A bomb about to go off.
And since I don’t trust myself not to do something stupid, I charge out of the room and slam the door behind me.
Riley Hunt is standing a few yards from me, phone pressed to his ear, his service dog, Romeo, right next to him. “Thanks, Tuck.” He ends the call and starts toward me, Romeo right on his heels. “Tucker was able to activate that burner’s GPS, but it died seconds after he got a location.”
“Where?” I demand, hope burning so brightly italmostkills the murderous rage battling for control.
His gaze darkens. “A back road in Mount Rainier National Park.”
“Beckett!” I call out. The storm makes my voice useless, though.
Two dozen Park Rangers are all out looking for her, alongside the officers who’d located Anderson’s car.
But it’s Romeo I’m watching.
He’d gotten her scent from the backseat of Anderson’s car and has been pushing ahead, not even flinching when thunder booms overhead.
He stops and drops his nose to the ground, then starts digging.
My heart plummets.
“Romeo’s got something!” Riley calls out over the storm. He’s only a few feet from me, but I can barely hear him.
Wind whips at the jacket I’m wearing as rain slicks my skin, having soaked through my clothes the moment I stepped out of the car less than half an hour ago.
Five hours. That’s how long she’s been missing.
I drop down and claw at the dirt right alongside Romeo until I pull out a shoe. The dog focuses intently on it, then drops to a seated position and whines at Riley.
I look up at him.
“It’s hers,” he says grimly.
No.“Then she came this direction.”
“Voran,Romeo,” he orders in German.
Romeo takes off again, so we follow through the trees. The last scent he’d caught had been near where a tree had fallen. From the scorch marks, it looked like lightning had taken it down only a few hours before we got here.
It gave me the hope I needed to believe that she might have gotten away.
Lord, please let her have gotten away. God, guide me. It’s so cold out here. Wet. She can’t survive for long.
Romeo lets out a bark and charges toward the right.
Riley and I follow, our firearms in hand, moving right behind the animal.
He barks again and starts pawing at the base of an old tree. I sprint forward and drop down to my knees. As I do, I get a flash of blue through a crack in the old tree.
“Beckett?” I call out as I peer inside.Thank You, God!“She’s here!” I yell back at Riley as I holster my weapon. She’s so far inside that I have to partially crawl in to get to her. Cold mudseeps into my jeans, saturating my legs and the parts of my abdomen touching the ground. Frustration consumes me when I realize that I can’t quite get in far enough to reach her.
Her body is trembling, eyes closed. Her hair is soaked, same thing with the hospital gown she’s still wearing.
“Beckett!” I call out again as I stretch my arm just enough that my fingertips graze her arm.
She jolts, and both eyes open to stare at me, wide and terrified. “Shawn?”
“I’m here, baby. Come on.”
