Page 122 of Veil of Silence

“Yes.” Her voice went quiet. “I would have.”

Rain ticked against the kitchen window.

Finally, Prine cleared her throat. “Deputy Harris is approaching from the east. I’ll have him pick you up and take you to a staging point outside the property. The tactical team is coming from Knoxville, and I won’t send anyone onto that property until they’re in position. That’s going to take a little time. You show him the rear road, then remain with him unless I give you other instructions. Do you understand?”

“I understand.”

“You do not enter the property.”

“I won’t.”

Nora ended the call and closed her eyes, grateful Prine had listened. Austin hadn’t. He’d decided what she could handle without asking her.

She didn’t know what they would find at the farmhouse. She didn’t know whether the boy had gone with Cross willingly or what Cross intended to do with him.

But she remembered the road no map showed.

For once, that might be enough.

Chapter

Fifty

Deputy Harris drove too slowly.

Nora knew that wasn’t fair. The back road had never been much of a road to begin with, and years of neglect had reduced it to two muddy ruts winding through the trees. Wet leaves covered the ruts, making it difficult to tell where solid ground ended and mud began. Rainwater filled the deepest holes, and branches scraped both sides of the SUV as they passed.

It had taken most of the night to get this far. Luke had spent more than an hour matching Dad’s notebook against property records and aerial photos before he was confident they had the right farm. Then came the call-out for the tactical team, the drive to Harriman, and a long wait at a closed gas station while the team briefed and Prine studied the aerial images of the house.

Nora had spent those hours in the passenger seat of Harris’s SUV, watching the clock on the dashboard and praying.

Christian and Preston were somewhere ahead. She could feel it in her bones.

Every second Harris spent maneuvering around washed-out sections gave Cross more time to move them.

“Take the next left.” Nora leaned toward the windshield. “It should be just past that stand of pines.”

The headlights swept across a break in the trees, revealing a narrower track nearly hidden beneath overgrown brush. The road had been wider when her family stayed here—wide enough for her father to maneuver the tour bus down it. Now the woods had nearly swallowed it.

Harris slowed. “You’re sure?”

“Yes. This road comes in behind the barn.”

He turned, and the tires slipped before catching in the mud. The SUV rocked over the uneven ground, jarring Nora’s ribs and sending a fresh ache through her injured wrist.

Those were the least of her concerns. She’d slept less than two hours the night before and not at all since, but even the exhaustion clouding her thoughts didn’t matter right now.

Christian had drawn this place three times. She needed to know why.

Harris glanced at the map on the computer mounted beside the dashboard. “Agent Prine’s team should be nearing the front entrance now. We’ll hold at the creek bend until the entry team is in position.”

The words struck Nora like a physical blow. They were close enough that Cross might be somewhere beyond those trees, yet she was supposed to sit and wait.

“We have to wait?”

“That’s the order.”

“I thought I was supposed to show you where the back road comes out.”