Claire glanced at the dashboard from the passenger seat of her car for the hundredth time in the past forty-five minutes. Two o’clock. She pressed her lips together. Every minute that passed was another minute Owen’s life was in danger, another minute she wasn’t with her son. She’d convinced her mother to partner with a friend from their church who’d promised to help set up a social media presence and get the word out that Owen was missing. An AMBER alert had been issued. Local law enforcement had all been notified and Owen’s photo distributed. But what if everything they were doing wasn’t enough to find him?
It still seemed ironic that it was Reid who sat next to her in the driver’s seat as they searched for Owen. And while Reid might never have met Owen, the tension he felt was palpable. His jaw was taut and his grip on the steering wheel tight, his frustration clearly as much with her as it was with the situation. Which was why they hadn’t really said anything to each other since leaving the police station.
But what was she supposed to say?
If she could take back hiding Owen from Reid, she knew now that she’d have already done it in a heartbeat.
But it was too late for do-overs.
“According to the GPS, we’re five minutes out,” Reid said, turning off the main road onto a dirt lane.
Five minutes.
She nodded, wishing her heart would stop pounding and her mind would stop racing. She still couldn’t fully take in what was going on. What if another five minutes was going to be five minutes too late?
She pushed away the thought as Reid pulled in next to the string of cars behind the cabin where Owen had been spotted. She jumped out of the car, searching for Owen as she hurried to where Detective Kaufmann stood talking to a uniformed officer.
“Did they find them?”
The detective turned to her and frowned. “Local PD have done a sweep of the cabin and the immediate area, but there is no sign of him yet. I’m sorry—”
“We need to expand the search,” Claire said.
“Unfortunately, we have no evidence that he was even here.”
Claire took a step back, her mind spinning, as Reid moved next to her. She couldn’t deny that that woman was right. It was possible that their witness hadn’t really seen Owen. It could have just as easily been some other little boy playing outside their family’s cabin.
“Who’s staying here?” Claire asked. She might not be a detective, but her role as fire inspector had trained her to know how to conduct an investigation.
“An older couple on vacation,” Detective Kaufman said. “They claim they haven’t seen Owen or any children hanging around here, for that matter, but they’ve been inside all day, so it’s possible he was here and they missed him.”
“And you’re sure this is the cabin where he was spotted?”
Detective Kaufman nodded. “I’m sorry.”
But that would lead them back to square one with no idea where Owen might be.
“I found this back behind the cabin, under some snow.” One of the uniformed officers approached them, carrying a blue knit beanie with a red stripe.
Owen’s cap.
She grabbed the beanie and turned it inside out, looking for the tag she’d sewn on it so he wouldn’t lose it at preschool.
Owen Holiday.
She pulled the hat to her chest. “This is Owen’s. He was here.”
But where was he now?
“We’re already canvasing the area for witnesses, but houses are spread out here, and most people are inside because of the cold.”
Claire turned slowly, studying the thick tree line around them. What had Owen been doing here? Who had brought him here? And where was he now? Nothing made sense.
“Claire?”
She felt Reid’s hand on her arm. “I’m fine. We need to expand the search. He has to be nearby.”
“She’s right,” Detective Kaufman said. “But we’ve got less than two hours until dark. We’ll pair up and search these woods. You can get your assignment from me, and I’ll hand out radios to each team. He was spotted outside a cabin, alone, so we’re going to assume he walked out of here. People—even kids—tend to stay on trails, so we’ll start there. We’ll branch off and search a perimeter of trails. If we still don’t find him, we’ll widen the search even further. Are the two of you okay together?” the detective asked.
“Of course,” Reid said.
Claire caught Reid’s expression as the detective handed them the radio. She had no idea now why she’d thought that Reid would want nothing to do with her or Owen. Or why she’d kept such a huge secret from him for all this time.
“Be extra careful out there. I spent some time on the phone with Captain Ryder, who explained more of the situation to me. Since we still don’t know who has been targeting the two of you, I want you to be extra vigilant. And while I’d like to keep you both locked up in protective custody for safekeeping, I have a six-year-old little girl. There’s no way I’d not be involved in a search if she went missing.”
“Thank you.”
“We’ll be fine,” Reid said. “Our only focus at the moment is finding Owen.”
“Just stay in radio contact and you should be fine. We’re going to find him.”
A truck pulled up with three firefighters from Timber Falls, including Shawn, as Claire and Reid headed toward their assigned trail.
“We got permission to help with the search,” Shawn said, walking up to the detective.
“Captain Ryder told me you were coming,” Detective Kaufman said. “We’ll get you set with radios and a map right away.”
Claire waved her thanks as she and Reid headed off, grateful for the show of support.
“The detective’s right, you know,” Reid said. “We’re going to find him.”
Claire silently walked beside Reid through the woods down the trail leading south away from the cabin, praying he was right. Panic bubbled inside her as her feet crunched on the dry pine needles. They might still have a couple of more hours of light left, but before long the sun would shift behind the mountains and the temperatures would begin to drop. She had no idea if Owen was by himself out here or locked up somewhere. And either scenario horrified her. She pulled her pink scarf tighter around her neck. How had they gotten here?
Someone had taken her son.
She didn’t know what they wanted or how long it was going to take to find him. Or if she was ever going to see Owen again.
She scanned the tree line surrounding her, looking for any movement. The not knowing was more terrifying than anything else. Working as a firefighter, she’d seen the devastation when someone lost a loved one in a fire. The truth was, they had no idea where Owen was. The beanie could be nothing more than a false lead, but nothing was going to stop her from turning over every stone until she found her son.
“Why would he have been out here alone?” Claire asked, knowing she was asking questions Reid couldn’t answer. “Did he run away and escape from the arsonist? Or maybe, for whatever reason, the arsonist just left him here.”
But why? Nothing made sense.
“I wish I could answer. Does Owen like hiking?”
“We’ve done quite a lot of short hikes, mainly trails around Denver. Places like Lookout Mountain and Golden Gate Canyon State Park.” She buttoned the top of her coat in an attempt to block the wind. “I taught him what to do if he got lost, that he needed to stop walking, stay put and make a lot of noise so people could hear him.”
But if he’d escaped and someone was chasing him?
She’d thought she’d done everything right. How could things have suddenly gone so wrong?
“This isn’t your fault,” he said, as if he could read the guilt she was feeling. “None of this is.”
“But this is different, Reid. He isn’t just a five-year-old lost in the woods, trying to get home. Someone took him and we can’t just assume that whoever did is gone. They could have moved him. He could be miles from here by now.”
“Or he could be right here somehow. We’re not going to stop looking until we find him.”
Panic built in her chest until she could barely breathe, as they called out his name. This was every parent’s worst nightmare. And, somehow, she’d just gotten caught up in the whirlwind. How was she supposed to deal with this when terror was messing with her ability to cope? Reid stopped beside her, then flashed his light into the brush toward an outcropping of moss-covered rocks.
“Did you see something?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. Just a flash of color.”
Her heart stopped as she searched the rocky landscape. Her mother had dressed Owen in a black T-shirt, jeans, his red jacket and his favorite beanie. Now, without his beanie, she was worried he was going to be too cold.
God please... I know none of this took You by surprise, but I don’t know how to deal with losing my son. And if we don’t find him...
Reid moved off the trail while she stayed a few steps behind him. He bent down, then held up a hat. “Sorry. Someone lost a hunting hat.”
It wasn’t Owen.
She fought back the tears. She was supposed to be the strong one when it came to responding to an emergency. But this...this was unraveling her. The fact that they would involve her son. And then there was Reid. She couldn’t even imagine what he thought about her, but for the moment, their only focus was finding Owen.
Her child.
Their child.
She glanced at Reid, feeling the tension that had settled between them continue to tighten as they kept walking. She knew he was going to need time to work through the shock of the situation, but this...this silence between them was deafening.
How had it come to this? Had she really thought she was going to go the rest of Owen’s life without Reid ever finding out? Guilt that she’d shoved away for so long engulfed her. But try as she might, this wasn’t something she could take back or change. God might be able to redeem the irredeemable, but she would have to carry the guilt of what she’d done for the rest of her life.
The crack of a gunshot echoed around them. Reid stumbled beside her. She reached out to grab him as she tried to discern where the shot came from.
“Reid...”
“I think I was hit.”
Adrenaline surged as Reid struggled to keep his balance. He searched the surrounding forest for movement. His brain struggled to connect the dots, but the shot he’d heard had been followed by a searing pain in his side.
She wrapped her arm around him. “We need to get to cover. Now.”
Reid leaned against her as she pulled him toward an outcropping of rocks, pain shooting through him with each step. “I don’t think it’s serious.”
“If you were shot, it’s serious. You’re probably in shock.” She helped him lean back against the rock, then crouched next to him, and pulled out her radio. “Shots fired in grid two. I repeat, shots fired.”
The radio crackled. “Roger that. We’re tracing your phone’s GPS for your location.”
“Reid’s been shot.”
“Sending backup your way now. Stay down and out of sight. Do not engage. I repeat, do not engage.”
Reid struggled to get up, despite the order. “We need to find out where the shooter is.”
“Stop.” She pushed against his shoulders. “Did you not just hear what he said?”
“He’s still out there, Claire, and he can’t be far. Besides, we’re sitting ducks here.”
“That might be true, but neither of us are armed. And on top of that, I can’t have you bleeding out in front of me. It’s hard to see, but I need to see how bad it is.”
Reid nodded, wincing at the pain.
She ran her hand across his side, then pulled back his coat. “You’re bleeding and your shirt is sticking. I’ll be as careful as I can.”
This couldn’t be happening. Owen was missing, but the arsonist’s objective had to be bigger. Reid watched her work, hating that he felt so vulnerable—that they both were so vulnerable. Because no matter how angry he was at Claire for what she’d done, he didn’t want anything to happen to her or Owen.
She aimed the phone’s flashlight closer to him as she examined his side.
“How bad is it?” he asked.
“From what I can see, it looks as if the bullet skimmed across your rib cage.”
“Then I’ll be fine.” He grabbed her wrist with his good hand. “We need to find whoever’s out there.”
“Forget it. You’re not going anywhere. Whoever is out there is armed and looking for us.” She pulled away from him, took off her scarf and wrapped it around him. “I need you to press this tightly against your side. It’s not bad, but it is bleeding.”
He caught her expression and knew, like him, she wasn’t simply thinking about sitting around and waiting. “You’re not going out there?”
“I am, and you can’t stop me. Whoever shot you could find us before help gets here. You said it yourself. We’re sitting ducks.”
“Claire...please. We’ll do what they said. Backup will be here in a couple minutes.”
She crouched down next to him and caught his gaze in the fading light. “I’m not going far, but the last thing we need is another ambush while you’re down.”
He tried to get up, but another sharp stab of pain followed. He bit the edge of his lip. The bullet might have just skimmed him, but it felt like his side was on fire. “Don’t go. Promise you’ll wait here for the cavalry to arrive.”
She pressed her lips together.
“Promise me, Claire.”
She nodded.
“This was a setup. He’s out there, searching for us now. This wasn’t just about Owen. It’s still about us, somehow, and the investigation.” Reid kept his voice low as he searched the thick woods for any signs of movement, but all he could see were branches, rustling in the breeze. “A second shot and he might not miss his target. All we have to do is lay low. Help is coming.”
“What about Owen? Reid, if anything happens to him...”
She was crying silently next to him. He could hear her breath coming in uneven spurts as she tried to hold back, but already tears were streaming down her face.
He grabbed her hand. “Deep breaths, Claire. Slow, deep breaths. We’re going to find Owen. We’re going to be okay.”
“I’m sorry. You’re the one injured, and I’m the one freaking out on you.”
“It’s fine. You have every reason to feel panicked. And I’m sorry. I truly am.”
“Me too.” She took in another ragged breath. “Though, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you were a bit accident prone.”
“Seriously? You’re going to go there?”
She cocked her head, still keeping her voice low. “With your wrist brace and now my pink scarf wrapped around your side.”
“Please.” Reid shook his head. “Don’t make me laugh. It hurts.”
“I’m sorry.” She shot him an impish grin, allowing some of the tension between them to lessen. “If I don’t laugh, I’m going to completely lose it.”
“I know.”
A scattering of memories, buried years ago, shot to the surface. She’d always been able to make him laugh. It was something he’d loved about her—the ability she had to never take things too seriously and to always see the silver lining in a situation, no matter how bad. But today, finding good in any of this seemed impossible. There were too many unknowns, too many disconnected parts, and he had no idea how to bring order to what was happening around them. Even firefighting had specific techniques they used to get in control and stay in control while knocking down a blaze.
But this...he had no formula to combat this.
“I don’t know how to deal with this. I can’t face life without Owen.”
He took her hand and squeezed it. “You’re not going to have to. We’ll find Owen and whoever is behind this.”
“I keep praying, but the arsonist... I don’t know what they want or who they are, but there has to be an end to it, Reid.”
“We’re in this together now. Owen’s out here and we’re going to find him.”
He wanted to promise her that everything was going to be okay. They’d find Owen, and then the three of them could find a way to make things work. He pulled his gaze away from her. As much as he’d tried to fight it, he couldn’t deny that so many of the feelings he’d had for her all those years ago had never gone away. But the fact that she’d never told him about Owen...how was he supposed to forget that? How was he supposed to forgive her for that? He wasn’t even sure it was possible. In order for things to work, he would have to trust her again, but he wasn’t sure that was something he could do.
The snap of a branch jerked him out of his thoughts.
Claire started to stand up.
He pulled on her arm with his good hand, keeping her down. “Claire...don’t.”
“I won’t go far. I promise. I just need to see what’s out there.”
She grabbed a thick branch off the ground, then moved to the edge of the rock, despite his protests.
“It’s our backup, Reid,” she said a few seconds later.
Reid blew out a sigh of relief as two men in uniform hurried toward them.
“He’s been shot,” Claire said, “but it’s just a graze.”
“We’ve got all the teams searching for the shooter. We know he’s out there and we will find him. It’s just a matter of time.”
“But how?” she asked. “We don’t even have a description of our suspect.”
“True, but we do have good news. We just got an update. They found Owen.”