Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

S tanding at the edge of the mountain, but a good distance from the road in case a car or truck traveled it, which so far none had, Dave blew on his hand holding the radio, the other jammed into his coat pocket. He hated this part of any operation. The waiting. Being the person covering the rear, making sure nothing happened behind the team to ambush them or providing assistance if needed. It was why he always wanted to be the point man, both when he served in the Army and as a member of the SWAT team.

Now that he was working for the family firm and one of the team leaders, he had to make decisions utilizing each team's members to their best ability. Today, Katie, Luke and Matt going down that mountain was the right choice. He needed to trust them, and he did, to make the best decisions to find Zoe and bring her back, no matter what condition she was in.

"Dave," Luke's voice cracked over the two-way radio. "We've got a problem."

His heart sank as he pushed the talk button. "Is she dead?"

"We don't think so, but she's gone."

"Gone? She fell even lower?"

"We think she's injured bad and someone's taken her."

"Taken her?"

"It looks like someone tended her injuries," Katie's voice said over the radio. "Then took her down the mountain."

He slowly blew out a sigh. "Okay. You guys okay to keep going?"

"At this point," Matt took over, "We're about twenty feet from the bottom of the mountain and more than three hundred from you."

Dave weighed the weather and their position. He looked at his watch. Another couple of hours and the sun would set, which meant the temperature would drop with them without shelter. And they had no idea who had Zoe or what condition she was in.

"You guys follow her trail. I'll drive further down the mountain and maybe I can find a way to get to you down there."

"Sounds like a plan."

"You guys watch your six," he said, then pocketed the radio and pulled out his phone. Still no cell service. "Great," he muttered as he walked back to the SUV. "Stuck out here with the search and rescue going sideways, no idea where Zoe is and no way to communicate with either Abby back in Columbus or Jake in DC." Worse, he couldn't call his wife Judy and tell her what was going on and not to worry. Although, she said she'd still worried when he was off on an operation but just hearing his voice helped ease her mind a little. Nothing he could do about it now.

He climbed into the SUV and started the engine. As he let the engine warm up a little, he poured himself a cup of coffee from the thermos and smiled a little. Making up for putting Judy through the stress of worrying about him when he got home? Almost made it worth the aggravation.

Then he heaved a sigh. He just hoped they found Zoe and could bring her, as well as the rest of his family members, home safe and sound.

Slowly, he put the vehicle in gear and drove down the snow-covered road, sticking as close to the mountainside and away from the edge as possible. Last thing he needed to do was end up at the bottom of the mountain by going over the side. Hopefully, somewhere below he'd find a turnoff that led back to the others. Except for some sort of snowplow, he just prayed no one was traveling this road besides him.

?

"You sure this is the road we needed to take?" Styx shakily asked beside him.

God, save him from stupidity. Dodger fought the urge to growl as he slowly drove the mountain road following the single set of tire tracks in front of him. The sun was starting to set behind the mountains and he didn't want to veer over the side in the darkening visibility. Last thing he needed was Styx getting all jittery beside him.

"I told you the GPS wasn't going to work in the mountains when the guy at the barbecue place back in Norton told us the cell phone service was down in the mountains from the storm. That's why we got a map at the gas station," he said, pointing at the very thing Styx was holding on his lap, "and marked out the route based on the coordinates the boss gave us."

"Yeah." The younger guy's leg bounced nervously. "It's just all this snow and no one's around and the road is like super scary with all these turns. I mean it's a fucking mountain."

Great. The guy was getting ready to flip out on him. He wished he had some pot to give him to calm down, but the last thing he needed was some hick cop pulling them over and smelling the weed on them. Visions of Deliverance popped into his head. He hated that movie. He wasn't getting put in some jail out here.

"See those tire tracks in front of us?" he asked pointing out the front windshield.

"Yeah."

"That's someone else driving up here. We just follow those tracks and we'll stay safely on the road."

"But what if they went off the road?"

Now he gets logical. "Then the tracks will veer off to the side and we just won't go there, okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense."

"Okay, you watch the road and compare it to the spot where we marked the boss told us to check. Let me know when we get there, okay?"

They traveled another couple of miles before Styx smacked his hand down on the dashboard. "What's going on up there?"

Slowly he took his foot off the gas and gently pressed the break pedal so as not to put the car into a skid on the icy road. Growing up in upper state New York, he'd learned how to drive on ice and snow. Once they came to a stop, he saw what had Styx upset. The tire tracks had moved to the side of the road up against the side of the mountain in a spot where the area was wider than it had been. Lots of foot tracks walked from where the car stopped and the edge of the mountain.

"Where is this spot on the map?" he asked, already suspecting the answer.

"Right where the boss told us the car went over," Styx said, confirming his thoughts.

"Someone else is looking for the car." He pulled their car over to where the other vehicle had stopped.

"How did they know where it was?"

"I don't know, but they were definitely stopped here and their footprints lead to the other side of the road." He unfastened his seatbelt and grabbed the flashlights from the kit in the backseat, handing one to Styx. "Let's check it out."

Carefully, they followed the tracks to the mountain's edge. Dodger shone his light down into the ravine below. He found the car off to his left and footprints all around it. "Yep. They were looking for the same car the boss sent us after."

He backed away from the edge and headed back to his car.

"The boss said find the phone and it would be in that car. What are we going to do?"

"We're going to follow their car."

"Why? Shouldn't we follow the guys who went down to the car? There looked like tracks going down further."

He turned to his partner. "What do I look like, Daniel freaking Boone?"

"Who's Daniel Boone?"

Dodger shook his head. "He was a guy who was one of the first white men to travel these mountains on foot two hundred years ago. He was a tracker. But I ain't, so unless you've got skills you haven't told me about. Our best bet to getting that phone is following their car and catching up with them."

"Okay, okay," Styx said, snapping his seatbelt in place. "We catch up with them, take the phone and then what?"

Dodger put the car in gear and followed the tire tracks in front of him. "We do the other part of the boss' orders. We leave no loose ends."