He would need to go home to pick up some equipment, but he should be at Ken’s right at dawn. When he spied some paper on the desk in the great room, he snatched a piece and scribbled a note to Kyra, pleading with her not to even let Gabe know that he had gone after Amy, that he would explain everything later. Then he headed toward the French doors.

  “Michael, where are you going?”

  With his back to her, he gripped the handle, trying to think of a way to leave without arousing her suspicion. He didn’t want to endanger her life any more than he already had. Yes, she could take care of herself, but he’d lost Sarah and hadn’t been able to do a thing to help her. He couldn’t take it if it happened again to him. In that moment he realized he cared for Kyra—that what he felt as a teenager had not diminished over the years.

  “Michael?”

  The worry he heard in her voice gutted him. “I need to go to my house for something. I’ll be back in a while.” He didn’t turn around, not wanting her to see anything in his expression.

  “I’ll walk with you. I love the beach at this time of day.”

  Slowly he rotated toward her. “I’m going alone.”

  “It might not be safe.” She touched the gun in her holster at her waist. “Remember, we’re watching out for each other.”

  That’s why I’m going alone. He wanted to tell her that, but he knew by the tight set of her lips and slight narrowing of her eyes that no matter what she would be coming with him.

  “What do you need to get? Maybe we have it here.”

  He averted his gaze for a long moment, his teeth grinding. “Amy called me a few minutes ago.”

  “That’s great. Where is she?”

  “By Winn River. A place we went several years ago.”

  “So we can go get her. Gabe will be relieved.” Kyra pulled out her cell.

  Michael covered her hand on the phone with his. “No. You can’t call him.”

  Deep creases grooved her forehead. “Why?”

  “Amy made me promise not to. She is sure a police officer is helping the killer.”

  “Who?”

  “She didn’t know. Something the killer said that made her feel that way.”

  “So she doesn’t really know?”

  “No, but what if it’s true?”

  “Gabe can keep it a secret.”

  Michael drilled his gaze into her. “What if it is Gabe?”

  Kyra’s mouth dropped open. “No, not Gabe. I know him. He’d never do something like that.”

  “I’m not taking any chances with my sister’s life. My first and only priority at this time is to bring Amy home safely.”

  “I told you from the beginning I would protect Amy. If that’s what you want to do, then I won’t say anything to Gabe. My priority is to keep her safe—whatever it takes. But for the record, it isn’t Gabe.”

  “I don’t think it’s Gabe either, but I can’t take the chance I’m wrong.” He’d done enough of that lately—making mistakes. He couldn’t afford to make more—not with Amy’s life. Not with Kyra’s life. “I want to get some equipment at my house. We’ll take Ken’s airboat then use my two-man kayak to go the last part of the trip. We’ll tow Amy’s kayak. It’s a long trip.”

  “Then let’s get going.”

  As Michael emerged from the house, Kyra went into bodyguard mode. As she scanned the terrain, he did, too. Every dark shadow became a menacing form. Where was the killer? He would have to keep an eye out behind him as well as in front of him in the swamp. He could easily imagine the man nearby watching their every move.

  As they entered the creek from the river, Kyra couldn’t inhale enough air to ease the pressure in her chest. The canopy of trees above them created dark shadows over the terrain and water before them. The dense mangrove banks on either side sent branchy fingers out toward them as though to trap them in their wooden talons. The constant buzz of insects crowded out all other sounds until a scurrying noise to the left punctured the clamor. Kyra shifted her focus toward the racket. A raccoon hurried into the thicket.

  Sweat poured off her. Mosquitoes attacked her even though she’d slathered insect repellant all over her. At least the ceiling of flora above her gave some relief from the heat and strong sunlight that had beat down on them on the river. Dipping her paddle into the coffee-colored water, she followed the narrow path that Michael made in the boat ahead of her.

  She removed her hat and stuffed it down into the kayak when she saw Michael duck under a low-hung ceiling of limbs. “Are you sure this is the way? It looks impassable.”

  “That’s the beauty of the place. Not a lot of people come this way.”

  “Do you see those broken branches? Someone has come this way recently.”

  “Yes, Amy and Laurie.”

  Amy and Laurie or someone else following the girls?

  The question played over and over in her mind as she paddled deeper into the tangle for the next half hour. The niggling sensation that had plagued her since they’d started earlier this morning from Ken’s pier still nipped at her like the mosquitoes letting her know they weren’t going away.

  Slowly the thick foliage thinned until Kyra had to don her hat again to protect her face from the strong sun rays. They had been in the Glades over three hours when Michael headed toward a break in the trees.

  “We’ll walk from here.” Michael brought his kayak as close as he could and tied it to a branch, then climbed from the craft and waded a few steps to more solid ground.

  In Amy’s boat, Kyra followed suit, inspecting her surroundings for any signs of something not right. After sloshing through the foot-deep water to the higher bank, she inhaled the humidity-saturated air and released it slowly through pursed lips.

  “It’s not far from here.” Michael began his hike through the vegetation, pausing to check out a canoe stashed between some bushes, barely visible.

  When he pushed back some limbs, Kyra spied holes in the boat. “I can’t believe they made it this far.”

  “She said they ran over some logs. I can’t believe she got a call through to me.”

  “The Lord is looking out for them.”

  Michael threw her a look, his head tilted. He started to say something, closed his mouth shut and continued down the narrow path toward the Native American burial ground. Mud and patches of water hindered their progress, but finally fifteen minutes later a small clearing opened up before Kyra.

  An eerie silence blanketed the site. Off to the side sat a dilapidated shack that would completely fall down in the next high wind. Amy flew out through the opening where the door once was and launched herself toward Michael, who scooped her up into his arms.

  Tears streaked down the teenage girl’s cheeks. “You came. I didn’t expect you for a while, but…” Amy pulled back and peered at Kyra. The girl’s forehead crinkled, and her eyes narrowed as she tried to place who Kyra was. “I thought you were coming alone.”

  She smiled at Amy. “I haven’t seen you in years, but you’ve grown up into a beautiful young lady. I’m Kyra, Ginny and Michael’s friend. He asked for my help.”

  “You were at the house,” Amy mumbled, then glanced up at Michael. “You promised you wouldn’t tell anyone.”

  “You didn’t want me to tell the police. I didn’t, but Kyra has been helping me look for you. She used to be a detective with the Dallas Police. Now she runs a bodyguard agency. She’s here to protect you. I trust her.”

  Those three words cloaked Kyra in a mantle of warmth that had nothing to do with the temperature.

  “Ginny used to talk about you all the time.” Acceptance inched into Amy’s expression. “We can certainly use all the help we can get.”

  “You’ve got it. We’re going to figure out what’s going on.” Had the Lord put her in the place where she could help Michael and Amy? What would have happened to the child if Kyra hadn’t been on that beach that morning when the two guys were killed? She shivered at the thought of another victim being added to the killer’s total.

  Behind sister and brother stood Laurie in the opening to the hut. Dark shadows under the child’s eyes reminded Kyra of the raccoon she’d seen. Terror marked every feature of Laurie’s face. She clasped the edge of the hut as though that was the only thing keeping her upright.

  Kyra covered the short distance to her. “I’m here to help you, too. I will protect you as well as Amy.”

  Laurie’s eyes fastened on the gun at Kyra’s waist and widened. Amy’s friend opened her mouth, but no words came out. Kyra took the frightened teen into her embrace and hugged her trembling body against her. Laurie sobbed. Kyra tightened her arms around her to keep the girl from collapsing to the ground.

  Michael stepped back a pace and looked at Amy. “What’s going on? Why is a madman after you two? What’s this about the guy after you being protected by a cop?”

  “I’m not sure what is really going on. The four of us—myself, Laurie, Preston and Tyler—were exploring up by Manatee Creek. We got turned around and lost for a while. We came upon a small island with an abandoned cabin on it.” Amy paused and gulped in a deep breath. “But it wasn’t deserted. Someone was living in it.”

  “And he came after you because you showed up?” Michael’s eyebrows slashed downward.

  “Not exactly. He wasn’t there at first. We went inside and looked around. When we heard him coming, we ran.”

  “So he saw you and ran after you all?”

  Laurie stiffened against Kyra. “He was with another man—tall and thin, creepy-looking. They were arguing and the guy whose stuff was in the cabin said that a cop was protecting him and everything would be all right. He’d done jobs like this all the time.”

  “Jobs like what?” Kyra glanced from Amy to Laurie.

  Amy shook her head. “He didn’t say, but the tall, thin man wasn’t convinced everything would be all right. They exchanged a few more words and the thin man left while the other guy came toward the cabin. We ran. In my rush, I must have dropped my phone. I was taking pictures with it. That must have been how he tracked us down. All my information and friends are in it.”

  “You two ready? I want to leave right away. It’s a long trip home,” Michael said, plastering his sister against his length, protecting her in the shelter of his arm. “We’ll figure this all out when we get back to Flamingo Cay.”

  “The last part of the trip our canoe took on so much water, we had to wade the rest of the way here. We dragged it with us. I didn’t want anyone to see it submerged in case he was…” Shaking her head, Amy swallowed hard, tears glistening in her eyes. “He found us twice—at the Pattersons’ and when we tried to leave town. I can’t…” She buried her face into Michael’s shoulder.

  He stroked Amy’s back. “You aren’t alone anymore.”

  His gaze captured Kyra’s and across the small clearing a connection leaped between them that Kyra had never felt before. Its impact stunned her. Not until Laurie stepped back into the hut to grab their belongings did Kyra realize how easily Michael’s presence could distract her. At the worst possible time when lives hung in the balance.

  “Let’s go,” Kyra said, forcing herself to avert her attention from him. “I don’t want to be out here after dark.”

  As they neared the mouth of the creek, Michael glanced back at Kyra and Laurie in the kayak behind him. Laurie looked shell-shocked, while Kyra kept the boat going forward with deep strokes of the paddle. He couldn’t have asked for a better partner than her.

  “Michael,” Kyra called out, “let me go first now. I know we’re near the river. I want to check the area out first before we approach the airboat.”

  “Fine.” He slowed his craft and moved as closed to the bank as he could with the submerged trees and logs. “It’s around the next bend. You’ll have a little room before you go out into the river.”

  She steered past him. “Stay back. I know we hid the airboat on the other bank in a stream, but we still need to be cautious.”

  She was right. The killer after Amy and Laurie would stop at nothing to find them. He still didn’t know why. If they could figure that out, maybe they could discover who was after the girls. Once they made it to the airboat, they could be back in Flamingo Cay in two hours, then they could start trying to piece together what was going on.

  Shielding herself behind a wall of foliage, Kyra used the binoculars she’d had him bring to scout out the area across the river where another creek emptied into it.

  “Do you think someone followed you?” Amy asked behind him.

  “We kept an eye out as we made our way here, but Kyra has been trained to check out every contingency.” Michael glimpsed the tensing of Kyra’s shoulders as she took another look through the binoculars.

  Then she turned the kayak in a tight circle and paddled back to him. “Something doesn’t feel right. I thought I saw the tip of a boat hidden a little farther down the stream. I would have missed it totally if it wasn’t for something that glinted in the sunlight. I hate to ask this, but is there another way out of here besides going out onto this river right here?”

  “You mean we’re trapped!” Laurie spoke—a high-pitched shrill of hysteria in her voice—for the first time since they started down the creek.

  Amy reached across the short distance that separated the two kayaks and took her friend’s hand. “No, Michael will find another way out of here.”

  Then his sister turned her appealing gaze on him. He visualized the charts of this portion of the Glades that he’d reviewed right before heading out, then he thought back to a few months ago when Amy and he had come to this place—a lifetime ago when they were settling into a brother-sister relationship.

  “We need to go back the way we came. Continue up the creek. It ends but not too far from another stream we can take to another river that empties into the canal close to Flamingo Cay near Egret Bay.” At least he hoped so. Charts could become outdated with the changing water flow or a hurricane.

  Laurie pointed a shaking hand in the direction they would have to travel. “We have to go back there. What about the stories about Jaws?”

  “What stories?” Kyra gave Michael a quizzical look.

  “Lately people have been reporting about an overly aggressive alligator there. A bull gator that is reported to be about sixteen feet long.”

  Amy tugged on her friend’s hand, drawing Laurie’s attention around to her. “We’ll be in these boats. Alligators usually don’t attack people. I haven’t heard anything lately. We should be fine and by that time not far from home.”

  “Let’s go. We need to get as far as we can before dark. If we can make the other river, we can travel at night and get back to town before it gets too late. The weather report I heard said another storm was moving in late tonight.” Michael maneuvered his kayak around and started the trip back up the creek.

  Lord, if You’re listening, please help us. Show us the way.

  Two hours later the creek seemed to come to an end with a barrier of green in every direction he turned.

  “We’re trapped!” Laurie cried out, her hands gripping the edge of the kayak.

  TEN

  Kyra twisted around to settle Laurie down, reaching back to grasp her hands. “Calm down.”

  The teen yanked away from her, rocking the kayak. The motion of the boat fueled Laurie’s panic, and she tried to stand up. The boat rolled over, sending Kyra and the girl into the muddy creek. The seventeen-year-old’s screams died down when Laurie went under, then surfaced splashing and spewing out water.

  Michael guided his kayak closer to grab for Laurie and have her cling to its side. Kyra blocked the fact she was in the creek up to her shoulders and grabbed hold of her craft to flip it back over—glad that most of their equipment was in Michael’s bigger boat. She struggled to get it righted. Before she realized, Michael was in the water next to her, helping her to turn the boat over. When it was settled in place, Kyra scanned the area for the paddle and found it had drifted under the coiling branches of the mangrove.

  While Michael assisted Laurie into the kayak, heaving her up into it, Kyra swam the few yards to snag the paddle and bring it back. Her fingers encircled the wooden handle at the same time a large snake dropped into the creek from the branches above and headed straight for her. All she could focus on was its large head, the size of a fist, and its flicking tongue as its dark beady eyes knifed through her composure.

  She quickly drew the paddle toward her to use as a weapon while saying, “Michael! A snake!”

  “Move. Back.”

  As the snake came closer, Kyra backpedaled toward the kayak, keeping the paddle between her and the long reptile. Her heart pounded so hard it was difficult to breathe. Her gaze skimmed down its length, and she estimated it was at least ten or twelve feet long with a thick body. A python? In the Glades? Not poisonous but not something she would want to tangle with. She shoved all the snake stories she’d heard to the background and used the paddle as a shield.

  The snake slithered within a few feet of her but no closer as it continued to swim across to the other bank. Kyra didn’t take her eyes off it until it slipped out of the creek and she lost sight of it in the dense foliage. Her pulse still speeding through her, she wilted back against the boat, her legs going weak.

  Michael grabbed her and held her up, hauling her close to him. “You okay?”

  “No, give me a sec,” she squeaked out between deep gasps of air while a chill encased her. She quivered in his embrace, and he tightened his hold.

  “It’s gone. It was probably more scared of you than you were of it.”

  “I doubt that,” she said with a laugh that fell flat. “What’s a python doing in the Everglades? It’s not native to here.”

  “There are a lot of them now. Pets people have released into the wild.”

  “Oh, great. As if there aren’t enough snakes in this swamp.” The feel of his arms around her calmed her until she managed to stop shivering. The beating of her heart slowed. Glancing around, she stepped away and gripped the boat. “Let’s get out of here in case it has a buddy. I think we can get through the creek there.” She pointed toward the area where the paddle had been.