Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
The fresh powder might be a dream to ski on, but it was a pain in the ass to slog through on snowshoes.
She kept Chance on a long leash, and he loped awkwardly at her side.
Tears pricked her eyes, but she blinked them away.
She could do this despite Sebastian breathing down her neck, all brooding judgment and unspoken resentment.
And that wasn’t fair.
She’d deliberately pushed him away, but it was for the best. Discovering you’d suppressed the memory of killing a person was a lot to deal with.
She needed to figure out her own emotions before she could deal with anyone else’s.
And why would he want to deal with any of it when all he’d signed up for was a bout of no-strings sex?
No, she couldn’t tell him the truth without revealing her sordid past, which she had no desire to do—and if she did tell him, he might consider her a liability and kick her off the team. Keeping things strictly professional was the way to go, even if it made her look like a bitch.
The need to find Summer, to get her to safety, ate at her. She hoped the girl had a family who’d support her when they brought her home.
The love of her family had saved Nora. She gnawed on her lip. How would they react to the truth about what she’d done? Her abduction had almost destroyed them. The suspicion, the grief, the guilt, the seemingly never-ending pressure from the media for them all to tell their stories.
What would it do to her parents, who’d leaned into the church and scripture for comfort in their time of need rather than turning from it? What would this new revelation do to them? Would they disown her for taking a life?
She didn’t want to think about it. She wanted to push it aside and pretend it had never happened, kind of like she’d been doing her whole life.
They’d crossed the river a half-mile upstream from where she’d fallen in yesterday.
It was humiliating to remember how she’d acted last night. How she’d screwed up in the field and then thrown herself at Sebastian with such reckless abandon.
She could blame the trauma or adrenaline rush or just that sense that life was short and why waste a moment? But for a short time, she’d thought it might be more than that.
She should have known better than to believe in such fantasies. Those things were not for the likes of her—John Kingston had seen to that. She could do her job. She could help find Summer. That had to be enough.
They clambered through a pile of boulders, following the tracks of the cougar up into the foothills of the mountainside. She scanned for danger—people, bears, wolves, cats, traps, potential avalanche spots, slippery rocks, and hollow pockets of snow that could break an unwary leg.
The thought that Eastman had tricked them and headed back to civilization while they scrambled around here risking their lives pissed her off. She didn’t care so much about herself, but putting her dog in jeopardy made her want to spit.
She looked at him then. Chance, her beautiful boy. His endless devotion and unstoppable work ethic. His nose twitched as he scented the air, but he also eagerly sniffed the ground. She frowned. Was he excited because they were tracking the cat’s scent?
His tail started to wag and his ears pricked forward, working the ground as best as he was able on the leash. Then he sat and wagged his tail and gave a small bark. She hushed him even as a wave of excitement ran down her spine.
Shit, shit, shit.
She looked over her shoulder and met Sebastian’s questioning gaze.
“What is it?”
“I think he’s caught the scent.” She kept her voice low.
“The scent?”
She nodded.
His eyes widened a fraction. He looked around and raised his hand in caution. “Let’s slow down. I don’t want any surprises. I should radio it in.”
Nora frowned. “We should maybe wait until we get eyes on the entrances to the mines.” She looked at her dog. She trusted him. She just wasn’t sure she trusted herself right now. “Just in case I’m making a mistake.”
She watched Sebastian’s nostrils flare as he exhaled. The cold air had brought a warm glow to his cheeks, whereas she probably resembled a tomato with her face red from exertion.
Normally, she wouldn’t care, but for some reason, today she did.
Yeah. Such a mystery.
“Warn me before we get to a position where we have a visual of the entrance.”
She nodded. At least he trusted her to do this. And after she’d seduced him and then freaked out on him this morning, she should be grateful.
It wasn’t his fault. He’d been great. Amazing. Too amazing. Too tender. Too passionate. Too attentive. Too caring. Too fucking nice.
She couldn’t bear the idea of him finding out the truth about her and looking at her with pity. She wanted to prove she was good at what she did. A reliable and competent partner during a search.
Not a victim or a broken girl. Not a liability or weak link.
She pulled herself up over a rock as Chance’s tail began to wag madly.
Shit.
He’d definitely found Summer’s scent. She was sure of it.
But how old was it? Perhaps long enough ago for Eastman and Summer to now be in Hastings?
The mine was close so she drew to a halt and turned to Sebastian. “Just around this next outcrop we should see the entrance to the larger of the two mines. The other one is farther around and little more than ten feet deep.”
“Deep enough to form a shelter from this snow.” Those impossibly dark eyes met hers. “I’m going to take the lead.”
She nodded.
“Keep low.” He brushed past her, and she tried not to react to the brief contact. That was done now and best forgotten.
He went onto his belly and crawled up the next part of the route. He moved slowly and carefully, not disturbing the snow more than he had to.
Chance wagged his tail, eager to follow Sebastian, eager to find the source of the scent. She held him back and made him wait.
She crawled behind Sebastian, the coldness of the ground reminding her a little of yesterday’s river ordeal.
Sebastian had insisted she wear his gloves that were too big for her, but, dammit. The act of kindness reminded her he was a good man.
Was it a mistake to push him away?
What would have happened if she’d told him about her nightmare that morning, rather than concealed it? Experience had taught her it was better not to entrust her secrets to anyone. It always changed things. Always.
He crested a rise and urged her to join him. She did so and made Chance lie down beside her.
They both stared at the ramshackle wooden door of the mine. Red warning signs were posted outside, and the door sported a massive padlock.
“I don’t remember the signs from last time I was here, but it’s been four, five years. And the padlock is new. I wonder if someone decided it needed to be sealed off.”
“Wouldn’t it be the NPS who authorized that?”
“Not necessarily.” She stared at him. They were so close she could see each individual lash that framed those dark eyes. They were hard and enigmatic now, and she missed the warmth of how he’d looked at her yesterday—as if he liked her, as if he cared.
Emotion wanted to bubble free, but she didn’t let it.
She was better off alone. She cleared her throat.
“We’re outside the park boundary here, and the state has a program to clean up old, abandoned mines.
But the Bureau of Land Management and Forestry Service are responsible for physical safety hazards.
Figuring out who put those signs up could take weeks. ”
“I’ll ask Novak to see if he can discover anything.” Sebastian looked back at the mine. “Is it my imagination or does it look as if the snow might have been cleared away from the door?”
The snow had built up in drifts, but the area in front of the door was largely clear, possibly packed down. She frowned. “Maybe?” She scanned the area. “I don’t see any tracks. If Eastman and Summer are in there, they haven’t left today.”
“How certain are you that Chance scented the girl?”
“Very. I just don’t know how old the scent is.”
His lips pinched together.
They stayed where they were, quietly watching the door as the silence of the mountain pressed down on them. Five minutes. Ten. Long enough for her to start to shiver.
Sebastian noticed. Of course he did.
“I’m going in,” he said.
“Wait. It should be me.”
“No.”
“I’m a professional law enforcement officer, Operator Black. You need to treat me like one.”
He frowned. “I don’t doubt your professionalism, Ranger Deacon.”
“What then? My competence? My lack of a penis?”
“Nora…”
She looked away and swallowed the emotion that rushed through her at the pleading tone in his voice.
“I can’t help worrying about you.”
“It’s not your job to worry about me. It’s our job to find Summer.”
His expression hardened. “You’re right.”
She nodded gratefully. “Why don’t I go down there and see if that padlock is locked, because no one could have secured it from the inside, unless there’s a tunnel through the mountain we have no knowledge of. You cover me.”
“That’s a terrible plan.”
“Is it? What would you do if I were Cas?”
He raised his brows as if to say she could never be Cas. Then inclined his head in acknowledgement. “One of us would go down, and the other would act as cover. But there are rarely just two of us.”
“We did it this way at the farmhouse yesterday.”
From the widening of his pupils, yesterday felt as distant for him as it did for her. Amazing how much could change in twenty-four hours.
“Chance didn’t alert yesterday.”
She exhaled through her nose.
“Fine.” Sebastian conceded. “You check the lock. Do not get between me and my line of fire. If you hear anything, anything at all, you take cover, and we call in the troops.”
Nora nodded. “I’m going to leave Chance with you. Once I know if the padlock is engaged or not, we’ll check if the inside is clear, and then I’ll have him search for Summer’s scent.”
He nodded curtly.
She went to move.
He grabbed her arm. “That question you asked me yesterday.”
She froze. She’d ask him a lot of questions yesterday.