SIX
Tires crunched on the gravel, alerting her to someone coming long before she saw the telltale plumes of dust in the air that trailed a car moving at a fast clip down the dirt road.
Senora put her hand on her holster, a habit she’d gotten into to assure herself that her gun was where it was supposed to be. She’d taken it with her to the Baker house because she’d been on duty then, and she’d grabbed it on the way out as a reflex, not even thinking about it. Now that she was in the remote cabin alone, she was glad she had it. More than likely, the vehicle was Ty, but she couldn’t be too careful. She’d been wrong about Mr. Baker, and it just wasn’t worth taking the chance.
A Jeep appeared from behind the trees that lined the road, and when Senora caught sight of the driver, she let out a heavy sigh. It was Ty, and he’d come with one of the few vehicles that could make it safely down and back up the treacherous road. She didn’t know how he’d managed to find it in the D.C. airport rental cars, but he had.
He slowed when he got to the cabin, then pulled around back and parked next to her car just as she stepped out onto the back porch. Her heart clenched as one long leg stretched out of the vehicle and his well-worn boot hit the hard ground. She closed her eyes for a brief moment and straightened herself.
Was she ready for this? It had been months, and she could still taste the bitterness that had filled her when she’d been forced to walk away from him and their partnership. He might not be boyfriend material, but he was an excellent partner, and Senora had been just starting to find her stride with him when she was brought out of the field. It didn’t make sense, and she had decided months ago that she’d stumbled upon something she wasn’t supposed to find out. What that was, she didn’t know. But she was suspicious of it all: the timing of it all, J’s glaring absence, and the way that Agent Patterson hovered over her as if they were all afraid she might suddenly go rogue. It was enough to make even the most trusting agent question everything.
Ty whistled long and low under his breath, admiring her car and winking at her.
“I guess they’ve been treating you good since you got put on desk duty,” he said, the implication clear. “No wonder you were too busy to return any of my calls. You must have a lot of work now that you’ve got a fancy promotion.”
He was smiling, but Senora wasn’t fooled. He was hurt, and she didn’t blame him.
“It’s not like that, Ty,” she began. “I don’t have any free time, and they’ve been making sure that I can’t even investigate my parents’ cold case. There’s no time for going out, shopping or anything else, so when I saw this in the lot, I decided to go for it.”
“Did you buy it outright?” he asked.
“I did.”
“Impressive.”
“I’ve been saving awhile,” she said.
“I guess. I’m sure your cut of the reward money for Ethan’s ‘capture’ didn’t hurt.”
“I would have given that back if I could, but yes, I did use some of that money. Not much, though.”
Ty shook his head, and an expression she didn’t recognize passed over his face.
“It’s alright,” he said, the playfulness gone. “You deserved it just as much as anyone else.”
“I didn’t want the money.”
“It was only fair.”
He took a deep breath, walking forward and standing almost toe-to-toe with her. She could feel his body thrumming, her own body picking up the vibrations as if they were communicating on another plane altogether. She blinked and the spell was broken, but Ty was smiling, and she was left wondering if she hadn’t imagined the feeling.
“What did you do?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said, still smiling. “But I have to apologize.”
“For what?”
“For what I’m about to do.”
She opened her mouth to ask what he meant, and he stepped into her space, capturing her lips with his and wrapping his strong arms around her. She didn’t even fight him, though she knew she should. Her head felt light, the warmth spreading through her body and aggravating the aching she’d been denying was there for months. She melted in his arms and followed his lead, opening her mouth to him and leaning into the kiss.
They were both gasping when they pulled away, but Senora was the first to look away. She was embarrassed; not that she’d kissed him back, but that she hadn’t made him work harder for it. She’d spent so much time convincing him that she was over him and that they were just partners, but one touch had ended all that. She’d given in too easily, and now, she was afraid that her cover was blown.
Would he realize how badly she wanted him, even six months later? Had the kiss meant something to him too, or was he just testing the waters?
“Man, I think I’d need more than a penny for your thoughts,” he said, laughing and kissing her forehead. “We’ll talk later. Let’s gather everything we need and figure out the plan.”
She nodded, leading the way into the cabin and stepping back as he spread a map on a table in the middle of the room. He took a pen out of his pocket and circled two spots.
“We’re here, and here’s where you were when you sent me your coordinates when you first called.”
“That’s really close to here,” she said, a little surprised.
“It is, but it’s also a lot of rugged terrain, so it’s going to take about the same time whether we go to the road and try to track her that way, or we start from here and try to intercept her. You’re sure she went this way?”
“I am. The video went on for a long time, and she never came back. And the phone was where it was dropped. Mr. Baker didn’t know that she had a phone on her, but Mrs. Baker knew that she did. If she came back, I’m sure she would have found it in the bushes. It wasn’t far from where he dumped her out of the SUV.”
“That poor woman. She should have been able to trust her own husband.”
“I can see why she did. I had him pegged as a grieving, then worried husband throughout this. I never suspected that he could be part of this.”
“Do you think he had her kidnapped in the first place?”
“I do. It makes sense. There’s a huge problem with human trafficking in this country, and people are just now becoming aware. It’s such an easy story to sell. And with her husband helping set it up, it’s no wonder that they were able to lure her as easily as they did. They had all the information they needed and then some.”
Ty listened intently, but Senora knew his face hid the anger bubbling beneath the surface. Ty was hardwired to protect, and she knew that he was one of those men that valued his promises more than most. He would take wedding vows more seriously than most people, and anyone that would break a vow as heinously as Mr. Baker had would infuriate him.
She liked that about Ty.
When she stopped talking, he looked back at the map, using his fingers to measure the miles.
“How fast do you think she was going? Was she in good shape?”
“She is in excellent shape; she’s an avid runner. But she had a gash on her head, and the way she was running, she looked unsteady. She was still faster than him.”
“Would the head injury account for the unsteady gait?”
“I don’t think so. I think he drugged her. But I don’t think he counted on her adrenaline being that high. She just went through this, being kidnapped a few weeks ago. I think he underestimated her reactions.”
“That’s good. So it would make sense that she would keep going, and she’s a survivor, so she probably bedded down for the night when she got far enough away.”
He took his pen and made a light line down the middle of one of the thin trails on the map.
“If she kept going straight and following the path of least resistance, she should have ended up on this trail,” he said.
“Is there any other way for her to go?”
“Not really. Taking this trail would take her to the road, but if you look at the legend, it’s marked in red, which is the highest difficulty. Plus, she’s not going to go to the road, because her husband could be on the road, waiting for her.”
“That’s true. And Mrs. Baker is a smart woman. She escaped from her captors and managed to find help. If you saw the area she was found in, you would be shocked that she survived at all.”
“I believe you. I trust your judgment. If you think her instinct to survive overrode whatever drug was in her system, I agree with you. So that leaves us with a few options. We can try to intercept her here, but she might not be there yet. Then, there’s this trail, but I think our best bet is this one.”
“The falls?”
“Yes. It’s a rough hike to the top, but we can see a good portion of all three trails this way. We might be able to see her from here, and if we can’t, we can rule out this section,” he circled a big area between the cabin and the waterfalls, “and we can take this easy trail down and focus on this area. I have a feeling that she didn’t go far after the initial burst of adrenaline, and if she’s hiding, I would say that she’s more than likely going to be in this area.”
Senora followed along, looking at the area he’d circled, then at the map’s legend and groaning.
“That’s six square miles,” she said. “She could be anywhere.”
“She could, but you forget what I am.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” Senora countered.
“Well, then you underestimate me. If we can get close, I can find her.”
“Will you be able to smell her or something?”
Ty laughed.
“No. Well, maybe. But most likely I’ll be alerted to her whereabouts by how the wildlife is behaving and how much the area is disturbed. These trails here aren’t traveled often at all, and the height of tourist season ended a few months ago. The only people left hiking these areas are the people hiking the entire mountain range and then locals. We have a very good chance of finding her trail and tracking her.”
Senora felt the relief flooding through her.
“I’m glad I called you,” she said.
“I think you mean that you’re glad Betty called me. I can’t believe you were going to go on vacation without me.”
“Let’s not talk about that now,” she said. “I have my reasons.”
“I’m sure you do. But this worked out. I’m here to help you, and once we find Mrs. Baker, we’ll take her to safety and we can make the plane tomorrow night.”
“How did you know about that?” she hissed, narrowing her eyes. “And what is this ‘we?’”
“Betty may have told me where you were going and there’s a possibility I have the seat next to you in First Class.”
“I’m flying coach.”
“Not anymore,” he said.
Senora shook her head, but she wasn’t as angry as she was pretending to be. She was going to have a talk with Betty when she got back to the office, but her best friend had done her a favor. After so many months had gone by, Senora hadn’t known how to call Ty and even suggest that they get together. Betty had taken care of that for her. She wasn’t amused, but she wasn’t mad.
That might change once the vacation was over.
“We need to get going,” she said. “We have a lot of ground to cover.”
“Do you want to walk or do you want to ride?”
“It’s daylight. I’ll walk. I don’t want to explain to some random hiker why I’m riding a giant wolf.”
“It could be a fun conversation,” he joked.
“For you,” she shot back.
She grabbed the waterproof backpack she’d bought and stuffed a change of clothes inside, along with thick socks and the hiking boots. When he arched an eyebrow, she shrugged.
“When Jessica left the FBI office, she was wearing sweatpants, a long-sleeved t-shirt and flip flops. He picked her up from the office and brought her straight here, and she was wearing the same when I saw her on the video. I thought it would be a good idea to have something for her to wear just in case.”
“That’s smart. What about water?”
“I have another bottle aside from the one I grabbed for myself with its own filtering system. I have three of these in all, so we each have one. I’ve already filled them, and they can be refilled from any water source.”
“I bet the ranger’s station loved you.”
“They loved Susan Frost. It was about time her credit card got a workout.”
“I’ll bet it was. Alright, Susan. I’ve got what I need. Let’s head out.”
He slung her backpack over his shoulder and started walking.
“What are you doing? I can carry that.”
“I know you can, but I’m going to carry it for a while. You need all your strength for the first leg of this hike.”
“It can’t be worse than Colorado,” she said, remembering the crazy lengths they’d gone through to get to the dragon’s nest hidden in the mountains.
“It’s not worse, but it’s not much better.”
“Oh, great,” she said.
“It’s the fastest way.”
“Let’s get it over with.”
She took her car keys, hiding them in the hide-a-key affixed to the underside of her vehicle.
“You know that everyone knows about those, right?”
“I do. But I don’t want to leave my keys in the cabin.”
Ty shook his head.
“You city folk do things ass backwards,” he said, thickening his accent for effect.
“It’ll be fine,” she said, falling into step beside him.
He reached out and grabbed her hand, squeezing it and letting it go before she could pull away reflexively.
“I’ve missed you,” he said, his dark brown eyes soulful as they bored into her.
She smiled uncomfortably and felt the heat rising as she blushed.
“I’ve missed you, too,” she admitted.
He nodded, picking up speed and forcing her to lengthen her stride to keep up.
“We need to talk when this is all over, Senora. I’m not letting this go.”
“I know.”
“Good. I need to know what’s going on with you and what’s going on with the FBI.”
“What do you mean?”
“Someone has been following me, Senora. Ever since you left, I’ve had a tail. It’s not always the same person, but I know when I’m being watched. They stopped coming around when I quit calling, and that’s why I quit trying to get ahold of you. We’re being watched, and I want to know why.”
“I don’t know, honestly.”
“But you feel it too, right?”
“I do. That’s part of the reason I left my phone at home. I didn’t want them to track me. Same with my car. I was afraid if it was found just off the road that they would get suspicious.”
“Can’t they just track your GPS unit?”
She shook her head.
“Betty helped me fix that when I bought the car. The only one who knows the actual VIN is Betty.”
“So who are they tracking?”
Senora shrugged.
“It’s some kind of ghost program,” she said. “Betty told me that my car is sitting in my garage until I’m back from vacation. Agent Patterson is going to be pissed if she ever finds out.”
“And J?”
“I don’t know about J. I haven’t heard much since he pulled me out of the field.”
“Doesn’t that make you suspicious?”
“It does.”
“Are you going to do anything about it?”
“There’s nothing to do about it. The only thing I can do right now is keep my head down and hope that they quit watching me.”
“And then what’s your plan?”
She stopped, looking at him as she caught her breath.
“Once they quit watching me, I’m going to turn the tables on them and find out what they’re hiding. They took us apart because we got too close to something we were never supposed to know about. I’m going to find out what that is, and when I do, I’m going to find everyone involved and nail their asses to the wall.”