Cold River - Carla Neggers [15]
“Damn right tonight. I’m not keeping secrets from her. Enough procrastinating. It’s time to be straight with her and give her the news.”
The brothers squirmed under Sean’s scrutiny, but he didn’t care. Hannah had gone along with Toby’s desire to head to Southern California to go to school and indulge his passion for mountain biking, but she didn’t know that Devin was on his way west, too. He’d presented his plan to Sean and asked him for a job, and Sean had agreed to give him one. He’d had his doubts that Devin was ready to make such a big decision after what he’d experienced in November, but he’d proved otherwise. Devin had joined Sean and his brothers and sister on a Christmas Eve search for twelve-year-old twin sisters lost snowshoeing on Cameron Mountain. Physically recovered from the beating he’d received at Rigby’s hands, Devin had shown a mental resilience and confidence that Sean had found reassuring. But the search hadn’t taken them anywhere near the north side of the mountain, and it hadn’t put Devin in the position of worrying and disappointing the sister who’d sacrificed so much to raise her two much-younger brothers.
Sean remembered what it was like to have a burning desire to be on his own and see other places. He’d always been restless, driven and ambitious—and his family hadn’t always approved of his choices.
“Hannah could nail my hide to the wall as a coconspirator,” Sean said.
Devin raked a hand over the top of his head. “I’d be going to California even if you weren’t helping me get there.”
“But I know your plans and haven’t told her. That’s the point. See where I’m going with this?” Sean didn’t wait for an answer. “Talk or I talk. What route is Hannah taking?”
“She’s going up past the falls,” Devin said.
Sean hesitated, then asked, “Is she meeting someone?”
Toby’s eyebrows went up. “You mean like a boyfriend? Hannah? No way.”
“She’s going alone as far as I know,” Devin said. “That’s why I—”
“Forget it.” Sean was relieved her brothers hadn’t immediately thought of Bowie but decided not to bring him up. If Devin and Toby weren’t aware Bowie had been to the café, they didn’t need to know now. “Stick to your plans for the day. I’ll go after your sister.”
They didn’t argue with him, and Sean left through the back door. He climbed into the pickup truck he’d borrowed from Elijah, who wouldn’t hear of his brother spending money on a car rental. Being a soldier and an expert in wilderness survival skills, Elijah had a ready pack loaded with enough supplies to keep anyone alive on a frozen hilltop for days.
On his way out of town, Sean dialed Elijah’s cell phone. “Jo there?”
“She is. You want to talk to her?”
“No. Hannah’s hiking up to the cabin by herself.”
“She’s taking a big risk.”
“That’s her style. She just tells herself and the rest of us she’s careful.”
His brother would have his misgivings. He wasn’t one for solo operations. Given his own years fighting wildland fires out west, Sean wasn’t, either, but he wanted answers bad enough to take a few risks.
And he didn’t want to see Hannah get hurt.
“All right,” Elijah said. “You go argue with her in the cold. A.J. and I will meet you in front of the fire at the lodge before dark.”
“Well before dark. I’m not hiking up there the long way.”
Sean disconnected. He passed O’Rourke’s, not yet open for the day, a red-bowed wreath hanging crookedly on its front door. The temperature had risen to the low twenties, but if the temperature was above zero, Liam O’Rourke got outside. He loved Vermont winters. Sean didn’t know if Hannah did or not, but he wasn’t concerned about her freezing on her solo hike up to his father’s cabin. She knew every shortcut on the mountain, and she knew how to handle herself in winter conditions. She was smart, reserved and utterly fearless.
Plus, he planned to catch up with her before she had a chance to go too far wrong.
Five
Hannah paused at the edge of a cluster of spruce trees on the flat of a quiet knoll on the remote north side of Cameron Mountain. All that disturbed the