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Thirty-two

KELLY TRUDGED ON , the cold burning her lungs. She could do this. They had to do this.

The rumble of two motors sounded in the distance.

“The trees,” he said. “We’ll take cover.”

A few minutes later, a couple stopped their snowmobiles a few feet from them and cut the engine.

Had he sent a couple after them?

“Did you see someone, Hector?” the woman asked her companion.

“Yes. I wonder where they went?” Hector scanned the area, his gaze following their footprints in the thick snow right to them. He cocked his head. “Good morning.”

Kelly turned to Jared, and he shrugged.

“Morning,” he said.

Hector rested his hands on his hips. “Did you see a deer back there or something?”

Both people’s hands were visible, and she saw no weapons.

“Yep,” she lied. “We were trying to be still to see more.”

“Sorry if we disturbed them with the mobiles.”

“We’re just out for a morning ride,” the lady said. “It’s usually so quiet this time of day, but you’re the second hikers we’ve seen.”

Kelly stiffened. “Oh?”

“Yes, we met the nicest gentleman maybe a mile back. He asked where we got the snowmobiles, so we pointed him in the direction of the rental shop.”

“I told him they weren’t open yet,” Hector explained. “We rented ours yesterday, but he seemed determined to get one. Probably waiting there now until they open. Anyhoo, sorry if we disturbed your nature watching. We’ll be on our way now.”

Kelly’s shoulders relaxed as the couple drove away. She turned to Jared “We’ve got to move.”

Tracking through the underbrush of the trees to avoid leaving any more prints in the snow, Kelly rushed forward, Jared a handspan behind her. The slope beside them edged a fifty-foot drop to the ice-floating river below.

“We’re not far from my car,” he said. “We’ve only got a mile to go, and we’re at our exit point. If we can just reach it before he reaches us.”

The same rumbling echoed up the mountain pass. She prayed it was the couple just circling around, but she knew better. It was him. She could feel it.

The snowmobile reared over the slope, and the man driving scanned the area, then turned his gaze on them, and a smile spread over his lips.

Brent stopped the snowmobile, climbed off, and headed for them, gun in hand. Stuck between him and the drop-off, they had no choice.

“Kel, no,” Jared said in the rush of the wind.

“It’s the only way.” Squeezing her eyes shut a moment, she leapt over the edge as bullets flew overhead.

Jared hit the ground.

She looked up between free falls, smacking into trees, then rolling past them. He tumbled down the steep incline, but she couldn’t tell if he’d been shot or was just following her lead.

Ramming into something hard, her hand split open. Warm blood oozed into her tattered glove as her slide continued. Jagged rocks lay ahead. Trying to avert them, she held out her hand to grab on to something—anything to stop her free fall—but the ground cover and brush only tore at her hand more.

Her ski pants ripped as pain shot through her thigh, and she collided with the frigid water.

A second splash sounded.

She prayed there wouldn’t be a third.

Bullets splayed the rough water, hitting an ice floe mere inches away. She ducked under—the cold stealing her breath. The water stabbed like icicles lancing her skin.

She hoped the river would carry them the rest of the way to the exit point—and fast. If they didn’t get out of the water and into their car soon, they’d die of hypothermia, and all would be lost.