“Hungry?”
God, could he read her mind?
“I heard your stomach,” he explained. “I told you to eat the stew.”
“Yes,” she said. “But I couldn’t eat it. I was close to throwing up what I’d already eaten.”
He slowed his pace. “We’ll stop in a bit. Down the next ridge, we’ll dip into the canyon. There’s a stream there. We’ll fill up our water bottles and get something to eat.”
“A stream? You’ve been out this way before?”
He didn’t answer.
“You know, you never did tell me your name.”
“I thought I explained that.”
“What’s it going to hurt to tell me your name?”
Again, silence. She sighed, letting it go. She looked behind her, wondering if someone—Tori—was already on their trail. Surely. Yes, surely they were. But how much time did she have? How long before he felt safe without her? She tried not to think about that. Instead, she looked around her, not really seeing the beauty of the tall pine trees that they were hiking among. Because she wasn’t really hiking. Not really, she thought, as her gaze went to the rope linking her with her captive. Well, if someone was following, she wanted to make sure they could find their trail. She kicked over an occasional rock, hoping he wouldn’t get suspicious.
When he stopped suddenly, she bumped into him from the back. She took a step away from him and cocked her head, listening like he was.
“What is it?” she whispered. Even though the sun was up and getting higher in the sky, there were still shadows among the trees. Was a mountain lion stalking them? Or a bear?
“I thought I heard something,” he said quietly.
She swallowed nervously and moved closer to him again. “Like…like a mountain lion?” She looked around them quickly, side to side, but saw no movement.
He stared at her for a moment and she watched as his expression changed from one of concern to amusement. He almost—almost—smiled.
“Angel.”
She frowned. “What?”
“My name. It’s Angel.”
At that, she did smile. “Now was that so hard?”
He looked past her, his gaze going to where they’d come from. Was he looking for a mountain lion? Or perhaps he thought someone was chasing after them. She hoped it was the latter.
“Come on.”
She followed after him again, keeping up with his long strides. “Are you going to tell me anything else?” She heard him sigh. “Like…where you’re from,” she prompted.
“From?”
“You know, I’m from Dallas,” she said. “I’m assuming you’re ex-military.”
He laughed. “You deduced all of that, huh? You must be a detective.”
“You’re making fun of me,” she stated.
“Yes.”
After a little while, she said, “So…Angel is a nice name.”
He laughed loudly but didn’t comment.
She wondered why she was trying to make conversation with this man who held her hostage. Maybe it was simply her nervousness that kept her talking.
“My given name is Samantha, but everyone calls me Sam.” She smiled. “Well, now they do. I used to hate it. But Tori, she…well, I think she called me Sam just to piss me off,” she said. “I remember exactly what she said when we were first assigned as partners. She said, ‘Do your friends call you Sam?’” Sam laughed slightly at the memory. “I told her ‘not if they expect me to answer them.’ But she called me Sam from that moment on.” She paused. “Everyone calls me Sam now.”
She assumed he would not comment on that either and she was surprised when he did.
“I’m sure your police department frowned on your personal relationship. Didn’t they?”
“Well, yeah. But I was dating Robert at the time,” she said. “He wanted to marry me.”
He snorted. “So this Tori person…what? Converted you to the dark side?”
She nearly smiled as she recognized amusement in his voice. “Not converted,” she said. “How about she showed me the light?” She tried to loosen the rope around her wrists where it rubbed against her skin. “It wasn’t like it was instantaneous, you know. We became friends. I was…well, I was attracted to her and I wasn’t really sure what to do about it.”
He stopped again suddenly and stared behind them as he’d done earlier. She did the same.
“You know, you’re really starting to scare me,” she said.
He stared at her. “I’m just now starting? I must be losing my touch.”
“What do you hear?”
“I’m not sure.”
She again took a step closer to him. “Do mountain lions attack in the daylight?” she asked quietly.
“Not usually, no.”
“Bears?”
He shook his head. “Bears will be the least of your worries,” he said as he started walking again.
She kept quiet as she followed him. She knew what that remark was intended to mean.
Chapter Eight
“Are you sure she knows what she’s doing?” Tori asked skeptically as Agent Ross crisscrossed back and forth in front of them. Her pack looked heavy, especially with a rifle strapped to the back of it, but Ross didn’t seem hampered by the weight.
“She’s making sure there’s no false trail,” Andrea said.
“I thought she’d already found the trail,” she said as they followed behind. “Seems like we’re wasting time.”
“Agent Hunter, we’ll be wasting time if we get off his mark and have to backtrack,” Ross called from up ahead.
Tori glanced at Andrea and noted the amused expression on her face. “I don’t think I like her,” she said quietly.
“She grows on you,” Andrea said.
Tori tried to curb her impatience as Agent Ross stopped and bent down, picking up a rock and studying it. She was very nearly tapping her foot at the delay. She wanted to bolt into the woods and start calling for Sam. She could almost feel the clock ticking.
“Shouldn’t we have helicopters out?”
“No. Cameron says not yet.”
“Why? That seems logical,” she said.
Ross motioned for them to follow. Finally. Ross had her head down and Tori followed close behind. She had to admit, she had no clue as to what trail they were following. She could see nothing to indicate the area was disturbed.
“He would assume helicopters would be looking for him,” Ross said.
“And?”
“And when they’re not, it’ll confuse him.”
“Are we trying to goddamn confuse him or are we trying to rescue Sam?”
“Our mission is to rescue Samantha Kennedy,” Ross said. She stopped and turned. “If there are no helicopters out, I’m hoping he slows his pace.”
“If there are no helicopters out, he might decide he doesn’t need a hostage after all,” Tori said. “For Sam’s sake, wouldn’t it be better for him to think that we’re on his trail?”
“It’s a chance we have to take. He’s got a good head start on us. If we have any hope of catching up to them, he’s got to slow his pace. Angel Figueroa is an expert at this.”
“I still think we should have an air search going on,” she said.
“I’m well aware of what you think, Agent Hunter. But it’s not your call. Even if we had a helicopter right on top of him, they’d never see him. I know this guy. He’s a ghost.”
Tori had to bite her lip to keep from replying. There didn’t seem to be a sense of urgency in Agent Ross’s actions. And Tori really, really needed urgency. She turned to Agent Sullivan, who gave her a slight shrug.
“Cameron, how far do you think they could have traveled last night?” Andrea asked.
Tori felt like the question was staged. Surely they had already discussed that.
“There was no moon so I would imagine he had to stop at full dark.” Agent Ross looked directly at Tori. “And if we can stop discussing it and get on the move, perhaps we can make up some ground.”