Chapter 4
VICTORIA
The guys chasing me were relentless, but they couldn’t have been trained how to track someone in the wilderness.
They had every advantage, but I’d been successful in evading them so far.
I had covered a decent amount of the terrain surrounding my campsite in the days since I’d arrived on the mountain, so I was at least semi-familiar with the territory.
Armed with only my camera and plate, I started to make my way toward a system of caves I’d stumbled on my third day into this trip.
They were the perfect place for a female black bear to den, and a sow wouldn’t hesitate to attack if she thought I was a threat to her cubs.
I’d noted the location but hadn’t searched the caves because running into a protective mama bear was an experience I wanted to avoid.
Desperate times called for desperate measures, though. I wasn’t sure if there was a bear or any other wild animal living in those caves, but I did know there were men with guns chasing me. Under those circumstances, the choice was easy.
I took a roundabout route, putting what my dad had taught me about hunting to good use and doing my best to leave a false trail wherever I could.
I successfully hid from them for about five hours, judging by the sun’s position in the sky.
Once I thought it was safe, I finally headed toward the caves.
I was about twenty yards from them when I heard one of the men yell, “I think she went this way, guys.”
His voice had a slight Eastern European accent and was much too close for comfort. I ducked behind a tree, pressing my back against the bark as I tried to catch my breath. When another guy called out, “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I found a piece of fabric on a branch. I think it’s from her coat,” he answered.
I glanced down at my arms and bit back a curse when I saw the small tear in my left sleeve.
I’d been running so fast that I didn’t notice when it had gotten caught on the tree.
If I kept making mistakes like that, I’d never get off this mountain alive.
And the same was going to be true if I stayed where I was since the other men would be headed this way, too.
Dropping into a crouch, I shuffled as quietly as I could toward the cave. Inch by painstaking inch, I got closer to my goal. My only chance for safety.
Every little crunch of the leaves beneath my feet sounded as loud as a gunshot to me.
I tried to avoid the twigs because they snapped when I stepped on one, but the path was covered with them.
The other three guys’ voices kept getting closer, and I wanted to pick up the pace.
But the faster I went, the more likely I was to alert them to my presence.
I tamped down the urge to make a run for it and kept the same slow pace, sending up a silent prayer of thanks when I reached the mouth of the nearest cave.
“There’s a footstep in the mud here,” one of the guys yelled as I slipped inside the dark recess.
Placing my hand against the nearest wall, I trailed my fingers over the rough surface as I moved more quickly, going deeper into the cave system. The men’s voices carried into the pitch-black space, making me tremble.
I was in the middle of the wilderness without shelter or food, being hunted by bad guys with no way to call for help.
All my careful planning had been in vain.
As I huddled at the back of the cave, I wanted to kick myself for leaving my satellite phone in my tent when I’d decided to walk down to the lake to rinse off my dishes from breakfast. My dad had taught me better, but I’d become careless after so many trips without any issues.
I was starting to worry they were going to search the caves when there was a sound in the distance. The whomp whomp whomp of rotor blades.
The men heard it, too. “Shit, is that a helicopter?”
“Fuck, it is,” another guy confirmed. “They must be searching for the bitch.”
“Already? We’re in the middle of fucking nowhere, and there was only one sleeping bag at her campsite. Not a single fucking sign anyone was with her. Who the hell would have reported her missing?”
My dad. He hadn’t wasted any time calling in the cavalry after I missed texting him this morning.
His overprotective instincts had definitely paid off.
With the search already underway, the amount of time I had to last out here was going to be much less than I had anticipated.
With how these guys had reacted to me seeing them, no way would they want to get caught out here.
My hunch was proved correct about fifteen minutes later when the guy who’d found the piece of my jacket said, “If we waste more time trying to track the woman, they’re gonna find us while they’re searching for her.”
“But she had a camera with her. What if she took a picture of us,” one of the other men argued.
“That’s tomorrow’s problem. Today we need to focus on getting out of here without getting caught.”
A third man backed up the first guy. “Yeah, we might be wasting our time, and they won’t even find her. For all we know, she could be dead already.”
“I highly doubt we’ll get that lucky. Nothing has gone right with this damn shipment,” the fourth guy chimed in. “First, the damn plane went down. Then a woman with a fucking camera stumbles across us in the middle of nowhere. What are the fucking odds?”
“Slim to none.” The second man let out a low whistle. “We sure as fuck shouldn’t hit up Vegas anytime soon with shit luck like this.”
“Boss is gonna be pissed,” the fourth guy muttered as they moved farther away. “We’ll be lucky to come outta this mess with our lives.”
I stayed where I was for at least an hour after I last heard the men talking.
Then I started to make my way back to the mouth of the cave, moving slowly in case I was wrong and they were waiting for me.
Using the cave wall as cover, I peeked outside and scanned the tree line for any sign of the men.
When there was no movement for another hour, I inched my way into the light.
I should’ve waited a little longer. If I had, I would have still been hidden when another man appeared.
He strode through the trees like a real-life action hero—exactly what I needed at the moment.
My first instinct was to run toward him and throw myself into his arms, but I couldn’t ignore the possibility that he was the villain.
With his black clothing and the gun in his thigh holster, he fit right in with the bad guys who were hunting me.
The helicopter could’ve been theirs. A ruse to make me think they’d given up.
That it was safe to come out because help had arrived.
I couldn’t risk my gut being wrong about him—no matter how attractive he was.
With his tall, muscular body, thick dark hair, dark eyes, and chiseled jawline, there was no denying he was gorgeous.
But bad guys could be hot, too. My best bet was to lure him into a false sense of security, and then when his defenses were lowered, make a break for it.