by Angela Foxxe
The Sheriff’s face turned red, the urge to backhand Keith strong.
“I have it under control,” Dale said through clenched teeth as he adjusted his uniform collar. “You should know better than to question my abilities.”
“I’m not questioning that,” Keith insisted quickly. “But Ty does throw a wrench in the plans.”
“Ty won’t bother with her. He only looks out for his own, and she’s a stranger. She might be with him now, but she’ll break away soon enough, and I’ll take care of her then.”
“Won’t the FBI come looking for her?”
One of the other officers walked back into the room just then, and Dale forced himself to smile calmly and let go of Keith’s words. It had been years since they had had to tie up a loose end, and Addie’s disappearance hadn’t gone as planned. Because they’d been operating without incident for so long, Keith was nervous and his nerves were getting the better of him. Dale was going to have to figure out a way to rein him in and quick. They couldn’t handle any more mistakes, and Dale didn’t want to have to take out one of his own Deputies.
Dale and Keith milled about the room for a moment, making a show of digging through drawers and looking under pillows and behind the dresser while the officer was still in the room. Unaware that anything was amiss, the officer continued to look around the room while Keith cast nervous glances in Dale’s direction now and then. Dale ignored him and busied himself with the closet even though it had already been cleared.
“Sheriff, over here,” the officer said with some urgency.
Dale perked up, going to the back window where the officer had pulled the curtain open. The window was closed but for a finger’s width of space, and there was no screen.
“Could they have gone that way?” Keith whispered in awe under his breath.
Dale looked down at the ground below and shook his head.
“There’s no way she would have survived that distance without a broken leg. And how did the window get closed again? There’s nowhere to stand while you close it. It was left open. I’m sure she saw us pull up when she was already in the hallway and just went out the back or something. There’s a window at the end of the hall, and it has a clear line of sight to the parking lot. It wouldn’t take a gigantic mental leap for her to figure out that we were coming here to talk to her.
Not sure why that would cause her to run, but it seems to me that her actions prove that the missing, confidential files at Robin’s office aren’t just misplaced or somewhere else; Senora Edwards has them, and I want to know why.”
The officer nodded his understanding, still looking out across the short, grassy field and into the dense forest beyond. Dale wanted to move him out of the room and out of the way, but the officer was thinking, and Dale knew that meant the man wasn’t about to move. He was a thinker and a do-gooder, and just the kind of overachiever that Dale wished he hadn’t hired. But he was there, and Dale knew that he wouldn’t walk away until he’d looked at the situation from all angles.
“Do you think that she went that way from the hall? There’s a rear exit, right? I bet she went into the woods with Ty. Isn’t that the way to the preserve?”
Dale shrugged.
“She might have gone that way, but I don’t know why she would. Going into those woods with a man she just met isn’t any safer than talking to us.”
The officer nodded.
“Look, I’ll send some guys out on the four-wheelers to look for her, but I doubt that she went that way. She’s from D.C., big city girl. She’s not going to just run into the woods because some guy tells her to. She’s around here somewhere; we just have to find her.”
“And if she has the missing files?” the officer asked.
“We’ll ask for them back and make her copies. She’s FBI; there’s no reason for her to steal files. I’m sure this is just a simple misunderstanding, but I also can’t have confidential patient files running off.”
Dale smiled wide, his natural charisma disarming the suspicious officer. Dale knew the moment that the officer decided that Dale was right. He was the Sheriff, after all. And a well-respected member of the community and a decorated peace officer. The officer took one more look out the window, then moved toward the door.
“We’ve got it covered here,” Dale said to the officer. “I’ll get on the radio if we need any more help.”
The officer nodded, and just like that, he was gone.
Dale let out a huge sigh and looked out the window.
“I don’t know how she did it, but that girl is in those woods with Ty. We need to stop them before they get to the preserve and out of our grasp.”
“Sheriff?” Keith asked, his confused expression irritating Dale.
“We can’t very well let her get away with those files,” Dale said curtly. “We can’t let some FBI peon ruin everything.”
“Did Addie tell Robin what happened to her?”
“I don’t know, Keith,” Dale ground out through clenched teeth. “I don’t know what that girl even remembered, but we can’t take the chance, no matter how slim the possibility is that she told Robin. We need to get a handle on this thing.”
“Understood,” Keith said. “I’ll get the four-wheelers, and we’ll head out.”
“Take Jed and Bubba.”
“Are you coming?”
“No. I have to deal with the Medical Examiner. Those wolves did a shit job of destroying the evidence.”
Keith stood for a moment, shifting from one foot to another and looking at Dale for the longest time before he finally spoke.
“Maybe we should get out of town,” he said quietly. “I don’t want to be here when it hits the fan.”
“Everything is going to be fine if you just remain calm and do as I say. Find Senora and get those files from her. Smooth talk her, offer to make her certified copies, do whatever you have to do to get those files back.”
“And if she won’t give them to me?”
Dale narrowed his eyes, looking over Keith’s shoulder to the forest behind the hotel.
“If she won’t give them up, then we’ll have to kill her.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
“I can’t do this,” Senora said, heart in her throat, her adrenaline spiking as she tried to calm the fear that was overwhelming her. “This isn’t going to work.”
Ty closed his eyes.
“We don’t have time for this. You have to trust me. You can climb down this if you’ll take it one step at a time.”
“It’s almost straight down,” she said.
“I know,” he said, exasperated. “You’ve said as much about a million times. Time to buck up, buttercup. We don’t have time for this.”
Senora closed her eyes and took a deep breath, but she didn’t feel any better. The forest was hot and humid, the rain from the night before trapped in the dense foliage. Ty was right; they didn’t have time to argue. But Senora couldn’t ignore the fact that what he was asking her to do was not safe, and she couldn’t afford to die. Addie was counting on her.
“I’ll help you,” Ty said, holding out his hand.
“I’m not scared,” she said indignantly. “I don’t think it’s safe. I jumped out the second story window, I went into the wolves’ enclosure with a dead body and I’ve done everything else that needed to be done. But I’m telling you that this is not safe.”
Ty looked over the edge again, weighing her words carefully. He shook his head, smiling as he put his foot out over the edge and braced it on the young tree that he’d pointed out as the first handhold of many on their descent.
“See, it’s perfectly-”
The tree bent beneath his weight, and his face went blank. His hand shot forward, grabbing a branch in front of him as the sapling roots pulled out of the muddy wall of the cliff face with a sucking sound, and Senora reached out and grabbed his other hand to yank him forward.
“I told you it wasn’t safe,” she said, feeling smug. “It poured all morning and rained most
of last night. Even a city girl knows that lots of rain causes issues.”
“Thank you,” he said.
“No problem. I would have been caught without your help at the hotel. Saving you from your ego was the least that I could do.”
His smile faltered, and he narrowed his eyes.
“We have to get going,” he said briskly. “It’s going to take us almost two hours to circle around, and the ground is going to be wet in a few places, which is going to slow us down even more.”
“I thought you said that down the cliff was the only way,” she said to his back as he started down a trail that ran parallel to the cliff and the river beyond.
“It was the only way that we have time for. The longer we stay in this forest on this side of the river, the more likely that the Sheriff and his men will find us.”
“And if they do find us?”
“They’ll kill us both.”
“I don’t know why I’m surprised by that. I guess I shouldn’t be.”
“You really shouldn’t. Robin knew something that was worth dying over, and I’m sure the Sheriff is involved.”
They were walking nearly beside each other, with Senora only slightly behind as she struggled to keep up with Ty’s long stride.
“If you knew he was corrupt, why not take care of it before this?”
Ty stopped and turned, almost bumping into her as he leveled his deep brown eyes on her.
“You’ve never lived in a small town before, have you?”
“Things run differently here. You can’t just accuse the Sheriff of being corrupt without mountains of proof, and even then, it has to be enough to build a Federal Case out of.”
Senora scoffed.
“I doubt the government is worried about what goes on in a little town in the middle of nowhere,” she chuckled.
“You’re here, aren’t you?”
“I was called by a mother with a missing person. That’s my job, but that has nothing to do with small town corruption unless the Sheriff killed her. I visit hundreds of towns every year that no one has ever heard of. I do my job, and then I turn over the evidence to the local law enforcement to prosecute. Out of all the cases I’ve worked, I’ve testified in court three times. This is no different than any other time a desperate parent has called me in to help find their child.”
“Where do you think Mabel got the idea to call you?”
The silence between them was explosive.
“You had her call us?”
“I did.”
“Why?”
“This is bigger than just a corrupt Sheriff and a few of his men. As much as I’d like to think I can handle this on my own, I could disappear today and no one would ever know.”
“He could kill me, too.”
“And the FBI would investigate. No matter what, that puts the spotlight on Glen Rose and the Sheriff. Dale doesn’t want that kind of attention here.”
“So, dead or alive, I further your cause?”
He seemed startled by her blunt rephrasing, but she was right. He was on a mission to save his town, and somehow, he’d forgotten that she was more than just an outsider there to help.
“I’m sorry. I’m not saying that you’re expendable.”
“But you are saying that whether I live or die, I serve my purpose.”
“You’re more valuable to me alive.”
“Why?”
“For one, because you care about the victims. You haven’t turned cynical after years of working your cases, and you are willing to go into the middle of a pack of wolves to find the truth. That’s not normal. You care more about your victims than you do about yourself, and you have resources we don’t have here.”
Senora nodded.
“Fair enough. At least I know where I fit in with all this mess. I didn’t expect to come looking for a lost woman and end up in the woods, running from the Sheriff with a stolen file from a therapist who-”
Senora heard a buzzing noise, interrupting her mid-thought. Her hazel eyes met Ty’s at the same instant she placed the sound.
Without a word, he grabbed her hand, and they ran, dashing through the woods as fast as they could, Ty propelling her faster and nearly yanking her off her feet with each stride. Her heart pounded as her adrenaline surged to new heights and gave her a burst of speed she hadn’t known was in her.
She could hear the four-wheelers getting closer, and she pushed herself even harder without result. Her legs could only carry her so far and so fast, and she was quickly reaching her limit as they dashed through the thick forest over the damp, uneven ground.
“Hurry,” Ty urged her.
“I can’t,” she said.
Her hand was damp in his, and her skin was starting to slide. He was losing his grip on her as her body fought the overuse and her lungs threatened to explode.
She was scanning the edge of the trail for somewhere to hide when Ty slowed and grabbed her upper arm.
“Hold onto me,” he said as he lifted her off her feet and flung her onto his back.
She grabbed onto his shoulders, about to protest when she felt his skin changing beneath her fingers. She looked down as his shirt tore and thick, course hair sprouted before her eyes and his shoulders broadened.
What the hell? Senora thought, too shocked to give life to the question.
It had only been a few seconds since he had thrown her onto his back mid-stride, and already, she could feel his body changing beneath her seat. She held on, more afraid of the men on the four-wheelers than she was of the monster beneath her.
Ty was headed straight for a large, smooth boulder that jutted out from the trail like a ramp as the last of his human features disappeared and ears sprouted from the top of his head. He was still on two legs when he hit the bottom of the natural ramp, racing up it at an alarming speed and leaping into the air at the end. Senora held on tight, burying her fingers in the coarse coat, too afraid to even close her eyes.
Ty’s body stretched out mid-leap, and when they hit the ground on all fours, he took off so fast that Senora’s stomach lurched, and this time, she did squeeze her eyes shut.
Her mind struggled to make sense of what was happening as the four-wheelers gradually faded into the distance behind them, but one word kept circling in her mind repeatedly.
Wolf.
Even knowing what she was seeing wasn’t helping Senora make sense of everything.
She was sailing through the forest on the back of a giant, dark gray wolf, running from a corrupt police force in a small town in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing rational about anything that was happening on any level.
Ty ran for a long time after the four-wheelers were well behind them and had probably turned back or given up completely. Senora still listened intently and stayed low over Ty’s back while her eyes scanned the forest around them. Everything looked the same, and without being able to see the sun overhead, she wasn’t even sure which direction they were going. She was lost, and the only way she was going to get out of this was to place her trust in the hands of a handsome stranger who had turned out to be a wolf.
Great, she thought. Just great.
They were almost to the river’s edge when Ty slowed, looking over his shoulder at her.
“I’m fine,” she said. “As fine as I can be riding on the back of a wolf, in the forest with deranged men on four-wheelers behind me.”
Ty’s eyes lit up, and she knew he was silently laughing at her, but she was exasperated. Things weren’t supposed to go this way. The good guys were supposed to be good, men were supposed to be human and Senora was supposed to investigate the case until she reached a resolution and then walk away.
She was about to dismount when he stepped into the water and began picking his way through the shallows, using the occasional boulder when the water got too deep. Because it was summer, the river wasn’t very full, though the water still went up to her knees.
She hoped that Ty remembered the sensitive materials in
her backpack and didn’t submerge them accidentally. Her backpack was water resistant, but she was pretty sure that was meant to protect from a light rain and not swimming in a river.
Despite the heat, the water was cool on her legs, and she relished the feeling as her body started to cool down from their mad dash through the woods. Still on edge, she searched the tree line above them, but there was no sign of the Sheriff and his men. They had gotten away.
Now that the most immediate danger was gone, Senora was left with her thoughts and a large wolf beneath her. Much larger than a real wolf, Ty was nearly the size of a horse. If she had encountered him in the woods without knowing who he was, she would have been terrified.
As it was, she knew that she should be terrified, but she wasn’t. Ty had been alone with her on multiple occasions and hadn’t harmed her. He was using her to further his cause, whatever that was, but he wasn’t going to hurt her. At least not until he got what he was after. Once that happened, she wasn’t sure if she would be safe.
She hoped to be long gone by then.
Ty dipped his head in the water just then and shook, spraying water all over her face and yanking her out of her thoughts. She laughed and held her hands up to shield her face from more droplets of water. He looked back at her over his shoulders, his eyes the same shade of deep brown as they were before, the only remnants of his humanity left in the wolf that he’d become. He drank from the river quickly, then pulled himself up the bank and onto the flat grass in the meadow beyond.
Senora slid off his back, walking beside him until they reached the edge of the tree line and stepped into the shade again.
She took her backpack off and set it on a fallen log as she sat down. Unzipping the bag, she was thankful that she’d packed a bottle of water that morning just in case she found herself outside of town and thirsty while she ran her investigation. Too bad she hadn’t realized exactly how important that water would be, and how much she would wish they’d she’d brought some food with her, too. But she hadn’t expected to end up in the wilderness with only the clothes on her back and a single bottle of water in the Texas heat.
Her back was to Ty as she drank the water a few sips at a time and left it more than half full. She didn’t know how long they would be in the woods, and she wasn’t sure if he would need some, too.
