Page 11 of When the Silence Breaks

He didn’t believe her. Just to be clear, he added, “There’s no treasure. Nothing. Nada. That was just a myth. A rumor. Decades ago, a few searched and some even died on the mountain. The mountain can be merciless, despite the name of the town. Save your time, your breath. Save your life.”

Approaching the downtown grocery store, he pulled next to the curb and parallel parked his monster truck between two cars.

“Expertly done. I’m impressed,” she said.

Trying to butter him up. “There’s no treasure, Sarah.”

“Do you know the mountain?”

“Even if I do, that doesn’t make me the right guy for the job.”

“So I should talk to Dean, then?”

That didn’t sit well with him, but she was playing him now. “And if you’re lucky, Dean’s mother will invite you to dinner so you can work your magical powers of persuasion on him.” He regretted the words. Maybe he was reacting too strongly. Pushing too far. But she’d pressed his buttons, and he’d just let her know.

Dean Rourke had once worked at Good Adventures, and he’d been there when Ryder’s father died. Ryder ... he couldn’t get over his dislike of the guy.

Instead of getting out to go into the grocery store, Sarah shifted toward him. “Look. I came to Good Adventures to book a private guided tour, but your mother was locking up. I didn’t know she was your mother, of course. I thought I could catch you. And then I explained I wanted to thank you. It wasn’t my plan to get invited to dinner. Regardless, you can see how it all ended. But this is your job. Was your job. You conducted wilderness training, and you used to take people out for guided hiking, and there’s even a little smallprint that talks about how Good Adventures assists in guiding SAR teams.”

He thought he’d asked for that information to be removed from their website. He didn’t want the reminders of that complete and utter failure. Reminders of that headline.

Hero Navy SEAL Returns Home to Fail to Save His Father.

“You seem like a nice girl, Sarah. But I think there’s more to why you’re here. Tell me one thing. If you’re not a treasure hunter, then what do you want on the mountain?” This wasn’t the usual way they treated clients who wanted to hike. Sarah wasn’t the usual client. The usual clients called and booked ahead. They didn’t show up in a mudslide then later at his mother’s dinner table.

“I can’t tell you unless you agree to guide me.”

Seriously?“Like I would agree to that.”

She heaved a sigh, so her shoulders deflated. She looked so very small. Trim. Athletic. But small. The mountain would eat her alive. He thought back to the moment when he’d grabbed onto her and somehow gotten her out of the mudslide and almost crushed her beneath his much-heavier form. She couldn’t have pulled herself out.

Sarah stared out the window as if considering her next words. “I need someone ... like you.”

What more did she know about him? “Like me?”

“Yes. In 1944, a World WarII bomber flew over the Cascades and was lost forever.”

She hadn’t answered his question and instead had pivoted to something entirely more intriguing and to his point. “Lost in the Pacific,” he said. “End of story.”

“That’s what we’re told. But it crashed in the mountains.”

“Treasure hunter. I knew it.”

“It crashed somewhere in these mountains, likely the volcano Blackspire Mountain.”

“Let me repeat myself, that was just a rumor. None of that is true. I should know. As already mentioned, there is no airplane on the mountain filled with Nazi gold that somehow made it to the state of Washington. It was just a decades-old rumor.”

“All you have to do is guide me and protect me. I’m not asking you to take me to the bomber crash location, as if you know where it is.”

Wasn’t she? “Good, because it’s not there. Since you’re being honest with me ... to a point ... I’ll be honest with you. The mountain is not for the faint of heart.” He lifted his hands as if to shield himself from the expected angry retorts. “Not saying you couldn’t do it, but I wouldn’t want to be complicit in you getting hurt. Go home, Sarah Ellison. There’s nothing here for you.”

She could just hire someone else. But Ryder knew this mountain better than anyone, and he should have protested when his mother made sure that small detail had been put in his bio on the About section of the website.

Sarah opened the door and stepped out, then shut it and walked away. She didn’t look at him. She said nothing else. What did he expect? In fact, what didsheexpect? She entered the grocery store. He watched her and even thought about following her, but she wouldn’t appreciate his stalking. He’d wait, all the same, in case she decided to get back in his truck and let him take her home, wherever she made her home for however long she stayed in Mercy Ridge.

Dean Rourke strolled into the store, and Ryder sat up. She’d mentioned meeting him earlier. The guy wasn’t stalking her, was he? Trying to weasel his way into being the one to take her to look for treasure? That ignited fire in Ryder’s chest.

Stay out of it,Dean. You’ve done enough already.