Page 70 of Tactical Lies

“Becca? What's wrong?” Cade asked without preamble. She appreciated him just jumping into the issue and not wasting time on small talk, after all, she wasn't going to be calling him in the middle of the night for small talk.

“There’s a storm and the generator went out,” she blurted out.

“Where’s Connor?”

“He went out into the storm to check it out. He hasn’t come back. It hasn’t been that long, but I thought I heard a gunshot.”

Silence met her.

“Cade?”

More silence.

Moving the phone from her ear she saw that the call had been disconnected.

Quickly redialing she waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Nothing.

The call wouldn't go through.

Had to be the storm messing with the reception. She was probably lucky she’d been able to get through to him at all, but had he heard what she’d said about Connor and the gunshot?

If he hadn't, he might just think she was letting him know about the storm and not worry about it until morning.

By morning it would be too late.

That she was certain of.

If it was just the storm taking out the generator, Connor would be back by now. He wouldn't leave her to worry about him, he’d come back and let her know and then go back to see if there was anything he could do to fix it, or they’d just wait out the storm together.

But he hadn't come back.

That meant he couldn’t.

Because of the gunshot.

She couldn’t stay in there if he was outside somewhere hurt, maybe even dying. What if the people who had taken out the generator had shot Connor and were now trying to kidnap him? They might have come to take him so they could use him to blackmail his brothers into backing off in their search for answers.

If there was a chance he was alive she had to try to go to him.

Mind made up, Becca put her hands out in front of her and worked her way through the cabin to where Cade had told her the emergency kit was stashed. There was a flashlight in there, and if she could get it, she could go looking for Connor.

It didn't take her long to locate it, and once she had the flashlight in her hand she felt marginally better. The cell phone was useless without reception, so she left it on the kitchen counter and switched on the flashlight.

The beam of light bolstered her and as she swung it around the cabin, searching for any other presence, she saw no puddles of water inside. Anyone coming in would be drenched so she knew for certain she was alone.

The question was, how many people were outside the cabin?

Only one way to find out.

For all she knew, it was only Connor, and he’d just been hurt somehow in the storm and it was his weapon that had gone off. Calling out to her and telling her he needed her.

After that first step out the back door, she was drenched.

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