Sarah had lost so much in the past hours. Randy. Her belief in the law. Every shred of security she’d known. He knew that to her, giving up Radar would feel like the ultimate blow. But there was nothing he could do. “What about your dog?”
Sarah ran her fingers over the black-and-white head.
Layton rested a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Can’t take a dog on an ATV.”
“Will you take him?”
“You know I will.”
She parted her lips to speak, then covered them with a hand as if holding back a sob.
Layton rubbed a hand over her shoulder. “I’ll stall the sheriff as long as I can.”
“Thank you, Layton.” Sarah reached up and hugged him.
When she released him, he shooed them out the door. “Hurry.”
Layton grabbed the backpack and helped Sarah slip it on her shoulders while Eric climbed on the all-terrain vehicle. He started it up, the engine buzzing loudly in the night. Sarah climbed on behind.
The foreman raised a hand in a wave as they sped away, his eyes glistening in the yard light, Sarah’s border collie by his side.
CHAPTER SIX
EACH JOLT OF THE ATV over rock and sage shuddered up Eric’s spine and throbbed through his head, as if the very landscape was beating on him. The engine roared loud in the quiet night. At least it had stopped raining. With any luck, the snow wouldn’t be too deep, at least not at lower elevations like Saddle Horn Ridge. But although the calendar said early June, spring had yet to arrive in many parts of the mountains.
He focused on the wrap of Sarah’s arms around his waist, the warmth of her thighs pressing to the back of his. Even though the rain was long since over, the night air was downright cold as it rushed past. He could feel her shiver as she pressed against him. At least she now had a coat, thanks to Layton.
Obviously the foreman shared Eric’s need to protect her. Regardless of whether the urge made sense. Sarah was the strongest woman he’d ever known. She took care of others, animal and human alike. She never seemed to need anyone.
Of course, the jumble of feelings that overwhelmed him whenever he was around Sarah never made a lot of sense. In the rest of his life, he was controlled, logical. But as soon as he saw the way she tilted her chin, heard her voice or touched her skin, he lost all reason. All he could think of was her.
He had to keep his mind clear if he wanted to get out of this mess.
They reached the mountains just as the first evidence of dawn started glowing from the east. As the light grew, driving became easier. The ATV could carry them farther up the mountain than his truck had allowed, cutting hours off the trip he and Randy had taken on foot. Good thing. After a night of no sleep and a lifetime’s worth of trauma, the only thing keeping either of them going was adrenaline. And who knew how long that could last?
The ATV bucked at every bump. The pitch grew steeper. Eric settled into a switchback trail nearby guest ranches used to take tourists through the area on horseback. They wove back and forth up the side of the slope, until the pitch grew too steep and the trail circled back. Stopping the ATV behind a jut of rock, Eric switched off the engine. “We’re going to have to go the rest of the way on foot.”
Sarah nodded, swung a leg over the seat, and dismounted.
Cool air fanned over his back where her warmth had been. For a moment, he wanted nothing more than to have her back on the seat behind him, arms circling his waist.
Stupid.
He climbed off the ATV. His hands still vibrated from the feel of the handlebars. His ears buzzed with silence, now that the roar of the engine was gone. He focused on Sarah. Her skin was the color of aspen bark. Dark circles cupped under chocolate eyes that glistened with fatigue. She was far more exhausted than he’d even guessed
“Sit down. Take a few minutes.”
“I’m fine.” She raised her chin in that way he’d once thought was sexy.
Now it struck him as nothing but stubborn. “You look like you’re about to keel over.”
She nodded her head toward the east. “The sun is going to be up any second. We don’t have time to sit down.”
She was right. As much as she needed to rest, they couldn’t afford the delay. It had taken them a good long time to make it to the base of Saddle Horn Ridge. The sheriff could guess where they were headed, and pickups traveling paved roads would make it here a lot faster, even though they’d have to cover more miles and couldn’t drive as far up the mountainside.
Unfortunately that small time advantage would be eaten up by the detour Eric planned to take. “We’ll keep going then. But I’ll carry the pack.”
She shrugged the backpack off her shoulders and handed it to him.
The pack was heavy in his hand, weighed down with harnesses and ropes, water and food. He slung it onto his back. Then he stepped off the switchback trail and started picking his way over sage and around rock.
Most of mountain climbing was a matter of walking uphill. It didn’t involve ropes or vertical rock faces. It was about hiking, pure and simple. But that didn’t mean it was the same thing as following a trail. Eric scanned the terrain ahead, aware of every rock and crevasse and ripple of the wind. Off-trail hiking was about awareness. Of the surroundings, of animals, of the weather, of the capabilities of one’s own body. It was about being awake in the present and trying to guess the future. And guiding meant he was responsible for Sarah as well.
The sun warmed their backs as it rose in the sky, beating down strong, even though the mountains still boasted a good amount of snow along their peaks. They worked their way through vegetation ranging from the ever-present sage to tall stands of lodgepole pine and subalpine fir. The roar of a waterfall hung in the thinning air, although the creek itself was over a mile away.
Finally Saddle Horn Ridge loomed above them. The ridge wasn’t a common tourist destination, but the few guides working the area knew it was there. The ridge itself was flat and sheltered from the sometimes brutal mountain winds, an ideal spot for camping. On one side, a rock formation rose. A shifted slab of rock capped the top of the formation, giving it the appearance of the horn on a western saddle.
On the other end of the long ridge, a vertical rock face rose nearly to the crest. Made of hard, volcanic rock, like the rest of the Absaroka Range, this was one of the best and least known climbing areas north of the Tetons. It was also the cliff he and Randy had been scaling when the deputies had opened fire.
Eric turned away from the stretch of rock and started through a long stand of lodgepole pine.
“Where are you going?”
“We’ll circle to the other end of the ridge. Most of the terrain is hikable on that side.”
“Won’t that take a lot longer?” She tilted her face to the east, no doubt checking the position of the sun.
“A little. But it’s easier. Multipitch climbs can be slow, tough going.”
“You don’t think I can do it.”
“Under normal circumstances, I imagine you could. But we’ve both been through a lot in the past few hours.”
“I told you, I’m fine. I can make it.”
He hadn’t believed her then, and he didn’t believe her now. But her obvious fatigue wasn’t the only reason he wanted to avoid this stretch. Just the sight of that rock face made a shudder travel through him and his head ache to high heaven. “We’ll go through the pass and up the other side. It won’t take much longer.”
“But it will take longer. Do you really think we can afford that extra time?”
He didn’t know. He was surprised they hadn’t heard vehicles yet. Or helicopters. But to lead Sarah up that face? “We’ll move fast. A climb like that is too dangerous.”
“And letting the sheriff catch up to us isn’t?”
“I’m not going to let you get caught on that face….”
She narrowed her eyes.
He pulled in a breath and gritted his teeth. “Let’s move. Now.”
“This is the spot,
isn’t it?” She turned away from him and peered up at the rock face.
He started walking, heading for the pass.
“It’s the spot where Randy…”
He slowed his steps. The pain in her words hollowed out a pit below his rib cage. He turned to face her and reached out a hand. “Come on. We’ll follow the pass. It will be better.”
“Where? Where did it happen?”
“Sarah, come on.”
“Tell me. Please.”
With that last whispered word, he felt the walls inside him crumble.
______
“Please, Eric.” Pressure built around the edges of Sarah’s eyes and stung through her sinuses. She’d never understood the need of survivors to mark the spot where a loved one died. Every time she passed a cross on the side of the highway or flowers woven into a chain-link fence, she’d felt uneasy, as if she was witnessing a very personal pain, something that should be shielded from the public.
She understood now.
“I need to… I don’t know, mark the spot, I guess. In my mind. Make it feel real.”
He watched her for what had to be a full thirty seconds. “About three quarters of the way up. See the shelf of rock?”
She followed the direction of his pointing finger. “Near the top of those trees?”
“Yes.”
She saw it. What looked like a smear of something brown on the stone. A trick of the noon sun…or her brother’s blood? She couldn’t tell.
Shivers fanned out over her skin. Her chest heaved in a barely controlled sob. She half expected him to still be there. Hanging in his climbing harness. Or lying in the short slope of scree at the bottom of the rock face. But she knew he wouldn’t be. He would be at the morgue, his body dissected, his wounds used as evidence to frame Eric for his murder. “Was he in pain?”
“No… no…” His voice hitched.
She could tell by his hesitation that wasn’t entirely true.
Sarah closed her eyes, trying to block the tears. Randy was gone. Murdered on this spot. And now nothing was left but to find out why. And make sure the same fate didn’t fall on Eric or her… or their unborn child.
Nausea swirled in the pit of her stomach. She hadn’t suffered morning sickness for a couple of weeks now, but it seemed a touch had caught up to her in the stress of the past hours. Maybe it had nothing to do with the baby. Maybe it was seeing the spot where Randy died. Or leaving Radar behind with Layton. Or maybe the confusion of all that had happened.
“Sarah. Is there something…”
She took a deep breath and braced herself before turning back to Eric.
His eyes focused on her belly.
She hadn’t realized she was shielding her middle with her forearm. But she could tell by the expression on his face he had. And along with probably the dozen other signals she’d subconsciously given, he had a guess as to what the protective gesture meant.
Her throat went dry. “I was going to tell you.”
“You’re pregnant.” He brought his eyes up to her face. For a long time, he just watched her. Struggling to make sense of her words, searching for words of his own, she didn’t know. But just as she was about to break the silence, he nodded. “It’s mine.”
His voice sounded dead, void of emotion, and somehow that bothered her more than the anger and betrayal she’d imagined he’d feel in all the times she’d played this scenario out in her imagination. “Yes.”
“How far along?”
“Four months. I found out shortly after we… after you…”
“Left.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me then? Call me?”
“I was going to. Really I was… but…”
“But what?”
She’d made excuses to herself for months. She didn’t want to try to make them now. Not when she knew the reason she hadn’t told him. “I was afraid.”
“Of what? You had to know I’d marry you.”
She flinched and took a step backward. Of course, she knew. It was the right thing to do. And Eric would never walk away from doing the right thing.
And that was exactly what she feared most.
______
Sarah stared at Eric as if he’d just said exactly the wrong thing. Slowly, she shook her head. “You don’t want to get married.”
“It wasn’t in my plans. But some things are more important than plans.”
He closed his eyes. Dizziness swept over him in a sudden, stomach-wrenching bout of vertigo. He wasn’t a man who ran out on his responsibilities. Ever. If he wasn’t sure he could come through, he didn’t take it on in the first place. He approached things in a controlled way, a logical way. Reason instead of emotion. He just had to get used to the idea and the weak, shaky feeling in the pit of his stomach would go away.
Wouldn’t it?
“I’m not going to marry you, Eric.”
He opened his eyes and stared at Sarah. He couldn’t have heard her right. “What?”
“I don’t want to marry you.”
“But you’re pregnant.”
“And people have babies without getting married all the time. Really, it’s fine.”
“I’m tired of you saying everything is fine.” If there was anything he knew about any of what he’d had sprung on him the past two days, it was that absolutely nothing was fine.
“A couple of months ago, you told me you didn’t even want to date. Now you have a pressing desire to marry me?”
“Things have changed.”
“Nothing’s changed.”
“How do you figure that?”
“You just think marrying me is something you have to do. Your duty or whatever. Well, I’m telling you it isn’t.”
His duty. That was how he felt, she was right. But that didn’t mean she could absolve him of it. “I want to do it.”
“Well, I don’t.”
He looked away. He couldn’t blame her. He knew when he’d broken things off she’d assumed he didn’t care about her. And for the ease of the breakup, he’d let her believe it. He’d told himself the truth was far too complicated. Compared to the mess they were in now, it was amazingly simple. Not that it mattered. Not anymore. “So where does that leave us?”
“Same place as before. We find whatever it is that’s up on that ridge and use it to try to get our lives back.”
Their lives. He knew she meant their separate lives. But to him, that was no longer an option.
“And we’d better hurry. They’re here.”
He followed her gaze to where the white dot of an SUV bounced over rutted gravel road, slowly making its way to the head of the switchback trail.
______
Sarah knew Eric didn’t want to get married. Hell, he probably knew it, too. But that split second when she told him she wouldn’t consider wedlock, the look of rejection on his face felt good.
She wasn’t sure if that officially made her petty, but… whatever.
When he’d asked her to marry him, the feeling that he was merely doing his duty hit her like a kick to the gut. No, more like a void. An emptiness that could never be filled. There was no use pretending things might have worked out between them if she’d played things differently, said different words, batted her eyes just so. There was no more pretending at all.
Eric didn’t love her. And she wasn’t going to marry someone without love.
Period.
Sarah shoved all other thoughts from her mind and concentrated on fitting her fingers into a jam-crack in the short rock face at the top of the ridge that Eric hadn’t been able to avoid letting her climb.
Last summer, Eric had said she was a natural climber. She was patient, and she relied on her legs to make the climb, using her hands only for balance. That might have been the case back then. Today she felt clumsy and hurried and her arms ached with exertion. And every time her tummy rubbed against the rock, all she could think of was the danger to her baby if she fell.
Concentrate
.
She placed her boot on a block. Keeping her heels low, she took weight onto the foot and pushed herself up. Eric took up the slack in the belaying rope. She pulled herself to the top of the ridge and shifted her weight to her elbows.
“You got it.” Eric’s voice sounded in her ears, right above her head. “Now just bring your foot up, and you’re home free.”
Home free. Sarah knew it was merely a saying, but she couldn’t help the hitch in her stomach all the same.
She raised her foot to the ledge and thrust her body up onto the top of the ridge. For a second, she just lay there, her muscles quivering under her skin. Then she pulled herself into a sitting position.
Saddle Horn Ridge.
All around her mountains rose above them, jutting their snow-topped peaks into the sky. Rock and stretches of lodgepole pine seemed to go on forever. “Beautiful.”
“It is.” Eric quickly looked away from her and out at the gully cutting below the other side of the ridge.
She watched him for a second, like he’d been watching her. Now that he knew about the baby, now that they’d gotten the marriage discussion out of the way, they seemed as awkward as strangers. “See anyone?”
A light swirl of wind blew past her ears and swept away his answer, but she could read from his body language that he hadn’t. She scanned the area with her own eyes. No sign of human life other than them. But then, Eric had led them on such a winding path up to the ridge, she was no longer sure in which direction to look.
“Now what?”
“Now we look around.”
He moved to the far edge of the ridge, where the rock rose in a column and formed a shape some explorer must have thought looked like a saddle horn. He peered down, not moving except for the light breeze rifling his hair.
She thrust herself up from her resting place. “If the sheriff was worried about Randy finding money or drugs, why didn’t he just come up here and take it himself?”
“Maybe he tried.”
Something in the tone of his voice stopped Sarah as effectively as if he’d grabbed her. Pulse thumping, she willed her wobbly legs to carry her along the rocky ridge toward the base of the saddle horn.
Fugitive (A Rocky Mountain Thriller Book 2) Page 5
