Page 21 of Snowbound Threat

Was someone else there?

She had visions of a TV show where the person was under duress, reading from a card. Or forced at gunpoint to say what the kidnapper wanted.

“I can do that.” She had to sound sincere, and like she knew nothing. Anddefinitelylike there wasn’t a trained DEA agent out there in the woods with a big gun and plenty of bullets. “But I don’t know where the hunting cabin is. I’ve never been there.”

“I’ll send my location. Share it.”

She frowned; unsure he even knew how to do that. He’d never done it before. That only solidified the idea that someone else was there. “Okay.” She got a ping on her phone. “I have it already. I see where you are.”

“I’ll need you to go talk to Ian Rourke. Tell him I need the white envelope. He’ll know what I’m talking about.” Her father paused. “Come quickly, Tess.”

Her throat started to close, and she had to swallow against the sensation. “Are you safe at least?”

“If you can bring me the white envelope.”

“I’ll get it.” She squeezed the steering wheel, unsure what to say. She didn’t feel like she could tell him she knew about it. Something about this conversation wasn’t right at all. She should turn around and go back to the deputy, but everything in her said she’d have better success with a certain other lawman.

“Come quickly.”

The call ended.

Tessa hit the brakes and jerked the wheel, pulling over to the side of the road. She took a few deep breaths and stared at the asphalt ahead. The trees. The mountain peaks she saw every day. The place she called home, where she had sought comfort from the familiar and the things she considered mundane.

Now the world was far too much like a strange place she didn’t understand. Somewhere she felt like she had to navigate blind, not knowing the rules or how anything worked.

In a single day her entire existence seemed to have been upended.

She tapped her phone screen and called Caleb. The last thing he’d done before he walked away back down that path was get her number and give her his. Then he quickly picked up his stride into a fast jog she never would have been able to keep up with.

Now her reason for calling was something far different.

Chapter Nine

Caleb crept to the rear of the cabin where Tessa’s father supposedly was. The location he’d sent to Tessa over that phone call.

The squat structure looked like a stiff breeze would blow it over. One of the windows around back had been smashed and boarded up with wood planks. He wanted to get a full circle look at the place but had to be able to do it without being seen by anyone inside the house.

Pine trees towered over the structure, and they had dropped needles all over the roof. One of the gutters was completely clogged.

Caleb could see his breath in front of him. The daytime temperature wasn’t much higher than the early morning chill, and he wondered if there was a winter storm on the forecast.

Probably better not to be out here overnight if he could help it. Even if he had spent time in worse places.

To the left of the cabin he spotted three ATVs. That meant at least three people inside the house, unless one of them belonged to the man he’d seen, and shot, in the woods. Two plus Tessa’s father at the least. Maybe more.

He wanted to say he had faced worse odds, but considering Tessa was on her way here he didn’t think he’d ever been in a situation like this before.

He stopped and asked for wisdom, praying for their protection and asking for justice. He still didn’t even consider contacting the sheriff’s department. He didn’t want to coordinate with anyone else, adding so many more variables to the mix. Not just that, but he needed to keep this situation under wraps for as long as he could.

He crept out from behind cover, praying he wasn’t seen. All the way over to the ATVs. The closest one had wide enough tire tracks that it could have been the vehicle in front of the preacher’s on the highway. The vehicle used to lure him off the road.

Caleb pulled out his multitool and flicked it open. He cut the fuel line on the underside of the ATV, then did the same with the other two. With them leaking that liquid into the dirt, he crept back to the bushes and moved down the side of the house to the front. He hunkered down in a spot where he could see the front door.

This was the kind of place anyone could enter at any time. A pitstop used in hunting season, or for anyone who came upon the structure. A refuge for anyone to get out of the weather. No one kept up with repairs or maintained the spot, but a person in need might be able to find a couple of cans of chili and a blanket inside.

His phone buzzed in his pocket.

Caleb slid it out and saw Tessa was calling. “Hey.”