Page 16 of Manhunt in the Narrows (Red Rock Murders #1)

Her scream would follow him into his nightmares.

“Sayles!” Elias charged forward, hand outstretched as though there was a damn thing he could do to stop her from falling.

Blood drained from his upper body in a rush.

Dead. She was dead. Added to the growing list of victims in this bastard’s wake.

He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think straight.

How? How had this happened? How had it gone so horribly wrong so quickly?

The man in front of him peered over the edge where the ranger had gone over. Not an accident. Pushed off. Blood rippled down sharp features and caught in the killer’s facial hair. A wicked, slithering smile spread the bastard’s lips thin. “Well, will you look at that. Ranger Green has claws.”

What?

Breath crushed from his chest as he caught movement at the end of the thin trail he’d followed her on.

A boot swung into view, and the world stopped turning.

She’d caught herself. Saved herself. Dangling 2,000 feet above the earth.

One slip. That was all it would take to lose her, and Elias wasn’t sure he could take it.

“Sayles.” He took that step. The one that would get him closer to pulling her to safety.

But was stopped by the killer standing between them.

Elias’s fingers tingled for the weight of his weapon lost to the river below, and he dropped his pack off to the side.

Fisting his hands, he reminded himself of why he was here.

To stop a killer. To keep the son of a bitch from escaping custody.

“I’m sorry, Agent Broyles. Did you really think it would be so easy?

” The Hitchhiker Killer wasn’t anything Elias had expected.

Though the crazed look in his eye certainly fit the bill of a serial killer.

The attacker cracked his neck to one side, taking his own step forward.

“You’ve been hunting me these past few weeks.

You had to have known I would’ve prepared for this, and I can’t very well have you following me to my final destination. ”

Sayles’s sob drove through him. The rains wouldn’t make it easy to hold on for much longer, but he had to trust her to take care of herself for now as the threat edged closer. “You talk this much to those motorists you gutted, or am I special?”

That smile didn’t falter as the killer pulled a gleaming blade from the back of his waistband. “Don’t forget that hiker. He got an earful, too.”

“You’re going to pay for every one of them.” Elias braced for the oncoming fight. Battle-ready tension taking over. “I don’t care how long it takes me. I will have you in cuffs.”

The killer lunged knife-first. His movement worked against him as Elias dodged the attack.

The blade slipped along Elias’s chest, a mere inch away from cutting through him.

He latched on to the killer’s wrist and turned the tip of the steel straight into the Hitchhiker Killer’s face, shoving the bastard into the cliff, putting his own back to the 2,000-foot drop.

Surprise and something along the lines of humor laced the killer’s expression as Elias struggled to inch that knife closer, but sheer strength fought back.

A knee slammed into Elias’s gut, and he lost his leverage on the killer’s wrist. Pain sparked through his torso thanks to that damn twig that’d impaled between his ribs, and he doubled over to counter the effects.

Soggy gravel bit into his knees as he hit the ground. The Hitchhiker Killer stepped free.

“Elias!” Sayles’s pleas notched his blood pressure higher and called to something deeper. Had the witness he’d sent to her death begged for him to save her in her last moments? Would he have been able to save her if he’d been there?

“Hang on!” Elias blocked the arc of the blade aimed for his face.

Striking as fast as possible, he launched his elbow into the killer’s jaw.

His attacker’s head snapped back. Giving him the few seconds of disorientation he needed to get to Sayles.

He jumped for the end of the trail, both hands curling over the edge.

Brazen and unfiltered fear contorted her beautiful face as she whipped her gaze to him. The knuckles of her fingers were white against red rock. She couldn’t hang on for much longer. “Help me. Please. Help me.”

He wrapped his hands around both of her wrists and pulled with everything he had.

It wasn’t enough. Memories of them in the same position, of her relying on him to protect her—to save her—from the river clawing through the canyon, had him screaming against the effort straining his injured ribs.

He’d failed her then. He wouldn’t fail her now. “I’ve got you. I won’t let go.”

She put her trust in him, loosening her hold on the rocks she clung to. Her eyes widened a split second later, cutting to something over his shoulder. “Look out!”

Agony ripped across his side, and he lost the grip on one of her wrists.

Sayles’s weight pulled her down. She swung, her pack skimming against the rock face.

Another scream escaped her control as she twisted in his hold, dangling by his grip alone.

The killer penetrated his peripheral vision.

Elias braced for the second kick, and he nearly lost his hold on his partner altogether. “Reach!”

The order barely left his mouth before Sayles was clawing to regain her grip.

Toes digging into the side of the drop-off, she scrambled for purchase, but the rock and mud simply crumbled under her weight.

She dropped again. Lower. Water reduced the friction between his hands.

He was losing his grip on her, and they both knew it.

A shadow slipped over him. Lightning sparked, solidifying the killer’s proximity.

“I think this is one of those ‘if I can’t have her, no one will’ situations, Agent Broyles.” Heaving breaths reached his ears as the Hitchhiker Killer carved his blade downward. Directly for Elias’s spine.

Sayles locked onto a rock and pulled her wrist from his hands. “Move!”

He rolled into the cliff face, putting solid rock at his back.

He was at a disadvantage as steel cut across his face and imbedded into the shifting gravel above his shoulder.

Stinging pain spread across his cheek, followed by a flood of warmth.

Blood. The attacker had come close to sending that blade home.

Shoving everything he had into his next attack, Elias kicked out and made contact with the killer’s chest.

He didn’t give his assailant time to regain his balance and surged to his feet.

Catching the Hitchhiker Killer around the waist, Elias hauled the bastard up and back and slammed him into the ground.

Except he hadn’t accounted for the narrowness of the trail.

His knee slipped off the edge, and it was only his hold around the suspect in his arm that kept him from going over completely.

The knife slipped through the small gap between their bodies, and Elias barely managed to avoid its tip sinking into his chest. He bent the killer’s wrist at an unnatural angle, forcing the him to release the blade.

A scream ripped from the man’s throat as the knife plunged toward the Narrows below.

“Elias, I can’t hold on!” Sayles needed him to finish this. To get them the hell off this trail.

He rocketed his fist into the Hitchhiker Killer’s face. Once. Twice.

“Is that the best you’ve got, Agent Broyles?” That serpentine smile only spread wider as the bastard’s head bounced off pea-size gravel underneath them. Blood dribbled from his mouth, lost to the biting rain slashing through the too-thin air.

Elias hit him again. Knocking the killer unconscious. Something released from around his rib cage, and he crawled off the suspect’s body. “Sayles.”

Diving for the end of the trail, he grabbed the collar of her uniform shirt. The cotton threatened to tear in his grasp, but it gave him some sense of friction compared to her bare skin. “Hold on to my neck.”

The ranger stabbed her toes into the crumbling mountainside and hurled her weight upward.

Her arms secured around his neck, and Elias dragged her over the lip.

Holding her against him, unwilling or unable to let her go, he didn’t know.

She was alive. She was real. She was here. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”

Sobs racked her upper body, and Elias held on to her tighter.

The lip of the trail disappeared under his heels as he kicked them a few feet back from the edge.

Threading his fingers into her hair, he buried his face in to her neck, letting her use him for however long she needed.

“He was going to kill me if I didn’t get him out of the park. ”

“I know.” Elias framed her face, pulling her back to get a better look. He scanned the length of her body for any signs of blood or injury. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

She shook her head. “No. He didn’t hurt me, but I can’t say the same for him.”

“Good.” He wasn’t sure what came over him, why every cell in his body urged him to close that short distance between them, but he had nothing left in his arsenal to avoid it.

Elias crushed his mouth to hers. This beautiful, confident, inspiring woman who a mere twenty-four hours ago couldn’t stand being in the same room as him.

There was nothing sweet and romantic about the kiss.

A frenzy had started the moment he’d realized she’d been taken and hadn’t let up.

Every second of concern and fear laced each stroke of his mouth against hers until he had to break to catch his breath.

Setting his forehead against hers, Elias breathed her in.

Tried to convince his nervous system the danger was over.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to keep him from taking you. ”

Blood blended with water between her fingers. “It wasn’t your fault. I knew you were coming for me.” She interlaced her hands with his on either side of her face. “I knew you wouldn’t give up.”

“Never.” Reality tendriled into his awareness. They weren’t safe up here. At any moment, the trail could fail altogether, and he’d never forgive himself if something happened to Sayles because he couldn’t keep his mouth to himself. “We need to get the hell out of here.”

She nodded as if just realizing their situation. Water streaked down her face, and Sayles swiped it away to clear her vision. Most likely missing that iconic hat of hers. “We’re above Orderville Canyon Junction. We should be able to camp there until the storm passes.”

“Good. Then let’s get moving.” Elias helped her maneuver off his lap, instantly missing the heat she’d generated. Then the pain moved in. Hell. He’d forgotten about the hole in his side. “I might also need you to patch me up again. Seems I got into a fight with a twig.”

Sayles didn’t answer. Didn’t even seem to breathe.

He followed the direction of her gaze over his shoulder. And froze. “Damn it.”

Surging to his feet, he searched for signs of movement.

Of something to give them an idea of where the hell the killer had gone.

He couldn’t have just vanished. Had his unconscious body gone over the trail’s edge, or had the Hitchhiker Killer managed to escape without notice?

Elias couldn’t see the bottom of the canyon clearly from here.

Not with the storm attacking from every angle.

“Come on.” He grabbed for his pack with one hand and for Sayles’s hand with the other. He wasn’t letting her out of his sight from here on out and headed along the trail he assumed was meant for pack horses rather than actual human beings. Toward that cave where he’d found her antibiotic ointment.

They’d barely managed to survive between two flash floods, hypothermia, a rogue twig and a killer determined to get away with murder, but one thing was for sure. “This isn’t over.”