Page 12 of Not This Night

"No," she replied curtly, not breaking stride. "It's there."

“Well?”

"Someone's out there," Rachel muttered, eyes narrowed against the glare of the sun.

Ethan squinted, scanning the area. "Where? I don't—"

"Shh." Her hand shot up, halting him. "They moved. When we looked their way."

"Moved?" He searched the landscape, seeking movement in the stillness. Dust devils danced in the distance. Rocks and cacti stood as silent witnesses. Nothing more.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed, “I… I think I see it. There? That shadow on the cliff?” he nodded eagerly.

"That’s a rock," she clarified, her voice low. “Whoever it was, he’s gone. He bolted when he spotted us.”

“I didn’t see anything.”

She didn’t reply to this. Her eyes were trained to pick out vagaries.

"Could've sworn..." Ethan let his sentence trail off. It was easy to see phantoms in this heat-wavering expanse.

Rachel, undeterred by the tricks of light and shadow, marched toward the base of the cliff. The sand gave way to sturdier ground, each step raising puffs of dust that clung to their boots. She led the way to where the land rose, and the scrub brush grew denser.

"Trail goes up," she stated, pointing to a narrow path barely visible among the rocks.

"Up there?" Ethan's eyebrows lifted. "Looks barely touched."

She pointed to a gray rock. “That’s moved—see the imprint in the sand?”

He chuckled sheepishly. “Nope.”

Rachel studied Ethan for a moment, at the way he stood there, rubbing a hand through his shaggy hair. He had that awkward little smile on his lips that was so often there.

She found she liked watching him smile.

The two of them had started off as partners. But things had shifted between them. There was a growing warmth, a familiarity, and these soft moments of honesty.

And sometimes, truth was a simple, quiet thing. It didn’t have to be profound. It could be honest.

“You’re cute, you know that,” she said simply.

He blinked at her, opened his mouth, closed it again and grinned widely.

And in her own small, stilted way, Rachel grinned back.

“Drinks tonight?” he blurted out.

She chuckled, turning away as she shrugged one shoulder. “Not one to pass up an opportunity, huh?”

“Is that a yes?”

She hesitated, gnawing her bottom lip for a moment as she looked off into the distance. “Yeah. Yeah, sure. Might be nice.”

When Rachel looked back, Ethan’s grin only widened further, and she allowed the small smirk on her lips to display a moment longer. But then she turned her attention back to the cliff face.

There was too much to do yet. If the man at the end of these tracks had seen them, things could get complicated fast.

“Here, the trail is that way,” she instructed.

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