Jo was joined by Lauren Cameron, no toddlers at her side now. She had an athletic build and a striking beauty that, according to town gossip, A.J. had barely noticed at first, so preoccupied had he been with work six years ago. She’d come to Black Falls Lodge to escape an abusive relationship and ended up staying.
“If you’re wondering where Devin found Drew,” she said, “I can point out the exact spot to you.”
“It’s okay. I know,” Jo said quietly, sensing Lauren’s pain. “Drew was so proud of little Baylee and Jim. He showed me pictures of them when I saw him last.”
Lauren studied her a moment, then said, “I had a feeling he saw you on that trip of his in April. A.J. always envisioned our kids growing up with cousins close by, but I guess that’s one of the prices he pays as the eldest. Elijah, Sean and Rose haven’t met their soul mates yet, or if they have, they haven’t figured it out.”
“Their time will come.”
“They might need someone to hit them over the head with a two-by-four to figure things out.” Lauren gave a quick laugh that lit up her hazel eyes. “The Camerons can be thick.”
“What a shock,” Jo said with a smile.
Lauren nodded to the map. “We looked everywhere for Drew once we realized he was missing. It was awful, Jo. Then finding out about Elijah.” She shook her head. “Rose in particular had a hard time. She’s been pushing herself nonstop since then. Now Elijah’s back…”
Jo frowned at her. “Lauren?”
She sighed. “He’s looking for answers that he just might never get.”
“About Drew, you mean.”
She didn’t respond, just inclined her head toward the mountain. “Elijah’s up there. He found Devin’s truck near the falls trail.” She hesitated, then said, “Jo, maybe you should be up there, too.”
“A.J. did stall me.”
Lauren managed a quick smile. “He’ll consider that a small victory.”
Seventeen
Elijah noted three chickadees darting among the spruce trees just below the falls but didn’t pause to enjoy them. He’d done the hike up from where he’d just located Devin’s beat-up truck in forty minutes. Normally it took an hour. The trail was steep, rough and rocky. He hadn’t taken the time to enjoy the view. He figured Jo was down there, though, and decided he should have just wrestled her gun off her and thrown her in his truck with him.
She was a capable, experienced federal agent. He liked the idea of knowing where she was.
Devin had pulled onto an old lane and left his truck hidden among pine trees. Elijah had found it because he was looking for it, and because he’d been trying to think like an eighteen-year-old kid butting heads with his family and friends over a girl he couldn’t have.
It wasn’t that hard to do.
The falls trail started closer to the lodge, which allowed guests to get to it on foot without a long trek along the ridge road. The lane where Devin had parked was farther down the road, but the trail up to the falls was shorter. Also more difficult, though Elijah didn’t mind that part.
The chickadees danced off into the wilderness as he came to the falls trail. He followed it around a level curve, hearing the water rushing down off the mountain.
The air wasn’t that cold. He was warm enough in his fleece without resorting to the extra layers in his pack.
He ducked under the low branches of a red oak and made his way to a ledge above the falls. Water swirled below him in an endless cascade that smoothed and shaped the wall of gray granite.
He remembered holding hands with Jo under this same oak as she told him she wanted to marry him at the falls. It was just like her not to wait to be asked. She’d been so full of dreams, so eager to leave Vermont and their small hometown. He’d been clueless about anything beyond his desire to get Jo Harper into bed.
“Some things don’t change,” he muttered, and warned himself to focus on the task at hand.
Find Devin, find Nora. Go from there.
In his winter-camping class, Nora Asher had been dedicated and self-conscious-a perfectionist who didn’t want to be the yahoo Ivy Leaguer who got lost in the woods and had to be rescued. She hated, she’d said during their afternoon break, the idea of a bunch of Vermonters searching for her and thinking here was another dumb-assed flatlander in a self-inflicted mess.
Not that anyone would think that, but that was how Nora saw the world.
She’d also wanted to prove she was tough. In Elijah’s experience, that was as sure a way into trouble as being an idiot was. But it didn’t matter.
“Forget your pride if you get in a jam and ask for help,” he’d told her. “Just get home alive.”
She’d given him the sort of look that he’d become accustomed to-the one that said she knew she couldn’t imagine the brushes with death he’d had and wasn’t sure she wanted to.
As he turned back toward the trail, he caught a movement just below him, on the other side of the falls. Devin emerged from a cluster of hemlocks and stared up at Elijah, then spun back around on his heels.
Seeing the danger, Elijah called to him. “Devin-don’t run.”
But he paid no attention and bolted toward the cover of the evergreens, losing his footing on the wet ground and going down hard on one knee. Unable to get himself back under control, he slid, flailing, yelling, down the slippery rock outcropping, finally stopping just short of a deep coppery pool.
Elijah was already moving. He ran up through the trees to the stream that fed the falls and leaped onto a dry boulder in the middle of the shallow, sparkling water, then jumped to the opposite bank. The ground was soft, covered with freshly fallen maple and birch leaves. Avoiding slippery rocks, he ducked among the hemlocks and made his way quickly down the steep hill to Devin. As he got closer to the falls, Elijah could hear the whoosh of the tumbling water and Devin’s uninhibited swearing.
“Hang on,” Elijah said. “Don’t move.”
“I can’t move. I’m stuck.” He sounded more frustrated than panicked.
Elijah eased out from behind a hemlock. “Hit your head?”
Devin grimaced. “No-I just slid under this damn rock.”
“Ribs?”
“I’m okay.” He gulped in a breath and sank back against the steep rock incline. He had on a canvas vest over a hooded sweatshirt. And jeans. But he didn’t look cold. He squeezed his eyes shut in pain. “Just go on. I don’t need you to rescue me.”
“It’d be easier on you if I did.”
Devin swore at him, but Elijah squatted in the muck to get a better look at the situation. Devin’s momentum had shoved his lower right leg down into the muck and under a basketball-size boulder, dislodging the boulder and trapping him from midcalf down. If not for the spongy ground, he probably would have broken his leg.
“Not smart,” Elijah said. “Running from me. Slipping like that. You’re used to being up here.”
“Go to hell.”
“I can get you out of here.”
“I don’t need your help.”
“It’ll be faster, easier with my help. Where’s Nora?”
“Who the hell cares?”
So that was it. Elijah shrugged off his pack and set it on dry leaves. He had a first-aid kit, but Devin didn’t appear to be more than scraped, bruised and distressed about his predicament. “I found your truck. You spent the night up here?”
He didn’t answer, but his breathing was calmer. And he’d stopped swearing.
“There’s a spot up above the falls where we all used to camp as kids,” Elijah said. “Did A.J. tell you about it?”