Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
DECK
I'm out of bed before the second beep, my hand closing around the Glock on the nightstand. Vivian stirs beside me, and I press my palm to her shoulder.
"Stay down. Don't move."
I grab my tablet and check the perimeter feed. Eastern sensor. The ravine approach I showed her two weeks ago. The one I said they'd use if they came.
Three heat signatures. Moving in tactical formation.
My blood goes cold.
"Get dressed." I keep my voice low and even. "Dark clothes. Boots. Go bag. You have sixty seconds."
She doesn't ask questions. Doesn't waste time with fear. She's out of bed and moving before I finish speaking, and the pride I feel is immediately swallowed by dread.
They found us.
I pull on tactical pants and a black thermal, strapping on my chest holster and grabbing the rifle from behind the bedroom door. My hands move through the motions automatically while my mind races through scenarios.
Three signatures. Could be a scout team, could be the advance party for a larger force. Either way, they're already inside my outer perimeter. That gives us maybe fifteen minutes before they reach the cabin.
Vivian emerges from the bathroom in black yoga pants and a dark sweater, her hair pulled back, her go bag over one shoulder. She's holding the Glock I gave her the way I taught her, barrel down, finger off the trigger.
"How many?"
"Three confirmed. Possibly more."
"The panic room?"
"No." I'm already moving toward the back door. "If they have our location, they know the layout. The panic room becomes a trap. We need to get to the secondary rally point and call for extraction."
"The split boulder?"
"Two miles north. Different route than we trained. They'll expect us to take the obvious path."
I disable the interior lights and crack the back door, scanning the tree line with night vision. Clear. For now.
"Stay close. Move when I move. Stop when I stop. If we get separated—"
"Rally point. Wait thirty minutes. If you don't show, head for the main road and flag down a vehicle."
"No." I grab her arm, pulling her close enough to see her eyes in the darkness. "If we get separated, you run. You don't wait for me. You don't come back for me. You get to that road and you disappear. Understood?"
"Deck—"
"Understood?"
Her jaw tightens, but she nods. "Understood."
I don't believe her. I can see in her eyes that she'll come back for me, that she won't leave me behind no matter what I say. It terrifies me more than the three armed men moving through my woods.
"Let's go."
We slip out the back door and into the forest. The snow from last week has mostly melted, leaving the ground soft and treacherous. I lead us on a path I've never shown her, one that skirts the eastern ridge and approaches the rally point from an unexpected angle.
Vivian moves like I trained her. Light feet. Controlled breathing. She doesn't step on branches or kick loose stones. Two weeks ago, she would have crashed through these woods like a wounded elk. Now she flows through the darkness like she was born to it.
We're half a mile from the cabin when I hear them.
Footsteps. Multiple sets. Coming from the north.
I hold up a fist and Vivian freezes instantly. I point to a cluster of boulders twenty feet to our left and she moves toward them without making a sound.
We press ourselves into the shadow of the rocks. I count heartbeats. One. Two. Three.
Two figures pass within thirty yards of our position. Night vision goggles. Suppressed rifles. Professional gear, professional movement. These aren't street soldiers. The Castellanos hired contractors. Military-trained killers who know how to hunt in terrain like this.
Shit.
I wait until they've moved past before touching Vivian's arm. We need to adjust course. The northern route is compromised.
I gesture west. She nods.
We move.
The next twenty minutes are a nightmare of near misses and course corrections. Every time I think we've found a clear path, another heat signature appears on my tablet. They've got at least six men in the field, maybe more. They're not just searching—they're herding. Driving us toward something.
The realization hits me like a punch to the gut. They know we'll run. They've planned for it.
"Deck." Vivian's whisper is barely audible. "They're pushing us south."
She sees it too. Smart woman.
"I know. We need to break the pattern." I scan the terrain, looking for options. There's a creek bed about a quarter mile east that leads to a series of caves I've never shown anyone. If we can reach it—
The shot comes from nowhere.
The round hits the tree beside my head, spraying bark into my face. I grab Vivian and drag her down as more shots crack through the air, suppressed but still audible in the quiet forest.
"Move!" I shove her toward a rock outcropping while laying down cover fire. She runs, staying low, and I follow, my rifle barking into the darkness.
We reach the rocks and press ourselves behind them. My heart is pounding, my breath coming fast. Blood streaks on my face where the bark cut me.
"You're hit." Vivian reaches for my cheek.
"Just a scratch. We need to keep moving."
"Which way?"
I check my tablet. The heat signatures are converging on our position. We have maybe two minutes before we're surrounded.
The caves are our only option. But the path to reach them crosses open ground.
"When I say go, you run east. Don't stop for anything. There's a creek bed about two hundred yards out. Follow it north until you reach a rock face with caves. Hide there until I come for you."
"What about you?"
"I'm going to draw them off."
"No." Her hand closes around my arm. "We stay together."
"Vivian—"
"You told me once that protection fails. That people you're supposed to protect die." Her eyes bore into mine. "Don't make me one of them by leaving me alone out here."
"If we both run, they'll catch us both. If I draw them off—"
"They'll kill you. And then they'll find me anyway." Her grip tightens. "We do this together or not at all."
There's no time to argue. The footsteps are getting closer.
"Fine. Together. Stay on my six."
We break from cover and run.
The next sixty seconds are a blur of gunfire and adrenaline. Rounds snap past us as we sprint through the trees. I fire back without aiming, suppression more than accuracy. Vivian stays close, her breathing harsh but controlled.
The creek bed appears ahead, a dark gash in the moonlit landscape. I grab Vivian's hand and pull her down the embankment, our feet splashing through shallow water.
"North. Go."
We run through the creek, the water masking our footprints. Behind us, I can hear shouting. They've lost visual. But it won't take them long to figure out where we went.
The rock face looms ahead, dark and jagged. I spot the cave entrance I've memorized and push Vivian toward it.
"Inside. All the way back."
She disappears into the darkness. I turn to cover our approach, rifle raised, scanning for pursuit.
Nothing. Yet.
I back into the cave, my eyes never leaving the creek bed. The cave is narrow but deep, extending back into the mountain. I've cached supplies here—water, ammunition, a first aid kit. Emergency gear for exactly this scenario.
Vivian is pressed against the back wall, her Glock raised. Her hands are steady, but I can see the whites of her eyes in the darkness.
"Did we lose them?"
"Temporarily. They'll search the creek bed, find our exit point. We have maybe ten minutes."
"Then what?"
"The cave has a back entrance. Leads out to the western slope. From there, we can reach the main road."
"You planned for this."
"I plan for everything."
She laughs, and the sound is wild and scared. "I love you."
"I love you too." I pull her close, one arm around her while the other keeps my rifle pointed at the entrance. "We're going to get through this."
"Promise?"
I can't promise. We both know I can't promise. But I say it anyway.
"Promise."
The sound of boots on rock cuts off whatever she was going to say. They've found the cave.
"Back entrance. Now."
I push her deeper into the darkness, one hand on her shoulder to guide her. The passage narrows, forcing us to move single file. I can hear voices behind us now, echoing off the stone walls.
"They're in here. Fan out."
Flashlight beams stab through the darkness. I fire twice toward the entrance, buying us seconds.
"Faster."
The passage turns sharply, and suddenly cool air hits my face. The back entrance. Just ahead.
"Go. I'm right behind you."
Vivian squeezes through the narrow opening and disappears. I follow, my shoulders scraping against rock as I force myself through.
We emerge onto a steep slope covered in loose scree. The moon is bright here, no tree cover, nowhere to hide. We're completely exposed.
"Down. Move."
We half-run, half-slide down the slope, stones clattering beneath our feet. Behind us, I hear someone emerge from the cave entrance.
The shot takes me in the left shoulder.
The impact spins me around, and I lose my footing. I'm rolling, tumbling down the slope, my rifle flying from my hands. Pain explodes through my body as I crash into a boulder, coming to a stop in a heap of limbs and agony.
"Deck!"
Vivian's scream cuts through the fog of pain. I try to push myself up, but my left arm won't cooperate. Blood is spreading across my shoulder, hot and wet.
"Run." My voice comes out as a rasp. "Vivian, run."
She's scrambling back up the slope toward me. I try to wave her off, but my arm won't move.
"I'm not leaving you."
"Goddamn it, Vivian—"
The men emerge from the cave. Three of them. Rifles raised.
Vivian raises her Glock and fires. The shot goes wide, but it makes them duck for cover. She fires again, placing rounds near their position like I taught her.
"Go!" I grab her ankle with my good hand. "Please."
She looks down at me. The fear in her eyes is overwhelming, but so is the determination.
"I'll come back for you."
"Don't—"
But she's already gone, sprinting down the slope into the darkness. The men emerge from cover and two of them give chase while the third approaches me with his rifle trained on my chest.
"Don't move." Professional voice. Calm.
I couldn't move if I wanted to. The blood loss is making me dizzy. The world tilts and spins.
"Where's she going?"
"Fuck you."
The rifle butt catches me across the face, and the world goes black for a moment. When I come back, the contractor is speaking into a radio.
"Target One is down. Target Two heading west toward the main road. Collins and Meyer in pursuit."
The radio crackles. "Acquire Target Two. Target One is secondary."
Secondary. They want Vivian more than they want me. Of course they do. She's the witness. I'm just the bodyguard.
"Understood." The contractor looks down at me. "You're lucky. Boss wants you alive. Wants to know how she ended up here."
"I'll never—"
Another blow to the head. This time, the darkness doesn't recede.
My last thought before unconsciousness takes me is Vivian's face. Her eyes as she promised to come back for me. Her voice telling me she loved me.
I failed her.
Just like I failed everyone else.
I don't know how long I'm out. When I wake, I'm still on the slope, but the contractor is gone. My hands are zip-tied in front of me, and my shoulder is a symphony of agony.
Vivian.
I struggle to sit up, my vision swimming. The moon has moved. At least an hour, maybe two. Long enough for them to catch her. Long enough for everything to go wrong.
My radio is gone. My weapons are gone. I'm bleeding, bound, and alone on a mountain while the woman I love is being hunted by professional killers.
A searchlight sweeps the terrain to the west. They're looking for her. Still looking.
Which means they haven't found her yet.
Hope flickers in my chest. Vivian is smart. She's trained. She knows this terrain better than she did two weeks ago. If she reached the trees, if she found cover—
The radio on my belt crackles. They didn't take the radio. They didn't search me properly.
"Target Two has gone to ground. Lost visual in the western tree line. Requesting additional assets."
She's still free. Still running.
I work at the zip ties with numb fingers. The plastic cuts into my wrists, but I don't stop. If I can get free, if I can get to her—
"Negative on additional assets. Maintain search pattern. She can't have gone far."
They underestimate her. They think she's just a prosecutor, a city girl who doesn't know how to survive in the wilderness. They don't know what I've taught her. They don't know what she's capable of.
I have to push through this. I promised her we'd get through this together.
I intend to keep that promise.