All of that assumed she found him and that it was soon. Elsie had no idea what to expect or where he might be. If they’d come by boat, which she expected given the fact that his boat was gone, then why did the trail lead this way?
She looked at her dog. Unless... The scent over the water might have disappeared, and the scent on the beach could have been dispersed by the wind. Was Willow actually picking her way across a mountainside to get to where the scent was?
Elsie didn’t know anymore. She felt out of control, confused, never a good way for a handler to feel. But after all she’d endured in the last few days, she didn’t feel like she could be too upset with herself. As she tracked through the trees, following her dog, she kept hoping with everything within her that they would find Wyatt.
All this time, Elsie realized, she’d been waiting to be found. She wanted to know who she really was. She’d wanted someone in her past to have missed her. It was disconcerting to know that her old identity had essentially disappeared off the planet and no one had cared. So when Wyatt proposed like that... She’d felt like maybe he didn’t care about finding her, either. Not her old identity, not the story she wished she had about her past; she’d given up on that. But the woman she was now.
If he didn’t know her very well now, it was partially her fault. Maybe she’d spent her whole life waiting to be found, but it turned out she was also afraid of being found. What if Wyatt got to know her and didn’t love her anymore? It was why she’d held herself at arm’s length from so many relationships.
Maybe even...why she’d held herself back from God? The now-familiar urge to pray that she’d felt so many times over the past few days was strong and difficult to ignore. The idea that knowing God meant that He knew her as well... That was terrifying to her. What if God didn’t like her? Did that happen? Could someone seek out a relationship with God, admit that they wanted Him in their lives and then have Him reject them?
For the first time in a long time, she felt entirely and truly alone.
God, if You still want me, I don’t want to be alone anymore. It’s worth being scared, I think. I’ve done a lot wrong—forgive me for those things. Thank You for letting me come to You and, like Lindsay says, sending Jesus to die on the cross and pay for my sins so that I can come to You. She took a deep, long breath in. Let it back out. I trust You, God. I’m trying really hard to, anyway, and I think that counts. Help me find Wyatt.
Nothing changed that she could see. The woods still looked the same. The fog pressed down on them even heavier, if anything. Her circumstances did not appear to be affected in the slightest.
But she could feel a difference inside, as the flicker of faith inside her grew. Hope, that was the difference. She had hope that maybe they’d be able to pull this off. Maybe she could have a chance at happily-ever-after after all and be able to apologize to Wyatt. See if he’d let them start over again.
And finally, finally, she didn’t feel alone.
Willow sped up her pace and Elsie took off after her. This was it. This was their chance and she wasn’t going to miss it.
This time, when Wyatt awoke, he was aware of ropes rubbing against his wrists and ankles.
He hesitantly opened his eyes. His vision wasn’t impaired at all. His headache? That wasn’t worth focusing on, as it was worse than ever. He wasn’t comfortable with the slight nausea, either, probably from the very likely concussion that he had. At least he was still in one piece.
Helpless. But in one piece.
It wasn’t often he felt like he truly couldn’t handle his circumstances on his own. Even when he’d come back to God, it had been with the plan to earn God’s favor again, like Elsie had pointed out to him the other day, which was wrong. The truth was that he was an independent man. He liked knowing he could handle a situation.
Right now, he couldn’t. He would have to trust God to see him through.
And maybe Elsie? Surely she and Willow were looking for him. He wished they weren’t, since he was sure they were walking into more danger than Elsie was ready for, but he knew without them his chances were slim.
Something about the last thought caught him. Maybe that was what Elsie had meant. Rather than assume that she didn’t realize this was a trap, and worry about her, treat her like something small and breakable, she wanted to be treated like the capable, brave woman she was. Maybe that was one of the areas where she felt like he didn’t know her well enough.
Change was something he was used to, though. Personally, professionally. He could change, make this better. If they got a second chance.
Right now? He didn’t know what to do but stay put. He could see the beach from where he was, but he was leaned up against a tree, and with his arms and legs bound, he wasn’t going anywhere quickly.
“Don’t even think about running,” a voice told him. Not the one from earlier. That one had been rough, violent. This one was smooth and almost pleasant.
Political.
“Travis Cattleman, I assume?” Wyatt asked him.
He heard footsteps coming from around behind him, and a man came into his line of sight. Wyatt vaguely recognized him from the news. He was not quite six feet, Wyatt guessed, though it was hard to judge from the ground. Average build. Smooth, clean-shaven face. Green eyes.
Eyes startlingly like Elsie’s in color, though nothing alike in their mood. Elsie’s eyes sparkled with adventure, bravery. Last night he’d seen a spark of something a lot like love.
This man’s eyes were calculating, exacting.
“Very astute of you to figure out.” His eyebrows rose in some kind of sick amusement. “If you’d been this quick yesterday, you might not be sitting here like this.”
Great, a talkative villain. Part of Wyatt wanted to roll his eyes. He hated movies where the villain monologued at the end.
On the other hand, if there was one thing he’d learned from movies like that, it was that the longer you got a guy talking, the more likely you could find some way to defeat him. This wasn’t a movie, but it was worth a try. He was too helpless to do anything else right now.
“Why is Elsie in your way? She doesn’t want anything to do with you.”
The man recoiled. “Annie. Her name is Annie.”
One question answered about Elsie’s past, though Wyatt wished she were hearing it first. It didn’t seem right that he would know this part of her story before she did.
“She doesn’t care about you or whatever you’re trying to do politically. She wouldn’t have bothered you.” He hesitated. “Still might not if you leave her alone.” The last part was a stretch. He couldn’t imagine Elsie letting this kind of injustice go unpursued, unpunished. But this man didn’t know that. Didn’t know her.
“Annie never had a choice. She was doomed from the start. Her mother should have...” He trailed off, though Wyatt was fairly certain he knew where the man was going. “She had no right.” His fists were clenched.
“So...” His mind went to Elsie’s flashbacks, to the darkness she’d described. The way she’d responded to the dying woman on the island’s screams like she’d heard them before. “You killed her mother.”
The fists clenched tighter, though Travis didn’t say anything.
“And meant to kill Elsie when you left her on that island.”
“Annie!”
Why the name mattered so much to a man who was bent on destroying the woman who had it, Wyatt didn’t understand. But sometimes people didn’t make sense. It was clear to him that this man, Travis, was operating under intense emotion. He’d become an even more dangerous criminal because emotional criminals were unpredictable. Loose cannons.
