Page 16 of When the Silence Breaks

Whatever you say.Sarah hopped down and instantly felt the slight tremble underfoot. Her palms slicked. “We’re not going down in another mudslide, are we?”

“I hope not. This area is pretty stable, otherwise the road would be closed.”

“Well, that’s reassuring.”Not really.

He’d said the words, but he looked unsettled. Or maybe that had more to do with the murder she mentioned. She would move heaven and earth to end this threat on her family and to bring Aaron justice. He’d been betrayed ... by whom, she didn’t know.

Tears brimmed and she quickly blinked them away. She hadn’t wanted to talk about any of this with Ryder, but hiring him had been a challenge, and she still wasn’t sure she’d convinced him to help. At least, so far, she hadn’t had to tell him everything. Still...

Lord, why couldn’t Ijust hire this guy to take me up the mountain? No questions asked.

Maybe she should, in fact, just hire someone else. All kinds of possible negative developments ran through her mind. Consequences of telling him—and it would only make him complicit.

“There. I see it. The Explorer is just there...” She stepped forward into muck.

“Don’t move. Stay where you are.”

“Why?” She stood still, waiting for his explanation, but an uncomfortable sensation crawled over her.

He shined a flashlight toward her vehicle.

“Wait. What’s...?”

The back end of the Explorer sat at an angle.

“The ground must have shifted. We need to leave. Now.” Ryder got back into his truck, and Sarah didn’t have to be told twice.

Except ... “I need to get into that vehicle tonight. I need to get my stuff out.”

“That’s not happening.NowI’m concerned about the entire road. I need to make a call or two.” He backed out and sped toward town. Ryder got on his cell and contacted the sheriff’s department to warn them of the potential danger. He ended the call. “They’ll let the local ranger district know, along with Washington State Patrol. I’ll email my contact at University of Washington, who might already be in town.”

“If they close the road, then how do people get in and out of town?”

“They’d just have to take the long way around,” he said.

“Has this happened before?”

Ryder accelerated. “Once. When I was a kid. Too young to know or remember anything.”

Unbelievable.“Why build a town in a place where the road can just fall off the mountain?”

“Where did you grow up again, Sarah?”

“Oklahoma.” At least that was one of the places they’d lived.

“Why build a house in a place where a tornado could blow it away?”

Whatever.“Now what am I supposed to do? I had gear that I need.”

“Like what?”

“I mean...” Not that she was going to tell him. “Just stuff.”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll come back and look in the morning. Maybe your Explorer will still be sitting there just fine. But to get to it safely, I need daylight. Worst case, maybe you can replace what you left behind. But we’ll figure it out tomorrow.”

“We?”

“I thought you wanted my help.”