Silenced (Alaskan Courage Book #4)

  “Okay,” Jake said, quickly formulating a plan. “Let’s split up. I’ll call Reef and Kirra, tell them to go ahead with the blocks of hunting cabins. Landon, you and Piper take the old mine and shelters. Gage and Darcy, you’ll be with me on the bunkers.” He couldn’t explain why, but deep down he was certain Angela had Kayden in one of the bunkers. Even so, they had to spread out the searchers. He couldn’t take the chance he was wrong.

  “And Rodney has organized the search-and-rescue volunteers—they’ll head out at dawn, if not before,” Sheriff Marshall said.

  Gage nodded. “Yes, they’re ready to roll.”

  “We’ve got to assume Angela’s armed and dangerous,” Landon said, “so if anyone locates her, call it in immediately. And remember to keep an eye out for her truck. She’ll be keeping it close by.”

  “For a quick getaway?” Reef asked.

  “That, and she had to transport Kayden from the truck to wherever she’s holding her. With her broken leg, Kayden couldn’t walk too far, especially out in the wilderness.”

  Please, Father, don’t let Angela hurt her.

  “We meet back here at the end of the day?” Kirra asked.

  “Yes, unless you want to take supplies and camp out. It would save a lot of time not having to make the trek back to town each night.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Gage said. “Except we don’t have our camping gear with us.”

  “We can get you what you need,” Marshall said. “Just give us a list.”

  “We can also call Natalie Adams over at Imnek Adventures,” Gage added. “She rents out equipment. I’m sure she’ll be happy to help.”

  Jake wasn’t so sure, but it didn’t hurt to ask. “Let’s do this quickly, people,” he said, urgency nipping at him. “I’d like us deployed ASAP.” Angela already had way too big of a head start.

  Forty minutes later, the teams were packed and ready to go.

  Reef and Kirra headed for the first grid of hunting cabins, their camping gear stowed in their packs.

  Rex was thrilled to be outside, but the fact that the search was extending into a second day had him antsy.

  The sun had risen, signaling the beginning of a gorgeous day, but all Reef could think about was his sister in some madwoman’s clutches.

  He was so thankful he’d been home to help. He couldn’t imagine the agony Cole must be going through while trying to make it back.

  “Are you familiar with Imnek?” Reef asked.

  Kirra shook her head. “We aided in a SAR rescue here last year, but no, I don’t know it like I do Tariuk.”

  “You think that’s why Angela brought Kayden here, because it’s not as familiar to us?”

  “Absolutely.” She kicked at a pebble in their path with tremendous force. “I still can’t believe she totally fooled me.”

  That really seemed to bug her. “You weren’t the only one she fooled. Kayden thought she was a sweet lady.” He hated to imagine what that “sweet” lady might be doing to his sister.

  “I know, but the thought that a maniac worked at my shelter, at my home, with my dogs. . . . It creeps me out.”

  “I can only imagine.”

  Kirra pointed at the hunter’s cabin ahead.

  Reef pulled his gun, thankful his dad had taught them all to shoot from a young age, taught them respect for the weapon and for life, but also the importance of self-defense and self-protection.

  He focused on the cabin before them.

  “I’ll head around back while you knock on the front door,” Kirra said, “but Rex isn’t signaling he smells her.”

  Reef nodded and knocked on the cabin door, his rifle tight in hand. No one answered. He knocked a second time, then jiggled the handle and found it unlocked. He stepped inside the one-room cabin and waved at Kirra peering in from the back window. Empty. One down, who knew how many more to go. Rex wasn’t the only antsy one.

  Where are you, Kayden?

  40

  The bunkers Marshall had labeled on Jake’s map were spread across the island at strategic military points, and it would take them days to reach and explore them all. Jake prayed the rest of the teams were having better luck, moving quickly through their search grids. Unfortunately no one had called in yet, which meant Angela and Kayden were still missing.

  It took much longer than he’d hoped for Jake to get to the second bunker on his list. It was more than a simple bunker, as the first had been—it was a military outpost. A large five-story tower loomed over him, and he had no way of telling how deep or wide the underground complex ran, or how long it’d take him to thoroughly search it. Frustration seared through him. Where was the next clue? Why was it taking him so long to find it, and what was Angela doing to Kayden in the meantime?

  He surveyed the grounds and found no sign of Angela’s truck, though he supposed it was possible she’d stashed it farther away after getting Kayden inside. As he turned a corner, he saw a pair of fresh tire tracks leading up to the east side of the bunker and then off into the woods. Hope tugged at him. Someone had been there recently, most likely last night.

  Pulling his Sig, he approached the ground-level opening—it was nothing more than a jagged hole in the crumbling concrete. Judging by the structural damage, he was betting the damage had occurred as a result of the ’64 earthquake.

  He left his pack outside, carrying only his gun, sat phone, and flashlight. It was best to travel light and be able to move quickly.

  Kayden’s wrists were chafed nearly raw from the cuffs and her fighting to get out of them. The concrete floor was cold and damp beneath her. She leaned against the wall, trying to make out details in the dim interior.

  She still couldn’t figure out where she was, and it was maddening. If she hadn’t been knocked out, she’d have a better feel for the length of their journey.

  She didn’t recognize the building—an old run-down factory, perhaps. She’d considered the few abandoned buildings she knew of on Tariuk, but a match hadn’t come. Had she been moved off Tariuk? It would have been smart on Angela’s part—removing those searching for her from their well-known surroundings, creating a more level playing field. The only ways off Tariuk were by plane, by boat, or by ferry, and of those, the ferry seemed most likely.

  The ferry only had two direct destinations out of Tariuk—Imnek and Kodiak.

  Kodiak was the bigger of the two, but Imnek had more remote areas once outside the town of Spruce Harbor.

  Her bet was on Imnek, but where? She didn’t know the island like she did Tariuk, particularly not the buildings. What she did know were the climbing and camping spots.

  She swallowed, the movement painful with her dry mouth. How long was Angela going to keep her chained? And where was Angela? Setting a trap for Jake, no doubt. The woman was bent on revenge and appeared to be lacking the normal compunctions of conscience sane human beings had.

  Wrestling against her bonds, Kayden yet again found herself fully restricted.

  “I admire your persistence.” Angela stood in the doorway with a plate of food. “But you might as well accept that you aren’t going anywhere.” She set the plate on the rusted metal table and pulled a chair up to it. “At least not until your boyfriend arrives.”

  She fought against the restraints, pain radiating from her wrists up along her weary arms. “He’s not my boyfriend.” Though she wished he was and planned to tell him exactly that if she escaped this madwoman’s clutches.

  Angela popped a chip into her mouth. “Formalities matter not. He’s clearly desperately in love with you, and that’s all that matters.”

  In her heart she knew her words were true, but nobody had said it out loud before. Jake loved her—desperately. And she loved him, but she’d been too stubborn, prideful, and plain scared to ever let him or anyone else see. What if it was too late? “How do you know he’ll come?”

  “Please. He’s been scrambling to find you since the moment he realized you were gone.”

  “What if he doesn’t
find us?”

  “Don’t worry, he’s a great detective. Far too capable for his own good. Trust me, he’ll find you.”

  “But what if he doesn’t?”

  “Don’t worry, pet. I’ve left him messages he can’t ignore.”

  She hated to imagine what that might mean.

  “And when he comes?”

  Angela smiled coldly. “Payback.”

  “Payback for what? Putting you behind bars, where you belong?”

  Angela dropped the chip she was holding and brushed off her hands. She stood and moved to Kayden, kneeling on her haunches just out of kicking range. “Payback for ruining my life. For taking my husband from me.”

  “No one took him from you. Your husband made his own choices. He killed himself. Not to mention Candace Banner, and Jake’s wife and child.”

  “Is that what you think?” She stood with a sinister smile. “Well, this is going to be a whole lot more fun than I anticipated.”

  Kayden squirmed, fighting in vain to break free.

  “Enough! You’re ruining my dinner.”

  Angela stood with the pole in hand and zapped her again. Before Kayden could brace herself, her world went dark.

  Frustration searing through him, Jake left the empty bunker—empty, except for the taunting note he’d found on a broken-down table in what was left of the bunker’s mess hall.

  You’ve chosen poorly. Now I get more time alone with your lady. What a shame for her.

  Bile rose in Jake’s throat. She wasn’t leaving him clues, only messages to cut deep at his heart.

  He crumpled the note into his pocket and headed for his truck. Unfortunately the tire tracks had only been evidence of teens who had partied inside and left a mess of beer cans and Cheetos bags behind.

  The sun was lowering in the sky, and he knew he should make camp for the night—eat, rest, recoup for tomorrow’s search—but there was no way he’d sit still while Angela had Kayden. He’d press on through the night, through the days ahead, if necessary. He wouldn’t stop until he found her and she was safe in his arms.

  He studied his map. The closest bunker was nearly fifty miles away, but on roads long abandoned, it would take him several hours to reach it.

  Please, Lord, lead me to her.

  He checked in with the others, but unfortunately no one had found Kayden, only an equally taunting note in one of the two bunkers Gage and Darcy had searched. He felt like a rat in a maze of Angela’s design, and he hated it.

  Please, Lord, don’t let me fail.

  He climbed in his truck and headed for the next bunker.

  “We should find a camping spot before nightfall,” Kirra said as she and Reef crossed yet another cabin off their grid.

  “I don’t want to stop. Not until my sister is found.”

  She rested her hand on his arm and pulled back quickly at the surprising tingling. “Uh . . .” She cleared her throat, trying to focus. The last time she’d gotten sidetracked by physical attraction it had nearly destroyed her.

  This is Reef, Kirra. What was she doing being attracted to him, anyway? Instead of decreasing with the more time she spent with him, her attraction had increased. That had to stop immediately.

  “Look, I understand wanting to press on. But once night falls, we could walk within twenty feet of a cabin and not see it. We don’t want to miss anything on our grid.”

  “You’re right.” Reef sighed. “But I don’t like it. It doesn’t feel right.”

  “If I’m remembering correctly, there should be a decent spot up beyond that ridge. It has level ground and a freshwater stream nearby. Plus it’ll be a good starting point for finishing this grid bright and early tomorrow.”

  “We start at sunup?”

  “Absolutely. As soon as we can see.” She had no desire to linger.

  Reef reluctantly agreed. She understood his concern—she had a few of her own—but they had to be wise, professional, and that meant waiting until daybreak to continue the search. All that aside, Rex needed to rest. He’d never let on, but she knew the husky had to be tiring.

  Within a half hour they located the spot she’d been thinking of—the spot where she and her dad had camped numerous times before he and her mom moved to Juneau.

  “Nice pick,” Reef said, dropping his pack. “I’ll get a fire going.”

  Even in the summer months, the temperatures in the mountains dropped into the low forties. They’d need a fire for cooking and warmth until they settled into their sleeping bags.

  Kirra set to work on the tents while he got the fire started.

  “You got those up quick,” he remarked as she finished.

  “Been camping as far back as I can remember.”

  “Huh.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “What was that huh for?”

  “Nothing.” He tossed the last of the kindling into the fire pit and lit it. “I know you do SAR and all that, because of the dogs, but I didn’t picture you as the outdoorsy type.”

  She wasn’t sure she wanted to know, but her curiosity won out. “What did you picture me as?”

  “I don’t know . . .” He shrugged. “A reader?”

  She couldn’t wait to hear where he was going with this one. “And readers aren’t outdoor people?”

  “No. You can be both. Piper and Kayden are both serious readers.”

  “But?”

  “I just always thought you spent all your time studying.”

  “Because I got good grades?”

  “Yeah.” He stoked the emerging fire. “And you always had your homework done, showed up to class on time, got the highest score on tests—which totally obliterated the curve, by the way.”

  “And yet I still managed to have a life.” Or, at least, she had until . . . Now it had been permanently altered, fractured.

  “Of course, I didn’t mean . . .”

  So she’d been right all along. Reef had her pegged as a goody-two-shoes, stay-at-home-studying-Saturday-night bookworm. He’d had no idea she loved camping, glacier surfing, working with sled dogs, volunteering with SAR, watching action flicks, and gardening.

  He glanced up at her from the fire. “Look, you have to admit you pegged me a certain way too.”

  She had, and if she was being totally honest, she still did.

  Something cracked in the woods behind them and Rex shot up. She quickly signaled for him to heel.

  Reef put a finger to his mouth to silence her and lifted his shotgun from the ground. He stood with his back to the fire, facing the woods, where the sound emanated from.

  Rex growled, and Kirra pulled him close, holding his collar tight.

  She watched the woods and spotted movement in the trees. “Is that a bear?”

  Reef looked back at the hot dogs cooking in foil in the embers.

  A huge black bear paced back and forth along the tree line. Piper would describe it as adorable if in pictures, but out here in the wilderness it was nothing but dangerous.

  Reef grabbed a nearby stick and stuck the end in the flames, and once it caught fire, he stepped toward the bear, waving the torch. “Go on. Get out of here.”

  The bear reared up and released a growl that tremored through Kirra. Even though she’d lived in Alaska her whole life, she was still afraid of bears.

  “Go on.” Reef waved the flaming stick again. “Don’t make me shoot you.”

  A lot of guys she knew would have been raring to bag a bear, but Reef was trying to scare it off, and it worked. After a few minutes of a standoff, the bear dropped back down on all fours and lumbered off.

  Kirra stood and moved to Reef’s side as he threw the stick back in the fire.

  “What if he comes back tonight?”

  “I doubt he will. The rest of the food is tied up between the trees. There’ll be nothing left for him to eat.”

  “Unless he decides we look good.”

  “We’ll move our tents side by side. Rex will let us know if anything approaches. I’ll keep my gun with me,
and I’ll use it if need be.”

  She nodded, praying it wouldn’t be needed and praying for Kayden. As scared as Kirra had been as they faced the bear, she couldn’t imagine how frightened Kayden must be or what terror she might be enduring.

  Please, Lord, protect her in the midst of danger.

  It was something only He could do. It defied logic, but she knew it was possible. She’d been there.

  Kayden came to, a burnt taste in her mouth. She’d been electrocuted again. If that woman tried to poke her with that pole one more time, she’d break it over her head—even if she had to break her hands to get free of the cuffs.

  Angela rolled out a sleeping bag on top of an air mattress on the table, with the lantern at her head.

  Kayden followed the lantern light up to the ceiling, where water was dripping in. Great. That explained the constant damp feeling.

  “I’m going to sleep,” Angela said. “If you wake me up with any of your shenanigans, I’ll jolt you yet again.”

  “You do and you’ll regret it.”

  Angela arched a brow. “Ah, so you’ve got some of your fight back. That’s good to see. Makes it all the more enjoyable knocking it back out of you.”

  41

  Jake drove along what may at one time have qualified as a road but certainly didn’t now.

  From what he could tell from his regular study of the map and his GPS coordinates, the bunker lay five miles due east, on the edge of a bluff. According to Marshall, it also had a tower, and over the year some kids had made an extreme-sports snowboarding course out of the debris, even filmed a video—jumping down five stories from the tower and across the concrete ramps. It probably didn’t see much activity in the summer, so it could still be a potential option for Angela, though he doubted she’d choose something that had been visited so recently—the snow sometimes not melting this high up until mid-May.

  He finally cleared the last rise, his headlights illuminating the tower, stopped his truck, and walked the last couple hundred yards. Gun in hand, he let the moon light his way. Using a flashlight across the clearing would make him a sitting duck.