Chapter 19 #2
“Where are we going now? Back to town?” While she’d like to get her hands on whoever was following and ask questions, she’d prefer to do that on her own terms, and not on the side of a silent but deadly active volcano right before the weather turned and dumped several feet of snow.
The way things were going, snow would come in the form of a blizzard.
Fun times.
She raced forward and nearly tripped but stepped in front of him. “I want to know where we’re going now. What’s the plan?”
“I know my way around the mountain.”
“True, so please just tell me.”
“Please just trust me. My priority right now is safety. We’re getting out of here.”
Well, she wouldn’t argue with that and stepped to the side to walk with him. He picked up the pace, which concerned her. After the day they’d had and her exhaustion level, could she even keep up?
Dreaming about sitting in a cozy cabin nursing a cup of hot chocolate would only make her more miserable. She shoved that tormenting thought away. She couldn’t afford to think about comfort.
The sharp report of a rifle echoed off the mountain.
Sarah instinctively ducked behind a nearby boulder.
Ryder was right with her. Breathing hard, he pulled his gun out and pressed his back against the cold stone.
Her breaths puffed out in white clouds, and she realized the temperature had dropped even more.
“Is it hunting season?”
Ryder’s face was pinched. His coat had a rip through it.
“You’re hit.” She shifted to look closely at his sleeve.
A deep frown creased his forehead. “It’s grazed, I think.”
“Let me get the first aid kit.”
He shrugged off his backpack and then out of his coat.
Sarah dug through the pack. “I found it.”
She positioned herself to peer at his upper arm near the shoulder, where his shirt was torn and blood flowed freely. Nausea started. It wasn’t that she got sick at the sight of blood, but maybe the sight of Ryder’s blood on this precarious path they walked.
“Please take your shirt off.”
Shivering, he tugged it up and off, revealing a six pack and muscles, which she caught before she could deliberately ignore his athletic physique, but it was something she couldn’t unsee.
Still, she focused on the gushing wound.
A chunk of flesh had been ripped out by the bullet.
Her stomach roiled again. It could have been worse. So much worse.
She thought of her brother’s drowning death. “They aren’t worried about making it look like an accident anymore.”
“Out here, they can bury us and no one would ever find us,” he said.
“You don’t have to remind me.” She positioned the bandage on the wound and pressed. He let out a grunt of pain. “Sorry.”
He tugged his shirt back on, the rest of the layers, and then, last, the coat.
“Please call for help, Ryder. You didn’t sign up for this and neither did I. Not really. Can the sheriff send some people? I don’t want anyone to get hurt because I decided to come search for the truth.”
“I’m going to get us somewhere safe. I can’t be entirely sure that letting the sheriff know where I’m going isn’t just going to let the bad guys know too.”
“You saying you don’t trust the sheriff?”
“I trust him. It’s not him I’m worried about. But I’ll let my brother know we have hostiles after us on the mountain, and he’ll call in local resources to assist.”
“Your brother?” Sarah asked as if she didn’t already know Holt was in intelligence operations for the government. “You told someone about what we’re after?”
Of course he did. She should have known.
“The sheriff knows we’re up here and thinks we’re after the Nazi gold, but he doesn’t know where. I also told my brother in case of an emergency. He’s the only one who will get a locating beacon from me via my inReach device.” His brows furrowed. “I’m sorry, Sarah. I had to tell someone.”
He grappled with something inside his coat pocket and pulled out the device, then sent a message.
Though she was relieved that someone would know they might be in trouble, she wasn’t sure how she felt about Ryder confiding her secret to anyone.
Sarah suspected he’d told his brother much more than where he would be on the mountain.
What had she thought? That she could trust Ryder to keep it all to himself?
She wanted to be disappointed in him, but she had asked too much already.
After all . . . “Someone just took a shot at us.” She’d said it out loud but really to herself to let it sink in. Nothing clandestine about that.
“You act like you’re surprised.”
“I shouldn’t be. You’re right.”
“They aren’t a very good shot or I would be dead.”
Had that been the plan? Kill Ryder, and she would for sure die out here? He probably thought the same thing.
“It’s not like we can go back to the cave for shelter, so, what now?” And would he be able to guide her with that wound?
“Nothing’s changed, except I’ll have to take a different path. There’s only one way out of here now, and we keep going. We just hug the mountain and take the long way around. Stick to the shadows and trees.”
“To another cave? I would love a fire.” And yeah, that hot cocoa. “Can we just keep going until we get to town?”
“If we could, we would. But we can’t make it before dark, so no.”
“Care to share where we’re going, then?”
“I have the necessary supplies to survive on the coldest night. But . . . I know a place, since we’re heading another direction. I hadn’t planned on it because it’s the opposite direction of town.”
That was all she would get, and she would let him do his job.
Another reason she’d wanted him for this, in case they were ambushed or threatened.
Sarah stuck close to Ryder, not only for protection but for warmth.
She didn’t want to be at this elevation when the temperatures significantly dropped at night.
How had her grandfather survived a crash? How had he survived the mountain?
After what felt like far too much time and effort, they descended the peak on the other side, where they once again entered the tree line. Every muscle and bone in her body ached, but Ryder appeared unaffected despite his gunshot wound.
“Do you think they’ll follow us? It seems to me they can’t possibly follow now that we’re on this side of the summit, and we’re completely out of sight.”
“Time will tell.”
She stumbled and he caught her, pausing as they descended into the mountain forest. He gripped her and looked her over.
Sarah lifted her chin to let him know she was good.
His intense expression softened, and he offered a half smile. “We’re almost there.”
It wasn’t long before he turned on his flashlight and so did she. Beams of light shining in the woods could give them away if someone cared to look. The smell of spruce and pine filled her senses. They were still on the mountain, but she appreciated the lower elevation, and that gave her hope.
Ryder stopped suddenly, and she almost ran into the back of him—or the backpack.
He shined the light around until it landed on a small structure. An old dilapidated, forgotten cabin. Then he trekked forward, an extra bounce in his step. Sarah followed him but risked a glance over her shoulder.
If anyone had followed, this would be nothing more than a trap.
But at the moment, honestly, she didn’t care. She craved warmth and shelter, and maybe she craved those things more than the answers she’d been so desperate to find.