Untraceable by Elizabeth Goddard Page A

someone fell to their death. After all, they both assisted people who’d made poor judgment calls and were trapped or lost or injured in the wilderness. To have that happen on her watch had crippled her.
    “No point in arguing about whose fault it was,” she said. “It happened and it changed me. I’m coping better now. But then came Lon and the fact that he was married.”
    She conveniently left out that before the accident, and before Lon, Isaiah had stepped back from their growing friendship, hurting her. Nor had it helped that Isaiah had been the one to tell her about Lon.
    She cut him a look. “I resented you at first, but you told me the truth and I should thank you for that. I just wasn’t thinking clearly at the time.”
    “I know.” His voice was husky.
    “And then to find out about Dad cheating on Mom, and that we have another sibling out there we don’t even know, made me think I could never trust again.” She shrugged. “It all seems so trivial now with being abducted like this. Forced to lead these people through dangerous terrain, risking our lives for them. I don’t know if we’re going to live through this, Isaiah.” She glanced up at him then, her lovely brown eyes that could coax anything out of him caressing his face.
    Isaiah’s heart floated. He shouldn’t react to her this way, but how could he stop?
    “These are big mountains,” she continued. “We’ve made enough headway and we’re far enough off our original path that I don’t know how we’ll ever be found.”
    “Your brother believes all we have to do is deliver these guys, and we’ll be on our way. I hope it’s that simple, but I don’t see things happening that way.” Isaiah wished he could take the words back. He needed to reassure her, not scare her more.
    “We don’t have much choice, except to hope that helicopters are searching for us already,” she said, “but they have a lot of ground to cover before the next storm erases our tracks. So the coming hours, days, could be our last.”
    “Don’t talk like that. You have to believe we’ll be okay. You have to trust God. I know you do.” Now listen to him, trying to convince her to trust God when Isaiah was struggling with that very issue. He believed they’d have to make their own way out of this. He wasn’t even trusting God himself.
    “You’re right, I do. But people die every day.”
    She was right.
    Leslie’s face drifted across his mind. He hadn’t known she was engaged at first. He’d fallen hard for her, and he’d thought she returned those sentiments. Then when he found out about Aaron, he’d thought he could change her mind. Why would she want to marry a man with anger issues? A man that would hurt her like that? When it became clear that she had every intention of going ahead with her wedding, and that Isaiah had only put more strain between her and her fiancé, he’d finally decided to back off. Should have done it much sooner. He’d gone to break things off for good, but he never got the chance. He’d been the one to find her body.
    No matter how far he’d moved away, no matter how much distance he’d put between himself and his past, and how much effort he’d poured into starting a new life, those images would never leave him. His knees buckled and Isaiah caught himself, brushed the images aside. At least his past was nudging him to do the right thing now—tell Heidi while he had the chance.
    “Heidi...I’m sorry for pulling away from you. Sorry if I hurt you.” There was so much more to it. So much more he wanted to say.
    She stared at him. “You didn’t.”
    * * *
    She’d lied.
    The clouds resurfaced again and finally moved in, as though reinforcing her somber mood. Stomping along behind Isaiah as the snow fell thick and hard, wiping away their hope of someone spotting their tracks, Heidi couldn’t get the look in his eyes out of her head. He’d hurt her all right, the moment he’d gone all nonchalant on her. She’d