At Hidden Falls (Angel's Bay Novel)

by Barbara Freethy

  They headed swiftly up the trail. “In L.A., we used to park off Mulholland Drive up in the Hollywood Hills,” she said. “There were a couple of turnouts where you could sneak some alcohol and have a great view. Not that we were looking at the view.”

  “Sounds like you had a little wildness in your past.”

  “The flip side of my parents’ lack of attention was that I had a lot fewer rules than my siblings did. My sister Teresa used to complain that they never let her do half of what I did. She was always keeping score of who got what. It used to drive Joe nuts.”

  “I can’t imagine having four sisters. One is enough for me.”

  “Yeah, but being the only son, Joe was like the king of the family. When it was time for dinner, all the girls were expected to help cook, set the table, and clean up, but somehow Joe always got out of it.” She stumbled over an exposed root, and Nick grabbed her hand.

  “This might be a wasted trip,” he said. “Kids used to come up here, but I’d forgotten how dark it was, and it’s quite a hike.”

  “It might be easier to do on a motorcycle. There’s enough room.”

  “True,” he said grimly.

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Nick. Megan isn’t a pushover.”

  “She’s a girl. She’s vulnerable.”

  “But she is used to taking care of herself.”

  “She grew up rich, Isabella. She had servants and chauffeurs and went to private schools. What does she know of the real world?”

  “She knows that people can’t always be trusted.”

  “Yeah, she knows that,” he agreed with a heavy sigh.

  As they neared the falls, they could hear the sound of music and laughter. Nick began to walk more quickly, and she had to jog to keep up with him. He was a man on a mission, hell bent on getting his daughter back. She just hoped he was prepared for possible fallout. “Wait, Nick,” she said breathlessly, putting a hand on his arm, bringing him to a stop.

  “What?” he asked impatiently.

  “Most teenage girls don’t want to be dragged away from their friends by their irate fathers. There’s a difference between letting her know you care and embarrassing her. Just think for a minute. Nothing horrible has happened. She’s spending time with her friends. It sounds like they’re having fun,” she added as laughter rang through the woods. “You have to keep things in perspective.”

  “Okay, you’re right. But I need to talk to her.”

  Nick pushed his way through the thick trees. He wasn’t being quiet, but she doubted that anyone could hear them over the music and the rush of water coming from the falls.

  When they reached the clearing, they saw three kids sprawled on a blanket next to two motorcycles. Beer bottles were strewn on the ground, and the smell of weed permeated the damp air. Megan wasn’t there, but her boyfriend was.

  The girl in the group jumped to her feet as they approached. The two boys got up more slowly, especially Will.

  “Where’s Megan?” Nick demanded.

  “She left,” Will said sullenly.

  “What do you mean?” Nick asked. “Where did she go?”

  “She didn’t like the party, so she took off.”

  “You let her walk away from here by herself? Are you out of your fucking mind?” Nick shouted.

  “Dude, she ran away into the woods,” Will said, taking a step back. “We looked for her, but we couldn’t find her. She’ll come back when she’s tired of being mad.”

  “Which way did she go?” Isabella interrupted, sensing a fight about to erupt that wouldn’t bring them closer to finding Megan. She turned to the girl, who seemed very nervous. “Did you see where she went?”

  “She went over there through the trees.” The girl pointed across the clearing. “She said she was going home.”

  “That’s not the way home,” Nick bit out.

  “I tried to tell her that,” Will said. “She wouldn’t listen. She was pissed off before we even got here.”

  Isabella saw Nick’s fists clench, and she jumped between him and the kid. “We need to find Megan. You can deal with him later.”

  “I will deal with you later,” he promised.

  As they headed into the woods, Isabella heard the motorcycles take off. It grew quieter as they got farther away from the falls. It was also darker; the thick woods didn’t allow much moonlight to squeeze through. Thankfully, the flashlight gave them some illumination.

  “Megan!” They took turns shouting.

  There was no answer. The woods were thick and dark, and Isabella couldn’t imagine how scared Megan must be. Where was she? Had she found her way back to the trail and gone home? She was a smart girl. It seemed unlikely that she’d keep wandering aimlessly in the woods, even if she was upset.

  “Where is she?” Nick echoed, dragging a hand through his hair as he stopped to get their bearings, then took out his cell phone. “Dammit, I can’t get any reception. What if she’s not here in the woods? What if she found the trail and made it into town? She would still be several miles from home.”

  “She could have found a ride in town. A lot of people know her from the theater. Anyone could have helped her out.” Isabella fell silent for a moment, the faint sound of rushing water breaking the quiet. “I think we should go back to the falls. Megan will try to find her way back there. Whatever happened with those kids, they’re her friends.”

  “Then why did she run away from them? Do you think that punk tried something with her?”

  Isabella could see how crazy Nick was making himself. “I don’t believe he hurt her. Come on, let’s go back.” She put out her hand, and after a moment’s hesitation, Nick took it. When they returned to the clearing, the area was empty.

  “I’m going to see if I can get hold of Joe,” she said, taking out her own phone. “We might get better reception here.” She got Joe’s voice-mail and quickly explained the situation. “I’m with Nick, and we’re looking for Megan. She got upset and ran off into the woods. We’re up by Hidden Falls. I’ll call you later, but don’t worry about me.”

  When she got off her phone, she saw Nick on his. He ended the call a moment later. “Colleen said Megan hasn’t come back, but she’ll stay at my place tonight until we get back,” he said tersely. “What now? I can’t go home knowing she’s out here somewhere.”

  “Then let’s wait here for a while. Maybe Colleen will call you soon and tell you that Megan is home.”

  Isabella sat down on the blanket the teenagers had left behind while Nick walked around in circles until he tired himself out enough to sit.

  “I hate this,” he said.

  “I know.”

  For a few moments, they sat in silence, the only sound coming from the water splashing down the rocks. While it had been her idea to wait, now she was beginning to rethink that. It was going to get colder and darker, and memories of the past were teasing at her brain. The longer she stayed in Angel’s Bay, the more she realized that she wasn’t connected just to Nick but to the town.

  “I should take you home,” Nick said half-heartedly.

  She shook her head. “Not a chance. We’re in this together.”

  “You and me together is what started all this.” He stretched out on his side. “You know that Kendra sent Megan to me because she was getting married again. A few days ago, Megan asked me how long she’d be my first priority. What would happen when I met someone? Wouldn’t I just toss her aside like her mother did? When she saw us together tonight, she must have seen it happening all over again.”

  “And instead of waiting for you to dump her, she dumped you.” Isabella understood perfectly, and she couldn’t blame Megan for reacting so strongly after what she’d gone through. “You’ll get another chance, Nick. I’m sure of it. She’ll calm down. It was just a kiss. You have to keep things in perspective.” She lay down on her side, facing him. “Did you ever run away from home?”

  “I ran away from a road trip and came home. Does that count?”

&nbs
p; “What happened?”

  “We were in San Francisco. It was the end of summer; I was fourteen. My best friend was going to have a kick-ass party at the beach, and I wanted to go. My parents said we weren’t going to leave for another week, so I hopped on a bus and came back on my own. They were pissed. But by the time they caught up with me, I’d already been to the party, so I didn’t really care. Their punishments never lasted; they’d ground me for a month and forget after two days. Follow-through wasn’t their thing.”

  She nodded. “So you got away with a lot.”

  “Too much, probably. I started to think I could do anything without consequences. Turned out I couldn’t.”

  “Tell me about the years in between, when you had finished school and gotten your life together but didn’t have Megan yet. Were you involved with anyone?”

  “Nothing serious. I went to school in L.A., got a job there afterward, and rented an apartment in Santa Monica. I made some friends who weren’t musicians or theater people, and I had a life. Most of it involved working.”

  “Do you miss your L.A. life?”

  “I thought I would. I came back because I had a house here and Megan would have extended family around. I thought it would be a better environment than L.A., and it is starting to feel like home again,” he said. “I’d lost touch with all of my friends. But seeing Shane the other night, Kara, Charlotte, Lauren, Jason . . . even though most of us left, we all came back. Fortunately, my firm in L.A. is happy to let me telecommute, so I’m able to keep some business going with them, as well as operating my own small firm here.” He gave her a curious look. “What about you? What’s your work like?”

  “I freelance, working solo or in collaboration with other designers on film projects mostly. I grew up in the backyard of the major studios, and my grandmother had some connections in the business that got me get started.”

  “Were you always in costumes, versus contemporary fashion?”

  “I’ve done both, but I do love creating clothes that are part of a story. The period pieces are really fun, because some of the gowns are layers and layers of material with beading and embroidery. No one makes clothes like that anymore. But I also like designing for contemporary films, where the subtle clothing choices emphasize part of the plot or the character’s background.” She paused, seeing the smile on his face. “What’s so funny?”

  “You light up when you talk about your work.”

  “So do you. We both like to leave our mark on the world in a tangible way.”

  “I never thought about it like that.”

  “Didn’t you? Come on. You’re too competitive not to imagine people talking about your buildings.”

  “All right. Guilty,” he admitted. “What about you? There must be someone in L.A. waiting for you to come back.”

  “I was seeing someone for a few months, but that ended a while ago.”

  “Why did it end?”

  She drew little circles on the blanket with her finger. “Because I didn’t want to tell him who I really was. And he made it easy, because he didn’t ask.”

  “Why did you tell me?”

  She lifted her gaze to his. “You’re different.”

  “How?”

  “For one thing, the dreams I’ve been having are about you, so I thought you would need to know.”

  “And the other thing?”

  “I knew I could trust you,” she said, gazing into his eyes. “Maybe because you saved my life, because we met in a moment that was honest and real.”

  Nick stared back at her. “When you dreamed about me being in trouble, did you see any of this?” He waved his hand toward the falls.

  “I’m not sure. I’ve had visions of this place that didn’t involve you. When I touched some of Leticia’s things, I had a flash of her and your grandfather meeting behind the falls. Your grandfather later told me it was their trysting place. They were here the night the theater burned down. They saw the flames from the hillside when they went back down the trail. By the time they got to the theater, your grandfather’s sister, Caitlyn, was dead.”

  “My grandfather told you all that?” Nick asked in surprise.

  “The other day at the theater. Leticia felt guilty. She’d had visions that Caitlyn was in trouble, that she was keeping company with some boy who wasn’t good for her. But that night your grandfather didn’t want to talk about Caitlyn, or Leticia’s imagination, as he called it. He wanted to give her the necklace for her birthday and spend one more night with her before he had to marry your grandmother. After Caitlyn died, he felt guilty for putting his selfish affair first. Leticia left town. She ran her car into the ocean off the road just north of Big Sur. No one knows if she did it on purpose or if another car was involved.”

  “That’s quite a story,” he said slowly.

  A chill ran down her spine as she thought of all the similarities between Leticia’s story and her own. “You saved me, but Harrison didn’t save Leticia. And neither of them saved Caitlyn.”

  Nick sat up, a new energy in his body. “Caitlyn was sixteen, close to Megan’s age.”

  “It’s not going to end the same way,” she said quickly.

  “Do you know that?” he asked, jumping to his feet.

  “If you mean, have I seen something about Megan, I haven’t.”

  He paced around the clearing. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “There’s nothing to do right now, Nick. We just have to wait until dawn so we can keep searching.”

  “She could be in town. We could be in the wrong place.”

  Isabella didn’t think so. Her nerves were tingling, and this place was familiar to her. Because of Leticia? Or because of Nick? She’d sensed that trouble was heading his way; was this it? “What do you want to do?”

  “What do you think?”

  She didn’t want to be wrong. Not this time, not with this man. “Let’s wait.”

  Nick sat back down on the blanket. “It’s killing me to think of how scared she must be right now. She talks tough, but she’s still a little girl on the inside. She’s my child, and I’d cut off my right arm for her.”

  “I know you would.”

  He stretched out on his back, and she curled up next to him, resting her head on his chest. She could hear the rapid beat of his heart. Eventually, it began to slow to a steadier pace.

  With a sigh, Isabella tried to relax. She didn’t know when she fell asleep, but soon she was dreaming.

  The branches from the trees scratched her arms. Nick was running faster and faster, his fear and his hope driving him forward. She could smell smoke. Food cooking. Through the trees—there was a tent, a barbecue next to a cooler. Her heart stopped.

  Megan was crying, tears streaming down her dirty face, twigs in her hair, terror in her eyes. She was sitting on the ground in front of the tent. She jumped up at their approach and cried out. Was it a shout of welcome or of warning?

  Something glinted in the sunshine, then a long shadow fell.

  Nick didn’t see the danger coming. She had to stop him. Oh, God, what if she was too late—again?

  “Nick!” she screamed. “Nick!”

  “Isabella, wake up,” Nick said. “Isabella.”

  His hands held her shoulders as he shook her awake. She blinked her eyes open in a daze.

  “You were dreaming—about me.”

  She nodded, her throat too tight to speak.

  “What did you see?” he demanded.

  She swallowed, her throat sore from her screams. Early-morning sunlight slanted through the trees.

  “Isabella,” he repeated.

  “I’m not sure,” she said slowly, the details already blurring in her mind.

  “You’re just afraid. You don’t want to be wrong.”

  “I’ve been wrong before.”

  “That was before. That was with other people,” he said forcefully. “This is me and you, Isabella. We’re connected. You came here because of me. You came here for this moment. It�
�s here.” He let his words sink in. “I believe in you.”

  Her heart turned over, and tears filled her eyes. Did he truly mean it?

  “I do,” he said softly, reading the doubt in her eyes. “There have been very few people in my life I can honestly say I have faith in, but you’re one of them. Now you have to believe in yourself. Whatever you got right or wrong before doesn’t matter. It’s all about now.”

  “I saw Megan sitting on the ground in front of a tent. She was crying, and you rushed over to her. But someone came out of the shadows. I think . . . I think he had a gun.”

  Nick paled. “Where was the tent?”

  “It was in the woods. We ran through the trees.” She strained to remember. “The hill rose behind her. I feel like there was a stream nearby.” The splash of water echoed through her head, but was it from her dream or the nearby falls?

  “Let’s go,” he said. “We’ll follow the water.”

  She realized that he was talking about the creek runoff from the falls. Getting to her feet, she said, “It’s not much to go on.”

  “It’s better than nothing. Was there anything else?” he asked as they walked toward the far end of the falls.

  “There was a barbecue and a cooler. It was a campsite. Megan must have stumbled across it.”

  “But she was crying,” Nick said tensely. “So whoever set up that camp scared her or hurt her.”

  Isabella’s stomach turned over at the thought of how many hours had passed and what might have happened to Megan. Why hadn’t her dreams been more specific? Why hadn’t she tried harder to force the visions to come?

  Nick grabbed her hand. “Don’t go backward. Stay with me.”

  “Are you reading my mind now?”

  “Blaming yourself is only going to get in the way.” His grip tightened. “You and me, Isabella. Feel me. Feel my link to Megan. We’re all connected. You came here to Angel’s Bay to save me. Now I need you to help me save my daughter. Which way?”

  She gazed at the trees ahead. “To the left,” she said, going with her instincts and praying she’d be right.

  Nick charged forward, and they ran through the trees, the creek water their constant companion. The sun moved higher in the sky, making it easier to see. A few minutes later, Isabella smelled smoke.