“I’m telling you,” Sean said. “I’ve been over every inch of this land. I would know if we had a runway on our property.”
“And I’m telling you, you’re wrong,” she argued.
Her straight, sun-bleached hair fell in front of her fine-boned shoulders as she squinted through the window. Her lips parted in concentration. Whatever it was she thought she’d seen, she was determined to find it.
But Sean wasn’t paying her to go exploring. They had one objective. Whether she approved or not, Deanna wasn’t sidetracking him.
“I’ll look into it later,” he promised her. “Nothing matters more than finding that horse.”
Deanna startled. She seemed so intent on solving this mystery it was like she’d forgotten he was still sitting there. Or was she just shocked that he’d dared to have an agenda that didn’t match her own?
“You don’t think this could be related?” she challenged.
“Maybe. But I don’t have time for chasing maybes.”
Sean winced at the harshness of his tone, but he didn’t apologize. He had to make wise decisions.
“It’s only an instinct,” she said. “But I think we need to get down there and take a look.”
Her eyes were the gray green of the sky before a thunderstorm. He’d never had the luxury of studying the flecks of yellow or the dark rims of her pupils like this. They pleaded with him to agree with her.
“Just give me the word, and I’ll take us down there.”
He blinked himself back to sanity. Landing a plane seemed tricky enough, but on a mountainside, using a runway she thought might be there? No thanks.
“Fools rush in,” he said.
“No. Fools play it safe and miss out,” she countered.
Sean crossed his arms. “Why would there be a runway up here? It doesn’t make any sense.”
Deanna nodded, “Exactly. Why? What if there are answers down there about your horse?”
She broke eye contact. “What if this has something to do with your dad?”
The question gut-punched him. The missing-person case was so cold Sheriff Johnson had stopped calling with updates years ago. After all this time, could there really be a clue? If he stopped Deanna from landing, would he get another chance to find out?
She pointed down to the ground. “There, in that draw—can you see it?”
He aimed the binoculars in the direction she indicated. “I don’t know what I’m looking for.”
“Trust me, it’s hidden but it’s there,” she said. “Not a runway, necessarily, just a strip long enough to put a plane down.”
He pointed the binoculars toward the meadow on the hillside and adjusted the focus. He saw the flattened, patchy grass. Then a quick flash of red between the trees caught his eye. At the edge of the meadow sat another airplane he’d never seen before. Someone was trespassing on his land.
Chills ran up his back. If Deanna hadn’t pointed it out, he would never have seen it as anything other than a meadow.
“Do it,” he said.
“Hold on. I won’t see these landing conditions well. I’ll have to adjust as we go in.”
Sean found the door handle for the second time and gripped it so hard he was surprised he didn’t rip it off. The buzzing motor changed pitch, and he braced himself for a rough landing.
But Deanna was a skilled pilot and performed the landing more smoothly than he’d expected. The plane taxied, decelerating, and then the propeller’s spin slowed and stopped.
Sean moved to exit the plane, but Deanna stopped him. “Wait.”
He stared down at her hand, soft against his arm. He shook his head slightly to clear his thoughts before his face revealed whatever remained of his schoolboy crush. He’d gotten over it. Really. His feelings for her in high school had been a distraction. There wasn’t room in his life for distractions of any kind now.
She reached across him to the glove box by his knees, opened the compartment and pulled out a Glock pistol.
“Whoa.” He definitely hadn’t expected that. “Is that the nine or the .45?”
“The nine. It has more rounds and it fits my hand better.”
She slid the Glock into her waistband. “Just in case.” She covered it with her shirt and said, “Who knows who might be out there. Can’t be too careful.”
What could he use to defend himself? He felt the weight of his pocket contents against his thigh. Just a cell phone and a survival knife. The cell tower had burned, so the phone was useless out here. The knife was his best hope, although he’d prefer a gun. “You wouldn’t happen to have two of those, would you?”
She patted his forearm and winked. “Don’t worry, cowboy. I’ll protect you.”
Sean snorted and then followed her out of the plane. The sharp smell of wildfire burned his nostrils, and the smoke made his eyes itch. The temperature had to be in the upper nineties, if not higher. These dry, hot conditions must be miserable for the fire crews.
He hopped to the ground and looked around. He recognized where they were, of course—he’d been exploring this land from the time he could walk—but on his left stood a newly constructed storage shed he’d never seen before. When had that been built? There was no need for storage this far out.
His neck hairs rose. “See anybody around?”
“No. No one,” Deanna whispered. “Let’s check out the plane.”
Sean stepped to follow her, but the sliding click, click of a shotgun shell chambering froze him in place.
Then a voice behind him made a promise that sent ice through Sean’s veins. “Take one more step, and I’ll blow both your heads off.”
Deanna’s heart hammered against her sternum. This was her fault. She’d led Sean right into this trap, making it seem like she had his best interest at heart because she was curious. She’d even manipulated Sean with promises about his missing father. What kind of person did that?
She owed it to Sean to figure out an escape. But how?
The cool metal tucked into her waistband reminded her she had options. Her fingers twitched above her head. All she had to do was lower her hands, grab the gun and then point it at the creep behind them. Simple. That’s what the gun was for. She just couldn’t make herself move.
“We’ll keep our hands up,” Sean said, “but we’re going to turn around now. Don’t shoot.”
How could he be so calm? Deanna couldn’t think straight. She doubted she could even speak, but here was Sean telling this guy how it was going to be as if he were one of Sean’s hired hands.
Without waiting for permission, Sean turned, keeping his hands high. Deanna hesitated for a beat and then followed his lead, brittle pine needles crunching under her boots as she turned. The shotgun’s barrel rose dead even with Sean’s head, making Deanna’s throat constrict. She tried to swallow but her mouth was too dry.
“Don’t move!” the guy behind the gun demanded. He sounded nervous. Scared enough to pull the trigger?
“Easy,” she begged.
He looked to be in his twenties, about the same age as Deanna and Sean, but it was clear he wasn’t local. He was dressed head to toe in baggy black clothes that were far too heavy for the