Page 7 of Death Valley

“I didn’t spend a few days searchin’ for him out of the goodness of my own heart,” I tell her. “The family paid handsomely.”

“So will I,” she says. She takes in a deep breath as if to steady herself before she says, “Fifty thousand dollars and another twenty-five if you find her.”

I blink at her, my blood rushing in my head. Fifty, possibly seventy-five thousand dollars? I’m sure as hell glad I didn’t tell her that the hiker’s family only paid me twenty, which I already thought was a lot for a search and rescue. Seventy-five thousand could nearly cover what I owe Marcus.

It could buy me freedom.

“Who isher?” I ask warily, not sure if this a trap since it seems too good to be true. I glance over at her black Dodge Durango. “You a cop or something?”

“No,” she says, shaking her head adamantly. “Not a cop. I just want to find my sister. She went missing three years ago, somewhere in the area. Maybe in these mountains.” She gestures up toward the peaks and my blood runs cold.

Not there.

Anywhere but there.

“Who is your sister?” I ask, swallowing the knot in my throat.

“Lainey Wells.”

4

AUBREY

Jensen McGraw’s shoulders tense at my sister’s name. “Lainey Wells,” he repeats.

“You know her?” I ask quickly, my pulse fluttering.

“Know of her,” he says slowly with a nod. “Sure do. Everyone was looking for her. She had some guy with her when she went missing, right?”

“Yes,” I say, trying to ignore the disappointment that he doesn’t know more than anyone else. “Her boyfriend, Adam Medlock…” I trail off, not sure how much more I should say. I suppose there’s nothing wrong with being as honest as possible, at least with some things. “The two of them supposedly went hiking, she was obsessed with this area, with the Donner Party. It was her thing. But she never came back…”

“I’m aware,” he says, kicking at a rock with his worn boot. “The cops didn’t seem to spend that much time looking. Truckee was crawling with law enforcement for a few days and then, well, it seems they up and quit.”

I swallow hard. “Exactly. The cops fucked up. Lainey wasn’t the type of girl the media could use to garner sympathy. Shehad…issues. Issues that were held against her. In the end she wasn’t important enough to find.”

He tips his hat. “Well, accept my condolences.”

“I don’t need your condolences,” I say, to which he raises his brows. “Sorry, I don’t mean to be rude. I just need the truth. All this time I’ve been living with her ghost, and I don’t expect to find her alive, but I need answers so I can finally move on and live my life again. I owe her that much.”

You owe yourself that, Diana had said to me. But that didn’t mean I believed it.

“And moving on is worth that much money to you?” he says. “That’s a lot of money to chase ghosts.”

“Not if you find her.”

His eyes meet mine, and hold. There’s something haunted in them now, something that wasn’t there before. “I hate to be crass with you, but three years is a long time. If she got lost up there, if she…” he rubs his hand over his chin, another dark look coming across his eyes. “If we find her, it won’t be pretty.”

“Life has been nothing but ugly since she disappeared,” I admit.

“And what makes you think I’ll find her? Why now?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. I just saw your name on the news, and that you were a tracker, and that was it. I knew I needed to give this one last shot. Those are my savings, the inheritance from my father. It was for both of us…and it’s still for both of us.” I pause, taking a careful step toward him as I press my palms together, hoping he can see the sincerity, even the pain. “Please. You’re my last and only hope. I know that sounds cliché but it’s the truth. I know she’s somewhere in those mountains still, I know that’s where her bones have been buried by time. I just need to find her…by any means necessary.”

“I get that,” he says with a curt nod. “I do. But what you’re asking me to do is very different from what I just did for thatfamily. I located a hiker who was missing, presumed alive. I was there days after he was reported as lost. I was able to find his trail because it was a fresh trail. I’ve never taken on a cold case before, never been asked to find someone who is probably dead, and from three years ago at that. This trail won’t be easy to find, and that’s assuming she is up there in them mountains. You don’t know for sure, unless you have some information you’re not sharing.” He fixes a hardened gaze on me, as if he’s accusing me of something.

I can’t help but glare right back, hackles raising. “I’ll let you know all there is to know,” I tell him. “But first I need to know if you’re going to take the job.”

He gives me a crooked smile, though his hazel eyes remain cold. “I see. Well in that case, I appreciate your interest, Miss…”

---