Page 3 of Mistaken

Including someone like himself, who was not ordinary at all.

“Very well,” he said, knowing how heavy his voice sounded. “It is a place in northern New Mexico, quiet and isolated.”

He paused there.

“It is called Ghost Ranch.”

Chapter2

Sitting nextto her in her folding chair, Monica looked shocked, and Sarah couldn’t really blame the other woman. Until the instant when she’d raised her hand and volunteered for the Ghost Ranch mission, she herself hadn’t known that was what she truly intended to do.

In the next moment, though, someone in the audience stood.

“I’ll go,” the man said.

Sarah bit back a groan. Although he’d been sitting on the other side of the auditorium from her, she knew that voice all too well.

Carson Mailer, the guy she’d lived with for six months before she broke things off, knowing there was no way in the world she could spend the rest of her life with him…or even another year.

Or even one more damn day.

Had he volunteered out of some sense of misguided chivalry, thinking he needed to protect her, keep her safe out there in the wilderness?

She kind of doubted it. He certainly hadn’t shown much chivalry in the time they’d been together. No, he’d been just nice enough at the beginning to convince her he was worth being with, and as soon as their relationship had been more or less settled, he became demanding and needy, wanting to know how she spent every hour of her day. Not that it was too hard to discover that information, considering how everyone’s schedule was dictated by the duty roster and it was public record, but still, she’d never been with anyone like that before, and it drove her crazy.

No, it seemed much more likely to her that he’d volunteered now because he thought going on this expedition together would allow him to spend more time around her, and maybe convince her that she’d made a horrible mistake by walking out.

Fat chance of that happening. The only mistake she’d made had been moving in with him in the first place.

Maybe she should try to back out.

No, that would look terrible. Although she’d done her best to maintain a low profile during her time here in Los Alamos, she still didn’t want all these people to think she was a coward.

Before she could even stop to think how she might try to fix this, Lindsay said into her microphone, “Great — we have two volunteers. Can you stay behind so we can discuss logistics?”

Unable to do much of anything else, Sarah nodded weakly, while on the other side of the auditorium, Carson said, voice carrying clear and sure over the crowd, “Absolutely.”

Well, that seemed to be that.

There wasn’t any real business to be discussed afterward, only Lindsay thanking everyone for coming, while the rest of the people on the council — her husband included — just looked happy that the matter at hand had been settled so easily.

Monica, on the other hand, didn’t seem quite so certain. “Are you sure about this?” she asked in an undertone as she and her husband got up from their seats. “I mean, with Carson volunteering, too — ”

“It’s fine,” Sarah cut in, also keeping her voice low…even though she didn’t know for sure whether it really was. “We’re both adults. Anyway, we won’t be working together the whole time. He can go count trout or whatever, and I can poke around Ghost Ranch.”

In a way, it would be fun. She’d visited the retreat once when she was a kid and her father had brought her to Abiquiu as part of a weeklong trip exploring the northern parts of the state, and even at eleven, she’d been struck by how beautiful the country there was. It would be good to go back as an adult and explore, to be away from people for a while and maybe…just maybe…find some inner peace.

Maybe that was asking a lot, but still, she couldn’t see why a change of scenery might not do her a whole lot of good. Lately, she couldn’t help thinking she’d fallen into a rut, one she’d felt powerless to change.

That could be why she’d volunteered without even stopping to think about what she was doing.

Monica nodded, although her expression was still dubious, and then she and her husband joined the rest of the crowd that flowed through the auditorium’s doors and into the warm, breezy evening outside. Moving against the clumps of chattering people, Sarah made her way to the stage at the front of the auditorium, where Lindsay and Miles and the other council members had already descended to the floor so they could talk.

Carson hadn’t needed to travel as far, so he was already there, chatting with Lindsay and the rest of the group as though he didn’t have a care in the world. “Oh, yeah, I used to fish there with my dad and big brother,” he was saying as Sarah approached.

As far as she knew, that was a flat-out lie. Like her, Carson was from Albuquerque, but in all the time they’d been together, he’d never once mentioned going fishing with his family at Abiquiu Lake— or fishing anywhere at all, as far as she’d been able to tell. Back in the before times, he’d worked as a retirement fund manager for a big national bank and, judging by the stories he’d told her about going to local clubs on the weekend and flying to Vegas with his buddies when he had the chance, hadn’t seemed the slightest bit outdoorsy. Now, of course, he didn’t have much choice, since everyone got rotated in and out of assignments that could involve planting crops one week and hauling lumber the next.

She wouldn’t call out the lie, though. By this point, Carson had enough experience hiking and being in the great outdoors that she doubted he could get himself into too much trouble while wandering around the Rio Chama or Abiquiu Lake.

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