Chapter 8
Eight
Jackson arrived at the meeting spot a full twenty minutes early.
He glanced around. No sign of Mia yet. He picked up his phone and dialed Dylan.
It went to voicemail. “Hey, Dylan. I don’t know where you are.
I’m worried, bro. I’m looking for you. I might be out of service for a bit, but I wanted you to know I’m coming for you. ”
Still no answer. This was not merely a kid ghosting him because he was mad or disappointed. No matter what the police thought, something was wrong. He wouldn’t give up until he found him.
When it was obvious Dylan wasn’t going to answer his phone, Jackson sent him a text telling him the same thing he’d said in his voicemail. Then he prayed. He was all Dylan had left. And if he were honest, Dylan was all he had as well.
Mia’s car swooped around the curve and pulled in behind him. Seven on the dot. Punctual as usual.
Hopping down from the cab, he slung his hefty pack over his shoulders. He no longer noticed the weight on his back. In the military, carrying all his gear on operations had become common. And even in his search and rescue work, it wasn’t unheard of to carry heavy gear on his back for miles.
Mia stepped out of her car, and he was glad to see she’d worn jeans and hiking boots.
The temperature would drop once they were in the woods.
Then there were the insects and ticks to consider.
As if she’d read his mind, she whipped out a can of insect repellent and sprayed a generous portion on herself.
Mia set the can aside and reached deeper into her car. He blinked when she brought out a Glock and strapped the gun into a holster under her lightweight jacket. That was a serious weapon.
“You carry a Glock?” He winced. She probably thought he was being critical.
Sure enough, the curve of her full lips tightened into a straight line. “I told you I had a gun. I have a concealed carry permit.”
Jackson approached, his hands raised. “Peace. I was just surprised. I don’t remember you being into weapons. A Glock is a pretty exclusive weapon.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Yeah, well, I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time. I don’t need to rely on a man to protect me.”
That was a loaded statement if he ever heard one. No way he was touching that. He watched as she pulled her own pack of gear from her car.
“I assume we’ll have to walk,” she said.
“Yeah. The trees are too dense. There are no roads, so we’ll go on foot. It’s probably about an hour to Bear Cove.” Bending down, he made sure his hiking boots were double-knotted. “Have you ever been in these woods before?”
“Not that I recall.”
“Well, this is a popular place for hunting and hiking, but the terrain is very rough, which is one reason we couldn’t come out last night.
” Although he’d wanted to. “And as usual, the forecast has changed. It’s calling for rain later.
We have a few hours before it rains, so I think we should be able to get to Bear Cove, search around, and get back before it gets bad. ”
She pressed her lips together. “I’m in. A little rain won’t hurt. Since you know the way, I’ll follow you.”
He hefted his pack higher and led the way into the trees. Within the first few feet, the light faded and he heard the buzzing of insects. The repellent seemed to do a good job of keeping them away.
They walked in silence for about fifteen minutes. Suddenly, he stopped, listening. Mia paused close to his shoulder.
“What is it?” Mia whispered, her breath fluttering on his neck like butterfly wings.
He couldn’t let her distract him. “I thought I heard something.”
They waited a couple of minutes. “I don’t hear anything out of the ordinary,” Mia finally said.
“Me neither.” Motioning for her to follow him, he resumed walking.
The area between his shoulder blades itched, and he scanned their surroundings, searching for anything that might suggest they had company. Anyone who hid away had to be unfriendly company, to put it mildly.
“Jackson, you’re freaking me out. What’s going on?”
He barely looked at her and kept his voice low. He didn’t want anyone listening in. “It’s probably my imagination, but I feel like someone is watching us.”
She tensed. “Who?”
“I don’t know. Like I said, I’m probably wrong.”
Her arm brushed his. “You’ve never been paranoid.”
“I’ve learned to be cautious.” He took her hand, needing to feel she was safe.
“When I was on my first deployment in the Army, we were in the woods, sleeping in tents. I heard a noise. Our team leader said it was an owl, but I didn’t buy it.
I insisted that I felt someone watching us.
He laughed and ordered me back to my tent, said my watch was at three a.m. and I needed to sleep. I didn’t argue. I should have.”
She stepped closer. “Was there? Someone watching?”
He nodded. “About two in the morning, there was gunfire. Two gang members looking for drugs and weapons, anything they could sell, ambushed us. My team leader and two other soldiers died instantly. The rest of us returned fire, and the two men were killed. But good men died because I didn’t stand my ground. ”
“No,” she whispered. “You followed orders. Like you’re supposed to do. It’s not your fault, Jackson. This is one thing you can’t take credit for.”
“Maybe. But I still have nightmares about it.”
When her hand squeezed his, he realized he’d never told anyone that story. Why her? The one woman he should avoid.
“What do we do?” Her question brought him back to the present.
He nudged her forward. “Come on. Let’s keep going. Hopefully, it’s nothing.”
Even as they started walking, though, his nerves jangled. He wasn’t a betting man, but every instinct inside screamed they weren’t alone.
Mia shivered and inspected their surroundings. Now that Jackson had put the thought in her head, she could feel eyes boring into her back as they trudged over rocks, above-ground roots, and fallen sticks littering the dank, muddy ground.
“I think the place Dylan likes is up ahead.” Jackson pointed. “He’s gone with a group a few times. He’s never gone with just Reggie. I can’t believe I didn’t think to look here before.”
Jackson’s voice shocked her out of her thoughts. She channeled all her attention toward looking for signs that two boys had been in the area. When Jackson halted suddenly, she tripped over her own feet to avoid running into him.
“What was that?” Even as annoyance flared, she kept her voice down, unwilling to draw attention to them in case anyone was, in fact, in the woods with them.
“This is it. This is where they camped.”
She moved to Jackson’s side. A campfire had been there at some point. While there weren’t any embers, the black coals were still in place, and a pile of wood and twigs was nearby.
The thing that caught her attention, though, was the way the mud had been torn up near the fire. Scuff marks that could have happened when a group of boys wrestled, as boys often did. Or when there was a struggle of some sort.
Reggie wasn’t a wrestler. Dylan was built like Jackson—tall, muscular. But Reggie was small for his size. She couldn’t imagine him willingly fighting someone that much bigger than himself.
“It looks like they were fighting,” Jackson noted.
She shook her head. “Not the boys. I don’t for a second believe that.”
Jackson sucked in a deep breath and held it.
She could almost see him forcing himself to keep in the moment.
This had to be difficult. After all, this wasn’t a stranger he was searching for but his baby brother.
He said, “Let’s keep looking. See if there’s anything else we can find to take to the police. ”
That got her attention. “You don’t think we’ll find the boys?”
“I want to believe we will.”
“Why don’t you?” She glanced around. “We know they were here.”
“But these coals are stone cold. If they left voluntarily, why wouldn’t they have gone home? Dylan liked camping here, but he wasn’t an avid camper. One night. Maybe two. Then he’d want his own bed.”
She turned in a circle. “It does look like it’s been a few days. I don’t see any fresh footprints.”
“I’m praying, I really am. But I feel something evil happened here.”
She flicked her gaze away from him. “My friend Shannon talks about prayer. Gus prays. But I wish I knew for sure it helped.”
He sprang to his feet and took her hands. “It does help. I don’t always get the answer I want. But knowing someone is there for me, it gives me peace.”
Her chest tightened. She grabbed her inhaler and took a puff. “When I lost the baby—”
He sucked in a deep breath, but she continued.
“—I thought my life was over. I’d lost you. My friends. And then the life we’d created. Getting up in the morning was a challenge. I would have given so much to know God was there. But He never showed Himself.”
Jackson wrapped his arms around her. “I’m sorry you went through that alone. And I’m sorry I handled it so badly. But God was there. I promise He was.”
She started to wrap her arms around his waist, then stopped herself. Had she forgotten how he’d betrayed her when she’d needed him most? Men couldn’t be trusted. At some point, they always put themselves ahead of those who cared about them.
She pulled back, and the hurt look on Jackson’s face made her pause. “I need a little space here.”
He backed away. “I can give you that.”
She looked around. “I never planned to come back to Renegade.”
He started picking his way through the brush. “No?”
“Nope. I had severed ties and never looked back.”
“Break any hearts when you came back?”
“No.” She snickered. “I don’t mean to laugh, but there was this guy I dated for about two months. He was into weapons. You seemed shocked by the gun, but what if I told you I also have a crossbow?”
He spun and stared at her. “You do not.”
“I do.” She tossed her braid over her shoulder. “He showed me how to shoot. Turned out I liked the crossbow better than him.”
He laughed out loud at that one. “Poor guy. I can almost pity him.”
Deliberately, she increased the distance between them and began to explore the area on the other side of where the campfire had been. She approached the rough-hewn entrance of a cave. There were clear signs that people had been there recently.
“Look at this.” She pointed at the ground. “Some candy-bar wrappers. The animals haven’t gotten to them yet. And it looks like the ground has been disturbed.” Then she peered closer. “Jackson!”
He followed her finger. She pointed to the cave floor. Several dark splotches were in the dirt. A few inches farther, the same liquid had pooled up. “There’s blood on the ground,” she told him. “At least, I think that’s what that is.”
He paled. Sinking into a squat, he pulled a white napkin from his pocket and dabbed a corner into the small pool. It soaked into the paper. When he drew it back, the corner of the napkin was red.
“It’s blood all right. But whose?”
She shook her head, unable to speak. Deep inside, she hadn’t allowed herself to truly believe the boys might have been harmed. But now she had to acknowledge the very real possibility that someone had taken Dylan and Reggie.
The urge to vomit struck hard. Mia gagged but wouldn’t give in.
Several deep breaths later, she had herself back under regulation.
She walked past Jackson, who was still squatting.
His complexion remained ashen, but there was no emotion on his features.
Until she got to his eyes. They burned with so much intensity, she instinctively flinched away from them.
She placed her hand against his shoulder for a brief second before something else caught her eye.
A single ray of sunlight streamed through the brush and struck an object lying beneath it. It gleamed silver, flashing at her—almost hurt her eyes. She moved toward it.
“Wait—do you see something?” Jackson asked her.
“Yeah. There’s something there, under those bushes.” The sunlight dappled it. It looked like some kind of key chain or medallion.
Jackson reached into his backpack and pulled out some gloves. He handed her a pair. “Just in case this really is a crime scene, let’s not contaminate it. We want to make sure the police have every possibility of finding the clues they need to work with.”
She nodded and slipped the gloves over her hands. If he hadn’t brought it up, she never would have thought of it. She didn’t watch crime documentaries or forensic shows or anything like that.
“Thanks.” She moved toward the bushes. Jackson stood and grabbed his phone, then began taking pictures of everything.
She paused and turned toward him. “Aren’t the police going to do that?”
“They should. But what if a hiker stumbles through this site? Or a tornado touches down here or something? Anything could happen to disturb it. This way, there will be at least some evidence.”
“Okay. Good plan.”
When she reached the bush, she bent down and plucked the small item off the ground. It fit into the palm of her hand. She gasped. She knew exactly what it was.
“What did you find?”
She held it up to Jackson. He stared at it, then glanced toward her. His eyebrows furrowed.
“It’s a key chain. You don’t recognize this?” Her eyes filled with emotion. “It’s Dylan’s.”
A weird expression crossed Jackson’s face so fast she wasn’t even sure what it was.
“Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before.”
She nodded again. “Okay. Well, he said it was something his grandfather had given him years ago. They’d gone somewhere together.
He showed it to me last year. He said he knew it was cheap and wasn’t worth much, but really, it was one of the only times that he and his grandfather had really bonded over something—and he treasured it. ”
She looked down at the key chain, her voice quiet. “There’s no way he would be so clumsy as to leave it lying around. I know for a fact he said he carried it with him everywhere.”
Jackson turned in a slow circle, surveying the campground. “What do we know? They were here. They struggled with something—and whatever it was, they didn’t leave here willingly.”
She nodded. “That’s what it looks like to me too.”
Jackson took the key chain, tucked it into a plastic Ziploc bag, and sealed it. He had another sealed bag with the napkin and placed both items in his pack. “We’ll get these to the police.”
Before she could respond, something exploded on the ground between them, leaving a small crater. Dust puffed around it.
Jackson grabbed her hand and yanked her toward the trees. “Someone’s shooting at us!”
“We can’t shoot back!” Mia told him, her hand pressed against her gun. “If the boys are anywhere near here, we might hit them!”
A second shot whizzed past her ear and lodged in a tree.
“Duck down here.” Jackson nudged her behind a thick tree trunk. They both crouched low, pressed against the bark. He pulled a gun from his waistband.
“Wait!” she hissed.
“I’m going to see if I can find him.”
She pulled out her own gun. “Go!”