Page 64 of Mountain Shadow

“I can’t trace their phones. But I can try to triangulate their position based on the cell towers they connected to in the last hour.”

The way he said it made Jens think what Alex was talking about wasn’t quite legal.

“Please do it, Alex.”

“I’ve got both their numbers here. Give me twenty minutes,” the man said, disconnecting the call.

Twenty minutes.

He and Damien would be home in twenty minutes, but Jens already knew in his heart what they would find—an empty house.

If only he’d stayed home with her, she’d be safe, like he’d promised.

Why did I leave her alone today, of all days?

“I know how hard it is, Jens,” Damien said, his own jaw clenched tight. Jens remembered how close Damien had come to losing Tess and Jamie after they have been kidnapped.

“I can’t … I can’t lose her, Damien. We can’t lose either of them.”

“We won’t.”

The phone rang. Drake’s name showed up on screen.

“I spoke to Luc. He hasn’t heard from Kat since this morning.”

“Is he okay?” Damien asked.

“He’s … distraught. But he told us to worry about getting Kat and Sarah back, not about him.”

Jens shut his eyes tight. Luc was a good man. “She’s twenty-five weeks pregnant with twins. We need to get her back.”

“We will get her back,” Drake boomed over the phone.

“We’re five minutes away from Jens’s place.”

“We’ll meet you there.”

Jens looked outside at the mountains beyond. For the first time in his life, their enormity and majesty didn’t bring awe, but rather a sense of dark foreboding.

He clenched his hands into fists, digging short nails into his palms.

Alex has to come through.

20

Sarah

Consciousness returned slowly at first, then all at once. Her head felt puffy, like it was filled with cotton wool and pomegranate seeds.

Feeling like she might throw up, Sarah rolled to her side cautiously. The second her cheek connected with the ground, the world exploded in bright, Technicolor pain.

She cried out—then bit her tongue to stop herself as everything that had happened suddenly came back to her.

He found me.

Kat.

The last time she’d seen Kat, she’d been lying on her side on the ground—not moving.