Chapter 7
Kayla did not scream when she saw the photo.
That scared me more than if she had.
She stared at the screen until her face emptied.
Then she whispered, “Emily’s alive?”
Hayes did not answer fast enough.
Kayla understood.
Marlene pulled her into her arms.
“No,” Kayla said. “No, don’t hold me like that. Not yet.”
Her voice cracked.
“Not until we know.”
I looked at the photo again.
Dark wood wall.
Rusty nail.
Rex’s medal tag.
A strip of red paint on the left edge.
Hayes zoomed in.
“Recognize it?”
Calvin leaned over.
“Old hunting cabins north of town. Dozens of them.”
“Red paint?” I asked.
Calvin nodded.
“One place. Porter family cabin.”
Hayes looked at me.
“Pierce worked for Porter. He’d know it.”
Kayla stepped forward.
“I’m coming.”
“No,” Hayes and I said together.
Kayla’s eyes flashed.
“You don’t get to say no. My sister vanished while this town told me to be quiet. I stayed quiet. I smiled at men who knew. I served coffee to Butch while he laughed about girls leaving town.”
Her hands shook.
“I am done being polite to monsters.”
Marlene put a hand on her shoulder.
“She stays in the command vehicle. But she comes.”
Hayes looked ready to fight everyone.
Then she said, “Fine. Command vehicle. No exceptions.”
The ride north was silent.
Rex sat beside me in the back of the SUV.
His tag was gone.
Pierce must have taken it during the chaos at the mill.
A small thing.
But it felt personal.
Like someone had put their hand on a grave.
Hayes checked her weapon.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good. Honest answers help.”
I looked out at the trees.
“Sarah used to say that.”
Hayes softened.
“Your sister?”
I nodded.
“She would have liked Kayla.”
“Why?”
“Stubborn. Angry for the right reasons.”
Hayes looked forward.
“Those are useful traits tonight.”
We stopped half a mile from the cabin.
No lights.
No sirens.
Calvin’s riders blocked the lower road, but stayed back under federal orders.
Marlene sat with Kayla in the command vehicle.
Kayla watched the woods like she could drag the truth out by force.
I knelt beside Rex.
His ears were forward.
He already knew.
I held a piece of cloth from Pierce’s abandoned jacket.
“Track,” I whispered.
Rex lowered his nose.
Then moved.
The forest was wet and black.
Branches scraped my sleeves.
Agents followed in a line behind us.
Rex moved with purpose.
Not fast.
Certain.
After ten minutes, we reached a cabin hidden between pines.
Red paint peeled from the doorframe.
One window glowed faintly.
Hayes lifted a fist.
Everyone stopped.
A voice came from inside.
“I know you’re there, Mercer.”
Pierce.
Hayes cursed silently.
Pierce shouted, “Send the dog in first.”
I looked at Hayes.
She shook her head.
Pierce laughed.
“I know you love that animal. That’s why this works.”
Kayla’s voice suddenly cracked through my earpiece from command.
“Ask him about Emily.”
Hayes said, “Kayla, stay off comms.”
But I stepped closer to the cabin.
“Where’s Emily?”
Silence.
Then Pierce said, “She should’ve minded her business.”
Kayla made a broken sound over the comm.
My hands curled.
“What business?” I asked.
“She saw Porter taking money from Rusk. She recorded it. Thought she was brave.”
“Where is she?”
Pierce laughed softly.
“Closer than her family thinks.”
Hayes motioned two agents around the back.
Rex stiffened.
Then he looked left.
Not at the cabin.
At the ground.
He pulled hard toward a shed half-collapsed behind the trees.
I followed.
Hayes hissed, “Jack.”
But Rex was locked on.
The shed door was chained.
From inside came a sound.
Small.
Human.
My heart slammed.
I grabbed the chain and pulled.
It held.
An agent cut it.
The door opened.
The smell hit first.
Damp wood.
Mold.
Fear.
A woman lay on a dirty cot, wrists raw, hair tangled, belly rounded beneath an oversized sweatshirt.
Alive.
Barely.
“Emily?” I whispered.
Her eyes opened.
“Kayla?”
Hayes shouted for medics.
The comm line exploded.
Kayla screamed her sister’s name.
Inside the cabin, Pierce heard it too.
He fired through the wall.
Bullets ripped through trees.
Agents returned fire.
I dropped over Emily, shielding her with my body.
Rex stood between us and the cabin, snarling.
“Stay!” I ordered.
He shook with fury.
Pierce burst from the back door, running toward the ridge.
Hayes chased him.
I stayed with Emily.
That was the harder choice.
Every part of me wanted to hunt him.
But Emily was alive.
And heroes protect the living before punishing the guilty.
Kayla reached the shed minutes later, breaking every rule Hayes had given her.
She fell beside her sister.
Emily touched her face with trembling fingers.
“I tried to come home,” she whispered.
Kayla sobbed.
“I know. I know.”
Emily looked at me.
“Dog,” she breathed.
Rex stepped closer.
She smiled weakly.
“Good dog.”
Rex licked her hand once.
Hayes’s voice came through the trees.
“Pierce is down! Alive!”
Kayla collapsed over Emily, crying.
Marlene arrived next, holding both girls as if they were children again.
I stepped outside.
The sky above the trees was turning gray.
Dawn.
Rex stood beside me.
His medal tag still hung somewhere inside the cabin.
I walked in after the agents cleared it.
There it was.
On the nail.
Under it, written in marker, was another message.
DOGS DIE. MEN BREAK. TOWNS FORGET.
I took the tag down.
Then I looked around the cabin.
Photos covered one wall.
Me.
Rex.
Kayla.
Marlene.
Calvin.
Even Sarah’s grave.
May you like
My breath stopped.
Pierce had not worked alone.
