Page 8 of Disappearance at Angel's Landing
For the first time, Branch met her gaze without so much as a wince at the sound of her voice. And waited for her to connect the dots.
“You convinced him to keep me.” She braced herself for the argument, but it never came. The gritty, peeling fabric of her couch rubbed against the backs of her thighs as a whole new level of awareness coursed through her. She didn’t know what to think about that, what to do. He’d gone against their district ranger to call Risner out for his blatant sexism she and the rest of the female rangers had to put up with for this job. Now this? “Why would you do that? You can’t stand me.”
Branch shoved to stand up, pushing the couch back a few inches at the effort. He stared down at her. Not intimidating. Just…there. Like he would sign up to fight all of her battles if he could, even the ones she’d kept to herself. Which didn’t make a lick of sense. He didn’t answer for a series of moments. She wasn’t sure if he would at all. Until all that intensity centeredon her. “Why do you let everyone think you’re something you’re not?”
“Because the truth is too awful.” A rush of shame burned hot under her skin. It took longer than she wanted for her to make sense of what he was saying—what he thought he knew about her—and for a split second, she was tired of lying. Of being exactly what people expected of her. If anyone was going to see through the lies she’d sprinkled like breadcrumbs over the years, she’d put her hope on Branch Thompson. Only to have been disappointed over and over again when he ignored and flat out rejected her.
He hadn’t fought Risner for her to remain on the case out of some mutual interest or a potential friendship as she’d wanted since the day he set foot in Zion. Branch had done it to figure out what happened to Sarah Lantos. Which was kind of admirable in and of itself. Lila fisted her sleep shirt to get her head out of the clouds.
“The Grotto at six.” He didn’t wait for her to answer as he suddenly lunged for the door. “Don’t be late.”
Lila couldn’t help but scramble after him. “Why? What’s at six?”
Branch pulled up short of crossing the threshold back out into the gusty darkness and locked his gaze on her. “We start tracking the killer.”
Chapter Six
Lila Jordan was going to be the death of him.
She was late. But had he expected anything less? It seemed in the years she’d joined the National Park Service, she’d gone out of her way to rebel against any and all authority, protocol and human decency. As far as Branch could tell, her erratic monologues and meddling were about holding onto some kind of individuality while conforming to a group for a paycheck. He imagined she was the child who never followed the rules, managed to bring nothing but chaos within her family and played pranks on her siblings and parents.
But with a smile like the one that haunted his dreams, she probably swayed anyone and everyone into her line of thinking with the promise of a good time and a little spice thrown in.
Hell, even some of their fellow rangers looked at her as though some of her stardust could rub off on them, but no one compared to the enigma that was Ranger Barbie. There were just some things that couldn’t be learned. Lila’s daring was one of them. In the end, that daring and outright disobedience would only serve to distance her from any real connections. Because how could you trust someone who didn’t follow a typical pattern of behavior and made decisions based on their emotions?
But hadn’t he transferred to Zion National Park to find that same distance? Maybe Lila had a point.
The cold seeped through his uniform as he stared out over the Virgin River. The current this far into the canyon wasn’t as strong as it would be upstream, but it reached depths of well over fifteen feet in some places, and hikers never seemed to have the good sense to follow direction on calm days like this. The sun was already rising in the east but had yet to reach the canyon floor. Everything about the view settled that invisible burn of rage he had to keep at bay for the sake of his sanity. This place—the isolation, the beauty, the work—it all combined to fight against his natural instincts to bring down the world around him. After all, it was only fair after what the world had done to him.
Two taps registered on his shoulder, and Branch spun to face the threat.
“Morning! Sorry I’m a few minutes late, but I thought we could warm up with coffee. It’s really more for your safety. I’m not a people person until I hit the bottom of the first cup of caffeine.”
Ah. The mask was back in place. This wasn’t the Lila he’d met on the trail to Scout Lookout yesterday. Ranger Barbie had returned. In full force it seemed.
Handing off one of the cups she held, she took a sip from her own. She’d tied her hair back beneath her Stetson again, accentuating a sharp, feminine jawline. Thick lashes dusted the tops of her cheekbones, and those almond-shaped blue eyes felt as though could see straight through him. There was no denying the natural beauty he’d noted last night. In fact, seeing her in that sleep shirt with an ice cream stain below her chin had probably been one of the most gut-wrenching experiences of his life. Because for those short minutes, Lila had just been herself. Effortless and open, if not a little paranoid when it came to serial killers. “I had to guess on the way you take it. I figured black. Like your soul.”
She wasn’t wrong. Branch took the offering. The bitterness of the coffee failed to cut through the sweetness rolling off her in waves. Actually, he wasn’t sure if there was anything that could protect him against the onslaught of Ranger Barbie’s full powers. He could almost see the sound wall of bubble-gum pink and high-pitched laughter coming straight at him. “Thanks.”
That bright smile that felt a little too forced at times transformed her face from morning zombie to cocaine high. Damn, the whiplash between her two personalities triggered a painful knot in his neck. Again, that tendril of curiosity tightened in his chest. It had started yesterday on their hike up Angel’s Landing, convincing him he’d witnessed something he wasn’t supposed to. The real her.
So what made a woman like Lila go out of her way to lie to bosses and coworkers? Surely it didn’t extend to the people in her personal life, so why here at the park?
She hiked her shoulders higher, studying the Grotto with its fifty-foot trees, asphalted paths and worn, wooden picnic tables.
The park itself remained open twenty-four-seven, but the shuttle system to get visitors this far into the park had only just begun for the day. It would be another fifteen minutes or so before this trail was overrun. While Sarah Lantos’s death had been determined to be homicide, law enforcement rangers didn’t have the pull to shut down the Angel’s Landing trail. Their only saving grace would be the lottery system that limited the amount of hikers.
Lila seemed to sense their limited opportunity to get moving without an audience. “So what’s the plan, Stan? I’ve got three days’ worth of supplies and sixteen ounces of caffeine in me. If we don’t start hiking, I might have to climb the side of the Lookout to burn it all off.”
She’d come prepared. Good. Neither of them could risk going into this unprepared, but based on his previous homicideexperience, he didn’t expect that the killer had remained in the park, either.
“Whoever stabbed Sarah Lantos either climbed the Lookout to get to his victim or used the rope and anchors up the side as an escape after he killed her.” Branch was already moving across the road as the first shuttle curved along the main transit vein of the park toward the start of the Angel’s Landing trail.
“Don’t forget he also pushed her over the edge.” Her tone was a bit too enthusiastic for this conversation and time of day. “I’m betting the former. The anchors and carabiners would’ve already had to have been in place for him to escape without any other hikers seeing him flee, which means he most likely climbed the Lookout and set his route in the days leading up to her murder. He would’ve had to make camp at the base or use a sleep platform.”
She was right. Damn it. Why hadn’t he thought of that? “You climb?”
“You don’t?” The barb hit as she no doubt intended. There were a limited number of climbing rangers throughout the National Park Service. She obviously enjoyed knowing this was one area she outranked him. Lila twisted her pack to her front and unzipped the top, showcasing a perfectly coiled rope of blue fiber with yellow and green woven in. “It’s been years since I’ve free climbed. We could use the killer’s gear, but I brought my own in case we don’t want to trust another climber’s routine.”
