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J essica Sullivan frowned when she spied Logan Fletcher’s plane making a wide arc above the ranch. Logan hadn’t mentioned stopping by, so she wasn’t sure what had brought him to their neck of the woods. Since losing their parents five and a half years ago, she lived on the Sullivan K9 Search and Rescue Ranch with her eight siblings. They’d turned the family’s former lush dude ranch into a renowned search and rescue operation.

Eyeing Logan’s plane, she had to acknowledge her feelings toward Logan were—complicated. She’d had a crush on him in high school—while he’d been dating her best friend, Ella. Then Ella had died of a drug overdose. Losing her friend had killed her crush, as Jess had held Logan responsible.

But he’d claimed he wasn’t involved. That he’d never done drugs and hadn’t even known Ella had started using them. Ella’s brother, Ethan, had also blamed Logan. Eight years later, she’d managed to forgive him to a point. But their once close relationship had been lost forever.

With a sigh, she glanced down at her K9, Teddy, a black Belgian sheepdog that had been trained as a narcotics dog. She’d worked for the TSA prior to her parents’ death. Since returning to the ranch, she’d begun cross-training Teddy on people scents to help their search and rescue operations. She might be biased, but Teddy was a quick learner. Eager to please, unlike Chase’s K9, Rocky. Spring was in the air, but there was still plenty of snow on the ground. Logan would land his prop plane on the makeshift air landing strip they kept plowed year-round specifically for this purpose. When it came to search and rescue, they never knew what method of travel they’d need to use.

“Come, Teddy.” She turned her back on her three-bedroom cabin to trudge across the ranch yard. As she approached the airstrip, she watched Logan land the plane with grace and skill. She had flown with him several times, along with Teddy, making sure her K9 wore earphones to protect his ears. She trusted Logan’s piloting skills. Standing off to the side with her dog, she waited for Logan to jump down from behind the pilot’s seat.

“Jess!” He jogged toward her. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“I live here,” she said dryly. When he flushed, she waved a hand. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound sarcastic. What’s going on?”

“I was flying near the Bighorn Mountains earlier when I spotted what appears to be a piece of a tail fin from a plane.” His green eyes locked on hers. “I immediately thought of you. I think we should head over to check it out.”

A piece from her parents’ plane? Her heart thumped in her chest. Five and a half years ago, she and her siblings had scoured the mountainside searching for their parents and the plane without success. As it happened, her parents were flying with a friend who had not installed a black box, which would have helped them locate the wreckage. “Where exactly did you spot it?”

“Easier if I show you.” At her look of impatience, Logan shrugged. “To be honest, it’s several miles from the projected path of your parents’ route, so it’s not within the usual search zone. But I circled around twice to log the location before heading here.”

That made her frown. “It could be from any plane.”

“Maybe.” He agreed. “I still think it’s worth checking out.”

“Okay. Let me grab Teddy’s gear.” She didn’t want to leave her K9 behind. “I’ll make a few sandwiches too.”

“That sounds good. I’ll wait here.” Logan gestured to his plane. “I’ll do a quick maintenance check.”

Jess knew Logan took his charter flying business seriously. He was more than the pilot; he performed all the maintenance work on his three different planes himself. She appreciated the extra safety precautions.

Despite losing her parents to a small plane crash, she wasn’t afraid of flying. Thankfully, Teddy didn’t mind flying either.

Returning to her cabin, she threw extra dog food, water, and K9 protective gear into a duffel. She took a few minutes to slap a couple of thick ham sandwiches together and packed them along with some additional items in a smaller backpack for herself. She already wore all-terrain boots but swapped out her regular hat and gloves for woolen ones. The weather was mild now, but it was better to be prepared.

“Come, Teddy.” As she turned to head back outside, she debated letting Maya or Chase know her plans. Then she decided against it. There would be plenty of time to fill them in if they were able to find and retrieve the plane debris.

If she and Logan couldn’t find it, there was no sense in getting her older siblings’ hopes up. As a family, they’d come to grips with their loss. Their faith in God and in knowing their parents had everlasting life with Jesus helped. It was the not knowing what had happened or why their parents’ plane had crashed that hurt the most.

A mystery that remained unsolved all these years later.

She quickened her pace with the backpack snug over her shoulders and the duffel thumping along her side. Teddy trotted next to her, his snout in the air. Even when he wasn’t working, Teddy eagerly explored his surroundings with his nose.

Logan stepped back from the plane, then crossed over to take the duffel from her. “I’ll store this in the back. Go ahead and jump in.”

This was a routine they’d done often, but Teddy’s ears pricked forward as he sniffed the passenger seat of the plane. Then he abruptly sat and let out a sharp bark.

What in the world? That was Teddy’s alert for scenting drugs.

She took a step back, wondering if something else had caught the K9’s attention. Logan was still storing the duffel in the back, so she held Teddy’s gaze. “Search! Search for peppers!” Peppers was the word she used for drugs. She didn’t like calling them candy, the way some narcotics handlers did. She personally hated peppers, so that was the term she’d used for drugs, which she also despised. It seemed the most appropriate for working with Teddy.

Teddy jumped to all fours and sniffed the area around the plane again. Then in almost the exact same spot, he sat and let out a sharp bark.

“What’s up with Teddy?” Logan asked.

She whirled to face him. “You tell me. He’s alerting on drugs. Drugs, Logan. Since when do you transport drugs?”

“What are you talking about?” Logan reared back as if she’d slapped him. “I have never transported drugs.”

“Wrong answer.” She gestured toward Teddy. “Teddy alerted on the scent of drugs.”

Logan frowned, then rushed forward to look around the interior of his plane. She stayed back, not sure she was ready to go anywhere with him.

Then he turned, his expression grim as he held up a black glove. “My last charter passenger must have left this behind.”

She walked forward to see it for herself. “You’re saying that guy may have been carrying drugs?”

Logan glanced at Teddy. “Your dog seems to think so. That’s the reason I was up over the mountains in the first place. I dropped this guy off at a small landing area that wasn’t too far away from the location where I spotted the tail fin. It’s not like I search people who pay for transportation. He didn’t appear to be under the influence or anything.”

“Where did he come from?”

“Cheyenne.” Logan frowned. “I have his name written down, but he paid in cash.”

Her eyes narrowed. “And you didn’t find that suspicious?”

A flash of anger darkened his eyes. “No, I didn’t. Those who can afford to charter a private plane often pay in cash. There’s no crime in hiring a plane. Doug paid me in cash back in January when he needed help. This is my business, remember? Besides, as I said, he seemed okay. Had a bunch of hunting and fishing gear.”

“Hunting in April?” she scoffed. “Not likely.”

“Wild turkey hunting is legal in April,” Logan said. “And fly-fishing opens in April. Look, it’s not my job to quiz these guys on their plans. He paid for a plane ride, and I flew him to his destination. End of story.”

“Except it’s not the end of the story,” she shot back. “Teddy alerted on drugs. That means your guy could be up to no good.”

Logan sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I know that now. What do you want me to do? Call the local police?”

She thought about that for a moment. They could alert her brother-in-law, Doug Bridges, about their suspicions. Doug was a former DEA agent who now worked for the Wyoming State Department of Criminal Investigations. The other option was to alert the game warden for the area. His name was Eddie Marsh.

“Jess, we don’t know this guy is a criminal,” Logan said. “He could have a legit prescription for pain meds. Or maybe he was carrying a small stash of weed.”

“You’re right.” She knew she was overreacting. Maybe because of the way Ella had overdosed all those years ago. She hated the idea of drugs being so accessible. But Ella had made the decision to take them. A choice that had proven fatal. Jess shook off the depression. “Okay fine. Let’s go. But I hope you don’t hear from that guy again. He may have a legit prescription, or he may not. This could be some new way of transporting drugs from one area of the state to the next.”

Logan hesitated, then nodded. “I agree. I’ll be too busy to take him on another trip.”

A flash of guilt hit hard. This was Logan’s livelihood. She had no right to ask him to turn down paying clients. Especially not during the colder months of the year when there were fewer tourists flocking to the area.

Still, turkey hunting and fly-fishing in April seemed a stretch. Spring might be in the air, warming the daytime temperatures to a balmy forty to fifty degrees, but during the night the temps dropped like a rock.

“Are you ready?” Logan sounded impatient.

“Yes. Get in, Teddy.” She waved to the plane. She decided against rewarding her K9 for his alert since there was no way to prove the dog had actually scented drugs. After the dog gracefully jumped into the plane, she followed suit.

But as Logan went through his checklist for takeoff, she made a note to let Doug know about Teddy’s alert when they returned. Better to play it safe.

Especially if the guy was up to no good.

Logan started the plane engine, glancing at Teddy who wore earmuffs like a pro. He’d seen the Sullivan K9s in action on many occasions, but this was the first time he’d been on the receiving end of an alert.

Had Craig Benton, his last charter client, been transporting drugs? At the time, the guy hadn’t seemed like someone who would be involved in that sort of thing. But now he kept seeing the roll of cash the guy had pulled from his pocket. Benton had peeled ten crisp one-hundred-dollar bills from the roll, handing them over without hesitation.

A drug dealer? Or just a rich guy looking to spend time in the mountains?

He turned his attention to flying the plane. He radioed the closest tower, located at Yellowstone Airport, to confirm his flight plan.

“Roger, two-five-seven, you’re good to go,” the dispatcher said.

“Ten-four,” he responded. Sensing Jessica’s gaze, he glanced over. “What?”

“Nothing. It’s just that every time we fly, I think of my parents heading home from Billings.” She waved a hand toward the Bighorn Mountains looming ahead. “I still don’t understand why they crashed.”

He thought about the jagged section of a tail fin he’d glimpsed from the sky. If he hadn’t taken Craig Benton to meet his alleged hunting buddies at the base of the mountain, he wouldn’t have seen it. “I’m sure it’s not easy to move forward without answers.”

She nodded without saying anything. He might wish things could be different between him and Jess, but Ella’s death loomed large between them. For the hundredth time, he wished he’d never asked Ella out. That he’d never gotten involved with the prettiest girl in their high school class in the first place.

But he had. And his life had been forever changed by her death.

Jess hadn’t been the only one who’d stared at him with accusing eyes. Ella’s brother, Ethan, had been extremely vocal. The local sheriff’s department had executed a search warrant on his house, his car, and his plane. They hadn’t found any drugs, but most of the townsfolk had assumed he’d gotten rid of the evidence.

Eventually, the whispers had stopped. But he knew there were still people in Cody who blamed him for Ella’s death.

Like Jess. Oh, she’d claimed that was nothing more than ancient history, but the old feelings had resurfaced after Teddy had alerted on the scent of drugs in his plane. The way she’d glared at him with suspicion had struck deep in his core.

He banked the Cessna to the right. Jessica leaned forward, searching the ground below. “We’re still ten minutes from the general area,” he told her.

She nodded to indicate she’d heard but continued scanning the rocky terrain below. No doubt, she was hoping to spot additional debris.

He understood her desire for answers. Five years ago, he’d logged countless flight hours while searching for her parents’ plane. Chase had insisted on paying for his fuel and time, and he’d only accepted because he’d been forced to turn away paying jobs in order to continue making flights to the mountainside and back. Something he wouldn’t have been able to do without the additional financial help.

The entire Sullivan family had been very grateful for his efforts. Even Jess.

He’d have given anything to have found something useful back then. And he had never stopped searching during his flights.

He found himself hoping this bit of plane debris would bring some answers.

Using the landmark of a jagged rock poking out from the side of the mountain, he slowly dropped the plane’s altitude. Tracking the rocky outcropping, he turned twenty degrees, then peered down through his side window.

“There it is!” He couldn’t hide his excitement. “Do you see it?”

“I think so.” Jess’s voice was uncertain. “I mean, I see something white, but I can’t tell what it is from here.”

“Hang on, I’ll circle around so we can get a little lower.” He banked the plane in an arc, putting some distance between the plane and the trees leering upward from the mountain.

He took the Cessna down another few hundred feet. This was the best he could do without risking the tops of some of the tree branches scraping along the underbelly of the plane.

“I think you’re right,” Jess said. “I can tell that it looks like the tail of a plane.”

“I’ll see if I can find a place to land.” He knew without being told that Jess wanted to retrieve the piece of debris. “It will be a long hike.”

“I know, but we have plenty of daylight left.” She glanced at him. “It’s only noon. We’ll eat our lunch and head out. We should be able to get there and back to the plane in plenty of time.”

“Okay.” He knew the mountains could be deceptive when it came to distance. What looked like an hour-long hike was likely triple that time frame. Especially since there was still plenty of snow covering the ground.

But this was why he’d brought her to the area, so there was no point in complaining. Thankfully, he always carried plenty of winter-weather gear. He wasn’t nearly as worried about the elements as he was about potentially damaging his plane. He scanned the area below. “Help me spot an area to land.”

Jess was silent for a moment. He noticed the long, flat stretch of land at the same time she did. “How about there?”

“It could be private property.” It seemed as if the stretch of land had been used as a landing strip in the past, as it was cleared of snow and brush. It wasn’t the one he’d used to drop off Craig Benton, but it wasn’t that far away either. He didn’t see a sign of a dwelling nearby. After a moment’s hesitation, he shrugged. “Okay, that will work. Hang on.”

Jess nodded. She wasn’t a nervous flier, taking the usual air-pocket bumps in stride. He turned again so he could approach the strip of open land straight on, then brought the plane in for a landing.

The minute he brought the Cessna to a stop, Jess ripped her headphones off and turned to remove the headgear from her dog. He shouldn’t have been surprised at how Teddy seemed to enjoy flying as much as Jess did.

“Down, Teddy.” Jess jumped down from the plane. Her dog followed suit. Then she snagged her backpack and pulled out two thick sandwiches. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.” He gratefully took the sandwich. “We’ll need to make sure we gear up,” he said between bites. The weather in spring could be dicey. There were no storms in the forecast earlier, but that could easily change without warning. “We need to be prepared for anything.”

“I know. That’s why I brought my backpack and Teddy’s duffel.” She ate her sandwich, too, while rummaging in the duffel for her dog’s equipment. The Sullivans always cared for their dogs before themselves.

After Jess finished eating, she placed a vest over Teddy’s torso and added padded booties over his paws. Logan checked his own pack, taking note of the bottles of water, protein bars, and dried fruit and nut packs that would have to serve as a late snack or early dinner if needed. When Jess had finished with Teddy, who surprisingly didn’t seem to mind the booties, he handed her half his rations. “We may need these later.”

“Thank you.” Her smile made his pulse jump. He forced himself to ignore the response. He was the last person Jess would consider dating, and the sooner he came to grips with that fact, the better.

“Anytime.” They took a moment to tuck the supplies away before donning their thick outer gear. Jess stuffed some dog food into her backpack. They each had a pack, so he couldn’t carry hers. “I have room if you need more supplies.”

“This should be fine.” She bent to give her dog some water from a collapsible dish. Then she straightened and tucked the dish into the pack. “Okay, we’re ready.”

“Let’s do this.” He headed off across the open stretch of land toward the woods surrounding the base of the mountain. Double-checking his compass, he verified they were headed in the correct direction.

Teddy navigated the rugged terrain without difficulty. He and Jess took things more slowly. It wasn’t just the snow-covered rocks and fallen branches, but there was no distinct path for them to follow. They had to forge their own way, often through thick brush.

They didn’t talk much, conserving their strength for the hike. After about forty minutes, Jess lifted her hand. “I’d like to give Teddy a break.”

“I need it more than he does,” he joked, sitting on a fallen log. Jess dropped beside him.

“Me too. I haven’t given Teddy the search command to track anything, but the way he’s sniffing around, I’m sure he’s burning as much energy as if he were on the hunt.”

Teddy sat beside her, looking up at her adoringly. The dog was protective of her, but thankfully, he didn’t view Logan as a threat.

He checked his compass. Years of flying had honed his sense of direction, and he could easily picture the area where they’d spied the plane piece in his mind. “We’re on the right trajectory. But we still have a good three miles to go.”

“Okay.” She took a sip of water, then passed the bottle to him. “That shouldn’t be a problem.”

He didn’t doubt her ability to keep up. Over the five years that the Sullivan family had been working search and rescue, he’d noticed they’d gotten in prime physical shape. He’d been so shallow in high school, far too concerned with dating the pretty, popular girl, that he’d overlooked the sweet and kind Jessica.

Reminding himself there was no point in reliving the past, he tucked the water bottle into his backpack, then stood and stretched. “Ready?”

“Yes.” She rose to her feet. “Come, Teddy.”

As if the dog wouldn’t follow , he thought with a wry smile. With his black coat and protective nature, Teddy’s name should have been Shadow.

They hiked for another thirty minutes, mostly in silence. Their conversation consisted of warning each other about environmental hazards such as fallen logs or the sudden appearance of a creek. Teddy forged ahead, then turned to wait for them to catch up before bounding forward again.

“He acts as if he knows our final destination,” Logan said.

“I’ve noticed that too.” She tracked the dog with her gaze. “Maybe he’s just glad to be out in the wilderness.”

He nodded. Jess would know her dog better than he did.

They stopped for another break. Once more, he looked down at his compass. “We’re making good time,” he said. “I estimate we have another thirty to forty minutes to go.”

She gave her dog some water, then tipped her head back to gaze up at the sky. “As much as I hate daylight savings time, it’s nice to know we have several hours of sunlight left.”

He grunted in agreement.

After a ten-minute rest, they continued moving through the brush. He broke through a particularly dense section of woods to find the clearing.

“I don’t remember seeing this from the plane,” Jess said with a frown. “Do you?”

“Not really.” He pulled out his compass to verify their location. “We may have veered slightly off course to the south. We’ll need to turn north, up the slope.”

“Okay.” She flashed a grin. “At least heading back to the plane should be easier.”

He took the lead, noticing that Teddy stayed closer to Jessica’s side now. He didn’t see any people tracks in the snow, so he didn’t anticipate danger from a human perspective.

Wild animals were another story.

He made another correction in their path, then continued climbing. When he crested a hill, he stopped and swung his gaze to the right.

“I see it!” Quickening his pace, he slipped and slid on the snow toward the metal object that was larger here than he’d anticipated. He bent and picked up the large chunk of metal that was clearly from a small plane.

“Are there any markings on it?” Jess was breathless as she joined him. Teddy, too, sniffed at the metal with interest.

He carefully turned the tail fin in his hands. “No, I don’t see any markings. Other than the rust from being in the elements.”

Jess frowned. “So we really can’t say for sure that this is a part of my parents’ plane.”

“No, we can’t. But we can have it tested. Maybe there’s a forensic way to identify how long this has been lying here.”

“I like that idea.” Jess’s blue eyes filled with hope. “I’m so glad we came.”

He was too. Anything for her to look at him like that.

A crack of gunfire rang out. Dropping the tail fin, Logan grabbed Jess’s arm, pulling her toward the closest tree. But she jerked free to turn toward her dog. “Teddy, come!”

The dog ran toward her as another shot rang out, striking the tree not far from Jess. She threw herself over Teddy, hauling the dog behind the tree. Logan covered Jess’s body with his, his mind racing. That last bullet had been too close for comfort. Whoever was shooting at them wasn’t hunting for wild turkeys.

Was this about his recent charter? Or something else?

Logan could only hope they’d survive long enough to find out.