by Rachel Lee
Dom reached into Marti’s saddlebags and came out with a small wirebound notebook and pen. He scrawled across the page, then tucked it back in the saddlebag with its cover hanging out.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“A note for Ted. Whoever comes after us better come armed.”
Then he swatted Marti hard on her rump and said, “Home!”
The mare took off as if the minions of hell were on her heels.
“You’re sure she’ll go?”
“As sure as I am that Arnett’s gone. And she’ll go fast.”
Then he looked at her. “I know the area, but you know what we’re up against.”
“Let’s keep moving,” she said. “Keep to the trees. At this point I don’t care if we leave a trail.”
They started at a quick walk down hill. They did not follow a straight line.
“How long do you figure it’ll take help to get to us?” she asked.
“Too long. A few hours at the very best.”
“Okay.” She drew a breath, clearing her head. “I’m sure he’s trained. If Arnett hadn’t suddenly spooked, we wouldn’t be talking right now.”
“I get that.”
“So he’s going to be relentless. And he’s going to not want to leave a trail. If he’d hit me with his first shot, it could have been passed off as a hunter and nobody would ever have been able to prove otherwise. Now things have changed. He’s going to have to take us both out.”
“Too bad he doesn’t know our sheriff. Gage will never rest.”
“Gage won’t be able to find him. This guy won’t leave anything behind to identify him, and he’ll be gone from here as soon as he finishes his job.”
“You’re not making me feel better.”
“I want to assess this clearly. I want us both to know exactly what to expect.”
He nodded grimly. “Go on.”
“He’s moving fast right now. If anything slows him down, it’s going to be removing the bullet from your horse. He won’t want to leave that behind, and since he’s not sure how long he’ll have after he gets to us, it’s unlikely he’ll leave that for later.”
“Okay, so a few minutes lead time.”
“At least, but probably more. Wherever he took that shot from, I’m going to guess it had to be at least a thousand yards.”
“That means he had to be up really high to get a bead on us. So we have some time.”
“Some, but we’re going to lose a lot of it misleading him. I hope you’re well-conditioned.”
“What do you think?”
Despite the intensity of her focus and her emotions right now, she had to smile. “Good enough.”
She picked up speed to a trot and heard him moving right alongside her. “We’ll go a little farther down, then I want to set some false trails. And I want you to think of a good place to set up an ambush, a place where we’ll be able to see him coming while keeping ourselves concealed.”
“I know the perfect place. Down farther there’s a deep ravine. If we make him cross it, we’ll see him in plenty of time.”
“Sounds good.”
Twenty minutes later she slowed. “Okay. This is a good place. Let’s trample some brush, but not too much.” She pointed into the woods into a slightly open brushy area that spread between the lines of trees almost like a path. “Where does that go?”
“To a stream.”
“Would it look reasonable for us to go this way?”
“If he’s got a map, it sure would.”
“Then let’s go. Fast.”
They headed at a diagonal to their original path. She didn’t try to avoid breaking twigs or stirring up the pine needles. Five minutes later they reached a stream.
“Backtrack,” she said. “Just try not to disturb anything this time. It matters which way the grass bends and the twigs break.”
“I do know that much.”
That meant moving slower, but she was fairly sure they had the time. Just before they reached their original path again, she saw an opening that was completely carpeted with pine needles. No flowers or grasses to break. Better yet, it had been totally unnoticeable as they had headed out on their diversion. That meant their pursuer wouldn’t see it, either, until he was backtracking, too.
She stopped. “Pick your feet up. Don’t scuff.”
It was an unnatural way to walk but when they reached the other side of the opening, she looked back and could see almost nothing to mark their passing.
“Good. He won’t see we came this way until he’s backtracking from the stream, and the stream should delay him for a while as he looks for a point where we might have crossed it. When he comes back, he’ll see this clearing. Our bootprints are faint, but we’ll have gained some time so it won’t matter if he sees them.” Then she led the way back to the edge of the woods near the trail they’d followed originally.
“I thought we wanted him to follow us.”
“We do. But we want time to set up an ambush. We’ll do that a few more times. Before we get to the place you want to set up the ambush, I want to make a wide circle leading toward the ravine.”
She barely glanced at him. Adrenaline had a life expectancy and hers was fading a bit. It would come back in a rush later, but meanwhile she couldn’t bear the look she was sure was on his face.
“Dom.”
“Yeah.” His voice sounded as tight as a spring.
“You know I wouldn’t have stayed if I had honestly believed this could happen.”
He didn’t answer as they climbed over a rock and hit the ground on the other side. “I know,” he said finally. “I know. And neither of us has been thinking too clearly.”
Everything inside her winced. No, they hadn’t been thinking clearly. That was obvious now. She’d been drawn into a life she didn’t have a right to, had allowed herself to grow feelings that she wasn’t entitled to, and all the while he’d just been having a fling. It was almost enough to make her wish she were dead already.
Well over an hour later, having left another false trail and the wide circle she wanted to make, they reached the ravine. As Dom had promised, on the far side she saw possibilities for an ambush.
Dom was able to guide her to a place where they could clamber down with relative ease, making a minimal disturbance. On the other side, with wet, muddy boots, they had little hope of concealing their passage entirely.
Nor did Courtney any longer want to. Now she wanted the shooter to be sure he was on their trail. They climbed up into the forest again and before long she’d picked a good spot.
“I want two angles of fire,” she said. “He can’t go for us both at once if we separate, and cross fire will give us an edge.”
She glanced at Dom and read respect in his face. “You’re good,” he said.
“He probably knows exactly what I do, so don’t pat my back yet. First let’s make it look like we kept on going.”
That was easy enough. They ran, deliberately leaving muddy footprints, through a not-quite dry area where water must have pooled recently. Easy to make it look like they were still racing downhill.
But afterward she changed tack. “Time for stocking feet.”
“What?”
“No trail. Right now our boots are dropping mud everywhere.”
So off they came, and the two of them crept back to their vantage point. Just before Courtney left him in the position she’d chosen for him, Dom grabbed her, hugged her and kissed her hard.
She wanted to dissolve, she wanted to just melt into him and forget everything else. Quickly she pushed him away, certain that he was acting on feelings that had nothing to do with permanence. Nothing at all. He’d said so. And she couldn’t afford to be distracted by anything right now, not him, not her feelings.
“Stay flat,” she said almost tonelessly, “and move as little as possible to reduce your heat signature. If you see him, don’t move a muscle. He won’t cross the ravine until he scans with binoculars because he knows he
’ll be in the open.”
“Okay.”
She touched his arm lightly, unable to stop herself. “Be careful. Please be careful.”
Then she slipped away to her own hiding place, feeling as if she had just cracked open her heart and let her fears spill onto the ground. Fears she wasn’t familiar with, fears she had never allowed herself to feel before. Fears she had refused to ever experience again after the death of her father.
For the first time she realized why men quickly learned to avoid her. She wasn’t just bossy. She’d turned into an ice queen who held them at bay.
Looking back suddenly, propelled by the fact that she could be dead before this day was out, she saw a woman who had lived in a self-made bubble, serving intellect and only one emotion: her need for justice. Mary had been the first person to get past that in any meaningful way.
And look where it had gotten her: more pain. Enough pain and anger that she was still hunting Mary’s killers. Just as she would have hunted her dad’s if she’d been old enough. But the real sorrow in it all was that she’d brought danger to Dom, and through him to his boys.
Oh, she had become a lovely person. Bitterness filled her as she looked at herself with utter clarity.
Maybe, she thought, if she survived this, she should give some thought to learning to let go.
It certainly might do her a world of good.
Chapter 13
A torrent of emotions ripped through Dom as he crawled into his hiding place, shielded by a rock from view across the river, lying on grass that was still damp, ignoring a nest of burrs.
So Courtney was leaving in the morning. The deadline had finally arrived. Part of him felt furious that she’d blown into his life this way and was ready to blow out again just as quickly. A fling, she’d called it.
Yeah, except he resented the hell out of that. He didn’t like feeling used. Never had. And equally bad to his way of thinking was the way she’d brought a killer to his door.
Oh, she said she had been positive nobody had followed her, and maybe she had believed it herself. But here they were, one of his best horses dead, and hiding now for their lives. What if the boys had been with them?
He couldn’t even bear that thought.
But when he tested inside himself, poking around as if hunting a sore tooth, what he found was a man who wasn’t angry at Courtney at all, except for her decision to leave, and the way she had pushed him away last night, as if done with him. Apparently she was.
What kind of fool was he anyway? Mary had loved him, but even she hadn’t been happy with the ranch alone. What in the world had made him get involved with another woman who would always want and need to be somewhere else?
Idiot!
An hour passed, maybe more. The clouds had burned away and the sun rose higher, heating the ground which would make them harder to see if their hunter had thermal gear. Courtney had hardly dared hope for that.
The longer they held still, the more the forest wildlife resumed its life. Squirrels chattered. Bigger things moved around beneath the trees and in the bushes. The wind picked up, making treetops whisper and creak like aging bones.
She thought of the wolf she might have seen, and wondered if she was lying in some pack’s territory, being observed right now. The thought didn’t frighten her.
Her emotions had reached stasis, utter calm. Months of training had given her that ability, to grow quiet inside and just wait. She doubted Dom had the same cold comfort.
Then she saw their hunter. Just a flicker among the shadows beneath the trees across the ravine. Woodland camouflage covered him head to toe, and he’d even painted his face. But Courtney had long since learned to see past patterns to shapes. It was essential for survival in her new unit.
That shape was not natural.
It paused, still just inside the woods, and she thought he lifted his arms. Binoculars.
She looked toward Dom and saw that he was looking her way. He jerked his head, indicating he had seen it, too.
Time dragged on leaden feet. Finally, whatever he’d seen, it hadn’t worried him. He emerged from the shadows and clambered down the far side of the ravine.
The sound of rushing water washed out the sounds of the hunter’s approach. The next time she knew where he was, his head was emerging over the edge of the ravine.
He clambered up, crouched, looked around. And as clearly as if he had announced it out loud, she saw him catch sight of their now drying, muddy boot prints.
He straightened, obviously sure he had a longer trek ahead of him.
Come on, she thought impatiently. Just come on.
He eased toward them, scanning the woods but more intent on the footprints he was following. Not so bright, Courtney thought. Not bright at all. Obviously whoever had sent him hadn’t been able to send the best. Or had sent someone who hadn’t done this kind of thing for a while. A missed shot, and now a glaring lack of caution.
She tightened her grip on her pistol getting ready.
Then Dom horrified her by rising from the brush and aiming his shotgun at the guy.
“Stop and drop it,” Dom ordered.
Of course the guy didn’t obey. Instead he started to swing his rifle toward Dom. Courtney didn’t hesitate. Without moving from her hide, she pulled the trigger on her Glock.
And missed. The guy had moved just as she squeezed her trigger, just enough that she’d missed. And now he knew where they both were. She started to fire again, but the guy took a shot her way first, causing her to duck.
Dom burst out of the bushes and ran right at their attacker. Courtney was horrified, but galvanized instantly, she rose.
Dom’s race toward the man drew his attention. He fired quickly at Dom, missing, and then Courtney added her own shot to the fray.
Missing again. Damn it, she knew how to shoot better than this.
But even as she cussed herself, her shot had bought time. Dom launched himself through the air like a football player making a tackle and caught the guy right around the knees, bringing them both to the ground.
But the hunter was still armed. Too well trained to let go of his gun, and now Courtney couldn’t even shoot for fear of hitting Dom.
She jumped out of her hide and ran toward them, but they were rolling on the ground now as Dom fought to disarm the guy. If she hadn’t been so pumped on adrenaline, her heart would have stopped. At any instant the guy’s rifle could go off and hit Dom.
But when she reached them, she saw that Dom was aware of that. His arms strained to keep the rifle pointed away while the guy punched at him with his other hand.
Making a quick decision, she darted around them and put her foot on the rifle barrel, keeping it pointed away. Then she leveled her pistol and said, “Stop or I’ll shoot.”
She felt the rifle barrel jerk under foot and leaned on it even more heavily. The two men were still so wound together, still struggling, and she really didn’t dare pull the trigger.
And neither of them listened to her anyway. Dom got a good solid punch to the guy’s jaw. Then he got punched in his side, letting out an “oof.”
They started to roll again, a tangle of limbs, but that time the rifle didn’t move with the bad guy. As they rolled away, she took the opportunity to snatch it up and sling it over her shoulder, safely out of the way. The guy undoubtedly had other weapons, though.…
And just as she had the thought, she saw it. A knife. He’d released the rifle to pull the blade from his sheath, and damn, it was heading straight for Dom.
Without further thought, left with no choice, she fired. The knife flew away along with a piece of the guy’s hand.
He howled. As pain ricocheted through his body, his first instinct was to fight harder, but Dom had him now in the vise grip of his thighs, in powerful hands on his shoulder. A grip he’d managed to get while the other guy opened up to try to come at him with the knife.
“Damn it,” Courtney yelled, “I’m gonna shoot you, you bastard.”
/> Somehow that seemed to get through. The guy’s eyes tracked to her and saw her standing over them, pistol in a practiced, two-handed grip. And maybe he saw something in her eyes, because, so help her, if he laid into Dom again she was going to remove him from the human race.
“Don’t move. Don’t even twitch.”
He was cussing, as well he might. Blood ran from his damaged hand like water. He started to move and she stepped in, putting her foot on his neck. “Don’t even twitch,” she said, repeating the warning. Without glancing away she told Dom, “Search him. He’s got other weapons. And watch his feet.”
Dom had a simple solution for that. He pivoted, keeping the guy’s hips between his thighs, and pulled Marti’s reins off his shoulder. Then, experienced roper that he was, he used them to bind the guy’s ankles tightly together.
Then, with absolutely no compunction at all, after yanking the guy’s pack off his shoulders, he pulled out the other man’s rope and used it to bind the guy’s wrists just as tightly, hog-tying them to his ankles.
“Now search him,” Courtney insisted.
“I’m bleeding, damn it,” the guy squawked.
“I care?” Dom said tautly. “You killed my horse, you SOB. You tried to kill my girl.”
His girl? But Courtney couldn’t allow herself to get distracted now. Once she was sure Dom had removed every potential weapon from the guy, making a small pile of knives, a pistol, a garrote and some other handy little, easily concealable items that could be used in a fight, she relaxed a bit.
“Let’s tie him to a tree,” she said. “Then I’ll look at his wound.”
They trussed him sitting up against a tree, his arms constrained by the rope around the tree. Only then did she pay attention to his hand. In his pack she found some powdered antibiotic and a T-shirt. Quickly and efficiently she bandaged what was left, not caring if she hurt him.
Another search of his pack revealed little except survival gear. This man had come on a covert operation. Nothing to identify him at all.
She swore. Then she looked at Dom who was sitting on the ground with one knee up, his arm resting on it.
