by Robin Perini
“Easy to get lost,” Riley said quietly.
“Easy to disappear.” Thayne broke through the forest into a clearing, and suddenly the loneliest stretch of wilderness in the world turned into a search-and-rescue convention.
A half-dozen volunteers stood at the perimeter. With the open sky above, the mountain range loomed to the east, and Riley caught a glimpse of Gannett Peak. She’d read it rose to thirteen thousand feet. One thing about Wyoming, everything in the vastness of the land appeared closer than it actually was.
“Ironcloud,” Thayne shouted.
The deputy raised his hand in greeting but didn’t move. He’d planted himself next to a couple of yellow flags.
“At least they’re protecting the evidence,” Riley said, hurrying across the grass.
She sighted a woman’s purse at the same time Thayne stilled. Strewn beside the bag were a tube of lipstick, a small photo album, and a brush.
“Cheyenne’s?” Riley sent Thayne a sidelong glance.
He nodded, clearing his throat before kneeling next to the items. Riley snapped a series of photos before tugging on a pair of gloves. She crouched beside the purse and reached out her hand.
“You’re supposed to wait for DCI,” Ironcloud said. “Underhill ordered us not to disturb the scene.”
His tone communicated what his words didn’t. Deputy Ironcloud had the same opinion of Underhill she had.
Judiciously, she picked up the purse. “I’ll speak to him. I took photos, but we need to know what’s inside and hopefully what’s missing.”
“We’re running out of time, Michael,” Thayne said to the deputy. “I couldn’t care less about protocol at this point if Riley gives the OK.”
Michael Ironcloud raised his hands. “Not going to argue. Underhill’s a pompous windbag.”
Riley unclasped the purse and opened it, fingering through the items as carefully as possible. “Her wallet is still here, ID, business cards, cash, credit cards. Car keys, spray perfume. Definitely not a robbery, and they obviously didn’t care if we identified her things.”
Because they don’t plan on us ever finding her.
She didn’t want to look at Thayne, but she chanced a brief glance. His lips had tightened, and his eyes held a haunted truth. He understood the implications, and she didn’t have to say a word. She placed her hand on his arm. “They took her for a reason, Thayne. I still believe they wanted her specifically. And they wanted her alive.”
He gave her a quick duck of his head, but she didn’t know if he believed her. Not surprising, since with every hour that passed, Riley couldn’t stop the pessimism from bubbling in her gut.
“Why would they bring her out this far?” Thayne asked. “There’s nothing nearby but a few long-abandoned mining shafts.”
“To disappear,” Ironcloud said, stepping forward. “Truth is, we’d never have searched here if the sheriff hadn’t ordered us to expand the grid another couple of miles in each direction.”
“Good call.” Riley replaced the purse exactly as she’d found it. “The bag hasn’t been here long, not since yesterday. Otherwise the animals would have scavenged it.”
“Thayne!” Jackson’s shout carried from behind the tree line. He barreled through the branches, breathing hard and fast. “I found a footprint.”
Thayne took off running, and Riley sprinted right behind him. A few hundred yards through the thick pines, Jackson skidded to a stop. He pointed at an indentation in the earth barely visible through the ground cover.
She had no idea how he’d even seen it. She stood back, knowing they’d surpassed her area of expertise.
Kneeling beside the track, Thayne studied the print. “Combat boots. Guy weighs at least two twenty.” He motioned to Riley. “Do you have a photo of the track Dad and I found at the phone’s dump site?”
She slipped an image from her satchel, and Thayne took it, placing the photo beside the boot print.
Even Riley could see the large gash in the tread. “A match,” he said with a grim smile. “Gotcha.”
Jackson strode about a dozen feet along the prints. “From his stride, he’s at least six feet two.”
“He didn’t camouflage the tracks?” Thayne followed his brother’s path. “There’s only one set of prints.” He didn’t disguise his disappointment.
Riley could tell from the tone of his voice, the realization worried him. “If we go with our assumption there are three perps, what about the others who took Cheyenne? Did they split up? And where is she?”
“He’s not carrying her,” Thayne said. “Not enough depth to the tracks.”
“Maybe there’s a rendezvous point up there.” Jackson stared into the distance. “The bastard could lead us to her.”
“How do we find him in this thick vegetation?” Riley asked.
“If he’s moving line of sight, he’s headed toward the caves,” Thayne said. “They’d be a good place to hide someone.”
For the first time since Thayne had picked her up this morning from the B&B, a flash of hope sparked in his eyes. Her heart thudded a bit faster. Maybe . . . just maybe they’d caught a break. And a mistake.
“That’s a gigantic if, bro.” Jackson narrowed his gaze. “Why wouldn’t the kidnapper switch course, lead us in the wrong direction? He’s been ultracareful until now.”
“Maybe he’s in a hurry?” she said.
“Or he could be setting a trap.” Thayne stared into the distance.
“How far are the caves you mentioned?” Riley took a swig of water from the canteen Thayne had thrust into her hands when they’d abandoned their car.
“At the base of the ridge,” Thayne said, pointing toward a rocky hill. “Every year the local Boy Scout troops camp out here. They hike in to search for arrowheads and silver nuggets. Sometimes Wyoming jade will pop up.”
“And you know this because the Blackwood brothers were all Eagle Scouts, I’ll bet.”
“Hudson and Jackson were. Me, not so much.” Thayne picked his way over the rocks.
Jackson grinned. “What my brother is trying to say is that he kept Hudson and me from getting into too much trouble. He distracted our parents on a regular basis. Made us seem tame and well behaved.”
Thayne ignored Jackson’s obvious attempt to lighten the tense mood and looked at her over his shoulder, a frown furrowing his brow. “All the roads were built in the fifties and are long grown over. If he’s up there, he’s familiar with these mountains.”
The implication of his words stopped Riley cold, but she had to be sure. “You don’t get any mountain climbers or hikers?”
While Thayne zigzagged across the landscape, his brother faced her. “Not around here. Most visitors start at the base of Fremont Lake and climb in the National Forest. We’re on private property now. The Riverton family owns most of the land as far as you can see.”
A low whistle escaped her. “So we’re in the middle of nowhere, and kids from Singing River have been coming here for years. Is there a more out-of-the-way place he could hide?”
One look at Thayne’s profile, the hard set of his jaw, the fury spitting from his eyes, and a harsh foreboding returned to Riley.
Thayne met his brother’s gaze. “The big cave?”
“Good idea,” Jackson said. “It’s barely visible, well hidden, and very few people know about it.”
“How many people?”
“I could count them on one hand,” Thayne bit out through clenched teeth.
“But you have someone in mind,” Riley said, more certain now than ever.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Maybe. But it doesn’t make sense. Kade wouldn’t take Cheyenne. We grew up together.”
“Fannie’s nephew? The one Cheyenne’s been helping?”
Thayne nodded. “And he knows the land.”
“Your grandmother mentioned a boyfriend. Are Cheyenne and Kade dating?” This fit in with the second scenario Riley had considered. A relationship with Cheyenne explained a lot. Including
the reason Helen was still alive and the perfect timing of the abduction.
Thayne met his brother’s gaze. “If you’d have asked me yesterday, I would have said no, but now I don’t know.”
“If Kade took Cheyenne, will he let her go easily?”
“If he’s kidnapped her and hurt Gram, then he’s out of his head.” Thayne looked over to her, and the lethal expression on his face made her shudder. “He’s deadly.”
A loud hoot sounded to the west. Riley jumped, and Thayne turned to the half-dozen searchers milling around behind them.
“Jackson and I will follow these tracks,” he said, his voice raised. “Deputy Ironcloud will wait with you until we determine if it’s safe.”
A grumble hummed through the circle.
“I’m warning every one of you, I catch any civilians without a sheriff’s escort and I’ll toss you in jail and forget about you until we find my sister.”
The men went silent, and Riley lowered her head so they wouldn’t see her slight smile. Thayne knew his town.
He nodded to Ironcloud, and the deputy met up with them. “Don’t tell my father about what we’ve found,” Thayne said. “I don’t want to get his hopes up.” He unholstered his Glock. “And keep these guys from tramping all over the woods. We don’t know what we’re up against.”
Ironcloud nodded and moved away to corral the onlookers.
Thayne turned to Riley. Before he could open his mouth, she shook her head and pulled her weapon. “Don’t even think about it. I have the training, and you need backup.”
Despite the flash of irritation in his eyes, he gave her a sharp nod. “Then keep us in sight at all times.”
Thayne sidestepped the tracks and headed for the woods. After about ten feet, he stopped. “The guy’s injured. His gait is uneven. He’s putting more pressure on his right leg.”
“Maybe that’s why he needed a doctor,” Riley offered.
“If he’s up and walking now, though . . .” Jackson’s voice grew thick.
No one finished the thought. If the kidnapper didn’t have use for Cheyenne, he might have gotten rid of her already. They could be looking at recovering their sister’s body at the end of the trail.
For a half hour, they pushed through the wildest terrain Riley had ever seen. No trails, no signs of civilization.
Thayne moved in complete silence. Even Jackson stepped on cracked branches here and there.
“Like a ghost,” she muttered under her breath.
“Did you say something?” Thayne asked.
She flushed. “No.”
Jackson sidled up to her with a conspiratorial wink. “Now you know how he snuck out every weekend during high school.”
“I assumed he learned the skill during SEAL training.”
“Nah, he was born sneaky. And invisible.”
They trudged a few more minutes, passing a grove of aspen. The leaves quivered, creating a melodic tune within the forest. Riley’s muscles shook, though she refused to ask them to take a break. If they could keep going, so could she.
Suddenly Thayne halted and held out an arm to block Jackson. He didn’t speak but raised his hand and motioned for them to stop. He knelt down and ran his finger along the ground cover. Within seconds, he revealed a thin wire.
Booby trap, he mouthed.
They backed up the way they’d come. Thayne leaned in to Jackson. “Get to Ironcloud. Have him contact any other search parties in the area. Warn them to stay put.” He turned to Riley. “You should go with him.”
“You need backup.”
She could almost hear the growl rumbling in his throat.
“I’ll go as fast as I can,” Jackson said. “Don’t shoot me when I come back. And bro, don’t get dead.”
With a quick glance back, Jackson disappeared the way they’d come, moving fast.
“Walk precisely where I walk,” Thayne hissed. “Man, I wish I had a green laser or even some Silly String.”
She must have misheard him. “What?”
“Silly String is great for detection. It falls to the ground unless there’s a trip wire.”
Hopefully she’d never need to use that bit of information. She mirrored his footsteps. He carefully followed the thin metal to an old dynamite charge.
After a few moments studying the explosive, he pulled a utility knife from his vest pocket and snipped the wire.
“I’ll send some guys out to handle it. The dynamite looks a half century old. If there’s a crate of explosives up there, it could be unstable depending on how much the nitroglycerine sweated.”
He stood with catlike intensity, but didn’t move. Riley waited, unsure of what he saw or heard.
“I’d send you back if I could, but I can’t chance it. Stay right with me, Riley. If I say run, you don’t hesitate, just do it. You got me?”
Even if she’d wanted to salute Thayne at that moment, the deadly determination in his gaze would have stopped her.
Thayne picked his way through the woods, stopping regularly, silent, still, and waiting. Following exactly in his footsteps, pausing when he paused, Riley couldn’t see or hear anything but a few birds and the skittering of what she assumed were animals.
Slowly, painfully, they moved forward toward the caves. With each step, each time she placed her foot on the ground where Thayne had hiked, her gut knotted.
When a natural fork appeared in the woods, he paused momentarily. The right appeared to be easier, more traveled terrain. Of course Thayne didn’t hesitate. He headed left.
“You’re sure?” she asked under her breath. “The other path looks to be more recently traveled.”
“A single mine shaft is dug into the side of the mountain about five hundred yards from here. It’s older than the rest. It didn’t pan out. They moved up about a half mile and hit it big. If it were me, I’d go with the road less traveled. And this guy thinks like me.”
Good enough for her. She gripped her weapon tighter, every sense on high alert.
Leaves shuffled to her right. She whirled around. A rabbit pounded across the path and streaked back into the forest. She let out a small sigh.
Over the next quarter mile, Thayne dismantled three more traps. If anyone else had come along, they could’ve been killed.
A few more feet and she could just make out a vertical rock face at least fifty feet above them. Thayne stopped, freezing, still as stone.
A blur of camouflage rushed into the cave.
A muffled explosion rumbled. An avalanche of rocks bombarded down. Thayne jumped back and threw Riley to the ground. He landed on top of her, letting out a grunt as rocks pummeled his back.
When it was over, a layer of dust covered them and Thayne’s body covered hers. “You OK?” he whispered in her ear.
She coughed then nodded, blinking the dirt from her eyes. She looked over her shoulder. Her breath caught. “Thayne,” she choked out.
A man dressed in woodland fatigues stood, his face streaked with camouflage paint, his black hair pulled back from his face in a queue. He carried an M4 carbine aimed at Thayne’s back.
His eyes shifted from wide with fright to cold with purpose.
“Password!” their attacker shouted, digging the barrel of the gun into the back of Thayne’s neck.
He lifted his hands. “Crimson,” he said, his voice too calm.
Immediately the automatic weapon pulled away. Thayne rolled over but kept his body between Riley and their assailant.
The man’s eyes were glazed, and Riley recognized the look. He was in a war zone, and they’d stumbled into the middle of his nightmare.
The man blinked. “Thayne? What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in Kandahar.”
“New assignment,” Thayne said. “Top secret, Kade.”
“Who’s she?” he hissed, nodding at Riley.
“CIA,” Thayne lied without missing a beat. “Undercover.”
“Damn spooks, always doing a deal that gets us killed,” Kade muttered. He squatted
down. “At least a half-dozen enemy swarming the woods. And they’re not alone. I’ve seen more.”
Thayne carefully stood. “Kade, what’s your mission?”
“Get the team home,” he said. “Strategic objectives have been compromised. They have hostages. It’s a no-win.”
A branch cracked to Riley’s right. Kade whirled around, spraying the forest with gunfire.
Riley hit the dirt.
“What the hell?” Jackson’s voice shouted in the distance.
“At ease, Kade,” Thayne ordered. “We’ve got friendlies out there, too.”
Kade’s face went white. “Oh God.” His weapon dropped to the ground. His entire body started shaking. “They’re dead. They’re all dead.”
He whirled around and raced into the woods, favoring one leg and disappearing from sight.
Singing River had just become way too much like Kandahar. Thayne let out a slow whistle under his breath, the echo of gunfire still ringing in his ears. His gaze narrowed on the quivering leaves at the edge of the clearing behind Kade’s disappearing figure just in case the man returned. He couldn’t be trusted, not in that state.
Thayne could feel the tension thrumming through every nerve in his body, the fight-or-flight response he’d honed over years of training. He placed his hand on Riley’s shoulder. “You OK?”
She shifted, facing him, her eyes wide, but she nodded. “Just had the wind knocked out of me.”
“Sorry about that.” He held out his hand and helped her to her feet.
“Better than being squished by a ton of boulders.”
A stream of curses peppered the air from a few feet away. Thayne rushed to the edge of the clearing. “Jackson? You still breathing?” he shouted.
“Damn, that was close.” His brother walked out from behind a large evergreen, dusting the twigs and pine needles from the front of his shirt and jeans. “You can keep your special ops work, bro. Give me a fire anytime.”
Thayne grabbed his brother in a hard hug. Over Jackson’s shoulder, Thayne winced at the damage the bullets had inflicted on the tree trunk. His brother could have been killed. He gripped him tighter.