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“And Gray has your phone.” She shook her head. “Let’s look at this logically. If men are searching the woods, they’re looking for something or someone. It could be lost dog or a cat.”

“I didn’t see any signs that there were pets living here.”

“Me neither. They could be looking for Emmaline’s missing cell phone?”

“They’d probably do that in the daylight.”

“I agree. So, chances are good that what they’re looking for is a human being.”

“Highly likely.”

“So, if you were going to run from this place, which way would you go?”

“If I were thinking clearly?”

“Let’s assume that’s the case. If by chance it’s Cate, she would try to keep a level head.”

“I’d stay close enough to the road to follow it, but far enough away so that I couldn’t be spotted by vehicles and search lights.”

“Makes sense.”

“Shall we do the same?”

Sam entered the woods near the drive they’d used to access the property. Her heels sunk deep into the peat moss making traversing the ground a chore. Gavin stayed close and reached out to steady her when she stumbled. “You’re right. These heels are a menace.”

“Barefoot probably isn’t a good plan either.”

“No. Keep going, I’m going to head back.”

“Not a chance am I letting you out of my sight. I’m missing a sister. I refuse to lose you, too.”

She reached out and touched his face caressing his cheek bone. “You can’t lose someone you never had.”

“Don’t close yourself off to me, Sam.”

Drawing in a deep breath, she took a step away and dropped her hands to her sides.

“Tell me about the portrait.”

“It’s a painting of my father.” The words were a mere whisper, but the questions inside her head were shouting for answers.

Mason’sleathersoledshoesmade a brushing sound on the marble tile as he strode toward the security office. His head of security, Dennis Derck, wasn’t in the control room. Ted Roberts sat at the wall of monitors.

“What triggered the alarm?”

“Could be an animal?”

“Isn’t that why we have deer fencing to keep that from happening? And smaller animals shouldn’t be able to trigger it, right?”

“Dennis has four men out there combing the woods. The trigger didn’t come from the fenced area, it was from the area near the driveway. Could simply be a malfunction, but it’ll take some time to investigate.”

“Very well.” He turned on his heel.

“Sir?”

“What is it?”

“That was actually the second alert we had tonight. The silent alarm went off about forty-five minutes ago, but we had instructions not to disturb you.”