by Sharon Dunn
The hood went back over her head. A cold hand touched the back of her neck. The low voice was seductive. “Where is Crew Langston? Did you put him on a bus, help him get out of town?”
She shook her head, unable to form the words. Her heart pounded. She couldn’t stop shaking.
“All right, lady, this is it.” The hard gun barrel pressed against her temple.
Braced for another gunshot, she startled when she heard a thwacking sound, like a hard object making contact with flesh. One of the men groaned, and the gun was no longer pressed against her head. Flesh smacked against flesh. Men grunted. A body hit the ground close to her. Sarah struggled to get to her feet. Strong hands wrapped around her upper arm, warming her skin.
“Let’s get you out of here and to a safe place.” The voice sounded vaguely familiar. A hand grazed her forehead, lifting the hood off.
Her rescuer’s eyes grew wide with recognition as her breath caught. Bryan Keyes. The man she thought she’d never see again. The man who had broken her heart into a thousand pieces.
The larger of the two assailants, curled up on the ground, stirred.
“Come on, we’ve gotta move. I’ll cut you loose as soon as I can.” Bryan glanced around. He was probably looking for the gun or the best direction to run.
Acne Scars lay facedown, not moving. A log not too far from him must have been used to knock him out. But Deep Voice had started opening his eyes. They couldn’t wait any longer—they needed to move.
Bryan must have reached the same conclusion because he shook his head and then pulled Sarah toward the trees. She ran, hindered by her hands still tied behind her back. Bryan held her arm to steady her.
He pulled her deeper into the trees until they came to a steep incline.
“No way can I climb that with my hands tied,” she protested.
He glanced over his shoulder, pulled a pocketknife out of his worn jeans and cut the ropes that bound her wrists together.
“Better?” His fingers brushed over her wrist where the rope had dug in. Even after ten years, his touch had the power to make her heart flutter.
She stepped away. “Wait, what if we tried to get to the car they parked by the lake?” The shouts of Deep Voice barking orders to Acne Scars reached her ears.
“We’d run right into them.” He scrambled partway up the rock and turned back, holding his hand out to her. She took his help. They climbed until they came to a steep rock face.
“I’ll boost you up and then you can pull me up,” he said.
Down below, she caught a flash of movement. Deep Voice was wearing a bright yellow shirt, easy to see amongst the evergreens. And easy to realize that he was catching up. “Where are you taking me?”
“Some place safe where we can call for help.” He glanced down the mountain.
She hesitated.
“Trust me, I know this part of the forest,” he said. “Come on, we can’t stop.” He laced his fingers together, indicating that she should put her foot in them.
What choice did she have? She’d prayed for God to send help and He had. Now it was up to her to make the most of it. Sarah put her foot in Bryan’s hands. He pushed upward as she reached out for a handhold. God must have a sense of humor. Of all the people in the world, He’d sent Bryan. Ten years was a long time. She’d been a sophomore in high school and he a senior when they’d fallen in love. Or what passes for love in a sixteen-year-old’s heart. She couldn’t say now if she had loved him or had just been desperate to be loved. But at the time, it sure had felt real.
With Bryan pushing her up from below, she reached for a gnarled tree sprouting up close to the rock. She pulled herself up, gripping the tree with both hands. Bryan gave her a final push. She turned and reached down for him.
“I think I can get a foothold.” He grabbed her hand, their eyes meeting momentarily.
The love between them had shattered when she became pregnant. They had agreed that the best thing for their little girl was adoption. But Bryan had been so angry afterward, had blamed her as though the decision hadn’t been made together.
Bryan strained to get up the cliff face. “Other hand,” he groaned.
She held both his hands and pulled as he struggled to get some traction with his feet. The muscles in her arms strained. “Almost there.”
She pulled with all her strength, dragging him to the flat top of the cliff face. She leaned back, breathless from the exertion. Bryan scrambled to his feet.
“Come on.” He held his hand out to her. The August sun beat down on them, the air thick with heat. Down below, the two thugs were weaving their way up the mountain, choosing an easier but less direct path.
“Where are we going, anyway?” Sarah still hadn’t caught her breath.
“We need to get help, call the sheriff,” he said.
She stared up at the rocky terrain. “Isn’t there an easier way?”
“Sarah, would you trust me? I work here—I know where I’m going. Those guys won’t be able to follow us. They’ll give up.”
It was the first time he’d said her name. The warmth in his voice only reminded her of ten-year-old wounds. “I really don’t have a choice here. I’ll do what you say.” She wasn’t so sure about the men giving up, though.
They crawled over rocks and through thick brush. A branch flicked across her forehead. She kept moving despite the stinging pain and the warm ooze of blood. The fire tower came into sight. So, he was some kind of forest ranger? By the time he’d left town to go to college, he hadn’t spoken to her in months.
He led her up the narrow metal stairs into the tower, then stepped over to a small stand that contained the radio. He keyed the radio explaining that he needed a replacement and then said something about notifying the sheriff. He gave a brief but accurate description of the two thugs and their car.
While he talked, Sarah wandered around the sparse room. A double burner for cooking rested on a counter. Canned goods and gallons of water were stacked against the wall. An instrument of some sort with a map was in the dead center of the circular room. There was a desk and a chair in one corner, a cot in another. She sat down on the chair. A stack of books rested by the bed. He must stay up here weeks at a time. Yet, the place was utterly impersonal. Why had Bryan chosen such a solitary life? What had happened in the ten years since she’d seen him?
Bryan signed off and placed the radio back on the hook. He turned to face her. Those same warm brown eyes looked out at her, though they were edged with crow’s-feet and worry lines now, and there was a hint of weariness in his expression that hadn’t been there ten years ago. They had both been so naive and full of hope back then.
“What now?” She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees.
He walked over to the windows, picked up the binoculars and peered down the mountain. “We catch our breath.”
“We wait?” Fear returned, sending a shock through her system. Those men meant to kill her.
“The forest service will notify the sheriff’s department. They’ll get those guys.”
The memory of the gun pressed against her temple returned. Her throat constricted and her heart raced. “Do you think it’s a good idea to just sit here?”
“We’re not just sitting here.” He handed her the binoculars. “Look, they’ve already left. I figured they would give up.”
She walked over to the windows and peered through the binoculars at the shimmering water below. No car. She focused on the road where she saw the light-colored SUV heading away from the lake. So he was right. “Can they drive up here?”
“It will take them over an hour. And if they don’t know these roads, they’ll never find us.” His voice was filled with reassurance.
Sarah let out a breath, relaxing a little.
He leaned close to her and touched her fore
head where the tree branch had cut the skin. “I’ve got something for that. Go sit down.” He pointed toward the cot.
Sarah put the binoculars down and wandered to the cot. She tried to take in a deep breath. Those men had meant to kill her. Would they give up that easily? After grabbing the first-aid kit from a storage box, Bryan walked across the room and sat close to her. She could feel his body heat.
He handed her a piece of leather. “Tie your hair back, so it’s out of the way.”
She gathered her hair into a ponytail.
He pulled disinfectant out of the first-aid kit and touched the end of the tube lightly to her forehead. “It’s going to be okay, but we should get moving. After I deal with this cut, we’ll hike over to my truck.”
She closed her eyes as he gently pressed the bandage against her forehead. Memories of his touch all those years ago awakened old feelings. The power of the attraction made her forget the pain of how everything had ended...for a moment.
“There’s a little country store eight miles up the road. You can call for a friend to come and get you.” He wadded up the packaging the bandage had come in. “By that time, the sheriff will catch those guys.”
The warm feelings evaporated. So he meant to ditch her as quickly as he could, just like old times. He’d only been doing his duty. It was the kind of person he was. But now that his duty was finished, he wanted nothing more to do with her. “I suppose I should go to the police.” She hoped her voice didn’t give away the hurt she felt.
“Yeah, you’ll want to report this.” His voice was tainted with a bitterness she didn’t understand. “But not to the city police. This happened in the county. You’ll want to talk to the sheriff.”
“But they grabbed me at my house...in town.”
He rose to his feet and ran his fingers through his wavy brown hair. He spoke without turning back to look at her. “If you don’t mind my asking, why were those guys trying to kill you? What did you do?”
His tone was disconcerting. Did he actually think she was mixed up with something illegal? It had been a sore spot with them when they dated. His parents had never thought she was good enough for their football star son. His lawyer mother and business-owner father viewed her as the girl from the wrong side of the tracks. By that time, Crew was already having problems, too.
It didn’t matter that she had been a good student and never been in trouble. She didn’t have the wrong pedigree. She had no pedigree.
She took a deep breath and idly picked up one of the books in his stack. “They were looking for Crew.”
Bryan’s face brightened. “How is Crew?”
“I wish I could tell you. He has a drug and alcohol habit. Sometimes he has a place to live, sometimes not.” Now she was the one who sounded bitter. Crew, two years older than her, had been her protector when they were kids. But years of having to be an adult too soon had worn him down. He’d started out a petty thief and picked up a drug habit along the way.
Bryan stroked his chin. “I always liked Crew. I liked the way he looked out for you.”
Sarah felt a stab to her heart. Crew had made bad choices; she knew that. But the image that burned in her mind of her brother was of him offering her his last morsel of bread when they’d run away from an abusive foster home and hidden in the forest. Her heart warmed toward Bryan that he could remember the most positive thing about Crew, the reason she still loved her brother.
“I keep hoping he’ll turn things around.” And she wouldn’t give up that hope no matter how bad things looked.
Bryan stepped away from the window. “Sometimes people do, you know. Get their lives together.” He rested his gaze on her long enough to make her feel self-conscious. His look could still send an electric charge through her.
Sarah glanced down at the book she had picked up. C. S. Lewis, one of her favorite authors. But what was Bryan doing with a book like this? He’d never been interested in books with faith messages when she’d known him. Maybe his comment about people getting their lives together had been as much about himself as her brother. She hoped so. She’d found faith at the home where she stayed while she was pregnant. She’d gotten her life back on track at Naomi’s Place. Maybe somewhere along the road Bryan had had a similar transformation. She’d never stopped praying for him.
She put the book back on the stack. “We should get going.”
“Yeah, it’s a little bit of a hike to get to the truck.” Bryan walked across the room. “Do you want a drink of water before we go?”
She rose to her feet and stared out the windows that provided a panoramic view of the forest. “My throat is dry.” She still couldn’t figure out why Bryan would choose such a lonely job. He’d always been so outgoing. “How long do you stay up here at a time?”
Bryan lifted one of the gallon containers of water to the desk and retrieved a cup. “Three weeks on and one week off.”
She crossed her arms and stared down at the rocks and forest they had climbed through to get here. She saw a flash of yellow and then Deep Voice stepped free of the thick forest. His gaze traveled up toward the tower. Panic pulsed through her. “Bryan, I think we have a problem.”
THREE
Adrenaline flooded through Bryan’s body. The thug charged straight for them at a steady and intense pace. He was the bigger of the two men, muscular to an excess. The short, thin man must have taken off in the vehicle, maybe planning on taking the winding road that would eventually bring him to the other side of the fire-lookout tower in case his friend didn’t make it up the mountainside. It was a rookie mistake for Bryan to assume they’d both left in the SUV. He’d been too distracted by Sarah to think straight—and he was paying for that now.
“What do we do?” The fear in Sarah’s voice intensified.
His mind catapulted from one possibility to another. She was the prime target. He had to get her out of here.
Bryan flipped open the glass door that led to the catwalk, grabbed a length of rope and tied it off on the central post in the tower. “He’ll come up the stairs. You slip off this side of the tower. Go due east, and you’ll see a trail that leads to an open area. My truck is there.”
“But what about you?”
The look in her eyes was wild. She was so afraid. He longed to take her in his arms, but after all they had been through ten years ago, would she even accept his comfort? “I’ll hold him off.” He walked over to a box and pulled out a set of keys which he handed to her. “Go to town and get help. I’ll be all right.”
She shook her head. “We should stay together.”
“Go, Sarah. I can handle this guy.” He pushed her toward the door. They didn’t have time for a discussion.
She grabbed the rope, stepped out on the catwalk and moved to the edge of the tower. Her gaze locked on to him, longing filling her eyes. He’d seen that look before. She’d been a strong, resourceful young woman when he’d met her. But there was a vulnerable side to Sarah that stayed hidden from most people.
He pressed his hands against her face, kissed her forehead. “Go. You’ll be fine.”
The look of fear and doubt remained as she shook her head.
“And I’ll be okay, too,” he added.
She nodded, though the worry lines in her forehead intensified. She slipped off the side of the tower and disappeared from view.
He raced over to the radio. Where was his replacement? Had the sheriff made it out to the road by the lake and stopped the thug in the car? He had to let the authorities know what was happening. Before he could reach anyone, he heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs.
The fire tower door had no lock. He could buy Sarah precious minutes by holding this guy off. He’d taken down him and his cohort once before. This time it was only one man.
The footsteps intensified, grew louder.
Br
yan grabbed a steak knife. There was no closet, no place to hide and try to get the jump on the guy...or was there? He crawled out on the catwalk and pulled himself to the roof just as the door burst open.
He pressed flat against the roof, angling his head so he could see through the skylight. Maybe the assailant would look around, figure they hadn’t come to the fire tower and leave. That would be the best case scenario. He’d be able to catch up with Sarah and make sure she got safely into town.
From this angle he could see the top of the man’s head. There was a pistol in his hand. So, he had found the gun.
The thug surveyed the room. Then he noticed the open door where Sarah had escaped. Bryan cringed. In his haste, he’d forgotten to close it.
The assailant stomped through the open door that led to the catwalk. He studied the rope where Sarah had descended.
With his belly pressed against the roof, Bryan swung around, head facing downward on the slanted roof. Sarah should be emerging into an open section of the forest. If the thug looked in that direction, he would see her and know where she’d gone.
Bryan slid down the roof. The man looked up but had no time to brace himself before Bryan leapt on top of him, knocking him to the ground and breaking a section of the railing around the catwalk. Both men recovered and rose to their feet. Bryan was relieved to notice that the assailant had dropped his gun in the struggle. The narrow catwalk provided little room to maneuver. Bryan struck the man across the face, hoping to throw him off balance.
The man had a square jaw and eyes like slits. His lip curled back, revealing large teeth. He lunged toward Bryan. If he could get an upper hand, find a way to subdue him and restrain him, the sheriff could question him and find out why they were after Sarah’s brother.
“Where is the Langston woman?” The man barreled toward him.
Bryan dodged, but slipped off the edge of the catwalk where the railing had broken free. He fell to the rocky ground below. It took him a moment to recover. When he looked up, he couldn’t see the man.
