“Always.” I brushed a kiss against her cheek before shooting a look at the sheriff. “I’ll be ready to go in five minutes.”
The first thing I did when I was back in my room was call Brecken and put the phone on speaker mode so we could talk while I changed. He picked up on the first ring, but I was the first to talk. “I’m heading out to help with a search and rescue operation.”
“Someone went missing on the mountain?” he asked.
“Yeah, a wildlife photographer. Her dad called the sheriff when she missed checking in with him this morning.”
“It’s a woman, huh?” I pictured his shit-eating grin in my head as he teased, “Don’t forget what happened the last time we went searching for a woman in a forest.”
I couldn’t help but wonder if my mom had recruited him in her matchmaking efforts since he was talking about how he and his wife had met. “The situations are completely different.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Hadley was in the jungle, not on the mountain I grew up on. And Victoria is missing, not kidnapped. People get lost in the wilderness all the time. We aren’t going to be stuck together in the wilderness running from guys with guns,” I muttered as I shoved supplies into the pockets of my cargo pants.
He laughed and murmured, “Famous last words.”
“I just wanted to give you a heads-up in case shit goes sideways.” A quick scan of the room confirmed I had everything I needed.
“Keep me in the loop. I’ll have your back if anything goes wrong,” he promised.
My team couldn’t do much from halfway across the country, but I felt better with them aware of what I was about to do as the sheriff and I joined the search-and-rescue team in the parking lot where Victoria had last been seen. “Any sign of the woman?”
One of the deputies answered, “No, her car isn’t where the witness said they’d seen it last, and her campsite was empty. Maybe she decided to leave?”
“I don’t think so.” One of the volunteers shook his head. “From what you told us about the missing woman, she’s an experienced camper. But the embers were still burning down on her fire? There was a stream nearby and plenty of dirt if she didn’t want to carry water back to her campsite. No reason she couldn’t put the fire out properly.”
“There’s another weird thing,” another deputy added. “The state troopers have two helicopters in the air, and one spotted wreckage from a recent crash about fifteen miles south of her campsite. They said it looked like it went down recently, but we didn’t get any reports about a plane crash.”
I wasn’t a big believer in coincidences and wondered how the two situations were connected...and if Brecken might’ve been right about famous last words.
4
VICTORIA
The guys chasing me were relentless, but they couldn’t have been trained how to track someone in the wilderness. They had every advantage, but I’d been successful in evading them so far. I had covered a decent amount of the terrain surrounding my campsite in the days since I’d arrived on the mountain, so I was at least semi-familiar with the territory.
Armed with only my camera and plate, I started to make my way toward a system of caves I’d stumbled on my third day into this trip. They were the perfect place for a female black bear to den, and a sow wouldn’t hesitate to attack if she thought I was a threat to her cubs. I’d noted the location but hadn’t searched the caves because running into a protective mama bear was an experience I wanted to avoid.
Desperate times called for desperate measures, though. I wasn’t sure if there was a bear or any other wild animal living in those caves, but I did know there were men with guns chasing me. Under those circumstances, the choice was easy.
I took a roundabout route, putting what my dad had taught me about hunting to good use and doing my best to leave a false trail wherever I could. I successfully hid from them for about fivehours, judging by the sun’s position in the sky. Once I thought it was safe, I finally headed toward the caves. I was about twenty yards from them when I heard one of the men yell, “I think she went this way, guys.”
His voice had a slight Eastern European accent and was much too close for comfort. I ducked behind a tree, pressing my back against the bark as I tried to catch my breath. When another guy called out, “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I found a piece of fabric on a branch. I think it’s from her coat,” he answered.
I glanced down at my arms and bit back a curse when I saw the small tear in my left sleeve. I’d been running so fast that I didn’t notice when it had gotten caught on the tree. If I kept making mistakes like that, I’d never get off this mountain alive. And the same was going to be true if I stayed where I was since the other men would be headed this way, too.
Dropping into a crouch, I shuffled as quietly as I could toward the cave. Inch by painstaking inch, I got closer to my goal. My only chance for safety.
Every little crunch of the leaves beneath my feet sounded as loud as a gunshot to me. I tried to avoid the twigs because they snapped when I stepped on one, but the path was covered with them. The other three guys’ voices kept getting closer, and I wanted to pick up the pace. But the faster I went, the more likely I was to alert them to my presence. I tamped down the urge to make a run for it and kept the same slow pace, sending up a silent prayer of thanks when I reached the mouth of the nearest cave.
“There’s a footstep in the mud here,” one of the guys yelled as I slipped inside the dark recess.
Placing my hand against the nearest wall, I trailed my fingers over the rough surface as I moved more quickly, going deeperinto the cave system. The men’s voices carried into the pitch-black space, making me tremble.
I was in the middle of the wilderness without shelter or food, being hunted by bad guys with no way to call for help. All my careful planning had been in vain. As I huddled at the back of the cave, I wanted to kick myself for leaving my satellite phone in my tent when I’d decided to walk down to the lake to rinse off my dishes from breakfast. My dad had taught me better, but I’d become careless after so many trips without any issues.
