Chapter Twenty-Three
SEDONA’S HEARTBEAT SOARED into the stratosphere. How could she have forgotten? Her eyelids flew upward. But would this team of tough Special Forces soldiers think she was out of her mind?
Cam’s arms tightened around her. “What is it, Tiger? Did you remember something?”
She nodded. “It makes little sense, though.” Maybe she had imagined the noise.
“Don’t second-guess yourself,” Isaac murmured. “What did you remember?”
“A sound.”
“Describe it.”
She sat for a moment, trying to figure out how to describe the sound. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever heard before. I heard a chuff-clank, chuff-clank, like something heavy exhaling.”
Cam and Isaac glanced at each other, then back at her. Both of them had thoughtful expressions on their faces.
At least they weren’t laughing at her. Sedona would take thoughtful over outright hilarity any day.
Cam stilled, then glanced around the small clearing. “Rhys, did you bring your computer?”
“Never leave home without it. What do you need?”
“A detailed map of this area.”
“Coming right up.” Rhys sat on the ground beside Cam and Sedona and booted up his laptop.
His fingers flew over the keyboard. A minute later, he turned the computer around so they could see the map.
With a couple of taps of his fingers, the view expanded so they could see what businesses were around the area.
Cam pointed at the screen. “There. Campbell Rock Quarry.”
“You’re kidding.” Sedona looked from one man to the other, but they were both in agreement. “A rock quarry? You got that from my lousy description?”
“The sound you heard was a rock quarry conveyor system paired with a pneumatic compressor that cycles every few seconds.”
“How do you know this?”
“We’re a search and rescue team. We’re trained to recognize industrial audio sounds among other noises, and nothing else makes that exact rhythm. Tennessee has quarries, gravel pits, and aggregate yards all over the place, so it’s not unusual to hear those sounds you described.”
“One problem, though,” Isaac said.
“Yeah, I know.”
Sedona scowled. “Well, I don’t. Let me in on the secret.”
“Even though we’ve identified the noise you heard, sound carries over a mile in open terrain. You’re in good shape, but you’re not a marathon runner.”
She snorted. “Not on your life.”
The men chuckled.
“Did you hear the noise clearly?” Cam asked.
Sedona thought back through the impressions and memories muddled by fear and Ketamine and prayed she didn’t lead Cam and the others astray because of a fake dream. “When I escaped out the window, I heard that sound clearly.”
Cam froze. “You escaped out the window. Was it a one-story building?”
She shook her head.
“You escaped out a second-story window while you were still feeling the effects of Ketamine?” Spencer asked.
“What choice did I have?”
Again, The Thunderhawks exchanged grim glances. Cam looked like he would puke any minute. “That was incredibly risky, Sedona.”
“I wanted to see how our story spun out. If you and I could be together, I wanted us to have that chance.”
Cam turned her partway so he could see her face.
“I’ll say one thing, then we need to get back on track.
Thank you for thinking of me, for giving us this chance to be together.
” He pressed a hard, possessive kiss on her mouth.
“Much as I’d like to do that again, there’s no time.
So, I’d guess with the fear and adrenaline running through your body, you probably covered about a mile.
While you were running, was the sound you heard getting louder or softer, more indistinct? ”
“Softer. Definitely more of a rumble than the chuff-clank I heard outside the building.”
“You can probably track her trail back to the building she escaped from,” Isaac said. “If the trek is too hard for Sedona, one of us can stay with her while you and the others go on.”
“No.” Sedona couldn’t let them see her as weak, even though without the adrenaline fueling her flight she might have a harder time covering the same distance. Still, she could do this. She would do this if it meant finding Julio. “Let’s go. I can’t stand thinking of Julio in Simpson’s hands.”
The rest of Cam’s team joined them a moment later. “What’s the plan?” Dario asked.
A wintry smile curved Cam’s mouth. “We’re hunting.”
Isaac rubbed his hands together, eyes sparkling. “It’s about time. Let’s roll.”
Spencer resettled his medical kit on his back.
Sedona’s gut tightened into a knot. She hoped Julio needed nothing Spencer carried in his bag.
Cam stood and helped Sedona to her feet.
She shivered. Oh, yes, she’d enjoyed the heat Cam’s body had generated.
They trekked ahead of the rest of The Thunderhawks. “If you notice something familiar, sing out,” Cam instructed.
“I doubt that will happen. I was in a blind panic when I ran from those men.” She shuddered.
“You paid attention to the sounds of the quarry when you ran from the building. Now pay attention to what your subconscious is telling you about what you see and the scents of areas where you ran.”
She’d try, but didn’t think it would do much good.
Cam squeezed her hand and aimed the penlight toward the ground in front of them.
“How can you see to find anything? It’s pitch black out here.”
“I’m not seeing much,” he admitted. “This field trip is more to prod your memory than to expect a big breakthrough, although we might get lucky.”
They continued to walk through rougher paths than she thought necessary. She lost count of the number of times they could have taken an easier path, yet Cam chose one on rockier ground rather than on the grass or the dirt.
He pulled up short and crouched beside the dirt path. “Here.” Cam looked at Sedona. “This is your footprint. I’m glad the tree cover was heavy enough that the rain didn’t wash the print away.” He turned back to the dirt path and pointed. “The kick out back here shows that you were running.”
Cam panned the penlight further ahead, then moved slowly beside the path, studying what he found. His facial expression hardened. “Three of them were chasing you.”
“Hardly seems fair,” Dario said.
“They’re in jail, man,” Isaac said. “Those three aren’t our priority anymore.”
“No, they aren’t,” Sedona said. “Julio is. That creep Simpson has Julio in his clutches. Julio is our priority. Nothing else matters.” Well, that wasn’t true. She wanted to find Julio, but she didn’t want to sacrifice Cam or his friends to do it.
Cam followed the same pattern as they walked closer to the start of her panicked flight.
The sound she’d described, that chuff-clank, chuff-clank, grew louder the further they walked. And now, something else was nagging at the edges of her memory, but what?
Cam stopped several more times and pointed out a broken branch here or a deep and indistinct footprint where she stumbled and almost fell.
Sedona breathed deeply and froze. She grabbed Cam’s arm.
“What is it?”
“That smell. I know that smell. Sharp, oily, like tar mixed with damp soil. How could I have forgotten that scent?”
Cam breathed deep. “Railroad ties.”
“Old utility poles, too,” Dario said.
“This scent is familiar to you?”
“I smelled tar mixed with damp earth as I ran from my kidnappers.”
“Did it smell as strong the whole time you ran, or did the scent fade the longer you ran from the men?”
“The scent faded the longer I ran.” Sedona frowned.
Was she wrong? Had she imagined the scent?
Perhaps her mind played tricks on her. Couldn’t Ketamine do that too?
She’d been terrified while she ran and afraid that if the kidnappers caught her again, she would never see Cam or find out how their story ended. “Maybe I imagined it.”
Cam stopped and gripped her upper arms. “Don’t do that, Sedona.
I don’t want you to second-guess yourself.
That sharp smell of tar mixed with damp soil is called creosote.
The scent is distinctive, and it’s common to smell it near quarries and rural industrial sites.
When it gets into the wood, the stink lasts for a long time.
” Cam glanced at Rhys. “How many places out here have both ingredients?”
Rhys held up his left hand while continuing to type with his right one. Seconds later, he studied his screen. “There’s only one place out here with railroad ties close by.”
“Don’t keep us in suspense,” Spencer said. “What place?”
“Dunvale Quarry, out by Millhaven Road, and it’s conveniently near a rail line.”
Sedona’s eyes widened. That explained the old railroad ties.
“Show me,” Cam said.
Rhys turned his computer around and handed it to Cam. “Bottom left.”
The longer Cam stared at the screen, the stronger the satisfaction in his expression. “Oh, yeah. That will be the place to explore.”
“Where are we going now, Cam?” Dario asked.
“We follow the trail as far as we can to the place where the kidnappers held Sedona as a prisoner. If I’m right, we’ll be heading in the right direction, anyway.”
“Copy that.”
Cam threaded his fingers through Sedona’s and continued to lead the team through the woods.
Sedona stumbled along beside him, wishing that this was broad daylight instead of the dead of night.
Here she was, tripping over tree roots, stepping in holes instead of around them, and stumbling on rocks that shifted when she stepped on them, while The Thunderhawks walked quickly with sure-footed grace.
Their extensive training was showing itself, for sure.
She concentrated so hard on putting her feet in the right place, she missed Cam stopping at the edge of a large clearing with a two-story cabin in the middle. A familiar two-story cabin with a sense of emptiness about it.
A ball of ice formed in her stomach. She squeezed Cam’s hand.
One glance at her, and he turned to face her. “What’s wrong?”
Sedona nodded toward the cabin. “That’s the place.”
“This is where the men held you captive?”