Think, Elena. Think. You’re a survivor.
She continued along the edge when she saw a slight overhang with a rock shelf, but the cliff created a little pocket above the ledge that she could squish back into and be out of sight. Would the rock support her? Was this crazy? She was small, but was she tiny enough to slip back into this area?
She heard the men.
“How could you have let her get away? We need to find her. Now.”
“Screw you,” the other man said. “She can’t get that far on foot and there’s no way she’ll survive the night. We’ll either find her or she’ll die anyway.”
“You better be right. Keep looking. I’d rather find her and know she’s taken care of.”
Elena held her breath.They don’t know exactly where I am.
You have to try this. This could be your only chance.
If the rock gave way, then she would probably die. Who knows if anyone would find her. But if she didn’t try to hide, she was most certainly dead. She might be able to fight one person, but not two men.
Testing the rock ledge with one foot, Elena tried to see if it seemed secure. She put a little more and a little more weight on it. Then, taking a deep breath, her body shaking, she slipped into the area.
God, help me. And please don’t let there be some kind of animal back in here.
Huddling, Elena shook from both cold and fear. Now that the sun had set behind the mountains, the temperature was rapidly dropping. She had worked up a sweat running and from nerves. The cold air plus sitting on a rock chilled her to the bone.
But she stayed put. This might be her only chance.
“Where’d she go?”
The man was straight above her. With her special nook to hide in, they couldn’t see her. She tried to slow her breathing and stay quiet as she wrapped her arms around her knees.
“Maybe she fell.” The other man? Two men made it much easier for her to be grabbed. Elena kept working on controlling her breathing.
“We need to get rid of everything before someone comes. We’ll find her later. She won’t make it far in the mountains,” the first man said.
She could hear them walking away and then there was nothing. Just quiet. Tears rolled down her face as she trembled.
Amber. She had witnessed Amber’s murder and now these men intended to kill her too. But why? What had Amber gotten herself into when she came in January? Or was this somehow connected to the case in Chicago?
Ref’s words came back to her: “When someone tries to kill you, don’t come crying to me.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Josh sat in his vehicle at the pull-off for Dead Man’s Pass. There was a good place to park that would be difficult to see from the road, which was why he wanted to meet Amber there. He didn’t want anyone to see them together. A message from Maya popped up on his phone. She’d texted him to let him know that she had to run to the Forest Service office in town to email some things to her boss. He was glad. He needed to meet with Amber and close this part of his past mistakes.
He glanced at his watch. Sure, he’d been a few minutes late, but where was Amber? She still hadn’t shown up. Was she messing with him again? Should he warn Maya? Bianca had always told Josh that Amber would be trouble. He didn’t miss Chicago, Amber, or any of the drama, but he did miss being able to visit with his sister on a regular basis.
It had been after Sydney’s murder that Josh had hit rock bottom. And he hit hard. The only person in his family who would talk to him at that time was his sister, Bianca. And even she had been hesitant because at that point all he asked her for was money.
Bianca had let him crash on her couch and fed him, but she soon realized how fast he was blowing the money on drugs and alcohol. She’d told him he could stay with her, but he had to get clean.
Instead, he’d moved out. Not his best time. Not something he wanted to remember. He’d even thought about wading into Lake Michigan and ending everything there. He was a disgrace to his family. His department. What did he have to live for? But something had stopped him. He could still see the image in his mind of his partner who’d been shot in the line of duty standing on the shoreline. He’d told Josh that he forgave him and wanted him to get better. Josh had always blamed himself for his partner’s death. Was he hallucinating? Or was it a ghost? Whatever it was, the image had changed his life.
The next morning, he called Bianca and begged her to take him to rehab. She had cried tears of joy and told him to stay put. She’d be right there. It was the best phone call he’d ever made.
Glancing at his watch again, Josh started his vehicle to stay warm. Where the heck was Amber? He had noticed some tire tracks, but that wasn’t unusual. People liked to four-wheel over the pass even in spring. The higher elevation meant they could find some decent snow to board or snowshoe on for a little bit longer. Were the tire tracks from a backcountry explorer or did Amber already come and go? He would give her five more minutes and then leave. And he would never answer another call from a Chicago area code unless it was a family member.
He knew when he finished his time at the rehab that he was a new person. Stronger. Better. But he had to leave Chicago and even Illinois. He needed to go somewhere far away where his past couldn’t follow him. And he knew he wanted to continue in law enforcement. It was his calling. He not only wanted to keep people safe, but he felt like he had a different perspective on life and could have some empathy toward those he arrested. But who was going to hire a cop who was fresh out of rehab and had been fired from the Chicago PD?
Bianca had called their grandfather. She said he knew some sheriff in some Colorado mountain town. Maybe he knew of a department that needed officers. As it turned out, that sheriff was Wayne Thompson, or Pops, as Josh now thought of him thanks to Maya. Pops, Maya’s grandfather, had hired him as a patrol deputy with the stipulation that he had to do a weekly urinalysis. Josh agreed.
