She opened the front door and stood on the porch, holding the door open for them. Neither one moved. "Come on in, guys. It's nice in here. Come on. Here kitty, kitty. Cat, if you come in, maybe Houdini will follow."

The sisters stepped outside and stood beside her, cooing to the animals, trying to coax them inside.

Houdini growled low in his throat.

"Lu, walk down off the steps and then move toward the driveway." Beatrice shooed her off the porch.

The dog's head tracked Lu. When she stopped moving he growled again.

"I don't think that dog likes you, Lu," Agatha observed.

"Just like his owner," Lu mumbled, then jumped when the dog suddenly barked at her. She backed up a step when the dog moved forward until it stood five feet away from her. "I think he hates me."

He hopped over behind her and Lu stood frozen, not even breathing. Wasn't that the emergency step when some wild, ferocious animal has you in its sights? The dog had the nerve to nudge her in the b.u.t.t with his nose. He pushed so hard, she stumbled forward a few feet. If it hadn't been for her car, she would have fallen flat on her face. She spun around and growled at the dog. "That's enough of that, buster."

Houdini barked at her again, and she plastered her back up against her car.

"He's trying to scare me." Just like his owner, dammit.

"No, no. I do believe he wants you to drive him somewhere."

Lu glanced away from the dog just long enough to look over at Agatha. She didn't look as if she'd gone crazy. "Drive him somewhere? Where would he want to go? The movies?"

The dang dog barked again. And kept barking. Out of pure frustration, Lu grabbed the handle of her car door and flung the door wide open.

"There. What is your deal, dog?"

Darned if the dog didn't hop up into her car, with the cat jumping in right behind it. They sat in the pa.s.senger seat together and stared at her. Houdini and his diabolical a.s.sistant.

Lu fished the keys from her pocket and set them down on the driver's seat and narrowed her eyes at the animals. "There you go. Have fun."

She backed up a step and the dog began with the barking again, only this time he was scary serious. "Look, even if I did drive you around, I have no idea what you want."

"Lu, just drive them around and he'll tell you where he wants to go." Beatrice's high-pitched voice sounded darn excited for someone who wasn't chosen to taxi around Cujo. "Isn't this fun? It's a real-life mystery."

Agatha came running with Lu's purse. She winked at her as she handed it over. "Just in case he wants you to buy him some beer. Make sure you call to tell us where he wants to go."

"I'll be sure to call." This town was crazy. How was this normal? She slipped one leg in and slid carefully onto her seat, ready to jump out of her skin at any moment if the dog got snippy again. She looked out her window for a last glance at the sisters. They'd seemed perfectly sane when she first moved in. Releasing a breath, she started up the car and glanced over at the pa.s.senger seat. "I refuse to drive you to a strip club, so you two get that idea out of your minds right now."

She backed her Beetle down the driveway and headed down the road. Searching for something. It felt like she was in a Disney movie, but if that was the case, the dog and cat would be talking to her. Like for real, in real voices, and they'd be trying to get home.

After driving around for an hour Lu had come to two conclusions. One: Someone needed to change the dog's diet because holy mother of G.o.d, her car would never smell okay again from the gas he was pa.s.sing. And two: They wanted Tynan. Everywhere she drove them-and she really did mean everywhere-the two would scan the area, checking in every direction. The cat even placed its paws up on the window for a better view. Once he was done, having managed to s...o...b..r on every window in the process, Houdini would bark at her in that really annoying, hurry-up-human way and only cease barking when she drove on.

Lu finally pulled the car over and rested her forehead on the steering wheel. She rotated her head to the side, where the animals sat staring at her. She'd read that animals didn't feel emotions like humans did, but lord these two looked so sad . . . like they'd lost their very best friend. "You guys are looking for Tynan."

She got it; she could use a Tynan fix right now too. And sitting around worrying about him wasn't helping, especially not with the anxious faces next to her. What were the odds the stubborn man had gone back to the cabin one last time before she took ownership? Lu knew exactly where it was because she'd sat in Barbara's office and examined the maps a.s.sociated with the property.

Houdini whined and leaned over and licked her face. The cat put a paw on her leg and blinked up at her. "You two are crazy, you know that? I'm crazy. I'm sitting here talking to animals that hate me. Worse than that, I'm actually contemplating driving off into the woods to find a man who also hates me. That's not even mentioning the little tiny thing . . . what was that . . . oh yeah . . . a tropical storm is bearing down on us."

Turned out dogs and cats didn't do guilt. Or sarcasm. "Every able-bodied person we know is helping the town prepare for the storm. So it's just the three of us. I refuse to drag two octogenarians off on a wild goose chase, no matter how much they would love it."

They blinked at her, as if, so far, they were cool with everything. "So here's what we're going to do. Let's go to your house and see what supplies Tynan has. First aid, a rope, a flashlight, all the important safety stuff. Here's something you're not going to like hearing-we can't leave until tomorrow morning."

The cat hissed.

"Hey, we'd lose the light before we even arrived. It's an hour drive there, you know. And we're only looking for him at my cabin-"

Houdini growled.

"I bought it, fair and square. So we'll leave an hour before sunrise, check the cabin, drive the hour back. We'll be home before Beatrice and Agatha even wake up-long before the storm hits. Then you two can get off my back. Okay? That's the plan, take it or leave it. Bark now or forever hold your peace. . . ." Lu looked from the dog to the cat and back again. They stared at her quietly. "That's what I thought. Let's go pack."

Chapter Twenty-five.

All Tynan heard was the sound of the rain hitting the ground like tiny pellets, and the creek rushing, swollen with rainwater, behind his head. No bear. He collapsed on the ground, face up to the sky, loving the fact that he was still alive and could feel the rain pummeling his face.

He lay still and took inventory of his situation. His body was bruised and battered. Some sc.r.a.pes and cuts stung under the rain. Moving his arms, nothing felt broken-bruised, but not broken. His tailbone smarted. He'd twisted his right ankle in the fall, and the fact that it was already throbbing and swollen was going to make it hard to walk. The thing that worried him the most, though, was the b.u.mp on the back of his head. When he'd finally landed his head had smacked the ground hard. He hadn't lost consciousness, so that was good, but the nauseous feeling didn't bode well. Of course, near death by bear would make anyone feel nauseous, right?

"Okay, here's the plan. First, from now on I make noise, because... bears. Second, I'll get up. And C, I'm going home to my dog, my cat, and the pixie. Not in that order. Ready? Here we go." Tynan rolled onto his side and used the momentum to keep rolling until he was on his hands and knees. From there he pushed up with his hands until he was on his knees. Ow. He swayed and then bent over and threw up. f.u.c.k. That wasn't good.

He hoped to h.e.l.l that was from the pain in his ankle and not a concussion. Very carefully, he rotated his head, looking around. He needed to find his backpack and the gun. The backpack had dropped straight down in the fall and sat against a boulder.

"Bingo. Now I just need the gun." He leaned forward on his hands again, thinking to push himself up to a standing position. That was when he noticed the gun was still in his left hand. Perfect. And then he threw up again.

"Okay. New plan. I'm going to low crawl my a.s.s over to the backpack, sit up against the boulder until the nausea goes away, and blow my rescue whistle. Maybe the bear will come back and save me."

After checking the safety on the gun, he tucked it against his lower back and proceeded to crawl his hands forward until he was laying belly down on the ground. Then he army crawled forward using his forearms and one good leg to drag himself over to the boulder. Every time his right foot touched the ground pain shot up from his ankle. He was close to throwing up a third time by the time he leaned his back against the cool rock surface.

His gaze landed on his ankle. He'd had plenty of broken bones, and he didn't think it was broken. It was definitely sprained and swelling. Keeping his hiking boot on and tied tight for now would help limit the swelling. If he stopped throwing up and almost blacking out, he would crawl down the twenty feet to the river and stick his foot in the cold water. There was no point in building a splint and trying to walk out of here until he knew he wouldn't pa.s.s out.

Aspirin. He needed aspirin for the pain and swelling.

Pulling the backpack toward him, he rooted through it until he found the first aid kit and the emergency thermal blanket. He grabbed the aspirin from the kit and swallowed four of them. d.a.m.n. Forgot the water. Fishing his hand in the pack again, he came up with a water bottle. Next, he spread the emergency blanket around himself in an attempt to retain his body heat in the driving rain. He was lucky it was unseasonably warm or he'd have to worry about hypothermia.

Last but not least, his whistle. He pulled it out of the side pocket of his jacket and looped it around his neck. Thirty minutes later, once he'd given the aspirin time to work, he attempted to put weight on his ankle again and almost blacked out from the pain. Or maybe he did pa.s.s out. He wasn't sure. When he remembered he blew the whistle in bursts of three.

Rain came down in bands, falling for thirty minutes at a stretch before letting up. Wind gusts tossed pine needles around and they fell like minijavelins from up high. The overcast skies had made it hard to keep track of the time all day long, but based on his watch, night was about to settle in.

Rather than attempting to make his way in the dark and risk another fall, he decided to stay put for the night. Heck, he'd been planning to camp tonight anyway, but he was in too d.a.m.n much pain to go about making a fire in the rain. He could do it if he had to, but he wasn't in any danger of freezing tonight.

He leaned against the rock and ate two protein bars and some beef jerky. He'd taken the last of the aspirin hours ago. Hopefully it had done its stuff and he'd wake up in the morning with significantly less swelling and pain. He'd really love to walk out of here tomorrow.

The illuminated face of his watch caught his attention. Well, what do you know? It was the twenty-first. He'd known it, it was just that between trying to out-hike his thoughts and then the bear incident, the day had gotten away from him.

"The bear incident." It sounded like a foreign film: The Bear Incident. If his men had seen him, they'd never let him live it down. His men. Kids. That's what his men had been really. But they'd been old enough to understand what they'd agreed to. Brave enough to face evil. Strong enough to protect the weak. But still so young. They'd barely experienced all life's pleasures. So much life spread out in front of them, still to go. And it was cut off, abruptly and painfully.

He missed them. Every d.a.m.n one of them. For the past three years, as the anniversary crawled closer like a stalking leopard, he'd found it harder to be around other people. Harder to breathe in and out. Harder to watch people go about their everyday lives, as if something big and tragic hadn't changed those men's lives forever.

And as tragic as their losses were, it seemed the people left behind-the ones who loved them-had it worse. The other men in their unit. The parents, the sweethearts, the best friends, the siblings, the children . . .

To be completely honest with himself, ever since the wedding this year's anniversary had been shaping up to be the worst. The wedding had knocked his world off its axis.

He'd done a lot of soul searching the last few months. Run through a lot of what-ifs, could'ves, and should'ves. And none of the answers were good. He couldn't find a good reason for any of it.

And then Lulubelle Swan had walked into his life, and she'd d.a.m.n well twisted his axis into a pretzel. What made him so special that he couldn't deal with the death? No, that's not accurate. He could deal with death. He had dealt with death. Too d.a.m.n much of it. It was dealing with living-being one of the survivors-he was having trouble with. Lu had had to deal with it. Lots of other people had. Lu had said she'd tracked him down to see how he'd moved on. Because she was a fighter. When she'd finally grieved all she could she'd pulled herself together and fought to have a life she could enjoy again.

He'd finally decided, after watching the effort Lu had put into putting her life back together, that finding a way to reach for happiness was the harder path.

To find some traction in that empty s.p.a.ce when letting go was all too easy. Lu deserved every happiness she could get. The question was, was he strong enough to walk that path with her?

He'd spent years avoiding commitment; that was the too-easy path. Lonely, but easy. The path he'd walked for too many years. But the more he was around Lu, the more it seemed maybe he hadn't been avoiding commitment so much as he'd been waiting for Lu to come along.

Did he wish they hadn't had to lose Joey to get here? h.e.l.l yeah, he did. But life had already forced some hard choices. And he was choosing a life with Lu. If she'd have him. He wasn't even worried about marriage or children; he just hoped he could talk her into happy right now, and they'd take it a day at a time.

If he was intent on creating this new life with Lu, something had to change. Not a single November 21 would go by without remembering, but just as Doc said, it was time to let them go. Time to say good-bye.

He looked out into the darkness and they were there, his men, sitting around the small fire of those faraway nights.

He nodded at them all and quirked a bittersweet smile.

"Hey now, Sergeant. None of that." Alphabet crossed his eyes at him. He never did take life seriously until you needed him to. "It's time. You knew it was coming."

"I know." Ty's throat squeezed tight and he swallowed past the pain that sliced like ground-up gla.s.s in his throat. "Doesn't make it any easier."

Shughart shook his head. "It's not like we're going anywhere. We'll be here. You know, if you need us. Like we came through for you over there, right?"

"Every time. You guys couldn't have performed better."

"Would you mind, every so often, just checking on my family? Maybe just a Christmas card. It would mean a lot to them. Don't you forget, we were family after our first tour." Murph pointed at him. "That's never going to change."

Ty nodded across the darkness, and the men he loved like brothers faded away until there was just one left.

Wouldn't you know, the guilt hit him like a boulder on his chest. He opened his mouth, but he couldn't get any sound to come out. His eyes burned something fierce. Probably the wind had changed and blown a leaf in his eye.

"Joey-" h.e.l.l, the words he needed didn't exist. Tynan shook his head and lifted a hand toward him.

"Sergeant Cates, I couldn't have picked a better man to watch over Lu if I'd tried."

Tynan choked back a laugh. "You did try. About near drove me crazy with the letter to Stanley."

"Yeah, sorry about that." Joey smiled a quiet smile and scratched his cheek. "But she needed time to grieve."

"She missed you something fierce. Still does."

"You've got her now. You'll take care of her now?"

"That's my plan."

Joey sat back and nodded once. "Good. It's all good."

Tynan sat under the sky. The cloud cover was solid and low and starting to spit rain at him again. When the wind gusts picked up he wrapped himself in his sleeping bag, drew the waterproof tarp from his tent up over himself, and fell asleep. The first good night of sleep he'd had in months.

Chapter Twenty-six.

After letting Agatha and Beatrice know she was spending the night at Tynan's with his pets, Lu crashed on Tynan's couch. She managed to toss and turn for a few hours before the dog alarm woke her with a s...o...b..ry lick across her face. Ugh. And she'd thought she hated her alarm clock. She sat up, pushing the dog out of the way so she could find her shoes.

"I'm up. Let me put on my shoes, okay?" Shoving her feet into her sneakers, she leaned over to tie the laces. "What are the odds you'll let me make coffee?"

One loud bark next to her left ear answered that question. Ouch. The dog was already panting and dancing on his three paws. Impatient to go find his master.

"Okay, I get it. But I am going to pee first and then we'll get going."

It had taken thirty minutes and three phone calls to find the fake rock with the key to get into Tynan's house yesterday. It was just plain weird to walk around his house, knowing she hadn't been invited.

Kaz knew she was there of course. He was the one who'd told her where the key was. The guy sounded so relieved Lu was watching Tynan's pets while he dealt with the downed tree at his parents' house that she decided not to mention she was planning to head out with them.

She'd packed the car last night after finding a fair amount of camping and safety gear in Tynan's garage cabinets. Tynan's dog and cat watched her every move as she packed the equipment. "Don't get excited. This is only a precaution. We aren't planning on using any of it."

His garage, by the way, was the most beautiful job of organizing she'd ever seen. Everything neatly shelved into bins or boxes, labeled and lined up alphabetically. Not a speck of dust on the shelves. Control freak much? This wasn't a surprise after working with him for two weeks, but wow. She hoped she could talk him out of hating her, because even if he never wanted to sleep with her again, she'd love to invite him over to reorganize her closets.

"Here's the plan: Drive the one hour to the cabin. See if Tynan is there, and then drive back-all before the storm hits." She glanced over to the animals sitting in the car next to her. "Are we clear on this?"

Sad puppy and kitty faces; that's what she got from them.

"Don't give me those faces. This is the best I can offer you." She looked straight ahead, ignoring their pitiful faces, as she pulled onto the road and away from Tynan's house.

She wouldn't be worried about Tynan at all if it weren't for his crazy pets. She'd zoned out with a lot of TV doc.u.mentaries during the first year after Joe's death. It was a fact that animals could sense some things, sometimes even before they happened, like earthquakes, seizures, illness. It seemed silly, but what if it were true? What if his pets had sensed something was wrong with Tynan and she ignored them? Guilt, that's what. And she didn't want to do guilt anymore.

So it wouldn't hurt to drive to the cabin, let Tynan's pets see he wasn't there-and, to be completely honest, she'd like to cross that worry off her list, too-and then drive back. From looking at the maps in Barbara's office, Lu knew the cabin property sat just east of the parkland, b.u.t.ted up against it. Huh; come to think of it, the access to the park was probably one of the reasons Tynan had wanted to buy the cabin so badly.

A light rain had started falling about a half hour into the drive. Probably one of those outer bands meteorologists loved talking about. That was when she realized she'd made two mistakes. First, she'd let the animals rush her out of the house before checking the latest storm reports this morning. Because it shouldn't be this windy or raining yet. The storm should still be twelve hours away-unless it had picked up speed overnight.

But also there was the second mistake she'd made: When she'd calculated the timing of the round trip with the storm, she'd based it off the Climax forecast. Not the cabin's, which sat south and east of Climax. Closer to the storm path.

"Dumb, Lu. Really dumb." Sometimes her inclination to leap before looking got her in trouble. They could turn around, but the GPS indicated they were almost at the cabin, so they might as well check.

She would have missed the entrance to the cabin, if the "For Sale" sign hadn't been stuck in the ground. It was leaning over sideways, but this had to be it. Slowing down, she steered the car onto a gravel drive toward . . . well, hopefully toward the cabin.