by Janie Crouch
She chose that moment to look over at him.
“You okay there, cowboy?”
He tried to shake it off, to make a joke. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t say anything. He just stopped and stared at her.
Somehow she understood.
“Zane, we’re here. We’re both here and we’re both good.”
He just nodded.
“I need you to be in the now with me, okay?” she continued. “The then costs too much. Takes too much. Be with me—with who I am—now.”
She reached up and touched his cheek. He stared at her for a long moment before turning his lips to the side and kissing her palm. They both nodded.
She didn’t want to stay in the past. He sure as hell couldn’t blame her for that. She didn’t want him to keep her there, either.
He realized he’d been doing that for a year and a half. Keeping her inside the box of the attack.
She turned and began walking again.
Obviously she refused to stay in the box any longer. He needed to stop trying to fit her there.
They walked the next few hours chatting easily, at least mentally. Physically, the pace they set as they hit higher ground made talking more breathy.
Midafternoon, Caroline stopped abruptly.
“Everything all right?” he asked.
“Yeah.” She nodded. “Just get out your water and let’s take a drink.”
They’d just stopped for water less than twenty minutes ago. Zane didn’t mind stopping, but this seemed odd. Caroline took a swig from her canteen, then walked around so she was standing on the opposite side of Zane.
“Caro, what’s going on?”
“I think you better tell me why you’re really here.”
“Why do you ask that?”
“Because for the last hour there’s been someone following us. And I just caught the reflection of the sun off a riflescope again. Whoever it is is getting closer.”
“Damn it. You’re sure it’s not just some other hikers also out here?”
She shook her head. “That’s what I thought at first. I’m not sure that the person means us any harm, but someone is definitely following us. Hikers aren’t out here for company. Plus, we’re on a route I created, not one on any of the normal trail maps. The chances of anyone picking the exact same route I did is pretty slim.”
Zane grimaced. Caroline was right. This didn’t sound good.
“If you weren’t here, I’d double back, sneak behind them and see what was going on.”
“Do you think it’s just someone in trouble?” Even as Zane said the words, he knew it wasn’t true.
“If they fired that rifle in the air, I’d be back to them in no time offering assistance. Whoever it is isn’t in trouble. They’re gaining in speed.”
Zane saw a patch of light shine onto Caroline’s shoulder before it quickly moved away. She didn’t look at it, although she had to have seen it.
“Was that their scope again?”
She took a sip of water again, looking at him casually, not giving any hint as to the seriousness of the conversation. “Yep. Not someone very familiar with it if I had my guess. I would imagine they’re looking at my face right now. Trying to figure out why we stopped.”
“Are you in range for them to shoot?” Zane casually stepped to the side so the rifle would be trained at his back, not at Caroline.
“No. If they don’t even know they’re giving off a glare, I don’t think they would try a long-range shot. Right now they’re just keeping us in their sights for whatever reason.”
“Good.”
“So you want to tell me why you’re really here so we can formulate a plan and figure out what we need to do?”
Zane hadn’t wanted to tell her. Hell, twenty-four hours ago he would’ve worried that maybe she wasn’t strong enough to handle it. He’d been damn wrong about that.
“Jon called me yesterday. He was worried about us.”
“Us? Why?”
“Looks like some guy pretty high on the public enemy list has decided to make you and me targets.”
Chapter Seven
Caroline appreciated the matter-of-fact way Zane gave her the news. Didn’t pull any punches, didn’t sugarcoat due to any misconceptions of what might be too much for her delicate feelings. He treated her the way he did before the attack.
The news was a little scary, she could admit. Some guy who had already killed or injured multiple Omega Sector agents now seemed to be targeting people who had an attachment in some way to Omega.
And she and Zane specifically. Not awesome.
“So does Jon think this Freihof guy is here now at Big Bend? Is that our rifle friend back there?”
“It seems as though Freihof’s MO is to get other people to do his dirty work for him. So it may not be Freihof himself.”
Not being here himself wouldn’t make them any less dead if the rifle guy started shooting at them. “So what’s our plan?”
“First we radio in to the park rangers. See if they know anything about anyone else out here. Maybe it’s just someone like you who’d planned to be here the whole time.”
She shrugged. “Okay. And the truth is, if the person wanted to shoot us outright, he could’ve done it before now. We weren’t moving fast enough to escape someone.”
Zane nodded and looked casually over his shoulder in the direction where she’d seen the rifle glint. “Let’s try to put a little distance between us and whoever that is, okay?”
As they restarted walking, Caroline set a pace that was fast but not fast enough to look like they were deliberately trying to get away. Zane contacted the park rangers and they found out no one had filed a hiking plan in this direction but Caroline.
It didn’t mean definite bad news, but it wasn’t good news, either.
“Damn it, I’m going to have to cut my trip short, aren’t I?” She’d been looking forward to this for so long.
“How about when we get this Damien Freihof thing settled, you and I will come back out here for a long weekend?”
Caroline almost stopped midstep at his words. Definitely not what she’d been expecting him to say. She still wasn’t sure if he was inviting himself along because he wanted to look out for her or because he wanted to be with her.
But at least he was willing to be in her presence and not treat her like she was about to break. That was all she’d ever wanted from Zane.
She glanced over at his six-two frame, dark brown hair and muscular build. Okay, maybe it wasn’t all she’d ever wanted. But it was a start.
“I don’t know, Wales. What about all the hair product you’d need for a whole weekend? Think you have a backpack that sturdy?” She looked over her shoulder at him.
He grinned and winked at her. “Maybe I’ll wear my hat.”
Caroline’s stomach did the craziest little somersault as much from his smile as his words. She would give anything to see that old cream-colored Stetson back on his head. Even if it didn’t mean he was going back to work for the police department. It would just mean he hadn’t given up on himself. On life. On there being good in the world.
Whatever it had meant when he’d stopped wearing it.
She smiled back. “Then it’s a hiking date.”
Less than an hour later, both of them knew they were being hunted. “Whoever it is is gaining,” Zane said to her.
“Yeah, I noticed. But I’ve got a plan formulating. How do you feel about rappelling?”
He gave her a sidelong glance. “I’ve done it a couple of times, why?”
“There’s a cliff edge coming up that has some rappelling ropes and gear already in place. I wasn’t planning on using it this trip because it’s dangerous alone, but it would get us back down to the river, wher
e we can circle back around to your plane.”
Zane glanced back over his shoulder again. “You think we should just give up all appearances of not knowing someone’s following us and just make a run for it?”
“Yep. It’s our best bet against someone who has a rifle compared to our sidearms. No way we’re going to get the same range. We don’t want to take a chance on getting into a firefight.”
“Smart.”
She shrugged. “You know we might be making a mountain out of a molehill. The difference between binoculars and a riflescope is impossible to tell from a sun reflection.”
Zane glanced over his shoulder. “You could be right. But to be honest, I’m not willing to take that chance. Not when the person has been steadily gaining on us despite this pace.”
“Yeah, my gut says we need to bail. Fast. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to listen to my gut.” It had been one of the first things she and Dr. Parker had worked on: learning to trust her instincts again.
“I agree.”
“I say we ditch the packs and run. We can ask the park rangers to come out for them later. Given the psychotic killer possibly targeting us and all, they probably won’t mind a trip out here to observe.”
He was already stealthily unbuckling his backpack. “They’ll probably only laugh at us a little bit.”
“Let’s hope it’s nothing and we can all chuckle. The cliff is about a quarter mile from here. Are you ready to go on my signal?”
He nodded. “Yep, call it and we ditch the packs and run.”
They were still walking, but now both of them had moved their hands to the buckles of their backpacks, after Zane grabbed a couple things as casually as he could from the outer side pocket of his. Caroline could feel eyes on them. She unhooked the small strap across her shoulder and moved her hands to the larger one at her waist.
“Now!” she said through gritted teeth. She pulled at the latch at her waist and the pack fell heavily to the ground. Zane’s did the same. They both sprinted toward the cliff wall.
Not five seconds later a bullet bit into the ground behind them. Not close enough to be life-threatening, but definitely enough to prove the other visitor definitely wasn’t just some lost hiker.
Zane cursed as two more shots hit the ground behind them, ricocheting off the ground. Caroline didn’t know if the shooter was just a bad shot or what; she was just glad he wasn’t cutting off their route to the cliff edge. As a matter of fact, the shooter was almost guiding them that way.
Because the guy hadn’t studied Big Bend like Caroline had. Didn’t know there was rappelling equipment at this particular cliff. He thought he was trapping them, but he wasn’t.
She and Zane dived behind a large boulder at the edge of the ravine, giving them some cover. No more shots rang out.
He tucked his head to the side and grimaced. “Park rangers are definitely not going to laugh at us.”
“Let’s just hope we make it back to them.”
The rappelling harnesses lay inside a box next to the boulder. They didn’t waste any time getting them onto their bodies and clipping the carabiners onto the rope. Zane snatched his shirt off and ripped it into four pieces.
“We need gloves, but this will have to do. We’ll burn our hands otherwise.”
Caroline took the material, grateful he’d thought of it. She wouldn’t have until she’d been over the cliff.
“Do you think he’s heading toward us?” she asked as she wrapped the material of the shirt around her hands and refused to gape at how ridiculously sexy Zane looked in just his jeans with no shirt on.
“I think he thinks he has us trapped, so he’s probably not hurrying. And might even think we’ll be laying down some cover fire. But I don’t think we should waste any time.”
“He probably doesn’t know about the rappelling.”
“Let’s hope not.”
They kept as low as possible as they had to leave the cover of the boulder in order to clip into the rappelling rope. Caroline expected a few more shots but heard nothing.
“It’s been a while since I’ve done this,” she admitted as she clipped in and looked over the side of the ledge. Forty yards was a long way to fall.
“Yeah, me too. But it’s better than being shot at.”
As if the shooter could hear their conversation, a shot rang out near the boulder where they’d just been.
“Take it slow and steady,” he told her. “Ready?”
They both got to the edge, then pushed backward, leaping straight back from the top, letting rope go slack as they both slid down about eight or nine feet, then stopped themselves with their hands as they caught their weight against the cliff wall with their feet.
“Good,” he told her. “First leap is the hardest. Let’s keep moving.”
He didn’t have to tell her twice. Caroline was well aware of how precarious their situation was if the rifle guy figured out they were no longer behind that boulder and were making a getaway. They would be sitting ducks if he came to shoot at them while they were rappelling down the side of the cliff.
They moved as quickly as their lack of real gear would allow. Caroline was thankful again for the pieces of shirt wrapped around her hands.
Halfway down she began to really believe they were going to make it. She wished she could be doing this under different circumstances because it would be a lot of fun.
She looked over to see Zane grinning like an idiot and knew he felt the same way as she did.
He reached over to high-five her.
Which saved her life as her rope came unattached to its place at the top of the cliff. She immediately began to tumble backward, falling with nothing to catch her and yards to go before the bottom of the ravine.
Zane grabbed for her with his free hand, his quick reflexes allowing him to catch her wrist. Caroline immediately wrapped her fingers around his wrist in a vise and swung her other hand up to latch on to him too.
There was no smile on his face now as he used all his strength to hold on to her.
“I’m okay,” she said, and he nodded. She could see sweat breaking out all over his forehead at the exertion of holding both of them.
Suddenly Zane’s line jerked also.
Zane said nothing, just pulled her up so they were torso to torso and she could wrap her arms around his shoulders and legs around his waist. He began sliding them both rapidly toward the ground. There was no way he could leap out to get slack on the rope without slamming her against the cliff, so he had to use sheer muscle to get them down.
A few seconds later his rope jerked again, dropping them both five feet.
“Your rope can’t hold us both.”
“It’ll hold,” he said through gritted teeth, continuing to work them down. Caroline just tried to keep herself still to not make his job any harder.
The rope sustained them until they were less than ten feet off the ground. Then it gave way with a gentle hiss just as hers had. With nothing now to hold them at all, they both fell backward, landing hard on the ground.
Caroline lay for long seconds just trying to get air back into her lungs, unable to move.
Finally, she looked over at Zane. He was alive, conscious.
“Okay?” he wheezed.
She nodded.
He stood and helped her to her feet, both of them still struggling to take in air. As he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, he began moving them to the east.
“We’ve got to get back to my plane, but we’re going to have to circle around backward to do it. The rifle guy has the higher ground. It won’t take him long to figure out we’re down here, and once he does, he’s definitely going to try to pick us off.”
They kept as close to the cliff wall as they could, trying not to give the shooter a targ
et. Without the packs they could move much more lightly and quickly. The hike that had taken them four hours took just half that going back with the punishing pace they set for themselves.
They both had their water canteens, and Zane had grabbed a protein bar before ditching his pack, which they shared without stopping. They never let up the pace even when no shots were fired. Caroline still couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched.
But that didn’t make sense. If this Damien Freihof—or whoever he was working with—was still after them, he would’ve been shooting. Even if he wasn’t good enough to kill them at that distance, he could’ve still kept them pinned down.
But even though Caroline didn’t see any more reflections off riflescopes, she couldn’t shake the feeling that danger was only a step behind them.
Zane must have felt it too, because he never once suggested they slow down or that they might have shaken the shooter.
The sun was beginning to set as they got to the plane. They approached it together, both of them with their weapons drawn.
No one was there. No evidence the door had been tampered with or of any problems. Zane did a more thorough check, making sure there weren’t any leaks or noticeable trouble before jogging back to her.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said to her, opening the hatch door so she could climb through. He followed immediately behind her, grabbing a shirt from a small backpack he had in the cockpit. “I know it sounds crazy, but I feel like we’re about to be ambushed at any moment.”
Caroline shook her head, still looking through the window. “No, it’s not crazy. Even though no one has been shooting at us, I feel the same way.”
They buckled themselves into the harness-type seat belts and slipped on the communication headphones as Zane started the engines. He eased the plane to the farthest end of the open area where he’d landed. Caroline held on to the seat belt straps where they crossed over her chest as he eased the throttle back and sent the plane speeding down the field. Moments later they were airborne.
