Page 51 of Glimmer in the Darkness

“You’ve stayed in that same city all this time?”

“Yeah. I’d love to move farther out where the rent isn’t so high, but cars are expensive. People without cars have very little choice but to stay in the city.”

“You have a car now, though.”

“It’s rented through one of those online car sharing services—like that Air B and B but for cars. On the off chance somebody runs the plates, they’ll lead back to a guy who doesn’t have my real name. Or… my real fake name, anyway. Seemed safer than going with Hertz.”

“So,” he said, going for casual, “back in this nameless city, is there someone who would mind you and me sharing a tent?”

“Like, a husband?”

“Or a boyfriend?”

“No.”

That surprised him. Cassidy had always latched onto people, never felt comfortable alone. “Was there, ever?”

“Besides you?”

He rolled onto his back. He shouldn’t have started down this road.

“I’ve made some mistakes in that department,” she said. “Since then, I’ve learned to be alone, to be content in—”

Something slapped against the tent, and she gasped.

He sat up and grabbed his gun, looking for the silhouette of a man. A bear. Something. All he saw was a dark spot on one side of the tent fabric about the size of two hands, spread wide.

She sat up beside him. They both watched.

The wind whipped, and the dark spot lifted, blew away.

“A leaf?” she whispered.

“A twig, I think, with a few leaves attached.”

She lay back down, and he did the same, though now his heart was racing.

They’d almost done it. Almost gotten their minds off the danger outside the tent. But, distraction or no, the danger hadn’t gone away.

Chapter Seventeen

Despite the presence of whatever—or whoever—lurked just beyond the thin fabric of their tent, Cassidy had somehow fallen asleep for a bit. James made her feel safe. Or at least safer.

Thank God James had come.

After slipping on her sweatshirt and shoes, she crawled out of the tent. Where was he?

He had to be close. She’d awakened when she’d heard the zipper only a few moments ago. He’d probably gone to get the food.

She walked in the opposite direction and emptied her bladder behind a bush, hoping neither James nor their stalker would see her.

Was the stalker still out there? Walking back to the small camping area, she scanned the forest in the early morning light. If he was, what was he after? Certainly not trying to hurt them. He’d had the opportunity to do that last night and hadn’t taken it. Trying to scare them away? Again, he’d missed his chance. In the daylight, she wasn’t nearly as afraid. Except it wasn’t so much that the fear had waned but that her determination had expanded again.

Little Ella was out there, somewhere. She’d been missing four nights now. The last little girl who’d been kidnapped had been gone nine nights. Her body’d been found the tenth day after she’d disappeared.

The clock was ticking on Ella’s life. They had to find her. And no creepy stalker in the woods was going to stop them.

Well, stop her. She couldn’t speak for James.