in other parts of the country, here in the mountains snow still hung around, especially in the high places.
“Hold on. There’s another less-traveled side road just past this next bend. It’s pretty obscured from view. Unless you know it’s there you probably won’t see it. If we can make that, with the lights out, I think we have a chance of getting away undetected.”
Alex slowed just enough to make the turn, then gassed on the accelerator once more. So far, none of the cars appeared to be following.
He glanced in the rearview mirror and then at her. She could tell he believed she knew more than what she’d told him so far and he was waiting for her to talk. Did she dare voice her concerns aloud?
With everything that happened, especially after what Liam had told her, she didn’t know who to trust. But this was Alex. He’d dropped everything to come to her aid simply because she’d asked for help.
“Rachel, please tell me what’s going on,” he asked quietly.
If what she suspected were true, had she put Alex’s career, if not his life, in danger by asking for his help? In spite of everything they’d been through in the past, she still cared for him. They’d grown up here in these mountains, the three of them. She still considered Alex a friend.
“Look, these guys have proven they aren’t about to give up until they get what they’re after. You called me in because you needed my help. You can trust me, Rachel. Let me help you.”
As she looked into his eyes, she knew, no matter what, Alex would never betray her or Liam. She could trust him.
She blew out a breath and shook her head. If it were anyone else, Alex might have thought she was overreacting. But she was former CIA herself. He knew she wasn’t imagining things. That was why he’d come so quickly.
“Liam told me he was scheduled to meet with his asset after he left my place, but I could see he was anxious about something. I’d never seen him look so worried before. He kept checking out the window as if he were expecting someone to show up.” She stopped for a breath, then told Alex what Liam had said about the newest terror threat he’d been chasing. Liam didn’t say how, but he believed the person he was after might be closer than Liam had originally believed. At the time, Rachel hadn’t been sure what to make of Liam’s comments.
She couldn’t read Alex’s opinion of this. “Yesterday, I was putting away some clothes and I found Liam’s phone along with a map that he’d left in my bedroom dresser drawer. The phone was turned off. He’d wanted me to find them after he left. There was a location pinpointed on the map along with an initial and a phone number on the back...” She stopped and realized how little it was to go on. Liam had been trying to tell her something. His warning had been chilling. If only she knew what he was trying to say!
“Did you call the number?” Alex asked, and she nodded.
“Although it took me several hours to work up the nerve.” He smiled at this and clasped her hand for a second.
“I didn’t recognize the voice on the other end. A few hours later, those people showed up at my door. It’s no coincidence.” She shuddered at the thought.
Rachel didn’t understand what was going on, but the couple that came to her house knew about her brother. They’d known Liam had been up on the mountain along with someone else, presumably his asset. They believed he was injured and possibly still there. Would she and Alex be too late? Would they find her brother dead? She couldn’t bear the thought.
Lack of sleep made it hard to keep her thoughts focused, but she had to try. Liam needed her.
“Did Liam ever mention knowing someone whose name starts with the initial D? A friend maybe?”
She watched as Alex tried to recollect any such name. He shook his head. “No, never. But one thing’s clear. Liam would never have left those things behind if he wasn’t worried about something. He wanted you to have them in case...”
He left the rest unsaid but she knew what he meant. In case Liam didn’t make it down from the mountain.
“Did you check Liam’s phone for calls? Maybe someone he called can help us figure out where he’s at?”
She had checked, and the results were disappointing. “I did. It was as if he’d deliberately cleared out all the numbers.”
Rachel could tell this didn’t sit well with Alex, yet he tried to reassure her. “Maybe he was afraid the phone might fall into the wrong hands. He could have been expecting those people to show up at your place.”
None of these options helped ease her fears any, and he must have seen it.
“First things first. We need to get out of sight as quickly as possible. Once we have a chance to breathe, we can come up with a plan to locate Liam.” Alex smiled and then turned his attention to the road ahead while uneasy thoughts churned through Rachel’s mind.
Who was this new player Liam had uncovered and how were they connected to her brother’s vanishing? There had to be more to the story than what Rachel knew, because right now, all she had to go on were bits and pieces of a puzzle that might well lead them to a deadly conclusion. And every minute they didn’t know the answer, Liam’s life was in danger.
* * *
Alex was still shell-shocked by the things that had happened since he’d returned to his hometown of Midnight Mountain; his head burst with unanswered questions. His fear for Liam’s safety wasn’t eased one little bit by what Rachel had told him.
While they might have lost the men chasing them for now, they weren’t out of the woods yet. Without knowing why those men were coming after Rachel and Liam so mercilessly, he had no idea what they were up against. There could be more armed men saturating the surrounding countryside and staked out in town waiting to ambush them.
Alex made several more evasive turns as a precaution before they shot out onto the outskirts of town in the opposite direction from the house where Rachel was living.
A quick glance in the rearview mirror assured him they weren’t being followed—yet.
He slowed the car’s speed and glanced over at Rachel. “They’ll be looking for this car. It’s not safe to be out in the open like this for long.”
Alex tried to recall some of the back roads they’d once used as shortcuts when they were younger, but he’d been gone from the area since his parents passed away in a car wreck his senior year. He’d graduated high school and went away to college. After that, he’d joined the CIA and his work had taken him around the world. He hadn’t been home since.
Rachel pointed up ahead. “There’s a county road a little ways from here. And I know where we can hide out for a while. Maybe they’ll think we’ve left the area and they’ll move on if they can’t find us right away.”
Alex turned onto a less-maintained road filled with potholes. As much as he wanted to believe it, these men had proven themselves ruthless.
“At least we’ve lost them for now.” He sounded much calmer than he felt inside. In the space of a less than eight hours, his life had been turned upside down. His friend was missing, and he and Rachel were working together again to try to figure out what had happened.
There
