Page 24 of Salvation

Anna straightened, suddenly raring to go. A hike was just what she needed to take her mind off the nightmares. “God, yes. Anytime.”

Sarah laughed and clinked coffee mugs with her. “It’s been too long, hasn’t it?”

“Way too long.”

Every summer when she’d visited Montana, she and Sarah had gone hiking. Short afternoon hikes to the sparkling creek at the bend in the trail. Long, all-day treks to mountain meadows covered in wildflowers. They’d even overnighted a few times, hiking all the way up to the saddle between Cooper’s Hill and Bear Mountain and pitching camp high above the tree line.

“Okay, then. It’s a date. We’ll go after work,” Sarah promised.

Business was slow enough that they could leave shortly before noon. It was hot out, but bearable. Soren was busy in the saloon, but Jessica had offered to keep an eye on the baby while they were gone.

Sarah checked her watch. “Okay, I’ve got four hours until mommy duty starts again.”

They headed for Anna’s car, where Soren caught up to them with a worried frown.

“You’re going hiking? Alone?”

“I’m not alone,” Sarah said. “I’m with Anna.”

“You know what I mean.”

A face-off ensued, and though they both kept perfectly silent, their facial expressions shifted and changed as if they were still in full conversation. Anna looked back and forth between them, wondering if they’d already developed the telepathy some older couples did after decades together.

Finally, Soren scratched his head. “Simon and I both have to work. Cole is still out on the ranch…”

“Why do we need anyone to go with us?” Anna demanded, bristling a little at the suggestion that they couldn’t handle things on their own.

Sarah and Soren exchanged pained looks.

“Janna was jumped at a bar not too long ago, and we had a break-in at the saloon,” Soren said. “It’s just better to be cautious, all right?”

She was about to protest, but it appeared that Soren had finished going through his mental list of escorts and finally decided on one.

“Todd,” he said. “Todd can go with you.”

That suggestion, Anna didn’t protest.

Sarah, on the other hand, pinched her lips, and her brow folded into worried lines. Anna couldn’t figure out why Sarah was so self-conscious around Todd. He was the same around her, in fact. When they finally squeezed into Anna’s little hatchback and set off, she glanced in the rearview mirror and noticed Soren watching them go. He didn’t look too happy, either, though it had been his idea.

What was going on?

The drive to the national forest was short and awkwardly silent, and when they parked at the trailhead, Todd immediately hemmed and hawed and moved aside.

“I won’t be far behind,” he said, letting them get a head start.

“Sure,” Sarah said, taking Anna by the arm and hurrying ahead.

Anna looked back, but he was already hidden by a bend in the trail. “How will he know which trail we take?”

“He’s a bea—” Sarah started, then caught herself with a cough. “He’s a Black River mountain man. He’ll stick with us, no problem.”

Anna looked back dubiously but followed her cousin’s lead. Before long, they were striding along the winding trail under tall stands of scented pine. The carpet of pine needles littering the ground muffled their footsteps, and the only sounds were the flutter of bird wings through the woods.

“It’s beautiful,” Anna murmured. Clusters of rust-colored rocks dotted clearings between rich stands of green pine, a landscape unlike any she’d ever seen. The air was crisp and clear without being painfully dry, and in the shade, the temperature was just perfect.

“In Montana, we’d be hiking through the first snow,” Sarah laughed.

“Do you miss it?”

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