Turquoise Guardian. Jenna Kernan

the first man. “Get my brother. We’ll have to come back for her.

      “Hurry up,” said the first man.

      A car door opened, the metal groaning a protest.

      The same voice again. “Let’s go.”

      Carter looked at Amber. Her hand was pressed to her mouth again as if to keep from screaming. Her eyes were wide. Seconds ticked by, and then two more doors slammed and tires patched out on the gravel that lined the shoulder of the road.

      Amber slid her hand away from her mouth. “Are they gone?”

      Carter nodded. “I think so.”

      “Should I check?” she asked.

      He shook his head. There was no reason for her to see this. He could protect her from that image, the kind that stuck in your mind and flashed back like a thunderstorm.

      They said they had two minutes.

      “We wait,” said Carter.

      Insects buzzed in the grass above them, and the wind brushed through the long needles of the ponderosa pines on the opposite bank. Amber returned her gun to her waistband and then gripped his arm with two of hers as she huddled close.

      “How did you get me out?” he asked.

      “You walked, mostly.”

      “Mostly?”

      There was a whooshing sound, as if from a strong gust of wind. Black smoke rose up behind them, billowing in a dark column in the bright blue sky.

      “Fire,” said Carter.

      Had the men retrieved Muir and Leopold before setting the Subaru ablaze?

      Tires crunched on sand. Amber’s grip tightened, and she ducked her head.

      “They’re back,” she whispered, her voice strained.

      “Carter? Amber?”

      He knew that voice. It was Jack.

      “Here!” he yelled. When he stood, the dizziness came with him, clawing at him and making the ground heave. Amber was there beside him, steadying him, holding him so he didn’t fall.

      “Slow,” she said. “Go slow.”

      She could have run to his brother. But she didn’t. She helped him walk, leaning into him as she wrapped an arm about his middle and gripped his opposite arm, now draped over her narrow shoulders. Then he scrambled up the steep bank on his hands and knees toward the road topping the rise and saw the SUV consumed in flames.