Page 31 of Disappearance at Angel's Landing
“Well, you sure know how to make a girl feel special.” Lila’s smile slipped as she opened her eyes to study him. Rainplastered her hair against her face, and Branch’s fingers itched to set it back behind her ear. To have one last touch. But it would only make this so much harder on both of them. Her mouth parted on a rough exhale, and she diverted her attention to the ridgeline where the SAR unit would approach from. As if hoping they would intervene and save her this conversation. That was only one the red flags Branch noted. “I don’t presume to know the inner workings of murderers, but I’m guessing I was standing in his way.”
The lie shoved a bitter, acidic sensation up his throat. “Then why didn’t he just kill you? Why drag you to his campsite?”
“I told you.” Dropping her hands away from her hair, she squared her shoulders to him. “Sarah Lantos fought back. He needed me to patch up a stab wound to his thigh. You were there, weren’t you? Didn’t you see the bloodied gauze?”
Yeah. He had, and it’d driven him nearly out of his mind imagining Lila had been injured. That her abductor was trying to save her life, but it’d turned out, she’d been trying to save his. Branch took that step forward, more determined than ever to uncover what she was hiding. “But you ran. And he followed, even with a stab wound and the risk of bleeding out. He could’ve just shot you. He had the gun. Why did he chase you down? Why follow you into that cave?”
“Branch, don’t do this.” Her eyes widened, begging him to back off, and right then, he knew. He knew there was something she hadn’t told him about the man they were hunting.
“Why did he want you dead, Ranger Jordan?” Using her title and last name suddenly made it far easier for him to keep his emotions out of this, and physical pain registered on her face. A flinch of the worst kind. Was that why Risner insisted on calling his female rangers by their last names? To distance himself from giving a damn about them? Maybe the man wasn’t sexist, after all. Maybe he’d just learned to not to get emotionally involved.
No, that guy was still an asshole.
The rain picked up, but it did nothing to mask the swell of tears in her eyes or the sweet scent of her skin. Her tongue darted across her bottom lip. Only this time Branch wouldn’t let himself get taken in. “He said I was just like her. Sarah Lantos. That I deserved to suffer for manipulating people into doing what I wanted by convincing them I was something I wasn’t. Is that what you want to hear?”
His gut somersaulted, and he countered his advance. Her lie had been right there, staring him in the face, but he’d refused to let himself see it because of the feelings she’d stirred in him. “You lied to me. When I asked, you told me you didn’t remember anything else from the cave.”
“I didn’t…” She shook her head, then stilled. Branch watched as she connected the dots. Realized her mistake and what it meant. Lila took a step forward but halted as he took one back. Her face drained of color, voice softening. “I didn’t mean to lie to you, I swear. I just—”
“You just what? After everything I told you about my ex-wife, you ended up being just like her, didn’t you? Willing to do whatever it takes to get your way at the cost of the people around you. I trusted you to be up front with me, but you may have just compromised this investigation. The killer’s motives can tell us about the types of victims he targets or his next move. That information might’ve given us a clue as to where he’s going, and you kept it to yourself because, what? You didn’t want to confirm what everyone else already knows?” Branch didn’t wait for an answer, stalking past her. He was well aware he was searching for an excuse to sever this gut-wrenching need for her out of fear, but he couldn’t afford to risk his heart again. Ending it now was the only way to protect himself, no matter how much he hated himself for it. “Wait here for the search party, Ranger Jordan. Tell Risner I’m still on the killer’s trail.”
“You can’t go out there alone. Branch, please. You’re not in any condition to face him again.” Threading her hand between his arm and rib cage, she fought to stop him in his tracks.
He turned on her with every ounce of disgust he could muster in his expression.
She dropped her hold as if she’d been burned. Her throat worked on a deep swallow. “I’m sorry. Okay? I didn’t want you to think I was that person he accused me of being, the one everyone accuses me of being. I can’t lose you, too.”
“Too late.” Branch lowered his voice, hating himself more than ever before. “Were you even telling the truth about that scar, or was it another way for you to get attention? To make me and the other rangers feel bad for you?”
The words achieved the impact he’d wanted. He’d used her mother’s accusations against her, and Branch couldn’t help but feel he’d gone too far.
“You said you see me.” Her voice barely reached him over the storm throwing her hair in her face. “That I’m not broken.”
This was how he ended it. How he kept what’d happened leading to his divorce from happening again. Every muscle in his body stiffened with self-hatred, but he’d already made the jump. He had to see this through to the end. “I was wrong.”
It took less than three seconds for Ranger Barbie to make an appearance, and he couldn’t stand to watch her rebuild those impenetrable walls. “You’ve exceeded the limits of my medication. So enjoy your next twenty-four hours, Branch Thompson.”
Lila turned on her heel, soaked to the bone, and headed in the direction of Angel’s Landing. Never one to follow orders. Then again, he’d liked that about her. Her penchant for doing whatever the hell she wanted had put her on his radar in the first place and secured her position in the investigation into Sarah Lantos’s murder. But now…now his gut warned him not tolet her trudge through the desert during an increasingly violent storm alone. Without his protection.
But hadn’t that been the point? To add this distance—physically and emotionally—between them? So why didn’t he feel better about his decision?
He dug his fingertips into his palms to stop himself from calling after her. Risner would intercept her in the next few minutes. She’d return to headquarters, give her statement of the past two days and go back to the way things were supposed to be. And he’d…move on. Once and for all.
Branch couldn’t go back. Ever. He couldn’t see her patrolling the park every day and not want to get a dose of that smile she seemingly reserved for him or show up at her front door with a couple pints of Cherry Garcia and a romantic comedy from the 2000s.
No. He was going to finish what he started by ensuring the killer didn’t come for Lila again.
Chapter Twenty-Three
He’d given her the one thing she’d wanted most. And then he’d taken it away as though it meant nothing.
Lila’s boots slogged through mud and puddles, getting sucked down into the earth with every forced step forward. Cold rain slapped against her face but did nothing to cool her rising body temperature, prickles punctuating the vile words circling her head.
She couldn’t breathe properly, couldn’t think of anything other than the pure disgust written all over Branch’s face as he’d accused her of being the very thing so many others had. A joke, a tease, a liar. Her heart broke all over again as she followed the valley’s upper rim. Reds, oranges and tans bled together through the tears in her eyes. She hadn’t lied to him. She hadn’t. Omitting what the killer had said to her had been nothing but an attempt to convince herself how wrong he’d been. Instead, she’d ended up hurting the one person she’d trusted.
Branch had every reason to despise her. After what happened with his ex-wife, she didn’t blame him for shutting her out. Lies of omission were still lies, and there was nothing she could do—nothing she could say—to fix this. No matter how much she wanted to. She’d done exactly as she’d feared. She’d manipulated him into believing she was something she wasn’t. A magician, as the killer had called her, and she never felt so alone.
An all-too-familiar, sickening twist cut through her stomach. Lila slapped her hand against the nearest rock wall and emptied her stomach of the oatmeal Branch had made her this morning. How had everything gone wrong in such a short amount of time? How could she have let herself screw this up after everything she’d been through with her family? Wasn’t she supposed to learn from her mistakes? She’d had everything she wanted. And now…
