Page 22 of Don't Back Down

They drove until they reached the campsite and saw the setup of Vanzant’s travel trailer, but neither he nor his vehicle were anywhere to be seen.

The trailer was locked. They poked around outside to no avail, then went back to the office to pick up the list, then headed back to the chopper. They needed to get back to the office to run the names on the list through NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database, and also get background on Kevin Vanzant.

***

It was nearing sundown when Kevin Vanzant returned to his trailer. He’d been in Jubilee most of the day, completely unaware he’d caught the attention of the FBI.

Out of habit, he dumped his camera and laptop inside and then went back out to check the trail cameras around his camp. It wasn’t unusual to catch people walking along the paths or the occasional visit from Jack Barton, the owner of the campground, but he was completely unprepared for the two men in dark suits who appeared on camera poking around outside the trailer and then actually trying the locked door.

At that moment, the hair crawled on the back of his neck. Men in black? All that was lacking from their wardrobes were Ray-Bans. He saw them pause to look around the area and then get back in their car and drive away.

“Shit. What was that all about?” he muttered, then reset the camera and ran into the trailer.

He spent the next few minutes going through everything inside, looking for hidden cameras or anything they might have bugged, but found nothing suspicious and nothing had gone missing.

Then he sat down on the corner of the bed and made a call. It rang twice before the call was picked up.

“Yeah?”

“It’s me, Boss. Are we on the radar?”

“Why?”

Kevin quickly related what he’d seen.

“I’m already on that. If you are, we’ll let you know,” Boss said.

Kevin sighed. “Okay, thanks. I just—”

The line went dead in his ear.

***

Lili Glass woke up in the ICU crying for her mother.

It was the best news Rachel and Louis could have received. Within a short time, Lili had been moved into a regular room, and from there into her mother’s arms.

Rachel sat down with her in one of the recliners, wrapped Lili up in a heated blanket, and rocked her back to sleep, while Louis left the room to make some calls. This was the news their family had been waiting for, and Cameron was the first person Louis called.

***

It was nearing 2:00 p.m. and Cameron had been up for hours. He’d tried to go back to sleep after he got Ghost home from the vet, but it wasn’t long before he heard Ghost whining and knew he was in pain. After that, he got up and had been up taking care of the dog ever since.

One look in the mirror was all the proof he needed to know his face was too cut up to shave, and the shadow of black whiskers on his face just added to his lone-wolf persona. Lili was in God’s hands. Ghost would heal. His face would heal. He’d shave off the whiskers, and life would go on.

It was just after lunch when he took Ghost outside and settled him on the back porch, then headed to the woodpile beside the old barn and started chopping up blocks of wood for firewood. He’d been at it for almost an hour when his cell phone rang. When he realized the call was from Louis, he swung the ax down into a block and answered.

“Hello?”

“Cam, it’s me, Louis. Lili woke up, crying for her mother. She’s going to be okay. The doctors have moved her out of the ICU. We wanted you to be the first to know.”

“Thank God, and thank you for letting me know. I know you’re going to be inundated with visitors now. I’ll wait until you get to bring her home to come get my hug.”

“Awesome,” Louis said. “By the way, how’s Ghost?”

“Not his usual self, for sure. He has stitches in his foot, so I’m babying him for a while.”

“Bless that dog,” Louis said. “You take care of your baby and we’ll take care of ours, and when Ghost can handle it, bring him with you to see Lili. She loves that dog almost as much as she loves you.”

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