Silenced (Alaskan Courage Book #4) (24 page)

The bunkers Marshall had labeled on Jake’s map were spread across the island at strategic military points, and it would take them days to reach and explore them all. Jake prayed the rest of the teams were having better luck, moving quickly through their search grids. Unfortunately no one had called in yet, which meant Angela and Kayden were still missing.

It took much longer than he’d hoped for Jake to get to the second bunker on his list. It was more than a simple bunker, as the first had been—it was a military outpost. A large five-story tower loomed over him, and he had no way of telling how deep or wide the underground complex ran, or how long it’d take him to thoroughly search it. Frustration seared through him. Where was the next clue? Why was it taking him so long to find it, and what was Angela doing to Kayden in the meantime?

He surveyed the grounds and found no sign of Angela’s truck, though he supposed it was possible she’d stashed it farther away after getting Kayden inside. As he turned a corner, he saw a pair of fresh tire tracks leading up to the
east side of the bunker and then off into the woods. Hope tugged at him. Someone had been there recently, most likely last night.

Pulling his Sig, he approached the ground-level opening—it was nothing more than a jagged hole in the crumbling concrete. Judging by the structural damage, he was betting the damage had occurred as a result of the ’64 earthquake.

He left his pack outside, carrying only his gun, sat phone, and flashlight. It was best to travel light and be able to move quickly.

Kayden’s wrists were chafed nearly raw from the cuffs and her fighting to get out of them. The concrete floor was cold and damp beneath her. She leaned against the wall, trying to make out details in the dim interior.

She still couldn’t figure out where she was, and it was maddening. If she hadn’t been knocked out, she’d have a better feel for the length of their journey.

She didn’t recognize the building—an old run-down factory, perhaps. She’d considered the few abandoned buildings she knew of on Tariuk, but a match hadn’t come. Had she been moved off Tariuk? It would have been smart on Angela’s part—removing those searching for her from their well-known surroundings, creating a more level playing field. The only ways off Tariuk were by plane, by boat, or by ferry, and of those, the ferry seemed most likely.

The ferry only had two direct destinations out of Tariuk—Imnek and Kodiak.

Kodiak was the bigger of the two, but Imnek had more remote areas once outside the town of Spruce Harbor.

Her bet was on Imnek, but where? She didn’t know the island like she did Tariuk, particularly not the buildings. What she did know were the climbing and camping spots.

She swallowed, the movement painful with her dry mouth. How long was Angela going to keep her chained? And where was Angela? Setting a trap for Jake, no doubt. The woman was bent on revenge and appeared to be lacking the normal compunctions of conscience sane human beings had.

Wrestling against her bonds, Kayden yet again found herself fully restricted.

“I admire your persistence.” Angela stood in the doorway with a plate of food. “But you might as well accept that you aren’t going anywhere.” She set the plate on the rusted metal table and pulled a chair up to it. “At least not until your boyfriend arrives.”

She fought against the restraints, pain radiating from her wrists up along her weary arms. “He’s not my boyfriend.” Though she wished he was and planned to tell him exactly that if she escaped this madwoman’s clutches.

Angela popped a chip into her mouth. “Formalities matter not. He’s clearly desperately in love with you, and that’s all that matters.”

In her heart she knew her words were true, but nobody had said it out loud before. Jake loved her—
desperately
. And she loved him, but she’d been too stubborn, prideful, and plain scared to ever let him or anyone else see. What if it was too late? “How do you know he’ll come?”

“Please. He’s been scrambling to find you since the moment he realized you were gone.”

“What if he doesn’t find us?”

“Don’t worry, he’s a great detective. Far too capable for his own good. Trust me, he’ll find you.”

“But what if he doesn’t?”

“Don’t worry, pet. I’ve left him messages he can’t ignore.”

She hated to imagine what that might mean.

“And when he comes?”

Angela smiled coldly. “Payback.”

“Payback for what? Putting you behind bars, where you belong?”

Angela dropped the chip she was holding and brushed off her hands. She stood and moved to Kayden, kneeling on her haunches just out of kicking range. “Payback for ruining my life. For taking my husband from me.”

“No one
took
him from you. Your husband made his own choices. He killed himself. Not to mention Candace Banner, and Jake’s wife and child.”

“Is that what you think?” She stood with a sinister smile. “Well, this is going to be a whole lot more fun than I anticipated.”

Kayden squirmed, fighting in vain to break free.

“Enough! You’re ruining my dinner.”

Angela stood with the pole in hand and zapped her again. Before Kayden could brace herself, her world went dark.

Frustration searing through him, Jake left the empty bunker—empty, except for the taunting note he’d found on a broken-down table in what was left of the bunker’s mess hall.

You’ve chosen poorly. Now I get more time alone with your lady. What a shame for her.

Bile rose in Jake’s throat. She wasn’t leaving him clues, only messages to cut deep at his heart.

He crumpled the note into his pocket and headed for his truck. Unfortunately the tire tracks had only been evidence of teens who had partied inside and left a mess of beer cans and Cheetos bags behind.

The sun was lowering in the sky, and he knew he should make camp for the night—eat, rest, recoup for tomorrow’s search—but there was no way he’d sit still while Angela had Kayden. He’d press on through the night, through the days ahead, if necessary. He wouldn’t stop until he found her and she was safe in his arms.

He studied his map. The closest bunker was nearly fifty miles away, but on roads long abandoned, it would take him several hours to reach it.

Please, Lord, lead me
to her.

He checked in with the others, but unfortunately no one had found Kayden, only an equally taunting note in one of the two bunkers Gage and Darcy had searched. He felt like a rat in a maze of Angela’s design, and he hated it.

Please, Lord,
don’t let me fail.

He climbed in his truck and headed for the next bunker.

“We should find a camping spot before nightfall,” Kirra said as she and Reef crossed yet another cabin off their grid.

“I don’t want to stop. Not until my sister is found.”

She rested her hand on his arm and pulled back quickly at the surprising tingling. “Uh . . .” She cleared her throat, trying to focus. The last time she’d gotten sidetracked by physical attraction it had nearly destroyed her.

This is
Reef, Kirra.
What was she doing being attracted to him, anyway? Instead of decreasing with the more time she spent with him, her attraction had increased. That had to stop
immediately
.

“Look, I understand wanting to press on. But once night falls, we could walk within twenty feet of a cabin and not see it. We don’t want to miss anything on our grid.”

“You’re right.” Reef sighed. “But I don’t like it. It doesn’t feel right.”

“If I’m remembering correctly, there should be a decent spot up beyond that ridge. It has level ground and a freshwater stream nearby. Plus it’ll be a good starting point for finishing this grid bright and early tomorrow.”

“We start at sunup?”

“Absolutely. As soon as we can see.” She had no desire to linger.

Reef reluctantly agreed. She understood his concern—she had a few of her own—but they had to be wise, professional, and that meant waiting until daybreak to continue the search. All that aside, Rex needed to rest. He’d never let on, but she knew the husky had to be tiring.

Within a half hour they located the spot she’d been thinking of—the spot where she and her dad had camped numerous times before he and her mom moved to Juneau.

“Nice pick,” Reef said, dropping his pack. “I’ll get a fire going.”

Even in the summer months, the temperatures in the mountains dropped into the low forties. They’d need a fire for cooking and warmth until they settled into their sleeping bags.

Kirra set to work on the tents while he got the fire started.

“You got those up quick,” he remarked as she finished.

“Been camping as far back as I can remember.”

“Huh.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What was that
huh
for?”

“Nothing.” He tossed the last of the kindling into the fire pit and lit it. “I know you do SAR and all that, because of the dogs, but I didn’t picture you as the outdoorsy type.”

She wasn’t sure she wanted to know, but her curiosity won out. “What did you picture me as?”

“I don’t know . . .” He shrugged. “A reader?”

She couldn’t wait to hear where he was going with this one. “And readers aren’t outdoor people?”

“No. You can be both. Piper and Kayden are both serious readers.”

“But?”

“I just always thought you spent all your time studying.”

“Because I got good grades?”

“Yeah.” He stoked the emerging fire. “And you always had your homework done, showed up to class on time, got the highest score on tests—which totally obliterated the curve, by the way.”

“And yet I still managed to have a life.” Or, at least, she had until . . . Now it had been permanently altered, fractured.

“Of course, I didn’t mean . . .”

So she’d been right all along. Reef had her pegged as a goody-two-shoes, stay-at-home-studying-Saturday-night bookworm. He’d had no idea she loved camping, glacier surfing, working with sled dogs, volunteering with SAR, watching action flicks, and gardening.

He glanced up at her from the fire. “Look, you have to admit you pegged me a certain way too.”

She had, and if she was being totally honest, she still did.

Something cracked in the woods behind them and Rex shot up. She quickly signaled for him to heel.

Reef put a finger to his mouth to silence her and lifted his shotgun from the ground. He stood with his back to the fire, facing the woods, where the sound emanated from.

Rex growled, and Kirra pulled him close, holding his collar tight.

She watched the woods and spotted movement in the trees. “Is that a bear?”

Reef looked back at the hot dogs cooking in foil in the embers.

A huge black bear paced back and forth along the tree line. Piper would describe it as adorable if in pictures, but out here in the wilderness it was nothing but dangerous.

Reef grabbed a nearby stick and stuck the end in the flames, and once it caught fire, he stepped toward the bear, waving the torch. “Go on. Get out of here.”

The bear reared up and released a growl that tremored through Kirra. Even though she’d lived in Alaska her whole life, she was still afraid of bears.