Chapter 16
Maggie turned the high beams on as she drove down the empty street toward Deep River.
It was late. Later than she’d intended to leave her meeting in Bozeman. But it had been so productive she hadn’t been able to leave any earlier. Two hours of picking a business consultant’s brain and having her million and one questions answered.
Together, they’d refined a business plan, identified a niche—which would be adventure travel around the world—and come up with a launch plan.
And the best part was, this felt right. Like she was doing exactly what she was supposed to be doing.
Her experience and love for travel would come together, and she’d probably get a handful of customers from the platforms of followers she’d built.
Her business would be one hundred percent online, so she could help people around the country while remaining in Deep River.
It was perfect. All of it.
Her phone rang, and she cringed when she saw who it was.
She hit the Bluetooth key on her wheel. “Polly—”
“Where are you? It’s late.”
“I know. The meeting ran over but I’m almost back.”
“Good. I don’t like you being out there when you have a stalker.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I hate that term.”
“Yet stalker is the correct one. I’ve got chocolate chip ice cream and Thelma and Louise ready to go.”
Maggie grinned. She’d watched that movie with Polly so many times she could probably recite it word for word.
The line crackled. “I don’t think I have much signal here. I’ll see you in ten.”
“Any longer and I’m calling the sheriff’s office. Wait, no, I’m calling Ethan.” More crackling over the line.
“I won’t be late.”
Polly said something else, but the line cut out.
She pressed her foot harder on the gas. She did not want her best friend calling Ethan. They’d been seeing each other here and there over the last week. Coffees at Bloom. Walks in the morning. He’d even come over and eaten pizza with her and Polly two nights ago. It all felt so…normal.
But he’d also been on edge. The first thing he asked her every time he saw her was whether anything else had gone missing. If there’d been any noises in Polly’s house. Anything strange he should know about.
There’d been nothing. Thank God.
The small smile slipped from her lips when something in the high beams caught her attention. A black car. It was pulled over on the side of the road.
Did someone have a flat tire? Or maybe they were out of gas?
She slowed, and as she grew closer, she realized the car wasn’t parked—it had hit a tree on the side of the road.
Shit. And there was no signal to call for help. Were they hurt?
Her heart crashed against her ribs as she pulled over behind the car. It was probably dumb to not keep driving, but her conscience wouldn’t let her leave the car and any potential victims, not knowing how long it could be until she could call for help.
She jumped out and raced toward the open driver’s door, only to stop. The car was empty. The airbag was deployed and there were specks of blood on the driver’s seat and door handle, but no one in sight.
Quickly, she pulled out her phone, only to curse. Still no signal. Dammit.
She turned on the flashlight function on her phone to see the drops of blood leading into the tree line. “Hello?”
Silence.
What if they were passed out in the woods? What if they needed immediate care?
She raced back to her car, grabbed her first aid kit from the glove box, and ran into the woods, the small light from her phone the only way to see the prints in the dirt.
The rush of the river echoed through the air. When she lost the trail of footprints, she didn’t stop. She kept moving, following the sound of the water. If the person was hurt or disorientated, that was the most dangerous place for them to be.
Her feet sank into the dirt, a cool evening breeze brushing over her cheeks. She was near the bank when she saw a shoe. A high heel. But where was its owner?
She took a few more steps, the wet dirt sinking beneath her feet.
“Hello? Is someone out here?”
Another string of quiet. She scanned the woods around her, and for the first time, the adrenaline and crushing need to find the woman faltered, and she was eerily aware of how alone she was.
God, what was she doing? She should have gotten back into her car and gone for help. She wasn’t trained in search and rescue. And there were so many questions—the biggest, why had the woman run into the forest in the first place?
Her skin prickled. Had she been running from someone?
Her stomach swirled, the need to get back to her car suddenly suffocating.
She took one step away from the rocks that bordered the river when a scream pierced the air.
It was so loud Maggie jumped and spun. Her foot slipped. She hit the edge of a rock hard, the phone and first aid kit falling from her fingers. But there was nothing to grab on to and the rock was wet and slippery.
She fell into the water, cold crashing over her limbs as she was pulled downstream.
Ethan sipped his beer, the mountains beyond his back porch shrouded in darkness.
“Damn, you have a good view from here,” Connor said, eyes on the trees behind Ethan’s house.
“Yeah. I feel pretty lucky.”
“Deep River is as good as you always said it was,” Connor added quietly.
“Feels like home,” Joel agreed, throwing a chip into his mouth. “Wish Tate, Linc, and Kolby were here, though.”
“I heard from Tate yesterday,” Connor said. “He said they’re a bit jealous of what we’re doing out here.”
Ethan grinned. “Well, let’s keep doing it then so we get them here too.”
“Imagine that, the whole team together again.” Joel chuckled before looking at him. “How’s Maggie doing?”
That familiar tightness wrapped around his chest. “She’s burying her head in the sand and pretending this stalker shit isn’t as serious as it is. I did a full search on her colleagues and friends in LA. As far as I can tell, they’re all still there and no one followed her here.”
“What about the person commenting on her socials?” Joel asked.
“Tried that. She blocked them, then they deleted their account.”
“Damn,” Connor cursed.
“Who the hell takes bodywash and toothpaste?” Joel asked.
“Who showers and lights a candle in another person’s home while she’s away?” Connor added.
Ethan’s jaw clenched. He looked at Joel, needing a change in subject. “You and Polly getting along a bit better?”
Joel grinned. “This morning, she told me she was visualizing duct tape over my mouth because I said her ass looked good in her work pants. Then she gave me my coffee and told me to go play in traffic.”
Connor laughed. “I always get sad when I miss these little chats between you two.”
“It’s entertaining, even for me. There must be something deeply annoying about me.”
Ethan shook his head. “It’s not only you. Her mother has had a string of unhealthy relationships with men for Polly’s entire life, and it’s made her defensive and untrusting where guys are concerned.”
“Guess I’ll have to prove to her that I’m not one of those guys. It shouldn’t be hard. Women love me and my witty sense of humor.”
Ethan was tempted to tell his friend that stable relationships weren’t exactly what he was known for, but the SAR phone rang. It was Friday night, and he was on call this weekend.
They all straightened.
Ethan put the call on speaker so the guys could hear. “Search and Rescue emergency line. This is Ethan Moore. What’s your location and nature of the emergency?”
“I need help,” a woman whispered, her voice trembling.
“Where are you?”
“I…I don’t know. I was driving down the highway. I’d almost hit Grapple Road when someone jumped in front of my car. I swerved and hit a tree. They…they had a knife. They dragged me out of the car, but I managed to get away. Please, I need help now.” She started to cry.
All three of them were on their feet, the guys with their phones out, no doubt contacting Ryan and Zac.
“Can you tell me your name?” Ethan raced through the house, grabbing his keys, his teammates doing the same.
“Priya. Priya Tan.”
“Okay, Priya, I need you to open your maps app, tap your location, and hit ‘share.’ Send it to this number.”
“Um…okay. The signal’s really weak though. It took me a while to find a spot to make this call.” On cue, the line crackled.
Shit.
“Wait…” Priya paused. “I think I did it.”
Ethan dropped behind the wheel of his truck. The call connected to Bluetooth and he sent Priya’s location to the other four guys. “That was good, Priya. I’m coming, and so is the rest of the team. I need you to stay on the line with me, okay?”
“O-okay.”
The line crackled again.
“What if it cuts out?” Priya whispered, her words running into each other. “I don’t want to be alone.”
“If the line cuts out, it’s okay because I have your location.”
“Okay, that…”
There was another pause, this one longer.
“Priya?”
“Oh no.”
Ethan took a hard right out of his property. “What’s wrong?”
“I heard someone.”
“Mute my side so I can hear you but you can’t hear me.”
“But—”
The line crackled again. Suddenly, a scream pierced the air.
“Priya?”
He pushed his truck to move faster, his SAR pack in the back. The guys would have their kits too, and Zac would have his full medic kit.
He opened the middle console and pulled out his Glock. They’d call the sheriff’s station at some point, but right now, getting to Priya was the priority.
He took a right and spotted the vehicle ahead. But there was a second car there.
He drew a bit closer, suddenly realizing he recognized the small SUV.
Icy panic slipped through his bones.
Maggie.
He pulled over in front of the cars and raced out.
Please be in your car, Maggie. The prayer was a fucking shout in his head. He stopped at her empty RAV4.
No.
Connor stopped beside him. “Is that—”
“Maggie’s in the forest.”
Joel handed him his pack. “Come on. If Maggie saw the car wreck, she probably went in to help the person. We’ll track both of them.”
Ethan pulled a flashlight from the pack. With that in one hand and his Glock in the other, he raced to the crashed car, spotting multiple sets of prints in the dirt.
“She followed them.” Ethan sprinted into the woods. When one of the footprints detoured from Priya’s pinned location, Ethan turned to his team. “You both go to Priya. I’m following the prints. I’m counting on them being Maggie’s.” He didn’t wait for a response before moving.
Her trail was faint. A few footprints here and there. Some crushed vegetation. That was it. But he’d tracked people with less to go by.
He hadn’t been moving for long when he saw it—something on the rocks beside the river.
He stopped beside the items, cursing at the sight of her phone and a first aid kit. The kit was open, its contents spilling out like it had been dropped.
She fell into the water. And the river was moving fast.
Fuck.
He ran down the bank, worst-case scenarios playing over in his head. That the water had pulled her under. That he’d be too late.
Cool wind snapped over his skin, the pack bouncing on his back. He barely registered any of it. She held his focus. The water. The rhythm of the flow.
Then he spotted her. Air pulled sharply into his chest at the sight of her holding on to an exposed root near the bank.
She was alive. Thank God.
He dropped his pack and lowered beside her. Quickly, he reached through the water, grabbed her forearms, and yanked her out.
“Ethan!” She dropped against his chest, her entire body shaking.
He didn’t feel relief. They weren’t out of danger yet. She was too cold.
“I need to get your wet clothes off.” He helped her tug off her soaking sweatshirt and T-shirt, then tugged his own sweatshirt over his head and pulled it over her. “Can you stand?”
She nodded, legs shaking as she pushed to her feet. He helped her out of her shoes and jeans. Once all her wet clothes were off, he grabbed a blanket from the pack and wrapped it around her waist.
“I’m going to get us out of here.” He threw his pack back on, slipped his arms behind her back and under her legs, and lifted her.
Then he was running again. The Glock was still in his grip, but fuck, he hoped he didn’t have to use it, not with Maggie here.
He was counting on his team finding the asshole who’d attacked Priya.
On finding Priya and this nightmare being over.
“Wait.” Maggie’s voice was so quiet he almost didn’t hear her. “There’s a woman out here.”
“I know. She called us. The guys are searching for her.”
Maggie’s eyes shuttered. “Thank God. I…I was so worried. They’ll find her.”
He hoped they’d find her. If anyone could, it was them.