Shuffling backwards and kneeling to heft the heavy bag onto her shoulders, all without taking her eyes off Emerson, Addis finally gave up, sat on the ground, and using her feet, shoved the bag in front of her until Tony could reach it. She watched as he gently set Em back onto the ground, careful to keep her on her side, probably because of the blooming knot the size of a grapefruit decorating the back of her skull.

Tears streaked Addis’s face as she crawled over to her best friend, running her knuckles along Em’s cheeks, whispering apologies and imploring her to please be okay. ‘You can do this, Em. Remember, we’re in this together. And we have help now, so don’t you give up. We’re going to go home. You just have to wake up now. Please…’

Emerson groaned low in her throat and cracked one eye open, her tongue snaking out to lick at her chapped lips. Blinking rapidly, she finally croaked out, ‘Ad, are you real, or am I dead?’

Before Addis could answer, Emerson spotted Tony – or rather, she noticed his presence looming above them, and she opened her mouth in a horrified o, eyes widening in terror when Addis clapped her hand down before her best friend could release the scream building up.

Leaning close to Em’s ear, she reassured her, ‘He’s safe; he saved me; he’s going to save us. It’s okay, Em. It’s okay. I promise.’ When she showed no signs of believing or even hearing her, Addis shook her until Em finally allowed her attention to be dragged away from Tony.

‘It’s okay, Em, I promise. We’re getting out of here. Together. It’s okay.’

Chapter Forty-Five

Wednesday, October 9

Electric energy sizzled in the room as the team formed a semicircle around the table to study the set of maps for San Miguel County and the Pecos so they could outline their game plan to search for Addis and Emerson.

‘You did good work here, Sandra.’ Cord patted her shoulder as he moved past her. It seemed every few minutes, someone on the team praised her.

The sparkle of excitement in Sandra’s eyes was difficult to miss, and Alyssa remembered what that rush, that sense of pride, was like the first time she’d found the key element in a missing person’s case.

Concerned that he was a too-tight coil about to spring, Alyssa watched Joe clamp the lid of a yellow highlighter between his teeth as he studied the map grid. ‘There!’ He spit out the cap and drew two circles, connecting them with a roughly drawn line. Tapping the pages in an angry rhythm, his grip on the highlighter tightened until his brown hands paled to white. ‘Tony’s cabin’s here. Adam’s here. Not close, but relatively speaking, close enough.’