Page 71 of The Lovely and the Lost

Whoever had pulled Bella from the river had told her that her parents were gone. They’d let her believe it washerfault. A spark of rage caught fire inside me, but I smothered it, lest Bella see even a hint of anger on my face.

“The angel promised to take care of me,” Bella repeated softly. “AndIpromised to help the angel.”

Those words sent a chill down my spine. “Help?” I repeated. “Help with what?”

Bella didn’t answer.

“Your angel,” I said, suddenly on high alert. “Are they close by? Are they coming back?”

Still no answer from Bella.

“Can you tell me what the angel looks like?” I knew, even before I asked the question, that Bella wouldn’t answer this, either. The tiny hand that had been creeping toward mine pulled back, her fingers curling inward.

Don’t push. Don’t scare her. Don’t force her to talk.

I shifted backward, giving her space, even as my mind began to race. I had to get her out of here. I had to get her home.

I wished—desperately—that Cady were here in my place. I had enough trouble dealing with my own emotions. Dealing with a child’s felt like juggling glass. “Guess what?” I said, hoping that I hadn’t spooked her past the point of reply.

After a long moment, Bella whispered, “What?”

I let out a breath. “Mommy and Daddy are back now,” I said softly. “They’re waiting for you, and, Bella?” My voice caught in my throat. “They’re going to be so happy to see you.”

Bella had a family. She had people who loved her. She had something to go home to. Concentrating on that—and ignoring the lump in my throat—I took my cell phone out of my pack.No service.I hadn’t really expected that there would be. I went for the radio next and dialed it in to the station the rangers used.

“Can anyone hear me?” I put the words out into the ether but got nothing but static in response. “Come in.” I heard the faintest hint of something on the other end of the line. “Come in. This is Kira Bennett. I found Bella. I repeat, I found Bella. Our coordinates are…” As I gave them our coordinates, I stood, appraising our surroundings, all too aware of the fact that Bella’s kidnapper could—and probablywould—return.

“Did you get those coordinates?” I waited for a response and got none. “Do you read me? Come in.” I repeated myself several times, then took my fingers off the call button but didn’t stop speaking. “Please…” I found myself saying, “Cady…come in.”

Find me. Bring me home.

I ground my teeth together and swallowed. I hadn’t cried when I’d buried Silver. I couldn’t afford to lose it now. If I couldn’t be certain that help was coming, I’d have to break protocol and bring Bella in myself. I was fairly certain that she wasn’t injured—at least not the type of injury that would prevent me from moving her—and the longer we stayed here, the greater the chances that Bella’sangelwould be back.

“Is Cady coming?”

I looked down to see Bella at my side, Saskia standing guard between us.

Smiling, Bella reached a hand out to mine. I took it, marveling at the change in her demeanor.

“The angel said that Cady saves people,” Bella whispered. “And the angel doesn’t lie.”

The trip back was slower with a child in tow, but Bella didn’t show any signs of hunger or dehydration—or fear. If anything, from the moment she’d heard me say Cady’s name, she’d been ready and willing to follow wherever Saskia and I led.

As much easier as that made things for me, I couldn’t keep from turning the last thing Bella had said over and over in my mind. Bella’s kidnapper had told her about Cady. That was disconcerting enough, but the way Bella had phrased it—the angel said that Cady saves people—made me think that the kidnapper hadn’t just expected the girl to be found.

He wanted Cady to find her.

Somehow, I doubted thehein question was Andrés Cortez. Andrés had never met Cady. He’d have no way of knowing what she did for a living. The person who’d taken Bella had led us on an elaborate chase. Every time we’d lost the trail, we’d found it again, farther on.The strip of cloth telling us that Bella made it out of the river. The smear of blood at Sorrow’s Point. The windbreaker the kidnapper left in the cave. The spotting in Alden.

And now I’d found Bella, less than two miles from where she’d been taken.

Why?

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up a second before I heard a twig break in the distance. The sound of footsteps followed, and I immediately put my body in front of Bella’s. My senses alive, every muscle on high alert, I tracked the footfalls coming closer.

Why leave Bella so close to where she was taken?The question morphed in my mind.Why set her out like bait in a trap?

I bent and picked up a rock. As weapons went, it was unimpressive, but if I’d been caught in a hunter’s snare, I wasn’t going down without a fight.