Smoky Mountains Ranger. Lena Diaz
didn’t go to college. I went to TSU, Tennessee State University, I... Sorry. Short and to the point. I forgot. Sorry.”
“It’s okay. I went to TSU, too. When’s the last time you saw her?”
She patted her pocket to check the time of Tracy’s last text messages on her phone. But her pocket was empty. They all were. “My phone and keys are gone.” She shook her head. “I know. Doesn’t matter. I think the last I heard from her was at work yesterday. She’s full-time. I’m part-time. I left at my usual two o’clock.”
He steered her around a downed tree. “Friday at 2:00 p.m.? You’re sure?”
“Pretty sure. I’m not counting the fake text this morning. The guy with the gun must have sent that. He tricked me.”
“We’ll get to that in a second. Are you sure you didn’t talk to Tracy on the phone after 2:00 p.m.?”
“Talk?”
His mouth quirked up in a smile. “Forgive me. I’m a doddering thirty-year-old who actually uses phones for spoken conversations. Let me rephrase. Did you text each other? Share anything on social media?”
She surprised herself by laughing, which seemed obscene given the situation. She quickly sobered. “Sorry. But the idea of you being described as doddering is ridiculous. Trust me, most women my age would count themselves lucky to be with a guy as smokin’ hot as you.”
Her face flushed with heat as soon as the words left her mouth. She absolutely refused to look at him. “Text, yes, we texted a few times. Nothing seemed out of the norm. Then, this morning, I got a new text from her saying she needed to meet me, that it was urgent. She said she’d be waiting in the parking lot at the Sugarland Mountain trailhead. I went to the visitor center, and her car wasn’t there. I texted her to ask where she was, and she said in the parking lot on the other end of the trail, not the visitor center. So I headed there. Only, when I got there, her car wasn’t there, either.”
Tears burned the backs of her eyes, but she refused to give in to the urge to cry again. She swallowed against her tight throat and continued. “There were a couple of cars besides mine on the other side of the lot. One of them was a minivan with a family and kids. I didn’t see anyone in the other car, a black Charger. Not then. The family went to use the public facilities by the beginning of the trail. Tracy texted back that she’d be there in a few minutes and to wait. I ducked into the restroom, chatted with some of the people from the minivan. They left before me. When I came out, they were just pulling out of the parking lot. That’s when he got out of the car.”
“Who? The guy with the tattoos?”
“Yes. I started toward my car, then stopped. He was walking really fast, straight toward me. But there wasn’t anyone else around. And the men’s restrooms were on the other side of the lot. There was no reason for him to be hurrying toward me. I don’t know how to explain it. But he gave me the creeps, and he was between me and my car. I didn’t want to let him get too close. So I walked toward the trail. I looked over my shoulder, and that’s when I saw the gun.” She swallowed. “He had a pistol sticking out of his pants pocket. I ran. I hopped over the cattle gate blocking the trail and took off. And he took off after me.”
“Did he fire the gun?”
She frowned. “No. No, he never did. Not until you and I were running up the trail later.”
He nodded as if that made sense to him. “Go on. You ran. Then what happened?”
“I used to run track in high school. I was pretty fast. But I’m not used to running up mountains or having to hop over downed trees. I couldn’t sprint and pull away like I would in a flat footrace. He caught up to me right where you saw us. And he...he pointed his gun at me. And he...” She drew a ragged breath.
“You’re doing great, Jody. Slow, deep breaths. What did he do next? What did he say to you?”
As much as she wanted to be strong for her friend, she was having a hard time holding back her terror. What was happening to Tracy right now? What had that man done to her? Was she even alive or had he lied to her?
“Jody. What did the man do when he caught you on the trail?” He steered her around a particularly rocky section and past some thorny shrubs.
She murmured her thanks and straightened. She could do this. She had to. For Tracy’s sake. “He told me I had something of his and he wanted it. He said if I didn’t give it to him, he would...he would kill Tracy.” In spite of her efforts to stay calm, tears tracked down her cheeks. “He had her phone, showed it to me. That’s how I knew he was telling the truth. He must have texted me to meet him there, pretending he was her. No way could he have gotten her phone without taking it from her. That thing is practically attached at her hip.”
He pulled her to a halt and grasped her shoulders. “What do you have that he wants?”
“I don’t have anything. I swear. He insisted I have pictures, maybe a video, or knew where they were. He said my boss had seen something he shouldn’t have and that there was a gap in the time stamps on the pictures.”
“Your boss?”
“Sam Campbell. He’s a private investigator. Tracy and I work for him.” She looked away, panic swelling inside her again. She’d been so stupid. So very, very stupid.
“You know what he’s after, don’t you?” The thread of steel was back in his voice.
She glanced up at him and wiped at the tears on her cheeks. “Not specifically, no. I assume that Sam performed surveillance on him, that he’s one of Sam’s clients. But all of Sam’s pictures and videos are locked up at the office. I told him that. He shook his head, said that he’d searched there already. That’s when we heard you whistling. He told me to keep my mouth shut, that Tracy would die if I told you anything.”
His eyes widened. “You lied to me up on the trail to get me to leave you two alone, knowing he had a gun? If I’d bought your story, you would have been all alone with him. He could have killed you.”
“I know. Looking back, it was stupid. But I didn’t know what else to do. Tracy—” Her voice broke.
“You thought he would kill her if you didn’t do what he told you. You risked your life for her. Whatever happens, you can’t blame yourself. You did what you could.”
She shook her head. “No. I was stupid, too scared to think straight. You don’t make deals with criminals. What I should have done was shove him or something when you came up and yelled a warning.” Her hand shook as she raked her hair back from her face. “You could have been killed.”
He frowned. “Is that why you came looking for me after I chased Tattoo Guy down the trail? You were trying to save me?”
She snorted. “Fat lot of good it did. I just slowed you down. And now you’re all scratched up and out here with me, without a weapon, with a couple of thugs possibly coming after us. I’m such an idiot.”
His warm, strong hand gently urged her chin up so she had to look at him.
She pushed his hand away. “Go ahead. Yell at me. My stupidity has probably gotten my friend killed and nearly got you killed. Every decision I made was wrong. You’d have thought I would have learned better at college.”
“What do you mean?”
“I studied criminal justice, graduated with honors. Not that it means I have any sense. Might as well tear up that piece of paper.”
He frowned. “Aren’t you being a bit hard on yourself? You drove up here because a friend said she needed you. A man chased you with a gun, threatened to kill your friend if you didn’t do what he said. And as soon as you had a chance to escape, instead, you went toward trouble, to help a law enforcement officer you thought was in need. From where I stand, that’s pretty darn amazing.”
She blinked. “What?”
“You