“Let’s get outside first.”
Walker nudged me to the side, then opened the door, lowering the steps.
“Ladies first.” He swept out a hand.
Holding onto the doorframe, I stepped down. My feet sank slightly into the soft, damp sand and wind whipped through my braided hair, grabbing tendrils and snaking them over my eyes.
I tucked them back behind my ears and turned, watching the men emerge from the plane.
Toren held out my pack, and I took it, shrugging it over my shoulders.
“So, what now?” I asked, buckling the waist strap around my torso.
“We’re not far from the coordinates your bride gave you for his first camp.” Toren shouldered his gear. “We’ll hike up there, take a look around, then see if we can find some tracks.”
“I’ll stick around as long as the sand bank stays stable and the weather holds,” Walker said. “You have your satellite phone?”
Toren nodded.
“I’ll let you know if I need to take off before you return.”
“Sounds good.” Toren turned to me. “You ready?”
That was a loaded question. I wanted nothing more than to stay with Walker, but I was not a chicken, so I did the only thing I could. I said yes. “As I’ll ever be. Let’s go.”
Chapter 5
Toren
The soft sand shifted beneath my boots as we made our way away from the plane toward the riverbank. Walker had picked a good spot to land. The sandbar connected to the shore with a thin strip. I was happy not to test how waterproof Lana’s boots were just yet.
As we pushed into the forest, the sound of the river faded, and the plane disappeared from view. I set a steady pace, slower than what I would go alone, but still quick enough to cover ground. We had maybe six hours of decent weather left, and I wanted to make it to the area where Dustin’s first camp supposedly was before we started battling rain and wet snow.
Glancing back, I checked on Lana. She’d unzipped her coat but hadn’t shed any layers yet. It was coming, though. The red tinge to her cheeks told me she was getting warm.
“Did you bring a rain jacket?” She’d need the protection once the skies opened, but that heavy parka would be too much.
“The liner comes out of this coat.”
“Good deal. If you need to shed layers, just say the word.”
She stopped. “It probably wouldn’t hurt to do that now.” Unfastening the waist strap on her pack, she let the bag drop down her shoulders to the ground, then shrugged out of her coat.With a couple of quick zips, she had the liner separated from the jacket shell. Laying out the former on the ground, she folded it, then rolled it up and stuffed it into a carrying sack she took from her backpack. That got tied onto her bag. She shoved the jacket shell down inside her backpack, then lifted it over her shoulders.
“Okay, let’s go.” She tipped her head toward the forest in front of us as she reattached the waist strap.
Impressed by the speed with which she did that, I nodded once and turned around, setting off again.
The terrain rose gradually as we moved inland and transitioned from sandier soil to a rockier forest floor, covered in moss and pine needles. Fallen logs lay scattered like pick-up-sticks all around, creating a maze that required constant adjustment to our path.
I kept my eyes on the ground, reading the landscape for not just signs of Dustin but for any place that might be a bit more hazardous than a fallen tree.
“So, why did you really agree to this trip?” Lana’s question broke the silence.
I shot a quick glance over my shoulder. “Because I think you’re right. Something happened to your groom, and the cops aren’t going to take it too seriously until he misses his return date.”
“Right, but you also could have pointed me toward someone else. Someone who wasn’t so busy this time of year. But you didn’t. Why? And don’t feed me that bullcrap about rescuing Dustin.”
My mouth tightened. She was getting into motivations I didn’t want to examine too closely. “I don’t know what to tell you, then. Why did you come?” I turned the tables on her, steering the conversation away from myself.
