Every Precious Thing

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

It was as if all the air had been sucked out of the world. No one breathed. No one moved. No one said a word.

Logan looked at Diana anew, trying to discern patterns in the woman’s face that matched those in the less-than-perfect picture he had of Sara. There were definitely similarities-the cheeks, the lips, the curve of her jaw.

Alan was the first to break the silence. “How do we know you’re not lying?”

Before she could respond, Logan said, “She’s not.”

“You knew she was Sara’s sister?” Callie asked.

“No. But she’s not lying. I’m sure of it.”

More silence.

“I…didn’t know Sara had any family,” Alan said, his voice low and surprised. “She said she was an only child.”

Diana looked silently out the window.

Logan deactivated the speaker function, then moved the phone to his ear. “I think it might be better if I talk to her by myself now.”

“Wait,” Alan said. “You can’t just cut me off like that. I need to know what’s going on.”

“You will,” Logan said.

“When?”

“When I can tell you.”

“How am I supposed to live with that? Don’t you see? This is ripping me apart.”

“Alan,” Callie broke in. “Logan’s already learned more than we even got close to before. Let’s let him work. If Sara’s really in trouble, he’ll know what to do.”

Alan didn’t say anything right away, then, “I just need to know she’s safe.”

“When she is, I’ll tell you.”

Logan could hear Alan breathing on the other end.

“As soon as you can,” Alan said.

“I promise.”

Alan hung up.

“You need anything, you let me know,” Callie said before doing the same.

Logan set down Diana’s phone.

“When she is what?” Diana asked.

“I’m sorry?”

“You said, ‘when she is, I’ll tell you.’”

Logan had to think back. “Safe. Alan wanted to know that she was safe.”

“She is. For the moment.”

Logan looked at her. “Sara’s your sister.”

Diana nodded.

“Is Sara even her name?”

“Yes.”

“But everything else about her was a lie?”

Diana didn’t respond.

“You need to tell me what’s going on,” Logan said. “It’s the only way I can figure out how to help you.”

“I never said we needed your help.”

He leaned back. “Those people who took Dev and me out to the forest, they were in Braden, too. Who are they?”

She looked surprised. “They were in Braden?”

He nodded. “They’re the ones you’re really scared of, aren’t they? You thought that’s who we were, right?”

“Yes.”

“You see now that we’re not.”

The look on her face said she wanted to believe that but wasn’t sure.

“All right. Tell me this. Is there any possibility that they or others who might be working with them could find Sara tonight?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head.

He sensed no hesitation in her answer.

Dr. Paskota, though, was obviously following a similar lead to the one Logan had, so he needed to make sure. “She’s not staying someplace you used to live while you worked at the Grand Canyon, is she?”

Diana looked at him, surprised.

“It’s the next logical place the others will look,” Logan said. “If that’s where she is, she isn’t safe.”

There was a pause before Diana said, “No. That’s not where she is.”

“But it is in the same area, isn’t it?”

She said nothing.

Safe? Not safe? Until Diana trusted him more, there was just no way to know. So, how much time did they actually have? He’d have to trust she was right.

“I have a suggestion,” he said. “Why don’t we find someplace to get a little rest? It’ll give you time to think. We can figure out what to do after that.”

It was a huge gamble, but he didn’t know what else to do.

She eyed him curiously, as if she were trying to decipher some hidden agenda.

“Okay,” she finally said.

Since Diana’s car was a rental, Logan instructed Dev to return to the El Camino. While the other two climbed in, Logan popped the hood and reached down along the engine to where his spare key was hidden.

Their first stop was the car Logan had brought up from Braden. From the trunk, he removed his and Dev’s bags, and they drove off.

On the outskirts of town, they found a motel, and took a single room with two queen-sized beds. Before they went to sleep, Logan pulled an envelope out of his bag. If anything would convince Diana he was on her side, he was sure this would be it. He dropped it on the bed beside her without a word.

She gave it a casual glance, and then looked at it again, surprised.

“Alan loaned that to me,” Logan said as Diana picked it up. “You’re the one who left it in his trunk after you took Sara’s luggage, aren’t you?”

Diana stared at the envelope that contained the note from her sister to the brother-in-law she had yet to meet. “Yes,” she whispered.

Logan nodded. After a moment, she stood, took a few steps toward the bathroom, then stopped.

“May I have my purse?”

“Of course,” he said. He grabbed it off the dresser and handed it to her.

He wasn’t naive, but she wasn’t his prisoner, so, with the exception of her gun, he couldn’t justify keeping her things from her.

“Thank you,” she said, and carried it into the bathroom.