Brenna took a breath and tried to steady herself. Listening to Mac take charge and make orders had been comforting. At least she knew something was being done and she could hope for a light at the end of the tunnel. Now, sitting alone in the dark and the silence but for the sound of pavement rushing by beneath her, her fears preyed upon her.

The moment she'd awoken in the truck she'd been disoriented and panicked by the pain and unfamiliar surroundings. The last she'd remembered she'd stopped to check on a car on her way home, there had been pain and then only a missing period of time before finding herself in her current location.

She knew she was in her own trunk because of the shoes and gym bag she'd felt out in the darkness. She was ashamed to admit she hadn't immediately remembered her phone until it started vibrating in the darkness against her hip.

She swore loudly as it slipped from her hands into the darkness in her frantic attempt to pull it from her pocket. She'd almost sobbed with relief when she'd heard Mac's voice calling to her and followed his voice to her phone.

Now, trying to maintain a level head, she searched around her again with her hands while trying to remember if she had anything stored there that could be used as a weapon. Best case scenario, they'd locate her car and save her long before it ever stopped but she didn't want to rely on that theory and not be properly prepared.

Brenna ran through the memory of packing her gym bag that morning and patted the left side pocket where she had put her glass nail file. It was long and pointed on the end and could definitely do some damage if used correctly. Brenna palmed the nail file and resumed her search for weapons but found nothing more of use.

She made the vow that should she come out of this she would definitely be storing more useful items in her trunk for the future.

Suddenly the road noise changed and the ride became rougher as the car pulled onto what sounded like a gravel or dirt road. Brenna frantically ran through all of the gravel or dirt roads surrounding her neighborhood.

If he'd driven north there was a dirt road about 2 miles up the road. She estimated they'd been driving much longer than it would have taken to reach that. To the west were only paved roads heading toward the city. South continued with paved roads for quite some time, they hadn't made any more than 1 turn in the time frame she'd been awake so she didn't think they driven long enough to have gone south and reached a dirt road.

Her best guess was that they'd gone east in which case they could have easily reached the entrance to the state park and its maze of dirt roads in a short amount of time. Of course all of this was based on the time frame she guessed had elapsed but what if she was wrong? What if she'd been out far longer than she thought?

She decided to focus on her theory which was really all that she had right now and at least something was better than nothing. She knew the park well: it was one of her favorite places to go when she needed a short getaway. She also knew that it had miles and miles of dirt roads and trails, not all of them marked. It made sense that he would select somewhere so remote and difficult to navigate.

Even if the county deputies were already headed in their direction once they hit the park entrance it would be nearly impossible to track which way they had gone. Her heart sped up at the thought of her assailant pulling off in a remote forested area and opening the trunk to do who knew what to her.

Her mind automatically placed Tony Herrick's face as her assailant. She'd never seen him and had heard no voice issuing from elsewhere in the vehicle to confirm her suspicions but it seemed too much of a coincidence that after being stalked by the man she could so conveniently end up the victim of some other random villain.

If she believed that then she might as well call back the friendly guy who called last week to inform her she'd won the Russian lottery without ever having entered it.

Brenna subdued the desire to check her phone again. She didn't want to waste battery when she knew it could reveal to her no good news; only that her battery was likely less than the 6% it was the last time she'd checked.

To calm herself Brenna focused on imagining her wedding day. Spring seemed so far away now. If she made it out of this alive she vowed to look into where they could have a nice cozy winter reception. She now understood Mac's feeling of needing to savor every minute together that they could.

A nice mountain lodge with a huge stone fire place sounded quite picturesque as well and since they hadn't sent out any invitations or made any formal public announcement it would be easy enough to change the date. She knew it would make Mac more than happy to move up the nuptials.

She imagined Mac waiting for her at the end of the aisle dressed out in a charcoal tuxedo. She could see his blue eyes shining and his dark hair expertly mussed. Wedding Mac had a light roguish beard, she had to admit he looked incredibly sexy that way.

Brenna was pulled from her ruminations by the feeling of the car slowing down. Her heart sped up and the muscles in her body tensed in anticipation. Eventually the driver pulled to a complete stop and Brenna listened intently for the opening of a door. It was quite some time before the creak of the hinge sounded and steps made their way along the driver side of the car.

She forced herself to breath as she pictured him getting closer and held the nail file tightly in her grip ready to spring up and hopefully bury it deeply into his neck or maybe his eye if she was lucky.

To her surprise the steps kept going past the trunk and continued away from the car until she couldn't hear them anymore. In her confusion she thought furiously.

Maybe his plan was to simply leave her there to die in the woods? If that was his plan she'd be fine with it because she was confident in her ability to eventually get free. However, his could also have pre-positioned a stash of tools and equipment nearby with which he planned to return and brutally murder her. This option seemed much less rosy and spurned her to action pulling and prying at the hard plastic upholstery of the truck searching for a way to kick out the tail lights or a secret latch. Anything would do, she'd be damned if she'd simply wait for death to seek her out. She'd fought too damn hard to live.

**************

Mac drove east with his radio on waiting for the next update from dispatch. He wasn't very familiar with this territory but he did remember driving this way previously with Brenna when they had gone to the hot springs. Now that he thought of it, the park would be a pretty good place to take someone.

With that thought in mind he picked up the speed a little. A moment later dispatch crackled to life on the radio and announced the newest GPS coordinates received from the phone company. Mac pulled over and plugged them into his mapping system.

He was excited but not truly surprised when they did indeed place her phone at the entrance to the park. He was already back enroute and trying to remember everything she'd told him about the park. It was within his jurisdiction but mostly patrolled by the forest service and he'd not been given a lot of opportunity to learn its acreage.

Mac drove through the main gates and noticed there was still a fine haze of dust in the air that signaled someone had been through recently. The haze continued to the north option of the T junction so he knew at least where to start but knew he'd better move fast. It was already almost imperceptible.

He radioed dispatch his location and findings and kept going. His mapping system only showed the main roads of the park but Mac knew there were numerous others that weren't on the map. He kept his eyes fixed for signs of tire tracks or dust to alert him of the car turning off any of the side roads.

Eventually he slowed to a stop when he realized he could no longer see any signs of which way her car had continued. Mild panic and despair knocked on the walls of his mind and threatened to barge in but he slammed the door hard on them.

In the silence he closed his eyes and listened to the hum of the engine trying to breath and create some sort of psychic magnetism. He opened his eyes and stared at the road of ahead of him illuminated by his headlights. Reego whined and exhaled loudly.

"Ya buddy, I know. I'm worried too." He reached over and absently patted the dog's head unsure of who he was really reassuring.

Mac trailed his eyes around the cab of the pickup searching for some sort of inspiration. They fell on a pair of lime green toe socks balled up in the seat and despite the moment he couldn't help but smile sadly.

Brenna loved toe socks. He'd never understand it he was sure. She'd tried to explain it once. Something about her toes not touching but it had been lost on him.

He picked up the socks and squeezed them in his fist. Reego continued to whine and began to paw at Mac's arm.

"What? Do you need to go to the bathroom?" Mac let out a heavy sigh and stepped out of the truck and opened the back door. Reego jumped from the back seat and immediately planted his nose in Mac's hand, into the socks.

"Go to the bathroom. I don't have time for this." Mac ran a hand through his hair and looked up the road ahead willing a sign to appear. Reego continued to stand in front of him and tried to get at the socks in his hand.

Suddenly the light went on in Mac's head. He was trying to get at her socks. He was trying to prepare for a track. Mac instantly assaulted himself with every name for idiot he could think of.

How could he have forgotten exactly what his and Reego's purpose was in the world? He'd had the perfect solution sitting beside him the whole time and all he could think was that he wished Reego would stop whining.

Mac pulled climbed back in the truck and parked it off the roadway. He took his radio and flashlight from within.

"Central my pickup is parked at the last location I was able to see signs of the car at. I'm going to be starting a track from this location with k9 Reego. If you can have my cover unit step it up."

Just as he finished his transmission the deputy he'd spoken with before pulled up behind his truck.

"Central I've got 2363 here now and we'll be commencing with track."

The other man wasted no time and in moments he and Mac were stalking off into the night following Reego as he darted into the forest.