Manhunt (A Rocky Mountain Thriller Book 1)

by Ann Voss Peterson

He crooked a brow. “It’s been known to happen.”

  “No. Absolutely not.”

  “Did he want something to happen between you? Did you turn him down?”

  Mr. Barstow had always been nice to her, in his brusque way. But she’d never gotten the impression that he’d been interested in anything other than her doing her job. “No. There was nothing like that.”

  He frowned, as if her answer wasn’t good enough, as if he didn’t believe her.

  “I’m not dating anyone, least of all Mr. Barstow. I mind my own business. I’m a good employee. People don’t try to kill people like me. I’m an accountant, for crying out loud.” Frustration and exhaustion washed over her in a wave. Tears stung her sinuses and made her vision blur.

  It still felt so unreal. How had this happened? How had she gone from mild-mannered accountant to woman on the run? And how could she wake up from this nightmare and return to her quiet life?

  “You’re an accountant.”

  “Yes.”

  “So you deal with the financial end of the company.”

  “Yes.” She could see where he was going. “You think this has to do with money?”

  “Does it?”

  “I’ve racked my brain, and I can’t figure out how. I haven’t worked on anything out of the ordinary. I haven’t seen any numbers that were somehow…off.”

  “Are you sure? If Barstow has been skimming off the top…”

  She shook her head. “I’m sure. Mr. Barstow is not embezzling from the company.”

  Jace gave her a sideways glance. “People can come up with some pretty creative ways to skim. Ways that are tough to detect.”

  “Don’t I know it.” She almost laughed. “My ex-husband embezzled from the company where he worked, among other things. I’ve spent the last two years trying to help the authorities sort out the mess he made.”

  “Your ex-husband. Might this have something to do with him?”

  Shanna shut her eyes against another surge of emotion battering against her frayed nerves. During the long hours of hiking, she’d been raking her memory for some reason Mr. Barstow wanted her dead, picking apart every word he’d ever said to her, analyzing every syllable she’d said back. She hadn’t come up with a thing. Now having Jace pelting her with question after question was making her head feel as if it was about to explode. “Barstow never even knew my ex. I took the job at Talbot and moved to Palmer after my divorce.”

  “Where are you from?”

  “St. Louis.” She shook her head. She was done answering questions. She didn’t want to think about Kurt or St. Louis or her meeting last week with the SEC agent. She’d had enough of Kurt’s mess. She didn’t want him in her brain anymore. Except for Emily, of course, she wanted all traces of her marriage to go away.

  Too bad she couldn’t dismiss Mr. Barstow so easily.

  Or Jace. He refused to tell her anything about himself, yet she was beginning to suspect he wouldn’t stop until he’d unearthed every humiliation in her past, whether it had to do with the trouble she was in now or not. “I’m tired. I need to sleep. Unless you feel like sharing your life story.”

  He looked up at the sky, not bothering to answer.

  Of course not. Secrecy seemed to be a way of life with men…at least any man she’d tried to trust lately. They all had something to hide. None were what they seemed.

  And she couldn’t help but wonder who Jace Lantry really was.

  She followed Jace’s gaze up to the sky. More stars than seemed possible sparkled against the darkness. Shanna pulled in a breath of cold air. The Wyoming sky made her feel small, her problems insignificant. And at least in that, she could grasp a sliver of hope.

  She rested her head on the rock wall behind her. The plaintive howl of coyotes echoed off rock and disappeared into the vast sky. The wind picked up, ripping through the ridges and precipices above them, adding its wail to those of the animals.

  Shanna shivered. As tired as she was, she doubted she would sleep. Not with Barstow out there hunting her. Not with the entire sheriff’s department assisting him. Not holed up with a man who was little more than a stranger, a man who shifted from kindness to secrecy with the unpredictability of a mountain wind.

  ______

  The wind picked up just before dawn, and with it came an unmistakably sharp scent. Jace tilted his head back. No stars to the west. Not a good sign.

  He slipped his arm out from behind Shanna and thrust himself to his feet. He stepped as close to the edge of the ridge as he dared in the dim light and waited for the sun. As pink crested the east horizon, he scanned the area down ridge. Lodgepole pine, Englemann spruce and subalpine fir towered in thick clumps where rock sloped down into the canyon. Downed logs piled beneath them on the slope like a spilled box of toothpicks. Beyond the trees, the water of Bonner Lake reflected tumultuous clouds. They had a good two miles to reach the trail that rimmed Bonner Canyon. Already dark clouds shrouded the peaks to the west, lightning illuminating them in flashes. If they had any hope of making it before the storm hit full force, they’d better get a move on.

  “How far do we have left to go?”

  He started a little at her voice. He hadn’t heard her come up behind him. His powers of observation must be rusty. That, or yesterday’s exhaustion was taking its toll. “How far to Copperville? I’d guess about six miles, give or take.”

  “Oh, thank God.”

  He knew what she was thinking. Six miles was nothing compared to the distance they’d traveled yesterday. He needed to warn her. “The first four aren’t going to be easy.”

  “None of it’s been easy.”

  “Compared to what’s ahead, everything we’ve done so far was.”

  The little crease between her eyebrows that he’d noticed the day before dug deep. “You said it was all downhill.”

  “It is. But the path is tricky.” He hated to add to it, but she needed to know what they faced. “And snow is moving in.”

  She looked up at the sky. “Let’s get going, then.”

  He stole another peek at the rushing clouds, heavy and dark. His thoughts exactly.

  Having nothing to eat for breakfast even if they’d wanted it, which he sure as hell did, they set off down the trail. The first snow hit before they’d walked a quarter mile. Flakes whipped past them, big as pebbles. They swirled in the conflicting air currents rushing over the ridge. They settled into crevices, bringing out the texture of rock like powder in a fingerprint.

  “It’s beautiful,” Shanna yelled over the rushing wind. “Like the mountains are dusted with sugar.”

  He doubted she’d think that way for long.

  Little by little, sheets of blowing snow blotted out the sun. The vista before them turned to shades of gray. Wet rock faces took on the dull gleam of pewter. Wind howled through the ridges and peaks of rock above.

  Jace concentrated on the ground beneath his feet. The trail was there one moment, then swept away by waves of white the next. Snow blew off cliffs, spinning and twirling in the air, making him dizzy. He knew this trail, yet didn’t know it. He knew exactly where he was… or did he? He knew where he wanted to go, yet didn’t at all.

  His boots slipped, snow and ice turning the rock as slick as if it were covered in grease. His muscles burned. His lungs screamed for air. He felt like the rock was shifting under him with the wind, the snow.

  He gritted his teeth, tightened his grip on Shanna’s hand and plunged ahead. It had to be worse for her. He was used to physical work, used to the mountains, used to the harshness that weather could bring. Shanna was an accountant.

  But still, she kept up. Gripping his hand. Her footsteps following his.

  He squinted into the swirling gray and white. The shadow of rock loomed above. The flat glint of water. The rumble of a waterfall rose over the scream of the wind.

  He knew this place. He’d been here before, many times. And if they were this far, that meant they had made it down the ridge. Bonner Canyon opened bel
ow.

  They plowed forward. Stones rolled under his feet. Behind him, he could hear Shanna scramble to keep her footing. He reached back, grabbing her other arm to keep her from going down. He steered her into the lee of a boulder.

  She searched his eyes. Snowflakes clung to her eyelashes and blended with her hair. The frigid wind colored her cheeks a bright pink. Ridiculously, in the middle of a blizzard with their lives balancing as precariously as scree at the bottom of the canyon, all he could think about was how beautiful she looked.

  “You’re not going to tell me that was the easy part, are you?” she said.

  He sucked in a breath of cold through clenched teeth. “No. That was the hard part.”

  Her chest fell as if she’d been holding her breath for his answer.

  “But the next mile or so is no picnic.”

  “Too bad. I’m starving.” She smiled, but the expression looked as forced as her joke.

  He smiled back, the least he could do for her effort at levity. “We need to follow the rim of the canyon. There’s a trail, but it’s going to be pretty precarious in this snow.”

  She squinted ahead. “A trail? How are we going to see it? I can barely see your eyes.”

  Good damn question. Meandering and ill-defined, the path balanced near the canyon’s edge at several points. One wrong step or slip on the quickly accumulating snow, and they’d find themselves plunged into the icy lake below. Not exactly a refreshing dip. If the fall didn’t kill them, hypothermia surely would. Or drowning. “At least we can be sure no one will be able to follow.”

  “Because they would have to be crazy.”

  Exactly. But he thought better than to voice the confirmation. Shanna had been through a lot of challenges in the past twenty-four hours. Her humor seemed to be holding, but their ordeal wasn’t over yet.

  “Can’t we just stay here until this blows over?”

  “We could if we want to risk being trapped up here for a while.”

  “How long?”

  “Hard to say. Could be a few hours. Could be until next spring.”

  Brow furrowed, she squinted out into the gray world. “Then let’s go.”

  He held out his palm. She placed her hand in his. A surge of heat laced his blood and coursed through his body. Heat of desire and awareness and admiration.

  Heat he couldn’t let himself feel.

  He stepped slowly along the snow-obscured path. He’d better keep his eyes open and tread carefully. One bad step and he’d plunge both of them into a world of hurt.

  CHAPTER SIX

  BY THE TIME SHANNA AND Jace made it around the canyon and through the narrow pass to the foothills sloping into Copperville, the mountains were covered in a blanket of white. Shanna’s muscles were past burning, past exhaustion, past weakness. Pain had taken up permanent perch in her shoulders and neck. Given a hard cot in a dry room, she could sleep for a week.

  The land sloping down to Copperville was shockingly different from the mountains they’d just left. Down here, no sign of snow touched the grass. Instead of the crisp snap of winter, rain-dampened sagebrush perfumed the air. Instead of subalpine forest and canyons, oil rigs and quarries dotted the open range.

  Talbot invested in energy interests all over the state, but while Shanna was familiar with the numbers associated with several of the companies in the area, she had never actually visited any of them. She was little more than a stranger.

  They walked along a dirt road for several miles before reaching the highway leading to Copperville. The town itself was small. Once an abandoned copper mine, it was now experiencing rapid growth. An energy boomtown, like many others in the area, including her current hometown of Palmer.

  Jace veered off the street at a small steel building backing up to the wooded banks of a creek. A sign out front proclaimed the place The White Elephant Store, and from the look of it, it sold secondhand furniture and close-out items. No doubt a popular place with oil-field hands and miners that flooded the area looking for items to furnish their temporary living arrangements.

  Jace motioned to Shanna to follow him around the corner of the building. He stopped in a protected area facing the creek.

  Shanna scanned the blazing cottonwoods and gurgling water. “Why are we stopping here?”

  He gestured across the street. A stone building with smoke-clouded windows sat next to a weed-choked lot that likely wouldn’t be vacant long. The Hideout Saloon.

  “Appropriate name,” she joked.

  Jace didn’t laugh. “And maybe a good place to gather some information. I’m going in to see what I can learn.”

  “Okay. Let’s go.”

  “Just me.” He held out a hand, blocking her path. “You stay put.”

  She glanced from Jace to the bar and back again. She didn’t understand what he was trying to say. They had crossed the county line. Why would she hover behind a furniture store when she needed to be calling the sheriff? “They probably have a phone. I can call for help.”

  “It’s not that simple.”

  “Why not?”

  “A sheriff can’t just call out his deputies like some sort of private army. Not even a crook like Benson Gable. They have some reason to look for you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re not just wanted by your boss now, you’re wanted by the law.”

  “The law?” She knew what he was saying made sense—there had been the roadblock. The deputy’s car at the junkyard. But she’d been so focused on getting to Copperville and getting help, it took a moment for her to change gears. “I didn’t do anything.”

  “If Barstow and the sheriff say you did, if they can come up with evidence that you did, then until a court says otherwise, you did. Even in this county. That whole thing about innocent until proven guilty doesn’t mean you won’t be thrown in jail in the meantime.”

  “What could they possibly say I did?” She voiced the question, but she already had an idea of the answer. “The lover’s spat.”

  “That’s the story Gable gave me. You tried to shoot your boyfriend. Attempted murder.”

  What a laugh. She hadn’t been involved with a man since Kurt left. And her jittery attraction to Jace aside, she didn’t intend that to change anytime soon. “Doesn’t it matter if their story is a lie?”

  “Not if it’s tight enough. Not if they can show some sort of evidence.”

  She gnawed on the inside of her lip and tried to remain calm. She was so close to safety. So close to returning to Emily. So close to ending this nightmare.

  “Obviously their first choice was for you to die in a hunting accident. When that didn’t work, they figured out another way to bring you down. Shot hunting, shot trying to flee the sheriff’s department, it all adds up to the same thing. Shot.”

  “The way you’re talking, I can’t win. Maybe I should turn myself in to the deputies. They’ll at least have to arrest me, instead of just shooting me. Then I can prove I’m innocent of whatever they’re saying I did.”

  He tilted his head, as if that was a possibility to consider. “Why don’t we find out what you’re up against first?”

  “Okay. But I’m going with you.”

  “You can’t do that. For all we know, your picture is all over television.”

  He’d warned her about what might happen, but he had yet to give her a reason to hide out like some kind of criminal. She hadn’t done anything. She’d had enough of acting as though she had. “So what? If I can’t make all of it go away, why shouldn’t I at least get it over with as soon as I can?”

  He pressed his lips into a grim line. “No one knows I’m helping you.”

  “And you don’t want them to.” She got that part. Still, the unease she’d felt during their hike through the mountains gnawed at the back of her neck. There was more to Jace’s helping her than met the eye. She was sure of it. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “It will only take a few minutes to find out what’s going on. You can make y
our decision after we have some facts.”

  She shook her head. “That’s not good enough. If you want me to wait here for you, you’re going to have to tell me why.”

  He pulled his hat from his head and ran a hand through his hair before clapping the hat back on his head. Pushing a resigned breath through tight lips, he met her eyes. “Because I’ve done some time in jail. And as soon as they find out I helped you escape the sheriff back at my place, they’ll put me right back.”

  Shanna leaned against the building’s corrugated steel siding. She didn’t know what she’d expected Jace to say, but it wasn’t this. “Jail? What for?”

  “I crossed a man with a lot of money, and I paid the price.”

  Her mind stuttered, still trying to fit the word jail into her impression of Jace. “So that’s what you have against Mr. Barstow? He reminds you of someone else? Someone responsible for throwing you in jail?”

  “Something like that. Now, are you going to stay put while I find out what’s going on or not?”

  Shanna crossed her arms over her chest. She’d thought Jace was a lot of things…a cowboy, a mountain man, a cynic. There were times on their trek through the mountains that she’d even wanted him to be a hero. But it never occurred to her he was some kind of criminal. Some kind of jailbird. It just proved what Linda said all along. Shanna was too gullible. Too trusting. Men were never what they seemed. At least not what Shanna wanted them to be. It was time she got used to it.

  “Shanna?” He was waiting for an answer.

  She bobbed her head in a nod. She wouldn’t drag him into her mess. Not any deeper than he was already. It was the least she could do after he’d risked his own skin to get her to Copperville.

  He touched her arm. “Are you okay?”

  She waved off his concern. “I’m fine. Surprised. After all that’s happened, I didn’t think I could be anymore. I guess I was wrong.”

  He opened his mouth, as if he wanted to explain, then closed it without uttering a word.

  Maybe it was better that way. Maybe the less she knew, the better off she was. “Don’t be long.”

  ______