No, I didn’t want him to do that. But I also didn’t want him to come along with me. That was the epitome of stupid. And yet, he had the foresight to meet me out here.
But there was still one thing I needed to know.
“How did you know about this road?”
“It was in your paperwork.”
“My paperwork that you’re not supposed to be looking at?”
He rolled his eyes and scooted over to the passenger seat. “You left it out and I was bored.”
Climbing it, I slammed the door. “We’ll talk about this later.”
I hit the gas and took off toward the ranch. In the dark, it was impossible to see all the potholes. I felt like I was bouncing over a cornfield in the middle of harvest season.
“Where are we going?” Wes asked.
“There’s an old cabin on the Callahan property. It used to belong to Jim and his wife, but after they died, it fell into ruins.”
“Then why are we going there?”
My grip tightened on the steering wheel. “Because I think Jim killed Dakota, the little girl from twenty-five years ago,” I said, glancing over at him. “And if I’m right, I think there may be evidence of it at his cabin.”
“But we’re supposed to be looking for the missing girl.”
My eyes drifted to the rearview mirror. There wasn’t a soul in sight out here, which was what I needed. But it also lent an eerie feeling as I drove through the darkness.
“I think they’re related.”
“How? You said Jim died.”
“Yes, but he has a psycho nephew. Maybe Austin picked up his killer ways and decided to continue what his uncle started.”
“That’s insane.”
“That family is insane,” I muttered.
“But how can you be sure one of them took this little girl?”
“I’m not sure. It’s just a feeling. Two little girls go missing from the same area? That’s too much of a coincidence.”
“Yeah, but the other one was twenty-five years ago. That sounds like a stretch to me.”
It did, and I knew it, but something was telling me that I needed to look into this now, or I would regret it forever.
I gasped, turning the wheel hard to the right as the road veered toward the mountains. The terrain was insane out here, and for the first time since I started this crazy search, I wondered if I had just dug my own grave.
And Wes’s.
No, I would be fine. A little girl’s life was at stake. I couldn’t afford to fail.
“Look, there’s no harm in checking this out. We’ll swing by the cabin, see if there’s anyone there, or any evidence. If there’s not, we’ll know for sure one way or the other.”
He huffed out a disbelieving sigh, but said nothing else.
We drove for another five miles before we got to the outskirts of the property. I could see the old cabin from where we were idling on the side of the road, but I didn’t dare drive any closer, knowing that the lights could tip someone off.
Shifting into park, I grabbed the gun under my seat, along with the holster, and attached it to my hip.
