Page 58 of Rescued By Midnight

When I’m with them, that’s the safest I’ll ever be.

Cammie and I confirm my next appointment. I leave her office feeling drained, but also like my head is clearer than it was when I went in. I might not know if Cody’s playing with me, or if Landon will ever see me as more than a friend. I might not know why Brayden has been treating me so badly, or whether I’ll ever be allowed to return to the church.

But I do know that I’m safe with Landon and Cody.

I get into Landon’s car and offer him a smile. “Hey. Do you still want to go to the foothills?”

“Yeah.” He smiles back, the corners of his gray eyes crinkling. “Why?”

“I’m ready. I want to go. Today.”

21

LANDON - NOW

Cody is quiet in the back seat. Alice is quiet in the front. I watch the highway disappearing in front of us, and the passing fields, the sprinkling of oak trees slowly replaced by a blanket of pines.

“So you think Detective Baldwin might be wrong about the direction I ran from?” Alice’s eyes are fixed on the landscape beyond the windshield, but her mind is obviously on much less peaceful scenes.

“No, I think he underestimated how far you ran. We’ll be doing a little bit of a hike this morning.” I glance over at her shoes. They aren’t great for hiking, but she should be okay in them. Worst case, I carry her.

Who am I kidding? That isn’t the worst case; it’s the best. I’ll take any excuse to put my hands on her.

I pull up to the location where she was found. This time, there are no media vans, no news crews. Her story, in the span of two weeks, has been chewed up and spit out in favor of other sordid tales.

“Well.” Alice glances around. “Here I am again, I guess.”

We get out of the car. I point out past the field and into the trees. “Baldwin thinks you came that way, based on the state of the grass and the soil and vegetation found on your clothes. He could be wrong, and he thinks maybe he was wrong, because there’s nothing back that way. But he thinks you ran for one to three miles, max. I think you could’ve gone for much longer.”

Cody is walking up the road. “There’s a service road up here—do you want to drive part of the way?”

“Sure.”

We get back in the car. The service road is pitted and warped. It isn’t going in the exact direction of Baldwin’s estimate, but it’s probably close enough.

“When you were kidnapped,” Cody says, “when he first brought you here, did you walk for very long to get to the cabin?”

“No, he drove most of the way. At least, that’s what I think. The detectives didn’t seem to believe me, and honestly, I could be wrong. We walked some, but I’m sure it was less than a quarter mile.”

“This is good info.” I reach over and squeeze her hand.

“Nice to hear.” She flashes me a small smile. “I feel so useless most of the time, even though I’m the only one with the information. It never feels like enough.”

“It will be,” I promise. “We’ll figure it out.”

Up ahead, a gate and cattle guard cross the road. On either side of the gate, a barbed-wire fence is half-fallen over, the posts rotted and leaning. I could try driving over the fence, but I don’t want to puncture a tire.

Cody gets out and checks the gate, yanking on a thick chain that holds it closed. Returning to the car, he says, “Locked up tight. We’ll have to walk from here.”

I can tell Alice is still nervous, so as we walk, I ask her about running. “If I wanted to take up running today, what would I need to do?”

“Shoes,” she says without hesitation. “You could run in the ones you have, but good shoes will save your feet so much pain. They’ll also help your stride, and prevent other issues with your back, knees, and hips.”

She continues giving me tips on everything from training to gear. I hope she starts running again, because it’s obvious she always loved it. She and Cody went a few times together. I should ask if she wants company on a run sometime.

Over a distance comes the long, mournful sound of a train’s horn. It can’t be close, but it echoes through the hills.

“The train.” Alice grips my forearm. “I’ve heard it before.”