Page 61 of The Unknown Colton
Troy jumped in his truck and headed right where he thought Lakin was. But once he was away from the Wi-Fi of the cabin, her location disappeared, and he wasn’t able to pull up cellular data either. He hadno bars out here; the tower was too far away. So he had no idea where she was, just where she’d been.
Wandering around the riverbank where he’d pinpointed her location earlier, he wasn’t even sure where he was.
Why would Lakin have met Whitlaw here? Or Eli? Wasn’t Eli supposed to be coming as her backup, to make sure she stayed safe? Had the ABI lieutenant let her down again?
A branch snapped behind Troy, and he whirled around with his fists up to defend himself. They were his only weapon.
But the gun that faced him wasn’t the one that fired at him the night before. Eli immediately holstered his weapon when he saw Troy.
“Of course you wouldn’t stay away like I told you to,” Eli remarked.
“Of course I wouldn’t,” Troy agreed. “Not that there is anything or anyone to stay away from. Have you seen Lakin or Whitlaw?”
Eli shook his head. “I saw some tire tracks, but they appear to be from only one vehicle. Probably Lakin’s SUV.”
“Not Whitlaw’s truck,” Troy said. “Why would he tell her to meet him here?”
“Maybe he knew what she was up to,” Eli remarked. “And wasn’t going to fall for it.”
“What was she up to?” Troy asked. “Why would she agree to meet him? She has no money to give him.” She’d invested it all in the hotel. Troy wouldhave given her money if she’d asked, though…and if he’d thought that was really all that Whitlaw wanted. But now, knowing Whitlaw wasn’t her father, he had a feeling the man had a whole other agenda where Lakin was concerned.
“She was going to record him demanding money in exchange for keeping his mouth shut to the press about my family. If she could get him to admit to that, I could arrest him for extortion,” Eli explained.
Troy chuckled for a moment at her brilliance. She was going to turn the tables on an ex-con. But then his amusement dried up. “So where is she?”
“I don’t know,” Eli said. “I had to take a detour around a logging truck that lost some of its load in the road. So I was late getting here.”
“But like you pointed out, there is only one set of tire tracks here,” Troy said. “Whitlaw drives an old truck. His tread marks would have been bigger and deeper than Lakin’s.”
Eli nodded. “He was never here.”
“I don’t get why he would have told her to meet him here even if he knew what she was up to,” Troy said. “Why this place?” He glanced around at the river and the trees surrounding them.
“I don’t know,” Eli murmured. “Maybe he wanted her away from the cabin. Or away from someone else.”
Troy’s stomach muscles clenched with dread. “I don’t like this.”
“Me, neither,” Eli agreed. “He was threatening to go public with my family tragedy.”
Troy sucked in a breath. “When you said family, I didn’t think about your aunt and grandparents’ murders. How did he find out about that? And no wonder Lakin agreed to meet him and pay him off.” With money she didn’t have. But maybe she would have gone to the same person she’d gone to for the hotel. “Call your dad,” he suggested. “See if he’s heard from her.”
“I don’t think she wants him to know what’s going on,” Eli said.
Troy suspected she wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to worry their father. But he knew how much Will and Sasha Colton loved their daughter. “He’s going to want to know,” he pointed out. He’d realized too late how many people he’d hurt because he hadn’t reached out when he was injured. “The people who love you want to show up for you.”
Eli groaned. “You’re right.”
Troy took no comfort from that. He wasn’t going to feel better until he knew where Lakin was and that she was safe. “While you call him, I’m going to head back to the cabin. She probably would have gone back there or the office.”
Eli reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “Be careful.”
Troy nodded. He wasn’t worried about himself; he was worried about her. She’d agreed to meet with adangerous ex-con in order to protect her family. She didn’t care about her own safety at all.
And finally he could relate to how she felt when he went off to work the oil rigs, doing the same job that had killed his father, knowingly putting himself in danger just as she had done in agreeing to meet Whitlaw.
Troy had to find her before something happened to her. She was the most amazing person, so kind and loving and supportive to everyone. Troy had failed her in so many ways; he just wanted to have the chance to make it up to her.
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