Chapter 41
Kori held herself together through the debrief.
She stood at the edge of the command table while Graham and Wyatt talked through what the tactical team had reported.
She absorbed each detail and filed it away the way she would in trial preparation.
Graham talked about evidence collection, about what the forensics team would do once they got into the structures, about boot impressions in the snow that might give them numbers.
Numbers.
Her sister was a number now.
She pressed her lips together.
Where had these people taken Mackenzie?
They’d been right there. Hours away from reaching her sister, and the window had closed.
“We’ll run the logging road coordinates against historical surveys,” Graham was saying. “If there’s a secondary location, Flint’s archive files might show it. Old hunting cabins. Supply depots from the mill era. Any structure that predates the Forest Service acquisition could—”
“Kori.”
Wyatt’s voice sounded quiet, close.
She realized her hands had tightened against the edge of the table, and she made herself let go.
“Step back with me a minute,” he said.
She wanted to argue. She wanted to stay at the table, to keep listening, to keep building toward the answer. Stepping back felt like surrender.
But her throat was tight, and her eyes burned, and she’d been running on little sleep and no margin for three days straight.
She stepped back.
Wyatt moved with her away from the floodlights and radio chatter. Thunder followed without being called.
The noise from the command post faded behind them as shadows surrounded them.
She crossed her arms over her chest and stared up at Wyatt.
“She was right there.” Kori’s voice came out lower than she intended. “She was right there.”
“I know.”
“Eight days.” The words caught. “Eight days she’s been out here, and we were so close.”
“Kori.”
“I know we’re going to find her.” She turned away from Wyatt. “I believe that. I just—” Her voice cracked.
Wyatt stepped forward and put his arms around her. “It’s okay.”
She went still for half a second. Then something in her simply gave.
She leaned into Wyatt, her forehead against his shoulder. She inhaled the piney scent of his cologne. She found comfort in the solidness of his chest.
He held her with the same steady, unhurried quality he brought to everything. No urgency. No discomfort. Like he had all the time in the world and there was nowhere else he was supposed to be.
She almost laughed at that. She might have if everything weren’t so heavy.
“We’re not done,” Wyatt murmured. “Not even close. Graham’s already working the secondary location angle. The forensics team is going into those structures tonight. The woman at the hospital is stable. We have more now than we had this morning.”
“I know.” Kori closed her eyes.
She just needed one more minute to feel it before she picked herself back up.
She straightened and stepped back, and Wyatt let her go without making it awkward.
She wiped the corner of her eyes quickly before looking away. “I want to go.”
“That’s a terrible idea.”
“But my sister is out there. I need to find her—”
Before she could argue any more, an explosion lit the sky.