That meant Tony had to hold on to the money he’d syphoned off. Keep it hidden for now. Take everything underground until Connor and his team crawled back out of Baxter’s business. The sooner that happened, the better.
Chapter Eleven
Hope had no idea how long they worked. Spraying the water, smothering the shorter bursts with blankets. They ran through all fire retardant Charlie had, but not before the flames had receded to a manageable level. It could have been an hour or minutes, but finally Cam waved them all back and went in with the hose to extinguish the last of the fire.
Exhausted, she dropped to the ground and sat. Some of the men joined her, and Joel sat by her side with his legs out in front of him and his shoulders slumped.
No one spoke as they studied the burnt-out char that once had been a cabin. Smoke still hung in the air and they all took turns coughing. The red sky had given way to a soft gray. Hope knew that meant sunrise wasn’t that far away.
Jeff was the first to say anything. He sat with his legs bent and feet on the ground as he dragged a stray stick through the mud. “So, what, Perry woke up long enough to set a fire?”
Lance shrugged. “Could be guilt.”
It never dawned on her that Perry could have done this. Last she knew he was unconscious. She was about to point that out when Joel squeezed his hand over her knee.
“He was missing. Mark’s still missing. Maybe the two of them had a fight and something happened.” Lance rubbed his hand over his wound. “Perry’s the type who couldn’t live with it if something happened, even by accident.”
“An autopsy will tell us,” Cam said as he returned with Charlie from turning off and replacing the hose.
Nearly hitting Lance, Jeff threw the stick. “How are we going to get one of those out here?”
“He means later.” Joel stood and put a hand down to help her up. “We’re putting together something to carry Perry’s body. Once we get a bit more light, we can leave for the open field.”
The plan sounded like heaven to her, so she started mentally preparing a list of things they needed. Two items of guilt piled on her, pushing her down into the cloying mud. The baggage, the loss of Perry, it all stacked up on top of the guilt from Mt. Ranier.
Mark was her responsibility and he was still lost. He could be the cause of all this, but he could also be a victim. Celebrating walking out of there while Mark stayed behind filled her with a blinding uncertainty.
“Take only what we need. Someone can come back for the rest later.” Like, after they figured out who did what and when and tracked down Mark. In the scheme of priorities, “things” didn’t matter.
They had all started moving when Jeff broke in again. “What about the sniper?”
“We’ll go a different way.” Joel grabbed Hope’s knife off the ground and handed it to her.
She had no idea where or when she had dropped it. Likely in the middle of all the bucket carrying and blanket smothering, but who knew?
“Won’t the sniper, or Mark, or whoever this is, just follow us?” Jeff’s voice rose an octave as he talked.
“No.” Hope knew about the riggings and had a good idea where Joel’s head was on this.
Perry didn’t start that fire because he was unconscious, which meant it was likely one of the people standing here did. She could rule out three and didn’t want to take her chances with the rest.
“No offense, but I’m not just going to believe your gut. Or his.” Jeff pointed at Joel.
For the second time since they’d met, the men were in a standoff. Joel was taller, younger and fitter. This battle would be no contest, but Jeff didn’t seem to realize that fact.
She did. “Jeff, this isn’t a good idea.”
But he talked right over her. “That’s what this is, right? You think you can somehow dodge a bullet.”
Joel waited, letting Jeff’s agitated comment ring in the air before responding. “Are you done? If so, let’s move.”
Lance raised a hand. “I’m in.”
“I have some stuff I need to grab, and some food and supplies, just in case, but so am I.” Charlie left right after he made his informal vote.
“Want to stay out here and take your chances, Jeff?” Joel nodded at the blanket that now covered Perry’s body. “Because he’s coming along.”
Jeff shook his head. “No, we should—”
“Enough arguing. Rain or shine, we’re moving. There’s a helicopter and a radio and our team.”
“Team?”
Joel talked right over Jeff’s shout. “The storms stopped. We’re down to light rain, and I say we can at least get out of this area and to somewhere safer and warm.”
Cam nodded. “As the pilot, I agree.”
“This plan is insane,” Jeff said.
She had taken just about enough. She stepped in between Joel and Jeff and stared the businessman down. “We’ve been shot at, there’s been a fire, Perry is dead and Mark is still missing. Staying here is insane.”
“We’ll deal with all of this once we’re at the helicopter,” Joel said.
“I have two tents.” She was sure she had other supplies, but those came to her first.
Joel’s expression stayed blank as he glanced at her. “For what?”
“In case we can’t take off and need to set up in the open field.”
“I can’t believe this.” Jeff turned around in a huff. He faced the shadowed forest, then started pacing.
“Again, you’re welcome to stay here.” Joel caught Jeff’s arm and stopped the march. “But we’re leaving.”
“Fine,” Jeff said through clenched teeth.
Hope didn’t realize she was holding her breath until Jeff finally said the word. Relief and fear and a few emotions she couldn’t name swept over her. She vowed to sleep for a week after this was over...if it ever ended.
But first they had to survive it. “Let’s get ready to move out.”
* * *
THE SUN HADN’T risen, but Joel was already out of patience. The lighter sky made it possible to dodge upturned branches and other potential hazards on the forest floor. He took the lead with his weapon ready. Cam brought up the rear. The responsibility fell to Jeff and Charlie to carry the sleeping bag with Perry inside.
Hope guided their new path. Using her GPS, she veered off the rough trail campers used to lead them to the open space where the helicopter sat. They knew from experience there were weapons rigged and ready to shoot that way. Worries about those riggings being everywhere had Joel constantly looking into the trees and tripping over whatever he missed on the ground.
“Why don’t we go the way we know?” Charlie asked through labored pants.
“Because the shooter might also know that way.” Joel didn’t even want to share that much. He kept his tone clipped and angry, hoping to end the discussion.
“But we could end up anywhere.”
“We’re fine.” Hope kept her gaze on the GPS as she shifted them through overgrown branches and around felled trees.
“Doesn’t feel like it,” Jeff mumbled as he shuffled his feet and grumbled about the weight of the sleeping bag.
“We could probably do without the whining.” Joel decided he could go a lifetime without that.
“You’re not the one carrying a dead body for miles.”
“A mile.” Hope made a tsk-tsking sound. “Don’t exaggerate.”
Joel felt safe smiling because no one could see him but Hope and she was looking off to her left, deep into the forest. “Would you rather no one check for snipers?”
Next time anyone asked him to head out and help babysit a bunch of weekend warriors, he’d find something else to do. Unless it meant being with Hope. He’d always choose the option that led to her.
It would shred him into pieces to leave her again. Sleeping with her guaranteed that, but he had been a dead man before that anyway. He saw her and he lost his mind. He spent time with her and he started thinking impossible things. For about the bil
lionth time since he’d met her, he wished he was a different man from a different background.
“I can help.” Lance slid his pack off his good shoulder and held it out to Hope. “Can you take this?”
“Sure.” She grabbed it with her free hand. Never mind the fact that she already had one strapped to her back.
Joel tried to do the calculation. He stopped when the number got too high. At this rate she could be dragging more than she weighed.
He reached over and took Lance’s pack from her. “I’ll take it.”
“I’m a big girl, Joel. I can carry a second bag.”
Not that he let that stop him. If one of them was going to carry two bags, it would be him, not her. “Unlike Jeff, I totally believe in your skills.”
“Uh-huh.” She was squinting and didn’t seem to be listening. Not her style at all.
He crowded in closer and leaned down to whisper in her ear. “You okay?”
“Not really.”
He tried to keep one eye on her and the other on the area ahead. A second of lost concentration could cost them all. Still, he needed her on her game. “Do you need to stop for a—”
“We left Mark behind.”
There it was. The blame he knew she was shouldering. Her eyes were big and sad when they stared up at him. The pain he saw there nearly broke him. “Don’t take that on.”
Confusion mixed with the rest. “What?”
“The guilt.”
She visibly swallowed as she looked away. The ground thumped beneath them as they continued to walk. “He’s my job. I guaranteed his safety and promised to bring him home.”
“And I’m an expert at this sort of thing. Trust me, if there’s blame to be had here, other than to Mark for wandering off in the first place, it goes on my shoulders.”
“Why?”
“I was sent to make sure something like this didn’t happen, and it did. On my watch.”
Her steps faltered as her foot hit a loose root. “You always do that.”
“What?”
“Take on everyone’s pain.”
He knew it wasn’t true. If anything he shied away from emotional connections. He kept a cool head and a distance. The combination made him good at his job. And lousy at his relationship with her.
“I can handle it.” He’d been trained to shoulder the responsibility.
In his father’s world, the men had to step up and do what had to be done. Most of what the man said was a convoluted mess of craziness, but Joel internalized the need to step up and he wouldn’t apologize for that.
“So can I,” she said.
Joel pitched his voice even lower. “I know, but I don’t want you to.”
It was killing him not to touch her then. He could hear the buzz of conversation behind him, most of it complaining from Jeff. They were not alone.
“We need to head to the right. There’s a better path over there,” Charlie called out from near the back of the pack.
Hope shook her head. “That swings us too far over.”
“It’s the best way,” Charlie insisted.
She kept her focus on the GPS screen. “We’re fine. We’re not far now.”
“I’d rather trust Charlie on this since he owns the campground. He knows these woods,” Jeff said.
“This time Jeff’s right,” Charlie agreed.
Joel wasn’t in the mood to encourage their ramblings. He heard Cam settling everyone down, which was good because Hope kept frowning.
“Look to your left.” She looked straight as she said the words. “Don’t draw attention, but look. What’s that about thirty feet out by the small hill?”
“A mound of dirt and leaves.” Her eyesight was perfect. Joel questioned his because he had to narrow his gaze, homing in on the spot she indicated. “All stacked under a lean-to.”
He also saw something red. A piece of material, maybe. The storm had blown apart someone’s hiding place, and there was no question something was buried under there.
“Maybe the wind pushed it all up there during the storm.”
If she needed to believe that to get through the next few hours, he’d let it happen. “Is that what you think?”
She nibbled on her bottom lip. “What are you thinking?”
That she might have found Mark and, if so, the man was not their attacker. Only bad news no matter how you looked at it. “You don’t want to know.”
“We should look.”
“I can’t spread any more panic.” Joel caught her hand when he thought she’d peel off and check out the site on her own. “Note the coordinates on your GPS and move us to the east so the others don’t see.”
“Do you really think—”
“Get us to the clearing as fast as you can, but take us out around this site.”
Before she could say anything else, Joel dropped back, hanging along the right side of the group and hoping to bring their attention with him and away from the find on the left. He answered one of Lance’s questions, though Joel would never be able to remember what he’d said if someone asked him later.
He drew next to Cam, impressed at the clip Hope had them moving in now on the rough terrain. After working with him, Joel didn’t have to clue Cam in to the existence of a problem.
Cam kept his gaze straight and dropped his voice low. “What’s wrong?”
“Behind you to the left, thirty or so feet.”
“The pile.” Cam nodded. “Want me to check it out?”
“Do you need to?” They had had the same training, had seen many of the same things.
Cam took a second to study it. “Probably not.” Joel was about to rejoin Hope when the concern in Cam’s voice stopped him. “Be careful up there. I don’t like you in front of this group.”
That made two of them. “Watch my back.”
“Done.”
About ten minutes later they broke through the thick cover of trees and hit the edge of the woods on the opposite side from where he’d gone into the forest when they first arrived. The open expanse of the clearing stretched in front of them. The helicopter sat shining despite the overcast morning skies.
Joel brought the group to a halt under the cover of the final line of trees and scanned the area.
The space provided the perfect place for an ambush. Anyone could be hiding anywhere. A weapon could be pointed at them right now.
Lance dropped his side of the makeshift gurney and double-timed his steps as if he was running to freedom. Cam caught him in mid-stride. “Hold up.”
“What?” Lance’s gaze bounced from Cam to Hope.
She gave him a shaky smile. “It’s going to be okay. Just be patient.”
Joel didn’t feel the need to sugarcoat it. “We don’t know who else is out here, so do not move.”
Charlie’s head came up. “Wait a second.”
With Cam’s help, Charlie and Jeff lowered the sleeping bag the rest of the way to the ground.
Lance kept shifting his weight back and forth as if he was ready to bolt. “So we’re going to just stand here?”
“What’s the plan?” Charlie asked at the same time.
Joel had met more grateful rescuees before. Then again, he’d had some with even bigger attitudes. The protection business wasn’t always an easy gig. “As Hope said, patience.”
Cam stepped up. “I’ll go.”
No way was Joel letting that happen. If anyone ran out there, it would be him. He’d dragged Cam along on this gig, promising a quick stop, and ended up dropping him into the middle of a disaster. “We’re not sacrificing you.”
Charlie threw up his hands. “Someone has to get out there and call for help.”
“You’re clear of the trees. Can’t you use your satphone?” Hope asked.
“It’s on the helicopter.” Not the best topic as far as Joel was concerned.
When they first left the helicopter, he figured he’d be right back. When they came a second time, he was more interested in the gear and extra guns. He
’d screwed up, and Cam gave him crap for it.
Not that the sat phone would have been of any use until right now anyway. Like hers, his needed a clear shot at the sky, and between the trees and the weather, he hadn’t had that for two days.
“I’m going.” Cam slipped off his pack. “Cover me.”
He took two steps and a shot rang out. His body went down. Hitting the ground on his stomach, he didn’t move.
Hope gasped and the men started shouting. Joel refused to lose it. A single shot and a spiderweb of broken glass on the helicopter windshield. That put the shot high and likely from the direction of the old location.
Still, his voice shook as he called out, “Cam?”
“What?” He didn’t move as he answered.
Joel let the relief wash through him. As expected, Cam had fallen more out of training and experience than anything else. “It’s the rigging.”
“You sure?” Cam put his palms against the ground and pushed up enough to glance back at Joel. “I’d really hate for you to be wrong here.”
Hope shook her head. “But no one is standing over there to trip it.”
“There could be another one on this side.” Joel looked behind him, trying to find it.
“What are you two talking about?” Lance asked.
The other men wore similar confused expressions. Joel understood the frustration and need to know, but this wasn’t the time. And if his suspicions were correct, one of them might already know.
“I’m getting up.” Cam shifted as he spoke.
Joel wasn’t about to leave him out there unprotected. He pushed into the open, breaking the tree line and glancing back into the forest. He scanned the area for movement as well as riggings, just in case.
Nothing spiked his radar. “Go.”
He heard the pounding of feet and saw Cam race past him at full speed. Jeff jumped back and Hope tried to catch him. Cam ceased his momentum with a rather large tree. His hands hit the bark and his feet stopped.
Hope went right to him, running her hands over his back and arms. “Are you okay?”
Cam glanced at Joel. “Fine.”
“What is that?” Jeff cowered as a thwapping sound split through the otherwise quiet morning.
The helicopter cleared the trees and headed for the clearing. There was enough room to land, but it would take some skill. Good thing the Corcoran Team had plenty of that.
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