He tapped the steering wheel lightly, twice, then tilted his head to see her. “I’m still not keen on you coming along, because I don’t want to see you get hurt. But you’re right that it might be helpful to have another person.”
“Plus, you really don’t have time to drop me off. Every moment counts.”
He huffed a heavy sigh. “Promise you’ll stick close to me.”
“Done. So do you have any ideas?”
Jackson tapped the steering wheel. “I have one. There’s an abandoned meat factory not far from here, on the edge of the woods. I was thinking about the place I heard Reggie describing, and I thought maybe it was there. It’s close to where they camped. Remember Reggie said they didn’t travel very far?”
“Yeah. He said it looked like a warehouse. A meat factory could fit the bill. That sounds like a good place to start. But it doesn’t sound smart for us to charge inside.”
He scoffed. “If I see signs of recent movement on the outside, then we can call in backup.”
He stopped the truck half a mile away from the factory.
“Why are we stopping here?” she asked.
“I don’t want them to hear my truck coming. If they are here, it might spook them and make them come outside to investigate.”
“Good plan,” she said.
Jackson and Mia slipped out of his truck. “Let’s stick to the cover of the trees while we can. And minimal talking.”
She rolled her eyes but refrained from commenting. It made him grin. He loved it when Mia’s snarky side showed up.
A thick wall of trees blocked them, the branches reaching hundreds of feet into the sky. Many of the trees were so thick it would take five people with arms outstretched to encircle them. Smaller trees grew along the path, their growth restricted by the giants that blocked the nourishing sunlight. These trees forced Mia and Jackson to make multiple small changes in direction, which made Jackson think of the evasive maneuvers the starship captains on various Star Trek shows would call for. It took twice as long as if they were walking on the paved road.
Jackson reminded Mia not to remove her attention from the forest floor for too long. The uneven ground writhed and dipped, and it was covered with sticks, rocks, and debris. Mia nearly had to catch herself twice when she tripped over an obstacle or a hole dug by some foraging animal. Jackson was careful not to act too solicitous. He didn’t want to irritate her again by making her wonder if he doubted her.
Finally, after walking for nearly an hour, a large, hideous structure appeared through the trees. They had found the meat processing plant. The building itself was made of large bricks, pitted and beginning to decay. Parts of it were covered in an awful baby blue.
“If Pepto-Bismol were blue, it would be that color,” Mia whispered.
Jackson held in a chuckle. She wasn’t wrong.
The building looked dark and soulless, like a prison. Treacherous fire-escape stairs latticed back and forth on one side, from the roof to the ground.
At first, there wasn’t anything to see. But just when Jackson was ready to suggest they observe it from a different location, Mia grabbed his arm and pointed.
Two men exited the back of the building. The taller man was clean-shaven with a thick neck, chiseled jaw, and bald head. His most prominent facial feature was his Roman nose. He looked like he belonged in the trading room on Wall Street. The second man was shorter and stockier, in a bodybuilder sort of way. He had thick shoulders, and the lower half of his face was hidden behind a thick red beard. Red beetlelike brows twitched over his eyes. Jackson had never seen either of them in his life.
Beside him, Mia slapped a hand over her mouth to cover a gasp.
“Do you recognize one of them?”
“The man on the left? He’s been Blaine’s golfing partner for years.” She bit her lip. “I wonder if Blaine is in on this.”
He didn’t want to say anything, but Blaine would fit right in with these despicable, power-hungry men.
Jackson took out his phone and zoomed in on them, snapping a picture.
He sent it to Mark with a request for police at their location.
“Do you have service here?” she whispered.
“Yes.” He waited. The message said delivered. He saw three dots, a sign that Mark was replying.
“Mark wants our exact location. There are police units on the way.”
