Page 89 of Tempting Fate
“So maybe not the best place to hide.”
Clay shrugged. “Around here, you can still be close to civilization and feel remote as hell.” He circled around the park again. “Take another look.”
They were too far away for him to use his Range-R radar device to detect motion in any of the trailers, but he didn’t see anything to indicate signs of life.
“What’s closer to the lake?”
“A campground, and those fishing and hunting shacks I told you about.”
“Let’s take a look over there.”
Clay turned the nose of the Cub toward the lake and pointed at a densely wooded area. “I’d be looking down in there. Fishing shacks tend to be empty this time of year. A while back, a wanderer OD’d in one of the cabins around here. His skeletal remains floated down the Feather River and wound up not far from Nugget High School.”
Gabe kept his eyes rooted on the area, but it was difficult to see with all the trees. “Where’s the best place to let me out?” At this point, he’d be better off on the ground.
“Not a lot of good places in the forest. Our best bet is the lake.”
Gabe had spent enough time in the ocean to be unfazed by a relatively small fishing lake, even if it was the dead of winter. “Let’s do it.” They were running out of time.
“You sure about this?”
He’d never been surer about anything in his entire military career. Failure wasn’t an option. He was bringing Raylene home…her life depended on it. “Yep. Do me a favor, as soon as I’m on the ground, have someone get ahold of Logan. He’s staying at the Honua Kai in Maui.”
He had no idea what kind of shape Raylene would be in when he found her, but she’d need her family. And him. He’d be there every step of the way.
“Will do.” Clay flew over the lake, and to anyone watching they looked like sightseers. At least for now.
“If you know of a hidden area where I can jump, that would be good.”
“Already on it.” Clay directed Gabe’s attention to a sandy bar that reached out like a finger from a corner of the lake to a strip of land less than a football field from the Feather River. It would be an excellent place for him to land. “That look okay to you?”
“Perfect.” Gabe unhooked his seat belt, double checked his gear, and prepared to jump from the open cockpit. He collected the map and stuffed a few other necessities, including his Sig, into his tactical vest. “Just give me the signal.”
A short time later, he hit the ground. He reached for his compass and took a few seconds to get his bearings. He wanted to go back to where those fishing shacks were. His phone vibrated with a text, and he held his breath. Maybe they’d found her.
The message was from Rhys.Where are you? We may have gotten a hit from her GPS.
Gabe punched in his coordinates and the question:Where?
In the general vicinity of where you are, at least according to the last time the satellite got a ping off her GPS. That was about thirty minutes ago.
Shit. Anything could’ve happened between then and now. Hell, with the right kind of transportation they could be all the way to the Mexican border. Gabe plugged in Raylene’s coordinates. According to his GPS, it was about a klick away.
Roger that, he wrote back, and cut a path through the woods.
Rhys signed off with,Sending backup.
If Raylene was there, Gabe wouldn’t need backup.
* * * *
Raylene’s head pounded as she watched her three captors fight. She’d done her best to sow discord in the group, and now they were turning on each other like a pack of angry wolves. Perhaps it hadn’t been the best strategy, because Ferret was on a homicidal rampage and Stringy wanted to keep Raylene alive so he could continue to pummel her until she “broke.”
She didn’t know how much more she could take. She was pretty sure she had a few broken ribs, a concussion, and her face was so bruised and beaten it felt numb. She wanted Gabe. That was her only thought as Stringy delivered one punishing blow after another.
Even though giving them the numbers they so desperately wanted would be akin to a death sentence—they would no longer need her around—she would’ve done it if she knew what they were. She had never realized that the digits at the bottom of the map were anything other than illegible handwriting.
Tiny and friends obviously knew something she didn’t. She’d tried to ascertain where they’d gotten their information—or the gold—but hadn’t been given a clue. And really, what did it matter? Every second that passed, she was living on borrowed time. Even Ferret, who appeared to have the IQ of a hazelnut, realized they couldn’t remain here much longer. None of them had gotten the memo that Raylene was public enemy number one in Nugget, and they believed there was a huge manhunt on the rise.
