Page 94 of Trail to Trouble

“No. Release Bianca. If you don’t, you are not getting out of here alive.”

“You won’t shoot. You might accidentally hit her. How would that look? Cop kills victim.”

Sebastián stood with only half of his face peering around Bianca.

He was right. There was no way Chief Ricco could shoot.

Hannah wanted to leap out of the woods to end this madness. Hunter must have read her mind because his grip tightened on her arm. What they’d thought would be a good visual position was now the worst position they could be in. To get to Sebastián, they’d have to go through Bianca, and they couldn’t do that.

Bianca went into a full-blown sob and kept slumping. Sebastián kept yanking at her. She gasped for air. Her face turned white as a ghost. The one eye Hannah could see rolled back into her head, and she collapsed to the ground. A shot rang out. Sebastián fell to the ground behind her. Chief Ricco crouched down and looked to the left, then back to Sebastián, then to the left again.

The chief sprang up and ran toward Bianca and Sebastián. Hunter flew by her side and did the same. She felt frozen in place. She didn’t want to see another dead body on top of these falls, or anywhere else for that matter.

“She’s breathing. Sebastián is dead,” Hunter yelled to her.

Hannah leaped out of the woods and ran to Bianca.

Hannah crouched down next to her, placed her hand on her shoulder, and shook her slightly.

“Bianca, can you hear me?” Hannah asked twice before her friend’s eyes fluttered open, the swollen one just a slit.

“Hannah?” Bianca whispered.

“Yes. You’re okay. Sebastián is dead.”

“I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”

“What?”

“I did this. I did all of this. I didn’t want to. He made me.”

“It’s okay. I know.”

“No. You don’t. Even back then. Alyssa. Your parents. This is all my fault.”

Bianca’s words felt like a knife slicing her heart. Her friend had betrayed her.

Hannah looked at Hunter and Chief Ricco. Both men wore a shocked expression.

Bianca’s breathing labored, and she passed out.

The chief called over the radio for evacuation help, then asked the million-dollar question.

“Who shot?”

One by one, the men replied. Nobody fessed up.

Chief Ricco glanced around.

“None of our men were in a position to see this far and shoot,” the chief stated.

The probing look he wore basically asked her and Hunter if they knew who shot.

“I’ve got no idea. Nobody else knows we’re here,” Hunter replied.

Hannah nodded in agreement.

Chief Ricco shared a knowing glance with Hunter and he looked away.