She’d screwed this up so bad. Dr. Yarrow had sent her on a simple assignment. Collect any personal items or evidence their victim might’ve left behind at the scene to help identify the remains. Instead, she’d gotten herself abducted and now couldn’t hike her way out of a wet paper bag. If she didn’t come across a ranger or another hiker—something, anything—soon,she would die out here. There was no question. She pressed one hand over the cut in her suit, aggravating the sensitive tissue underneath. Most likely a bone bruise. Not lethal but intense enough to steal her breath. She would live. For a little while longer, anyway.
“It’s okay. It’s going to be okay. We’re going to get out of here.” Her hand automatically smoothed across her midsection. Directly above that little bundle of cells with the power to change her life. Had changed her life. Whether that change was for worse or better, she didn’t know yet. But she wanted to find out. She wanted the opportunity, to have something that was just hers. A chance to love something unconditionally without the threat of it being taken away or used against her. She wanted a family again.
So she had to stop, to think about this. Continuing on through Zion’s backcountry without any supplies or food would only kill her faster. Adrenaline had long worn off. She hadn’t registered any hints of the killer for the past hour, though she was sure it wasn’t hard for even a novice hunter to follow her tracks at this point. Maybe he’d given up. Decided she wasn’t worth it. But that only meant he’d turn his deadly intentions onto Dr. Yarrow. Or Harvey.
Drennan sank back against the tree. Sharp edges dug into her spine as she slid onto her rear. The sun angled into the canyon, built by two impossibly tall walls of sheer red rock, from her left. Okay. That meant the sun was arching into the west, right? So it was past noon, and she was facing…north. Though there wasn’t much to see from her current position. She’d been running east with the sun at her back, she didn’t know how long, but it had to have been three hours—maybe four—at least. She’d parked at the visitor’s center around ten in the morning and gotten to the upper emerald pool around eleven. She tried recalling the layout of the park from the few times she’d picked up a map andthought about getting out into nature as part of this whole new life thing she had going, but that’d been months ago. It was no use.
Someone had to realize she was missing, right?
Dread pooled at the base of her spine. Dr. Yarrow would clock out precisely at five and most likely assume she’d done the same after collecting whatever evidence she could find from the trail. Or presume she’d needed more recovery time from yesterday due to the pregnancy he was very much aware of. No one had been at the base of the trail or at the scene when she’d arrived. Only signs had designated the Emerald Pools trail closed to the public until the ME’s office and the law enforcement rangers had what they needed for the investigation into the victim’s death. And Harvey… She hadn’t heard from him since she’d walked out his front door last night. She’d wanted to give him time to think about this whole them-having-a-baby-thing, but what she’d really done was run away from potential rejection like the coward her mother had always accused her of being.
Nobody knew she was out here.
Nobody would know she was missing.
And the voicemail her only remaining parent—a woman who was supposed to love her—had left on her phone the night she’d been driven to the bar replayed in her head.You’re going to die alone. Nobody will care that you’re gone. You think you get to be happy by leaving me here all alone? Your father believed in fairy tales, too. Look what happened to him.
Well, her mom was finally right about something, wasn’t she?
She closed her eyes against the vile words stuck in her head, setting her head back against the tree bark. Her mother hadn’t always been so bitter. She’d been happy once, in love. Whole. There’d been weekend road trips to the lakes and the movies, big birthday parties and Christmases, family dinners every night and help with homework when she needed it. Smilesand laughter, inside jokes and flirtatious teasing. Drennan had always feigned gagging when her parents had kissed, but deep down, she’d wanted that too someday. Her own family and all the joy that came with it.
But grief did terrible things to the heart and soul.
It corrupted all those happy memories into someone Drennan didn’t recognize anymore. Someone who’d turned on her own daughter because the pain had become too much to handle alone.
A twig snapped nearby.
Drennan forced her eyes open despite her body being more than happy to give in to the tug of sleep, and a surge of awareness gave her new energy. Every sense she owned strained for the hint of something tangible to grab onto, but the trees were still. The insects had gone quiet again. Nothing moved. She wanted to trust her senses, but her brain was telling her to get up. To run.
Pressure built in her chest the longer she dared to hold her breath. Putting weight into her left leg, she bit against the flare of discomfort and slid herself back up the tree. The ache was deeper now, swelling through her entire hip, but she couldn’t think about that right now.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.
Drennan backed away from the tree she’d collapsed against, blindly navigating into the open. It might not be the smartest move, but she’d have a much better chance of running without having to maneuver through packed trees or going too far off course.
Keeping her gaze on the surrounding wilderness, she let the tension bleed out of her shoulders. There wasn’t anyone there. Just a falling branch or—
“Hello, Dr. Hawes.” Muscled arms pulled her against a wall of human granite. Her scream cut off with a slap of her attacker’s hand over her mouth. “I’ve been looking for you.”
Chapter Sixteen
They’d lost the tracks.
Harvey’s legs threatened to give out from under him, the muscles along the backs screaming for relief, but he only pushed himself harder. Forced himself to take that next step and the one after it. It was all he could focus on to keep himself from spiraling down into raw desperation. Drennan was out here. She’d been abducted—his baby had been abducted—and he and Ranger Jordan were her only hope of bringing her back. The boot treads they’d followed ended at a stream crossing that branched off the upper emerald pool. Harvey had searched every inch of that riverbed, but the tracks had simply disappeared.
His blood thundered—too hot—in his veins. “They couldn’t have just vanished.”
“I’ve searched at least a hundred feet downstream and back on both sides. The treads don’t reappear.” Ranger Jordan hauled her pack higher up her back by the straps. “We’re assuming these tracks belong to Drennan’s kidnapper, and if that’s the case, I think we’re dealing with someone knowledgeable of wilderness survival and hunting.”
Understanding hit as Harvey studied the stream. It wasn’t any deeper than a few inches with smooth stones staring up through clear moving water. Unhurried and pristine this deep into the park. It wasn’t until the stream reached the Emerald Pools that algae and a whole lot of other organisms latched on. But here, it was perfect with the whisper of the wind off the cliffs, the birds and insects trilling nearby and sun glinting offthe surface of the water. He shook his head. “He moved into the stream to make sure we couldn’t gauge which direction he’d gone.”
“Chances are he hasn’t double backed toward the pools, but that still leaves us with two separate directions to search along the stream.” Ranger Jordan twisted her head to one side, as though looking for the right answer, and her hot pink kerchief dipped down her neck, revealing the thick, jagged scar beneath. “If our guy still has Dr. Hawes, he’ll be moving more slowly, maybe even stop somewhere out of the way to camp depending on his ability to make her comply. Search and Rescue will have arrived on the scene by now. They’ll have more manpower and search capacity than us running up and down this riverbed blind. We should wait.”
Harvey wanted to ask about the scar, wanted to know who’d done something so horrific to her and if they’d suffered, but now wasn’t the time. As much as he didn’t know about Drennan and her outdoor experience, the pregnancy and this heat would take more out of her than she could spare to fight back. Her attacker would use the exhaustion against her and get the upper hand, and Harvey was betting she hadn’t brought supplies other than those the law enforcement rangers had recovered at the upper pool. He checked his watch. They’d already been out here for close to an hour and a half with no additional signs of where she’d been taken.
She could be anywhere. In any kind of condition.
He swiped sweat from his brow, his clothes sticking to him with layers of sweat and salt. Harvey shook his head. He’d had plenty of water. Anything he had left would be reserved for Drennan when he found her. “She doesn’t have that kind of time. We can’t search this entire river one direction at a time. We need to split up. You head east. I’ll head west. Stick to the streambed, call in anything you find on the radio.”
