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Just as Creed had gone inside, an Arizona police car had driven up to the cabin. Sheriff McAllister and two others had gotten out of the car. None of them had worn a uniform; they’d been in civilian clothes, and they’d been armed. One of the sheriff’s friends had asked Knox and Keelan where I was, or more specifically, “Where’s the girl?”
Keelan and Knox had said I wasn’t there. The two friends had looked to the sheriff, who had then nodded at them, and they’d pulled their pistols from their side holsters. They’d pointed their guns at Knox and Keelan and demanded again to know where I was.
Then a shot had sounded in the distance. It was the shot I’d fired to spook the bear.
“I guess we have our answer,” the sheriff had said. “I’ll let you take care of things here.” The sheriff had then started walking in my and Colt’s direction while the other two had held Keelan and Knox at gunpoint.
Knox said he’d known that they were going to shoot them. He had seen it in their eyes when they’d glanced at each other.
Before they’d been able to shoot, a shot had rung out behind Knox and Keelan. One of the men had fallen dead. Knox and Keelan had run in opposite directions to get away. The guy who’d still been alive had shot at Keelan while backing away toward the police car. Keelan had gotten nicked in the thigh before he’d been able to hide behind his Jeep. While the guy had been focused shooting at Keelan, Creed had ripped open the front door of the cabin and shot him with the rifle I had taught him how to shoot.
After making sure Keelan was all right and hearing where Colt and I were from Creed, Knox had taken off to try to get to us before the sheriff. Because the sheriff hadn’t known exactly where I’d been, Knox had been able to get ahead of the sheriff, but not by enough.
When we made it back to the cabin, Creed was sitting on the front porch looking as torn-up as I felt. Keelan was sitting with him, a kitchen towel tied around his thigh.
I eyed the two dead bodies and recognized them as the two police officers who had pulled me and Logan over when we’d been on our way to my school. They had done it to intimidate me for the sheriff, but as soon as they had seen Logan’s badge, they had balked.
I rushed the rest of the way to my guys. “Are you all right?” I asked Keelan.
He nodded and glanced at Creed, who was frowning at the ground. “What happened to the sheriff?”
“Shiloh killed him,” Knox said with a low voice.
I knelt in front of Creed and cupped his cheeks. “I’m so sorry you had to do that.”
His eyes drifted to me slowly. “I had to.” His voice came out empty yet angry.
“It still feels terrible,” I said.
He nodded and pulled me closer.
I straddled his lap and hugged his neck as his arms wrapped around my ribs tightly. “I’m sorry,” I whispered over and over to him.
17
I calledLogan at least ten times within an hour. When he still didn’t pick up, I called Ian as I paced my room. By the fifth time I called him, Ian finally picked up.
“Hello,” said a weak voice and I could faintly hear a beeping sound in the background.
“Ian?” I said.
“Shiloh.” He let out a grunt and I could hear him moving. “Why are you calling me? It’s not safe.”
“Well, I’m not safe where I am. Where is Logan?”
He let out a sigh. “How are you not safe? Logan said you went to a safe house.”
“Sheriff McAllister found me.” I paused to steel myself to say what I had to next. “I had to kill him and the men he brought with him.” I didn’t bring up that Creed had killed the sheriff’s buddies. It wasn’t important right now. “My location has been compromised. I have three dead bodies rotting outside and I don’t know what to do.”
Ian let out a curse. A lot of them. “If McAllister found you, then X knows where you are. You need to get out of there now.”
“The sheriff and Mr. X are still working together even though Mr. X took his daughter?”
Ian was quiet for a heartbeat. “Tell me everything you know, kid.”
I told him everything that had happened from when I’d started to sense things weren’t right to after I’d saved Colt and driven to Colorado. “Now it’s your turn to tell me why Logan hasn’t called me.”
He went quiet again. “Logan busted his phone before we boarded our planes out of Arizona. To make it harder to figure out that we were coming from Arizona, we flew separately and picked flights with a lot of layovers. Logan didn’t get your messages until after he landed at where Mr. X was last spotted, which was in Tennessee, and he replaced his phone. By the time he listened to your messages, it was the day after the attack on your friend. Right around the time he found out, I found out because word of what had happened had reached me. We booked direct flights right back to Arizona. Before we boarded the plane back, Logan checked your tracker and saw that you were almost to your safe house. When we landed back in Arizona, he checked again and saw that you had made it. We threw ourselves into the investigation after that. We reviewed the video feed from your house. Your cameras caught X going in and out of your house many times and as you suspected, you were in the house with him without knowing it. He got in through the spare bedroom window that you found open. I’m pretty sure McAllister was the one who left it open for him when he broke into your house the last time.”
