Bill chuckled. “I’ll bring him outside, and the scavengers will do all I need. A quick scrub of the floor, and no one will be the wiser.”
“I’m expected at home.” I hated that my voice trembled as I said the words. “They’ll know something’s wrong.”
Bill clucked his tongue as he pushed me out the front door of the cabin. “But it’ll be too late by then.” He sighed. “You’ve always been irresponsible, Jensen. Coming up to these woods alone all the time. In a day or two, they’ll find your SUV at one of the trailheads. And no one will be the least bit surprised when they find your body at the bottom of a ravine.”
45
Tuck
I paced backand forth as crime scene techs milled around the parking area, the fence, and the pasture. The horses seemed to do the same, snorting and whinnying, picking up on the frenetic energy of the people invading their space.
“There might be some other explanation.” I knew Walker didn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth, but he needed something,anythingto hold onto.
I ran a hand through my hair. “We need a direction.” If they’d stayed on foot, I’d have a shot, something that I could track. But disappearing drag marks most likely meant a car. All I could do with that was wait for the next sign. I fucking hated waiting.
I started pacing again. I had to keep moving. It was the only way to keep the guilt at bay. That curling, thick cloud eating away at my insides. Because I should’ve been with Jensen. If I hadn’t been such a colossal asshole, she wouldn’t have needed to be alone. She would’ve brought me with her. My fists clenched and flexed, the energy humming through me seeming to crackle through my fingertips.
Walker pulled a phone out of his pocket that I hadn’t heard ring. “Cole.” Pause. “Where?” I froze. “We’ll be there in twenty. Call in SWAT.”
My blood turned to ice. “What?” The single word was a harsh command. I didn’t give a fuck.
“They found her SUV. A trailhead up by Pine Meadow.”
My brows pulled together. “That makes no sense.”
Walker shoved the phone back into his pocket. “She wouldn’t go up there alone, would she? Not now.”
I shook my head. “She wouldn’t. And we’ve got blood and hair.” The vise around my chest constricted with each word. “Someone took her. They just used her vehicle to do it.” Which meant they didn’t have their own, unless there were two unsubs.
I scrubbed a hand over my face. I refused to believe more than one person could be at this. “Walker, have your dad do a head count of all ranch staff, see if he’s missing anyone. I’m getting my maps out of my truck. I want to see what’s around there.”
Walker’s jaw hardened, but he gave a chin jerk and strode towards his father. I unlatched my tailgate and pulled out a tube of maps. I thumbed through them, searching for the one I needed. My hands trembled a bit. We’d find her. She’d be fine.
I spread the map out over my tailgate, my eyes scanning the paper. Within a minute, I had three possibilities. Potential hidey holes where this fucker could possibly keep J. If he’d gone to all the trouble of taking her away from the ranch and leaving the vehicle at Pine Meadow, she had to be alive.
Walker leaned against the tailgate. “What do you have?”
“I’ve got three spots for us to check out.” I pointed to the areas on the map. Two Forest Service cabins and a cliffside overhang where someone might just think they could hide a person from prying eyes. “We need to go now.”
Walker nodded. “I’ll follow in my rig.”
I rolled up the map I needed and slammed the tailgate closed. I was going to find my girl.
“No. You wait for SWAT.”David’s voice cut through the speaker on my truck like a whip.
My hands clenched around the steering wheel as I envisioned them wrapped around my boss’s throat. “It’s going to take at least another hour for SWAT to assemble. That hour could change everything.”
He knew the words Iwasn’tsaying. That one hour could mean the difference in whether we found Jensen alive. I gripped the wheel harder.
David cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. I know she’s important to you, but we have procedure for a reason. It’s to keep you safe, and her. Wait for SWAT.”
“Fuck procedure. I’m not waiting.” I couldn’t live with myself if I did.
David’s tone hardened. “You do that, you’re out of a job. That’s disobeying a direct order.”
“I’ll just have to take that chance.” I hit end on my phone just as I pulled into the tiny trailhead parking lot. This trail didn’t get a ton of use, and if we hadn’t been looking for J everywhere we could think of, it might’ve been days before this was called in. Weeks, even.
Walker swung in beside me, and we both jumped out of our vehicles. A sheriff’s deputy strode up. I gave him a chin jerk. “What do you have?”
