She glanced backward and Kensie almost fainted right there in the dark street.
After all these years, she’d actually done it. She’d found Alanna.
Chapter Ten
She’d just seen her sister. The realization stunned Kensie so much she froze. And then Alanna was gone, disappearing into the maze of storage units.
Why would she walk away? Where was she going?
It was Alanna. It didn’t matter that Kensie hadn’t seen her sister in fourteen years, that she’d grown from a young child to a woman in that time. It didn’t matter that Kensie had only gotten a brief, unexpected look at her face before she’d turned away.
It was her. Kensie knew it down deep in her soul, in the space that had been empty since her sister was taken. In the space that had burned with hope and determination, an unwillingness to let Alanna go, ever since.
Sucking in a deep breath as she realized she’d actually stopped breathing, Kensie stepped forward again and a glint of light in the store window she was passing caught her eye. A reflection from behind her. A person’s reflection, moving stealthily toward her.
Kensie stared at it from the corner of her eye, not turning her head at all, not wanting to let whoever it was know she’d seen him. A jolt shot through her, leaving panic behind, as she figured out who it was. The guy who’d told her he was ex-military, who’d tried to lure her into his truck. Danny Weston.
Colter had called him dangerous, warned her to stay far away from him. Colter had been so certain Danny was a threat that he’d agreed to help her just to keep her away from the guy. Fear made her overheated inside her warm new winter clothes, but she tried to stay calm.
She could run from Danny, but could she actually outrun him? Her best bet would be to go down the alley, toward the main part of town. Toward help.
But if she went that way, she’d be going in the opposite direction from where her sister had disappeared. She’d lose Alanna again. And after fourteen desperate, painful years of searching, she couldn’t risk it. So running wasn’t an option.
Instead, she fumbled inside her coat pocket again, this time for her cell phone. Would Danny react if he saw her using it, come after her sooner instead of just tracking her? Assuming following her somewhere and then hurting her was his intent. Maybe he was just walking around.
But that was wishful thinking and she knew it. There was no one else here. All the stores were closed. And Danny had already tried to lure her off with him once.
He’d failed. And she might not know Danny, but years of working with other families dealing with their own cold cases had taught her about people like him. Failure was a hit to his ego. He’d try again. It wasn’t inevitable it would be with her, but she’d offered him an opportunity tonight. And she was pretty sure he’d try to take it.
Kensie pulled her cell phone out slowly, carefully, keeping it low in front of her body where he wouldn’t see it. Thank goodness Colter had programmed his number in at his cabin.
She couldn’t risk a phone call. So she typed out a frantic text, her hands shaking, praying she was giving him an accurate sense of where she was right now. Praying Colter could get to his truck, grab his shotgun and then get over here fast enough to help her.
She was a strong and capable woman, trained in basic self-defense, but Danny Weston was a lot bigger. In any other circumstances, she’d do the logical thing and run for help, screaming the entire way.
But logic didn’t get a say when her sister was involved. Right now, Kensie could only think with her heart.
So, as she hit Send on her message to Colter, she kept moving. Toward those dark storage units. Toward Alanna.
As she did, a new reason to panic occurred to her. Could Danny and Henry be working together? Maybe they were luring her out here to grab her. Might she have found Alanna only to disappear with her?
Her parents might survive losing another child. Unlike a lot of families who’d gone through this experience, they’d banded together instead of being slowly ripped apart. The divorce rate was astronomical for parents who lost a child. But her parents had made it, in some ways seeming closer now than they had before Alanna went missing.
But what about her brother, Flynn? He’d already gotten so out of control at sixteen that he’d almost died while driving drunk one night, another dangerous stunt, probably crying for attention, for help. Yeah, he was much better now. But he relied on her regular check-ins, relied on a support group still. This might set him back so far it would destroy him.
Her chest hurt at the idea of choosing between Alanna and Flynn. She loved both of them. She was the oldest and although she’d failed Alanna, she’d always seen it as her job to look after them.
But did she really have a choice right now? She’d let Colter know where she was. Hopefully he’d see the text and come in time. If she turned or ran, Danny would know she’d seen him. And Henry had already spotted her following him, so would he stick around if she didn’t catch up to him now? Or would he take Alanna and disappear somewhere else? Somewhere they’d never find her again?
Fear burned in Kensie’s chest, the cold searing her lungs as she took too-fast breaths. She stepped off the sidewalk, crossed the snow-covered dirt road and stepped between storage units. Without store windows to show her Danny’s reflection, she relied on her ears, listening carefully for footfalls. But the snow muffled most of them except for the occasional squish of a heavy boot in a slushy spot or the slight rustle of his clothing. Her phone was clutched tightly in her hand,
