Page 18

She pressed her lips together, then stormed ahead, leaving me and Onyx to chase after her.

The ocean materialized before us with the glow from a half-moon dancing across the gentle waves. After we had spent hours in the suffocating swamp, the salty breeze felt like freedom.

A barrier of mangroves stood with exposed roots like gnarled fingers clawing through coarse sand.

We marched a couple of feet out of the bushes, and I paused, squinting at the coastline that stretched endlessly in both directions.

The fading light had turned the landscape into a monochrome puzzle, and both directions of the coastline were identical. Same but different.

"Shit." I yanked my phone from my pocket, but it wasn’t just a lack of signal that was the problem. The battery was dead. "Fuck."

"Lost?" Tory's voice carried that special blend of exhaustion and accusation that only beautiful, pissed-off women could manage.

I oriented myself toward the last of the glow from the setting sun, desperately trying to reconstruct my first moves after I’d left my car.

Picturing the curve of the shoreline and the way the dunes had sloped, I pointed left, praying my internal compass wasn't as ragged as the rest of me.

"My Jeep's that way, tucked behind the dunes. "

Onyx nuzzled impatiently at my hand, then pointed her nose in the same direction. That, more than anything, convinced me I was right. Her sense of direction hadn’t failed me yet.

I stepped over a root as thick as my thigh with a surface that was green and slick with algae. When I turned to offer Tory a hand, she ignored it, planting her palms on the twisted wood and swinging herself over with perfect grace. My eyes lingered on her legs a moment longer than they should.

As we picked our way through the mangroves, each step a careful negotiation between roots and black sand, my mind wandered to Whitney, who was probably still waiting for me at Angelsong.

Had he managed to convince Parker to help him?

He'd been adamant about keeping the discovery between us three.

If he was still there alone with that body, he would be cursing my name with every breath.

Thank God he'd brought those protein bars with him.

Whitney on an empty stomach was like dealing with a restless dog .

. . snappy, impatient, and ready to bite over nothing.

"Jaxson!" Tory's voice cracked through my thoughts like a whip. She'd planted herself in my path, her silhouette stark against the darkening sky. "Enough with the stalling. Tell me why you were in that swamp or I'm going to?—"

"All right. Okay. Sorry.” I heaved a sigh, hoping my brothers understood my reasoning for telling Tory. “I was at Angelsong Orphanage." The words hung between us, and I cursed myself for not telling her sooner. "You know it?"

Moonlight caught in her eyes as she frowned. "The abandoned one? Where they found all those unmarked graves?"

"That's the one. It’s about ten miles north of here."

Onyx growled low, then barked at a wave washing over the tangled roots.

“Onyx, heel.” I tapped my thigh, not wanting her midnight swim instincts to kick in.

Her barking grew more insistent.

"Onyx. Quiet."

She jumped over a piece of driftwood, the same weathered log I'd passed hours earlier when I was racing toward the gunshots and screams. Good, we are going in the right direction.

The mangroves opened enough for Tory and me to walk side by side, weaving carefully over the maze of exposed roots.

"What were you doing at Angelsong?" She grabbed my arm, digging her fingers in as her bare foot sank into soft sand.

"I’m training Onyx as a tracker. She's four now and has spent most of her career focusing on attack work. But she's got a natural talent for tracking. I bring her to Angelsong when I can to search for more unmarked graves."

"Oh." As Tory studied my face, her expression softened. "That's . . . did you find any?"

I heaved a sigh. “Unfortunately. Three more skeletons of kids. They were probably barely teenagers.”

None of that information would put her at risk.

“Jesus.” She shook her head, and her blonde hair spilled over her shoulder. "It's terrible what happened at that place. I'm an orphan myself."

My steps faltered. "Oh, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be." A tight smile crossed her face. "I lived in an orphanage for about two years, but then I was adopted by a loving family and had a great childhood, all things considered."

I nodded, watching Onyx navigate the roots ahead of us. "That's good to hear. Unfortunately, I don't come across many stories like yours in my line of work. How old were you when you lost your parents?"

"Six."

I whistled. "That's young. Your parents must have been young themselves."

"They died on Mom's thirty-fifth birthday." Her voice remained steady, but her eyes fixed on some distant point over the water.

"God, I'm sorry. May I ask what happened?"

"Sure." She tucked her hair behind her ear as if collecting her thoughts. "Dad bought Mom a scenic flight for her birthday. A joy flight over the North Queensland islands. Out there."

She swept her hand toward the ocean where the Milky Way shimmered across the darkening sky and mirrored in the black water below. "Something happened mid-flight, and the plane crashed into the water. There were no survivors."

“Jesus.” Her tone was so matter-of-fact, I got the sense she’d told this story too many times, sanding it down to the bluntest version. “And yet you still became a pilot?”

A ghost of a smile brushed her lips. “Flying makes me feel closer to them. I like to think their last hours were beautiful . . . soaring over the islands, the sea glittering beneath them. Before they . . . you know.”

“Do they know what caused the crash? Engine failure?” I asked softly.

She shook her head. “No idea. There was no communication. No Mayday. They just dropped from the radar and nobody saw anything.”

“Lucky you managed to make your Mayday,” I said, “otherwise I might never have found you.”

Her hand drifted through her hair, a gesture that seemed more habit than thought.

“Ever since I got my pilot’s license, I’ve been trying to understand how it happened.

It was a perfect day. The pilot was experienced.

” Her voice caught. "Mom sent me photos from up there showing crystal waters dotted with islands like jewels.

Then, twenty minutes later . . . just gone. Three lives lost without a reason."

Her gaze drifted to where the horizon melted into darkness. "Something happened up there, Jaxson. Something I can’t explain.”

A tightness settled in my chest as I nodded. “It’s the not knowing that’s the worst.”

My mind slipped to my sister Charlotte. She'd been a force of nature at sixteen. Dragging her friends into every party or saving-the-animals cause, overflowing with restless energy, and a fiery temper.

Maybe having older triplet brothers fueled that fire in her. I could still see her that last day, dark hair whipping across her face as she spun toward the door. Her final words, hurled over her shoulder: "And turn your stupid music down!"

Twenty years later, and that slammed door still echoed in my head.

But it was the silence that followed her disappearance that drowned out so many other memories I had of her.

Some nights, my mind filled that silence with possibilities, each one worse than the last. Where did she go?

What happened to her? Was she still alive?

The questions gnawed deeper with each passing year.

Tory leveled her gaze at me, and fearful she’d catch on that I, too, had a loss, I said, “Anyway, my brother, Whitney, may still be at Angelsong, so I said I’d come back to him. When we get to my car, I’ll charge my phone and give him a call. It’s possible he may have already left. ”

Tory nodded. “I wouldn’t mind checking out Angelsong anyway. I heard it was a fascinating building.”

“When it was built, yes. Pity it was used for such horrors.”

Onyx jerked her head toward the right. “Hey, what you got, girl?”

A few paces later, she stopped at my shirt and shoes that I’d tucked beneath a twisted mangrove root earlier.

“Good girl,” I said, rubbing the fur between her ears.

As I pulled on my shirt and settled on a log to clean my feet, Onyx's nose twitched and her hackles lifted slightly. I glanced between her and Tory, who'd waded into the shallows. She stood transfixed by a dark shape about fifty yards out.

"Ladybeetle," she whispered, pointing to an edge of one of the plane’s floats barely breaking the surface. Her voice cracked on the name, and her shoulders trembled.

I abandoned my shoes and splashed into the shin-deep water to wrap her in my arms. She collapsed against me, her sobs muffled in my shirt.

"Hey," I murmured into her hair. "You survived that crash. That’s nothing short of incredible."

Her fingers clung to my shirt, and her sobs deepened. As I tightened my hold on her, my gaze drifted to the jagged outline of the plane float. The tide must have receded because the float had been completely submerged when I first spotted it.

Out on the dark water, faint lights flickered and bobbed in the distance. Hope surged through me. Could it be a search boat looking for Tory?

The thought evaporated as quickly as it formed, replaced by a sick, icy dread in my stomach.

The board didn’t have sweeping searchlights or flashing emergency beacons. Just a low, dark rubber boat, its white wake a knife cutting through the black water.

It was fucking fast and heading straight for us.

"Shit!" I hissed through clenched teeth, yanking Tory’s hand hard. "We’ve got to move. Now."

Onyx let out a deep, throaty growl, the sound reverberating up her throat as we stumbled out of the shallows. The moonlight played tricks on the landscape, twisting shadows into grotesque shapes. The mangrove roots clutched at our legs as we scrambled over them.

"Jesus, they’re still after me!" Tory’s voice cracked, sharp and panicked. “What do we do?"

"Run!" I snapped, breathless, pulling her along harder as my eyes darted across the terrain.

Where the hell is my car?

Onyx barked again, her hackles bristling as her nose swung toward the boat. The bark echoed across the water, impossibly loud, like a goddamn beacon.

"Onyx, quiet!" I hissed, but she wouldn’t stop. She knew something was wrong.

"I can’t—" Tory gasped, her voice trembling. "I can’t—How much farther?"

Her feet tangled in a mangrove root. I caught her under the arm, hauling her upright.

"Keep going. My car isn’t far." I hope.

Her shaking fingers clutched mine.

"They’re going to catch us," she whispered, her words breaking into a sob. “They’ll kill us.”

"No, they won’t," I said. "Just keep moving!"

The incline loomed ahead, steep and jagged, but I still couldn’t see the trail I took down from the car. My heart pounded against my ribs as I scanned the shadows, desperate for some sign that we were going the right way.

A broken mangrove branch jutted sideways, stark and pale where I'd snapped it earlier. The tree bark seemed to gleam in the moonlight.

“Yes. Over there!" I gripped Tory's arm tighter, dragging her toward the incline.

Her legs buckled, and she nearly collapsed, her breaths coming in short, panicked bursts.

"I can’t," she whimpered, tears streaming down her face.

"You can," I growled, wrapping an arm around her waist and practically hauling her up the incline. "We’re almost there! Come on!"

The mud was slick beneath our bare feet, clinging to our skin as we scrambled upward. My lungs burned with every breath, my muscles screaming in protest, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.

My Jeep was barely visible against the shadows, but it was there. Relief flooded through me, and hope glimmered in the crushing darkness.

A faint, high-pitched whistle sliced through the night air, so soft I almost didn’t register it at first.

I froze. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

I spun back toward the water as a streak of light arced toward us, and my blood turned to ice.

“RPG!” I said. “Down!”

I tackled Tory to the ground, wrapping my arms around her as I yanked Onyx down with my other hand. The impact drove the air from my lungs.

The RPG slammed into my Jeep with a deafening blast.

Flames erupted into the sky, a towering column of fire that lit up the night in a blinding burst of orange and red. For one horrific second, it was as if the entire world had been swallowed by light.

Shards of burning metal and shattered glass rained down around us, hissing as they embedded themselves into the damp earth. The acrid stench of smoke and gasoline hit like a punch to the face, choking the air.

The shockwave followed, rolling over us like a physical force. It drove me harder into the ground as the impact rattled my bones. My ears rang, drowning out everything but the crackling roar of the fire.

I raised my head, coughing as acrid smoke filled my lungs. My Jeep was a blazing wreck with twisted metal glowing red-hot, flames hungrily consuming what was left. Everything was gone, obliterated in an instant: the tires, the cabin, the seats. Our one shot at escape was a metal fireball.

Tory whimpered beneath me, trembling as she clutched my body.

Onyx pressed herself low to the ground, her whine barely audible over the crackle of flames.

The fire roared louder, and as the heat licked my skin, panic rose in me like a demon.

Fuck! We’re in trouble.