Chapter 23
Deanna
The Forest Service truck bounced over another pothole, jarring Deanna’s teeth. She’d been driving these logging roads for two hours, cell service dead since she’d passed the last repeater tower.
She stopped at another spur road to study her road map. Three more cabins in this drainage, according to the old Forest Service survey. Any of them might have Kylie.
The FBI worked the ransom line, and ADLC roadblocks sealed every paved route off the mountains. But the Pintlers hid dozens of old cabins up drainages too remote for a federal team to reach before the deadline. Progress in the official search was painstakingly slow.
Deanna moved at the speed of fear. A Forest Service rig, a survey map, and a head start were all she had. A federal team staging hours out had nothing faster.
The guilt gnawed at her, that while she’d been in Colton’s arms, someone had taken Kylie. Cosmic justice was brutal. Because she’d ruined relationships, now hers would be collateral damage.
Karma had a heartless memory devoid of compassion.
Climbing out of the truck, she examined the ground. Fresh tire tracks in the dust, possibly a day old. Wide tread, aggressive pattern. Not a Forest Service vehicle. She followed them for twenty yards until she found what made her pulse quicken.
Three cigarette butts stubbed out on a pine tree. She picked one up with a tissue. A spicy clove scent hit her nose. Not regular tobacco. Black paper. An odd-shaped filter she’d never seen before. Not a brand you’d buy at a gas station in Anaconda.
Whoever had parked here had a specific habit. She was no detective, but this struck her as traceable. She bagged the three butts in a tissue and tucked it into her shirt pocket.
Boot prints led off to a trail that side-hilled and curved around the mountain. Deanna followed them a respectful distance up the trail, where they stopped. Looked like whomever had walked up there had second thoughts and had gone back the way they came.
A twig snapped. She spun around, hand on her pocketknife. A deer bounded across the road, white tail waving. Relief loosened her shoulders, and she turned around, hiking back down toward her pickup.
As she neared her truck, she tensed, ready to bolt. Then relief swept through her when she recognized the vehicle parked behind it—Ace’s black Dodge Ram with Ace riding shotgun. Colton stood beside her Forest Service truck, the driver’s door hanging open, a radio in his hand.
What’s he doing? Is he holding my radio?
When he spotted her, the fury on his face sent a charge through her, and not the good kind.
“What the hell were you thinking comin’ up here alone with shooters in these mountains?” His shout pierced the air.
“I’m searching for Kylie!” she hollered back. “The feds are staging out of Salt Lake, and the roadblocks only cover the paved roads. Dammit, Davis, when you’re on the Titanic, you yell at people to get in the lifeboats, you don’t yell at the iceberg!”
“What does the mother-flipping Titanic have to do with anything?” The baffled expression on his face made him irresistible. If only she weren’t so annoyed with him.
“Taking action in a crisis is where we put our energy, not wringing our hands at the threat.” She raised her arms and dropped them to her sides.
He ignored her clever metaphor. “Without backup? Without tellin’ anyone where you were going?”
“I informed Westlake.” She folded her arms.
“You told him you were scouting escape routes.” Colton slammed his fist on her truck’s hood. “Not hunting for kidnappers by yourself!”
Anger flared hot as she marched up to him. “I don’t need your permission to look for Kylie!”
“Your job is to jump fires, not play Law and Order!” he flung at her.
“And your job is to fly tankers, not chase after me like I’m some helpless chick,” she fired at him. “And I’m not playing Law and Order. I’m a freaking Princess Leia, capable of rescuing myself, thank you very much!”
“Listen, you two...” Ace spread his arms. “Take a deep breath and calm the fuc—”
“No!” both snapped at once, their eyes not leaving the other.
“You think I don’t know being up here is dangerous?” Her voice jumped an octave. “I’m not a freaking idiot, Davis.”
“What I think is you’re self-centered with so much self-imposed guilt, you compromise your own safety!” he lobbed back.
She guffawed. “Oh, that’s rich coming from you, Mr. Control Freak, who thinks he can fix everything. You can’t fix me, Colton!”
“I’m not tryin’ to fix you!” His face had turned red, but she didn’t care.
“Then why are you here?”
“We’re looking for Kylie,” Ace cut in.
Colton ignored him. “You wouldn’t answer your damn phone. Someone needs to look out for you.”
Deanna closed in with a forefinger in his face. “I don’t need anyone to look out for me. I did an exceptional job of taking care of myself long before I met you!”
“Yeah? How’s that workin’ out for ya now?” Sarcasm dripped from his every word. “Pushing people away isn’t taking care of yourself. It’s punishing yourself!”
Ace wormed his way between them. “Come on, you guys, fighting about this isn’t getting us anywhere.”
“Bullshit!” Deanna moved Ace aside, none too gently. “Kylie’s gone because of me!” Tears pushed up, but she blinked them back. She’d rather chew off her arm than cry in front of these two.
There’s no crying in firefighting.
“Spare me the self-flagellation. Stop playing a martyr. You and I both know that’s a load of bullshit.” Colton’s words came hard and hot. He’d insulted her competence.
He stepped closer. “Someone shot at my plane today, Deanna. Three bullets. One missed my fuel line by inches.”
Her insides softened, but her exterior remained firm.
“Oh, my God! I can’t believe they’re going to those extremes!
” Her outrage hit like cold water. “That woman in Alaska said she hoped someone would be taken from me. Well, guess what? She was right! First Kylie, and next it’ll be you!
” The tears wanted out, and she fought them back hard.
Colton spread his hands. “Dammit, Deanna! Told you before, stop thinkin’ like that. It does neither of us any good.”
“Oh, yeah? You were almost killed today!” she exploded. “If the bullets had penetrated your windshield, you wouldn’t be standing here convincing me you’re Superman!”
He stepped back and held up his hands. “I can’t argue with that. I like the Superman part. But stop speeding down negativity avenue every ten seconds.”
“Don’t you dare tell me what to stop,” she said through gritted teeth. “You’re such a control freak!”
Chirping birds, a pissed-off squirrel, and the distant hum of rotors were the only sounds as they both stood glaring, red-faced and breathing hard.
“Phew!” Ace made a descending whistle. “You two get it out of your system? This is therapeutic and all, but maybe we should focus on finding Kylie?”
Colton didn’t look away from Deanna’s penetrating glare. “Ace, drive your truck to the fire base.”
“What?” Ace stared at him.
Colton snapped his fiery gaze from Deanna to Ace. “You heard me. Take your truck back. I’m goin’ with Deanna.” He tossed Ace the keys.
“Like hell you are.” Deanna stood her ground, hands on her hips.
“You and who else will stop me?” He lifted the keys he’d taken from her ignition.
Deanna fought to hold her temper. “Give me my keys, Davis.”
“You mean the Forest Service’s keys.” He jangled them in front of her face.
“Give. Me. My. Keys,” she repeated behind gritted teeth.
A vein in Colton’s temple jumped. “We both have a stake in this. These psychos shot at my tanker!” His voice hardened as each assessed the other’s anger. The space between them contained all they’d dealt with since the first day they’d met.
“Whoa, my friends.” Ace held up his hands. “Calm down before one of you decks the other.”
Colton’s eyes remained fixed on Deanna. “Go on ahead, Ace, we’ll be fine.”
“Oh, you think?” She bristled with indignation. “That remains to be seen.”
“No way I’m leaving.” Ace planted his feet. “Kylie’s on this mountain somewhere. I’m not driving back to wait by a phone.”
“You won’t.” Colton kept his voice level.
“You’re going to the Command Center to sit on Sergeant Mills until he runs the Rader brothers through every database this county’s got.
The three of us can’t search for a hundred square miles on foot, and nobody will push Mills harder than you.
Not only that, but you’re also still injured and you’ll undo the healing and have a setback. ”
Deanna’s eyes glanced at one, then the other, to see who’d win this one.
Ace stared at the smoke-hazed timber, hands flexing at his sides, his mouth a straight line.
“What do you say, McGillicutty?” Colton waited. “Mac? Bueller? Bueller?”
Deanna watched as the fight drained out of Ace by degrees. “All right, then. But the second you find anything, I get a call. Got that?” He pointed at each of them. “And do me a favor. Try not to murder each other after I go. Westlake won’t like it.”
He limped to his truck and climbed in, then disappeared down the road.
Deanna’s radio jumped to life in Colton’s hand.
“You took my radio, too?” she sputtered, a mix of shock and accusation in her tone.
“Brooks, do you copy?” Westlake’s voice. “We have reports of shots fired at vehicles near Mount Haggin. Recommend you return to base immediately.”
Colton raised an eyebrow, holding out her radio. “Still want to play superhero alone?”
She snatched it, drilling a hole into him with her biting stare. “Copy, this is Brooks. I’m with Davis eight miles up Mount Haggin Road. Be back soon.”
“Check in when you get here. All clear,” replied Westlake.
The sun had dipped behind the peaks, and dusk crept up fast.
“Guess we’ll drive out in the dark.” She held out her hand for her keys.
“No, we won’t,” he said. “I suggest we stay at that abandoned cabin a few miles down the road. We can hole up for the night. There’s emergency gear in the Forest Service rig.”
“I’m too pissed to spend the night here with you,” she said with a toss of her head.