tonight. Given the radio trouble, they might have no idea which direction she had headed, so the search area was huge.
If they didn’t run across her trail markers, it could be a long time. God, why hadn’t she thought to leave a message with her painting stuff? At least an arrow of some kind?
Because she’d been all hot to trot to the rescue. Because for some reason she had ignored some very basic principles, such as making sure someone would know where she had gone. Well, she had hoped Lucy had heard her, but it was apparent now that she hadn’t. Therefore, she’d been a fool.
Trying to prove what? She was still struggling with that. Had she been trying to prove something, or had she just kicked into high gear because she thought someone needed help? Back and forth her thoughts ran like a caged rat. Bottom line, the reason didn’t matter anymore. Now she was in trouble, she hadn’t helped anyone and she’d made her situation worse by not using her mind before giving in to the immediate rush of adrenaline and need to help.
Fools rush in... The old aphorism came back to her. Absolutely true, she thought now, but she was getting too tired to keep worrying about why she had done this. She needed to deal with the facts and save the personal debriefing for later.
Right now she had to find a way to stay warm and nothing else mattered.
Then it occurred to her she hadn’t heard that cry for help again, and even in the lousy light when she looked across the stream she could see the orange that had drawn her down here was nothing but a torn piece of cloth. One that hadn’t been here the other day. Probably washed up here by the storm.
A prickling sensation started crawling up the back of her neck as it struck her that, yes, that cloth might have washed up here yesterday, but combined with the cries for help... What if this had been an ambush?
That might have been a wild thought for most people, but not for someone who had served in the war. There ambushes had been a daily fact of life. Just because she was in the civilian world didn’t mean they couldn’t still happen. When she remembered what they had learned about Cap, maybe she had good reason to be paranoid, although she was damned if she could figure out why he’d come after her.
Stop it, she told herself, even as she looked up and surveyed the rim of the gorge as far as she could see it. You need to stay warm, get warmer if possible. Even if this hadn’t been an accident, that was the only thing that mattered now.
Once again she surveyed a depression in the wall of the gorge. It wasn’t huge, but right now it offered the only possibility of protecting at least part of her body from heat loss.
Biting her sore and swollen lip, hoping she’d make it, hoping she’d find something better to use along the way, she began to drag herself toward it. The pain in her leg had become so familiar now it merely provided a background.
* * *
Craig soon realized he had one advantage: Buddy, Cap and the other guy didn’t see any need to be surreptitious. After all, they were searching, not being hunted. So they called out from time to time and didn’t bother to be at all quiet. Scuffing along the ground, they even left quite a trail in places.
On the surface, it appeared quite natural, the way people would actually search. Distrust wouldn’t leave him alone, though. In fact, it was gnawing at him.
Local people often turned out to help with searches, especially when time started lengthening. If they didn’t find Sky tonight, he’d expect to see a lot more than sheriff’s deputies out there come morning.
So if it had just been Buddy and maybe even the other guy showing up, he wouldn’t have thought much about it. But Cap’s presence...well, Cap’s résumé didn’t exactly suggest he was the rescuing sort. Far from it.
And the way he had moved in to select the area he wanted to search raised a whole bunch of red flags. At this point, Craig would have bet a great deal that Cap had a pretty good idea where Sky was.
The thought didn’t comfort him a whole lot. In fact, it increased both his anger and his fear until his ears were damn near humming