False Security
False Security
Elizabeth Goddard
NO SAFE HAVENArriving at her secluded cabin to find her brother missing, Olivia Kendricks follows his trail into the woods—until two shooters take aim at her. She only escapes when ex-detective Zachary Long, her brother’s friend—and Olivia’s first love—comes to her rescue. Now as they run for their lives in the snowbound wilderness, they must search for her brother while figuring out why someone wants them dead. And though Zach’s police force training may be what will save them, it’s also what once drove them apart when he gave Olivia up to chase his dream. In a freezing landscape as deadly as it is beautiful, they’ll have to let go of the past…and face down powerful men willing to kill to keep secrets buried.
NO SAFE HAVEN
Arriving at her secluded cabin to find her brother missing, Olivia Kendricks follows his trail into the woods—until two shooters take aim at her. She only escapes when ex-detective Zachary Long, her brother’s friend—and Olivia’s first love—comes to her rescue. Now as they run for their lives in the snowbound wilderness, they must search for her brother while figuring out why someone wants them dead. And though Zach’s police force training may be what will save them, it’s also what once drove them apart when he gave Olivia up to chase his dream. In a freezing landscape as deadly as it is beautiful, they’ll have to let go of the past...and face down powerful men willing to kill to keep secrets buried.
“I don’t need your protection.”
Hurt flickered in his gaze then vanished behind a stone cold stare. Oh...I didn’t mean to say that. She hadn’t meant to hurt him. When would it ever end?
Her legs trembled with fear and her lips weren’t far behind. She wouldn’t let him see her like this—though why she wanted to hide that from him she wasn’t sure. After all, someone was trying to kill them and she was scared. But she didn’t want him to protect her. She didn’t want to be that vulnerable.
Did she have a choice?
And wasn’t Zach scared too? Trying to read his mind, sense his emotional state, wouldn’t do either of them any good. Again, she averted her gaze, listening, watching for the shooters as she caught her breath.
Zach gently touched her chin and turned her to face him. “Are you okay?”
It hurt when he touched her like that, all gentle and caring. She didn’t want that from him, or for him to see that she was absolutely not okay.
Dear Reader (#uc1d17cac-c789-57ee-a5b9-b951a9064ecc),
Thank you so much for reading False Security. I hope you enjoyed it! Have you ever been snowmobiling? My husband and I rode snowmobiles on a guided tour through Yellowstone National Park—eighty miles—for one of our anniversaries. It’s an exhilarating experience, to be sure. I tried to share some of that exhilaration in my story.
As often happens in novels, there are several themes that run through the story. Readers will usually pick up on one theme that resonates with them. In regards to writing this letter, I selected the theme that resonated with me (in my own story!) in the strongest way.
During the course of writing this, my mom passed away. I couldn’t have imagined how difficult it would be to put simple words on paper. I’m thrilled that God answered my prayers and that the required contracted story was produced. But not without a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Adding to my personal loss are many other serious issues I’ve struggled with the last couple of years.
Of course I pray and sometimes wonder if God hears me. I question His silence or the answers that come in ways I hadn’t expected. I realized, too, that I felt so emotionally and psychologically bruised that it was palpable in a very visceral and physical way. Then I pictured myself in a river, fighting to survive and bumping into the rocks and branches and becoming bruised for my efforts.
I had an epiphany at that moment—if I would simply stop fighting that which I could not control, and “go with the flow” as we so often hear—then I wouldn’t be so bruised. You might remember reading similar references in the story when Zach thinks of the Rogue River and feels like he’s being tossed and twisted in the white-water rapids, being bruised for his efforts to stay alive. He comes to the realization that he should let go and trust God.
So that is the message I hope will resonate with you. Psalm 46:10 in the King James Bible reads “Be still and know that I am God,” or as the NASB version translates, “Cease striving and know that I am God.”
I pray for His many blessings and favor in your life!
If you haven’t signed up for my Great Escapes newsletter, please visit my website today at ElizabethGoddard.com (http://www.ElizabethGoddard.com), where you can also connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.
Blessings!
Elizabeth Goddard
ELIZABETH GODDARD is the award-winning author of more than thirty novels and novellas. A 2011 Carol Award winner, she’s a double finalist in the 2016 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, and a 2016 Carol Award finalist. Elizabeth graduated with a computer science degree and worked in high-level software sales before retiring to write full-time.
False Security
Elizabeth Goddard
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted
among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.
—Psalms 46:10
To Mom. Oh, how I miss you! But we will be together again in glory with our Lord and savior, Christ Jesus.
Acknowledgments (#uc1d17cac-c789-57ee-a5b9-b951a9064ecc)
I’ve lost the person who inspired me to become an avid reader and the person who was the greatest influence on my life in this writing endeavor, but regardless, I want to thank my mother for loving me and raising me to know the Lord so that I may have the hope of seeing her again one day soon. And as always, I appreciate the encouragement I receive daily from the dear writing friends God has brought into my life, and for my awesome editor, Elizabeth Mazer, and my amazing agent, Steve Laube, who makes me feel like I’m his only client.
Contents
Cover (#u81d35762-5a25-508d-8b18-a736d8ab6c21)
Back Cover Text (#uf6278068-6667-5f1e-a8f0-3d941b6ea9d9)
Introduction (#u20bb5779-b8af-50eb-bed4-5096d1629274)
Dear Reader (#u37a8bf9f-3194-56c7-9008-b7e84ad37d54)
About the Author (#u17a9430a-bd5e-53cb-97ac-a9cba6d5a12e)
Title Page (#u062e3998-8174-526c-851c-bf3788d01fb3)
Bible Verse (#u8cd8af8b-7153-5a9c-84df-e480c66229fc)
Dedication (#uad8cbdb2-1425-5fa5-a568-5227459e984b)
Acknowledgments (#u2a0f9337-4f0e-506a-ba1e-03372ec01f8e)
ONE (#ub4577a02-9a54-5b79-9765-59fdab3fc48d)
TWO (#uf3635d39-0ec8-5652-bc43-ae7a7cecd35f)
THREE (#u8fb05ad4-1881-571b-bb03-70702ddcb7f6)
FOUR (#udce7cca8-92cd-5463-a941-3fe477d2be30)
FIVE (#u5321e2a6-d860-5901-bcaa-f69471e1c429)
SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
NINETEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
TWENTY (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
ONE (#uc1d17cac-c789-57ee-a5b9-b951a9064ecc)
Siskiyou Mountains, southwest Oregon
Olivia Kendricks slowed the snowmobile as she drew near the house, flakes growing thicker by the minute, etching the roof, fireplace and window seals in white and turning her home into a cottage from a Thomas Kinkade painting. Even after two winters here, that picturesque scene always filled her with peace.
Except today. Instead of that sense of peace, an eerie feeling crept over her.
Olivia continued forward. Traveling by snowmobile provided the best way to get here in the winter, unless she wanted to plow the long, curvy drive up the mountain when several feet of the white stuff buried the road. And she didn’t. Besides, Olivia enjoyed the ride.
She lived for it.
The whine of the snowmobile resounded through the forest, echoing off the snow-covered trees as she steered the vehicle all the way in. She parked next to the covered garage protecting her old truck, then turned off the ignition.
Something was wrong. What was it?
Then she realized the lights were off in the house.
Strange.
She removed her helmet, shook out her hair and slid off the vehicle. Flakes accumulated in her lashes and she wiped them away as she entered the front door of the family vacation cabin where she’d taken up residence. There were no relatives left to enjoy it as a getaway anymore—well except her brother, Rich, whom she hadn’t seen since their mother’s funeral three years before.
That is, until yesterday.
Stomping her boots at the entrance, she hoped to disturb her brother into letting her know he was still here.
The dark house that greeted her said differently.
“Rich? Where are you?” She flicked on the lights as she made her way through the vacation-getaway-turned-cozy-home toward the room he’d slept in last night. The same room he’d used as a boy during their stays. Had he left without even saying goodbye? She hoped she’d find the few things he’d brought with him still in the room. Hoped he would stick around for a while and give them both some time to work through their issues of the past, though Rich might not be as keen to resolve them.
His backpack lay on the bed, flap hanging open and jeans and gear sprawled out. Relief swooshed through her. At least he hadn’t left for good. Maybe he’d just gone out for a walk or even a snowmobile ride.
At the kitchen sink, Olivia poured a glass of water and glanced out the window, noting the snowmobile he’d ridden to the house was gone. And something...there was something in the snow.
Frowning, Olivia hurried out the back door.
Blood.
Her breath caught.
Crimson stained the snow and would soon be buried beneath a fresh layer. She let her gaze follow the path the snowmobile had taken away from the house. A trail of blood lined the tracks.
Her heart seized.
Rich!
But she couldn’t let panic take hold. She had to follow that trail before the blood was hidden forever under layers of snow.
“Rich!” Olivia’s gaze searched the woods even as she ran around to the front of the house for her own snowmobile.
She had to catch up to him and make sure he was okay.
Questions bombarded her as she hurried. What had happened? Why was he hurt?
Still in her snowmobile suit, she grabbed gloves and a helmet, then got back on the vehicle. Concern ratcheting up her respiration, she started the machine and sped around the house to follow in Rich’s blood-spotted wake before she could no longer see the tracks. Her heart stumbled as the image of the crimson trail accosted her, but she had to focus.
Off-road and through the ungroomed woods, she’d have to be careful of hidden obstacles and fallen trees. Her eyes strained to follow the tracks and watch where she was going. His zigzagging path showed he had steered haphazardly through the woods.
“Rich!” she called through the opening in her helmet—she’d left the visor up—though she wasn’t sure if he would hear her over the snowmobile.
Living this secluded in these woods, she’d traded the safety and security of knowing that she could call 911 and get a quick response for her privacy, peace and quiet. Now she regretted that decision. She had a satellite phone that didn’t work so well on cloudy days, and a radio she shared with the Wilderness, Inc. crew, but that was iffy in the mountains.
She was on her own up here for the most part.
They were on their own.
Calling his name again, she continued between the trees, grateful the thick evergreen canopy prevented the falling snow from breaking through and hiding the tracks as quickly here. At least she hadn’t seen more blood, which meant that somehow he’d been able to slow the bleeding or stop it completely.
The snowmobile ground over lumps of buried boulders, and skipped along over recently fallen branches covered in fresh powder. She had to be careful that she didn’t get stuck.
Why would a man who was bleeding like that get on a snowmobile and ride off into the woods?
Up ahead, Olivia spotted a snowmobile. She sped forward until she was close enough to identify it as the one Rich had used to come to the house. The snow machine was turned on its side up against a tree.
Olivia let her gaze search for any sign of Rich, fear pricking her neck like icy daggers. He could die from his injury, or he could die from hypothermia, but why had he left the house?
Had he been running from someone? Olivia wouldn’t normally jump to such conclusions, except Hadley Wilde had come to this region to hide because she’d been running from an assassin and that’s when she’d met and married Cooper Wilde, Wilderness, Inc. owner and Olivia’s boss. Since Hadley had hidden here, it wasn’t so far-fetched to think Rich had come here to hide from someone and had been attacked. It wasn’t as if he’d expected to find Olivia living in the house. They hadn’t spoken since their mom’s funeral.
A sudden chill, much colder than the air around her, slid up her spine.
She searched the woods again for his tracks, but they were now long gone.
“Rich!” she called.
She was torn about what to do. Should she keep searching until she found him or go back for help? Either decision could be the wrong choice. She could be too late to save him either way.
God, what should I do? I can’t just leave him out here. He needs help now!
Indecision twisted her insides.
Another snowmobile approached. Friend or foe? Who else would be up here besides her, Rich and whoever was the reason he’d fled the house?
Run!
Her mind screamed but her legs struggled to respond.
As the rider parked next to Rich’s snowmobile, she backed away and pressed her hand against a tree trunk as though she could turn it into a weapon if needed. A knife in her pocket her only real weapon, she slipped her other hand around the hilt, wishing for the gun she’d left in her bedroom.
The rider slid from the snowmobile and pulled his visor up. Familiarity wrapped around her.
She didn’t think the man was Coop or Gray, or anyone else from the Wilderness, Inc. crew. She stepped closer. “Who... Do I know you?”
But then she noticed his eyes. Those ice-blue eyes like the color of snow in the shadows—she would never forget them.
He pulled his helmet off, his own surprise at seeing her still registering on his rugged features, his winter-wheat hair thick but mussed from the helmet.
Zachary Long.
Gone were the smooth but chiseled features of the younger man she’d known and loved. A pang shot through her. Ten years had changed him significantly. His handsome features were stronger, the sharp look of life’s experiences and losses evident in his gaze, and it almost sucked the oxygen from her.
“Olivia?”
His voice wrapped around her, cradling her against the shock of seeing him. “Zach. What...what are you doing here?”
Olivia shook off the rush of emotion. “No. Scratch that. It doesn’t matter. I need to find Rich. He’s bleeding somewhere out there. I don’t know where. The weather is turning bad and I have to find him!”
Lines creased Zach’s forehead, growing deeper between his brows. He acted as if he wanted to ask questions but thought better of it and gave a subtle shake of his head.
“Let’s get some help.” He removed his gloves and pulled out his smartphone. “If I can’t make the call, I’ll try a text. Something has to go through.”
Olivia wanted to laugh at that, except this was no laughing matter.
“Who could I text locally—”
Bark exploded from the tree next to her.
* * *
“Get down!” Zach hadn’t been sure he could find the old Kendricks vacation place when Rich had left his cryptic and urgent message about meeting him there, but he’d been a detective in Portland long enough to know when to heed that sense something was wrong.
And he’d just gotten his confirmation.
The sound of gunfire still echoed from the shot. Zach’s mind registered the danger as reflex took over.
He lunged for Olivia and threw her to the ground, pinning her under him to protect her. He remained in that position, waiting, listening.
“Why is someone shooting at us?” he whispered through the opening in her helmet, his face close to hers. This could have everything to do with Rich and his message.
“Get off me!”
Her harsh tone startled him. He’d only tried to protect her. Apparently she didn’t need protecting. Didn’t she understand it was second nature to him as an officer of the law? Make that an ex-officer, ex-detective with the Portland Police Department.
He rolled away. “Stay down.”
Zach crept over to hide behind the snowmobiles, trying to get a look at who had fired the shot. Olivia crawled over to him and another bullet pinged against the snowmobile closest to her. Another hit the tree behind him.
To let the assailant know Zach had come armed and prepared, he reached for the weapon in his shoulder holster, chambered a round and fired toward the shooter to hold him off. Even though he was no longer a detective, he still carried a weapon, his concealed weapon permit legal anywhere in the state of Oregon. This incident confirmed the necessity.
He hoped the rounds he fired would hold off the shooter while he and Olivia made a quick plan.
“I said to stay down.” He turned to look at her, softening his expression. She didn’t seem to notice he’d snapped at her, but under the circumstances, that hardly mattered.
She glared at him. “I’m not a child.”
Take that back. She had noticed his harsh tone. “Someone is shooting at us. At you. What’s going on, Olivia?”
“I don’t know.” She crouched behind her snowmobile, a few feet from him.
Entirely too far away for him to adequately shield her if needed.
“We can’t stay here.” He searched the woods around them to make sure they were not being ambushed from behind.
“But we’re safe behind the snowmobiles for now, aren’t we?” she asked.
“If there’s more than one shooter, we’re going to get pinned down if we sit here.”
Zach listened for movement, but all he heard was the gentle sound of snow falling through the trees. Unfortunately, the soft white stuff created a cushioned ground and would likely mute the shooter’s approach if he decided to move in.
“What do you suggest?” Olivia inched close enough for him to see the flecks of gold in her warm cinnamon eyes.
Zach used to vacation here with his best friend Rich—Olivia’s brother—and his family. A lot had happened since the last time he’d been here. But he’d never forget that special summer fourteen years ago when he was seventeen and Olivia had turned fifteen—it had been the first time he’d thought of her as more than Rich’s kid sister. Four years later he was on the cusp of entering the police academy and proposing marriage to Olivia when it all fell apart. Not now! Not now... Terror filled her eyes, yanking him back. Gripping his heart and squeezing. He shoved the memories away. “I’m thinking.” He peered around the bow of the vehicle. Nothing. He saw nothing but wilderness.
“Well, think faster.” Olivia slid away from him.
“I don’t know the area like you do,” he said. “So you’re going to have to lead us out of here.”
“You mean on foot?”
He nodded. “We’re not getting out of here on the snowmobiles, at least not yet. We’d be too exposed if we got on them now. We can’t risk it.”
He eyed the area on this side of the vehicles. Through the white-frosted evergreens he spotted a slope.
Zach gestured toward it. “Where does that lead?”
“There’s a dip down to a small brook.”
“Where will it take us?”
Olivia shrugged. “Away from here.”
A spray of bullets splintered the trees near them. A semiautomatic. Once again, Zach’s protective nature reared up and he reached for Olivia, wrapping his arms and body around her like a shield to cover her.
The shooters—and now he was certain there was more than one who carried rapid-firing deadly weapons—weren’t backing down.
If Rich had only given him more information he could have prepared.
He couldn’t have imagined he’d be following a trail of blood and snowmobile tracks to find Olivia out here in the wilderness searching for her brother. And now as he looked at her, he saw the girl he’d once loved had grown into a beautiful, capable woman. Her reddish-brown locks spilled from beneath the helmet, curling around the collar of her black-and-pink snowmobile suit, and the eyes that stared at him now could hurt him all over again if he let her.
But that wasn’t important.
What mattered most was that he had to keep her safe and track down her brother before the shooters killed them all. And find out why someone was shooting at them. Olivia and Rich’s life depended on Zach now. The irony! He’d relinquished the job he loved and was no longer a police officer or a detective.
Maybe he was no longer officially sworn to protect, but the motto remained in his bones.
If only he hadn’t failed to protect when it mattered most.
TWO (#uc1d17cac-c789-57ee-a5b9-b951a9064ecc)
Olivia screamed as bark splintered from the trees next to them. Why was someone shooting at them?
Zach’s solid form shielded her, protected her. As much as she didn’t like his proximity, she couldn’t think what else to do.
He grabbed her shoulders, his face near hers. “Stick close to me, we’re getting out of here, but keep low. Once we slide down far enough that the hill can protect us, we have to run for it.”
Dazed, she stared at him.
“Are you listening?” He shook her shoulders.
She nodded but still struggled to comprehend what was happening.
“Think, Olivia, where are we going to run to? Where can we hide? You have to take us there.”
“Okay, I got it.”
Would anyone hear all the rapid gunfire? If they did, she doubted they would think much about it. People often took to the woods to practice shooting.
God, please let someone come to investigate and help us!
She pressed herself deep into the snow like Zach had done and slid down the slope. Except they left a big fat trail that anyone could follow.
Now she wished the snowfall would break completely through the canopy and cover their path. If they could make it to a clearing, or where the trees weren’t so thick, maybe they could lose the shooters. But then they’d be easy targets. No good solution presented itself.
“Hurry,” Zach whispered.
He’d already dropped to the brook. Olivia’s pounding heart leaped to her throat.
Shoving, pushing hard, she slid until she was far enough down the hill that she could crouch without getting hit by a bullet. Then she hiked the rest of the way down to Zach.
Determination flashed in his gaze as he grabbed her gloved hand. Together they followed the nearly frozen brook, running where they could, and slowing in places where the snow grew too deep. With the effort, white clouds puffed out as her lungs labored to supply oxygen to her frantic heart.
Life and death.
This was a matter of life and death.
Hadn’t she wanted a quiet life? She’d moved here from Portland to put distance between her and tragedy. And now...this. Anger churned inside, fueling her strides.
Rich had done this. There was no other explanation. Olivia had asked why he’d come back to the States and he’d replied that he was finished working for the private military contract security company in the Middle East. He’d been restless, if not distressed.
Oh, Rich. What have you gotten yourself into? What have you gotten us into?
He’d brought these men here after him. She knew that in her gut. And now they were after her, too. Her and Zach. The man she wanted to forget, along with all that had gone wrong in her life, was in the mix, as well. Though he’d taken the lead, she pushed ahead of him. He didn’t know where to go. He didn’t know the area like she did and had said as much.
Still, she needed to hear from him. Did he have any ideas? An escape plan? “Where do you want me to take us, Zach? Where should we head?”
“Let’s lead them away from the snowmobiles, lose them, and then we can backtrack so we can ride out of here.”
She ducked under a branch. A bullet sliced across her helmet.
“Olivia!” Zach pushed her to the ground again.
“Will you stop doing that?” She pushed him off.
“Get behind the trees!”
She did as he asked, and together they crawled over and hid behind a thick-trunked pine—wide enough they could both press their backs against it. Catching her breath, she looked up and watched huge flakes dance on the air and flutter down toward her. They landed on her face and stuck in her lashes. She blinked them away.
Pulling her helmet off, she examined the damage. That had been close, much too close. She stashed it to the side, intending to leave it behind. The bright pink of the helmet had been intentional, meant to be visible in the woods to prevent hunters from shooting her by mistake. But now wasn’t the time for visibility.
“Good idea.” Zach peered at her, nodding his approval. “If anything, that helmet makes you an easy target.”
His icy blues turned more intense. Olivia peered out into the woods, looking anywhere and at anything except Zach. Sitting this close to him when she’d wanted to forget him, and having him with her in this far too surreal situation, would be her undoing if the shooters didn’t get her first.
“But without the helmet, you’re far too exposed.” He tugged his white helmet off. “Take mine.”
She whipped her gaze around to his. Yeah. Much too close. “What? No. Zach,” she whispered. “I’m not wearing your helmet. So put that back on.”
“I didn’t ask.”
Fury boiled inside. “I don’t need your protection.”
Hurt flickered in his gaze then vanished behind a stone cold stare. Oh... I didn’t mean to say that. She hadn’t meant to hurt him. When would it ever end?
Her legs trembled with fear and her lips weren’t far behind. She wouldn’t let him see her like this—a weak, scared little girl—though why she wanted to hide that from him she wasn’t sure. After all, someone was trying to kill them and she was scared. There wasn’t any reason to be ashamed of that. But she didn’t want him to protect her. She didn’t want to be that vulnerable.
Did she have a choice?
And wasn’t Zach scared, too? Trying to read his mind, sense his emotional state, wouldn’t do either of them any good. Again, she averted her gaze, listening, watching for the shooters as she caught her breath.
Zach gently touched her chin and turned her to face him. “Are you okay?”
It hurt when he touched her like that, all gentle and caring. She didn’t want that from him, or for him to see that she was absolutely not okay. But he probably already knew. “I don’t know how to answer that.”
He studied her, his blue-eyed gaze seeming to soak up every inch of her face. For a split second, she worried about her appearance. But she’d long ago given up the smoky eye shadow, snow plum blush and deep mauve lipstick she used to put on for him. Her self-consciousness fell away as she realized he hadn’t donned the helmet after her refusal to wear it, and that gave her ample opportunity to take him in up close and personal. That smattering of day-old stubble across his strong jaw. A few crow’s-feet that hadn’t yet emerged around his intense blue eyes when she’d last been this close to him. Protection practically spilled off him. That and something she couldn’t read behind his gaze. But maybe she shouldn’t even try.
Still...what was he thinking?
“We need to get moving.” He hesitated, then asked, “Can you lead us the long way around to the snowmobiles so we can get out of here? That is, if they haven’t already disabled the machines so we couldn’t do just that.”
“I can try. But what about Rich? I still need to find him. I can’t leave without him.”
She hadn’t wanted to entertain the possibility that Rich was already dead. She wouldn’t let her thoughts go there, but the hope she’d held on to was quickly slipping away.
“We’ll find him, don’t worry. But don’t forget he’s ex-military. He’s trained to survive. My priority is getting you to safety.” Zach suddenly stiffened and angled his head. He ducked low and peered around the tree. “Time to go.”
Zach stood and clambered around as he pressed his back against the tree. “I’m going to hold them off. You keep hidden behind the trees as you run and try get as far away as you can. Just keep going.”
“What? I thought you wanted us to make our way back to the snowmobiles? I’m not leaving you. I don’t want to find Rich only to have to come back and find you.”
“You won’t have to find me. I’ll be right behind you. I’m just giving you a head start.”
Zach aimed and fired off his weapon, the sound ricocheting through her head, ringing in her ears. Okay, well, maybe she could put some distance between them.
He fired another round, and then another in rapid succession. She wished for her own weapon, the one she’d left at home. She could help Zach. He would run out of ammo soon.
“Go, Olivia. I’ll find you. I can’t hold them off forever. Don’t make me waste these bullets.”
Just as she would have turned from him, he grabbed her collar and pulled her face close to his. His chest rose and fell, and the intensity in his eyes as he appeared to drink her in stole her breath away. “Be careful out there, Olivia. Don’t take any chances. I promise I’ll find you.”
For a split second, in the midst of lethal danger, her mind flooded with memories of kissing him. Her senses tingled. Her breaths came quicker, but not from the danger. Then he pushed away. “Go!”
She scrambled from him, keeping to the trees as he fired. She had to make this count and try to hide as she escaped.
Deep inside she felt like she was running from much more than bullets. She was running from past hurts she’d wanted to forget—she was running from Zachary Long.
Was there any way out of this situation, any possibility of survival that didn’t include Zach doing the thing he loved, the thing he’d left her for—serving and protecting? Risking his life for her. She should be glad she had a police officer, a detective, here to help her through this. But she couldn’t bring herself to be glad for it.
He loved the danger. The thrill of it ran through his blood since he came from a family of police officers, but Olivia had lost too much already with the death of her own police officer father when she was just eighteen. And she wasn’t willing to go through that again.
A bullet whizzed too closely and hit a tree to her right. She ducked, then crouched as she moved between a copse of Douglas firs and ponderosa pines. Would Zach be able to hold them off? And even if he did, then what?
What about him? How was he going to survive and find her? And just where should she go? Questions barraged her when she wanted tunnel vision, to focus on a single goal.
Running for her life. Escaping.
She pressed on, plowing through waist-deep snow, gripping branches for support in her push to escape, to get far from the assailants. All the while, she never stopped searching the woods for any sign of Rich.
There was none.
It was as if he’d simply disappeared from that snowmobile.
She believed he hadn’t fallen into the hands of these guys after them or else why were they after her and Zach if they had the person they’d come for? Could she be wrong about all of it?
Finally, exhaustion slowed her efforts. Her sluggish legs burning, Olivia leaned against a tree. She would wait for Zach here while she caught her breath. Rest her muscles, slow the hammer in her heart.
He would never find her if she didn’t stop. As her breathing calmed, she had the chance to get her bearings. A few feet from where she stood the ground dropped away into a deep fissure—a crack at least seventy feet deep or more. She knew about it from her summer hikes, but in the winter hidden dangers grew more treacherous. Snow and ice covered the fissure, hiding it in places.
She would definitely need to wait here for Zach, if for no other reason than to warn him and keep him from plummeting to his death in the crevice. She wasn’t sure if it was wrong but she wished that fate on the shooters.
A brutal storm moved in quickly. Could her predicament get any worse? Still, a raging snowstorm, possibly with blizzard-force winds, would also be a problem for the bad guys. They’d need shelter, too, and they couldn’t follow Zach and Olivia’s footprints.
A new cause for panic settled in her chest. Zach hadn’t caught up with her yet. In a snowstorm, would he be able to find her? Here she was hoping the storm would hide her tracks from the shooters, but if Zach hadn’t found her by then, he never would.
A twig snapped. Someone approached—had they seen her? Once again she found herself asking if she would see friend or foe. She’d long ago lost her knife in the scramble down to the brook. She grabbed a big branch she could use for a weapon and waited, the element of surprise her only advantage.
A figured moved past. She recognized Zach’s thick head of wheat hair as he stumbled forward into the deep snow around the group of Douglas firs where she’d been hiding. He’d followed her tracks, just as they would. But she was more than glad to see him.
“Zach!”
Bending next to him, she grabbed his arm and assisted him up and out of the thick white powder. Then Olivia threw her arms around him. “Zach, I was afraid you wouldn’t find me before the snow covered my tracks.”
She quickly dropped her arms and looked him up and down. “Are you hurt?”
He shook his head, too out of breath to answer her. Then finally, “They’re not too far behind so we need to keep moving. If we’re fortunate, we’ll get a blizzard.”
Zach had been counting on her to lead the way since she’d had many summers to explore the area before she’d made the vacation home permanent. With Rich’s sudden appearance, and just as sudden disappearance, and then the shooters, she’d been slow to process the events.
But beyond this stand of firs, she remembered the orange-trunked madrone trees and a few maples before the rocks. And then...
“Come on, I know where we can hide.”
He angled his head, his intense gaze catching hers, radiating reassurance as if to say, I knew you would.
His confidence in her had her heart dancing when it shouldn’t, especially in the middle of this threat. Still, she could use that to bolster her courage.
“Come on.” She held out her hand and he took it.
Olivia pointed out the fissure to Zach, just to be sure he wouldn’t fall to his death if he came back this way.
“I think I remember that from before.”
“Good. Just making sure. But you know what, maybe we could lure the shooters this way, trick them into falling in.”
Zach’s face twisted up. “Only as a last resort. No. Just no.”
“Fine.”
And as Zach had wished, the wind drove the snow hard into icy pinpricks against her face. They might even find themselves in a whiteout. Bad news, but they could use this development to their advantage.
Olivia kept to the trees as she led Zach, holding his hand as they hiked through what seemed like bottomless layers of snow in places, and up a rocky incline. She slipped once on iced-over rocks, but Zach’s hands slid around her waist and assisted her up and forward. Even without the heavy, driving snow to cover their trail, they could have already lost their pursuers in this treacherous part of the wilderness.
Zach hadn’t asked her exactly where she led them, which meant he trusted her to find the way. The longer it took, the more she began to doubt her sense of direction. She’d been here many times as a kid, but hadn’t come back even once since living at the cabin. Maybe all the gunfire and fear had confused her sense of direction.
But she kept moving, plowing and hiking forward. Now they faced off with a rocky wall, snow and ice catching in between the small cracks and fissures.
The cave had to be here somewhere.
And then it hit her. Would Rich have come here, too, knowing it was here? Had he thought to hide in the cave just like Olivia had?
Her hopes jumped.
She glanced back at Zach. He’d left his helmet behind, but he’d long ago covered his head with the hood on his winter coat, as had Olivia, so she couldn’t see his eyes at that moment. Maybe that was a good thing. She returned her energy to finding the cave, pressing her hands against the rocks as she went. Even though she wore gloves, her fingers grew stiff and clumsy.
One look at Zach’s red cheeks and she knew the truth.
The dropping temperature was getting to them.
And what of their pursuers? Did the shooters realize they could die if they didn’t find shelter, too? If the men after Rich were anything like him, then they too were survivors and were prepared for anything, carrying their bivouac gear with them in the mountains on their murderous hunting trip. Olivia’s shred of hope took a dive.
But why should she focus on them? She had yet to find the cave that would keep her and Zach warm, two people who hadn’t carried bivouac gear with them.
God, please, where is the cave? We have to find the cave!
Worry and doubt threaded through her thoughts. Did she have the wrong place, after all? And if she did, how would they survive?
If that was the case, they were as good as dead.
No. Olivia wouldn’t accept that. She cleared away the morbid thoughts and kept her gloved hands pressed against the rock wall, letting it guide her inward until she found the small opening.
There.
“It’s here,” she croaked out, almost not recognizing her own voice. Relief swirled through her.
The rock walls extending forward and out on both sides of the slender gap that served as the cave entrance saved them from the brunt of the building storm.
She hesitated before rushing in and turned to Zach. “If Rich could have made it here, this is where he would be hiding.”
Olivia dreaded looking in Zach’s eyes. What would she see in them? She wanted to cling to the smallest of hopes, but he could shatter those with one look.
He was a realist, after all.
“Let me go first.” Zach lifted his gun, gripped her hand and pulled her along behind him. “The shooters. They could have found the cave ahead of us. They might be waiting inside.”
* * *
“Stay here, just at the entrance.” Zach released her hand.
Olivia sucked in a breath as if she would counter him but then, surprising him, she nodded in agreement. The storm forced them to seek shelter and this cave served as their best option. But would he lead them inside to their deaths?
Or had Rich taken shelter here like she’d suggested?
“If the worst happens, you turn and run.” He pressed forward without waiting for her answer.
Sworn to protect.
Like that had worked so well.
He ignored his doubts and shoved his fears aside.
Entering the dark opening, he crept forward, weapon poised to fire, until his eyes adjusted to the darkness. If the shooters had taken shelter in the cave or waited for Olivia and Zach there, they could take Zach out before he was the wiser. He listened for movement, for breathing, anything at all, as he hedged the rock wall. The shooters weren’t the only possible threat. They could walk in on a hibernating bear.
Memories of this cave skittered through him. Rich had brought him here a few times in the summer. But that had been years ago and Zach wouldn’t count on his memory to guide him.
“Anyone here?” he asked.
Not that he expected someone with nefarious intentions to respond, but maybe Rich had come to hide here like Olivia hoped.
Zach had heard that hope in her words, and a sliver of pain skated over his heart. He had a feeling she would be disappointed.
She rushed by him, stumbling forward in the dark. “Rich! Are you in here?”
“What are you doing?” He grabbed her arm and pulled her back against him. “I told you to wait. Maybe the bad guys aren’t in here, but we could disturb a bear.”
“Rich!” Tears edged her voice.
But nobody answered.
She shifted forward and Zach caught her up in his arms to steady her. “I’m sorry, Olivia. So sorry.”
He never could have imagined he’d find her in his arms again. Good thing her bulky snowmobile suit served as a protective barrier. He didn’t want to feel her softness or be reminded of his attraction to her that obviously had remained even after a decade.
Zach would help her and support her now because she needed it, but he’d guard his heart against falling for her again—an act that would require all his strength. With his hands somehow in the silky copper locks that fell around her shoulders, and her distraught form leaning against him, Zach admitted that he could easily slip back into the past with her.
Except he couldn’t forget how she’d hurt him, asking him to give up his dream for her, then breaking it all off when he didn’t. He would use that now to stay free of any entanglement and continue to forge a future without her, though he found himself holding her in his arms once again.
Seeming to read his mind, she stiffened and moved away, swiping at her face. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“Don’t worry about it.” He cut her off and moved deeper into the cave, holding his weapon tightly in his grip. Though if anyone waited here, they would already have made their presence known.
Zach and Olivia could have been killed in that one moment of indiscretion.
“The cave doesn’t go back very far,” she said. “Maybe a few yards. I doubt there’s a bear in here or we would know it by now. Bad guys, too. Besides, I can’t believe they could find this cave. Even in the summer it’s well hidden. Forget about it in the winter, especially with the approaching storm.”
“We don’t know if they scouted the area before their attack. We can’t be too careful.”
Zach’s eyes adjusted to the dim light spilling through the cave’s opening along with the cold and snow. The weather looked bleak out there and made him grateful they’d found this temporary shelter.
“Might as well get comfortable.” Olivia put her hand against the wall and slid down to the hard ground, her boots scraping dirt and pebbles. She wrapped her arms around herself.
The cave’s temperature was much warmer than outside, but even wearing the snowmobile garb, he could feel the cold seeping in. Zach frowned. They had nothing with which to make a fire. He wasn’t sure they’d want to risk giving themselves away even if they could build one.
Remaining standing, he watched the entrance in case any moment one of the men who had been shooting at them entered the cave to shelter from the storm, too. He and Olivia could have been followed.
He glanced down at her. She’d leaned her head against her knees, hair spilling over her back and shoulders. He wanted to dispel the memories and the sudden longing to hold her, but just as he would have looked away, she lifted her head, her cinnamon eyes capturing his gaze.
“I was shocked to see you today, Zach. The men shooting at us, that whole thing was a shocker, too. But you appeared out of nowhere.”
Yeah, he got that. He hadn’t been expecting to see her either. It was here in the Siskiyous that he’d first fallen in love with her one summer. But seeing her in the flesh today? His throat grew tight.
“Seeing you surprised me, too, but when you think about it, it makes sense,” he said.
“Right. You were Rich’s best friend, maybe you still are. But obviously you came here to meet him for some reason. He didn’t know I was living here and acted downright put out to see me.”
Zach shifted then leaned against the rock wall. He’d watch the entrance another hour. If the men didn’t find the cave within that time, he doubted they would. Besides, they likely had their own supplies to set up a shelter or found an empty cabin somewhere. An empty house like the Kendricks’.
If not, they’d die in this weather.
“How did he seem?”
Olivia stretched her legs and leaned against the wall behind her, resting her head. “Something was wrong. I knew that I should have paid more attention. But I was so glad to see him and thought maybe whatever was disturbing him had to do with the job he left. So I dreamed that he could stay here and work with me at Wilderness, Inc. for a while. Coop even said he could use a new guide. I was on my way back from Gideon and talking to Coop about using Rich as a guide. He knows the area. And business has been good.”
“Coop?”
“Cooper Wilde. He runs Wilderness, Inc. here in the mountains out of Gideon. It’s an adventure excursion and wilderness training business. Anyway, I guess this answers the question about what happened to Rich.”
“What do you mean?”
“I followed the snowmobile tracks from the house. There was blood, Zach. Blood on the snow. It had to be Rich’s. The guys shooting at us? All I can think is they were after him and he took a bullet, maybe, before he ran and got away on his snowmobile.”
“We can’t know for sure, but that sounds like one possibility. Regardless, it seems they want to kill us, whatever the reason.”
If those men were after Rich and he had led them here, to his sister... Zach paced the cave, fisting his gloved hand and squeezing the pistol grip with his other. Every choice a person made could have catastrophic effects on everyone else. He’d experienced that firsthand and felt the repercussions of his own decisions to the marrow in his bones.
“If only we could find Rich,” Olivia said. “Make sure he’s safe, help him if he’s hurt. I’m worried about him out there in this storm, maybe even bleeding to death.”
“Nothing we can do about it.”
Olivia shot him a glare. He knew she saw the change in him—that he’d hardened over the years. Inwardly, he sighed, wishing for the younger version of himself.
He didn’t like the thought of Rich suffering out there either and should be more reassuring to his friend’s sister. “If I know anything about your brother, it’s that he has survival skills, and he’s out there surviving, making it through this storm, just like us. We have to trust that Rich will rely on his training.”
If he isn’t already dead.
THREE (#uc1d17cac-c789-57ee-a5b9-b951a9064ecc)
Olivia had seen Rich’s pack on the bed. He hadn’t taken time to gather supplies before he fled for his life. She couldn’t share Zach’s confidence in her brother’s training.
She studied Zach as he watched the cave entrance. Her heart skipped a little. Back in high school, he’d been the kind of guy every girl could fall for, and now, to her chagrin, he looked even better.
He exhibited a kind of masculinity that was hard to resist. Skilled and confident. But those skills were the very thing that stood between them and had torn them apart. That and the choices he’d made.
Olivia shoved thoughts of the past away and focused on the very real and dangerous present. What else did Zach know about her brother? Why had Rich asked him to meet at the house? Her teeth chattered, preventing her from voicing the questions.
Shivering, she tucked her knees up against her chest and rested her chin on them again. How were they going to make it through tonight without a fire, even in this cave? It wasn’t deep enough to prevent the snow from swirling in, ushered by the ice-cold wind that had ramped up.
She buried her face in her knees, trying to keep the cold at bay.
Zach clomped across the cave and stood next to her. He slid down the wall and scooted right up close to her.
“What...what are you doing?” she asked.
“You’re cold. I’m cold.”
She thought to shift away from him but his body heat drew her, though reluctantly. Then he wrapped his arm around her, pulling her closer to him, nice and tight. “Come on, Olivia. We have to keep warm. The past is the past, and we can keep it there. No need to dredge up what happened before. At the moment we’re just two people doing what we have to do in order to survive, right?”
She nodded. “Well, when you put it that way.”
When she peeked at him, he showed her that half grin she remembered and liked. What was he thinking? She wasn’t sure she wanted to know, but she accepted the warmth he offered then pressed her face into her knees again. Maybe she’d warm up enough after a while to scoot away from him. But right now, she couldn’t think straight. Somehow she had to come to grips with everything that had happened over the last several hours. Images swirled like snowflakes in her mind.
Rich’s disappearance.
The blood in the snow.
The snowmobile tracks.
The men with the guns.
And...Zach.
She could hardly believe she was waiting out a storm in this cave with him and that he had his strong arm around her. Life had a way of going in circles. He was right—without survival gear, they had no choice but to use their body heat to stay warm. They couldn’t risk discovery by building a fire when lunatics pursued them, openly firing at them, shooting to kill. She hated that these men had turned the woods she loved into a crime scene.
And Rich. God, please, please keep him safe wherever he is out there.
“So, what’s the plan then?” she asked.
“It’s pretty simple. Stay warm and alive until the storm passes. We might even be here all night. Then in the morning we find our way back to civilization and keep well away from those shooters. Maybe we can find Rich, too.”
“Tell me about Rich. Until he showed up yesterday, I hadn’t talked to him in a long time.”
“I haven’t spoken to him that much myself. I’m sure you at least know he’s been in the Middle East working security for a private military contractor.”
“That was the last thing I knew about.” Grief thickened in her throat. So much of what she felt inside couldn’t be spoken out loud because it involved Zach’s own personal tragedy.
And the mistake he’d made that had cost his sister’s life. Olivia wouldn’t add to his torment by bringing it up. He seemed to sense she needed a moment to process. His thoughts had likely turned to the past, as well.
But in this moment, regret permeated her bones.
Why hadn’t she talked to Rich? Why had she been so quick to blame him for their mother’s death? Four years ago, he’d been grieving the death of his fiancée—Zach’s sister, Sarah—and after his tour of duty was over, he decided he wouldn’t return to the States, after all, because there would be no bride waiting for him.
No wedding.
So he took that job in private security instead.
Their mother had taken his absence too hard, just like she had Dad’s death when he’d been killed in the line of duty with the Portland PD. Her mother had used alcohol to console herself for a couple of years after their father’s death but had found her way to sobriety and had been sober until Sarah had been killed and Rich made the decision to stay away. Mom had needed him, perhaps too much. Their mother had been killed in a drunk-driving accident when her vehicle ran off a bridge.
Olivia had blamed Rich and hadn’t spoken to him since Mom’s funeral three years ago.
She squeezed her eyes against the tears threatening to spill. He had needed time and space to heal. Olivia could hardly blame him for that. It was exactly the reason she’d resigned her job as a biology teacher in Portland two years ago and moved to the family vacation house situated in the pristine wilderness of the Siskiyou Mountains. She’d wanted a new life and had run from all that had gone wrong in her old one. And until yesterday, when Rich had shown up, peace and solace had filled her days, replacing tragedy and drama.
But her efforts had been for nothing. Trouble had found her out in the middle of nowhere.
Now she realized she had wasted those precious years avoiding communication with her brother. Her mission now was to find him and keep him in her life. Somehow. Someway.
She buried the pain of the past encroaching on her present situation—and entered survival mode. Clearing tears from her throat, she asked, “What else can you tell me?”
“Not much, I’m sorry. He called me three days ago and asked me to meet him today. Said it was urgent but he couldn’t tell me anything more. In fact, he didn’t mention the cabin by name, only the place we used to vacation together. Until I got there, I wasn’t completely sure he’d meant your family’s cabin. It wasn’t the only place we went in the summer. He said he couldn’t trust anyone except me. Obviously, he was in some kind of trouble.”
The wind whipped flakes around, driving them deep into the cave to blanket them as they huddled together. Zach brushed the snow off them both.
“Do you think it has something to do with his job?” she asked. “He told me he was done working for them.”
“We can’t know when he was done or how long he’s even been back in the States.”
“I thought you guys were best friends.”
Right, and she was his sister. She felt his gaze on her, but stared straight ahead and puzzled over the rough drawings that she and Rich had carved in the wall as children. They had somehow remained after all this time.
“Life happens. People go their separate ways. He had a job on the other side of the world, and I had mine here. I think Sarah’s death changed him. Talking to me, well, that just reminded him of what he’d lost and my part in it.” Zach’s voice had turned harsh.
Yeah, she got that. Though Olivia had not been super close to Sarah, the woman had been her brother’s fiancée, and of course, the sister of the guy she used to love. Sarah’s death had changed their lives in ways they couldn’t have imagined. Olivia tried not to think about the burden that put on Zach, who blamed himself for her death.
Still, she didn’t like the harsh, cold tone coming from him. That wasn’t the Zach she’d known, but she had to get over it. Like he’d said, they were just two people doing what they had to in order to survive.
They weren’t a couple again. They weren’t in love. How he sounded shouldn’t matter to her. Besides, he’d hurt her, choosing danger over love. Choosing to become a police officer like his father instead of being with Olivia.
After losing her father, who’d been shot and killed during a simple traffic stop, Olivia knew she couldn’t handle that life. Couldn’t handle being married to a police officer. She thought Zach had understood that, and yet he’d still chosen that path. His dream had been more important to him than her.
Regardless, Sarah’s death had affected them in ways they couldn’t have imagined.
All their lives had been wrapped up in a big tangled mess of tragedy from which each of them had tried to escape, and yet here they were, tangled up together again.
She drew in a shuddering breath.
Zach squeezed her. “Hey, are you okay?”
No! No, she wasn’t okay. But talking about it would just dredge it all up again and hadn’t he said they didn’t want to do that? How could Zach not be thinking about everything that had happened? She leaned forward and pushed his arm off her. She’d leaned against him for the warmth. That made sense, but she didn’t need his arm around her for that.
Not now.
Not ever.
She wasn’t the least surprised when the storm’s intensity increased and the wind picked up, creating an eerie howl in the cave to add to her torment.
* * *
Zach sensed the subtle shift in her attitude, the change in her. He’d hoped they could endure and survive their predicament without the past coming between them, but clearly, ignoring their familiar surroundings and forgetting the memories had been hoping for too much.
“Try to get some sleep, if you can,” he offered.
He might find the situation as intolerable as she obviously did if he let his mind drift back.
Instead, he would think about her brother, Rich. Zach hadn’t wanted Olivia to know just how concerned he had been for his friend. But things didn’t look good. Sure, he believed the guy’s survival training could keep him alive until help reached him, but these circumstances didn’t bode well for Rich. In fact, Zach feared that even he and Olivia wouldn’t escape unscathed, though he would do his best to get her somewhere safe.
But with his track record, he didn’t know if his efforts would be enough.
What kind of trouble forced Rich to flee to the family cabin? Brought men to this neck of the Siskiyou Mountains in order to kill him? And yeah, Zach concurred with Olivia’s assessment that the men who’d shot at Zach and Olivia had been after Rich, too, but Zach hadn’t said that out loud.
As a former detective, he didn’t want to jump to conclusions, even when they appeared obvious. He couldn’t begin to presume what kind of trouble Rich had brought with him to Olivia’s door. To be fair, Rich hadn’t known he would find his sister here, any more than Zach had.
That didn’t prevent Zach’s rising fury with Rich for involving Olivia, even though Zach had brought trouble to his own sister.
Trouble that had cost her life.
He couldn’t stand by and watch the same happen to Olivia.
As if sensing his tumultuous thoughts, she shifted against him, trying to get comfortable, then finally turned her back to him and leaned against his shoulder. His insides ached with her nearness.
Sweet Olivia. How did he keep her safe?
God, I need Your help.
That’s what Rich would want from him now—to protect his sister. They weren’t going anywhere in this storm, especially with nightfall fast approaching. The only thing left to do involved wrapping his arms around her as they sat in the cave and tried to stay warm without a fire. But Olivia wouldn’t have that, and frankly, he didn’t want it either. He’d said they should leave the past behind them.
Right. He still felt the sting of her rejection as if it had happened yesterday.
What was the matter with him?
Memories, that’s what. This close to the woman he used to love and his mind flashed right back as if ten years had never passed. Except...well, the pain of his hurt surged all over again.
He’d had to follow his calling. His lot in life. He’d had to become a police officer and work his way up to detective like his father and grandfather before him. That was in his blood. Olivia knew that. He couldn’t understand why she would give him up because he had to follow his dream. Her father had been an officer, as well, God rest his soul. She hadn’t loved Zach enough to let him be who he was supposed to be.
In an ironic twist, he’d given it all up anyway a year ago. The cost of following his dream had been too high. First, his decision to join the police force had cost him Olivia, and then his subsequent failure had been like a domino effect. Had he succeeded in protecting his sister, Sarah, she would still be alive and Rich would be married to her. Maybe Olivia and Rich’s mother would still be alive.
He groaned, hating where this night in the cave with the wind howling like an underscore to his past tragedies drove him. Closing his eyes, he tried to clear his mind. When he opened them again, he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face.
“Zach?” Olivia whispered next to him. “Are you awake?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s dark in here.”
And cold.
She hadn’t said the words but he figured she didn’t want to admit she needed anything like, say, warmth.
“You’re not scared of the dark, are you?” Zach grinned to himself. In the dark. Olivia would never admit she was scared either.
“Of course not. It’s just unnerving. I thought I heard something scurrying around in here. You don’t think there’s a rodent or a raccoon or any number of other possible creatures sharing the cave with us, do you?”
“It’s hard to say but I don’t have a flashlight or a match, so we’ll just have to tough it out.” And, since he remained cold as well, and knew she would never admit she needed his warmth again, he wrapped his arm around her and drew her in close.
She didn’t resist.
There. That would keep them both warmer. Now only one thing remained. Waiting. They would wait for the storm to go and wait for morning to come. Seemed like there was a Bible verse on that theme that he’d learned somewhere in Sunday school class. The thought caught him by surprise.
Zachary hadn’t prayed in far too long. Maybe he’d been mad at God for everything he’d lost, but he tried not to think about it. Just ignored that aspect of his life, but now, here alone in the blackest darkness he’d ever experienced, just him and Olivia in this cave where the wind would probably howl all night, sitting close to one of his biggest hurts, biggest regrets, he thought maybe God was trying to get his attention.
“It’s going to be all right, Olivia. We’re going to make it through.” He wasn’t sure why he felt the need to say the words, but maybe it had a whole lot to do with wanting to sound off something positive to combat the doleful cry of the wind in the cave.
She scooted closer to him and shivered. He held her tight until her breathing shifted to a steady slow rhythm that told him she’d finally fallen asleep. Then he let himself drift, too. He didn’t know what they would face tomorrow and he didn’t want to borrow trouble, but he needed to rest. Needed his strength.
Except the worst of dreams accosted his restless sleep.
“Detective Long. You recognize my voice?”
“Jimmy Delaney.” The man had gotten out of prison a week ago. What did he want? Why was he calling?
Fear clawed through Zach.
“That’s right. I have someone here with me you might miss.”
“Zach?” Sarah’s voice rasped, then she sobbed. “Zach...” A scream broke through.
“What do you want?” Zach let all the anger he possessed pour through the phone connection. He would kill Jimmy Delaney when he got his hands on him.
“You. Just you.”
Then gunfire split his eardrums.
A sound stirred Zach awake and he bolted to his feet, rousing Olivia, too. “What was that?”
“What?” She glanced up, sleep clinging to her eyes.
“I heard something.”
He grabbed his weapon, his palm still slick from the recurring nightmare that always hit him at his lowest. Of course he would relive that day, that bad dream, here in this cave under these circumstances.
He shook it away and waited, listening and watching the entrance.
The storm had stopped. Morning light spilled through the opening.
Had it brought the men who wanted to kill them?
A rifle shot rang out somewhere in the woods near them, echoing through the cave.
FOUR (#uc1d17cac-c789-57ee-a5b9-b951a9064ecc)
Gunfire jolted Olivia fully awake. She attempted to stand, but her body, stiff from sitting on the hard ground in a cold cave all night, refused to cooperate. Zach assisted her to her feet before she could protest.
“Thank you.” She rubbed her arms to get the blood going and noted his attention on the more urgent matters outside the cave entrance. Had they been discovered?
She’d much prefer coffee to the fear curdling in her stomach. “What are we going to do?”
Zach edged to the cave opening, staying in the shadows created by the rays of light spilling in. So focused on his task, Olivia wasn’t sure he’d even heard her question.
Then, finally, “First I’m going to check around outside and see if it’s safe.”
“And?”
“Then we’re getting out of here.”
“And what if it’s not safe? What if those men are out there? And what about Rich? We have to find him, or at least, if you’re not willing, then I have to find him.” Oh, why had she said that? But she needed to make him understand.
He turned to look at her then. Under the cold intensity of his ice-blue eyes, she was hard pressed not to look away, but she held his gaze.
“One thing at a time,” he said. “Besides, I don’t think the gunfire we heard was meant for us. That was a rifle. Not a semiautomatic like the shooters used. Like mine.”
Olivia closed the distance then. Approaching Zach, she stood just behind him and peered outside into the winter wonderland. Standing this close, she could once again feel the heat emanating from him. Olivia felt chilled to the bone and wished she could have his arms around her again. Finding the thought surprisingly much too comfortable, she took a step back. She couldn’t let herself grow attached to him again. He’d just leave her to return to his job with the Portland PD.
She focused her thoughts on their predicament. Then whom had it been meant for? Rich? Her heart pounded too hard for this early in the morning, but she was worried for her brother. She hadn’t gotten him back only to lose him again. And once they found him—and they would find him, she wouldn’t think otherwise—she would never again let time and distance separate them. She’d keep in touch.
Pain burned behind her eyes. She had to stop thinking about Rich.
The gunfire hadn’t been about him. Could it have been hunters? Olivia thought of the poachers she’d seen in the region killing deer out of season, and how furious she’d been. She’d reported them to the local game warden, but they had never been caught.
Zach tensed and stepped from the shadows and into the light, his form now silhouetted in the cave entrance.
“Stay here.” He didn’t bother glancing back to see if she agreed, but stepped from the cave, expecting her to follow orders. Simple as that.
She ground her molars.
Then exhaled.
Her reaction to his instructions hadn’t been fair to him. He’d only been trying to protect her. It was in his blood. Olivia should appreciate his protective nature. She should give him a break and be grateful, as well.
Crossing her arms, she waited.
And waited.
After twenty minutes, Olivia wasn’t waiting anymore.
She crept from the cave, the gray light blinding her for a moment as she hugged the wall. She knew her way around, but wasn’t certain about Zach. Inching along the rock wall that led out of the hidden entrance, Olivia pushed back her concern that something had happened to him. He was skilled and trained to handle criminals. He knew what he was doing.
Finally, she came to the place where she’d have to climb down over the snow-covered boulders. But she spotted Zach’s path cutting into the thick white layers and followed his trail down as gusts of wind tossed snow around her. She tugged the hood of her jacket tight around her face.
Come on, Zach. Where are you?
She hadn’t realized his searching the area meant disappearing for this long. At the bottom of the boulders, she hopped to the ground and sank to her waist. Great. She followed his more than obvious plow through the depths of white and then she spotted him. Hidden behind a thick fallen tree trunk that was almost unrecognizable after the storm, he peered out into the quiet forest, cold gusts making the white-frosted trees clack together and drop loads of snow.
She crept in close and, just as she reached forward to touch him, he whirled on her with his weapon aimed point-blank.
Olivia lifted her hands in surrender. “It’s me.”
Dropping his shoulders, he released an exaggerated breath and lowered his weapon. Eyes blazing, his gaze turned on her. “What were you thinking? I told you to stay in the cave.”
Olivia moved next to him behind the trunk. “I’m not much for following orders.”
He didn’t answer for the longest time, so she risked a glance and caught him studying her. When she looked at him, that half grin cracked his face. And her heart skipped a little. Oh, no, not that. Please not that. How could his smile do that to her after a decade? She’d once thought her reaction to him had been the fluttering of a young woman’s heart, but apparently her age and experience had nothing at all to do with it.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.
He dropped the grin and turned serious. “No reason that matters.” Zach nodded, gesturing toward the woods. “There are a couple of guys out there.”
“You think it’s the shooters?”
“Could be. Or maybe it’s someone else. I was waiting and watching, trying to decide.”
She dragged in a breath. “Poachers, maybe it’s my poachers.”
“Your poachers?”
“Just a couple of men I’ve seen hunting the last two winters during the off-season. There was a sweet doe I’d see hanging around the woods near the house. She got to where she wasn’t even afraid of me. I think the men killed her. I’d seen them out there in the area one day, and the next day she never came back. Makes me so mad. I’ve been hoping to take them down.”
“I’m sorry about your doe.”
“She wasn’t my pet. That’s not legal for one thing. And the other thing, it wouldn’t have been best for her.” Olivia thought of the doe’s soft brown eyes when she’d lift her head and catch Olivia outside. The doe would stare at her for a few moments then go back to foraging. Olivia hoped it wasn’t the doe’s lack of fear of humans that had gotten her killed. “It was like...we had an understanding.”
The half grin again, this time revealing his dimple. “I have no doubt that you’ll succeed in getting your poachers. Surprised you haven’t already.”
She wasn’t sure how to take that. Had he meant it as a compliment or was there a hidden meaning behind his words? “Thanks for the vote of confidence...I think.”
“I meant that as a compliment, Olivia. You were always the nurturing type. Glad to see that hasn’t changed.”
Now, don’t go complimenting me, please. I don’t want to like you, at least not in the same way I once did.
Then she saw the men between the trees, heading in the opposite direction—one of them carrying a smallish deer—a doe?—over his shoulders. Now she understood what that gunfire had been about. They had illegally killed a deer. The two men wore the same hunter’s garb she’d seen them in before. One wore a bright orange beanie, and the other a camo face mask. “It’s my poachers!”
And this time, she had Zach with her. He was an officer of the law. He could do something. The hardest part about stopping them was catching them in the act. That was what the game warden had said. In the act or holding the illegally killed animal for evidence.
“Hey!” She ran out from behind the boulder after them. “Hey, you!”
* * *
This was a bad idea. Probably why she hadn’t bothered to ask Zach his opinion. She knew what he would’ve said. And now he had to expose himself to run after Olivia. She’d given them both away. “Come back!”
But it was too late. Still, poachers weren’t usually murderers, too. They’d get slapped with a fine, if that. Poaching wasn’t a capital crime.
She expected him to confront the hunters, but she didn’t know he was no longer a police officer, wasn’t carrying a badge, though even if he were, he’d be operating outside of his jurisdiction. Still, in Oregon the law would simply require him to obtain authorization, when practical, after the fact.
That is, if he were still a law enforcement officer.
Olivia wanted him to use the force of the law behind his badge and arrest these men carrying hunting rifles and an illegal kill. She’d always been passionate about animals, about wildlife. And with her sad story of the doe she loved, poachers beware.
Reluctantly, he trailed after her. With what they had faced, he wasn’t in the mood for a confrontation of this nature. Yet somehow he found himself wanting to do something to please her, to make her happy. Hence, he’d talk to these hunters. See what was what and do what he could.
Add to that, if they hiked out of here with these two men, maybe there would be safety in numbers. They had to make it to Gideon. Even if the men weren’t willing to accompany them, Zach owed them a warning about the two dangerous men. They should leave these woods and stay clear for a few days, at least.
The two men had stopped and, instead of running away to make an escape, were waiting for their approach.
Realization slowly dawned. It washed over him along with dread. Too late, he saw his mistake. These men were not her poachers. Olivia hiked ahead of him, but the snow slowed her down. Zach used the tracks she’d made to run for her. One of the men cracked a wicked smile.
The other one dropped the doe.
Both pulled out their weapons and aimed.
“Down! Get down!” How many times would he shout those words before this was over?
Olivia slowed to a stop and turned to glance back at Zach—the men ahead of them fired their weapons at the same moment Zach threw himself into her, knocking her into the snow.
He pressed his ear to hers. “Are you hurt?”
Beneath him, she lifted her head slightly and shook it.
That had been much too close. But they weren’t out of danger yet.
It had happened so fast, she might not even realize it if she had, in fact, taken a bullet.
God, please let her be okay. Please help us!
No matter if she’d been shot, they couldn’t stay here. He grabbed the back of her snowmobile suit, hauled her up with him and, hunkered together, he slid them over behind a tree. Then he fired back at the men to hold them off. Zach had been right to carry an extra magazine, though that had seemed like overkill at the time. He was also glad he hadn’t used all his rounds yesterday against these guys.
He faced them again today.
Behind the tree, he took a moment to look at Olivia. She appeared stunned. He brushed the hair from her face. “You okay? You’re not shot, are you?” he asked again.
He would look her over completely but he forced his gaze back to the woods. He didn’t want to take his eyes from their surroundings too long.
The two men split up. He could see their forms running between the trees. Zach fired at them, forcing them to take cover again. They would probably come around to ambush Zach and Olivia from behind, if he didn’t take them out first.
“No, I’m not shot. But I don’t understand.”
“These aren’t your poachers, Olivia.”
“But they’re wearing hunting clothes. Carrying rifles. The same exact garb my guys had worn. I recognized them.”
Their clothes. She’d recognized their clothes. But he said nothing more. He didn’t want to think about the reasons why that could be but could see that Olivia was thinking about it. Shock registered in her eyes and on her face. “You don’t think...”
Bullets slammed into the tree.
Both he and Olivia ducked. Their eyes locked.
“Stay here and stay down. Don’t try to be a hero or try to be strong for me. I’m going to take these men out. But in order to do that, I can’t be worried about you. Do you understand?”
She nodded. Averted her gaze.
Zach didn’t want to waste another round until he was certain she’d understood. “Olivia, look at me.”
Her eyes found his again, the shock slowly dissipating and shifting toward rage at the shooters’ audacity, and a visceral emotion that just might save her life—terror. “I promise. I’m not moving from this tree until you tell me otherwise.”
Good. She didn’t like to take orders, but he could see in her eyes she understood it could mean their lives.
Zach peered from behind the tree again. “I’m going to move so that I can get a better shot. You stay hidden. Dig down in the snow.” Which wouldn’t be hard. The real trouble came in staying on top of it.
He left her then, trusting that she would be safer hidden next to the tree than with him. Zach hated to leave her, but he wasn’t doing her any favors by just sitting next to her like a shield, waiting for the men to trap them. He had to go on the offensive or they weren’t going to make it.
Crawling through the snow, he trekked to a patch of manzanita and elderberry bushes, then crouched and ran to a thick-trunked cedar. He lost sight of one of the men, but saw the other creeping his way around. At least he could see one of the shooters.
That would have to be enough for now.
Taking even one of these guys out could buy him and Olivia some time and maybe even the real chance of getting to Gideon. The sheriff would want to know, too, what happened to the hunters. Had the shooters killed them and disguised themselves as hunters to draw out their human prey? Or had they simply forced the real hunters to switch clothing and then tied them up in their camp somewhere?
Either way, that strategy had worked. Zach and Olivia had been fooled. But none of it mattered. What was done was done.
He concentrated on watching for his chance.
The shooter crept through the woods unaware that Zach had his sights on him. While he watched the one, he also searched for the second guy, who was probably coming around from the other direction. That’s what Zach would do. But Zach couldn’t shoot at someone he couldn’t see, so he focused his attention on the shooter he could see.
This guy might be a distraction to pull Zach’s gaze away from the real threat. Once Zach made his shot, he might also give away his position and would need to move quickly if he could.
Inhale...
Exhale...
A few more slow breaths. He focused on the man he would shoot. He wished he had one of their rifles with scopes on them that must have belonged to the hunters. Holding his hands steady, he aimed.
Waited for the shot.
The man slowly crept from one tree, heading for another.
Zach could barely make out his form.
The forest stilled.
Nothing existed outside of the one shooter.
Inhale... Exhale...
Zach fired.
His shot echoed through the quiet.
The shooter dropped.
Zach ducked and pressed into the snow. Now the other shooter would know where to look for him, if he hadn’t already. Zach kept low, grateful the snow wasn’t as deep in this part of the woods so he could crawl to another copse of trees without too much struggle. A quick glance at where he’d left Olivia told him she was there and remained hidden.
He only spotted her because he knew where to look.
Sucking in a breath, he drew consolation from the fact he’d dropped one of the shooters. Now for the other one. Without getting up, he did his best at reconnaissance to see if he was being watched. The other man might use the hunter’s rifle and watch for Zach through the rifle’s scope, hunting Zach and Olivia like they were just two deer instead of two people.
Like they were animals.
He couldn’t move yet, not until he spotted the other shooter.
God, please let Olivia stay put. Please, keep her safe. I can’t let her down. I can’t let her down like I let Sarah down.
The memory crushed his heart. He couldn’t afford to think of it now, and shoved it away.
And yeah, he’d prayed a lot lately. He hoped it worked. After this was over, he’d need to have that long, heart-to-heart talk with God that he’d avoided for too long.
A jackrabbit dashed away, crossing between Zach and Olivia. Had someone disturbed the small animal? Zach searched the woods. He spotted the glint of metal, much too close to Olivia’s position.
Every muscle in his body stiffened. If only he could signal her to keep down.
Don’t even flinch.
But she couldn’t hear the thoughts he willed at her.
He saw now what must have drawn the shooter’s attention—the small bush near the fir under which she’d taken cover shook. That shaking bush gave away her location.
What are you doing, Olivia? You can’t afford to move right now.
This wasn’t working. Zach could no longer stay where he was and wait it out. The guy would shoot and kill Olivia. He simply waited for his shot. Zach would need to draw the man’s attention to himself. But he didn’t have a good shot from this position.
He would fire his weapon anyway. That should do the trick.
He sucked in a couple of breaths and got ready to run. It was a risk, but one he was willing to take for her.
Standing, he pushed from the tree and fired rounds as he ran toward where the shooter waited.
A bullet grazed Zach’s jacket, slicing deep enough to cut across his skin. He dropped to the ground and crawled forward to a tree.
Another rifle shot rang out.
Olivia screamed.
FIVE (#uc1d17cac-c789-57ee-a5b9-b951a9064ecc)
She screamed again.
And wanted to keep on screaming.
She couldn’t take much more of this.
She’d run from her hiding place when she’d seen Zach make his own move from the tree, firing his weapon. For her part, she’d been trying to draw the shooter away from him when she’d noticed the man taking aim at Zach. She simply couldn’t let that happen. She could see the shooter from where she’d been hiding, but apparently Zach couldn’t see him while he tried for the other one.
Olivia didn’t have a firearm so she only had one option.
Draw the shooter’s attention away from Zach.
By moving the bushes, she’d given herself away. It had been a risk she’d been willing to take in order to give Zach a chance. Besides, if the shooter had taken him out, then Olivia would be left with no way to defend herself.
That gave her an idea.
Since she needed a weapon, she could take the downed shooter’s rifle with the scope, along with any other weapons he had.
Olivia had been the one to run after the hunters in the first place. Her rash decision had caused this trouble. She’d gotten her and Zach into this. She would get them out, despite her promise to Zach to remain in that one spot. At the time, it made sense. But no longer.
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Elizabeth Goddard
NO SAFE HAVENArriving at her secluded cabin to find her brother missing, Olivia Kendricks follows his trail into the woods—until two shooters take aim at her. She only escapes when ex-detective Zachary Long, her brother’s friend—and Olivia’s first love—comes to her rescue. Now as they run for their lives in the snowbound wilderness, they must search for her brother while figuring out why someone wants them dead. And though Zach’s police force training may be what will save them, it’s also what once drove them apart when he gave Olivia up to chase his dream. In a freezing landscape as deadly as it is beautiful, they’ll have to let go of the past…and face down powerful men willing to kill to keep secrets buried.
NO SAFE HAVEN
Arriving at her secluded cabin to find her brother missing, Olivia Kendricks follows his trail into the woods—until two shooters take aim at her. She only escapes when ex-detective Zachary Long, her brother’s friend—and Olivia’s first love—comes to her rescue. Now as they run for their lives in the snowbound wilderness, they must search for her brother while figuring out why someone wants them dead. And though Zach’s police force training may be what will save them, it’s also what once drove them apart when he gave Olivia up to chase his dream. In a freezing landscape as deadly as it is beautiful, they’ll have to let go of the past...and face down powerful men willing to kill to keep secrets buried.
“I don’t need your protection.”
Hurt flickered in his gaze then vanished behind a stone cold stare. Oh...I didn’t mean to say that. She hadn’t meant to hurt him. When would it ever end?
Her legs trembled with fear and her lips weren’t far behind. She wouldn’t let him see her like this—though why she wanted to hide that from him she wasn’t sure. After all, someone was trying to kill them and she was scared. But she didn’t want him to protect her. She didn’t want to be that vulnerable.
Did she have a choice?
And wasn’t Zach scared too? Trying to read his mind, sense his emotional state, wouldn’t do either of them any good. Again, she averted her gaze, listening, watching for the shooters as she caught her breath.
Zach gently touched her chin and turned her to face him. “Are you okay?”
It hurt when he touched her like that, all gentle and caring. She didn’t want that from him, or for him to see that she was absolutely not okay.
Dear Reader (#uc1d17cac-c789-57ee-a5b9-b951a9064ecc),
Thank you so much for reading False Security. I hope you enjoyed it! Have you ever been snowmobiling? My husband and I rode snowmobiles on a guided tour through Yellowstone National Park—eighty miles—for one of our anniversaries. It’s an exhilarating experience, to be sure. I tried to share some of that exhilaration in my story.
As often happens in novels, there are several themes that run through the story. Readers will usually pick up on one theme that resonates with them. In regards to writing this letter, I selected the theme that resonated with me (in my own story!) in the strongest way.
During the course of writing this, my mom passed away. I couldn’t have imagined how difficult it would be to put simple words on paper. I’m thrilled that God answered my prayers and that the required contracted story was produced. But not without a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Adding to my personal loss are many other serious issues I’ve struggled with the last couple of years.
Of course I pray and sometimes wonder if God hears me. I question His silence or the answers that come in ways I hadn’t expected. I realized, too, that I felt so emotionally and psychologically bruised that it was palpable in a very visceral and physical way. Then I pictured myself in a river, fighting to survive and bumping into the rocks and branches and becoming bruised for my efforts.
I had an epiphany at that moment—if I would simply stop fighting that which I could not control, and “go with the flow” as we so often hear—then I wouldn’t be so bruised. You might remember reading similar references in the story when Zach thinks of the Rogue River and feels like he’s being tossed and twisted in the white-water rapids, being bruised for his efforts to stay alive. He comes to the realization that he should let go and trust God.
So that is the message I hope will resonate with you. Psalm 46:10 in the King James Bible reads “Be still and know that I am God,” or as the NASB version translates, “Cease striving and know that I am God.”
I pray for His many blessings and favor in your life!
If you haven’t signed up for my Great Escapes newsletter, please visit my website today at ElizabethGoddard.com (http://www.ElizabethGoddard.com), where you can also connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.
Blessings!
Elizabeth Goddard
ELIZABETH GODDARD is the award-winning author of more than thirty novels and novellas. A 2011 Carol Award winner, she’s a double finalist in the 2016 Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, and a 2016 Carol Award finalist. Elizabeth graduated with a computer science degree and worked in high-level software sales before retiring to write full-time.
False Security
Elizabeth Goddard
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted
among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.
—Psalms 46:10
To Mom. Oh, how I miss you! But we will be together again in glory with our Lord and savior, Christ Jesus.
Acknowledgments (#uc1d17cac-c789-57ee-a5b9-b951a9064ecc)
I’ve lost the person who inspired me to become an avid reader and the person who was the greatest influence on my life in this writing endeavor, but regardless, I want to thank my mother for loving me and raising me to know the Lord so that I may have the hope of seeing her again one day soon. And as always, I appreciate the encouragement I receive daily from the dear writing friends God has brought into my life, and for my awesome editor, Elizabeth Mazer, and my amazing agent, Steve Laube, who makes me feel like I’m his only client.
Contents
Cover (#u81d35762-5a25-508d-8b18-a736d8ab6c21)
Back Cover Text (#uf6278068-6667-5f1e-a8f0-3d941b6ea9d9)
Introduction (#u20bb5779-b8af-50eb-bed4-5096d1629274)
Dear Reader (#u37a8bf9f-3194-56c7-9008-b7e84ad37d54)
About the Author (#u17a9430a-bd5e-53cb-97ac-a9cba6d5a12e)
Title Page (#u062e3998-8174-526c-851c-bf3788d01fb3)
Bible Verse (#u8cd8af8b-7153-5a9c-84df-e480c66229fc)
Dedication (#uad8cbdb2-1425-5fa5-a568-5227459e984b)
Acknowledgments (#u2a0f9337-4f0e-506a-ba1e-03372ec01f8e)
ONE (#ub4577a02-9a54-5b79-9765-59fdab3fc48d)
TWO (#uf3635d39-0ec8-5652-bc43-ae7a7cecd35f)
THREE (#u8fb05ad4-1881-571b-bb03-70702ddcb7f6)
FOUR (#udce7cca8-92cd-5463-a941-3fe477d2be30)
FIVE (#u5321e2a6-d860-5901-bcaa-f69471e1c429)
SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
NINETEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
TWENTY (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
ONE (#uc1d17cac-c789-57ee-a5b9-b951a9064ecc)
Siskiyou Mountains, southwest Oregon
Olivia Kendricks slowed the snowmobile as she drew near the house, flakes growing thicker by the minute, etching the roof, fireplace and window seals in white and turning her home into a cottage from a Thomas Kinkade painting. Even after two winters here, that picturesque scene always filled her with peace.
Except today. Instead of that sense of peace, an eerie feeling crept over her.
Olivia continued forward. Traveling by snowmobile provided the best way to get here in the winter, unless she wanted to plow the long, curvy drive up the mountain when several feet of the white stuff buried the road. And she didn’t. Besides, Olivia enjoyed the ride.
She lived for it.
The whine of the snowmobile resounded through the forest, echoing off the snow-covered trees as she steered the vehicle all the way in. She parked next to the covered garage protecting her old truck, then turned off the ignition.
Something was wrong. What was it?
Then she realized the lights were off in the house.
Strange.
She removed her helmet, shook out her hair and slid off the vehicle. Flakes accumulated in her lashes and she wiped them away as she entered the front door of the family vacation cabin where she’d taken up residence. There were no relatives left to enjoy it as a getaway anymore—well except her brother, Rich, whom she hadn’t seen since their mother’s funeral three years before.
That is, until yesterday.
Stomping her boots at the entrance, she hoped to disturb her brother into letting her know he was still here.
The dark house that greeted her said differently.
“Rich? Where are you?” She flicked on the lights as she made her way through the vacation-getaway-turned-cozy-home toward the room he’d slept in last night. The same room he’d used as a boy during their stays. Had he left without even saying goodbye? She hoped she’d find the few things he’d brought with him still in the room. Hoped he would stick around for a while and give them both some time to work through their issues of the past, though Rich might not be as keen to resolve them.
His backpack lay on the bed, flap hanging open and jeans and gear sprawled out. Relief swooshed through her. At least he hadn’t left for good. Maybe he’d just gone out for a walk or even a snowmobile ride.
At the kitchen sink, Olivia poured a glass of water and glanced out the window, noting the snowmobile he’d ridden to the house was gone. And something...there was something in the snow.
Frowning, Olivia hurried out the back door.
Blood.
Her breath caught.
Crimson stained the snow and would soon be buried beneath a fresh layer. She let her gaze follow the path the snowmobile had taken away from the house. A trail of blood lined the tracks.
Her heart seized.
Rich!
But she couldn’t let panic take hold. She had to follow that trail before the blood was hidden forever under layers of snow.
“Rich!” Olivia’s gaze searched the woods even as she ran around to the front of the house for her own snowmobile.
She had to catch up to him and make sure he was okay.
Questions bombarded her as she hurried. What had happened? Why was he hurt?
Still in her snowmobile suit, she grabbed gloves and a helmet, then got back on the vehicle. Concern ratcheting up her respiration, she started the machine and sped around the house to follow in Rich’s blood-spotted wake before she could no longer see the tracks. Her heart stumbled as the image of the crimson trail accosted her, but she had to focus.
Off-road and through the ungroomed woods, she’d have to be careful of hidden obstacles and fallen trees. Her eyes strained to follow the tracks and watch where she was going. His zigzagging path showed he had steered haphazardly through the woods.
“Rich!” she called through the opening in her helmet—she’d left the visor up—though she wasn’t sure if he would hear her over the snowmobile.
Living this secluded in these woods, she’d traded the safety and security of knowing that she could call 911 and get a quick response for her privacy, peace and quiet. Now she regretted that decision. She had a satellite phone that didn’t work so well on cloudy days, and a radio she shared with the Wilderness, Inc. crew, but that was iffy in the mountains.
She was on her own up here for the most part.
They were on their own.
Calling his name again, she continued between the trees, grateful the thick evergreen canopy prevented the falling snow from breaking through and hiding the tracks as quickly here. At least she hadn’t seen more blood, which meant that somehow he’d been able to slow the bleeding or stop it completely.
The snowmobile ground over lumps of buried boulders, and skipped along over recently fallen branches covered in fresh powder. She had to be careful that she didn’t get stuck.
Why would a man who was bleeding like that get on a snowmobile and ride off into the woods?
Up ahead, Olivia spotted a snowmobile. She sped forward until she was close enough to identify it as the one Rich had used to come to the house. The snow machine was turned on its side up against a tree.
Olivia let her gaze search for any sign of Rich, fear pricking her neck like icy daggers. He could die from his injury, or he could die from hypothermia, but why had he left the house?
Had he been running from someone? Olivia wouldn’t normally jump to such conclusions, except Hadley Wilde had come to this region to hide because she’d been running from an assassin and that’s when she’d met and married Cooper Wilde, Wilderness, Inc. owner and Olivia’s boss. Since Hadley had hidden here, it wasn’t so far-fetched to think Rich had come here to hide from someone and had been attacked. It wasn’t as if he’d expected to find Olivia living in the house. They hadn’t spoken since their mom’s funeral.
A sudden chill, much colder than the air around her, slid up her spine.
She searched the woods again for his tracks, but they were now long gone.
“Rich!” she called.
She was torn about what to do. Should she keep searching until she found him or go back for help? Either decision could be the wrong choice. She could be too late to save him either way.
God, what should I do? I can’t just leave him out here. He needs help now!
Indecision twisted her insides.
Another snowmobile approached. Friend or foe? Who else would be up here besides her, Rich and whoever was the reason he’d fled the house?
Run!
Her mind screamed but her legs struggled to respond.
As the rider parked next to Rich’s snowmobile, she backed away and pressed her hand against a tree trunk as though she could turn it into a weapon if needed. A knife in her pocket her only real weapon, she slipped her other hand around the hilt, wishing for the gun she’d left in her bedroom.
The rider slid from the snowmobile and pulled his visor up. Familiarity wrapped around her.
She didn’t think the man was Coop or Gray, or anyone else from the Wilderness, Inc. crew. She stepped closer. “Who... Do I know you?”
But then she noticed his eyes. Those ice-blue eyes like the color of snow in the shadows—she would never forget them.
He pulled his helmet off, his own surprise at seeing her still registering on his rugged features, his winter-wheat hair thick but mussed from the helmet.
Zachary Long.
Gone were the smooth but chiseled features of the younger man she’d known and loved. A pang shot through her. Ten years had changed him significantly. His handsome features were stronger, the sharp look of life’s experiences and losses evident in his gaze, and it almost sucked the oxygen from her.
“Olivia?”
His voice wrapped around her, cradling her against the shock of seeing him. “Zach. What...what are you doing here?”
Olivia shook off the rush of emotion. “No. Scratch that. It doesn’t matter. I need to find Rich. He’s bleeding somewhere out there. I don’t know where. The weather is turning bad and I have to find him!”
Lines creased Zach’s forehead, growing deeper between his brows. He acted as if he wanted to ask questions but thought better of it and gave a subtle shake of his head.
“Let’s get some help.” He removed his gloves and pulled out his smartphone. “If I can’t make the call, I’ll try a text. Something has to go through.”
Olivia wanted to laugh at that, except this was no laughing matter.
“Who could I text locally—”
Bark exploded from the tree next to her.
* * *
“Get down!” Zach hadn’t been sure he could find the old Kendricks vacation place when Rich had left his cryptic and urgent message about meeting him there, but he’d been a detective in Portland long enough to know when to heed that sense something was wrong.
And he’d just gotten his confirmation.
The sound of gunfire still echoed from the shot. Zach’s mind registered the danger as reflex took over.
He lunged for Olivia and threw her to the ground, pinning her under him to protect her. He remained in that position, waiting, listening.
“Why is someone shooting at us?” he whispered through the opening in her helmet, his face close to hers. This could have everything to do with Rich and his message.
“Get off me!”
Her harsh tone startled him. He’d only tried to protect her. Apparently she didn’t need protecting. Didn’t she understand it was second nature to him as an officer of the law? Make that an ex-officer, ex-detective with the Portland Police Department.
He rolled away. “Stay down.”
Zach crept over to hide behind the snowmobiles, trying to get a look at who had fired the shot. Olivia crawled over to him and another bullet pinged against the snowmobile closest to her. Another hit the tree behind him.
To let the assailant know Zach had come armed and prepared, he reached for the weapon in his shoulder holster, chambered a round and fired toward the shooter to hold him off. Even though he was no longer a detective, he still carried a weapon, his concealed weapon permit legal anywhere in the state of Oregon. This incident confirmed the necessity.
He hoped the rounds he fired would hold off the shooter while he and Olivia made a quick plan.
“I said to stay down.” He turned to look at her, softening his expression. She didn’t seem to notice he’d snapped at her, but under the circumstances, that hardly mattered.
She glared at him. “I’m not a child.”
Take that back. She had noticed his harsh tone. “Someone is shooting at us. At you. What’s going on, Olivia?”
“I don’t know.” She crouched behind her snowmobile, a few feet from him.
Entirely too far away for him to adequately shield her if needed.
“We can’t stay here.” He searched the woods around them to make sure they were not being ambushed from behind.
“But we’re safe behind the snowmobiles for now, aren’t we?” she asked.
“If there’s more than one shooter, we’re going to get pinned down if we sit here.”
Zach listened for movement, but all he heard was the gentle sound of snow falling through the trees. Unfortunately, the soft white stuff created a cushioned ground and would likely mute the shooter’s approach if he decided to move in.
“What do you suggest?” Olivia inched close enough for him to see the flecks of gold in her warm cinnamon eyes.
Zach used to vacation here with his best friend Rich—Olivia’s brother—and his family. A lot had happened since the last time he’d been here. But he’d never forget that special summer fourteen years ago when he was seventeen and Olivia had turned fifteen—it had been the first time he’d thought of her as more than Rich’s kid sister. Four years later he was on the cusp of entering the police academy and proposing marriage to Olivia when it all fell apart. Not now! Not now... Terror filled her eyes, yanking him back. Gripping his heart and squeezing. He shoved the memories away. “I’m thinking.” He peered around the bow of the vehicle. Nothing. He saw nothing but wilderness.
“Well, think faster.” Olivia slid away from him.
“I don’t know the area like you do,” he said. “So you’re going to have to lead us out of here.”
“You mean on foot?”
He nodded. “We’re not getting out of here on the snowmobiles, at least not yet. We’d be too exposed if we got on them now. We can’t risk it.”
He eyed the area on this side of the vehicles. Through the white-frosted evergreens he spotted a slope.
Zach gestured toward it. “Where does that lead?”
“There’s a dip down to a small brook.”
“Where will it take us?”
Olivia shrugged. “Away from here.”
A spray of bullets splintered the trees near them. A semiautomatic. Once again, Zach’s protective nature reared up and he reached for Olivia, wrapping his arms and body around her like a shield to cover her.
The shooters—and now he was certain there was more than one who carried rapid-firing deadly weapons—weren’t backing down.
If Rich had only given him more information he could have prepared.
He couldn’t have imagined he’d be following a trail of blood and snowmobile tracks to find Olivia out here in the wilderness searching for her brother. And now as he looked at her, he saw the girl he’d once loved had grown into a beautiful, capable woman. Her reddish-brown locks spilled from beneath the helmet, curling around the collar of her black-and-pink snowmobile suit, and the eyes that stared at him now could hurt him all over again if he let her.
But that wasn’t important.
What mattered most was that he had to keep her safe and track down her brother before the shooters killed them all. And find out why someone was shooting at them. Olivia and Rich’s life depended on Zach now. The irony! He’d relinquished the job he loved and was no longer a police officer or a detective.
Maybe he was no longer officially sworn to protect, but the motto remained in his bones.
If only he hadn’t failed to protect when it mattered most.
TWO (#uc1d17cac-c789-57ee-a5b9-b951a9064ecc)
Olivia screamed as bark splintered from the trees next to them. Why was someone shooting at them?
Zach’s solid form shielded her, protected her. As much as she didn’t like his proximity, she couldn’t think what else to do.
He grabbed her shoulders, his face near hers. “Stick close to me, we’re getting out of here, but keep low. Once we slide down far enough that the hill can protect us, we have to run for it.”
Dazed, she stared at him.
“Are you listening?” He shook her shoulders.
She nodded but still struggled to comprehend what was happening.
“Think, Olivia, where are we going to run to? Where can we hide? You have to take us there.”
“Okay, I got it.”
Would anyone hear all the rapid gunfire? If they did, she doubted they would think much about it. People often took to the woods to practice shooting.
God, please let someone come to investigate and help us!
She pressed herself deep into the snow like Zach had done and slid down the slope. Except they left a big fat trail that anyone could follow.
Now she wished the snowfall would break completely through the canopy and cover their path. If they could make it to a clearing, or where the trees weren’t so thick, maybe they could lose the shooters. But then they’d be easy targets. No good solution presented itself.
“Hurry,” Zach whispered.
He’d already dropped to the brook. Olivia’s pounding heart leaped to her throat.
Shoving, pushing hard, she slid until she was far enough down the hill that she could crouch without getting hit by a bullet. Then she hiked the rest of the way down to Zach.
Determination flashed in his gaze as he grabbed her gloved hand. Together they followed the nearly frozen brook, running where they could, and slowing in places where the snow grew too deep. With the effort, white clouds puffed out as her lungs labored to supply oxygen to her frantic heart.
Life and death.
This was a matter of life and death.
Hadn’t she wanted a quiet life? She’d moved here from Portland to put distance between her and tragedy. And now...this. Anger churned inside, fueling her strides.
Rich had done this. There was no other explanation. Olivia had asked why he’d come back to the States and he’d replied that he was finished working for the private military contract security company in the Middle East. He’d been restless, if not distressed.
Oh, Rich. What have you gotten yourself into? What have you gotten us into?
He’d brought these men here after him. She knew that in her gut. And now they were after her, too. Her and Zach. The man she wanted to forget, along with all that had gone wrong in her life, was in the mix, as well. Though he’d taken the lead, she pushed ahead of him. He didn’t know where to go. He didn’t know the area like she did and had said as much.
Still, she needed to hear from him. Did he have any ideas? An escape plan? “Where do you want me to take us, Zach? Where should we head?”
“Let’s lead them away from the snowmobiles, lose them, and then we can backtrack so we can ride out of here.”
She ducked under a branch. A bullet sliced across her helmet.
“Olivia!” Zach pushed her to the ground again.
“Will you stop doing that?” She pushed him off.
“Get behind the trees!”
She did as he asked, and together they crawled over and hid behind a thick-trunked pine—wide enough they could both press their backs against it. Catching her breath, she looked up and watched huge flakes dance on the air and flutter down toward her. They landed on her face and stuck in her lashes. She blinked them away.
Pulling her helmet off, she examined the damage. That had been close, much too close. She stashed it to the side, intending to leave it behind. The bright pink of the helmet had been intentional, meant to be visible in the woods to prevent hunters from shooting her by mistake. But now wasn’t the time for visibility.
“Good idea.” Zach peered at her, nodding his approval. “If anything, that helmet makes you an easy target.”
His icy blues turned more intense. Olivia peered out into the woods, looking anywhere and at anything except Zach. Sitting this close to him when she’d wanted to forget him, and having him with her in this far too surreal situation, would be her undoing if the shooters didn’t get her first.
“But without the helmet, you’re far too exposed.” He tugged his white helmet off. “Take mine.”
She whipped her gaze around to his. Yeah. Much too close. “What? No. Zach,” she whispered. “I’m not wearing your helmet. So put that back on.”
“I didn’t ask.”
Fury boiled inside. “I don’t need your protection.”
Hurt flickered in his gaze then vanished behind a stone cold stare. Oh... I didn’t mean to say that. She hadn’t meant to hurt him. When would it ever end?
Her legs trembled with fear and her lips weren’t far behind. She wouldn’t let him see her like this—a weak, scared little girl—though why she wanted to hide that from him she wasn’t sure. After all, someone was trying to kill them and she was scared. There wasn’t any reason to be ashamed of that. But she didn’t want him to protect her. She didn’t want to be that vulnerable.
Did she have a choice?
And wasn’t Zach scared, too? Trying to read his mind, sense his emotional state, wouldn’t do either of them any good. Again, she averted her gaze, listening, watching for the shooters as she caught her breath.
Zach gently touched her chin and turned her to face him. “Are you okay?”
It hurt when he touched her like that, all gentle and caring. She didn’t want that from him, or for him to see that she was absolutely not okay. But he probably already knew. “I don’t know how to answer that.”
He studied her, his blue-eyed gaze seeming to soak up every inch of her face. For a split second, she worried about her appearance. But she’d long ago given up the smoky eye shadow, snow plum blush and deep mauve lipstick she used to put on for him. Her self-consciousness fell away as she realized he hadn’t donned the helmet after her refusal to wear it, and that gave her ample opportunity to take him in up close and personal. That smattering of day-old stubble across his strong jaw. A few crow’s-feet that hadn’t yet emerged around his intense blue eyes when she’d last been this close to him. Protection practically spilled off him. That and something she couldn’t read behind his gaze. But maybe she shouldn’t even try.
Still...what was he thinking?
“We need to get moving.” He hesitated, then asked, “Can you lead us the long way around to the snowmobiles so we can get out of here? That is, if they haven’t already disabled the machines so we couldn’t do just that.”
“I can try. But what about Rich? I still need to find him. I can’t leave without him.”
She hadn’t wanted to entertain the possibility that Rich was already dead. She wouldn’t let her thoughts go there, but the hope she’d held on to was quickly slipping away.
“We’ll find him, don’t worry. But don’t forget he’s ex-military. He’s trained to survive. My priority is getting you to safety.” Zach suddenly stiffened and angled his head. He ducked low and peered around the tree. “Time to go.”
Zach stood and clambered around as he pressed his back against the tree. “I’m going to hold them off. You keep hidden behind the trees as you run and try get as far away as you can. Just keep going.”
“What? I thought you wanted us to make our way back to the snowmobiles? I’m not leaving you. I don’t want to find Rich only to have to come back and find you.”
“You won’t have to find me. I’ll be right behind you. I’m just giving you a head start.”
Zach aimed and fired off his weapon, the sound ricocheting through her head, ringing in her ears. Okay, well, maybe she could put some distance between them.
He fired another round, and then another in rapid succession. She wished for her own weapon, the one she’d left at home. She could help Zach. He would run out of ammo soon.
“Go, Olivia. I’ll find you. I can’t hold them off forever. Don’t make me waste these bullets.”
Just as she would have turned from him, he grabbed her collar and pulled her face close to his. His chest rose and fell, and the intensity in his eyes as he appeared to drink her in stole her breath away. “Be careful out there, Olivia. Don’t take any chances. I promise I’ll find you.”
For a split second, in the midst of lethal danger, her mind flooded with memories of kissing him. Her senses tingled. Her breaths came quicker, but not from the danger. Then he pushed away. “Go!”
She scrambled from him, keeping to the trees as he fired. She had to make this count and try to hide as she escaped.
Deep inside she felt like she was running from much more than bullets. She was running from past hurts she’d wanted to forget—she was running from Zachary Long.
Was there any way out of this situation, any possibility of survival that didn’t include Zach doing the thing he loved, the thing he’d left her for—serving and protecting? Risking his life for her. She should be glad she had a police officer, a detective, here to help her through this. But she couldn’t bring herself to be glad for it.
He loved the danger. The thrill of it ran through his blood since he came from a family of police officers, but Olivia had lost too much already with the death of her own police officer father when she was just eighteen. And she wasn’t willing to go through that again.
A bullet whizzed too closely and hit a tree to her right. She ducked, then crouched as she moved between a copse of Douglas firs and ponderosa pines. Would Zach be able to hold them off? And even if he did, then what?
What about him? How was he going to survive and find her? And just where should she go? Questions barraged her when she wanted tunnel vision, to focus on a single goal.
Running for her life. Escaping.
She pressed on, plowing through waist-deep snow, gripping branches for support in her push to escape, to get far from the assailants. All the while, she never stopped searching the woods for any sign of Rich.
There was none.
It was as if he’d simply disappeared from that snowmobile.
She believed he hadn’t fallen into the hands of these guys after them or else why were they after her and Zach if they had the person they’d come for? Could she be wrong about all of it?
Finally, exhaustion slowed her efforts. Her sluggish legs burning, Olivia leaned against a tree. She would wait for Zach here while she caught her breath. Rest her muscles, slow the hammer in her heart.
He would never find her if she didn’t stop. As her breathing calmed, she had the chance to get her bearings. A few feet from where she stood the ground dropped away into a deep fissure—a crack at least seventy feet deep or more. She knew about it from her summer hikes, but in the winter hidden dangers grew more treacherous. Snow and ice covered the fissure, hiding it in places.
She would definitely need to wait here for Zach, if for no other reason than to warn him and keep him from plummeting to his death in the crevice. She wasn’t sure if it was wrong but she wished that fate on the shooters.
A brutal storm moved in quickly. Could her predicament get any worse? Still, a raging snowstorm, possibly with blizzard-force winds, would also be a problem for the bad guys. They’d need shelter, too, and they couldn’t follow Zach and Olivia’s footprints.
A new cause for panic settled in her chest. Zach hadn’t caught up with her yet. In a snowstorm, would he be able to find her? Here she was hoping the storm would hide her tracks from the shooters, but if Zach hadn’t found her by then, he never would.
A twig snapped. Someone approached—had they seen her? Once again she found herself asking if she would see friend or foe. She’d long ago lost her knife in the scramble down to the brook. She grabbed a big branch she could use for a weapon and waited, the element of surprise her only advantage.
A figured moved past. She recognized Zach’s thick head of wheat hair as he stumbled forward into the deep snow around the group of Douglas firs where she’d been hiding. He’d followed her tracks, just as they would. But she was more than glad to see him.
“Zach!”
Bending next to him, she grabbed his arm and assisted him up and out of the thick white powder. Then Olivia threw her arms around him. “Zach, I was afraid you wouldn’t find me before the snow covered my tracks.”
She quickly dropped her arms and looked him up and down. “Are you hurt?”
He shook his head, too out of breath to answer her. Then finally, “They’re not too far behind so we need to keep moving. If we’re fortunate, we’ll get a blizzard.”
Zach had been counting on her to lead the way since she’d had many summers to explore the area before she’d made the vacation home permanent. With Rich’s sudden appearance, and just as sudden disappearance, and then the shooters, she’d been slow to process the events.
But beyond this stand of firs, she remembered the orange-trunked madrone trees and a few maples before the rocks. And then...
“Come on, I know where we can hide.”
He angled his head, his intense gaze catching hers, radiating reassurance as if to say, I knew you would.
His confidence in her had her heart dancing when it shouldn’t, especially in the middle of this threat. Still, she could use that to bolster her courage.
“Come on.” She held out her hand and he took it.
Olivia pointed out the fissure to Zach, just to be sure he wouldn’t fall to his death if he came back this way.
“I think I remember that from before.”
“Good. Just making sure. But you know what, maybe we could lure the shooters this way, trick them into falling in.”
Zach’s face twisted up. “Only as a last resort. No. Just no.”
“Fine.”
And as Zach had wished, the wind drove the snow hard into icy pinpricks against her face. They might even find themselves in a whiteout. Bad news, but they could use this development to their advantage.
Olivia kept to the trees as she led Zach, holding his hand as they hiked through what seemed like bottomless layers of snow in places, and up a rocky incline. She slipped once on iced-over rocks, but Zach’s hands slid around her waist and assisted her up and forward. Even without the heavy, driving snow to cover their trail, they could have already lost their pursuers in this treacherous part of the wilderness.
Zach hadn’t asked her exactly where she led them, which meant he trusted her to find the way. The longer it took, the more she began to doubt her sense of direction. She’d been here many times as a kid, but hadn’t come back even once since living at the cabin. Maybe all the gunfire and fear had confused her sense of direction.
But she kept moving, plowing and hiking forward. Now they faced off with a rocky wall, snow and ice catching in between the small cracks and fissures.
The cave had to be here somewhere.
And then it hit her. Would Rich have come here, too, knowing it was here? Had he thought to hide in the cave just like Olivia had?
Her hopes jumped.
She glanced back at Zach. He’d left his helmet behind, but he’d long ago covered his head with the hood on his winter coat, as had Olivia, so she couldn’t see his eyes at that moment. Maybe that was a good thing. She returned her energy to finding the cave, pressing her hands against the rocks as she went. Even though she wore gloves, her fingers grew stiff and clumsy.
One look at Zach’s red cheeks and she knew the truth.
The dropping temperature was getting to them.
And what of their pursuers? Did the shooters realize they could die if they didn’t find shelter, too? If the men after Rich were anything like him, then they too were survivors and were prepared for anything, carrying their bivouac gear with them in the mountains on their murderous hunting trip. Olivia’s shred of hope took a dive.
But why should she focus on them? She had yet to find the cave that would keep her and Zach warm, two people who hadn’t carried bivouac gear with them.
God, please, where is the cave? We have to find the cave!
Worry and doubt threaded through her thoughts. Did she have the wrong place, after all? And if she did, how would they survive?
If that was the case, they were as good as dead.
No. Olivia wouldn’t accept that. She cleared away the morbid thoughts and kept her gloved hands pressed against the rock wall, letting it guide her inward until she found the small opening.
There.
“It’s here,” she croaked out, almost not recognizing her own voice. Relief swirled through her.
The rock walls extending forward and out on both sides of the slender gap that served as the cave entrance saved them from the brunt of the building storm.
She hesitated before rushing in and turned to Zach. “If Rich could have made it here, this is where he would be hiding.”
Olivia dreaded looking in Zach’s eyes. What would she see in them? She wanted to cling to the smallest of hopes, but he could shatter those with one look.
He was a realist, after all.
“Let me go first.” Zach lifted his gun, gripped her hand and pulled her along behind him. “The shooters. They could have found the cave ahead of us. They might be waiting inside.”
* * *
“Stay here, just at the entrance.” Zach released her hand.
Olivia sucked in a breath as if she would counter him but then, surprising him, she nodded in agreement. The storm forced them to seek shelter and this cave served as their best option. But would he lead them inside to their deaths?
Or had Rich taken shelter here like she’d suggested?
“If the worst happens, you turn and run.” He pressed forward without waiting for her answer.
Sworn to protect.
Like that had worked so well.
He ignored his doubts and shoved his fears aside.
Entering the dark opening, he crept forward, weapon poised to fire, until his eyes adjusted to the darkness. If the shooters had taken shelter in the cave or waited for Olivia and Zach there, they could take Zach out before he was the wiser. He listened for movement, for breathing, anything at all, as he hedged the rock wall. The shooters weren’t the only possible threat. They could walk in on a hibernating bear.
Memories of this cave skittered through him. Rich had brought him here a few times in the summer. But that had been years ago and Zach wouldn’t count on his memory to guide him.
“Anyone here?” he asked.
Not that he expected someone with nefarious intentions to respond, but maybe Rich had come to hide here like Olivia hoped.
Zach had heard that hope in her words, and a sliver of pain skated over his heart. He had a feeling she would be disappointed.
She rushed by him, stumbling forward in the dark. “Rich! Are you in here?”
“What are you doing?” He grabbed her arm and pulled her back against him. “I told you to wait. Maybe the bad guys aren’t in here, but we could disturb a bear.”
“Rich!” Tears edged her voice.
But nobody answered.
She shifted forward and Zach caught her up in his arms to steady her. “I’m sorry, Olivia. So sorry.”
He never could have imagined he’d find her in his arms again. Good thing her bulky snowmobile suit served as a protective barrier. He didn’t want to feel her softness or be reminded of his attraction to her that obviously had remained even after a decade.
Zach would help her and support her now because she needed it, but he’d guard his heart against falling for her again—an act that would require all his strength. With his hands somehow in the silky copper locks that fell around her shoulders, and her distraught form leaning against him, Zach admitted that he could easily slip back into the past with her.
Except he couldn’t forget how she’d hurt him, asking him to give up his dream for her, then breaking it all off when he didn’t. He would use that now to stay free of any entanglement and continue to forge a future without her, though he found himself holding her in his arms once again.
Seeming to read his mind, she stiffened and moved away, swiping at her face. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
“Don’t worry about it.” He cut her off and moved deeper into the cave, holding his weapon tightly in his grip. Though if anyone waited here, they would already have made their presence known.
Zach and Olivia could have been killed in that one moment of indiscretion.
“The cave doesn’t go back very far,” she said. “Maybe a few yards. I doubt there’s a bear in here or we would know it by now. Bad guys, too. Besides, I can’t believe they could find this cave. Even in the summer it’s well hidden. Forget about it in the winter, especially with the approaching storm.”
“We don’t know if they scouted the area before their attack. We can’t be too careful.”
Zach’s eyes adjusted to the dim light spilling through the cave’s opening along with the cold and snow. The weather looked bleak out there and made him grateful they’d found this temporary shelter.
“Might as well get comfortable.” Olivia put her hand against the wall and slid down to the hard ground, her boots scraping dirt and pebbles. She wrapped her arms around herself.
The cave’s temperature was much warmer than outside, but even wearing the snowmobile garb, he could feel the cold seeping in. Zach frowned. They had nothing with which to make a fire. He wasn’t sure they’d want to risk giving themselves away even if they could build one.
Remaining standing, he watched the entrance in case any moment one of the men who had been shooting at them entered the cave to shelter from the storm, too. He and Olivia could have been followed.
He glanced down at her. She’d leaned her head against her knees, hair spilling over her back and shoulders. He wanted to dispel the memories and the sudden longing to hold her, but just as he would have looked away, she lifted her head, her cinnamon eyes capturing his gaze.
“I was shocked to see you today, Zach. The men shooting at us, that whole thing was a shocker, too. But you appeared out of nowhere.”
Yeah, he got that. He hadn’t been expecting to see her either. It was here in the Siskiyous that he’d first fallen in love with her one summer. But seeing her in the flesh today? His throat grew tight.
“Seeing you surprised me, too, but when you think about it, it makes sense,” he said.
“Right. You were Rich’s best friend, maybe you still are. But obviously you came here to meet him for some reason. He didn’t know I was living here and acted downright put out to see me.”
Zach shifted then leaned against the rock wall. He’d watch the entrance another hour. If the men didn’t find the cave within that time, he doubted they would. Besides, they likely had their own supplies to set up a shelter or found an empty cabin somewhere. An empty house like the Kendricks’.
If not, they’d die in this weather.
“How did he seem?”
Olivia stretched her legs and leaned against the wall behind her, resting her head. “Something was wrong. I knew that I should have paid more attention. But I was so glad to see him and thought maybe whatever was disturbing him had to do with the job he left. So I dreamed that he could stay here and work with me at Wilderness, Inc. for a while. Coop even said he could use a new guide. I was on my way back from Gideon and talking to Coop about using Rich as a guide. He knows the area. And business has been good.”
“Coop?”
“Cooper Wilde. He runs Wilderness, Inc. here in the mountains out of Gideon. It’s an adventure excursion and wilderness training business. Anyway, I guess this answers the question about what happened to Rich.”
“What do you mean?”
“I followed the snowmobile tracks from the house. There was blood, Zach. Blood on the snow. It had to be Rich’s. The guys shooting at us? All I can think is they were after him and he took a bullet, maybe, before he ran and got away on his snowmobile.”
“We can’t know for sure, but that sounds like one possibility. Regardless, it seems they want to kill us, whatever the reason.”
If those men were after Rich and he had led them here, to his sister... Zach paced the cave, fisting his gloved hand and squeezing the pistol grip with his other. Every choice a person made could have catastrophic effects on everyone else. He’d experienced that firsthand and felt the repercussions of his own decisions to the marrow in his bones.
“If only we could find Rich,” Olivia said. “Make sure he’s safe, help him if he’s hurt. I’m worried about him out there in this storm, maybe even bleeding to death.”
“Nothing we can do about it.”
Olivia shot him a glare. He knew she saw the change in him—that he’d hardened over the years. Inwardly, he sighed, wishing for the younger version of himself.
He didn’t like the thought of Rich suffering out there either and should be more reassuring to his friend’s sister. “If I know anything about your brother, it’s that he has survival skills, and he’s out there surviving, making it through this storm, just like us. We have to trust that Rich will rely on his training.”
If he isn’t already dead.
THREE (#uc1d17cac-c789-57ee-a5b9-b951a9064ecc)
Olivia had seen Rich’s pack on the bed. He hadn’t taken time to gather supplies before he fled for his life. She couldn’t share Zach’s confidence in her brother’s training.
She studied Zach as he watched the cave entrance. Her heart skipped a little. Back in high school, he’d been the kind of guy every girl could fall for, and now, to her chagrin, he looked even better.
He exhibited a kind of masculinity that was hard to resist. Skilled and confident. But those skills were the very thing that stood between them and had torn them apart. That and the choices he’d made.
Olivia shoved thoughts of the past away and focused on the very real and dangerous present. What else did Zach know about her brother? Why had Rich asked him to meet at the house? Her teeth chattered, preventing her from voicing the questions.
Shivering, she tucked her knees up against her chest and rested her chin on them again. How were they going to make it through tonight without a fire, even in this cave? It wasn’t deep enough to prevent the snow from swirling in, ushered by the ice-cold wind that had ramped up.
She buried her face in her knees, trying to keep the cold at bay.
Zach clomped across the cave and stood next to her. He slid down the wall and scooted right up close to her.
“What...what are you doing?” she asked.
“You’re cold. I’m cold.”
She thought to shift away from him but his body heat drew her, though reluctantly. Then he wrapped his arm around her, pulling her closer to him, nice and tight. “Come on, Olivia. We have to keep warm. The past is the past, and we can keep it there. No need to dredge up what happened before. At the moment we’re just two people doing what we have to do in order to survive, right?”
She nodded. “Well, when you put it that way.”
When she peeked at him, he showed her that half grin she remembered and liked. What was he thinking? She wasn’t sure she wanted to know, but she accepted the warmth he offered then pressed her face into her knees again. Maybe she’d warm up enough after a while to scoot away from him. But right now, she couldn’t think straight. Somehow she had to come to grips with everything that had happened over the last several hours. Images swirled like snowflakes in her mind.
Rich’s disappearance.
The blood in the snow.
The snowmobile tracks.
The men with the guns.
And...Zach.
She could hardly believe she was waiting out a storm in this cave with him and that he had his strong arm around her. Life had a way of going in circles. He was right—without survival gear, they had no choice but to use their body heat to stay warm. They couldn’t risk discovery by building a fire when lunatics pursued them, openly firing at them, shooting to kill. She hated that these men had turned the woods she loved into a crime scene.
And Rich. God, please, please keep him safe wherever he is out there.
“So, what’s the plan then?” she asked.
“It’s pretty simple. Stay warm and alive until the storm passes. We might even be here all night. Then in the morning we find our way back to civilization and keep well away from those shooters. Maybe we can find Rich, too.”
“Tell me about Rich. Until he showed up yesterday, I hadn’t talked to him in a long time.”
“I haven’t spoken to him that much myself. I’m sure you at least know he’s been in the Middle East working security for a private military contractor.”
“That was the last thing I knew about.” Grief thickened in her throat. So much of what she felt inside couldn’t be spoken out loud because it involved Zach’s own personal tragedy.
And the mistake he’d made that had cost his sister’s life. Olivia wouldn’t add to his torment by bringing it up. He seemed to sense she needed a moment to process. His thoughts had likely turned to the past, as well.
But in this moment, regret permeated her bones.
Why hadn’t she talked to Rich? Why had she been so quick to blame him for their mother’s death? Four years ago, he’d been grieving the death of his fiancée—Zach’s sister, Sarah—and after his tour of duty was over, he decided he wouldn’t return to the States, after all, because there would be no bride waiting for him.
No wedding.
So he took that job in private security instead.
Their mother had taken his absence too hard, just like she had Dad’s death when he’d been killed in the line of duty with the Portland PD. Her mother had used alcohol to console herself for a couple of years after their father’s death but had found her way to sobriety and had been sober until Sarah had been killed and Rich made the decision to stay away. Mom had needed him, perhaps too much. Their mother had been killed in a drunk-driving accident when her vehicle ran off a bridge.
Olivia had blamed Rich and hadn’t spoken to him since Mom’s funeral three years ago.
She squeezed her eyes against the tears threatening to spill. He had needed time and space to heal. Olivia could hardly blame him for that. It was exactly the reason she’d resigned her job as a biology teacher in Portland two years ago and moved to the family vacation house situated in the pristine wilderness of the Siskiyou Mountains. She’d wanted a new life and had run from all that had gone wrong in her old one. And until yesterday, when Rich had shown up, peace and solace had filled her days, replacing tragedy and drama.
But her efforts had been for nothing. Trouble had found her out in the middle of nowhere.
Now she realized she had wasted those precious years avoiding communication with her brother. Her mission now was to find him and keep him in her life. Somehow. Someway.
She buried the pain of the past encroaching on her present situation—and entered survival mode. Clearing tears from her throat, she asked, “What else can you tell me?”
“Not much, I’m sorry. He called me three days ago and asked me to meet him today. Said it was urgent but he couldn’t tell me anything more. In fact, he didn’t mention the cabin by name, only the place we used to vacation together. Until I got there, I wasn’t completely sure he’d meant your family’s cabin. It wasn’t the only place we went in the summer. He said he couldn’t trust anyone except me. Obviously, he was in some kind of trouble.”
The wind whipped flakes around, driving them deep into the cave to blanket them as they huddled together. Zach brushed the snow off them both.
“Do you think it has something to do with his job?” she asked. “He told me he was done working for them.”
“We can’t know when he was done or how long he’s even been back in the States.”
“I thought you guys were best friends.”
Right, and she was his sister. She felt his gaze on her, but stared straight ahead and puzzled over the rough drawings that she and Rich had carved in the wall as children. They had somehow remained after all this time.
“Life happens. People go their separate ways. He had a job on the other side of the world, and I had mine here. I think Sarah’s death changed him. Talking to me, well, that just reminded him of what he’d lost and my part in it.” Zach’s voice had turned harsh.
Yeah, she got that. Though Olivia had not been super close to Sarah, the woman had been her brother’s fiancée, and of course, the sister of the guy she used to love. Sarah’s death had changed their lives in ways they couldn’t have imagined. Olivia tried not to think about the burden that put on Zach, who blamed himself for her death.
Still, she didn’t like the harsh, cold tone coming from him. That wasn’t the Zach she’d known, but she had to get over it. Like he’d said, they were just two people doing what they had to in order to survive.
They weren’t a couple again. They weren’t in love. How he sounded shouldn’t matter to her. Besides, he’d hurt her, choosing danger over love. Choosing to become a police officer like his father instead of being with Olivia.
After losing her father, who’d been shot and killed during a simple traffic stop, Olivia knew she couldn’t handle that life. Couldn’t handle being married to a police officer. She thought Zach had understood that, and yet he’d still chosen that path. His dream had been more important to him than her.
Regardless, Sarah’s death had affected them in ways they couldn’t have imagined.
All their lives had been wrapped up in a big tangled mess of tragedy from which each of them had tried to escape, and yet here they were, tangled up together again.
She drew in a shuddering breath.
Zach squeezed her. “Hey, are you okay?”
No! No, she wasn’t okay. But talking about it would just dredge it all up again and hadn’t he said they didn’t want to do that? How could Zach not be thinking about everything that had happened? She leaned forward and pushed his arm off her. She’d leaned against him for the warmth. That made sense, but she didn’t need his arm around her for that.
Not now.
Not ever.
She wasn’t the least surprised when the storm’s intensity increased and the wind picked up, creating an eerie howl in the cave to add to her torment.
* * *
Zach sensed the subtle shift in her attitude, the change in her. He’d hoped they could endure and survive their predicament without the past coming between them, but clearly, ignoring their familiar surroundings and forgetting the memories had been hoping for too much.
“Try to get some sleep, if you can,” he offered.
He might find the situation as intolerable as she obviously did if he let his mind drift back.
Instead, he would think about her brother, Rich. Zach hadn’t wanted Olivia to know just how concerned he had been for his friend. But things didn’t look good. Sure, he believed the guy’s survival training could keep him alive until help reached him, but these circumstances didn’t bode well for Rich. In fact, Zach feared that even he and Olivia wouldn’t escape unscathed, though he would do his best to get her somewhere safe.
But with his track record, he didn’t know if his efforts would be enough.
What kind of trouble forced Rich to flee to the family cabin? Brought men to this neck of the Siskiyou Mountains in order to kill him? And yeah, Zach concurred with Olivia’s assessment that the men who’d shot at Zach and Olivia had been after Rich, too, but Zach hadn’t said that out loud.
As a former detective, he didn’t want to jump to conclusions, even when they appeared obvious. He couldn’t begin to presume what kind of trouble Rich had brought with him to Olivia’s door. To be fair, Rich hadn’t known he would find his sister here, any more than Zach had.
That didn’t prevent Zach’s rising fury with Rich for involving Olivia, even though Zach had brought trouble to his own sister.
Trouble that had cost her life.
He couldn’t stand by and watch the same happen to Olivia.
As if sensing his tumultuous thoughts, she shifted against him, trying to get comfortable, then finally turned her back to him and leaned against his shoulder. His insides ached with her nearness.
Sweet Olivia. How did he keep her safe?
God, I need Your help.
That’s what Rich would want from him now—to protect his sister. They weren’t going anywhere in this storm, especially with nightfall fast approaching. The only thing left to do involved wrapping his arms around her as they sat in the cave and tried to stay warm without a fire. But Olivia wouldn’t have that, and frankly, he didn’t want it either. He’d said they should leave the past behind them.
Right. He still felt the sting of her rejection as if it had happened yesterday.
What was the matter with him?
Memories, that’s what. This close to the woman he used to love and his mind flashed right back as if ten years had never passed. Except...well, the pain of his hurt surged all over again.
He’d had to follow his calling. His lot in life. He’d had to become a police officer and work his way up to detective like his father and grandfather before him. That was in his blood. Olivia knew that. He couldn’t understand why she would give him up because he had to follow his dream. Her father had been an officer, as well, God rest his soul. She hadn’t loved Zach enough to let him be who he was supposed to be.
In an ironic twist, he’d given it all up anyway a year ago. The cost of following his dream had been too high. First, his decision to join the police force had cost him Olivia, and then his subsequent failure had been like a domino effect. Had he succeeded in protecting his sister, Sarah, she would still be alive and Rich would be married to her. Maybe Olivia and Rich’s mother would still be alive.
He groaned, hating where this night in the cave with the wind howling like an underscore to his past tragedies drove him. Closing his eyes, he tried to clear his mind. When he opened them again, he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face.
“Zach?” Olivia whispered next to him. “Are you awake?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s dark in here.”
And cold.
She hadn’t said the words but he figured she didn’t want to admit she needed anything like, say, warmth.
“You’re not scared of the dark, are you?” Zach grinned to himself. In the dark. Olivia would never admit she was scared either.
“Of course not. It’s just unnerving. I thought I heard something scurrying around in here. You don’t think there’s a rodent or a raccoon or any number of other possible creatures sharing the cave with us, do you?”
“It’s hard to say but I don’t have a flashlight or a match, so we’ll just have to tough it out.” And, since he remained cold as well, and knew she would never admit she needed his warmth again, he wrapped his arm around her and drew her in close.
She didn’t resist.
There. That would keep them both warmer. Now only one thing remained. Waiting. They would wait for the storm to go and wait for morning to come. Seemed like there was a Bible verse on that theme that he’d learned somewhere in Sunday school class. The thought caught him by surprise.
Zachary hadn’t prayed in far too long. Maybe he’d been mad at God for everything he’d lost, but he tried not to think about it. Just ignored that aspect of his life, but now, here alone in the blackest darkness he’d ever experienced, just him and Olivia in this cave where the wind would probably howl all night, sitting close to one of his biggest hurts, biggest regrets, he thought maybe God was trying to get his attention.
“It’s going to be all right, Olivia. We’re going to make it through.” He wasn’t sure why he felt the need to say the words, but maybe it had a whole lot to do with wanting to sound off something positive to combat the doleful cry of the wind in the cave.
She scooted closer to him and shivered. He held her tight until her breathing shifted to a steady slow rhythm that told him she’d finally fallen asleep. Then he let himself drift, too. He didn’t know what they would face tomorrow and he didn’t want to borrow trouble, but he needed to rest. Needed his strength.
Except the worst of dreams accosted his restless sleep.
“Detective Long. You recognize my voice?”
“Jimmy Delaney.” The man had gotten out of prison a week ago. What did he want? Why was he calling?
Fear clawed through Zach.
“That’s right. I have someone here with me you might miss.”
“Zach?” Sarah’s voice rasped, then she sobbed. “Zach...” A scream broke through.
“What do you want?” Zach let all the anger he possessed pour through the phone connection. He would kill Jimmy Delaney when he got his hands on him.
“You. Just you.”
Then gunfire split his eardrums.
A sound stirred Zach awake and he bolted to his feet, rousing Olivia, too. “What was that?”
“What?” She glanced up, sleep clinging to her eyes.
“I heard something.”
He grabbed his weapon, his palm still slick from the recurring nightmare that always hit him at his lowest. Of course he would relive that day, that bad dream, here in this cave under these circumstances.
He shook it away and waited, listening and watching the entrance.
The storm had stopped. Morning light spilled through the opening.
Had it brought the men who wanted to kill them?
A rifle shot rang out somewhere in the woods near them, echoing through the cave.
FOUR (#uc1d17cac-c789-57ee-a5b9-b951a9064ecc)
Gunfire jolted Olivia fully awake. She attempted to stand, but her body, stiff from sitting on the hard ground in a cold cave all night, refused to cooperate. Zach assisted her to her feet before she could protest.
“Thank you.” She rubbed her arms to get the blood going and noted his attention on the more urgent matters outside the cave entrance. Had they been discovered?
She’d much prefer coffee to the fear curdling in her stomach. “What are we going to do?”
Zach edged to the cave opening, staying in the shadows created by the rays of light spilling in. So focused on his task, Olivia wasn’t sure he’d even heard her question.
Then, finally, “First I’m going to check around outside and see if it’s safe.”
“And?”
“Then we’re getting out of here.”
“And what if it’s not safe? What if those men are out there? And what about Rich? We have to find him, or at least, if you’re not willing, then I have to find him.” Oh, why had she said that? But she needed to make him understand.
He turned to look at her then. Under the cold intensity of his ice-blue eyes, she was hard pressed not to look away, but she held his gaze.
“One thing at a time,” he said. “Besides, I don’t think the gunfire we heard was meant for us. That was a rifle. Not a semiautomatic like the shooters used. Like mine.”
Olivia closed the distance then. Approaching Zach, she stood just behind him and peered outside into the winter wonderland. Standing this close, she could once again feel the heat emanating from him. Olivia felt chilled to the bone and wished she could have his arms around her again. Finding the thought surprisingly much too comfortable, she took a step back. She couldn’t let herself grow attached to him again. He’d just leave her to return to his job with the Portland PD.
She focused her thoughts on their predicament. Then whom had it been meant for? Rich? Her heart pounded too hard for this early in the morning, but she was worried for her brother. She hadn’t gotten him back only to lose him again. And once they found him—and they would find him, she wouldn’t think otherwise—she would never again let time and distance separate them. She’d keep in touch.
Pain burned behind her eyes. She had to stop thinking about Rich.
The gunfire hadn’t been about him. Could it have been hunters? Olivia thought of the poachers she’d seen in the region killing deer out of season, and how furious she’d been. She’d reported them to the local game warden, but they had never been caught.
Zach tensed and stepped from the shadows and into the light, his form now silhouetted in the cave entrance.
“Stay here.” He didn’t bother glancing back to see if she agreed, but stepped from the cave, expecting her to follow orders. Simple as that.
She ground her molars.
Then exhaled.
Her reaction to his instructions hadn’t been fair to him. He’d only been trying to protect her. It was in his blood. Olivia should appreciate his protective nature. She should give him a break and be grateful, as well.
Crossing her arms, she waited.
And waited.
After twenty minutes, Olivia wasn’t waiting anymore.
She crept from the cave, the gray light blinding her for a moment as she hugged the wall. She knew her way around, but wasn’t certain about Zach. Inching along the rock wall that led out of the hidden entrance, Olivia pushed back her concern that something had happened to him. He was skilled and trained to handle criminals. He knew what he was doing.
Finally, she came to the place where she’d have to climb down over the snow-covered boulders. But she spotted Zach’s path cutting into the thick white layers and followed his trail down as gusts of wind tossed snow around her. She tugged the hood of her jacket tight around her face.
Come on, Zach. Where are you?
She hadn’t realized his searching the area meant disappearing for this long. At the bottom of the boulders, she hopped to the ground and sank to her waist. Great. She followed his more than obvious plow through the depths of white and then she spotted him. Hidden behind a thick fallen tree trunk that was almost unrecognizable after the storm, he peered out into the quiet forest, cold gusts making the white-frosted trees clack together and drop loads of snow.
She crept in close and, just as she reached forward to touch him, he whirled on her with his weapon aimed point-blank.
Olivia lifted her hands in surrender. “It’s me.”
Dropping his shoulders, he released an exaggerated breath and lowered his weapon. Eyes blazing, his gaze turned on her. “What were you thinking? I told you to stay in the cave.”
Olivia moved next to him behind the trunk. “I’m not much for following orders.”
He didn’t answer for the longest time, so she risked a glance and caught him studying her. When she looked at him, that half grin cracked his face. And her heart skipped a little. Oh, no, not that. Please not that. How could his smile do that to her after a decade? She’d once thought her reaction to him had been the fluttering of a young woman’s heart, but apparently her age and experience had nothing at all to do with it.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.
He dropped the grin and turned serious. “No reason that matters.” Zach nodded, gesturing toward the woods. “There are a couple of guys out there.”
“You think it’s the shooters?”
“Could be. Or maybe it’s someone else. I was waiting and watching, trying to decide.”
She dragged in a breath. “Poachers, maybe it’s my poachers.”
“Your poachers?”
“Just a couple of men I’ve seen hunting the last two winters during the off-season. There was a sweet doe I’d see hanging around the woods near the house. She got to where she wasn’t even afraid of me. I think the men killed her. I’d seen them out there in the area one day, and the next day she never came back. Makes me so mad. I’ve been hoping to take them down.”
“I’m sorry about your doe.”
“She wasn’t my pet. That’s not legal for one thing. And the other thing, it wouldn’t have been best for her.” Olivia thought of the doe’s soft brown eyes when she’d lift her head and catch Olivia outside. The doe would stare at her for a few moments then go back to foraging. Olivia hoped it wasn’t the doe’s lack of fear of humans that had gotten her killed. “It was like...we had an understanding.”
The half grin again, this time revealing his dimple. “I have no doubt that you’ll succeed in getting your poachers. Surprised you haven’t already.”
She wasn’t sure how to take that. Had he meant it as a compliment or was there a hidden meaning behind his words? “Thanks for the vote of confidence...I think.”
“I meant that as a compliment, Olivia. You were always the nurturing type. Glad to see that hasn’t changed.”
Now, don’t go complimenting me, please. I don’t want to like you, at least not in the same way I once did.
Then she saw the men between the trees, heading in the opposite direction—one of them carrying a smallish deer—a doe?—over his shoulders. Now she understood what that gunfire had been about. They had illegally killed a deer. The two men wore the same hunter’s garb she’d seen them in before. One wore a bright orange beanie, and the other a camo face mask. “It’s my poachers!”
And this time, she had Zach with her. He was an officer of the law. He could do something. The hardest part about stopping them was catching them in the act. That was what the game warden had said. In the act or holding the illegally killed animal for evidence.
“Hey!” She ran out from behind the boulder after them. “Hey, you!”
* * *
This was a bad idea. Probably why she hadn’t bothered to ask Zach his opinion. She knew what he would’ve said. And now he had to expose himself to run after Olivia. She’d given them both away. “Come back!”
But it was too late. Still, poachers weren’t usually murderers, too. They’d get slapped with a fine, if that. Poaching wasn’t a capital crime.
She expected him to confront the hunters, but she didn’t know he was no longer a police officer, wasn’t carrying a badge, though even if he were, he’d be operating outside of his jurisdiction. Still, in Oregon the law would simply require him to obtain authorization, when practical, after the fact.
That is, if he were still a law enforcement officer.
Olivia wanted him to use the force of the law behind his badge and arrest these men carrying hunting rifles and an illegal kill. She’d always been passionate about animals, about wildlife. And with her sad story of the doe she loved, poachers beware.
Reluctantly, he trailed after her. With what they had faced, he wasn’t in the mood for a confrontation of this nature. Yet somehow he found himself wanting to do something to please her, to make her happy. Hence, he’d talk to these hunters. See what was what and do what he could.
Add to that, if they hiked out of here with these two men, maybe there would be safety in numbers. They had to make it to Gideon. Even if the men weren’t willing to accompany them, Zach owed them a warning about the two dangerous men. They should leave these woods and stay clear for a few days, at least.
The two men had stopped and, instead of running away to make an escape, were waiting for their approach.
Realization slowly dawned. It washed over him along with dread. Too late, he saw his mistake. These men were not her poachers. Olivia hiked ahead of him, but the snow slowed her down. Zach used the tracks she’d made to run for her. One of the men cracked a wicked smile.
The other one dropped the doe.
Both pulled out their weapons and aimed.
“Down! Get down!” How many times would he shout those words before this was over?
Olivia slowed to a stop and turned to glance back at Zach—the men ahead of them fired their weapons at the same moment Zach threw himself into her, knocking her into the snow.
He pressed his ear to hers. “Are you hurt?”
Beneath him, she lifted her head slightly and shook it.
That had been much too close. But they weren’t out of danger yet.
It had happened so fast, she might not even realize it if she had, in fact, taken a bullet.
God, please let her be okay. Please help us!
No matter if she’d been shot, they couldn’t stay here. He grabbed the back of her snowmobile suit, hauled her up with him and, hunkered together, he slid them over behind a tree. Then he fired back at the men to hold them off. Zach had been right to carry an extra magazine, though that had seemed like overkill at the time. He was also glad he hadn’t used all his rounds yesterday against these guys.
He faced them again today.
Behind the tree, he took a moment to look at Olivia. She appeared stunned. He brushed the hair from her face. “You okay? You’re not shot, are you?” he asked again.
He would look her over completely but he forced his gaze back to the woods. He didn’t want to take his eyes from their surroundings too long.
The two men split up. He could see their forms running between the trees. Zach fired at them, forcing them to take cover again. They would probably come around to ambush Zach and Olivia from behind, if he didn’t take them out first.
“No, I’m not shot. But I don’t understand.”
“These aren’t your poachers, Olivia.”
“But they’re wearing hunting clothes. Carrying rifles. The same exact garb my guys had worn. I recognized them.”
Their clothes. She’d recognized their clothes. But he said nothing more. He didn’t want to think about the reasons why that could be but could see that Olivia was thinking about it. Shock registered in her eyes and on her face. “You don’t think...”
Bullets slammed into the tree.
Both he and Olivia ducked. Their eyes locked.
“Stay here and stay down. Don’t try to be a hero or try to be strong for me. I’m going to take these men out. But in order to do that, I can’t be worried about you. Do you understand?”
She nodded. Averted her gaze.
Zach didn’t want to waste another round until he was certain she’d understood. “Olivia, look at me.”
Her eyes found his again, the shock slowly dissipating and shifting toward rage at the shooters’ audacity, and a visceral emotion that just might save her life—terror. “I promise. I’m not moving from this tree until you tell me otherwise.”
Good. She didn’t like to take orders, but he could see in her eyes she understood it could mean their lives.
Zach peered from behind the tree again. “I’m going to move so that I can get a better shot. You stay hidden. Dig down in the snow.” Which wouldn’t be hard. The real trouble came in staying on top of it.
He left her then, trusting that she would be safer hidden next to the tree than with him. Zach hated to leave her, but he wasn’t doing her any favors by just sitting next to her like a shield, waiting for the men to trap them. He had to go on the offensive or they weren’t going to make it.
Crawling through the snow, he trekked to a patch of manzanita and elderberry bushes, then crouched and ran to a thick-trunked cedar. He lost sight of one of the men, but saw the other creeping his way around. At least he could see one of the shooters.
That would have to be enough for now.
Taking even one of these guys out could buy him and Olivia some time and maybe even the real chance of getting to Gideon. The sheriff would want to know, too, what happened to the hunters. Had the shooters killed them and disguised themselves as hunters to draw out their human prey? Or had they simply forced the real hunters to switch clothing and then tied them up in their camp somewhere?
Either way, that strategy had worked. Zach and Olivia had been fooled. But none of it mattered. What was done was done.
He concentrated on watching for his chance.
The shooter crept through the woods unaware that Zach had his sights on him. While he watched the one, he also searched for the second guy, who was probably coming around from the other direction. That’s what Zach would do. But Zach couldn’t shoot at someone he couldn’t see, so he focused his attention on the shooter he could see.
This guy might be a distraction to pull Zach’s gaze away from the real threat. Once Zach made his shot, he might also give away his position and would need to move quickly if he could.
Inhale...
Exhale...
A few more slow breaths. He focused on the man he would shoot. He wished he had one of their rifles with scopes on them that must have belonged to the hunters. Holding his hands steady, he aimed.
Waited for the shot.
The man slowly crept from one tree, heading for another.
Zach could barely make out his form.
The forest stilled.
Nothing existed outside of the one shooter.
Inhale... Exhale...
Zach fired.
His shot echoed through the quiet.
The shooter dropped.
Zach ducked and pressed into the snow. Now the other shooter would know where to look for him, if he hadn’t already. Zach kept low, grateful the snow wasn’t as deep in this part of the woods so he could crawl to another copse of trees without too much struggle. A quick glance at where he’d left Olivia told him she was there and remained hidden.
He only spotted her because he knew where to look.
Sucking in a breath, he drew consolation from the fact he’d dropped one of the shooters. Now for the other one. Without getting up, he did his best at reconnaissance to see if he was being watched. The other man might use the hunter’s rifle and watch for Zach through the rifle’s scope, hunting Zach and Olivia like they were just two deer instead of two people.
Like they were animals.
He couldn’t move yet, not until he spotted the other shooter.
God, please let Olivia stay put. Please, keep her safe. I can’t let her down. I can’t let her down like I let Sarah down.
The memory crushed his heart. He couldn’t afford to think of it now, and shoved it away.
And yeah, he’d prayed a lot lately. He hoped it worked. After this was over, he’d need to have that long, heart-to-heart talk with God that he’d avoided for too long.
A jackrabbit dashed away, crossing between Zach and Olivia. Had someone disturbed the small animal? Zach searched the woods. He spotted the glint of metal, much too close to Olivia’s position.
Every muscle in his body stiffened. If only he could signal her to keep down.
Don’t even flinch.
But she couldn’t hear the thoughts he willed at her.
He saw now what must have drawn the shooter’s attention—the small bush near the fir under which she’d taken cover shook. That shaking bush gave away her location.
What are you doing, Olivia? You can’t afford to move right now.
This wasn’t working. Zach could no longer stay where he was and wait it out. The guy would shoot and kill Olivia. He simply waited for his shot. Zach would need to draw the man’s attention to himself. But he didn’t have a good shot from this position.
He would fire his weapon anyway. That should do the trick.
He sucked in a couple of breaths and got ready to run. It was a risk, but one he was willing to take for her.
Standing, he pushed from the tree and fired rounds as he ran toward where the shooter waited.
A bullet grazed Zach’s jacket, slicing deep enough to cut across his skin. He dropped to the ground and crawled forward to a tree.
Another rifle shot rang out.
Olivia screamed.
FIVE (#uc1d17cac-c789-57ee-a5b9-b951a9064ecc)
She screamed again.
And wanted to keep on screaming.
She couldn’t take much more of this.
She’d run from her hiding place when she’d seen Zach make his own move from the tree, firing his weapon. For her part, she’d been trying to draw the shooter away from him when she’d noticed the man taking aim at Zach. She simply couldn’t let that happen. She could see the shooter from where she’d been hiding, but apparently Zach couldn’t see him while he tried for the other one.
Olivia didn’t have a firearm so she only had one option.
Draw the shooter’s attention away from Zach.
By moving the bushes, she’d given herself away. It had been a risk she’d been willing to take in order to give Zach a chance. Besides, if the shooter had taken him out, then Olivia would be left with no way to defend herself.
That gave her an idea.
Since she needed a weapon, she could take the downed shooter’s rifle with the scope, along with any other weapons he had.
Olivia had been the one to run after the hunters in the first place. Her rash decision had caused this trouble. She’d gotten her and Zach into this. She would get them out, despite her promise to Zach to remain in that one spot. At the time, it made sense. But no longer.
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Elizabeth Goddard
Тип: электронная книга
Жанр: Современная зарубежная литература
Язык: на английском языке
Издательство: HarperCollins
Дата публикации: 16.04.2024
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О книге: NO SAFE HAVENArriving at her secluded cabin to find her brother missing, Olivia Kendricks follows his trail into the woods—until two shooters take aim at her. She only escapes when ex-detective Zachary Long, her brother’s friend—and Olivia’s first love—comes to her rescue. Now as they run for their lives in the snowbound wilderness, they must search for her brother while figuring out why someone wants them dead. And though Zach’s police force training may be what will save them, it’s also what once drove them apart when he gave Olivia up to chase his dream. In a freezing landscape as deadly as it is beautiful, they’ll have to let go of the past…and face down powerful men willing to kill to keep secrets buried.