Every Precious Thing

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

The shotgun blast echoed through the woods.

Logan, flat on his stomach, felt the pelts fly through the air where he’d been standing seconds before.

He’d been watching her eyes, and knew she didn’t believe anything he said. A split second before she screamed, her face scrunched up in rage. That’s when Logan dove left and hit the ground.

The moment the pelt had flown past, he scrambled to the cover of an old pine. A second blast hit the trunk, but nothing touched him.

Back in the direction of the two stacked rocks, he heard someone running. Then Diana called out, “Sara! Sara! Are you okay?”

“Sara!” Richard joined in.

“Diana?” Sara said, her voice low and uncertain. “Richard?”

“Sara! Where are you?” Diana yelled.

“Diana?” Sara called out more loudly this time. “Is that you?”

“Yes. Are you okay?”

“They’re here. One of them was chasing me! Be careful. He’s behind a tree in your direction.”

“I’m not one of them!” Logan shouted. “Diana, tell her!”

He could see Diana and Richard making their way through the trees now.

“He knows about Alan and Emily!” Sara yelled. “We have to stop-”

“Sara,” Diana shouted back. “He’s not with them! He’s with us!”

Silence, then a disbelieving “What?” from Sara.

Logan waved a hand, getting Diana and Richard’s attention.

“He’s not with them,” Diana said, no longer needing to talk as loudly. “Alan sent him.”

“Alan? Wha…what do you mean? Why?”

“Honey, it’s okay. Just come on out, all right?”

Diana walked past Logan into full view of the mangled tree Sara was hiding behind. With a frown, Richard held out his hand and helped Logan to his feet. The two men then moved out behind Diana, Logan more cautiously than Richard.

Another clap of thunder, this one farther away than before.

Diana walked steadily toward the tree. “Come on out, Sara. It’s okay. Everything’s fine.”

Sara still stood on the other side of the V created by some long-ago accident inflicted on the tree. The barrel of the gun had tilted upward, pointing at the clouds. Then both the gun and Sara disappeared.

For half a second, Logan wondered if she’d run off again, but then she emerged from around the side of the tree and ran into her sister’s arms. Richard joined them, putting a hand on Sara’s back, and whispered something in her ear.

Logan could see that weeks of stress and fear had taken their toll on Alan’s wife. Even as she hugged her siblings, she shot worried glances in Logan’s direction, as if she’d bolt if he so much as moved an inch in her direction. She was all survival and fear and determination.

Finally, Diana pulled back and said something to her sister that Logan couldn’t make out. Sara asked a few questions, each time looking at Logan. Finally, the three siblings walked over to him.

“Sara, this is Logan Harper,” Diana said.

Logan held out his hand, but Sara didn’t take it. “You say you’re a friend of Alan’s but I don’t know you.”

“No. I never said that. I said I’m here because of Alan. I am a friend of his lawyer, Callie Johnson.”

“Callie? You know her?”

“I’ve known Callie all my life. She used to babysit me.”

This odd detail seemed to soften Sara a bit. “I don’t understand how you’re involved.”

“She asked me to help,” he said. He gave her a quick version of how Alan had been looking for her, had enlisted Callie’s help, and how she had found out that Sara didn’t exist.

“I still don’t understand why they involved you,” she said.

“Because I’m a friend, and she knew she could trust me.”

She looked at him, clearly not satisfied with his response.

He shrugged. “And I know how to get things done.”

“Like what?” Sara asked, growing tense again. “What needs to be done about me?”

Logan paused. “At first, I think Alan just wanted to know what happened to you, for himself, and also for Emily, so when she grows up she’d understand why her mom went away.”

“You said ‘at first.’”

“When they realized you weren’t who you said you were, Alan became concerned.”

Richard jutted out his chin. “He thinks she cheated on him or something?”

Logan could see that Sara didn’t believe that at all. “No,” he said. “He became concerned that your sister was in trouble, and he wanted to help. He is her husband, after all.”

“Oh, and you’re that help?” Richard scoffed.

Sara touched her brother’s arm. Richard’s previous tough demeanor cracked a little, and he whispered to her, “Sorry.”

She looked at Logan. “I am in trouble, but there’s nothing Alan or you can do. The fewer people involved, the better.”

“But Alan’s your husband. Emily’s your daughter,” Logan said. “They’re your family.”

“Don’t you see? They’re the reason I had to leave. The people after me, they don’t want me. They want…”

“Emily,” Logan said, knowing that was what she was going to tell him.

She nodded.

“But why?” he asked.

She took a moment, then said, “Because they believe she’s their property.”

“What do you mean, ‘property’?”

She looked at the ground. “Go back to Alan, tell him…tell him that I love them both, but it’s better if they just forget me.”

Logan was about to ask another question, but Diana cut him off. “Okay. I’ve brought you to her. You’ve talked. Now you can go back to her husband and set his mind at ease.”

“Exactly how am I supposed to do that when you haven’t told me why Sara’s on the run?”

Ignoring his question, she said, “We’re done. We’ll drive you out and drop you off in Tusayan.”

She put an arm around Sara, and started walking back to the cabin. Richard followed them.

“Dev’s still got your phone,” Logan said, joining them.

“I’ll get a new one.”

The intensity of the rain began to ease.

“Where will you go?” he asked.

“Better if you didn’t know.”

“You’re making a mistake.”

“What mistake?”

“You all can’t run forever.”

Diana looked back at him. “We don’t need to run forever. Just…long enough.”