In the Paths of Righteousness (Psalm 23 Mysteries) Page 6

  Slowly she felt herself beginning to calm down. “So, the word of the day is caution,” she said at last. “We could be totally wrong about all of this.”

  “We could also be totally right,” Traci said quietly. “Mark’s already so stressed out I don’t think I want to tell him our suspicions just yet.”

  “Okay,” Cindy agreed. “We can go to him when, if, we get more.”

  “Until then we just need to stay alert and keep our eyes open.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Okay, I’ll stick close to my guy and you stick close to yours,” Traci said.

  “I-I don’t have a guy,” Cindy stammered.

  Traci rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. I can’t believe the two of you haven’t figured it out yet.”

  “Figured what out?” Cindy asked, heart beginning to race.

  “That you and Jeremiah are perfect for each other.”

  “What? No, we’re just friends,” Cindy managed to say, grateful that the night kept Traci from seeing that she was blushing. Her mind had begun to race and she felt her pulse skittering out of control at the very thought.

  “You might be friends, but you’re meant to be a whole lot more. I guarantee it,” Traci said with a certainty that made Cindy’s heart pound even harder.

  “But, we’re all wrong for each other,” she protested. “I’m not looking for a guy like him.”

  Traci snorted derisively. “Yeah, what kind of guy are you looking for?”

  The question caught her off guard and Cindy realized she had no good way to answer it. She licked her lips. “He’s Jewish and I’m a Christian,” she finally blurted out.

  “Yeah, and Mark wasn’t anything I was looking for in the slightest and yet there you go.”

  Cindy didn’t know how to answer that without venturing more into the religious differences territory. Instead she said, “Jeremiah’s not interested in me in that way.”

  “Hmm, funny that you say he’s not interested instead of saying you aren’t,” Traci said.

  Cindy blinked in surprise. Traci was right. Her first response should have been that she wasn’t interested. It hadn’t been. What did that mean?

  “And besides, what makes you think he isn’t interested?” Traci pushed.

  Cindy pressed her hands to her burning cheeks. “I don’t want to talk about this,” she whispered. It was true. She couldn’t, wouldn’t discuss this right now with Traci. Clearly she had some feelings she had to sort out for herself before she’d be willing to discuss them with anyone. Just because she’d vowed to try and make this a good trip for Traci it didn’t mean she had to bare her soul to her. Not like this.

  “We should get back then,” Traci said, sounding a bit disappointed.

  Cindy couldn’t help that. Although she found herself suddenly wishing that her cell phone worked out here so she could call her roommate Geanie. In the next breath she realized that would be just as big a mistake. Geanie was engaged and to her love was in the air. She couldn’t be practical about these sorts of things at the moment if her life depended on it.

  “Yeah, hopefully they haven’t sent out a search party for us,” Cindy muttered.

  “If they’re not in their sleeping bags when we get back, we’re sending a search party out for them,” Traci said firmly.

  They had taken less than half a dozen steps when a shadow suddenly loomed over them. Cindy took a hasty step backward.

  “You ladies aren’t supposed to be here,” a deep voice growled.

  6

  They had reached the sleeping area when Mark stopped short.

  “What is it?” Jeremiah whispered.

  “Girls are gone,” Mark said, hating the tension in his own voice. He forced himself to take a deep breath. “Maybe they went looking for us. Or, maybe they just had to relieve themselves.”

  “Is everyone here except the cowboy on guard duty?” Jeremiah asked.

  Mark squinted into the darkness. “Looks like it, so, unless there’s someone else stalking us from outside everything should be okay.”

  He heard himself talking and couldn’t help but wonder when he’d gotten so paranoid. Didn’t he even know how to relax anymore?

  “Actually, Hank is missing. His sleeping bag is empty,” Jeremiah whispered.

  Mark swore under his breath and glanced at the rabbi who was pointing at a spot at the edge of the camp.

  “You can see that far in this light, let alone remember who was over there?”

  Jeremiah didn’t answer. It just reinforced Mark’s growing belief that the other man saw and heard a lot more than he ever let on. He had the senses of a fox and twice the craftiness.

  Hank was one of the new guys, just arrived that morning. Still, that didn’t make Mark feel any better knowing that he was out there somewhere and so were Traci and Cindy.

  “I don’t like this,” he muttered.

  He turned around and swore again. Jeremiah was gone.

  Cindy heard Traci gasp even as she craned her neck to try and make out the face of the man confronting them. She recognized the chiseled features of the new assistant cameraman, Hank.

  “What do you mean?” she managed to ask without stammering. In her mind she quickly ran through their options. The guy was massive, Traci and she wouldn’t stand much of a chance trying to fight him. That left running and screaming for help that would hopefully arrive in time. Of course, with her ankle the way it is, even that wasn’t a good option.

  “We won’t tell anyone,” she heard Traci practically whisper. “We’re very sorry. We have very vivid imaginations, you know?”

  Hank eyed them and then crossed his thick, corded arms over his chest. “Then you can imagine how much trouble you’d be in if you got lost out here in the middle of the night.”

  This was it. Cindy tensed, getting ready to leap away and prayed that Traci would follow. She wrapped her hand tight around her walking stick, praying she’d be able to use it to help her move fast enough.

  “You’re headed straight out for the herd, away from camp,” he said. “You get lost, start fumbling around, risk spooking those cattle and you’ll be in serious trouble.”

  Cindy stared at him, feeling like an idiot. “We’re going the wrong way for camp?”

  “If that’s where you’re heading.”

  “But, I thought it was over that way,” she said pointing.

  “Out here in the wilderness, in the dark, without landmarks you know or understand, it’s easy to get turned around,” he said. “You ladies want to go back that way,” he said, pointing behind them.

  “Thank you,” Traci gasped, clearly feeling the same relief Cindy was.

  A terrible suspicion suddenly dawned on her. What if he was lying to them, trying to get them lost?

  Either way, their best bet was to go in the direction he was telling them. If he was being truthful he would have saved them. If he was lying they could hopefully figure it out quickly and circle back without risking confronting him now.

  “We appreciate the help,” Cindy asked, forcing herself to smile, biting her tongue to keep from asking him what exactly he was doing away from camp himself. She wasn’t sure questioning him at the moment was smart, especially if he in turn began to question them.

  She grabbed Traci’s hand, turned and began to walk in the direction he had indicated. Traci’s grip was like steel and she could practically feel the other woman’s fear radiating off of her.

  After taking a dozen steps she risked looking back over her shoulder. She couldn’t see Hank anymore and she tried not to let her imagine get the best of her in wondering where he’d gone.

  After a dozen more steps Traci whispered, “Do you think we’re really going in the right direction?”

  Before she could answer, Cindy saw a shape walking toward them in the darkness. Whoever it was was tall, but not as tall as Hank. Before she could hail them, she heard a familiar voice call out.

  “Everything okay?”

  She nearly dropped T
raci’s hand and ran forward to hug Jeremiah. She managed to restrain herself, though, and she took one last look behind them. There was still no sign of Hank.

  “Um, yeah, we’re fine. Hank helped send us back in the right direction,” she said.

  “Allow me to escort you the rest of the way,” Jeremiah said, his voice tense even though his words were not.

  Less than a minute later they were back in camp and standing next to Mark. Mark glared briefly at Jeremiah although Cindy had no idea why.

  “Found them,” Jeremiah said shortly.

  “We figured you went to use the little girl tree,” Mark said.

  “Nice, honey,” Traci said sarcastically.

  “What? That’s as delicately as I could put it,” he said.

  He was trying to look innocent, but Cindy suspected that he was lying. There was a muscle in his jaw that was twitching.

  He thought something bad happened to us, she realized.

  She couldn’t blame him. Between her and Traci they had been kidnapped three times in the last year. That was more than enough to make anyone twitchy.

  “So, how about we all do what we’re supposed to be doing and get some sleep?” he said.

  “Sounds good to me,” Cindy replied, wishing briefly that she and Traci had made it to the little girl’s tree as Mark put it.

  She got back in her sleeping bag which was now cold and pulled the top of the bag and the blanket up under her chin. Traci was seconds behind her followed by Mark.

  Jeremiah continued to stand for a couple minutes more, looking around. Cindy wondered if he was looking for Hank, but she held her tongue and didn’t ask. The last thing she wanted was for him to feel the need to go looking for the big man. He might not be the killer that she and Traci were looking for, but they couldn’t rule anyone out at this point. The fact that he had been skulking around in the dark didn’t make him any more innocent in her eyes.

  Then again, from his point of view, maybe she and Traci were the ones skulking. She sighed, wishing that just for once things could be simple and people’s motives completely transparent.

  She was nearly asleep when Jeremiah finally decided to turn in. As he settled into his sleeping bag next to hers Cindy felt her heart begin to pound again. He had been close to her in the cabin, but this seemed even closer, more intimate. Her sleepiness vanished and she felt wide awake.

  “Night, Cindy,” he whispered.

  “Goodnight, Jeremiah,” she barely managed to get out around the sudden tightness in her chest.

  She listened as a few minutes later his breathing slowed and deepened as did Traci’s on her other side. Finally, what seemed like a lifetime later, she was able to fall asleep herself.

  Jeremiah was up early. He wanted to take another look around the camp in the early morning light before the others were awake. Zack was the only other one awake and he was out tending to the herd. Jeremiah could hear snatches of cowboy songs floating on the air and couldn’t help but wonder if the doctor turned cowboy hadn’t missed his true calling as a singer.

  Hank was asleep. The man had returned to camp shortly before Jeremiah had turned in, moving so silently even Jeremiah hadn’t been able to hear him. He had seen him, though, and he knew the other man had seen him as well. The two of them were going to have to have a little chat about what he had been doing up so late and for so long at some point.

  With no one around to question him he was able to inspect the remaining saddles, although he intended to inspect Kyle’s again before the ride began for the day, just to be certain it hadn’t been tampered with.

  Everything seemed to be in order and after a while the other two cowboys stirred and got up. They both nodded to him as they went about their preparations.

  Jeremiah went over and quietly began to roll up his sleeping bag, not wanting to disturb Cindy. He knew she couldn’t have gotten very much sleep. She had still been wide awake when he’d finally let himself go to sleep. He’d wanted to remain awake until she had fallen asleep, but had ultimately decided that getting the hours he’d need to be alert today were more important. Besides, she was sleeping so near him that if she had tried to get up again he would have known it instantly.

  She finally awoke, blinking slowly. Then she smiled up at him and he felt warm to the center of his being.

  “Morning, sleepy,” he said.

  “What time is it?” she asked.

  “A bit after six.”

  She yawned. “That’s early.”

  “Yup. You’re not the last one up, though.”

  “I bet Kyle is awake.”

  “Yes, and already hard at work,” Jeremiah noted.

  Cindy rolled her eyes.

  It only took Cindy a few minutes to get dressed and be ready for the day to begin. She had just heard that breakfast wouldn’t be ready for about another twenty minutes when she saw Kyle approaching her.

  “Hey, sis. Care to take a walk with me, or a hobble with me at least?” he asked.

  She nodded. She had been getting along okay that morning without the makeshift walking stick as long as she moved slow.

  She couldn’t help but wonder what it was Kyle wanted, though, as they began walking slowly away from the camp.

  “How are you feeling this morning?”

  “Better, I can put weight on my ankle, but it’s sore still.”

  “Best to rest it up at least another day,” he said, surprising her slightly.

  “Thanks.”

  “I’m sorry that you got hurt. It should have been me on that horse,” he said, sounding guilty.

  She reached out a hand to grab his arm. “It’s okay, you couldn’t have known.”

  He nodded. “It’s just strange. First Martin, then that. Last night I was beginning to think this trip was cursed.”

  “And now?”

  “The dawn brings with it optimism the night could never dream of,” he said.

  “That’s beautiful.”

  “Thanks. I stole it from a girl I dated in college.”

  She nodded, not sure what to say. The silence stretched on as clearly he didn’t know what else to say either.

  “So, Mom tells me you have a new girlfriend,” Cindy said, looking for something to fill the silence. “Last year apparently you took her over there for Thanksgiving if I remember correctly.”

  “You know, you could show up to Thanksgiving every once in a while,” Kyle said.

  “Is that your way of avoiding the topic?”

  “I don’t know, maybe. I just don’t want you to get all weirded out.”

  “I’m not going to get weirded out hearing about your girlfriend,” Cindy said.

  “Okay. She’s a year younger than I am and she’s an interior designer although that doesn’t even begin to cover it. She’s amazing and she can do anything from renovate a house to make a gourmet dinner for twenty. I swear, she’s like the next Martha Stewart.”

  “Hopefully without the prison record,” she couldn’t help but snark.

  He looked at her and she felt bad. That hadn’t been a nice thing to say, especially when he was trying to be open with her.

  “I’m sorry, go on,” she said.

  “We met a little over a year ago while I was on location in Prague. She was there on vacation and it was just...magic.”

  “That sounds really nice. Does she live near you?”

  “That’s the freaky part. Only twenty minutes away and yet we had to go all the way to Prague to meet.”

  “Sometimes that’s how it is with people who lead such busy lives,” Cindy said. “Not everyone is lucky enough to just bump into their next door neighbor and fall in love.”

  “You seem to have been.”

  “Excuse me?” she asked.

  “Hello, the rabbi? Earth to Cindy. Can you read me?”

  “I can read you just fine,” she said, feeling her blood pressure rise. “But you’re not making any sense. I’m not in love with Jeremiah.”

  Kyle looked at her con
fused. “It’s not the cop then, is it, because he’s married and that’s not cool.”

  “I’m not in love with Mark!” she burst out horrified, and then felt her cheeks burn as she realized how loudly she had said that. Half the camp had probably heard.

  He frowned. “Well, it must be Jeremiah, because it’s got to be someone. Mom always says when a woman is in love you can tell because she has a glow about her and you’re glowing, that’s for sure. I’ve never seen you like this before.”

  “Maybe it’s just because you haven’t seen me in years. I’ve changed a lot, you know.”

  He didn’t say anything and she forced herself to take a deep breath. He hadn’t done anything wrong, after all. Maybe she did glow. She was certainly happier than she had been the last time they’d seen each other. A lot had changed in her life since then. Her eyes drifted toward the camp and she realized she was looking for Jeremiah.

  She looked hastily back at her brother, not wanting him to notice what she was doing. She forced herself to unclench her fists and did her best to calm herself down. “So, are you in love?” she asked.

  “I think so,” he said, his voice getting a little hoarse. “It’s all kind of weird and new to me, but I think it’s possible that she could be the one.”

  “Fangirls the world over will be crushed to hear that,” she said, forcing a smile.

  He shrugged.

  “So, what is her name?”

  He fidgeted for a moment, dropping his eyes, then sighed. “Her name is Lisa.”

  Cindy felt as though something exploded inside her. “Are you kidding me?” she hissed.

  “Now, hold on, I know what you’re going to say-”

  “You’re dating someone with the same name as our dead sister. That’s wrong! Wrong and creepy! You just-you just can’t replace her.”

  “I’m not trying to replace her. Crap, this is exactly what I was talking about, Cind, about not wanting you to go all mental and freak out.”