Sable Peak (The Edens)

“So this is why you’ve been so quiet while I was working.” I planted my hands on my hips and stared at my daughter.

Allie smiled up at me, eyes dancing, from the puddle she was sitting in. Her hands were caked in dirt as she held them up, fingers splayed. “Wook it mud.”

“I’m looking at the mud, Sprout.” It was on her hands, her arms, her nose, her cheeks. Those clothes were going to be a bitch to get clean, but if parenthood had taught me anything, it was how to use stain remover.

“You need a bath.”

Her grin dropped and her eyes widened, then she shoved to her feet and ran away. “No baf.”

Why was it she let Vera put her in the tub without protest, but I still had to endure this fight?

I gave her a head start, then I chased her through the meadow, letting her think she was outpacing me for a bit. When I caught her, I tossed her into the air, drowning in that precious giggle as she came falling down.

“No baf.” She kicked and wiggled in my hold, but I tucked her under my arm like she was a football and stalked for the house. The squirming stopped and she held out her hands like she was an airplane.

I shifted my grip, holding her with a hand on her belly and the other on her knees, and flew her toward the house just as the sound of a car door slammed. We rounded the corner, all smiles, until I saw Vera standing beside the Honda.

The color was drained from her face and if not for the hand braced on the side of the car, she looked ready to collapse.

It was instant, the way my heart lurched. Her suffering was mine. After quickly setting Allie on her feet, I ran to Vera and took her shoulders in my hands. “What’s wrong?”

She squeezed her eyes shut and fell into my chest, nose buried in my T-shirt to draw in a long breath. “I’m okay. I just … let’s go inside and talk.”

“No, tell me—”

“Ve-wa!” Allie interrupted us to proudly showcase the mess she’d made. “Mud.”

Vera managed a smile as she crouched down to touch my daughter’s hair. “Look at you, Jellybean. Should we go wash up?”

“No.” Allie scrunched up her nose and raced the other direction. Maybe she’d be a pill for us both today.

“Talk to me.” I dropped to a knee beside Vera. “I’m worried.”

“Inside.” She stared at Allie for a long moment, then shoved to her feet. “Let’s get the groceries.”

“Fuck the groceries.” I shot to my feet. “What the hell is going on?”

When she looked up at me, the tears swimming in her eyes ripped my heart from my chest. “I went to the hotel. That FBI agent, Swenson, was there.”

“He’s back?” Why the hell hadn’t Eloise told me he’d checked in? “Why’s he here?”

She swallowed hard. “My dad.”

Fuck. My stomach dropped. “They found him.”

“No.” She shook her head. “Allie, don’t touch that.”

My gaze whipped toward the house, where Allie was rifling through the tool box I’d left on the porch. The last thing I needed was for her to poke an eye out with a screwdriver. So I jogged over, taking it from her despite her wail of a protest, then closed the box and swept her up.

“Leave the groceries,” I called over my shoulder, taking Allie up the porch. “I’ll get them in a minute.”

No shock, she didn’t listen.

After I’d stripped a squirming and screeching Allie out of her filthy clothes and put her in the bath, Vera had unloaded everything from the car and was putting the last box of cereal in the pantry off the laundry room.

“Damn, but you are stubborn, woman.” I frowned and clasped my hand over hers, hauling her to the bathroom where Allie was splashing around in the bubbles and playing with her plastic boats.

Vera sighed and sat on the tile floor, knees hugged, with her back to the sink cabinets.

I took the space beside her, keeping close so our arms touched. And even though I was about to come loose at the seams, I waited. One minute. Two minutes. Three.

Stubborn didn’t even begin to cover Vera’s will. It was iron. She’d talk, but only when she was ready. So I put a hand on her knee, traced circles with my thumb, and waited.

“Swenson said they believe my dad is dead.”

“What?” My jaw dropped. “How?”

“There was a young hiker in Yosemite who got swept up in a river and died. When the park authorities went to recover the woman’s body, they found an old pack on the riverbanks. It was Dad’s. His old driver’s license was inside. They think he might have, um … drowned.”

The way her voice cracked on that word, drowned, tore through my chest. That was how her sisters had died. And Swenson had delivered that news to her today while she’d been wholly unprepared, running errands.

“Swenson is a motherfucker,” I clipped.

Allie’s face turned to us from the bathtub, and I cringed. Before she started preschool, I really needed to clean up my language.

“He shouldn’t have talked to you today,” I gritted out. “Not like that.”

“Nope.”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing really.” Vera shrugged. “I was at the hotel, picking up those tools from Eloise. He was coming off the elevator so it was a coincidence I even saw him. But I have to think he would have tracked me down at the coffee shop or maybe come to the ranch. I don’t know. He asked for a minute. I talked with him in the lobby. When he told me about the pack, I sat on the couch, sort of … numb.”

And alone. She’d been alone. “I should have been there with you.”

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Swenson was a smarmy bastard. First the surprise visit weeks ago at the coffee shop. Now this. “Next time you see him, you turn and walk away,” I said. “Call me or Vance. But I don’t want you talking to him alone again, Vera.”

“Okay.”

“Promise me.”

“Promise.”

The pressure in my chest eased. “What else did he say? Did they find anything else of your dad’s?” Like his body?

I hated to even ask, to push for details, but if all they’d found was a backpack that didn’t exactly mean Cormac was dead.

“No. Just the pack and wallet.” Vera rested her temple against my shoulder.

Swenson had nothing. No proof. What the fuck was the point of this visit?

“He came here to drop a bomb and get your reaction.” He was fishing to see if Vera knew of Cormac’s whereabouts.

“Yep.”

What a motherfucker.

“Dad isn’t dead.” There was so much resolve in her voice, that iron will sharpening to a blade. If by sheer mental force Vera could keep Cormac alive, she’d do it.

“Why would he go to Yosemite?” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I can’t figure it out. There are too many people. We always avoided the national parks whenever possible because they’re so busy. But Swenson showed me a picture of the pack and asked me to confirm it was Dad’s. Green and black. There was a tear in the strap that he’d fixed with duct tape. Dad didn’t go anywhere without it.”

“Then he did go to Yosemite.”

“Yes? I can’t see him giving it to someone else. So it had to be him. But none of it makes sense. Going south was never the plan. He always wanted to get across the border to Canada. Maybe he planted it there? To make the police think he was staying in California?”

“Maybe. But there’s no way for him to know about Swenson being put on his case.”

“No. Except it wouldn’t matter. It’s true that every year we stayed away, Dad relaxed more and more. But he never dropped his guard. He always assumed that people were still searching for him.”

A safe assumption, especially with Swenson in the mix. “Did Swenson say when they’d found it?”

Vera shook her head. “No.”

Cormac could have taken that pack there two years ago, after Vera had left. He could have pitched it thinking no one would ever find it.

Or, he’d left it intentionally, expecting someone to find it much, much sooner than now. Maybe after Vera had gone with Vance, Cormac had wanted to give the illusion of distance. She’d been in Idaho. So he’d gone to California.

“What else did Swenson say?”

“Nothing, really. All he told me was that they think Dad might have …” Drowned. “And then he showed me pictures. That was about the extent of our visit.”

Swenson could have made a phone call, not taken a trip to Montana. He could have sent those pictures through email. “Do you think Swenson actually believes he’s dead?”

“No.” She replied instantly, no hesitation. “Like you said, he came here to get my reaction. Maybe to remind me that he’s not going to forget about Dad.”

The arrogant bastard probably wanted to break a cold case, earn some notoriety. Whatever the hell motivated Agent Swenson, I didn’t really give a fuck. I just wanted him gone and to stay gone.

Swenson probably wasn’t the kind of man to look the other way, even if he knew the truth.

Weeks ago, I would have loved nothing more than to see Cormac rot in prison for the rest of his life. But after Vera had told me the truth, after I’d considered it over and over and over again, I simply wanted Cormac to be forgotten. And maybe for Vera to have some sort of closure where her father was concerned.

“I saw him,” she whispered.

“Who? Swenson?”

“Dad.” Vera looked up at me. “I thought I saw him. It was a while ago and I wasn’t sure if I was just making it up in my head because it happened so fast. But I think I might have seen him.”

“Where?”

“Sable Peak. Not far from where we were a couple weeks ago.”

“But he didn’t approach you?”

“No. He was there. Then gone. Faster than I could blink. I thought maybe I was imagining it. But maybe … What if it was him?”

Then Cormac had seen Vera, and he’d stayed away. Why? Why wouldn’t he talk to her? Hug her? Show himself? That made no sense. Maybe these past two years in the wilderness, the bastard had started to lose his damn mind.

“He looked awful. I’m worried he’s going to lose his mind out there, all alone. Or maybe he’ll just give up. I don’t know. But we need to find him.” Vera’s voice was hard with ruthless determination. I wasn’t the only one in this bathroom who wanted answers from Cormac Gallagher.

“Then we keep looking,” I said. “Should we bring Vance in to help?”

“No.”

“He found your dad once. Could help do it again.”

“Vance found me,” she corrected. “I’ll find Dad.”

Then she’d have help. “Tomorrow.”

We’d always planned to go out tomorrow. Swenson’s visit wouldn’t change that plan, but I’d be damn careful to ensure we were alone.

I kissed Vera’s hair, then shifted to get one of Allie’s hooded towels from the cabinet. But before I could stand, Vera grabbed my wrist.

“Thank you.” Her eyes were so sad. “It’s nice not to be alone in this.”

My heart pinched, and fuck, it hurt. I hauled her into my chest, letting her bury her nose in my neck as I held her tight. “I got you, Peach.”