the parking lot of the Number Six, a quaint motel with red roofing and trim, red doors and white siding. It looked in decent shape for a rural motel, and the thought of lying down and closing her eyes made Kara feel more relaxed already. As Sam parked the car, the raindrops grew fatter, hitting the glass with loud splats.
“Can I check on you in the morning?” Sam stared out the window as he asked, and Kara heard the hesitance in his voice. Did she want to interact with him any more than necessary? Not particularly, but she also had a feeling that she wasn’t going to be able to avoid him for a while.
“I need to go back out to the site,” she said instead. “If Ed won’t believe me because I don’t have proof, I need to go get some. I’ll take more photos. Maybe he’ll be more cooperative with both of us if I can show him tangible evidence of a possible burial.”
Sam sighed. “That’s probably a good idea. You need new tires on your car, so I don’t recommend driving out there in your vehicle, and I also don’t want anyone heading to the site alone, at least not until there’s been some kind of security set up. I can drive you in and have a look around for some additional evidence on the attackers’ identities.”
Kara’s hands tightened into fists. It felt strange to be around him after so many years of silence—silence she’d instigated and maintained, and yet here he was talking to her as if nothing had happened. Part of her didn’t want the awkwardness of being around him without addressing the figurative elephant in the room. On the other hand, she couldn’t help but want to know more about how Sam had ended up working in law enforcement. About his life. About what he’d been up to for the past eighteen years.
And in spite of herself, she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed him until the moment he’d walked back into her life today.
“Fine,” she said. “If that’s how it has to be.”
He climbed out of the car and opened her door, then escorted her to the motel’s office. “The station is literally across the road. If there’s any trouble tonight, though I can’t imagine why there would be, help will be here in a flash.”
“Thank you. I think it’ll be fine. The guys at the site were probably extremist locals, maybe even environmentalists who resent the pipeline project. Maybe attacking us was a crime of opportunity—or maybe they were dumb, treasure-hunting kids who heard the word archaeology and assumed that the site has buried riches. That would explain why the dirt and soil had been disturbed. I mean, it probably does have buried riches, but not in the way most people would think.”
Sam smiled, a gentle expression that made Kara’s heart skip a beat in surprise. “Get some rest. I’ll see you bright and early.” He waved goodbye and climbed into his patrol car. Had it really been almost two decades since they’d seen each other? She swallowed down a bizarre, unwelcome wave of regret—where is that coming from?—and stepped into the motel office.
Within minutes, she was lying on the motel bed in her room, staring at the ceiling and listening to the thudding of raindrops outside. Springs from the cheap mattress dug into her back, and the sheets felt scratchy under her palms. Not that she’d expected a four-star hotel. She was used to staying at budget motels while on dig contracts—or even camping outdoors. At least the place looked and smelled clean. Would she be able to sleep after the events of the day, though? She had planned to change into her pajamas, but exhaustion gripped her limbs now that she’d stopped moving, and it felt good to be still for a few minutes, even if her brain kept racing. Sam as an RCMP officer. An attack on the dig site. Taking this job had seemed like a good idea at the time—it put her about a four-hour drive away from her parents’ place in Fort St. Jacob, where she’d grown up. They’d been after her to come up for a visit since her return to British Columbia, and she hadn’t even considered that the youngest Thrace brother might still be in the area. It made no sense. Hadn’t he wanted to get out of the rural north as badly as she did?
Thunder rumbled in the distance and she yawned, closing her eyes.
A bang and a loud roar of thunder startled her awake. Her eyelids flew open to meet darkness as she grew suddenly overwhelmed with a sense that something was wrong. For a moment she wondered where she was. Fort Mason, she remembered. You’re in Fort Mason during a storm. That’s all it is.
She tilted her head toward the room’s front window where the curtains were drawn, blocking nearly all the light from outside, and released the breath she’d been holding. The wind outside shrieked and howled, and she thought she heard branches cracking on nearby trees.
I’m glad I’m safe in here, she thought.
And then the shadows in her room moved.
She screamed as a hand flew out of the darkness and covered her mouth. Another hand clamped around her arm and yanked her out of bed, throwing her into a chair in the middle of the room. She tried to lash out with her limbs, but a sudden sensation of cold metal against her neck stopped her short.
“You’ll stop moving if you know what’s good for you,” a low, masculine voice growled. The cold metal pressed harder, and she felt the sharp tip of a blade at the hollow of her throat. Rough hands grabbed at her, pulling her arms behind the chair. The crackle of zip ties and pressure against her wrists told her she’d been secured in place. Her legs were still free, but with the knife digging into her throat and the room in complete darkness, she had no way to know where to kick or whether fighting back would send the knife plunging deep into her flesh.
“I don’t have any money,” she said, surprised at how steady her voice sounded. “My wallet is in the bag by the door. Take the credit cards, take whatever you want. You don’t need to do this.”
“After I leave,” the intruder growled, “you’re going to pack up and leave town.”
Kara could hardly hear over the pounding of her own heart. “Who are you and what do you want?”
“The next time, you won’t get away with just a scratch,” the man said, ignoring her. “If you value your life, get out of town and don’t come back. Now.” The pain at her throat intensified, the tip of the blade digging into her neck with each word.
“I can’t very well do that when I’m tied up, can I?” She knew she shouldn’t have said anything the moment the words left her lips. She felt his anger increase as lightning flashed outside, and through the faint light that filtered through the crack in the curtains, she saw him rear back, his arm raised and ready to swing down on her—
And then the motel door flew open with a bang. Another body dived into the room and tackled the person who held her captive. They both tumbled to the floor and she heard a grunt of pain, and when the next flash of lightning came, she saw Sam struggling to take control of the knife in her attacker’s hand. The man swung at Sam with his free hand, trying to distract Sam so he could bring down the blade, but Sam kicked out and connected with the man’s stomach. He toppled backward, but the sudden movement meant the knife swung down anyway. It sliced across Sam’s forearm, and he shouted in pain.
“Sam!” Kara tried to rise, but the zip ties held her back against the chair. But her legs were free! She scooted forward and kicked at the downed man, knocking the knife from his hand. She tried to kick at the man’s face, too, but Sam’s injury and her partial incapacitation gave the attacker an advantage. The man scrambled to his feet and plunged out into the storm.
Sam rose to go after him, but paused in the doorway as lightning cracked and thunder roared almost simultaneously.
“Sam, don’t,” Kara pleaded. “Don’t go
