Page 38 of When the Silence Breaks

Fifteen

Sarah startled awake, surprised she’d fallen asleep in the first place or so fast. If anything, she needed to sleep long and hard. Recover for tomorrow’s hike. But not tonight. She might actually lose the battle between her brain and her physical exhaustion because now that she was awake, her mind wouldn’t let go of the thought that had grabbed her.

Her grandfather had probably been sworn to secrecy about whatever the plane was carrying and their mission, and that’s why he waited until he was dying to share. Sarah understood completely since she, too, had signed all sorts of documents agreeing she wouldn’t share about her previous job and activities.

After enduring a full day of mountain hiking and the resulting screaming muscles, soreness, and mild elevation sickness, she’d forgotten completely about the email Tessa had sent earlier. But if Tessa had sent the rest of the information about the flash drive, the audio file she’d mentioned, it didn’t matter. Out here in the wild, beautiful Cascade wilderness, Sarah had no service.

What bad timing. She could talk to Ryder and share aboutthe flash drive and see if he had the ability to download an email with information.

But she wanted to read the email and listen to the audio file alone first because, yes, her training taught her to hold everything close and only feed a morsel at a time, if necessary, and that’s why she’d been slowly hand-feeding Ryder information. Need-to-know kind of stuff. She wanted to hear that message first in case he didn’t need to know.

Even if she had managed to receive and download the audio file before they were in no-man’s-land, she hadn’t anticipated the one-tent sleeping arrangement. She’d assumed he’d gotten two. She should have been more observant or stayed on top of her stuff. But she’d hired him and handed over all the arrangements, trusting he knew what he was doing. And she trusted him on at least that point.

Worst case, she might have to hear the message for the first time ... with Ryder.

As for the sleeping arrangement, he was right. She wouldn’t have liked sleeping alone on the ledge overlooking a ridge on their trek up Blackspire Mountain, especially with the threat of someone stalking them, following them.

“Do not go down this path.”

Too late to turn back,Malcolm.

She got that whatever was hidden on the mountain had been buried and kept secret for decades.

“Some things shouldn’t be found.”

If someone was following—did they want to silence her like they did her brother? Or ... did they want her to lead them to the buried secret? She had better let those thoughts go for now.

The sleeping bag next to her rustled. She had a feeling Ryder was wide awake too. Silence filled the tent and stretched between them, soft and thick. They weren’t best friends who would stayup all night giggling and laughing while they caught up on every detail and emotion they’d experienced over the last few hours. Though if Tessa was in the tent with her, and this wasn’t aRace to Witch Mountainkind of experience, that would be a different story filled with heart-to-hearts and laughter.

The wind picked up, buffeting the tent, raking across every nerve, making it hard to hear if a threat approached. She couldn’t help noticing the space grew colder now that the two human heaters were tucked away, each in their own heat-capturing bag. What did Ryder think about that? Still, outside this tent had to be colder, and she hated to admit it, but even though he was inside his sleeping bag, she could feel the heat wafting over from Ryder’s side. He had a fast metabolism.

In between the gusts, the occasional snap of a branch and rustling of pine needles reminded her that the world outside the thin nylon walls wasn’t frozen or blanketed in white.

Not yet. She hoped.

Tomorrow morning, that might all change.

Oh, God,protect us. Help me find what’s buried and expose the truthand get justice for Aaron. Give us freedom to live without fear. Please help us make it off this mountain.Protect us.

Funny. Not too long ago, she’d been begging God to help her get up on the mountain. Now she was praying for the opposite. While she prayed, she lay still, her eyes wide open, staring at nothing in the darkness.

She wasn’t sure why she said it, but words came out low and hoarse in the dark. “My brother wasn’t supposed to be the one to get the letter.”

Ryder said nothing. Maybe he was asleep after all. But she sensed the tension shift and his subtle listening.

Sarah hadn’t intended to mislead Ryder. “I said it was a deathbed confession—the letter, that is. I was supposed to bethere with Grandpa. Maybe Aaron would have been there too, but I’m sure Grandpa Walt planned to give this information to me instead.” Oh, now she was confessing far too much. And the reasons Grandpa planned to give the letter to her ... he must have known, but how could he? Everyone believed Sarah worked for a humanitarian NGO called International Crisis Aid Network—ICAN—which she did, so it wasn’t a lie, and she could have easily just told that to Ryder, but that would have felt like a lie because it was only a cover. He would have seen right through her. He’d seen through her avoidance anyway.

“Why would you think that? What am I missing?”

“Complicated family dynamics. I don’t know why I brought it up.”

“I’m listening.”

Well, maybe they were going to talk late into the night after all. But time to redirect. “Aaron was a geospatial analyst.”

“What is that, exactly?”

“Environmental scientist, basically. GIS mapping and environmental impact assessments.”