“Is it possible, do you think, that Audrey got stuck on the wrong side of the gate after the lock was changed? Maybe she had to return to the lodge because she couldn’t get out?”

“I’ve considered it,” Jae said. “But in that situation, she would have called from the gate. Cell service works fine there, and she could have called Jim to ask to be let out.”

“Not if she was afraid of being fired,” Undine said.

“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure she would have called me. I have pull with Xavier and a good working relationship with Jim. And she had the excuse of the broken cameras. I want this to be simple, but the more I analyze it, the more worried I get.”

“Right now, it sounds like our best hope is she’s safe in the lodge with Xavier, and he’s protecting her with silence,” Undine said.

It was strange to hope Audrey was with Xavier, but Undine had to consider that maybe, just maybe, Xavier Rivera wasn’t a complete prick. It was possible he’d gone silent because he was protecting Audrey from getting fired.

Chapter Twenty

Audrey slept until early afternoon. That she slept at all was a testament to how exhausted she’d been, and that she’d managed to sleep for so many hours had to be because the fig she carried had drained her batteries to the bottom.

She woke with a jolt, completely ravenous, the same fig demanding food. Dim gray light penetrated the moss and leaf covering, enough to see Xavier’s handsome face as he lay with eyes open, staring at the netting that hung from the apex of the half-dome tent.

He shifted to face her, and his mouth curved in a soft smile.

“I can’t believe I slept so hard.” Her sleep had been fitful for the first hour or two, but at some point, her brain must’ve released the fear, knowing that Xavier was by her side and would protect her. Strangely, the hours she’d slept in the early afternoon had been the deepest sleep she’d gotten since she’d learned she was pregnant. “And now, if I don’t eat something in the next thirty seconds, I think I might implode.”

His smile deepened as he handed her the sleeve of crackers. “Get started on that while I slice cheese. Want some canned chicken too?”

“Yes, please,” she said as she rammed a saltine in her mouth. “I want it all.”

He handed her a fork and the canned chicken.

She pulled the ring on the top and dove in, placing chunks of chicken on a cracker and taking a bite. She added a cheese layer when he handed her a stack of slices. Her stomach didn’t settle until she’d inhaled her fifth fully topped cracker.

“Better?” he asked.