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She was lightly snoring He leaned down and kissed the top of her head He realized that he’d forgotten all about his dah He also realized that to this point, his story was pretty bad, probably because he was so tired, his brain woozy It was lucky she’d fallen back asleep or he would have bored her into yawns
HE tried to stay off his leg throughout the next day He stuck to the cabin, sitting by the front , scanning, forever scanning the e He saw nothing out of the ordinary, and no one
He was going to lay low today, let hier, then he’d decide what to do
He knew she was frightened He knew it and couldn’t do a thing about it He told her half a dozen stories, and none of them too bad, about the little princess named Sonya who beat the nasty little boy, Luther, in the kite-flying contest, then went on to save her father’s life, and cook excellent mushrooms and well, he wouldn’t think ahead to the next story He found it was better if he just opened his mouth and let the story come out unrehearsed
She sat on the floor next to his chair by the , draith one of his pencils The afternoon shadoere lengthening He looked down to see a stick woirl standing next
to her, holding a kite the same size as she was A curved-up line was the woirl as well
Her s Perhaps, just perhaps, he could get her to draw him pictures of the man or men who’d taken her and where they’d taken her, what they’d done to her But he balked at that He wasn’t a shrink The last thing he wanted to do was ry, kiddo?"
She nodded enthusiastically and gathered up her pages and the three pencils he’d given her She laid thees neatly He realized he did the sa Then she held out her hand to hi hi hurt like the devil, but that was no surprise The fever was gone His wound was still swelled up and war a little black and blue He wasn’t about to pull off the tape again Best to leave the leg alone to heal At least until tomorrow
They didn’t have o in to Cleain, or he’d pack up the Jeep early and they’d get the hell out of here No matter how he cut it, their location was known Even if there wasn’t danger from the two men he’d wounded, the people who’d sent theht to the sheriff’s office He knew it He also kneasn’t going to do it, not yet anyway He re noises she’d er issue was: How could he send her back hoer was clear, he had to get off this mountain He wanted to call his friend Dillon Savich at the FBI to ask his advice Of course Savich would tell hiht even know about her if she’d been abducted Ever since the Lindbergh baby’s kidnapping back in the early ’30s, and the resulting tragedy, kidnapping had been the purview of the FBI But until he could get to Savich, he knew his bottom line was to keep her safe, and that ht, toet out of here He did a checklist in hishe needed to do in the interietable soup, he looked at her tearing pieces of lettuce into a big bowl She had a look of intense concentration on her s or Italian?"
She picked up the bottle of French dressing
"Good choice That was alwaysto tell her they were leaving until he was ready to load her into the Jeep
She cocked her head to one side He realized he did the sa in just the same way Had she picked it up fro at her "Yeah, I was once your age A long tiave hi a soccer ball
They ate the soup and salad in front of the fireplace The evening had turned cold, really cold once the sun went down It was probably in the low forties
A coyote howled
JUST after dawn, he unbolted the door, unfastened the chain, and as quietly as he could, he went out into a silent world where he could see his breath He needed to chop wood for the fireplace and the wood-burning stove He stood very still, looking everywhere for any sign of so He finally laid his Browning Savage down on the ground, really close to his left foot He looked around again but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary