Page 65 of Code Violation

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They’d left Rufus’s house before five a.m. and headed over to the trailhead. First light was around seven, but Forrest had wanted to get going sooner. He’d warned Nero that the hike was difficult and had made him look up the Staircase Trail on the other side of the mountain range so he’d have an idea of how hard it truly was.

Nero was determined not to let Rufus down. If he had hiked up this way after he’d last been seen, he’d been in the woods for too long.

“I feel a bit like the person who can’t swim that jumps in the river to try and save a friend,” Nero commented now. “Rufus is way more competent than we are.”

“At least Magnus knows the route we’re taking once we get up past Crook’s Trail.”

Forrest had texted his sister but not until the last minute.

“Lani’s going to be pissed,” Nero said, frowning.

“She couldn’t come anyway. Her leg isn’t fully healed.”

Nero snorted. “You know that isn’t why she’s going to be furious.”

“I know,” Forrest admitted. “I’ll apologize to her when we get back. I don’t want to wait around and have to explain everything to her and Chief Dear. Time is of the essence and she and Dear will need to do everything by the book. We just need to find Rufus.”

So, here Nero was, huffing and puffing his way up a wooded trail in the cold and rain. After surviving a car accident yesterday. The upside of the hike—if there was one—was that Forrest was in front so Nero got the pleasure of watching his strong form move ahead of him. Forrest may not like hiking into the woods but, to Nero at least, he seemed to know what he was doing.

“If I’m guessing right, we’re close to where Nick and Martin found the bones in January,” Forrest said, breaking into his thoughts.

Nero sped up a bit. He was interested in seeing the recovery site. But, he reminded himself, this foray into the woods was not about his podcast, this was about Rufus Ferguson, who, as far as they knew and hoped, was very much alive. Nero’s thighs were already complaining about the burn as they slogged through several hairpin turns that were inexorably guiding them farther and farther up the mountain.

He was focusing on Forrest’s shoulders again, trying to distract himself from his body’s reminders that he did not do this sort of thing very often, when he imagined he’d heard something out of place. Something that didn’t belong.

Daylight was doing its best to creep in through the soggy, moss-covered branches. There’d been a few bird calls but for the most part, the uphill slog had seemed remarkably silent. Almost as if flora and fauna were holding their breaths.

A bank of Oregon grape and wild rhododendron on the left side of the trail rustled, and the drops of rain that had managed to cling to the leaves fell with a splatter to the ground. Nero spun to face it, not sure what he was expecting to see. Maybe a Sasquatch? A guy could always hope.

“Vik,” Rufus hissed quietly. It was Rufus’s voice anyway.

Nero stopped walking and peered into the bushes for a moment before the face of Rufus Ferguson resolved into something that made sense to his brain. The older man was peering out from a seven-foot shrub. Forrest was still moving up the trail ahead of Nero.

“Rufus?” Nero whispered back. “We’re looking for you,” he said stupidly.

“Well, I’m right fucking here, aren’t I? And you two idiots are walking right into danger. Get Forrest back here. Pretend you’ve just seen the largest banana slug in existence or even better, pretend you tripped and hurt yourself or something. Just do it now.”

The expression on Rufus’s face told Nero this was not the time for questions.

“Forrest,” Nero called out. “I need a hand. I think I twisted my ankle.”

He sat down on a fallen log and rubbed his leg to give proof to the lie.

About sixty feet ahead of where Nero waited, Forrest stopped walking and turned around to head back down the path.

“What happened?” he asked when he was closer.

Nero rubbed his thighs—they did hurt—and nodded in the direction of the man-height rhododendron.

“What?”

“Look closely and don’t make loud noises. But also pretend like you’re checking on me. Mostly because I’d like that.”

Forrest did as Nero directed, kneeling and running his hand along Nero’s thigh and shin without saying anything innuendo-ish—which went to show how anxious he was—while looking toward the bushes.

“Don’t say anything. I’m fine,” Rufus said. “You two need to get back down this mountain and into town. Just pretend like Vik can’t make it any further. Do not ask why, just do it. Now.”

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