“I had tracked a fugitive, found him, put him back in prison. Two years later he was released—that’s another long story. He should never have been released, but someone screwed up in court and he got out.” She took a deep breath. “He came for my family. Later, he said he wanted to kill my husband. Instead, he shot and killed my son.”

Lizzy, thankfully, didn’t say anything.

“I didn’t believe him. Nothing added up. I was a marshal. I hadn’t arrested him in the first place, I just tracked him when he escaped from a minimum security facility. I didn’t prosecute him or testify against him. I couldn’t see where he had a beef with me. And yet—he stole from me the only thing I loved more than my life.”

Regan blinked away her emotions. She had to focus on the task at hand.

It was the only way she could make it through the day. As Tripp said, one day at a time.

“What happened to him? The man who killed your son?”

“He was killed in prison. And I never got answers. And that’s been hard to accept. Not knowing the why is more than a little difficult to live with.”

“You understand Lucas. And the Overtons. And Chrissy Swain.”

“I do. Someday I will know why Chase was killed. Not today. Maybe not tomorrow.”

But someday.

“I’m not going to let Lucas die,” she said.

Out of the corner of her eye, Regan saw something. She immediately stopped, causing Lizzy to almost hit her head on the window.

“Sorry,” Regan muttered and glanced out her side window.

Below her, around the bend in the fire road, through the pine trees, she saw a flash of black and chrome.

A Jeep.

She took a deep breath.

“Lizzy,” she said.

“Are we stuck?”

“No. But I want to get out here.”

“What? Why?”

“The mine is around this bend. I’m afraid if she sees the truck, she’ll panic. I’m going to sneak down the mountainside, using the trees for coverage, and come at her from the other side.” She pulled the truck over to the side so that the sheriff’s vehicles could get by when they arrived. “Stay in the truck, okay? I can’t protect you and save Lucas at the same time.”

“Just save him. Please.”

She didn’t answer that because she was thinking about Chase. She hadn’t been able to save her son. With all her training, all her street smarts, her son had still died.

She didn’t want Lucas’s mother to suffer the same pain. She had to save Lucas, her friend, a smart, compassionate kid with a future.