He nodded. Still looking around him. Taking in the faces, the questioning stares, the hard smoking mountains beyond.
“I’ll come back to find the boy,” he told Roy.
“The boy?”
And so Ethan told him what he’d hoped he’d never have to say in his life: he’d lost a child on the mountain.
“We’ll get him, Ethan. Don’t worry about that.”
“I’ve made a promise,” he said. “Made a lot of them. I’ll see to his safety. Whether you find him first or not, you don’t do a thing before you check with me, understand? Not a thing.”
Roy tilted his head and glanced away. “You got anything I should know about this kid?”
Ethan said, “I need to head to the hospital now. I need to see her. But I’ll be back.” He repeated it again, louder, and this time he was looking at the boys. “I’ll be back, guys.”
They all looked at him, and some of them nodded, while others already seemed to accept what he didn’t-he would never see them again.
The Blackwell brothers watched through rifle scopes as the group emerged at the trailhead, watched with fingers on triggers. They were in the woods opposite the road, a higher elevation, a fine vantage point. It had not been hard to find the boys. The police activity ensured that.
“If you take the shot,” Jack Blackwell said, “you better make sure it’s good.”
“I’m aware of the stakes.”
“I’m reminding us both. One clean shot, and then it’s all about speed. We better move fast when it’s done.”
“We will.”
“They don’t know who he is yet,” Jack said. The left side of his face was badly burned. High red blisters forming.
“You don’t think?”
“Not much interest being shown in the boys. More in Serbin. And these are all local police. I don’t see a fed of any sort, do you?”
“No.”
“So then they do not know the value of young Jace.”
Together, lying prone in sniper stances with twenty feet separating them, they watched the boys take shape. Adjusted scopes for clearer looks at faces. Six boys. Six fatigued faces.
“I don’t see him.”
“Neither do I.”
“They’re acting as if that’s all. Nobody else coming.”
“They moved him already, then. Got a step ahead.”
“No. Too fast for that.”
“Then he was never here to begin with.”
“You heard the Serbin woman. She knew why we were here.”
They watched for a long time. Two uniformed police and a man in an orange vest and camouflage distributed radios, checked them, and then walked away from the boys and up to the trailhead. Disappeared into the woods.
“What are they going back for?” Patrick said.
“I’m wondering the same thing.” Jack looked away from the scope and met his brother’s eyes. “Interesting.”
“Indeed. One missing, you think? Young Jace is very smart. Very resourceful.”
“And maybe very alone in the woods.”
“Maybe.”
“If they find him first, it’s trouble.”
“We find him first, it’s easy.”
“That is what we were promised from the beginning. So far, nothing has been easy.”
“So it goes with some quests, brother. We must earn our reward today.”
“How I treasure your bits of wisdom. Let me never say otherwise.”
“I appreciate that.”
“Serbin’s leaving.”
Jack turned back to the scope. One of the police SUVs was pulling away. Serbin riding out. The six boys and the rest of the police remained behind.
“She’s alive,” his brother said. “I told you.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do. You watched him. You think that was the reaction of a man whose wife was dead? Pretty calm. And in a pretty big hurry now. Going to see her.”
“We need the kid.”
“Need them both now.”
Jack sighed and lowered the rifle. “I suppose it’s good that there’s two of us.”
“It always has been. Who do you want?”
“If she’s alive, she’s in a hospital. Figure I’ll blend in pretty well in an ER right now, don’t you think?”
“So I’m into the woods, then.”
“You’re better at that than me.”
“Yes.”
“And I won’t be long.”
“We’ll see. It’s been longer than I wanted already.”
“Sometimes that’s the way of the world, brother. I prefer speed as much as you do. I just understand patience a bit more.”
“The men who went in after the boy know more than we do about his location.”
“I’d imagine.”
“So I follow. And if I see him, I take the shot.”
“If you see him, you make the shot. Taking it isn’t worth much.”
“Have you seen me miss?”
“No.”
“There you go, then. How do you intend to get me back out of the mountains?”
Jack Blackwell’s only response was a smile.
19
He wanted to cry again but didn’t have the tears left, or maybe the energy. The woman was scared of him, and he felt bad about that, but he wasn’t doing anything scary anymore. He didn’t even have the hatchet; it was right there on the floor.
“Pick it up,” he said.
“What?”
He waved at the hatchet. “Go ahead and take it. Use it on me if you want.”
“I’m not going to use a hatchet on you,” the woman said. “And you’re not going to use it on me. Are you?”
Jace shook his head.
“Then put it back where it belongs,” she said.
He was surprised that she was encouraging him to touch it again. When he looked up, she seemed firm about it, though. Her arms were crossed over her chest in a protective fashion but she wasn’t trying to run.
“Put it back, Connor,” she said.
That tone of voice sounded so much like his mother’s. His mother wasn’t a yelling type. She was used to being in charge-in her job she had to be calm and in charge, she told him that all the time, calm and in charge, calm and in charge. So when she got mad at him, she kept up the same attitude. Just like this woman now. She didn’t look very much like his mother, though. She was shorter and younger and thinner. Too thin. Like she had an eating disorder.
“Connor,” she said again, and this time he listened. He picked up the hatchet by its handle and returned it to the woodpile. She never moved, never even tensed up. When he’d set it down, she said, “Let’s talk. Hon? We need to be honest with each other. It’s just the two of us now. You made damn sure of that.”
“I had to,” he said. “I know you don’t believe that, but it’s true.”
“Tell me why.”
He didn’t say anything.
“It’s the least you can do,” she said. “You walked in here and destroyed my radio, and I’m in serious trouble now, do you understand that? There’s a fire burning out there, and people are counting on me to help, and I can’t.”
“It was for you,” he said. “Not just me. It’s to keep you safe.”
“Tell me why,” she repeated.
He was exhausted, physically and mentally, but he knew he couldn’t tell her. They’d hammered that into his brain long before he arrived in Montana. No one can know…
But what was the point of keeping it a secret now? The men from the quarry were already here. Telling someone the truth wasn’t going to make it any worse.
“Hon,” she said, “this isn’t fair to me. I can see that you’re scared, and I believe that there’s a reason. I know there must be a reason. But if somebody is going to hurt you or something, and you’re with me, then I deserve to know. Don’t you see that?”
“You have no idea,” he blurted.
“Go on.”
“I can’t.”
“You have to. Damn it, I deserve to know what’s out there!” She waved her hand at the world around them, which was just beginning to brighten. It probably looked darker down on the ground, but when you were up here in the tower, reaching into the sky, the light came early.