Backwoods. Jill Sorenson

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      It wasn’t fair.

      Abby didn’t want to “rough it” with a man this attractive. She was going to be sweaty and anxious and unkempt. The idea of trekking through the woods and leaving civilization behind intimidated her. She didn’t like feeling out of her element, out of control.

      “You must have been a child bride,” he said.

      She’d heard that one before. It was an odd sort of compliment, but she saw no censure in his expression. “And you were twelve when you fathered Leo, right?”

      He laughed, shaking his head. “I was nineteen. The same age he is now.”

      “Were you more mature than he is?”

      “Maybe, but not by much.”

      She fell silent for a moment, pondering her own teen marriage. At eighteen, she’d thought she was ready to be a wife and mother. She’d wanted her own family more than anything. Ray had been five years older, and on a fast track to a promising career in medicine. They’d skipped the courtship and gone straight to playing house.

      “Was the pregnancy unplanned?” she asked, tentative.

      His brows rose at the personal question. “It’s hard to say that, considering how careless we were with protection. The real surprise was that it didn’t happen sooner.”

      “Did you want to get married?”

      “I did, actually. I had to talk her into it. She had reservations about the amount of time I spent traveling with the team.”

      Abby couldn’t blame her. She imagined a young, beautiful Lydia, taking care of a baby by herself while Nathan “the Storm” Strom hit home runs in front of a roaring crowd. Lydia had gotten the short end of that stick.

      When the coffee was finished brewing, Nathan grabbed a cup and handed it to her.

      “Thanks,” she said, disconcerted by his proximity.

      “Isn’t this cozy,” Brooke said as she walked in. She was wearing a red tank top, frayed denim short-shorts and sturdy hiking boots. Her long hair was braided under a baseball cap. “You two should get revenge on Lydia and Dad by hooking up.”

      Abby stepped back from Nathan too quickly and spilled coffee over the rim of her mug. “Brooke!”

      “What?”

      Nathan coughed into his fist, as if covering a laugh. He found another mug on the shelf and busied himself with the coffeemaker. Abby set her cup aside and wiped the floor with a paper towel, her cheeks hot.

      “Coffee?” Nathan offered Brooke.

      “No, thanks.”

      He must have preferred it black, because he left without adding any cream or sugar. “Ladies,” he said, winking at Abby.

      Brooke gave her a triumphant smile.

      Abby opened the refrigerator, half hoping she could crawl inside and die. “I can’t believe you said that.”

      “Relax. He thought I was joking.”

      Abby took out a carton of soy milk and a jar of orange juice. “Should I make breakfast?”

      “Definitely. Be domestic.”

      Abby rifled through the utensil drawer for a spatula. “You can scramble eggs,” she said, pointing it at Brooke.

      They cooked almost a dozen eggs, along with turkey bacon and wheat toast. Nathan came back for a plate. Leo also roused from his slumber. He was dressed casually in basketball shorts and a T-shirt that said High Life across the front. Nathan’s gaze darkened with irritation when he saw the marijuana logo.

      Abby could cut through the tension between them with a knife. Nathan had said that Leo didn’t like him. It appeared to be true. He was polite to her and Brooke, seemingly indifferent toward his father.

      After breakfast, Leo helped Brooke with the dishes while Nathan walked outside to make business calls on his cell phone. Abby perused the local newspaper, which must have been delivered with the groceries. She found a disturbing story about Echo Lake. A few years ago, a group of teenagers had hiked there for an afternoon swim. When it was time to leave, one of the girls hadn’t returned to shore. Divers searched a portion of the lake but were unable to recover the body. She was presumed drowned.

      Abby read the article out loud to Brooke and Leo. “You’ll have to be careful swimming. There are obstacles in the water. Sunken logs.”

      “We’ll use the buddy system,” Leo said.

      Brooke handed him a plate to dry. “Stop reading that stuff, Mom. You’re going to get all worked up.”

      Abby flipped through the pages with a sigh. Near the back, there was a photo of a smiling young woman hugging a terrier mix. Both were missing. She was last seen at a pet store, buying a leash for the dog.

      Maybe she’d gone hiking.

      Pulse racing, Abby returned to the Echo Lake article and noted the victim’s name. Then she picked up her cell phone and did a quick search for the drowning victim’s name plus the missing girl’s name. They were connected, but only as former residents of Monarch. Both were young, blonde and pretty.

      Curious, Abby looked for more information about missing girls and women in the area. There were dozens of articles about the college student who’d been murdered on the Pacific Crest Trail. He’d been shot in the chest with an arrow from a crossbow. His girlfriend—young, blonde and pretty—had never been found.

      If Abby hadn’t seen the first two women in the same newspaper, she might not have noticed the similarities. She skimmed the other articles for evidence that law enforcement officials were investigating a link between them. They weren’t even trying to find the drowning victim. The woman and the dog could have gone anywhere. Forest rangers and volunteers had combed the woods for the college student’s girlfriend, to no avail.

      What if all three women had fallen prey to a killer?

      Abby didn’t voice this concern out loud. It was far-fetched, she supposed, and Brooke would accuse her of obsessing over nothing, which Abby did often. She continued to browse for clues, mapping the distances between the pet store, hiking trail and lake. They were located within a twenty-mile radius.

      When Brooke clapped her hands for attention, Abby glanced up, startled. Brooke and Leo had finished with the dishes. Nathan had just come back inside with his cell phone. Leo was sitting on the couch, disentangling the cord to his earbuds.

      “I’m calling a family meeting,” Brooke said.

      Leo snorted at the announcement. “We’re not a family.”

      “For the next four days, we are,” she said, gesturing for Abby to join them. “Bring it in, Mom.”

      Nathan sat down on the couch next to Leo. Abby took the space beside Nathan. Brooke’s assertion that they were a family, if only for a few days, made Abby’s chest tighten СКАЧАТЬ