Lacey sighed with relief as she drove onto the drill site and saw Duke by the fire. She could only assume that Asadi and Savanah were inside the shelter, which meant they could now focus on the horses. She parked beside the pumpjack, jumped out of her SUV, and called out to Duke. When he finally turned back, he didn’t just look rattled. He looked terrified.
“Sorry if I scared you.” Lacey softened her tone. “Just thought you saw me drive up.”
Duke stared at her blankly at first but then got defensive. “You didn’t scare me.” He just turned to the fire and went back to warming his hands.
Lacey didn’t know how to respond. His reaction was not at all what she would’ve expected. She bent over and looked inside the shelter to find it empty. “Where’s Asadi and Savanah?”
Duke kept his gaze fixed on the flames. “Still out there, I guess.”
“Out where?” Lacey made a concerted effort to keep calm. She knew he might be injured, possibly in shock. But she also knew now that Duke was the son of Preston Kaiser, a full-fledged sociopath. “Asadi was just here a few minutes ago. Where is he now?”
A shrug preceded Duke’s monotone response. “Looking for Savanah, last I saw him.”
“You left her behind?”
Duke looked up and his eyes went fiery. “She was being hardheaded. Wanted to go a different way, so we split up.”
The story was getting stranger by the second. Given Duke’s odd behavior, he almost certainly had a head injury. “A different way?” Lacey asked. “What way?”
Duke pointed at the dunes. “Out there.” He turned in a complete circle and arrived at the same spot. “Hard to tell where we were when we met up. But I’m pretty sure it was west.”
Lacey looked up at the sandhill where Asadi had built a signal fire. Clearly, Duke had made no attempt to keep it burning for the others, as it was nothing left but a few glowing logs. “That’s the opposite direction of the crash. Why would Savanah do that?”
“Runway’s that direction,” Duke replied casually, still warming his hands near the flames. “There’s a phone in the hangar. Thought we could make a call from there and get some help.”
Lacey took a moment to process the explanation. It made perfect sense, but something was off about his delivery. She didn’t want to let Vicky’s revelation from earlier color her perspective, but it felt like he was lying. “And you’re sure about this?”
“That’s what I said.” Duke looked up from the flames and glanced around, never looking her in the eye. “Can we get the hell out of here or what?”
It was all Lacey could do to keep from laying into the brat, but getting back to ranch headquarters immediately was the right call. If she could get Duke in front of a map, then maybe he could pinpoint Asadi and Savanah’s location.
“Let’s go,” Lacey ordered. “Get you in front of a map and figure all this out.”
Duke looked confused. “Figure what out?”
“Where you saw Asadi and Savanah last. Vicky is working with Sheriff Crowley to get a team together. Need you to give them a good place to start looking.”
“A team?” Duke perked up. “What kind of team?”
“You know, a search-and-rescue team. Volunteers with dogs. If we can get you to show us where you were the last time you saw Asadi and Savanah, it would be a huge help. It’s not likely that they made it that far injured. Especially in weather like this.”
Duke looked eager to move. “Yeah, no problem. Let’s go then.”
Lacey couldn’t believe she’d return without Asadi and Savanah. But the key to finding them was narrowing the search. Regrettably, their fates were in the hands of Duke, whom she couldn’t yet bring herself to trust.
Asadi looked back again for his signal fire but figured by now he’d moved too far away to see it. It was doubtful that Duke had made much effort to keep it going, if any at all. But at least Duke knew that he was headed east, which meant he could direct rescuers right where to go. Unfortunately, as the clouds blocked out the moonlight, it was much harder to navigate.
Asadi pointed the beam of his flashlight on the ground behind him, shocked at how quickly the snow covered up his tracks. He took a couple more steps and then came to a sudden stop. There was no physical impediment in his way, but something rendered him immobile. It was as if an invisible force were urging him to turn back.
Feeling the horrible sting of guilt for failing his friend, Asadi reversed course and followed what little he could find of his previous trail. He trudged through the dark and cold, up one sandhill and down another, keeping himself motivated with thoughts of Savanah and happier times. He was so lost in the moment that he didn’t see the lump beneath the snow.
Before Asadi could stop his forward momentum, he tripped and landed face-first in a snowbank. After fishing for his flashlight beneath the powder, he turned and pointed the beam back up the hill. There was the temptation to let out a string of curses for yet another thing that had gone wrong that night, but then a thought struck him like a lightning bolt. Could it be her?
He clambered to his feet, sprinted up the dune, and kneeled beside the bulge in the snow. In his utter exhaustion, he’d nearly passed right by it. A few feet either way and he’d never have had a chance. But the joy of his incredible discovery was cut short by the fact that his unconscious friend was as cold as ice.
Savanah wasn’t dead but there was a good chance that she was dying. And Asadi had no idea if he could save her. He had no idea if he could even save himself.