“He’s not here.” I didn’t let myself hope he would be, but that doesn’t stop the stab of disappointment.
“Maybe not now, but he might’ve been.”
Kane jumps off the boat and grabs the bowline to tie us up. I do the same with the stern.
“Wait here.” Kane treks around the outside of the shack before shoving the door open and ducking inside. A moment later, he yells, “It’s clear.”
I hop off the boat and head for the door. As soon as I cross the threshold, I know Rafe was here from the scent of his favorite Cajun spice hanging in the air.
“He couldn’t have left that long ago.”
“And he apparently knew someone would look here.” Kane points at the wall.
Four words are scrawled on the wood, but it’s nothing anyone but me would be able to read. Rafe’s jacked-up shorthand isn’t exactly standard.
“What does it say?” Kane asks.
My heart clenches as I interpret it. “Don’t look for me.”
“Motherfucker.”
“Yeah.” All the hopeful excitement that fueled me on the trip here drains away. “He doesn’t want to be found.”
“That’s too damn bad.” Kane turns and thumps a fist on the door frame. “Fucking Ransom.”
I take in the interior of the cabin, almost as if I’m trying to picture what happened in this space. I close my eyes and inhale the scent, imagining Rafe cooking a pot of gator stew on the iron tripod over a small fire.
“He’s not starving. He’s not hurt. He’s just laying low. But what the hell is his plan? He’s gotta have a plan.” I look to Kane. “He has to know this isn’t going to work. He has to know that he’s dragged me into this too. Right?”
Kane nods. “And he knows Mount won’t let anything happen to you, so he considers you safe.”
“So he thinks.”
“No. He’s right. It’s one thing he’d be able to count on.”
“With my big idea a bust, now what do we do?”
23
Kane
Temperance may have already given up on this part of her plan, but I’m not quite done with my inspection of the cabin. I crouch next to the woodpile and see a scrap of paper. Checking over my shoulder to find her already heading to the door, I snatch it up and glance at it before shoving it in my pocket.
Thank you, Ransom.
I tuck the burner phone I brought with me into the bundle of wood. It has exactly one number on it, so there’s no question who I want him to call.
I rise and follow her. “You think you’ll be able to get us back to the dock without getting lost?”
“Maybe.”
Temperance climbs back onto the airboat, and just like the first time I saw her take the captain’s seat, I’m struck by how damn capable she is.
Other women in my past would have freaked out at the spider she swept off the musty cushion. Temperance calmly points out gators the way other women remark on flowers.
She’s truly one of a kind.
“Sorry to waste your time. I thought ... just maybe ...”