Page 28 of Mistaken

“But you will probably want to rest until dinner,” he said after he’d lowered the mare’s saddle to the fence near where they stood. Now that they were done, he would blink the thing into the stable, but he saw no reason to do that until Sarah had gone back into the house.

She didn’t protest. “Yes, putting up my feet and reading for a while sounds like a good idea. That was a marvelous ride, though. Thank you again.”

A quick flash of a smile, and then she headed inside the house, as natural as though this was already an established routine for them. In a way, he supposed it was; Sarah had clearly come to accept her situation here, and he had not glimpsed even a single sign of her wishing to escape.

Perhaps she was beginning to see that, while she might not have her freedom, her existence at Ghost Ranch was much more comfortable than the one she’d left behind in Los Alamos.

Odd how her presence, rather than annoying him, was something of a comfort. She might ask a probing question every once in a while, but mainly she seemed content to live in the moment, to enjoy the beauty of a waterfall in a hidden canyon, or to smile at the sound of a goldfinch chirping from a nearby tree branch. Because he had never spent any time around humans, he had no idea whether this was normal for them, or whether Sarah Wolfe was something of a special case.

He wanted to believe the latter. Otherwise, he would be forced to reexamine his actions of the not-so-distant past…and wonder if he had truly done the right thing after all.

A strange buzzing sound made him glance upward. Through the trees, he detected an odd object, shaped rather like a cross, with four miniature propellers whirring away in the air.

Abdul would never have said he was entirely familiar with human technology, and yet he thought he knew what the thing was.

A drone.

Piloted by humans, of course, and clearly sent here to spy on him. Or perhaps not him in particular…no mortal save Sarah even knew of his existence, and even she had no real knowledge of his true nature…but to investigate Ghost Ranch, and most likely try to discover what had happened to their missing explorer.

That was one piece of information he would never allow them to have. If they learned of his presence here…worse, if they somehow managed to learn the truth about him…then he knew he would never have a moment’s peace.

His fist clenched, and in the next instant, the drone exploded in a miniature ball of fire. It would not do to have its shrapnel fall here where Sarah might see it, so he immediately blinked the remnants of the little spy machine out of existence.

Only just in time, for a moment later, she emerged from the house and shot him a questioning look.

“What was that?”

He’d already determined it would be best to feign utter ignorance. After all, the evidence of the explosion was already gone.

“What was what?”

Sarah glanced around, but he knew nothing had changed during the intervening few minutes after she’d gone inside, except that the horses had already wandered off down the hill, presumably on their way to forage in the pasture next to the stable.

A frown pulled at her delicate brows. “I could have sworn I heard something gobang.”

“Well, there is certainly nothing like that out here. Perhaps,” he suggested, “it was the icemaker in the freezer. It can sound somewhat explosive at times.”

She still looked puzzled, but it appeared she was willing to accept his explanation, for she gave a shrug and said, “I guess that was it. Sorry to bother you.”

“It was no problem,” he said politely, and she gave him a hesitant smile before going back inside once again.

No, it was definitely not a problem.

He would not allow it to be.

“What the hell?” Shawn stared down at his phone, which he’d been using to steer the drone.

Lindsay sent him a worried look. Shawn Gutierrez was not the kind of guy to explode like that unless he had a damn good reason.

“What’s the matter?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “But the drone was there one minute, transmitting images…and then it just wasn’t.”

“Did it run into something?”

Shawn didn’t quite roll his eyes, but he looked like he wanted to.

“No. There was nothing to run into. It was in an open area, moving toward a house I’d spotted. And then…nothing.”

---