Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
Wolf
Wolf was in a canoe with the woman who said she was his sister.
Willow. He was in the middle of the canoe, facing backward, and she was in the rear, facing him and paddling.
As he studied Willow’s face against the rising stone walls around them, he realized why she’d seemed familiar before.
She looked like him. There was something in her eyebrows, the shape of them, a softer version of his own, and in her nose, too, he thought.
Could it really be true?
“How did you find me?” he asked at length. Of the million questions in his mind, it was the first, and he couldn’t make the canoe move any faster, so he might as well use the time to learn more.
“Our parents never told me about you,” she said. “Our mother had a complete breakdown after you were swept away. She had to go in-patient for a time, and when she got out, everyone just fell into not talking about you.”
“They didn’t even search?”
“Oh, they searched. Our uncle Garrett, that’s our father’s brother, was sheriff.
Still is. He hunted for you up and down the river for months.
Consulted every police agency along the way, too.
Even found your baby blanket, right near that spot where we found you.
Which is…” She shook her head slightly, raising her eyes as if looking for spirits in the sky. “Something.”
He nodded and resisted the urge to insert questions for more details on every topic. He’d found her. He would have plenty of time to fill in the missing pieces. He wanted to let her speak, because each sentence was a revelation.
“A few weeks ago, looking for something in the attic, I found a cradle with your name engraved on it. I stormed into a family meeting demanding answers. And that’s when they finally told us—my cousins and me—the truth.
There were old albums full of your baby pictures.
You were wearing that bracelet in every one of them. ”
He twisted his wrist and looked at the bracelet in wonder.
“When Uncle Garrett told me where the blanket was found, I was compelled to find the spot and do a ceremony for you. But really, I wanted to find you or some clue about what had happened to you. And all our cousins came, too. They’re all pretty pissed about the lie.”
He looked around as she spoke to see them all around him.
“The vet who patched you up is Maria-Michelle, and the little blond aspiring PI is Drew.”
“And the big guy with the dark hair is the country singer, Ethan Brand, isn’t he?” Wolf asked.
“Yep. We sometimes call him Bubba. He hates it, so we have no choice. And the other big guy with the glasses is Baxter. Drew’s brother is Orrin.” She pointed at one of the two younger men, the lighter one, then she pointed at his darker counterpart and said, “And that’s Trevor.”
He said, “I saw your ceremony. That was for me?”
“That was you? Up on the cliffs? I thought I was seeing your spirit.”
“You were, cuz,” called the little blonde, Drew, from the nearby canoe she shared with the vet, Maria. “It was just still in his body at the time.” Laughter floated over the water.
Ethan Brand said, “We’re glad we found you, Wolf.”
“So glad” was echoed by many voices.
“I can hardly believe this is real,” Ethan went on, then he sent a look Willow’s way. “Sorry I doubted you, cuz.”
The redhead in the boat with Drew said, “Hold up, hold up!” And everyone back-paddled or moved to one side out of the current. There was a fork where a small tributary veered off. The redhead padded into it real slow, looking around with care, then said, “This way!”
Nobody even questioned her; they all just followed. Wolf said, “She’s a veterinarian?”
“Her mamma is our dad’s baby sister, Jessi, and she can track like nobody’s business. Taught Maria how.”
“And Ethan’s my cousin, too?”
“Yes, he was adopted though. Found on the doorstep as a baby.”
He looked at her wide-eyed.
“Don’t worry, brother. I’ll catch you up on the family history once we rescue your lady fair.”
He felt his face heat, lowered his eyes, then looked up again, unable to stop asking questions. “What about our parents?”
“Their names are Wes and Taylor, and they are going to lose their freakin’ minds when we find a way to tell them.” Then she said louder, “How should we tell Mom and Dad? Should I call when we get a signal?”
“Let’s get Camellia back before we worry about that, huh?” Drew asked.
Up ahead, Maria had plucked a piece of duct tape from some branches along the water’s edge. Turning back, she held up a finger for quiet, then pointed to her eyes, and swept her hand in a wide arc.
He went very quiet and started watching the shoreline for any sign of Camellia.
Willow was watching the left side, so he focused on the right.
The only sounds were the gentle dips of paddles, and the dripping of water from their edges when they rose again.
The sun was cooler in this wooded strand where branches caused its light to dapple the water.
Willow asked softly, “What happened to you, Wolf? How did you survive? Where have you been all this time?”
“It’s a long story,” he said. “And I don’t know how I survived the river. I only know I was found in the water by a girl. Fourteen. A runaway and a survivor. She raised me as her own. I didn’t know the truth until she told me on her deathbed a couple weeks ago.”
“Oh, God, you just lost your mom?”
He nodded. “And found my sister.”
“All that in a couple of weeks? And now this.” Then she blinked. “I’m not being a very good cop—”
“You’re a cop?”
“Deputy,” she said, keeping her voice low and her eyes on the shoreline. “Who is this guy who took your friend? Do you know?”
He nodded. “Earl Stafford. Her ex. He turned stalker after she broke up with him three years ago. But she said he’d been getting weird before that.
Controlling and suspicious. Got in with some bad people, she thought.
He stalked her and only stopped six months ago when he got a new girlfriend.
That one took her own life, and he started up again with Camellia. ”
Ahead of them, Maria, the redhead, raised a hand in the air, then pointed. He saw a small piece of rope on the shore, and then spotted the ass-end of a canoe sticking out of some thick brush near the shore.
They beached their canoes, dragging them up out of the water as the little blonde raced ahead of the others to look at the boat.
She looked inside, then called back to them, “Camellia scratched her initials into the side, that clever little snoop.”
Willow went for a closer look as well but didn’t seem to find any additional clues. Maria called, “This way,” in a stage whisper.
Wolf walked up front with Willow and Maria, who skimmed the surroundings with her hawklike gaze, missing nothing. Seven people surrounded him, just like family. Maria found pieces of Camellia’s glorious hair, and footprints in the dirt, and broken branches. She said, “She’s leaving a trail for us.”
“Always was about as clever as a G.D. fox,” Drew said.
Wolf looked at her frowning, because it wasn’t her first odd comment about Camellia, but before he could ask, she said, “Full disclosure. I know her from PI school.”
And it clicked in his mind. “You’re her nemesis,” he said as he realized.
“She found out I was named after Nancy Drew and never let me hear the end of it,” she replied. “We competed hard in that class. Had to, since nobody else held a candle to either of us.” Then she shrugged. “Made each other better, I guess.”
She stomped ahead, but then she stopped short and dropped suddenly to her knees, motioning behind her with one arm for them all to do the same. “There’s a shoe over there where a shoe shouldn’t be,” she said.
Everyone hunkered down, inching closer.
Sure enough, in a cluster of large boulders and formations, one of Camellia’s walking shoes lay on its side.
He started to panic, but the little blonde put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Don’t go thinking something bad happened.
She’s been leaving us a trail. She must’ve run outta things to drop. ”
“It’s all open in the center of that cluster,” Maria said, gazing at the rock formations that towered high around it. “Good spot to get ambushed.”
“Let’s move around this outcropping,” Ethan said. “See if we can pick up their trail on the other side. Be quiet, though. They could be close.”
They crept around the boulders, moving inland from the river bank several hundred feet, as the formations were huge and sprawling.
Wolf watched the ground for signs, footprints, anything along the way, but the ground was pristine.
Camellia and Earl had clearly go through the cluster, not around the outside.
On the far side of the formation, there wasn’t a clue anyone had come out, though, and in fact, the boulders on this side were a solid wall. There was only one way in or out of the cluster, back around the side where they’d found the shoe.
“They’re in that cluster somewhere,” said Maria-Michelle.
“We have to assume he’s armed,” Willow added. “The gun that shot Wolf wasn’t anywhere at the scene.” She peered through a crevice into the cluster of boulders. “He could be behind any one of those rocks, waitin’ in ambush. We should climb up top, get a better view.”
“Screw that,” Wolf said. He broke away from the others, ran back around the boulders and went through the only opening into the large cluster of stones toward Camellia’s shoe.
Running footsteps followed. About four steps in, he felt something across his shin, and the words “trip wire” rang in his mind far louder than the firecracker sound that came from above.
He looked up and saw boulders plummeting.
Camellia