this mountain,” she murmured, looking away, breaking the spell.
Before he could answer, Rachel nudged the mare and headed up the trail once more. After a moment, he followed, while rebuking himself over letting his emotions get the better of him. He had to stay focused. The past was over and done. He was here for Liam.
So far, it didn’t appear that anyone was following them, but Rachel was right. They could have men everywhere. Until they had a better handle on what they faced, they needed to stay on the move. They’d be harder to track that way.
It took more than a heart-pounding hour before they summited the top of Plume Mountain, one of the lesser mountains that was part of a chain of them stretching through the area. There was still a long ways to travel before they reached their destination of Midnight Mountain. Rachel reined to a stop and took out the binoculars once more to scan the area below them where Willow Creek was located before handing them to him.
“I don’t see anything. Not even Tom.” She got off the horse and stretched out the kinks in her back.
After he’d checked the area and was satisfied they were safe for the moment, he did the same back stretches. He had finally gotten a sense of where he was again. He’d been away for years. It took a while to reacquaint.
“He should have been here long before us. I don’t see his truck and trailer.” She turned to Alex. “I don’t like it. What if he was being held hostage? What if they followed him here?”
He went over to where she stood and placed his hands on her shoulders. He could feel her grow tense in reaction to his touch and he hid his hurt with difficulty.
“Hey, we don’t know anything’s happened yet,” he said, and yet as much as he tried to reassure her, Rachel was right. By vehicle, the drive shouldn’t take more than a half hour.
“Where would he normally park?” he asked while trying not to show his concern. If these people were somehow CIA, they’d have the full resources of the Agency at their disposal. They could make people disappear...for good.
She pointed to some trees close to a trailhead. “Tom and his wife come here quite often. When my husband was alive, he and I would ride horses with them up here. Tom always parked over there.”
The mention of her husband was a painful reminder of the things that could have been his. He found himself being jealous of a dead man. Pitiful.
“Let’s not think the worst until we know for sure. Anything could have happened. A flat tire. Maybe it took him longer to load the four-wheeler than usual.” Alex tried to sound positive, but his worst fear was that the men coming after them had gotten to Rachel’s friend.
“Wait, I see something.” She pointed down below, then took up the binoculars once more. “That’s him. But he’s riding the four-wheeler... I thought he would pull it on a trailer behind his truck,” she said with a bewildered frown. “Something’s not right.”
Rachel headed back to the horses, ready to ride down into the valley, but he stopped her.
“Hang on a second. We still don’t know if he’s here alone or by his own will, for that matter. Like you said, something’s not right.”
She stared at him for the longest time. “There’s no way Tom would set us up.”
He didn’t break eye contact. “Maybe not willingly, but he may not have had a choice.”
She drew in a breath. “All right. What do you suggest we do?”
He scanned the area below them once again. “Let’s leave the horses up here and go the rest of the way down on foot.” Alex pointed to the left. “There’s plenty of tree coverage through there. If there’s someone else with him, we’ll be better able to take them by surprise.”
“Okay,” she agreed, and then led the mares into the woods to find a location where they could tie them off with plenty of grass for grazing.
Once they’d strapped on their backpacks, with Callie glued to their heels, Alex took the lead. “Stay close to me and if anything happens, get back here and ride out as fast as you can,” he told her, knowing she wouldn’t do any of those things. She was a soldier at heart and a soldier would never leave a fellow comrade behind.
The hike down the opposite side of the mountain proved just as treacherous as the summit had. All the while, Alex couldn’t get the man who had attacked him out of his head. Was he CIA? They were sworn to protect, but it wouldn’t be unheard of for one of their own to go rogue. Still, why come after Liam unless he’d uncovered the traitorous threat? Was it possible this new terrorist had gotten Liam involved in something way over his head?
Once they reached the valley, Alex stopped long enough to bring out the binoculars and scan the area. There didn’t appear to be anyone else around but the man who had dismounted the four-wheeler and stood looking around with a rifle in his hand.
The dog had stuck close to them the whole way down, as if sensing something was off.
“I don’t see anyone but your friend.” He drew his weapon and turned to her. “Just in case,” he said in response to her raised brow.
They stepped from the cover of the trees close to the man with the four-wheeler who stood at full alert. His body language alone seemed to confirm something had gone wrong.
Callie spotted Tom and galloped toward him, tail wagging. A twig snapped beneath the dog’s paw and the man whirled at the sound, shotgun ready to fire.
The moment he spotted Rachel, he visibly relaxed, then reached down and patted the dog’s head. When he saw Alex with a gun in his hand, his demeanor changed immediately. He clutched the rifle tighter. Alex had no doubt he was skilled at using it.
“It’s okay, Tom. He’s my friend,” Rachel said, and then rushed over to give the man a heartfelt hug.
Alex watched her with the older man and it was easy to see that she loved him.
She stepped back and turned to Alex. “Tom, this is Alex Booth. We grew up here together. He and Liam are good friends.”
Alex tucked the Glock behind his back and shook the man’s hand. “Good to meet you, sir.”
“You, too,” Tom said with a firm handshake. He watched as the dog went to explore a nearby plant. Alex could tell the man seemed distracted by something.
“Has something happened, Tom?” Rachel obviously saw the same thing he did.
After a moment or two of silence, Tom looked at Rachel. “I wasn’t able to bring the truck. I used the four-wheeler to slip out the back way.” The man shook his head. “I’m not really sure what to make of it, but it scared me. I haven’t seen anything like it in my seventy-plus years.”
He paused for a breath and Rachel shot Alex a worried glance.
“Right before you called, a couple of men showed up at my place asking a whole bunch of questions about Liam and you.” The concern in Tom’s eyes was real enough. “They had IDs.” He shook his head. “They said they worked for the CIA... Rachel, they said Liam did something terrible. They said he wants to hurt a lot of people.”
All the color drained
