Never Tell Them, N.L. Hinkens [unputdownable books txt] 📗

They could talk about him coming by to visit Jessica once they’d retrieved the license and Ray was safely behind bars. Despite Finn’s lengthy record of broken promises, Sonia wasn’t about to deprive her daughter of the chance to see her father when he was home on leave—no matter how little he deserved it. It would mean the world to Jess—she was still too young to understand what a flakey father he really was.

When the Deep Creek Campground came into view, Finn motioned for Sonia to stay out of sight behind a nearby cluster of trees. ”Give me the keys and I’ll grab the license.”

Sonia pressed the key fob into his palm. “It’s in the console.”

“Be right back,” Finn muttered. ”Stay out of sight.”

Breath on pause, Sonia watched as he moved stealthily toward the car and slowly cracked the door open. Moments later, he returned and hunkered down next to her. He examined the driver’s license and then shook his head sadly. ”She looks so young.”

“She used to work at The Busy Bean,” Sonia said. “She was always so friendly and helpful to everyone.”

Finn quirked a wry grin. “Kind of like you, huh? Except this time you picked the wrong person to help. Ray Jenkins is a dangerous man. He’s messed up in the head.”

”I realize that now,” Sonia said. “He told me about his abusive childhood, but I had no idea it had left him so screwed up.” She threw a fearful glance over her shoulder. ”We should get out of here before he shows back up.”

Finn gave a hesitant nod, clenching and unclenching his fist, but made no attempt to move.

“What’s wrong?” Sonia asked, picking up on his agitation.

He locked a worried gaze on her. ”What if … she’s still alive—that girl, I mean? What if Ray went back up there to finish her off and get rid of the evidence?”

Quivering in fear, Sonia let the picture sit in her mind for a moment. The sounds of the forest grew faint as the thumping of her heart increased. Everything in her railed against spending one more minute here. But her compassionate nature wouldn’t allow her off the hook so easily. Finn was right. If Ray was keeping Katie Lambert prisoner somewhere on this mountain, they had to make every effort to find her. Much as she hated to admit it, Finn was well equipped to handle a situation like this. She’d asked him once if he ever got scared on missions. He’d shrugged and told her courage was being scared and doing it anyway. Now was as good a time as any to prove that to herself.

”I have the coordinates to his brother’s cabin,” she squeaked out. She fished her phone from her purse and pulled up the photo she’d snapped of the map.

Finn frowned. ”Where did you get this?”

She hesitated, loathe to admit she’d been snooping around in Ray’s closet. ”I saw the map on his kitchen counter. I knew he was hiding something, so I took a picture of the coordinates. I meant to look them up later.”

Finn grunted as he punched them into his GPS. “I wish you’d stayed away from him to begin with, but, as it turns out, you might have done Katie Lambert’s grandparents a favor. Let’s go.”

Sonia’s heart bobbed in her throat as they hiked up through the damp forest in the direction of Tom’s cabin. She flinched at every rustle of branches, every startled squirrel that scurried up a tree, every critter that scampered across the mulched leaves on the forest floor. She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that Finn, of all people, had come to her rescue. Why couldn’t he have been there all those times when she’d needed him in the past?

A part of her was furious at him for putting a tracker on her car. Surely that was illegal. But another part of her was grateful that he’d had the gumption to insert himself into the situation, alerted by the red flags she had ignored. Jessica would be ecstatic to see him, and for once she had something to be proud of her father for. But Sonia wasn’t going to lead Finn on. If he thought a single, heroic act would be enough to right all past wrongs, he was sorely mistaken. She had no intention of letting him back into her life.

The throbbing in her hip grew worse as they climbed higher, the pain crowding out the questions about Ray she was toying with in her mind. She had lost all track of time when Finn suddenly motioned to her to be quiet.

“What is it?” she whispered, her empty stomach churning up acid.

“I can see a cabin up ahead.”

“Any sign of movement?”

Finn didn’t answer. Instead, he pulled out a small pair of binoculars and stared silently through them for several minutes.

Sonia couldn’t help thinking about the many covert missions he’d been on over the years and how often she’d accused him of putting the military before his family. Maybe she’d been too hard on him for the sacrifices he’d made. It was what he loved to do, after all. And now, he was using his training to protect his family and rid them of the threat next-door. For the first time, she allowed herself to envision how the situation might play out. If Ray came at them with a weapon, Finn would have little choice but to shoot him. And she would have to serve as a witness for the defense. The last time they had gone to court, she had fought him with everything she had, but this time she would have his back.

Finn lowered the binoculars. ”I’m going to circle round and approach the cabin from the back. Stay right behind me and try not to make a sound.”

Sonia’s throat felt torched with fear as they crept quietly through the trees around to the rear of the cabin. Suddenly,