He nodded, like that made sense even though the tree blocked her way. “There’s shelter up ahead. An old cabin. Safer than sitting out here.”
Her gaze flicked past him, up the mountain and the dark stretch of road. Every instinct screamed at her to stay put.
He studied her for a moment, rain plastering his hair to his forehead. Then he reached into his pocket.
“I’m fine where I am,” she said evenly. She started to slip back into the car.
The bright flash hit her eyes, blinding white against the gray gloom. Fern gasped, stumbling back as her vision fractured into spots and the wet thump of boots drummed in her ears.
“What the hell—”
Pain exploded at the back of her skull.
The world tipped sideways. Sound roared in her ears, then cut off abruptly.
Black swallowed everything.
* * * * *
Fern surfaced to pain.
A deep, pounding ache wrapped around every inch of her head and nausea rolled hard in her stomach. She groaned softly and tried to move.
Fire lanced through her wrists.
Her eyes flew open.
Dim light filtered through a small window, rain streaking down the glass. The air smelled of damp wood and old dust. Her hands were bound in front of her, rough plastic biting into her skin.
Memory slammed back in jagged flashes. The rain, the truck, the light—
Her breath hitched.
Across the room, a folded flag sat on a small table along with other objects, all neatly arranged with reverence.
Her gaze slid upward, heart pounding harder with every inch, until she saw the photographs on the wall behind it.
A smiling young man in flight gear.
Another photo of the same man in Navy uniform with a fabric name patch anchored to the bottom of the frame.
Bear.
Crew’s copilot.
Air rushed out of her lungs in a hard shove.
“So you know.”
Her mind reeled, trying to place where she was and the voice that wasalmostfamiliar.
The man stepped into view, and the memory came rushing back. He was the man from the truck on the mountain road.
She raked her gaze over him, searching for something—anything—to prove that he was from the Black Heart Ranch. Her stare snagged on his wrist and her stomach cramped.
He was wearing her bracelet.
The beaded green one Crew had made her stretched around his wrist like it belonged there.
