by Em Petrova
Nobody had heard a word about their fellow park ranger since he purportedly went north on a short weekend. Weeks later, he had failed to return to work, which only gave them all cause to believe the team had located him…and he wasn’t coming back.
But if they were here in the park, that meant they had cause to be.
Her thoughts raced as she stepped on the gas and navigated the slippery mud of the road. After two days of heavy soaking rain, trees dripped and the roads were dangerous in some spots. Jenna focused on the winding road leading up to the ridge.
She didn’t know how to feel about anything right this minute. She’d somewhat come to terms with the fact Paul might be the bomber, and she was working daily—sometimes hourly—to get over Harris leaving her life forever.
Some moments it felt easier to cope with the loss of the only man she’d ever felt this way about and other times, the idea of never setting eyes on him again seemed unbearable. She’d shed a lot of tears, done a hell of a lot of soul searching, shared too many pizzas with Jack and still couldn’t figure out how to move on. After someone was gone, where did she put the feelings of love she still harbored?
The truck’s rear end slid sharply to the left, toward the ledge. No guide rails had been erected to stop a vehicle from going over into the ravine below. She’d just have to keep it on the road, wouldn’t she?
Biting her lip in determination, she let off the gas, downshifted and straightened out the truck. When the wheels broke free of the heavy, sludgy mud, she felt a small thrill of victory. Every day her job presented a new challenge, which proved to be part of the reason she loved it so much.
She could never leave her job, and that knowledge about herself had helped her come to terms with Harris being all wrong for her too.
When she rounded the bend, the truck had a mind of its own. The rear end slid backward down the incline. She slammed the vehicle into four-wheel drive and concentrated with everything in her on getting to the top of this ridge—to whatever danger awaited.
Maybe to Harris.
Thankfully tears felt far away right now. Who had time for them anyway? She had a job to do, and people relied on her.
She emerged from the final bend and hit the straight track leading to the top. On each side of the road, tall trees cast shadows across the road. As she neared the location Rick named, she realized there were no other vehicles in sight—she was the first one here.
Slowing the truck to a stop, she sat frozen in the seat. Did she get out and face this danger alone? She didn’t know what she was walking into. Did any of them?
Suddenly, she saw movement from the corner of her eye. She turned her head to see Broshears half concealed by the brush, flicking two fingers for her to move.
Her heart hit her ribs with a hard slam, as if it didn’t realize she’d stopped the truck and continued the momentum.
With a shaky intake of air, she slipped out and hurried into the brush with Broshears. The sight of him was so welcome, tears threatened, and she blinked against the burn.
“What’s happening?” she whispered.
“Explosives. Enough to take the whole mountainside down.”
“But…how?” She searched his familiar face he had painted to camouflage himself. “Is it Paul?”
He gave the faintest of nods before his eyes flickered, indicating that he received an order in the device he wore in his ear. He centered his focus on her again. “Jenna. You have to go. Get in the truck and get down the mountain—now.”
“What? No. I was called here to help, and I’m going to help.”
Broshears lunged at her, hooked an arm around her middle and slammed her to the ground just as a crack sounded. She stifled a scream, which wasn’t hard when Broshears half lay on top of her and she couldn’t draw a full breath.
The crash that shook the earth beneath her had her squeezing her eyes shut. Tears leaked from the corners at the ripple of fear paralyzing her.
“Don’t move,” Broshears said into her ear.
He launched to his feet and she didn’t even hear his footsteps moving away from her, but when she opened her eyes, he’d vanished.
Another crack. The ground shook. She realized with a jolt that somebody—Paul, if the Xtreme Ops team was right—was blowing the trees around them.
“Don’t come closer!” a man’s bellow echoed to her ears. “I’m gonna do it! If I blow all this, I’ll take all of you out!”
The hackles on her neck stood on end, quivering in a heartbeat of recognition. She recognized that voice like she knew Santa Claus said ho, ho, ho. She’d listened to that man herald them all with stories every chance he got.
“Paul,” she rasped, pushing her palms into the leaf mold to shove herself upright. She had to get to him. If she looked him in the eye, he’d surely snap out of this crazy thought pattern and see what he was doing.
Shooting glances overhead in search of explosives, she grabbed onto a branch to pull herself up. When her hand closed around the branch, the scent of pine flooded her nose, a sharp tang that helped to clear her mind.
This was about saving lives, including Paul’s.
With determination, she crept through the underbrush. She knew this area of the park pretty well, as she and another ranger had taken a day off to hike to the top. A large outcropping of rock had provided the perfect place for basking in the sun and taking a rest when they stopped to eat their packed lunches. They’d explored the region, finding a nearby opening in the rock that provided a sort of cave.
The perfect spot for hiding explosives, she realized with a dip of her stomach.
Through the underbrush, she made her way in a semi-circle. When she spotted two of the Xtreme Ops team standing about a hundred yards off, her heart jumped. One stood with his back to her, but she’d know that man’s body with her eyes closed. Her hands had navigated it in the dark of night—she knew it like her own curves.
With her breaths coming faster, she had to pause to keep her rasping inhalations from being heard. After a long minute, she continued on. She carefully placed her boot down to avoid a stick that would snap and alert someone to her presence. She didn’t want Paul to see her until she was ready, and she definitely did not want one of the special ops team to try to stop her.
When she took a few more steps, she stood on higher ground and was afforded a good view of what was going on. Then she glanced up and saw wires strung in the treetops.
Harris’s voice reached her, snippets at a time, and she realized the winds were snatching his voice and making it impossible for her to catch all of what he said to Paul. But from the bits she got, she pieced together the fact Harris was trying to talk Paul out of pushing the button he clutched tight in one fist.
Her gaze lit on her coworker. Paul looked thinner, more ragged. His face bore lines where none had been a month before, and she saw the toll this decision had cost him. Maybe even his sanity.
She inched up the ground she stood on, scoping out the entire scene. It was a wonder that none of the team had spotted her yet. They were so vigilant about their surroundings that—
“What the hell are you doing here?” The low voice from behind her didn’t make her jump much, maybe because she’d been expecting one of the guys to show his face. For all she knew, they had a bead on her every movement since the minute she arrived.
Since her gaze was locked on Harris, she saw the muscles bunch in his shoulders, and she swore he turned his head the scantest of inches in her direction.
To her mind, she had a choice to make—allow this special operative to pull her away to safety…or help Harris talk Paul down.
“I knew you’d show up here eventually.” Paul barked out a laugh that sounded nothing like his own. The man had lost more than his marbles. If his real reason behind the crime was to keep his job, he’d made a grave mistake and would lose his freedom—or even his life.
Time to intervene.
She jumped off the rise, landing hard on the ground below at the
same time she cried out, “Paul! Stop!”
“Son of a fucking bitch!” she heard the man behind her exclaim. Without turning to see who it was, she bolted out into the open and kept on running until she stood between Harris and Paul.
“Jesus,” Harris grated out and slowly reached toward her as if his sudden movement would cause Paul to crack. And it might.
She didn’t spare him a glance but faced her coworker. A frightened light entered his eyes, and she saw that he didn’t want to do this. Her hopes rose.
“Paul.” She spread her hands. “Please, stop this. Let me help you.”
He tensed, and she held her breath, waiting for a blast that didn’t come. He stood at the very edge of a cliff, and a glance over the ledge revealed the climbing rigging.
Her brain took in the situation in a blink.
He intended to blow up the Xtreme Ops team and anybody else in the area, including her and the park rangers who’d be arriving on the scene very soon, while he made a quick getaway over the edge to the ground below.
Afterward, he’d probably vanish into the wilds of Alaska, never to be seen again.
“Paul, you can’t hurt me. I know you can’t. It’s not in you to hurt a friend. Or any living thing, for that matter. Remember that time when I first joined this team here at the park, when there was an injured grizzly and you were doing everything you could to get it help? You called a dozen animal rescue centers. You ended up darting it yourself in the end and it took a winch to get the animal into your truck. Then you drove it all the way to Juneau to get it help.”
His chest heaved so hard she worried that the action might jolt him enough to hit the trigger. But she was still standing, talking and sucking air, so she must be alive.
“Paul, please stop. I know you must be scared.”
“I’m only scared for the people in this park when there aren’t any rangers left to help them! Do you know what the government is proposing for cuts this year? Six of our jobs would be eliminated. When we have such a small group as it is! Who would be left to cover all this land?”
Harris stepped up, positioning his body in front of her as if prepared to take a bullet for her.
“Don’t come any closer! I told you son of a bitches to back off!” Paul screamed until the cords on his neck stood out.
Her heart pounded. “You’re making it worse,” she whispered to Harris.
He didn’t acknowledge her.
She had to stop this before it was too late. The wind whipped up, and they could see Paul’s mouth moving but even from this short distance, couldn’t hear him. For all she knew, the man was counting down her last moments on Earth.
“Paul! Paul, stop!” she cried. “We can get you the help you need. We just need you to stand down.” She tried to move closer, and Harris blocked her with a thick, muscled shoulder.
She dodged around him. “We can help the police see that you only mean well, and you can get some help. Stay out of prison.”
“Don’t talk about prison. It will only make him more desperate,” Harris shot out.
All of a sudden, a warrior cry came from her left. A man bolted from the underbrush, dressed head to foot in camo and with his face painted. With his arm upraised, she saw a huge bowie knife with a lethal blade.
“Fuck! Get back! Get down!” Captain Sullivan launched himself at the man, hitting him from behind. They both hit the ground, and Sullivan wrenched the knife from his grip.
Paul held up his shaking hand to show them that he could press the button and had nothing to lose.
“Paul, no!” she screamed and saw Sullivan flip over the man on the ground. The sight of those familiar eyes made her jaw drop.
“Jesus, it’s Al.” Harris’s tone resounded with as much shock as she felt.
Penn got him wrenched to his feet and Gasper came forward to pull her to safety. She was so busy watching this exchange that she didn’t realize Harris stood so close. Using his big body, he forced her away.
“Get back! He’s about to lose it!” he yelled at her.
The wind blew a curl in front of her eye, and she lost sight of Paul for a split second.
The crack that came next sent her ducking to the ground with her hands thrown over her head. Harris hit her from the side, sending them both sprawling as a treetop exploded. For a horrified moment, she stared up at the branches, lit up in gold and orange flames. The top teetered there for a what felt like several heartbeats.
Then the wind caught it. The tree blew straight at Paul. Branches smacked him square in the chest, wiping him off his feet and launching him over the side of the cliff.
Jenna shrieked and clawed at Harris to get away. She scrambled along the ground but he wouldn’t release his hold on her waist, and she only made it inches.
“Noooo!” She yanked away from Harris, took two steps and collapsed to her knees as she realized there was no way Paul had survived that fall. Her friend was gone.
Chapter Twelve
“He knew he was done for,” Lipton said to Jenna, but he knew she wasn’t listening.
She knelt on the ground, unmoving, not weeping, and her lack of reaction scared the hell out of him. The Jenna he knew would be more emotional.
He reached for her shoulders, and she didn’t take notice of him at all but continued to stare out over the cliff. Her radio sounded with voices.
“What was that?” one of the rangers shouted through the speakers. “Moon Shadow, are you in the vicinity?”
She didn’t budge, not even to acknowledge her nickname.
Gently, Harris reached around her body and located her radio clipped to her belt. He removed it and brought it to his mouth. “This is Lieutenant Lipton. There’s been another explosion.”
“Is there an injury? Do we need a rescue?”
Lipton glanced over Jenna’s head at Penn, then he spoke into the radio. “Not a rescue—a recovery.”
A noise bubbled from Jenna. So attuned to her, Lipton knew the moment had come when she broke.
He acted fast, grabbing her as she started to sob. He lifted her into his arms and carried her away from the cliff edge, past his team. When they were some distance away, he sank to a huge rock with her still in his arms.
“Jenna. It’s going to be all right, my little nymph.”
She lifted her head. As if seeing him for the first time, she leaped off his lap and stumbled several feet away. He stood, reaching for her, but she took a big step backward.
She dug her fingers into her curls. “I could have stopped him! I could have talked sense into him!”
His insides burned with remorse for the way things had ended. “Did you bring Al here?”
She blinked at him before she looked around as if she had no idea where she was or how she’d gotten there. “Al! Did you hurt him? Where is he?” She took off running.
“Son of a bitch!” Even though he and Broshears rigged his cast to be more solid and sturdy for walking by way of duct tape, he couldn’t run in it even if he tried. “Jenna!”
She dodged around the rock and out of sight, while he hurried after her as fast as his leg would carry him.
“Broshears, stop her!” he ordered.
His teammate stepped out in front of her, arms out to keep her from running past him. When she struggled and argued, he did the only thing he could do and picked her up. Instead of kicking and screaming, she turned docile. Broshears set her down facing the other direction.
Several park rangers had arrived, and Lipton watched them swallow her up in their circle. He knew she’d be conveying the story and telling them what happened to Gibson. She bowed her head, and one of the men brought his arm around her shoulder.
“Lip.” Broshears waved him over, and the pair of them walked to where Penn stood with the others, forming a plan on how to recover the body as well as get the explosives safely down from the treetops.
“You walk us through it, Lip,” Penn ordered.
“On it.”
“Gasper, go with
the park rangers to form a recovery team.”
“Yes, sir.” Gasper jogged to the group. They separated to allow him into their circle, and he stood beside Jenna.
“Lip.” Penn said his name twice before he realized he was staring at her.
He turned to Penn. “I’m listenin’.”
“Before you start on the explosive, hook up with the guys in the north. Give them a head’s up that Cora will be in touch with an ETA.”
“Will do.” He glanced over at Jenna again. The urge to make sure she was okay left his chest blazing.
Penn caught his attention again. “This hero who ran out of the bush to stop Gibson says he knows you. Wanna talk to him and figure out what the hell to do with him next?”
Walking away from Jenna to even do his job felt wrong to the marrow of his bones, but he did it. Later I’ll find her. We’ll sit down and talk.
When he approached Al, who perched on a fallen log taking this all in, the man glanced up. “Knew you were military,” the old man said.
Lipton was in no mood to be friendly. Not after all that had gone on today. Just thinking of the nightmares Jenna would have, made his hands shake with the need to bust someone’s nose.
“What were you doing here, Al? Were you working with the park ranger?”
He pivoted to gaze at the cliff. “Working with him? Hell no. I don’t know much about the guy—I was only here for Moon Shadow.”
“She brought you?” His brows pinched, and he gave Al a thunderous look.
“She was paying me a visit when she got the call over the radio. I overheard and guessed she could use some backup.”
“So you jump out of the bushes armed with a knife you probably carried in Nam to stop a man armed with explosive and prepared to blow off the entire mountainside?” He leveled Al in his stare.
“I was helping Moon Shadow,” he repeated in a tight voice.
Broshears approached from the side. “You say that knife’s from Nam? Seems older than that.” Their resident weapons specialist didn’t only have a penchant for modern arms.
Al gave him a sly look. “Might be older’n that.”
