by Angela Foxxe
“Oh, my goodness,” the girl cried out, running.
When she got close, Senora knew she was running not to Ethan and not to Ty, but to Senora. She opened her arms to the girl and wrapped her up tight when the girl slammed into her and buried her face against her like small children do. Senora inhaled the familiar scent of her hair and held her tighter, fighting back tears as the girl sobbed happily in her arms.
“I take it you know who she is,” Ethan said with a wide grin.
“I do. I’ll never forget this sweet face for as long as I live.” She turned to Ty, still holding the girl in her arms. “This is Emma. She was my first missing person case that I found alive and the reason I got my own department. Everyone thought she was dead, and I followed a hunch and found her. She wasn’t quite eight years old, and she was so tiny we’d walked past where she was hidden countless times and missed her. None of us thought she could be in the area beneath the garden shack, but I checked anyway. I found her under there, bound and gagged and struggling to breathe.”
“They would have come back to carry her off if you hadn’t,” Ethan said. “We never would have found her if they had come back to get her. You saved her life.”
“That’s right,” Senora said. “How do you know all this, Ethan?”
“Because Emma is my baby sister.”
CHAPTER 12
“Do you see anything?” Jack asked. “Do you remember what color shirt she was wearing? That would really help.”
“She was wearing a green jacket.”
“She probably took that off. It doesn’t feel too warm until you get moving, then it gets hot.”
“She dresses herself. I didn’t see her shirt beneath the jacket.”
“It’s alright. We’ll find her.”
“I shouldn’t have turned my back, even for a moment.”
“How did you get separated?” the ranger asked.
His tone was casual, but Kaden still heard the hint of an accusation. Was his story starting to seem outlandish? He hoped not, but some people were naturally suspicious, and others just seemed to have a sixth sense when it came to lies. Kaden hoped he wasn’t one of those types. As much as he hated to, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill the ranger if the man became a problem.
“I stepped away from the trail to use the bathroom,” Kaden said, pretending the thought of answering nature’s call in the woods embarrassed him. “I should have taken her with me, but I didn’t know if I would have enough privacy. So I told her to sit on this boulder and not to move. She said she would wait and so I went into the bushes and found a spot. I called out to her, and she called back, so I did my business thinking she was fine. When I returned, she was gone. I called her name, and she didn’t answer, then I went up the trail a few hundred yards, then back to the boulder and back the way we’d come. I didn’t find her. I just kept looking, and after a while, I realized that I couldn’t find her alone and that she didn’t have any food or her insulin pen. I wish I would have done things differently.”
“That’s normal. Whenever something goes badly, we all wish we would have made different choices. But you can’t predict something like this, and you did what any parent would do.”
You did what any parent would do. The words echoed in Kaden’s mind, and he was transported to a moment he’d heard those exact words. He began to shake, the pain of hearing those words greater than he could have imagined. There had been so many people, and in the end, everyone had gone home, and Kaden had been left with an empty house and no answers.
“It really isn’t your fault,” Jack said again, yanking Kaden out of his thoughts. “I know that you want to blame yourself, but there are some situations where children go missing that simply are just accidents. It doesn’t help anyone to be angry at yourself for not being able to see the future. Katie is a good girl, and you had every reason to believe that she could wait there while you used the bathroom. Who knows? She could have seen a butterfly and chased it a few feet and gotten turned around in the woods. It happens more than you know, and it wouldn’t take far into the woods for her to be out of your sight. She could even have been on a trail that runs parallel to the one you were on. You could have been within a few hundred yards of her the entire time.”
“Thank you,” Kaden said.
They fell into silence, each man staring at the woods and looking for any sign. Jack was looking for a lost girl that was safe at home with her real name and real family, and Kaden was looking for any sign of a dragon’s lair. There was one every four hundred miles, ensuring that a dragon on the run could make it to the next stronghold in a single overnight flight. He knew this one was here, even though Ethan could have stopped in any park and found a cave to hide in until night. But he’d chosen to fly all the way through, even risking a partial day flight and surely suffering exhaustion flying longer than most dragons could nonstop. That could only mean one thing: he was coming here for a reason, and that reason had to be a stronghold. There hadn’t been one in Silver City, and Ethan had stayed there without the help of his fellow dragons, leaving him and the woman he’d taken from the hotel vulnerable. When Kaden added all that up, it was easy to see that the Roosevelt Forest was a special place to Ethan, and he wasn’t leaving until he found Ethan and the rest of the dragons that were hiding him.
Jack guided the chopper effortlessly through the sky, keeping the meticulous grid search pattern and flying as low as he could. Kaden kept the binoculars to his face, which made it easy to feign the expressions of a worried father searching for his child in the woods. He was searching for someone in the woods, but he had a feeling that Ethan would not be happy to see him.
Kaden saw something in the distance that looked promising and said as much to Jack.
“There’s no way she could have gotten that far,” Jack said, his tone odd again.
“I saw something,” Kaden insisted. “Can we get closer and see what’s over there?”
“Unless you started on another trail and you’ve misremembered the details, it’s really impossible.”
The chopper started to turn, and Kaden pulled his binoculars away from his face. Jack was staring at him and not at the ground below. When they locked eyes, Kaden knew that he’d been made.
“What are you hiding?” he asked angrily. “Why won’t you look over there for my daughter?”
Jack stared back at him.
“We both know that you don’t have a daughter,” he said. “Does Lucy even exist?”
“Of course, she does,” Kaden said through gritted teeth.
“That’s funny,” Jack said. “I thought your daughter’s name was Katie.”
“What’s over that ridge?” Kaden asked.
“Nothing you need to see,” Jack said.
Kaden was getting angry, and he knew that Jack could tell, but Jack didn’t seem to care.
“What are you after?” Jack asked, calm despite being within arm’s reach of an angry Kaden.
“What are you hiding?”
“These areas are protected and not open to the public.”
“That means nothing if you’re searching for a child,” Kaden shot back.
“But we’re not searching for a child. That’s clear.”
“What is over there?” Kaden asked again, slipping a large hunting knife out of its holster and brandishing it threateningly. “Tell me what you’re hiding.”
Jack looked at the knife calmly and smiled at Kaden.
“You’re not serious? Are you? Put the knife away. You’re not going to kill me. The chopper will go down.”
“Do you think you’re the only one that can fly a chopper? I don’t need you.”
“Put the knife away,” Jack repeated, still much too calm.
“Go back toward that waterfall. I saw something, and I want to know what you’re protecting. Who you’re protecting. Are they paying you, or do you just protect them out of some kind of sick loyalty?”
“Them?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t
know.”
“Are you ill, Sir? Is there someone I can call when we land?”
“We’re not landing. You’re taking me over there or you’re going to die. Your choice.”
Jack threw his head back and laughed.
“You’re a fool. Try it. If it’s worth giving your life for, go ahead and try.”
Jack looked at Kaden and stretched his mouth as if in a roar, and for an instant, the image of a mountain lion’s face appeared. It disappeared just as quickly, and Jack looked confused when Kaden didn’t flinch.
“That usually has some effect,” Jack said, still unconcerned despite the knife. “You must be crazier than you look. Do you know that you don’t have a daughter?”
“You’re one of them,” Kaden said.
“One of who?” Jack said.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know. You’re a mountain lion, and you’re one of them. I should have known that a ranger would be a shifter. You’re playing for the wrong team. These dragons aren’t who you think they are.”
“I think you need medical help. Did you have anything to drink while you were hiking?”
“You know I’m not delusional. You know what I’m talking about, you’re protecting those dragons and you have no idea what they’re doing. You’re working for the enemy.”
Kaden roared in anger and grabbed the throttle. Jack’s face went slack with surprise, but he fought back, and the chopper dipped and leaned, then righted itself, going back toward the place Kaden was certain was the dragon’s lair on this mountain. He was sure of it.
Jack grabbed the throttle and tried to wrestle it out of Kaden’s hands. Kaden held firm, staring down the man as a vein popped out on Jack’s head.
“You’re going to kill us both,” Jack said through gritted teeth.
“I’m willing to die for my cause. Are you?”
Jack let go, and Kaden thought he’d won. But then Jack unbuckled his harness and turned in his seat. He lunged at Kaden in the tight space, but Kaden was prepared. He sunk the knife in Jack’s belly and twisted it. Jack froze, staring at Kaden with wide eyes. He groaned, but Kaden buried the knife further and shoved backward as hard as he could.
Jack tumbled out of the chopper, silently spinning head over heels hundreds of feet to the trees below. Kaden was too busy switching the controls to copilot to watch the man fall.
He corrected the tilt and turned the chopper toward the waterfall and the peak that hid the trees beyond. Sparing no thought for the man he’d just thrown out of the chopper without a hint of guilt, he focused on the tree line ahead. He was sure that he’d seen something more than trees. There was something in those woods, and the ranger’s reaction proved that Kaden was close. He had several hours of daylight left. If he could get Ethan while he slept, it would be even easier than taking him out when he left the safety of the stronghold to fly again in the night.
This was working out better than he’d planned.
He wrinkled his nose. Except for the ranger that was bound to draw attention to him. And the stolen chopper.
Kaden shook his head. He wasn’t going to let the particulars get in the way of his good mood. He was close, closer than he’d been in a long time. He was going to succeed this time; he could feel it. He would collect the money, but more importantly, he would answer the questions that had plagued him for so long.
The waterfall rose in the distance, and Kaden followed the land, banking slightly when needed to keep the chopper where it needed to be. When he reached the top of the peak, the landscape dropped away, and a dense forest surrounded on all sides by steep canyon walls spread before him.
This was what he’d seen.
He squinted, looking for the image that had caught his eye before Jack had turned the chopper. It was here somewhere; he just had to-
“There!” he shouted excitedly.
In the dense trees, he saw the telltale sign of homes built closely together, disguised from the air by green foliage strapped to the roofs of cottages built from the materials found within the forest. If he didn’t know what he was looking for, he would have never found it.
He circled around the canyon once, looking at it from all angles and certain that he was seeing exactly what he thought he saw. When he was sure beyond the shadow of a doubt, he looked for a place to set down.
In every direction, difficult terrain waited to thwart him. He surveyed the entire perimeter, finally deciding on one place that looked passable with a little bit of effort. It wasn’t ideal, but there was a clearing nearby, and Kaden knew that he could set the chopper down, then traverse the short climb. Once he finished that, he would hide until the timing was right.
Satisfied with his plan, he set the chopper down in a clearing and cut the engine. He took the key out and threw it as far as he could into the forest. He wouldn’t be using it to get back to his truck, and he didn’t want anyone else to happen upon it and have something unforeseen cost him this catch. Catching Ethan was everything, and even something as far-fetched as a random hiker finder and stealing the chopper only to crash into the area where Kaden hunted his dragon was something he didn’t want to risk. He’d had more outrageous things happen, and he wasn’t going to chance it.
He looked behind the pilot’s seat and smiled. He should have known that the ranger’s chopper would feature a fully equipped backpack. Checking the contents quickly, he couldn’t believe his luck when he pulled out climbing equipment. This made things immeasurably easier.
Things were going his way, and it was about time.
“Jack…Jack, come in,” came a tinny voice a few feet away.
Kaden looked at the radio and shook his head. He’d forgotten about the radio and the GPS.
The voice continued to call out to Jack, but their calls were falling on deaf ears. Kaden went to the chopper’s engine and stuck his hand in, trying to reach the unit that tracked the chopper. It was so close, but he couldn’t quite reach it.
He pressed his shoulder closer and jammed his entire arm in, ignoring the heat of the still cooling engine and the tightness. His fingers touched the smooth surface, and he felt around until he found the edge of the unit. Curling his fingers around it, he yanked a few times until it finally pulled away from its casings. He lost his grip and cursed, twisting his wrist at an unnatural angle and stretching his arm further than it could go until he was able to grab the tracking unit and twist it roughly.
It broke loose from it fasteners, and he let it drop to the ground, then retrieved it. The voice in the radio was getting more desperate by the minute, and it wouldn’t be long before they started tracking the chopper and sent out a team to look for Jack.
He wondered if they knew what Jack was.
Of course, they do, he thought. They were all in on it, and if they weren’t shifters themselves, they were being paid or forced to work for the shifters. He was sure of it.
He jogged away from the dragon’s lair, down a sandy trail and over a small ridge. When he found himself by the river, he knew his luck was holding. The river was swift and wide, and it was rushing away from the chopper at high speed. By the time they tracked the chopper, the tracking unit would be closer to the ranger’s station than the dragon’s lair, or at the very least, heading that way. It would confuse them for a little while, and they would have no idea where the actual chopper was.
Kaden found a large branch the size of his arm laying near the bank of the river. Using the wires that hung frayed from the unit, he tied it around the branch as tightly as he could, then pitched it into the river.
It wouldn’t float for long before the wires worked themselves loose and the unit sunk to the bottom, but it would keep it afloat for a few miles if Kaden was lucky, then the unit would kick around in the bottom of the river until it finally malfunctioned and fried from the water inside. It wasn’t the perfect plan, but it was what he had to work with.
He watched it until it went around a bend and out of sight. He couldn’t hide the smile on his face. This w
as what he’d been working toward for years. This moment and this evening. Everything was falling into place, a sure sign that the universe was on his side. He was in the right, working for good and ready to combat evil. The ranger had been an unexpected issue, but Kaden couldn’t help that the man had lunged at him. He’d acted in self-defense and Jack the forest park ranger had no one but himself to blame. He had made a mortal error, and Kaden wasn’t here to give second chances. You were either with him or against him, and the mountain lion proved that he was all in when it came to Ethan and the rest of his cohorts. It was a shame, but Kaden wasn’t surprised.
They always chose the wrong side.
Turning and jogging back, he made his way to the trail that led up the mountain and started up the steep incline on all fours. It was a long way to the top, and he had to get there as quickly as he could. Once he was up there, he could use the climbing gear to belay down the rock face instead of taking the long, switch-back trail that eased its way down. It would save him hours.
Every sign pointed towards success, and with giddy anticipation, Kaden climbed up the steep incline and didn’t let a few slides backward and a pile of small pebbles tumbling down the side of the hill onto him get him down.
He was going to win, and he was going to show Ethan and his friends once and for all that Kaden wasn’t a man that you messed with and walked away alive. Everyone who had a hand in hurting his family was going to pay. He was going to start with Ethan, but he would save the supposed FBI Agent for last. He’d draw her death out and make her suffer. It would be the sweetest kill of all, and when he was through, he hoped that their suffering would be a balm to his aching soul.
If killing his enemies didn’t heal his soul-deep wounds, nothing ever would.
CHAPTER 13
“Emma’s a dragon? I don’t understand,” Senora said.
“She is,” Ethan confirmed. “Full-blooded from the longest living line of dragons. She’s next in line to take my place as the Supreme Guardian. But she’s only thirteen, and she’s still got a few years before she’s ready. Usually, we wouldn’t keep my sister with me, because we’re the end of the line, but considering all of our younglings that have gone missing over the past few years, I don’t want Emma out of my sight for long. It’s against the rules, and it’s not how things are normally done. But there’s nothing normal about this fight.”
