by Cassie Miles
“What’s that?”
“Following the path that led me to you.” His hand slid lower and stroked her belly. “Making a baby with you.”
She purred and snuggled closer. “I like that, too.”
“Tomorrow morning,” he said, “I want to go there. To The Facility.”
“Why?”
He needed to see for himself, to fully understand and accept what had happened to him. He needed to remember. There might be a clue, a buried memory stuck inside his head that could lead to Sykes.
Chapter Fifteen
The next morning, after a decent breakfast of sausage and eggs, they headed out to the garage. Drew had already decided the Harley would be best for this off-road journey to The Facility.
“Are you sure we should do this?” Melinda asked. “It seems to me that we ought to coordinate with Jack and Claudia.”
“We can do both.” Though he’d agreed to cooperate, he’d been his own man for too long to start checking in before he made a move. “You have the cell phone. When we’re at The Facility, we’ll call Jack.”
If they were late to meet Harlan at noon, that was just too damn bad. The old man said he’d wait. Drew moved the Range Rover so there would be room to get the bike through the garage door. He pulled the cover off the Harley—a fine machine. As he wheeled it out of the garage, sunshine reflected off the chrome fender and sparkled on the headlight.
“There’s only one helmet.” He held it toward Melinda. Despite her ability to self-heal, he wanted to protect her.
Gamely, she put it on. “Nice bike.”
“More than nice,” he said. “I adapted this baby from a lightweight dirt-bike frame. The engine is V-Twin with full power. Retooled suspension, dual exhaust, antilock brakes. It has maneuverability and power.”
She didn’t seem impressed. “Just be careful. Safety first, Drew.”
“If you’re worried, you should stay here at the cabin,” he suggested as he mounted the bike. “Then you could e-mail back and forth with Jack and Claudia.”
“I’m coming with you.” She climbed on behind him. “You need me.”
He cranked the engine and was answered with a satisfying roar—a primal rumble. There was nothing better than going fast on a bike, feeling the wind, eating up the road.
Her arms wrapped snugly around him as he took off. He’d studied the maps on the DVD and printed one of them out. In terms of distance, they weren’t far from Lead or from The Facility. The trick would be to successfully chart his course through all these winding mountain roads. The route became increasingly familiar as they neared the area where he grew up. He’d traveled this way before.
Drew had never had a car of his own, but Harlan had let him drive the family station wagon on occasion. He had never been allowed to take the car when his foster father was out of town, not even to run errands for Belle.
They’d kept him on a short leash, limited in his range of movement. One of the few times he was allowed to see the wider world was that trip to the lake near Pierre with Harlan.
His desperate escape to New York City must have stunned Harlan. Drew smiled to himself. They never expected him to run so far, never thought he’d be able to find his way.
The final turnoff to The Facility had recently been traveled. Tire ruts dug into the dirt road. The bare branches of low foliage had been crushed and broken.
Proceeding slowly on the bike, he watching for the natural landmarks he’d seen on the DVD.
Melinda tapped his shoulder and pointed to a high spot on the cliff. “Over there. The sentry house.”
The weathered wood blended into the surrounding trees. “Good eye.”
At a fork in the road, he went left. They were close enough. He rounded the last boulder on the road and saw the entrance to the limestone cave. The opening was surprisingly large. Though he could have driven inside, he parked the bike at the side of the road. In the wind, he heard the sighs of victims. This was the place.
Melinda groaned as she dismounted. “Oh, my gosh, my legs feel like jelly.”
“In a couple of minutes, you’ll be fine.”
She pulled off the helmet. “How do you know?”
“It’s a self-healing thing. If you’re like me—”
“And I am,” she asserted.
“Your blood is constantly regenerating and repairing. It doesn’t make you a better athlete, but you’ll find that your stamina is much improved.”
“Bonus.” A wide grin spread across her face. “Self-healing is going to be real helpful with my jogging regimen. I might even go back to that spinning class at the gym where that pushy instructor was always yelling, ‘Five more minutes—you can do it.’ Ha! I’ll show her five more minutes.”
He was glad to have her with him. Entering this cave could trigger memories of the worst trauma in his life, and he trusted Melinda to keep him grounded.
As she fluffed her hair into shape, she asked, “Do you remember anything?”
His only impressions were vague and fuzzy. “I think I was carried, brought into the cave on a gurney.”
He’d thought far enough ahead to bring a couple of high-beam flashlights. He gave one to Melinda and kept one for himself. Stepping into the darkness, he turned on the light. Inside the high, arched walls of the cave were low buildings—an underground city that looked like army barracks.
Though he’d hoped that memories would come flooding back, Drew felt nothing. Not even a twinge. All he could do was marvel at the cleverness of this hideout. The Facility made his secure cabin look like a pathetic attempt at secrecy. No one could find them here; Sykes had operated for years and years without notice.
After only a few paces, he heard a noise but wasn’t sure where it was coming from. The cave walls amplified and echoed every sound.
He paused and signaled for Melinda to do the same. They stood very still. Listening.
When he heard it again, he turned the flashlight to the right. The big man with the shaved head charged toward them. He held something in his hand.
They couldn’t take a chance on being thrown into a blackout. There wasn’t time to pull his gun from the holster. Not a second to lose. “Run.”
FIGHT OR FLIGHT? No question in Melinda’s mind. It was time to run. She pivoted on her heel and dashed toward the sunlight outside the cave where the Harley awaited.
Behind her, Drew had taken his gun from the shoulder holster. He fired two shots into the maw of the cave. Before she reached the trees where the motorcycle was parked, he yelled, “Not the bike. Melinda, over there. Take that path.”
Zipping away on the Harley had seemed like the most logical escape, but she didn’t question his order. Drew had been on the run for years. He knew best.
She ran as fast as she could. Twigs brushed against her jeans as she followed the rocky path downhill toward a trickling stream, narrow enough that she could jump across if needed. Not that she intended to try any tricky maneuvers. The uneven footing on the path made it hard enough to keep from falling flat on her face.
Her jogging routes in Sioux Falls were flat, and the biggest obstacle was an uneven piece of sidewalk. This was mountain wilderness, untamed. The path widened into a clearing with other branches shooting off in different directions. “Which way?” she yelled.
“Downhill,” he said. “Keep going downhill.”
Gunfire sounded behind her. Drew told her he’d never been shot. What would happen if he was hit by a bullet? Even if he healed, he’d be momentarily helpless. Did he have another gun she could use? Could she drag him to safety?
She dodged around a clump of trees that separated her from the creek. Though Drew said run downhill, there was no way to go but up. Her toes dug into the gravelly soil as she climbed. Her foot slipped. She fell, whacked her knee on a rock. A jolt of pain shot through her leg. I’ll heal. She scrambled to her feet and kept going.
The tree trunks were farther apart. She emerged onto a sloping cliff. In the distance, through tangle
d pine boughs, she saw the shimmer of sunlight on a lake.
“Keep going,” Drew shouted.
Sidestepping down the rugged slope, she couldn’t avoid putting weight on her injured leg. Instead of hurting more, the pain lessened. At the bottom of the slope, Drew grasped her arm and pulled her behind the cover of a boulder.
Breathing hard, she asked, “Why didn’t we take the bike?”
“We could be riding into an ambush. I don’t know if Blue is acting alone.”
There could be more of them. Fear clenched her lungs. She couldn’t breathe.
Drew replaced the ammunition clip in his gun. “I don’t want anybody to get close enough to trigger a blackout.”
“Oh, gosh.” She gasped. “How are we going to get away?”
He held her face. His hand was steady. His eyes shone with determination. “Work with me, Melinda.”
Easy for him to say; he was a daredevil. Risk didn’t scare him. “What, what, what? What can I do?”
“Use the cell phone. Call Jack and Claudia. Tell them to activate the GPS chips.”
Though his instructions were clear, her brain took a moment to sort out what he meant. The cell phone? The chip?
Another shot rang out. Drew peeked over the top of the boulder and returned fire.
She took the cell phone from her jacket pocket. It seemed to take forever to turn on, but when it did, she was in luck. She had reception. When she hit the automatic dial, Claudia answered right away.
“We’re in trouble,” Melinda said into the phone. “We need help.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know. A forest. There’s a lake.” Her gaze scanned the surrounding forests and craggy hillsides. How could she possibly give directions? More important, how could Claudia and Jack get here in time? Their motel in Rapid City was over an hour away. “Where are you?”
“On the road. We thought we’d go toward Lead and check out the location where Drew is supposed to meet with Harlan.”
Melinda couldn’t think, couldn’t concentrate. Someone was shooting at them. The man with the shaved head. Blue. “Claudia, hurry. Activate the GPS chips.”
“Got it,” Claudia said. “Try to get to a road where we can pick you up.”
She disconnected the call.
Drew faced her with his back against the rock. “Take off your jacket.”
Though she did as he said, she asked, “Why?”
“This is my last clip. I’ve only got about five shots left so we can’t stay here and make a stand.”
“What does that mean?”
“We run. Down the hill to that lake. The water is runoff from melted snow. Too cold for them to follow us.”
He wanted her to dive into a freezing-cold mountain lake? “Oh, boy.”
“Problem?” He set down the gun to peel off his leather jacket. “You know how to swim, don’t you?”
“Well, sure. But isn’t there another way?”
“Trust me, baby.”
He gave her a wink, which she thought was carrying the macho image a bit too far. Clearly, the man didn’t have the good sense to be scared when he was in mortal danger.
He peeked around the edge of the rock. “I’m going to start shooting. That should provide some cover. You take off for the lake. I’ll be right behind you.”
He poked his head out and opened fire. With gunshots ringing in her ears, she dashed down the hill and ducked into the trees. With no path to follow, she dodged through a maze of pine trunks. Her level of exertion was intense, but her legs had strength. The injury to her knee had faded to a light stinging sensation. She ducked under a limb, jumped over a fallen log. Keep going.
She didn’t dare look back over her shoulder, didn’t want to know how close Blue was to catching them. Her only focus was racing downhill toward the lake.
Drew pulled even with her. Running hard, he shoved through branches with his gun still in hand. “You can do it, Melinda.”
As if I have a choice? She heard a gunshot and cringed. Her back prickled as she imagined the bullet tearing through her flesh.
Then she saw the water—a tranquil blue expanse at the edge of the trees. Golly, it was going to be cold. In summertime, the lakes warmed up enough for swimming, especially around Rapid City. But this was the end of winter in the mountains.
Coming out of the forest, there was about three feet of rocks and sand leading to the edge of the lake. Instinctively, she hesitated.
Drew caught hold of her hand and pulled her.
She took the plunge.
Chapter Sixteen
Water splashed around his thighs as Drew pulled her into the lake with him. The cold took his breath away. Each icy drop stung like a tiny needle, piercing his nervous system. Waist-deep, he glided along the surface and ducked his head under the water.
Melinda did the same. He’d been proud of her speed and agility when she was running. Now, she proved herself again. Without a single complaint, she stretched out, kicked with her legs and went into a crawl stroke, which was pretty damned impressive given that they were both fully dressed and wearing shoes.
Though he could have propelled himself through the water at greater speed, he stayed at her side. Flipping to his back, he surveyed the shoreline. They were already a good fifty yards away from the trees. No sign of Blue. Not yet.
“Keep going,” he encouraged her. “You’re doing great.”
She sputtered an unintelligible response and kept stroking. She was a good woman, strong and resilient. He swore to get her through this in one piece. Melinda and the baby would survive no matter what. His own safety was secondary.
His teeth began to chatter, and he clenched his jaw. He needed a plan.
The mountain lake was small and shaped like the letter B. If he remembered correctly from the map, it fed into a creek that was wide enough to be named. Piney Creek? Spiny Creek? He couldn’t see the topography while in the water, but he directed her toward the spit of land that thrust into the lake at the middle.
If they climbed out at that point, they could make a run from there. It would take Blue a long time to get around the lake, unless he had a dirt bike.
The cold seeped into his bones, and the weight of his clothing dragged him down. Pulling through the frigid water took an effort. If they got all the way to the other side of the lake, they’d have a more significant lead.
This time, when he looked back toward shore, he spotted Blue’s shaved head. There was someone else with him, but Drew couldn’t get a good look at the second man. Sykes? If Drew had been alone, he would have gone back for Sykes. Was it him?
Blue raised a rifle to his shoulder and took aim. Their bobbing heads in the water were a small target, but a decent hunting rifle was accurate up to three hundred yards.
“Take a breath, Melinda. We’re going under.”
“What?”
“Underwater. Now.”
He waited until he saw her inhale. Then he coiled his arm around her waist and dove down. Below the surface, he felt the subtle pull of a current moving in the direction he wanted to go, away from shore. Diffused sunlight glowed on the water above them. Below was murky darkness and the specter of drowning.
He dragged her back to the surface. They both gasped.
When he looked back at the shore, Blue had lowered his rifle.
“Not doing that again,” Melinda said.
“Okay.”
“I mean it.”
“Okay. Keep swimming.”
Blue still hadn’t lifted his rifle. Drew was fairly certain that he wasn’t supposed to kill them. His assignment would be to capture them, especially Melinda. Sykes wanted her alive. He wanted the baby that was growing inside her.
They neared the center of the lake where the finger of land reached toward them. Once they were on the other side, they’d be out of sight. Out of range.
Melinda’s clean strokes had become a desperate flailing, but she kept kicking, kept making forward progress.
/> “Just a little farther,” he encouraged her.
They rounded the spit of land.
That was when he heard the rush of a waterfall.
AT THE SPIT OF LAND, Melinda lowered her feet to the lake bottom and stood, up to her hips in water. She’d never been so cold, and that was saying a lot. She was a Minnesota girl.
Dragged down by her sodden clothing, she slogged through the water and headed toward dry land.
“Wait,” Drew said.
“I’m freezing to death.”
“Not really. Your body won’t go into hypothermia.”
He’d also told her that she would have incredible stamina, but her legs and arms ached. Her skin prickled. Shivers raced through her.
He strode up beside her. “This isn’t the best place for us to get out of the water. Sure, we’ve put some distance between us and Blue. But if he’s got an all-terrain vehicle, he’ll catch up fast.”
A large flat rock on the land beckoned to her. It looked as comfortable as an overstuffed sofa. All she wanted was to stretch out there and lie in the sun. “Do you have a plan?”
He pointed, and her gaze followed the direction of his finger. She heard the churning and realized that a current pulled at her legs. “A waterfall? Please tell me you’re not suggesting that we go over a waterfall.”
He strode through the water toward the shore. In a little cove, there was a fallen log, worn smooth by being in the water. “We can use this.”
“Do you have any idea how steep this waterfall is?”
“I’m hoping that it’s a gradual descent into the rapids, not even as bad as the ones in Sioux Falls.”
“But you don’t know.”
“Here’s what I can tell you for certain,” he said. “If Blue catches us, we’ll never see the light of day again.”
As she stood, dripping, she realized that her body was already beginning to recover. Though she felt the bite of the cold, it was more like the tingling when her foot fell asleep than a deep, unbearable pain.
She grumbled, “I can’t believe I’m even considering your plan. You know I don’t like to take risks.”
