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base of her neck. She kept him imprisoned in her firm hold and yet he did not mind the restriction for once. If anything, he rejoiced in that tight embrace. He closed his eyes to the delight that had invaded his very soul.
    “My husband,” she said with wonder and reached up to smooth the damp hair from his forehead.
    He opened his eyes and for just a moment the enormity of his lie flowed through him but he pushed it aside. “Aye,” he said.
    “My love,” he heard her whisper.
    Those words made the lie bearable for no one had ever loved him. No one had ever dared to love him. He knew he would do anything for this woman, suffer any torment to have her at his side for the rest of his unnatural life.
     
     
     
    Chapter Three
     
    “Well, there’s a man who lives up in the mountains who knows the terrain better than anybody else but I don’t know that he’d help you,” Sheriff Olson Spence told the man sitting across from him.
    “Why wouldn’t he?” Federal Agent Cody Wendt inquired.
    “Don’t like folks bothering him for one thing,” Spence replied as he leaned back in his chair. “And though there's been those who’ve gone up there looking for him, ain’t a one of them ever found his cabin. He don’t take to strangers and if he don’t want to be found, he won’t be found.”
    “You say he’s a good tracker, though?” Wendt’s partner, Jake Hobart, pressed.
    “The best there is around these parts,” Spence told him.
    Wendt frowned. “Is there any way for you to get in touch with this guy? Does he have a cell phone? Can you call him?”
    Spence and his deputy, Nick Tolliver, exchanged an amused look. Spence shook his head. “Mister, he don’t even have electricity or running water up there on Aonair Ridge. As for a cell phone ….” He chuckled. “The closest tower is over to Rayford and even if MacGivern had one in his damned backyard, he wouldn’t answer it.”
    “Not damned likely,” Tolliver agreed.
    “Then how do I get to him?”
    “Well, whenever he’s got money coming to him for a sale, old lady Beaufort runs a green flag up the pole at her place and he’ll eventually come down when he sees it.”
    “Money from selling what?” Hobart questioned.
    The sheriff pointed at a carved eagle in flight that was perched on a stand across the room. “He did that.”
    Wendt and Hobart turned to look at the carving. It was an intricate, exquisite rendering that--had it not been fashioned from polished wood--would have seemed all too real.
    “Beautiful work,” Hobart proclaimed.
    “If this Beaufort woman hoists the flag, how long will it take the tracker to come down?” Wendt demanded.
    Spence hooked a finger down his nose. “That might take days, even weeks.”
    “Agent Groves doesn’t have weeks,” Wendt snapped.
    “From everything I was told, it looked like your law woman went over the ledge and into the river,” Spence said. “What makes you think she didn’t?”
    “I’d know if Allison was dead,” Wendt said, a muscle flexing in his jaw.
    “Cody,” Tolliver said softly with a slight shake of his head.
    Spence nodded. “Unh huh,” he said, casting his deputy a knowing look.
    “Listen, just have the Beaufort woman signal him,” Wendt said. “I know she’s out there and if he can help us find her ….”
    “I ain’t saying he will,” the sheriff stated.
    “I’ll make the son of a bitch help us,” Wendt snarled.
    “Easier said than done,” the deputy said with a snort. “You don’t know him like we do.”
    “If she somehow made it to his place, would he take care of her?” Hobart asked.
    “He’d damned well better have!” Wendt proclaimed. “If he’s hurt her or ….”
    “Cody!” Wendt’s partner cautioned in a firm voice.
    Wendt’s hands were clenched into fists and he turned away, his face dark with anger.
    “If she could be moved Mac would have brought her down if he found her,” Sheriff Spence said. “If she couldn’t be moved, he’d have