All of Seth's family plus John was gathered in the den, the temporary headquarters. Dave and Quinn were manipulating the TV so it would play the satellite images. Marcus was working on a time line on the table. Rachel had taken Jesse to his room to help him with the turmoil. Kate was feeding Holly in one of the back bedrooms. Seth's group was still outside, looking.
Cole handed Seth the pad of paper he'd been writing on. It listed what they knew about the situation.
Whitney is gone
Fire and Dodge are gone
The cameras on the south side are down
The south side faces the road where the truck was found by satellite
Aaron is in rehab, so he's not Hawk
The truck is not there now
"What do you think, Cole?" Seth asked
"I think this Hawk had help, excluding Jesse resetting the system."
"Someone to either take the extra horse or drive the truck away, maybe even haven driven it here,"
"Exactly,"
"Either we get those images ready, play them and see who went where and when, or we find that inside contact."
"We might get both," Quinn said. "It's ready,"
Everyone turned to look at the TV. Jack hit the fast-forward button until they found movement. The image was choppy, in five-minute intervals, but they could see the truck as it came to a halt on the road.
Marcus noted the time on the timeline: 3:04 AM.
Then, at 3:15 AM, a figure got out of the truck and jumped across their map, through the woods, toward the ranch.
"He's in the ranch; 3:43 AM," Stephen said.
"Fast forward some, Jack," Seth said. Jack did, slowly.
"Stop!"
At first, all they could see was a black clump moving out away from the south entrance to the ranch house. Then, it separated, the larger part of the clump going toward the stables and the smaller part, a single person, going toward the general area of the truck.
Marcus noted the time they excited; 4:00 AM.
Then the larger lump was covered by the stable roof. The lone person continued toward the truck.
At 4:21 AM, two figures emerged from the stables, each bigger then a single person.
"There go the horses," Cassie said.
"They're headed southeast; 4:28 AM," Marcus said, noting the action and the time. The lone person reached the truck at 4:45 AM. The truck began moving in the opposite direction of the horses.
"Follow the truck first," Seth said. They followed the truck until it parked in an empty lot about four miles north of the ranch; 4:53 AM. The figure then excited and walked back the way he had just driven.
At 5:51 AM, he arrived back at the ranch, headed up the drive and gone in the back door.
"You were right, Cole. Where are those checks on Wind and Yuri?" Seth asked. John scrambled to provide them. Seth checked them as the others worked to back up the feed.
"We're following the horses now, Seth," Quinn said. Seth turned. The horses and their riders, presumably Hawk and Whitney, were moving slowly. By 6:31 AM, they had reached a small lodge, one that Seth had checked out when he'd gotten here. It was off Whitney's property and abandoned.
"Bring Jesse out here; I need to know if he knows anything about that lodge. Go ahead in the feed and see if they leave at any point," Seth said.
Shari went back to bring Jesse and Rachel out to join the others. Jack had fast-forwarded through the feed until it stopped—twenty minutes from the current time: 7:42 PM. Neither they, nor the horses had left that lodge. Seth felt a chill.
"Get guys out to that truck. We need to know who drove it. Since no one was in the house when I checked this morning that shouldn't have been, we have two possibilities: Wind or Yuri. One of them knew this would happen. Mac, where are Wind and Yuri right now?" Seth asked the last part into his radio. Mac relayed the information. Both men were in the stables, tending to the remaining horses.
"Keep an eye on them, and make sure they stay out of the way,"
"It will take time for anything they get from the truck to go through the lab," Lisa said.
"I know. Let's work on getting together a team to ambush that hunting lodge," Seth said.
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Seth was bursting to break down the door in the lodge. Instead, he stood in the kitchen, fastening on his bullet proof vest. He, four of his guys and a few of his brothers made up the team that was going in. Kate was with them, too. Seth took in a deep breath. He was ready. Whitney needed him and he was not going to let her down.
Someone in the den cursed. "Seth, you might want to see this,"
Seth bolted back to the den, everyone on his heels.
"I just finished downloading the last hour and a half of satellite imagery," John said. "Take a look at this,"
He played it. Twenty-five minutes after 7:42, two figures had emerged from the lodge. They had walked—probably ran at the pace they made it through the woods—toward the ranch. The last frame they had was timed four minutes ago: 8:20 PM. It showed the two right outside the ranch house.
"Seth, don't!"
Marcus's call went unheeded. Seth bolted out the back door, into the fading sunlight. He flew down the steps and stopped.
He could have cried but he didn't.
The first thing that he took in was Whitney. She was bruised and tired looking, tears streaking her cheeks and her eyes glossy. She held a hand pistol up, toward Seth. It was cocked and loaded.
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Tammi, thank you so much for your review! To answer your question about Quinn: Since I altered the locations for each sibling—putting them all in one unspecified location—I figured that since Quinn and Whitney's ranches share boarders they should be old friends. It's been a while since I read the Truth Seeker, so I can't say exactly how long they might have known each other, but it's long enough that Whitney's situation is not unfamiliar to Quinn.
Unfortunately, Whitney doesn't want a lot of the information about the stalker known to the public, so not much about him is revealed. There is some—it's in the epilogue in the next chapter.
I'm actually looking for a new book series to read right now. If you have any suggestions, I'd appreciate them.