak with them.”
“Couldn’t say,” Simms said with a shrug. “They just said they had something to take care of and we’d see them later. If there’s nothing else, I’d like to take my wife home. We’re sorry to have troubled you.” He took his wife’s arm as he led her to their pickup and helped her inside.
“I’ll stop by your place later to talk with them,” Hunter said, and Mrs. Simms paled slightly.
Simms nodded but aimed a quelling glance their way before he climbed behind the wheel.
Josh was still trying to make sense of this weird situation when his phone buzzed with an incoming text. He’d fastened his utility belt and gun over his damp uniform as they approached the Outpost and had stuck his phone back in the holster. There were no missed calls or messages then. He checked now and froze. There were two, both from Delilah. “Dammit. You shouldn’t have gone without me,” he muttered.
“What’s going on, Hollywood?” Hunter asked.
“Delilah got a note.” He checked his watch. “She was supposed to meet Mary at one o’clock, down by the river.” It was now 1:20.
“Why didn’t she call you?�
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“She’d been out by the monkeys where cell service is spotty. She texted, but they just came in.” Fear clamped down on his insides. “I need to get there.” God forbid she needed him and he wasn’t there because of lousy cell reception.
Hunter kept pace as Josh hurried toward his truck. “The paperwork on this fiasco can wait. We’ll both go.” He texted Sanchez and Fish what was happening, and they hopped in their vehicles and raced toward the river.
Uneasiness slid over Josh’s skin as he drove, desperate to remember the exact location he and Delilah had gone to before, but everything looked different in daylight.
Somebody had a motive for keeping the sisters apart, and all the possible reasons had him pressing down hard on the accelerator.
Hang on, Delilah. I’m on my way.
* * *
Delilah gripped the ropes as she stared down at Nate. He’d tried to overpower her once before, but she’d escaped. She would use that knowledge to fuel her strength now. He wouldn’t win this time, either. “Put me down. What kind of nonsense is this?”
She’d barely finished saying the words when the net suddenly dropped and she hit the ground. Hard. She lay there a moment, trying to catch her breath. When she looked up and saw him standing over her, that oily grin made her stomach churn. “Your wish is my command,” he drawled. Then he straightened and barked, “Stand up.”
“And if I won’t?”
“I’ll have to make you. I’m pretty sure you won’t like it.”
They stared each other down while Delilah debated her next move. She finally rose to her feet, her eyes never leaving his. “What’s this all about?”
“You’ll find out when I say it’s time. Not before.” He sighed. “I guess there will be lots of retraining before you’re the wife I want.” He grinned, his smile pure evil. “But I’m going to enjoy the process.”
“Let me out of here, you creep.”
His hand slapped her face with enough force to knock her off her feet. She carefully rubbed a hand over her jaw and moved it slowly, relieved that nothing felt broken. Her cheek burned like fire, though, and she was pretty sure she’d have an impressive bruise. He’d pay for that. She slowly got to her feet once more and stood, glaring at him through the ropes. He reached down and did something to the net and then flung it off her.