After a moment, Logan said, “I’ll know where she is.”
“No, you won’t,” Diana told him. “When we leave today, we’ll all go together. We’ll drop you in Tusayan and your friend can pick you up. Sara’s already been here long enough. Time for her to move on.”
“To where?”
She looked at him, snorted a laugh, and turned away.
Soon the road got really rough and became more dirt than blacktop. After a mile of this, they turned down another road that was no more than two well-worn tire paths.
Richard dropped their speed to a crawl, carefully navigating the dips and rises so that the bottom of the car didn’t scrape against the mound between the ruts. The road finally ended in a small clearing. It was just big enough so Richard could turn the car around and park it so that it faced the way they’d come.
Logan scanned their new surroundings. “Where’s the cabin?”
Diana pointed at the trees behind the car and climbed out. Logan removed his pistol from his bag and joined her. As Richard was coming around the back to where they were standing, he suddenly stopped, raised the gun he was holding, and pointed it at Logan.
“I told you we couldn’t trust him!”
His gaze flicked to Logan’s pistol.
“Are you kidding me?” Logan asked. “These people who are after Sara tried to kill me last night. Until this is over, I’m armed. Got it?”
Richard didn’t lower his gun. “As soon as you know where the cabin is, you’ll put a bullet in the back of our heads and then go after Sara. Plain as day, Diana. You’ve got to see that now.”
Logan couldn’t help but feel a bit of sympathy for Richard. The guy might have been lacking a little in the smarts department, but he more than made up for it with his sense of loyalty.
Logan crouched down, set his gun on the ground, then stood and took three quick steps until the barrel of Richard’s gun was only a foot in front of his chest.
“Happy?” he asked.
He concentrated on Richard’s face, seeing the man’s anger and confusion and stubbornness mixing together.
Richard opened his mouth. “I-”
In a single, fluid motion, Logan’s hands shot up, twisting the gun free as he pivoted to Richard’s side and dropped him straight to the ground. By the time Richard could have reacted, Logan had a knee on his back, and the man’s own gun pointed at his head.
In the darkening sky, a thunderclap rolled over them.
“I could put a bullet in you right now. That would solve a lot of problems. But I am not your enemy. Got it?”
He stared down at Richard for a moment before tossing the gun several feet away and pushing himself up.
“Ready?” he asked Diana after he retrieved his own gun.
She looked as stunned as her brother had been, but she finally nodded. “Yeah.”
Logan looked back at Richard. “Are you coming?”
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
First the thunder, then the rain.
Only this time, the storm didn’t take Sara’s mind off her troubles. If anything, it made it worst. It had been a day since she’d last heard from Diana. All she could think about was one of the last things her sister had said to her.
I screwed up.
Screwed up what? Was that the reason she hadn’t called back? Had Diana been caught? Worse?
She had told herself she would give it another three hours and then she’d hike out. There was a backup plan-there was always a backup plan-so she knew what she needed to do, but what if Diana and Richard were in trouble? They had done so much for her. Could she just turn her back on them?
Emily.
That’s who this was really about. She had to remember that. No matter what was going on with her brother and sister, she had to stay alive and hidden for her little girl.
Though the storm looked like it might become one of the most intense yet, it was surprisingly easy for her to ignore it as she rechecked the pack with her emergency supplies, and made herself eat something to help her stamina on the potential journey ahead.
As she took a bite of the peanut butter sandwich, she looked at the map again. Diana had marked the best route for her to hike into the park, where she could mingle with the tourists and catch a ride on one of the dozens of buses that visited the canyon every day. They had even walked the trail partway together the day Diana brought her out here.
She didn’t know where she’d be without her sister and brother. Actually, she did know. Dead, and no longer able to protect her daughter.
She knew Diana felt a tremendous guilt, blaming herself for Sara’s problems, but Sara never held her at fault.
After she finished the sandwich, she poured herself a glass of water, took a few sips, then folded the map and carried it back over to the pack. Just as she was sticking it back in the pocket, lightning struck. She glanced out the window as the bolt lit up a portion of the trail she and Diana had walked. It ran along a ridge about a quarter mile away.
Sara froze.
There were three figures on the path. She rushed over to her pack, retrieved the binoculars, and focused them on the ridge.
Too late. Whoever had been there was gone.
Two things she knew for sure: they were coming this way, and since there were three people, they couldn’t be just her sister and brother.
Storm or no storm, she had to leave now.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
The rain soaked Logan, Diana, and Richard to the skin, and turned the dirt trail into a slick slurry of mud and pine needles. More than once, Logan found himself skidding across the surface, fighting to keep his balance.
They had been walking for five minutes when the storm struck, and had traveled for another ten so far in the downpour.
“How much farther?” Logan asked.
“There’s a ridge right up there,” Diana said, pointing ahead. “We go along that, then down the other side. Less than ten minutes.”
He nodded and fell back behind her.
As they crossed the treeless ridge, a bolt of lightning hit the ground about three hundred yards away. For a second it was brighter than day. Though Logan had been in a lot of storms, that was the closest he remembered ever being to a lightning strike, and he hoped it stayed that way.
“Come on!” Diana urged. “We need to get back under cover.”
They jogged along the path and down into a flatter area where they were back amongst the trees. The ground was a bit firmer here so they picked up their pace, and soon reached the edge of a small field. In the center was a solidly built wood cabin. Together, they ran across the open space to the shelter of the covered entrance.
Diana pounded on the door. “Sara! It’s me! Open up!”
Nothing happened.
She knocked again. “Sara? Open the door! We’re getting soaked!”
Still no response.
Moving over to the window, she looked in. “Sara?”
She leaned back, confused, then ran to the corner of the cabin and disappeared around it. Logan and Richard quickly followed. When they reached the back, they found the door open and Diana inside, yelling Sara’s name. Logan rushed in just as Diana went through a doorway on the far wall. She reappeared a few seconds later.
“She’s not here.”
“Where else would she be?” Richard asked, his panic even greater than hers.
“I don’t know! I just know she’s not here.”
A book on the kitchen counter caught Logan’s attention. It was lying flat, its black cover open. A sketchbook. There was a pencil stuck between two pages about three quarters of the way through. Drawn there were the beginnings of a face. He flipped back through and saw page after page of more faces. Rather, page after page of only two faces-Emily’s and Alan’s.
Sara couldn’t get her family out of her mind.
As he looked up from the book, he noticed some food pushed to the back by the sink. A loaf of bread and an open jar of peanut butter.