Adan cut his light and turned to stare into the swaying trees. Something was definitely out there. Or someone. Had ol’ Joe seen his truck down on the road and followed the path Adan had taken to get up to the cabin?
Or had the man he’d come to find been here all along? He waited in the shadows, his breath hitching in the cold, his hands freezing against the steel of his gun. A shuffling and rustling in the distant woods had him on the move again. He reached the edge of the cabin’s garden and stood silent behind a giant oak tree.
More thrashing about and then the woods went quiet. Deciding to circle back around, he trotted from tree to tree, hiding behind snowdrifts and limbs heavy with ice and snow until he thought he’d cleared the area in the woods where he’d heard the noise. But the heavy snow and the midnight darkness kept him from finding anything. Following his own footsteps, he could imagine how easy it would be to get lost out here at night. Maybe whoever’d been snooping around had gotten confused and crashed into a ravine. Or they’d purposely caused a distraction to lure him away from the cabin.
When he heard a scream, he started running through the knee-deep snow, falling and getting up again until he hit the porch and rushed inside the cabin.
Sophia stood there staring at a piece of paper, her face as pale as the night. Adan hurried to take the paper from her. “Where did you find this?”
She pointed to the back door. “Inside the screen. I heard someone and I thought it was you.” She shuddered, took in a breath. “When I opened the door I found this.”
Adan stared at the artist’s rendering of the man he was chasing. “Do you know this man, Sophia?”
She sank down on a dining chair, shock evident in her eyes. Holding her chest, she gave him a frightened stare. “I... I don’t know. I mean, I just got scared when I saw that someone had left that there.” She gulped in air and shot a worried glance at the door.
Adan’s gut told him she was lying. This woman who’d been so strong and sure was now shaking and uncertain. Fear colored her skin white. Her hands were cold, her actions jittery and unsure. She kept staring at the mug shot in the picture with a shocked expression on her face.
“You know this man, don’t you?” Adan asked again. “Sophia, did you help this man escape earlier tonight?”
She hurtled out of the chair and crossed her arms as if to stop the shaking. “Why do you keep asking me that?”
He grabbed her, his hands rubbing her arms over her heavy sweater. She stared up at him but she couldn’t seem to speak.
Finally, she asked, “The man you’re tracking? You said he’s a wanted felon. What did he do?”
Adan decided it was time to come clean. Someone had left that poster on this woman’s door on purpose. That same person had obviously broken into his truck and found the flyer. If Joe Pritchard was here, the battle had just begun, but Adan had to take on that battle.
“He robbed a gas station near the Texas border and killed the cashier. He’s been robbing people left and right all the way from Austin to the Arkansas border and some locals had him cornered, but he escaped. Based on maps we found in a vehicle he stole and abandoned, we believe he was headed here. He’s got a long rap sheet that stretches over years, but this time he’s committed murder and I need to find him.”
He held her there and looked into her eyes. “If you know him, if you’ve aided him in any way, you need to tell me now. Before he hurts someone else.”
She gulped a sob, held a hand to her mouth. “He killed a store clerk?”
“Yes, a woman. A single mother with two children.”
She let out another sob then pulled away from Adan. “I need to check on Bettye.”
Adan watched her, his instincts to protect her too strong to ignore. “We’ll check on Bettye. But you have to tell me what’s going on with you. Right now, Sophia.”
When she kept moving toward her bedroom, he grabbed her and turned her around. And that’s when he saw the sheer terror in her eyes.
Without thinking, Adan gently tugged her into his arms. “It’s okay. It’s all right. I’m not going to hurt you. No one is going to hurt you.”
She felt small and stiff, like a frozen doll. But he held tight and kept reassuring her while his mind raced with the possibility that there was a killer out in those dark, snow-covered woods. He’d protect this woman because that was part of his job. But from the terrified expression on her face and the way he wanted to wrap her in a cloak of warmth, Adan decided he was in this for the long haul. He shouldn’t feel this way about a woman he’d only known for a few hours.
And he had to ask again. “Sophia, did you recognize this man?”
She shook her head, but the look in her eyes told Adan differently.
Disappointment coursed through Adan. Had she helped this man escape? But if she had, why would he risk coming back to stick that poster in her door? Maybe as a warning or a threat? Or maybe to taunt Adan? To show him that he’d managed to let yet another criminal get away?
“Have you seen anyone matching this description?” he asked, his hands still on her shoulders.
“I’m not sure,” she said, a plea in the words. “I don’t know him and I didn’t help him, Adan. I’ve...never seen that man on Crescent Mountain.”
She turned and walked to the table and stared down at the grizzly face on the white paper. “I... I don’t know him and I don’t know why someone would leave this on my door.”
Adan put his hands on his hips and watched as she paced from window to window. For someone who repeatedly said she didn’t know this man, Sophia sure seemed nervous and agitated. She’d just said she’d never seen the man in the picture here on the mountain. But had she seen him or known him before?
She was lying through her pretty white teeth.
And Adan wasn’t leaving here until he found out the truth.
ADAN STEPPED BACK and took a breath, his eyes watching Sophia with a big-cat precision. “Sit down.”
Sophia did as he told her, too weak and afraid to do anything else. No gun could protect her from the trail of lies she’d had to tell. But she’d stall as long as she could.
She had to protect Bettye and the others. She’d brought this trouble on all of them when she’d shown up on the mountain late one night, scared and in shock. The cluster of people who’d become her neighbors had helped her without asking too many questions, and she didn’t want to pull them into any kind of trouble with the law.
What if it’s him? Sophia’s stomach roiled each time she glanced at that sketch. What if you don’t have a choice?
Adan went to the stove and turned up the heat on the kettle, then searched through the cabinets until he’d found the tea bags.
She watched him, amazed. “How did you know...?”
His chuckle was quiet and sure. “My mama always makes hot tea when she’s upset.”
Sophia latched onto that tidbit, a wistfulness filling her soul. She ached for a family of her own but for now, Bettye and her other neighbors would have to do. “Your mama and you—are you close?”
He turned and gave her a quick glance. “Yep. I’m close to both my parents. They live in Austin, not far from my house. They help me take care of my daughter, Gaylen.”