Page 107 of Tracking Safety

His mother turned in her seat. “She’s not—she went⁠—”

“She went to get Freya.” Cora informed him. “Freya got lost in the smoke, and Mama said she’d get her. She said thirty seconds.”

Freya was at his feet, her coat gray with ash as she barked toward the dark side of the house.

The dog had come back.

Jenna hadn’t.

His pulse raced at the thought.

His gaze locked with his mom’s. “If the fire gets closer, you need to leave. Promise me you will.”

“I will.” His mom’s voice cracked.

With that, he turned and followed Freya.

Freya led him around the corner of the house, into the black gap between the garage and the porch where the headlights didn’t reach and the fire’s glow barely touched.

She stopped at the edge of the dark and barked at the ground.

Luke crouched.

Jenna’s shoe lay in the flattened grass. A drag line ran from the corner of the garage, across the side yard, and into the trees . . . into the woods, toward the fire where the orange flames were climbing higher and the wind was carrying it deeper every second.

Jenna was in there. Someone had taken her.

Luke had to find her . . . before either the fire or her abductor ended everything.

CHAPTER 45

Jenna forced herself to stay limp as her body bumped through the darkness.

Consciousness was slowly returning, and her mind scrambled to make sense of things.

The drug she’d been given was still in her, pulling at her thoughts like a current that wanted her back under. She had to fight it, to remain lucid.

With her eyes still closed, she took stock of her situation.

Someone—that man who’d grabbed her—had thrown her over his shoulder and was carrying her through the woods.

Smoke teased her senses. Heat warmed her left cheek, close enough to sting.

Light cut through her eyelids. Orange light that climbed and flickered against the dark behind her eyes.

The fire, she realized. It wasn’t behind her anymore.

The flames were beside her. They were moving in.

They were close—too close.

Fear cut through her, and her eyes flung open.

Memories flooded her, and she remembered the face of the man who’d grabbed her.

Sutter. Sutter had grabbed her.

Roderick’s righthand man.