“Did you see which way she went?” she asked.
“The general direction, yeah. And I know for sure she’s heading back toward the park.”
“How?” she asked.
“Tattooed guy grew a conscience.” He backed up, turning around. “Too bad he waited till his last breath to use it.”
“Did he—did he say that Tyler’s still alive?”
“He seemed to think he was. Wanted us to get to him before Evie could.”
“What did he say?” Lisa demanded.
Cole told her what little he knew as they roared toward the highway, stones spewing from beneath their wheels.
“He was right about Evie.” Lisa’s voice sounded strained to the breaking point. “She does mean to kill Tyler. She wants to get back at me.”
“What happened down there? Why did you yell at her?”
“Her last texts made it very clear that no amount of playing her game was ever going to change things. She’s meant to kill me all along —and Tyler, too. I doubt there’s ever even been a mystery pervert who wanted to buy him. I think Ava only said that to freak me out.”
“Ava? Sabra’s sister? Wait a minute. I thought you were convinced we’ve been dealing with Sabra herself.”
“She blames me for Sabra’s death. She told me that much just before I jumped her.”
“You jumped her?”
“She was shooting at you. I couldn’t let her—”
“Thank you,” he said, humbled that she had tried to protect him armed with nothing but her bare hands. “You could have been killed.”
“I’d rather die on my terms than go down without a fight.”
“You’re not going down at all, Lisa, not if I can help it,” Cole swore. “And we’re going to save Tyler. We’re finding him tonight.”
* * *
SOLDIERS WENT ON CAMPOUTS. Tyler’s grandpa had told him that once, the night he’d set up the tent in the backyard for them to sleep in.
It was after Daddy had died, and Grandpa was in town trying to make him feel better. But even with Grandpa on the air mattress beside him, the darkness had been kind of scary and a few tears sneaked out, not like real crying, but almost.
Then Mommy had brought out s’mores, and Grandpa started telling stories. And they’d talked about his dad, and Mom had started smiling, telling about how he’d hidden a hurt dog in his tent once, even though the officers might have sent him to the principal if he was caught.
But Daddy wasn’t scared, and he had decided he wouldn’t be, either—not even when Grandpa’s snoring sounded just like bear growls and Rowdy peed on the sleeping bag a little ’cause he was just a baby puppy back then.
Tonight, though, Grandpa wasn’t here, and Rowdy wasn’t, either. But Tyler had pushed his octopus out through the window, and the sleeping bag, too, because it wouldn’t be a real campout without them.
Then he’d taken the blanket, as the Picture Man had told him, ’cause it was real cold in the cabin, so it would be even colder outside.
Before squeezing himself out, too, Tyler had stopped and put his hand over his tummy. It hurt and felt all squishy, as if he might have to throw up. He wondered if he would have to fall far when he went out the window.
And what if the mean lady was out there, waiting for him to “try something”? That was what she always said. “If you try something, you’ll be sorry.”
His stomach hurt worse, thinking of her, so he thought about his mom instead. His mom, with her arms out to catch him, to wrap him in the best hug ever.
But it was Picture Man’s voice he heard, leaning over, saying, “Just think of them stars up there as a million little night-lights. Then you go hide, little dude. You go and hide real good.”
Chapter Seventeen
LeStrange, LeStage. The two names weren’t so very different. In light of the conversation Jill Keller had had with Sheriff Stewart, she couldn’t believe that no one had figured out the woman’s identity sooner, based on the surname she and her sister had been born with.
But then, if Lisa Meador’s father hadn’t called her boss, who would have thought to look into such an old crime, let alone one rooted in another county? If anyone—if she herself—had only thought to dig so far back, surely this case could have been solved so much sooner. And with a far less bloody outcome than the one she was expecting.
Make that dreading, Jill amended as she took a turn toward Terlingua. She quickly spotted several vehicles, their headlights flooding the cemetery as three men gathered around what she prayed would not prove to be Lisa or Tyler Meador’s body, or Cole Sawyer’s.
She pulled up and jumped from the car, staring in confusion at the bearded man coming toward her waving his arms. Maybe six-four and two hundred thirty pounds, he still managed to look more shaken up than dangerous.
“You from the sheriff’s office?” he asked, nodding toward her badge and uniform. “We’ve got a dead fella down there. Shot straight through the belly.”
She shook her head and explained, “I’m from Tuller County in central Texas. What happened here, sir?”
“Heard some kind of shoot-out from my trailer.” He nodded toward an ancient Airstream. “Peeked out my window and saw a woman and a man take off after another vehicle. Soon as we were sure the shooting was all over, me and my neighbors came over here and found him, but he was dead, all right.”
“What were these people driving?”
“Too dark to make out colors, but they both looked like SUVs. The couple’s might’ve been a Chevy.”
Perfect, Jill thought, rooting for the same couple she had earlier suspected, now that Sheriff Stewart had put things into perspective—and given her a royal chewing-out. “So, who’s the victim?”
The man shook his shaggy head, then pulled a folded scrap of paper from the pocket of his flannel shirt. “No ID, but he’s pretty inked up. And he had this in his pocket.”
Taking it, she carefully unfolded the scrap. Despite the blood that had soaked into one corner, she smiled at what she saw.
* * *
AHEAD AND TO THE right, a flash of red lights punctured the darkness like two fang wounds.
“Right there. That’s her, isn’t it?” Lisa’s pulse leaped as she pointed, but before she had the words out, the taillights vanished.
Had she been staring into the darkness, hoping, for so long that she’d only dreamed them? Or did the two spots have more to do with her pounding head and swimming vision?
“I saw them, too,” Cole confirmed. “She must’ve crested another hill.”
A half hour earlier they had followed a solitary set of lights onto a turnoff that led into the Chisos Mountains, according to a road sign. Dark as it was, Lisa felt the inclines becoming steeper and the curves growing more frequent. She made out darker chunks of night, too, starless silhouettes of rock looming high above them.
“Drive faster, Cole. We have to catch her,” she urged.
“We follow too close and she’ll see us coming, then try to ambush us again or lead us on some wild-goose chase.” His voice came out a frustrated growl. “Would’ve been a lot simpler if that guy had given me the canyon’s name before he died instead of just a vague description of where Tyler might be hiding. Then we could call for backup and directions.”
“Not on either one of these phones,” Lisa told him. No longer caring if the FBI traced them, she had replaced the battery in Cole’s cell. But, like the disposable Evie had sent her, it had no signal in this remote terrain.
“Keep checking,” Cole urged. “Meanwhile, use my phone to text your father. Maybe you can get that through, at least. Tell him to call the authorities and let him know we’re in the park, somewhere in the Chisos Mountains.”
“What’s the name of this road?”
He quickly rattled off the route number.
Lisa painstakingly composed the text, cursing the way the words kept doubling on the lit screen and the pitching of her stomach with each curve in the road.
She pushed Send
and waited, but the message sat like a brick in the phone’s out-box. “It’s not working.”
“Just leave the phone on,” he said. “It’ll keep trying automatically, in case we pick up a signal.”
“Not much chance of a cell tower out here, is there?”
“Might be one because of the park, but it’s hard to say, with all this rock to block the signals. We may be on our own here.”
She swallowed, her throat burning as if she’d downed a live coal. So it would just be the two of them, poorly armed, both injured and neither of them knowing exactly where they were going.
“Then we’ll have to be enough,” she said. “Because I haven’t come this far to let her—”
He reached over, touching her arm. “You mean we haven’t, Lisa. Because I damned well mean to see this through.”
“For my husband’s sake.” She blinked back tears, her face heating with the memory of how she’d forgotten Devin, God forgive her, to throw herself at the man who’d failed to save him.
Cole shook his head. “There’s no paying back debts owed the dead. I’m doing this for you, for you and Tyler both.”
“But you don’t even know us, not really.”
He spared her a brief glance. “That’s where you’re wrong. I know you, at least. Out here, this is warfare. There’s no time for small talk, nowhere to hide your true self. I’ve seen you stripped naked, Lisa. Naked to your soul.”
There was a dizzy moment of stunned silence as she struggled to process his words, to fight off the images that tumbled through her pounding head. Images of the two of them, naked not in soul but body. Images that mocked the vows she’d made to the man he’d failed to save.
“And I like what I see,” Cole said, his voice rough with something that sounded like pure masculine desire, despite the way he had turned her aside before.
“You’re not only beautiful, but you’re kind,” he continued, “yet you’d claw the eyes out of anybody who threatens those you love. And even me, though heaven knows you’ve got every reason in the world to hate me. You don’t sit back and wait for help. You have the guts to take on challenges, no matter how tough.”
She shook her head, feeling like a fraud. Couldn’t he see how terrified she was, how scared she’d been her whole life of bullies like Sabra Crowley, of being on her own? She might do what she had to, pretending to be grown-up, but deep inside she was still that little girl shivering beneath the covers between her mom and dad.
“No matter how hard I tried to tell myself that helping you and Tyler was just an obligation,” Cole said, “that’s not the way I feel anymore. It’s not who I am. Because I’ve come to care about you, Lisa. And I care about your son because you love him.”
She wanted to say something, at the very least to admit how deeply his words touched her. But things were going too fast, spinning too far out of control. She’d been out of control before, saying things she didn’t mean, just as Cole was now. And this time it was up to her to stop it before he went any further...or, worse yet, she allowed herself to believe.
Besides, some still-raw corner of her psyche whispered, what if Cole’s hurt worse than he’s saying? What if he dies on you, like Devin?
Her heart plummeted at the thought. Terrified as she was for Tyler, she couldn’t let herself become any more emotionally involved with this man. Couldn’t take the risk.
So instead she said simply, “Thank you,” as if in risking his life, risking his emotions, he was deserving of no more gratitude than a passing stranger holding a door open.
Afterward they both grew quiet, except to comment on several signs pointing out the way to specific peaks or trailheads. Eventually Cole took a right turn, following the taillights onto a rutted, unpaved road with one final marker reading Now Leaving Big Bend National Park.
Steadily the track led downward, its roughness forcing him to slow. Eventually they rolled to a stop. “Are you seeing anything?” he asked. “Any sign of her lights?”
“Not for a while. You think maybe she turned off somewhere?” Her stomach pitched at the thought of how easy it would be to miss a turn in this inky blackness.
“Either that or she might’ve pulled over and shut off her lights to wait for us to pass.” Cole lowered the windows, and turned off the lights and engine.
“What are you doing?” Anxiety wound tight inside her, because every moment that they sat there was giving Evie more time to find Tyler.
“Just listen,” he whispered, reaching up to disable the dome light. “Listen and look, with no distractions.”
Within the dark and silent bubble, her fear was the distraction. Her heart was pounding so hard that she was surprised Cole couldn’t hear it. “Please...”
He didn’t answer, but she swore she could feel him just beside her, his senses straining for the slightest flicker, or the sound of any— There. “I heard something,” she whispered, then pointed off ahead and to the left. “A car door closing, over that way.”
He grasped her hand and squeezed it, silently communicating that she should keep still. Lacing her fingers through his, she willed herself to trust him, though her body was vibrating with the need for action.
“Over there,” he said softly, lifting her hand toward a suffused glow, a light so faint they surely would have missed it had they kept driving. “That must be the cabin. I’d better get out now and cut through these trees. Otherwise she’ll hear us coming.”
“What if she finds Tyler before we do?”
“He’s hiding, remember? And I’ll be quick, I promise.”
“I’m coming with you,” she said, thinking of stories she’d heard about children perishing in house fires because they hid from the firefighters there to save them. “Tyler doesn’t know you. He could be frightened by a strange man.”
“All right. But if I tell you to duck, you do it. If I tell you to go back, you run and find help.” He pressed the SUV keys in her hand.
Turned around as she was, she couldn’t imagine where she would drive for help. Nor could she fathom the idea of leaving him and Tyler, regardless of what happened.
“Let’s go,” she answered, stepping out of the car.
He came around to get her, taking her by the arm. “Stick right by me,” he ordered, “and leave that flashlight in your pocket, in case we need it later. For now, though, the darkness is our one advantage,” he said. “We can’t give it away.”
It might be an advantage for him, but Lisa felt like a blind woman, led by her sighted guide. She wondered if his ability was borne of Ranger training and experience, or if those storm-gray eyes of his had always sliced through darkness as keenly as an owl’s.
As keenly, she remembered, as he claimed to see through her. “I’ve seen you stripped naked, Lisa. Naked to your soul.”
She shivered at the thought, struggling to keep up with the man whose stealth and speed seemed almost unnatural, despite his injury. Unlike her, he never snapped a stick or stubbed his toe against a rock. And when she stumbled into a low spot and pitched forward, he managed to catch her before she crashed onto her knees.
“Sorry,” she whispered, in response to the low groan that told her what the sudden move had cost him. Swallowing her pride, she managed, “I really am slowing you down, aren’t I?”
Beside her, she felt him go still. An instant later a sound registered, a noise that started low, then swelled to a cry as tortured as a woman’s dying scream.
Instinctively, Lisa recoiled, every fine hair on her body rising, because as human as it sounded, she understood that it wasn’t. That it was a sound as native to this wilderness as she and Cole and Tyler, even Ava, were alien.
“We have to keep moving,” Cole said quietly. “Noises like that echo off the rock and carry. It’s not nearly as close as it sounds.”
“What is it?” she asked, her skin crawling with suspicion.
“Mountain lion,” he confirmed. “Probably miles away. And more than likely not the same cat that—”
* * *
A NOISE WOKE TYLER from a deep sleep, a scary noise that started him thinking about the monsters from the mean lady’s mean stories. His heart pounded, and he shivered in his sleeping bag, hating this night even more than the others. He wanted his own bed, in his own house, more than ever. Wanted Rowdy curled up beside him, and his mom to snuggle him and read him stories until they all fell asleep in one big, cozy pile with Octobuddy squished right in the middle.
He felt all around him in the sleeping bag, in the crumpled wad of blanket, even in the scratchy, poky sticks and needles all around him. But he couldn’t find it anywhere. His octopus was gone.
Maybe he’d dropped him on the way here, or forgotten him when he cut his knee falling out the window. But either way, now Octobuddy was lost, too. All by himself, out there somewhere in the big, cold, dark outside.
Tyler started sniffling as he remembered how his mom had told him that his octopus and Rowdy were his troops, and he needed to keep them from getting scared. And now he’d lost them both. What kind of soldier did that make him?
Wondering what his dad would do, he thought about a rescue mission. He could find his lost friend and get extra medals ’cause he’d be a real live hero. The idea made him so excited that he slipped out of his sleeping bag and started back in the direction he’d come.
At least he thought it was the right direction. He stopped a few steps later, squinting hard into the darkness, and then changed course. After a few more steps, he stopped again, feeling mixed up with the weird shadows that looked more frightening than any monster.
He shivered, rubbing his arms and wishing he’d remembered to bring his blanket with him. But a good soldier never left a man behind, so Tyler started marching, moving fast so he could keep warm.
Moving so fast, there was no warning when the whole world dropped away.
* * *
IF THE INCIDENT IN Lashkar Gah had taught Cole nothing else, it was that a moment’s hesitation could have deadly consequences. Consequences that he damned well didn’t want to live with.
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