Page 62 of Rangers Last Promise

“No. Mom must have moved it after Grant died.”

“But the key is still on your charm bracelet.”

“At my house.”

I nod slowly.

“Tomorrow we retrieve the bracelet.”

“And then we figure out what Mom did with Grant’s lockbox.”

For the first time since the coordinates disappeared, I feel something other than frustration.

Grant planned for failure.

Not before he deployed.

After he realized someone was going to make sure we didn’t come home.

If he managed to send anything back to his mother, the lockbox may contain the one piece of evidence our enemy hasn’t found.

A floorboard creaks above us.

We both freeze.

This building is supposed to be empty.

I release Mara’s hand and draw my weapon, pulling her behind the nearest support post.

She raises hers beside me.

A shadow moves beyond the second-floor railing.

Then a man’s voice comes through the darkness.

“You’re too late, Doc.”

Every muscle in my body locks.

I know that voice.

I heard it give briefings.

I heard it argue with Grant.

I heard it over the radio before our convoy entered that valley.

A voice belonging to a man who has been dead for eleven years.

Elias Hampton.

7

MARA

Doc pulls me behind him.

Again.