“He blames you for burying the wrong body.”
I felt the words land in my chest.
“He believes you know the truth,” Mercer said.
“He’s spent his life trying to prove what happened to his brother.”
“Then why come after Logan?”
“Because Logan was the easiest path to you.”
Outside, rain began to fall.
I heard it hitting the roof, the windows, the street.
And I made a decision.
“I’m going to the hospital to pick up Logan.”
Grant looked up.
“No. I’ll go.”
“If a message is coming, it’s coming to me.”
Grant shook his head.
“Claire, he could be anywhere. Waiting for you.”
“Exactly.”
I turned to Mercer.
“I need to know where those coordinates lead.”
“I can enter them now.”
“Do it.”
We moved quickly.
We took Mercer’s sister’s Subaru.
Noah sat in the back with his eyes fixed on the window.
I drove.
Mercer tapped on his phone.
“Coordinate resolves to a service road above Bear Peak. There’s nothing there. No structures. No roads.”
I looked in the rearview mirror.
Noah watched my face.
“Mom, that’s a trap.”
“I know it is.”
“Then why are we going?”
“Because sometimes the only way to learn the truth is to walk into the trap.”
—
The hospital discharged Logan at 7:10 PM.
He walked out in a sling, looking less like a fighter than a lost kid.
“Colonel?”
“Claire.”
“Where’s my dad?”
“Home. He’s waiting.”
Logan studied my face.
“Is it true?” he asked.
“Is what true?”
“That you used to command Rangers.”
I looked at him.
For the first time, the question wasn’t a challenge.
He was just trying to understand what kind of woman he had challenged in front of the entire neighborhood.
“Yes,” I said.
He swallowed.
“I’m sorry.”
“Not today.”
“Then when?”
I opened the pickup door.
“Get in.”
—
I drove back to Juniper Hollow Drive with Mercer in the passenger seat and Noah behind me.
The rain had stopped.
The street was quiet.
Lightning flickered far beyond the mountains, too distant to hear.
Grant met us at the door.
“Logan—“
“I’m fine, Dad.”
Grant caught his son’s arm and pulled him close.
A hard hug.
The kind that said more than any words.
“We’ll talk,” he said. “All of us. Tonight.”
I stepped between them.
“We don’t have time to talk.”
Grant looked past me.
“The coordinates?”
I nodded.
“The trails are wet. It’s getting dark.”
“Those are the risk factors I’m supposed to factor.”
