Page 91 of Fatal Thrill
A skeletal branch a few feet ahead caught his eye. Nyx was sniffing at the ground under it. He reached out and touched the broken tip. “Thisway.”
His band of merry trackersfollowed.
Wandering in these woods was a fool’s quest. He needed a plan. A way for them to figure out where Watt had gone and how to sneak up onhim.
Jon prayed he didn’t find Jaya’s body dumped along the trail. She’d had the cross on her, Charlotte had told him. If Watt found it, he didn’t need Jaya or Finnanymore.
A boot print, pressed into a pile of wet leaves, was his next marker, but the direction in front of them was blocked by a fallen ash tree. Jon stopped. It must have been hundreds of years old, its massive trunk impossible to see over, much less lug an unconscious womanover.
Jon looked left then right. Which way had he takenher?
A trickle of recognition. His sense of direction nudged him. The memory of a trail flashed across hisbrain.
As if staring at the map of the area still back at the cabin, he realized where hewas.
Thecave.
The place where he’d found the bones all those yearsago.
Where Watt had killed those kids and left them torot.
It was less than a quarter mile from this spot, down by theriver.
No, no,no.
For a moment, he wanted to bang his head against a tree.Should have seen it. Should have stopped him.Not just today, but all those yearsago.
“What is it?” Trace asked, his gaze scanning the area. “You gotsomething?”
Adrenaline pumping like a jet stream in his blood, Jon startedrunning.
His team did thesame.
Nyx bolted past him, her nose held in the wind, paws churning up snowy leaves and forest detritus. He’d given her one of Jaya’s gloves to sniff and he had no doubt they were on the correct trail as Nyx’s speedincreased.
Jon picked up his pace tomatch.
The rushing of the river echoed in the ancient trees and bluffs surrounding the area. Thousands of years of erosion had created a steep gorge on the northwest side. Half a mile wide in places downstream, the narrower banks here were crusted with ice, slowing the flow of water. A thin branch met the main channel along the rock cliff and the cave lay just beyond the fork, burrowing into thestones.
Jon stopped at the edge of a copse of trees and whistled softly for Nyx. The dog fell back and ran to meet up with him, sitting at hisfeet.
He stroked the dog’s ears as his team gathered on eitherside.
“That’s the place,” he told them. He could feel the horror from that day so long ago rising in his bones again.Compartmentalize. Shut it down.“That’s where he tookher.”
Colton looked around and pointed to his left. “Best place for me to set up is half a click that way in some trees. Should be able to see inside the cave fromthere.”
“We going through the front door?” Trace asked, his own rifle in the crook of his elbow. “Or is there a back wayin?”
“He wants me.” Jon stared at the dark mouth of the cave on the other side of the embankment. Unless they went a mile north to a natural bridge, the only way to get to the other side was through the frozen river. A river he would gladly swim if it meant getting to Jaya and his baby. “I’m going in the front. Hunter, you’ll be coming in from the southeast. Once over the river, there’s a trail that will lead you up the cliff but before you get to the top, you’ll see a large stone with a symbol on it. An eagle that one of my ancestors drew on it a couple hundred years ago. Drop down that hole and follow it toward the sound of thewater.”
Trace swung the rifle around on its strap so it hung down his back. “Like Santa coming down the chimney. Piece ofcake.”
“Wait for mysignal.”
“Roger that.” Hunter hesitated before taking off. “We’ll get her back,Jon.”
He disappeared into thewoods.
