Liam paced the cabin, trying to fight the restlessness, but the walls of the cabin felt as if they were closing in on him. He glanced at the door, then back at Gabby who was still sleeping next to the fire. Doing nothing wasn’t exactly his strong point. His beliefs in both justice and loyalty were what had compelled him to join the military in the first place. And now he needed to do something—anything—to put an end to this.
Like he’d felt ever since the accident.
His jaw tensed at the reminder. Being taken off active duty had sent him to a place he never thought he’d be.
Will was dead, and he’d spent months recovering instead of fighting. Letting someone else wage the war while he was down had left him feeling useless, something he still fought on a daily basis. And according to the army, there were still no guarantees he was going back in.
He turned back to Gus. “I need to do something. I need to be tracking Thatcher down. He’s out there somewhere and has to have Mia.”
“That would be foolish. Your brother and the police are going to find her. Let them do their job. You need to wait out this storm and make sure Gabby’s okay.”
Liam glanced over at her again. Her cheeks were flushed, but at least her breathing was still regular. “And if she’s not, or if they don’t find Mia?”
“She’ll be fine. She’s strong.” Gus stood up from his chair and stretched his back. “Listen, I just checked the weather. There’s a break in the storm coming. Temperatures are going to rise a few degrees and hopefully make it easier to navigate the trails. But until then, you need to stay here.”
“I know. I just...”
I need to stop this.
For a split second, he was there again. Moments after the IED went off. Moments before his best friend died. He shoved away the memories. The days and weeks after he was transported back to the US. Two surgeries to remove shrapnel and weeks of physical therapy to rehabilitate his leg. On top of all of that was the realization of how much had been lost that day. The guilt that he hadn’t been able to stop it.
“You lost a lot over there,” Gus said.
“You were in the military, weren’t you?” Liam asked, needing to release his emotions.
“Eight years, including two deployments. It changed me. Both for better and worse.”
“I keep thinking about what you said. Wondering if Gabby’s someone I could see myself with one day.”
“Only you can know that, but there’s something about the way you look at her. That intense feeling I see in you to protect her. Maybe it’s just who you are. Or maybe it’s something more.”
“It—the thought of us—seems so complicated.”
“Why?”
“I’m not sure she’ll want to follow me back into military life. She is strong, but that life can be hard. She’s already paid the price and knows all too well what can happen. Is it fair to start something with her? To ask her to put her heart on the line again?”
“Have you thought about asking her how she feels? Maybe it’s not as complicated as you think.”
Liam let out a sharp sigh. “Why is it that love sometimes seems scarier than facing the enemy?” He turned back to Gus. “And I’m not sure I could even consider having a relationship with Gabby. I need someone willing to wait for me when I’m deployed. Someone willing to put up with months of being apart, and the risk of what can happen... It’s too much to ask of her.”
“Love has a way of making the sacrifices worth it.”
But could he start something he wasn’t sure she’d be able to finish in the end?
“Liam?”
He moved across the room at the sound of her voice. “Gabby... I’m right here.”
He knelt down beside her and brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. “Hey... I’ve been worried about you. How are you feeling?”
“It’s so cold in here.”
He took her hands that had been wrapped beneath the blanket. She was warmer, but there was still a chill to her touch.
I need her to be okay, God. Please. And Mia...
Why did all of this have to happen? He knew no matter what the outcome, things were never going to be the same for him again.
He reached for the tea Gus had heated, which was sitting on the table beside her. “You need to drink more of this. It will warm you. Can you try?”
She shook her head and started to rise. “I can’t... I shouldn’t be sleeping. We have to get back out there and find Mia.”
“Hold on.” He rested his hands on her shoulders and laid her back down onto the pillow. “I know how you feel, but we can’t go anywhere. Not yet. You’re still warming up and there’s a storm.”
He could hear the panic in her voice. “My baby’s out there. I have to find her.”
“Gabby, listen to me. The snow has picked up outside. There’s supposed to be a break in the weather soon, but right now we can’t go anywhere.”
“But if she’s out there—”
“They would have found shelter for her and them. They need her alive. I’ve spoken to Griffin. We know where they’re headed and the police are mobilized. Griffin is going to let us know as soon as they find her, but they believe she’s in town. And Gus saw her, remember? She’s okay.”
Gabby pulled the ransom note out of her pocket. The ink had run when she’d fallen into the water.
“She has to be close. They were here. We found her giraffe—”
“Why don’t you let me make you an omelet,” Gus said, interrupting their conversation. “I might not be the best cook on this side of the Rockies, but I went to town a couple days ago and have plenty of fresh eggs. You both need to eat.”
Gabby shook her head. “I don’t think I can.”
“I know this is hard. Waiting always is, but Gus is right. You’ll feel better if you eat something.”
She nodded, then held out her hands in front of the fire. “I’ll try. Is my jacket dry yet? I feel like I’m finally warming up, but I’m still cold.”
He grabbed the jacket off the back of the chair to see if it had dried, then shook it out. Something clanged onto the floor. He reached down and picked up a tiny circuit.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“We might have another problem.”
Gabby moved to the hearth to get closer to the fire, not sure she’d ever warm up. “What’s wrong?”
“You remember the tracking device they found on your car? The one that enabled them to follow you?”
Gabby nodded, trying not to let fear continue to work its way through her.
He sat down next to her. “I just found another one on your jacket.”
“Wait a minute... They’re still tracking me?” She ran her finger across the tiny black device. “How’s that even possible?”
“I don’t know.”
Her brain tried to reach through the fog and pull together what had happened. They’d come back to the ranch and this was how they’d found her. How they’d been able to take Mia.
“This gave them the chance to follow me right back to the ranch.” Tears welled in her eyes. “They were able to know exactly where I was staying. All they had to do was watch and wait for an opportunity to take her.”
But how had they managed to get the tracker in her jacket?
She stared at the chip in her palm. There was only one thing that made sense. “It had to happen at the house. At Casada’s. What if they were there to search his house and leave the tracker on his car, or maybe even on his person, but when Casada was killed and we showed up, they took the opportunity to track me instead.”
“Giving them a way to follow us and take Mia.” Liam stood back up. “That makes sense. If it had been on you before, then they’d already have come out to the ranch. And since they couldn’t track you any longer with your car or phone, this was their chance.”
The heat from the fire baked her back, but she barely felt it. Instead, guilt swept through her. Guilt that she hadn’t been able to keep her daughter safe. That had been her responsibility.
“Gabby.” He knelt down in front of her. “This wasn’t your fault.”
“It doesn’t really even matter whose fault it was. I chose to ask questions about Will’s death, and in turn put my daughter’s life at risk. And now...”
“This isn’t your fault,” he repeated.
“I hate to interrupt, but he’s right,” Gus spoke up from the kitchen where he was chopping vegetables for the omelet. “I learned a long time ago that blaming yourself for something you have no control over does little to change the circumstances. And it certainly isn’t going to change anything now. What we have to do is find a way to get your daughter back and put an end to this.”
“But how?” she asked.
Gus set his knife down and crossed the room. “Can I see it?”
Liam handed the chip to him.
“I used to work with electronics back when I was in the military. Granted, technology has changed over the past few decades, but a lot of the concepts are the same.” He pulled out a small magnifying glass from his desk, then sat down in front of it.
“Can you disable it for starters?” Liam asked.
“I should be able to turn it off.”
“Will that matter?” Gabby asked. “They have to know where we are by now.”
“True, but at least if we leave, they won’t be able to track us.”
Gus held up the tracker in his palm. “Problem solved. I’ve disabled it, but I still wouldn’t advise going back out there at this point. The snow’s yet to let up.”
“So we’re supposed to just stay here?” Gabby asked.
“I’ve been battling the same thing,” Liam said. “But their options are limited as well. They’d be foolish to be out there in this weather. We’re held up inside because of the storm, and I have no doubt so are they.”
With Mia.
“Let’s focus on what we can do,” Liam said.
“Which is?” Gabby asked.
“Try to figure out the end game. What do they want?”
“Evidence of corruption.” Gabby said. “Will was gathering evidence of a contractor who was defrauding the government.”
“Why didn’t Will go to one of his superiors?” Gus asked, now back in the kitchen working on breakfast.
She shook her head. “I don’t know, except that he didn’t know who to trust.”
“You said you spoke to several of Will’s superiors,” Liam said.
“I did, and no one knew what I was talking about. Unless one of them was lying.”
“But that Will wasn’t sure who to go to seems significant.”
She moved off the hearth away from the fire and back onto the stack of blankets, then pulled one around her. “What do you mean?”
“Will was afraid that it wasn’t just the contractors involved, but someone in the military.”
“That makes sense,” Gus said.
Gabby ran through the implications of their assessment. It did make sense. Why else wouldn’t Will have gone to someone? Only if he didn’t know who to trust.
“So where do we go from here?” she asked.
Liam headed back to the desk. “Gus, you said your setup here has internet connection?”
“The storm might slow it down, but it should work. I’ve got a pretty powerful antenna and I was able to contact Griffin once already.”
“I want to get an update from him, see if he’s gotten his hands on those military records for Kyle Thatcher.”
A minute later, Griffin’s voice came over the line.
“Griffin...this is Liam. We’re hoping for an update.”
“I’ve been holding off calling you until we had something substantive.”
“And Mia?”
“We’re still looking. For her as well as Thatcher and Maldin.”
“What about Thatcher’s army records?”
“They were just sent over, but his file’s pretty thin. Looks like he was discharged, then managed to get hired by a contractor and worked for them about two years. I can send you what I have, but it’s not much.”
“Anyone he stayed in contact with since leaving the military?” Liam asked.
“There’s no way to know. Listen, as soon as this weather clears, we’ll send an ATV to pick you up. In the meantime, I can send you the parts of his file that are unclassified, so you can see if you can make a connection to something Will said in his letters. We need to find these men. And Gabby, if you can hear this, we’ve got the entire county looking for your daughter. We’re going to find her.”
As soon as the file downloaded, she started scanning through the notes, looking for anything that connected with Will’s letters.
“Falcon Enterprises... Wait a minute.” She turned to Liam. “Do you have your notes on Will’s letters on your phone?”
Liam grabbed his phone. “Yes.”
“I remember him saying something about a falcon.”
“So do I,” he said, pulling up his notes.
“At the time, it didn’t make sense, but now...” She turned to Gus. “Can you look something up on the internet?”
Gus set one of the omelets in front of her. “As you can see with that file, it’s slow, but I can try.”
She took a bite of the eggs, surprised at how hungry she was.
“Okay...” Gus said a couple minutes later. “Looks like the company is involved in facilities management for the military. That would include catering, cleaning, laundry, wastes, etc. The company was run by a...Daniel Graham.”
“Was?” Liam asked.
“Says Graham was CEO of the company up until about eighteen months ago.”
“Right before Will died,” Gabby said. “Can you find anything about him after that date?”
“I’m Googling his name, but it’s strange... I’m not finding anything. It’s like he vanished.”
“With government funds, I’d guess,” Gabby said.
Gus looked up. “I suppose it’s possible.”
“If he was working with someone inside the military,” Gabby said, “this might all be starting to make sense. Graham defrauds the government but has help from someone on the inside. Then at some point, he takes his money and disappears.”
“Will discovers what’s going on,” Liam said, “but doesn’t want to confront one of his superiors without having any solid evidence.”
“What about whoever was involved inside the military?” Gabby asked.
“Maybe he found a way out,” Liam said. “Or maybe he stashed the money and is waiting until he retires. But just when he thinks he’s safe—Will’s dead and no one else is suspicious—”
“I start asking questions.”
“We’re making a lot of assumptions,” Liam said, “but they do add up.”
Gabby pushed her empty plate away. “Could Thatcher and Maldin have done this on their own?”
“Maybe, but what would be their motivation? Will’s letters definitely imply that there’s someone on the inside.”
“And they have to be the one who hired the men.”
Liam shrugged, still not looking convinced. “As much as this makes sense, it really is all just conjecture. There still isn’t any proof that Graham is involved.”
Gabby moved to the window near the front door where she could watch the still falling snow. A wave of fatigue washed over her. She was so tired, but they couldn’t stop yet. There was a piece of the puzzle that was missing, but even if they did figure out what was going on, that wouldn’t necessarily be enough to find Mia.
All of a sudden, the sound of splitting wood ripped through the cabin as the door slammed open. A rush of cold air sliced into the room. Gabby lunged away but wasn’t fast enough as someone grabbed her and pressed a gun to her temple.