Chapter 25
Anna tried to get a grip but couldn’t. It was dawn, and Owen had just parked at the base of Mount Lion. Apparently they could hike in two miles, up to the locked gate that prevented people from going any farther up the mountain.
But hopefully not them.
From there it would be another two miles of a straight-up climb. Owen seemed confident. Ky had stayed behind to run Tahoe Adventures for the day, but he would be in radio contact, tracking their movements.
Owen, a long-range two-way radio on his hip, backpack on his shoulders carrying supplies, smiled at her. “You okay?”
“Yep.” It’d been two days since Ruby had pulled her dad’s letter from that beautiful wood box. Wendy and the babies were still in the hospital but doing well. Anna had gone by every day to love up on them all. So far, she’d been puked on, pooped on, and cried on. She’d loved every minute, but each day as she left, she checked her birth control pack to make sure she’d remembered to take her pill, because no way did she feel ready for what Wendy was happily dealing with.
Anna had worked as many hours as she could manage during the day, and then each night she and Owen met up at one of their places to make their plans for their trek.
And when they’d been done planning, when it’d been late and their guards had lowered—okay, her guard, because Owen had never had a guard up against her—they’d gone to bed.
Together.
And there, in the quiet dark hours between dusk and dawn, they’d come together in the way they did best.
She had to lean forward to be able to see the entirety of Mount Lion out Owen’s windshield, which was tall, majestic, rugged, remote... dangerous. Intimidated, she swallowed hard but refused to let her nerves get ahold of her for what still was ahead—a tough hike and then, for the entire last leg of the climb, a scramble up and over massive, ancient rocks that had been there since the Ice Age.
This, of course, had triggered all her nightmares from when Adam had deserted her in Desolation Wilderness, years ago now. She told herself this was different. Owen was different. He didn’t go off half-cocked, he was always prepared and knew what he was doing, seemingly at all times.
And he’d never leave her out here.
Never.
“I can do this alone,” Owen said quietly, watching her think too hard. “You could wait in the truck.”
She knew he meant it. She could let him go do all the work, and he would, no questions asked. Not proud of the small part of her that wanted to let him do it, she firmly shook her head. “I’m going with.”
With a nod, he adjusted her backpack for her. Hers was smaller and lighter than his, which also contained climbing gear. She was trying really hard not to think about it as they started walking. But just like that, her feet felt like two concrete blocks.
Owen met her gaze. “Anna—”
“No, I’ve got this. Truly.”
“You do,” he said. “We’re going to be safe. We’re only going to go as far as we can while remaining safe.”
“We’re going all the way.”
He looked into her eyes, and at whatever he saw, probably equal amounts of obstinance and terror, he gave her a small smile. “We’re going all the way. Ready?”
She nodded, and he lifted his radio. “We’re hitting the trail. Over.”
“Good copy,” came Ky’s voice.
Anna eyed the mountain, somehow even more imposing now. “Let’s get this over with.”
They started walking, and for the moment, their pace felt doable. Under any other circumstances, she’d have enjoyed it. Fallen pine needles crunched underfoot. The pines towered above them, with sunbeams slanting through, dappling the forest floor.
They didn’t speak much. She didn’t know what kept Owen quiet. As for herself, she couldn’t have talked to save her life, because as the going got harder, all the oxygen she sucked in went straight to her already taxed lungs.
Forty-five minutes later, they stopped in front of the locked trailhead to Mount Lion. Owen once again pulled his radio off his hip. “At the gate,” he said.
“Good copy,” came Ky’s voice. “You made good time so far. Keep moving, don’t want you trying to come down once dusk hits.”
Right. Because it would take them hours to make the second part of the trek, and then they had to get all the way back down before dark.
No fewer than five signs had been nailed to the gate, all variations on the same theme: Do not pass Go!
She stared at the signs, and a very small smile crossed Owen’s face.
“Fine.” She tossed up her hands. “I don’t like that we’re breaking the rules.”
He gave his head a shake, but the hint of a smile stayed. Then, before she could change her mind, she climbed the gate. At the top, she jumped down, incredibly aware of Owen moving far more agilely and gracefully than she. But she’d actually done it.
Anna Moore: new and improved and fearless.
She had to be, had to succeed, both for Ruby and her dad, and by extension, Wendy. Anna had no idea who she’d be after this journey, but she did know she wouldn’t be the same person she’d been before finding that coin.
She knew Owen no longer believed her dad had been involved, but—and it killed her to even think this—she still had doubts. In her experience working in insurance fraud, most people who got caught had priors. Yes, her dad’s record had been for petty theft, but he’d been suspected of other crimes as well, including this one. How many cases had she been on where people got off scot-free for lack of enough evidence?
Too many.
Aware of Owen standing at her side, she drew in a careful breath.
“Anna—”
“I’m good.” Sheer force of will had her feet moving. The trail started out steep but not impossible. Or so she told herself. Almost immediately they came up a large boulder installation at the apex of the pass. Oh boy. “We’re going up this?”
“Yes.”
She swallowed hard. “Oh good, because I was afraid this would be too easy for me.”
He smiled at her attempt to lighten the mood. “It’s nature’s way of thwarting and discouraging people from going any farther.”
She had to tip her head back to see the top of the stacked boulders. “Definitely a deterrent. Was it this way when you were here with Ky?”
“Yep.”
“How does anyone get over it?”
“Not easily,” he said. “But we’re not going over. We’re going around.”
Going around was even harder than she’d imagined, and she’d imagined it pretty hard. An hour later, they came to a stop. In front of them the trail separated four different ways. She stared at the possibilities. There was no sign, no way to know which path they should take— “Wait. This is the fork of roads!”
Owen had been watching her, and he smiled that she’d caught on. “Yeah.” He checked in again with Ky, who warned them winds would be picking up in the next half hour.
Great. Anna looked on either side of the trail, at the thousands-of-feet drop-off, and told herself that fainting right now would be bad for her life span. Then she was distracted by the sound of running water. “I hear water! Just like my dad’s letter said. I don’t see it, but we need to go west.”
He nodded.
She shook her head. “I have no idea which way is west.”
He pointed to the far right path. They began moving again, surrounded by thick, towering trees, the earth beneath their boots spongy with fallen pine needles and recent rains. The occasional bird squawked at them, and squirrels chattered away. The day was stunning, but more than that, for the first time she actually thought maybe they could really do this, find the hidey-hole.
After a while, they came to a natural sinkhole, a large one, maybe the size of a football field, and she stopped short in wonder. A waterfall cascaded down a cliff a hundred feet above them, forming a beautiful if small lake. The azure blue water was so crystal clear, she could see all the way to the bottom. Gray rocks stuck out of the lake’s surface, and tall pines shaded the water, deepening the water’s edge to cobalt.
They stopped to drink from their water bottles, and Owen handed her a protein bar, waiting to make sure she was going to eat it before he took one for himself. Then they continued, slower now, making her aware that he’d tempered his pace to hers. Wiping her sweaty brow on her sleeve, she kept putting one foot in front of the other.
Until they got to the tree line.
Owen turned in a slow circle, then stopped and pointed.
She followed his finger to... “The trees,” she murmured. “They’re all bent from the wind. It’s the stooped trees! We go where the trees are pointing!”
They headed that way, and not surprisingly, it was much harder going now. She couldn’t have explained it to herself if her life depended on it, but sudden panic hit her hard and shockingly fast, stealing the air from her lungs, making her heartbeat thunder in her ears and her feet refuse to go another step.
What am I doing?She’d promised herself no crazy adventures, not ever again. On top of that, she’d also told herself she wouldn’t fall for someone who adventured for a living.
And yet there she stood, doing both—which yes, had been her idea, but that just meant she’d lost her damn mind. Because not only was she falling, she had fallen, and hard. And even worse, she’d made it clear that they were over when they solved this case.
Which meant walking away from him. How in the world was she going to do that without losing a huge chunk of her heart? She thought she was doing a great job of hiding her distress and didn’t even realize she was closing in on hyperventilating until she felt Owen’s hand grip hers, turning her to face him. She tried to say she was fine, but she didn’t have enough air for words.
He bent his knees a little to look into her eyes. “Breathe in through your nose and then slowly out your mouth.” He exhibited what he wanted her to do, and she stared at his mouth, doing everything he did until the little black dots dancing across her vision faded away.
“Talk to me,” he said softly.
“It’s just that I realized this is it,” she breathed. “This, today, could be the end of it.”
He didn’t ask her to clarify what this would be the end of exactly. He was smarter than that. He knew she was talking about them. Only what he didn’t know was how much she regretted making that damn deal in the first place.
His sunglasses had been resting on top of his head, but at her words, he slid them down over his eyes. For a full moment, he was still as stone. “It is what we agreed upon, isn’t it,” he finally said.
She nodded, and even though she couldn’t see what he was thinking, she had to look away.
“Anna.”
With an inward grimace, she turned back.
He flashed a small smile. “It was great while it lasted.”
She swallowed hard. “Yeah. It was.” The words felt scraped over a throat cut by glass while anxiety butterflies took flight in her belly. She’d miss being with him and around him. She’d miss the feeling of contentment, the flutter in her heart and soul whenever he so much as looked at her. “Owen—”
“No, I get it. If after all we’ve shared and done you still believe that I’m nothing more than a reckless wanderlust adventurer, then you’re right. We aren’t meant to be.” His voice wasn’t cold or even angry. Just calm. Quiet. “So if you want to wait here, or even go back down to the truck while I finish this, I’ll find you. I won’t leave without you.”
Because he wasn’t Adam. Or Michael...
When she didn’t, couldn’t, respond, he gave a nod and turned away. “I’ll be back. Give me a couple of hours.”
And then he walked away.