"Crystal."
"I'm serious, Cara. This isn't a game."
"I know exactly what this is." She met his eyes. Let him see she understood the stakes. "Do we have a deal or not?"
Another beat of silence. "Fine. Let’s hit it."
She pushed off from the wall. "Let me tell them."
Inside, Reagan glanced up from her list. "You leaving?"
"Following a lead." Cara kept her voice light. "Gabe found something in the PI's notes."
"Take your time." Reagan's eyes held questions she wasn't asking. "We've got this."
Tom looked up from his shelf repair. "I'll text if we hit structural problems."
Wade straightened from the deadbolt. "Perimeter's covered."
Piper lowered her phone. "If you see anything sketchy, film it horizontally. Vertical video is a crime against humanity."
Cara's chest squeezed tight.Lord, please keep them safe. Whatever happens to me, keep them safe.
Gabe's rental SUV sat at the curb. She climbed into the passenger seat and buckled in without comment. He started the engine and pulled onto Main Street, heading north.
She watched him check the mirrors. Once. Twice. Three times in the first minute.
His eyes flicked to her. Reading her tells the way he'd been doing since they met.
She stared out the window and tried not to think about Seafoam Lodge. The closet. His hand clamped over her mouth. The solid warmth of his chest against her back.
The silence between them wasn't awkward. It was charged. Like a wire humming with current, waiting to spark.
Gabe broke it first. "The overlook entry matches the timeline for the night David went dark."
Something twisted in her chest. Guilt, maybe. Or sympathy. Or something she couldn't name. "You think he was there?"
"Ruiz was tracking him there. Whether David made it..." He didn't finish.
She let the silence settle back over them.
The overlook appeared twenty minutes later. A remote bluff jutting over the Pacific, accessible only by a rutted gravel road winding through dense coastal forest. Mist rolled over the cliffs in slow waves. Wind off the ocean cut straight through her jacket.
Cara stepped out of the SUV.
Her training took over before her brain could stop it.
Footprints in soft ground near the overlook's edge. Multiple sets. Different sizes. Some fresh, some older.
Disturbed undergrowth along the tree line. Broken branches at waist height. Someone had pushed through recently.
Cigarette ash scattered near a flat rock. Not washed away yet. Less than a week old.
She moved toward the edge, scanning the ground. Looking for anything Ruiz or David might have left behind.
"Cara."
Gabe's voice carried a warning she ignored.
