Chapter 7
Seven
Gideon envisioned executing a smooth dive into the driver’s seat like some Special Forces hotshot. Instead, he stumbled in a submerged pothole, slowing him just enough for Mackenzie to reach Al’s vehicle first. She launched herself behind the wheel.
With no time to navigate around to the passenger seat, Gideon hurled himself into the bed of the truck seconds before she stomped the gas.
Al roared with rage and let loose another hail of bullets.
One shattered the side mirror as Mackenzie sent the truck flying through the stable gates and out onto the dirt road.
He clung with all his mettle as the truck tore over the ground.
He didn’t have to see to know that Al and Jerry would pursue in Jerry’s vehicle, but the surprise had provided them precious minutes for a getaway.
It would give Kevin a window to escape, as well, and Cordelia if she hadn’t cleared the property yet. They weren’t the targets, but then again they might have helped set the trap. Yet Cordelia had been on the phone with utter rage in her expression. Don’t mess with a woman and her horses.
Kevin could have acted alone to betray them.
Mackenzie took a hard turn that sent him rolling over and slamming into the other side of the truck bed.
Then she barreled over a ditch with only a slight adjustment in speed.
He landed hard on his shoulder and bounced back up into the air, where he got a glimpse behind them.
The black truck had just made it past the stable gates, a sizable distance between them, thanks to Mackenzie’s edge-of-control speed.
Ahead was a blind turn that would take them out of sight of their pursuers for a few moments.
It might also result in him flying out of the truck altogether. He pounded on the roof of the cab.
“I’m gettin’ in!” he hollered.
Hopefully she wouldn’t run over him in the process.
She made the turn and stopped, allowing him to scramble into the passenger seat, feeling as though he’d just been churned in a cement mixer.
“I’ll—” He was going to say “drive” but she didn’t let him. She took off again before his buckle clicked.
She stomped on the accelerator until the vehicle shimmied and shook. “They know this area way better than we do. Finding a place to hide is the best option until we can plan something. Agreed?”
“Yes, I—”
“All right. Then you might want to hold on.”
He braced himself with his boots, clutching the armrest as she jerked the wheel and took them at teeth-clenching speed straight off the road and down a grassy hillside stubbled with old-growth trees. “Look out!”
She swerved around one oak and then the next.
“Slow down or you’ll do Al’s job for him.”
“Don’t be a backseat driver,” she yelled back.
He wished there was a back seat for him to hunker down in as she plunged the vehicle deeper into the tree line.
Branches smacked at the sides and the shrubbery grew so dense he lost orientation to the road.
A flying rock shattered the right headlight, sending glass ballooning in a sparkling cloud.
Ahead the trees thinned and patches of landscape showed through.
He blinked and blinked again because it sure looked like—
Ahead the mountain abruptly gave way to a precarious slope.
He shouted over the engine.
Mackenzie sucked in a breath as she practically stood on the brake.
Dirt crumbled under the tires.
The truck continued moving, wheels sliding ever closer to the drop that would tumble them straight off a cliff.
His body was fully taut as he prepared for the inevitable crash.
Twigs raked the windows, as if they were trying to slow the vehicle and prevent it from hurtling into the abyss, but momentum and gravity were working against them.
The precipice loomed ever closer, yards, feet, then inches.
“Come on, come on.” Mackenzie’s forearms tensed as she worked the brake with both feet. With a groan of protest, the truck shimmied to a stop at last, inches before they would have gone over.
He was pretty sure his heart had stopped beating a few feet back. They both sat motionless, panting.
“Unexpected,” she finally said.
“That about sums it up,” he managed to say.
Still breathing hard, she rolled down the driver’s side glass. They listened to the sound of a truck hurtling past on the road above them.
“They didn’t see us turn off.” She slapped the wheel in satisfaction. “Smooth, right?”
“Oh yeah. Smooth as silk,” he said weakly. His heart was threatening to crack through his rib cage. How they’d survived that escapade had to be purely an act of God. His stomach was still inside out.
Mackenzie, on the other hand, seemed to be unaffected by their near-death experience. She unbuckled and made sure her pack was still on the passenger floor where she’d thrown it. His was mashed between his shoulders and seat since he hadn’t had a spare second to take it off.
Every muscle and joint complained thanks to the battering he’d endured. Being around Mackenzie Bardine was hazardous to a man’s health. At least this time they hadn’t ended up in the water.
“You okay?” she asked. “You look pale.”
“Peachy. You?”
“Okay.” She craned to see through the branches. “Can you tell where we are?”
“Give me a minute.” He climbed out, shoulder complaining along with all his other parts. After plowing through loose dirt and foliage, he found a spot where he could use his phone’s compass to get them an orientation before he returned and climbed back in.
“That way’s Kevin’s trailer,” he said, jutting a finger. “The other way’s town and at our nine o’clock is the stable.”
She thought it over. “So take back roads to town then? You can report to the cops.”
He shook his head. “Al and Jerry will figure on that. I’m sure they’ve got eyes all over, people on the lookout to find us. Could be Kevin and Cordelia are out searching too.”
“But we have to go in that direction somehow. Your Jeep’s there. And . . .”
He huffed out a breath. “And?”
“And I can get from there to my next destination.”
He rolled his eyes. “You’re not James Bond.
I know you’re headed for the airstrip to get the info your contact gave you.
” She paused, probably waiting for him to argue against it.
No point. If she was going to throw her life away, he couldn’t stop her.
But if they stayed alive long enough, he could try to lobby for her to change her mind between here and his Jeep.
“We don’t have to stay together,” she said quietly.
Survival protocol dictated otherwise. It was always better for isolated personnel to stick together. But it was more than his training causing his immediate rejection. The thought of leaving her rubbed him raw inside. Why? Worry? He frowned. Guilt?
Because he’d walked away from Aaron?
The gray of her eyes held streaks of silver as she watched him.
“We stay together. That’s the best way to survive,” he said firmly.
She folded her arms and thought it over. “Much as it pains me to admit, you’re more skilled in this wilderness survival stuff than I am. How about we stay together just until we get back to civilization?”
He nodded, relieved.
She reached for the ignition. “We’ll reverse then. Drive out the way we came in, peel off on the first back road we come to that leads north, stick to cover as much as possible. Get some distance from good ol’ Al and Jerry and regroup.”
He didn’t answer as she carefully backed the truck away from the precipice and out of the leafy cover. The ascent back up to the road was much less terrifying than the descent, but the tires fought for traction in places.
When they eventually rattled and banged onto the paved surface, there was still no sign of the shooters’ return. She kept her speed slower but maintained a brisk clip nonetheless.
He replayed their morning, the trip to the stables, the ambush. He’d been on alert during their drive from Kevin’s and he’d seen no sign that they were followed.
Mackenzie glanced at him. “You’ve got that lip thing going on.”
“What thing?”
“You purse your lips when you’re thinking.”
He blinked. “I do?”
“Yes. Spill it.”
He would have to work on his steely airman persona if she could read him so easily. “Bullseye’s guys. The ambush. How did they know where we’d be? Cordelia or Kevin must have tipped them off.”
“Cordelia maybe. She’s a stranger to us, but I doubt she’d have had time, unless Kevin told her he was bringing guests. Why would Kevin help us in the first place if he was going to hand us over at the stables?”
“We’re worth more alive than dead?”
He clung to the dash as she hit a pothole and his skull smacked into the roof. Was the woman actually aiming for them? He considered offering to drive again, but he acknowledged that they were still alive, undiscovered, and the truck was intact, so he checked himself.
“They could be working together for a bounty, or Cordelia might have spotted us as we headed down that last stretch of road. She could have called and alerted Al and Jerry so they could arrive for the ambush.”
Mackenzie frowned. “In other circumstances, I’d agree, but she was furious when she drove away. Even you could see that, right?”
“What do you mean ‘even I could see that’? I’m a sensitive guy.”
She laughed. “Don’t I know it. One round of tickling and you collapse. Very sensitive, indeed.”
He found himself chuckling too, and aside from his throbbing shoulder, aching head, and tense gut, it actually felt good.
Her hair that had come loose from the ponytail blew around her face in the breeze from the open window.
Even tired, banged up, and on the run, she was undeniably attractive.
He’d dated plenty of strong women who could put him in his place, but he hadn’t found one with the combination of strength and faith and .
. . What was it? The indefinable something that intrigued him about Mackenzie.
He squirmed on the seat and rubbed his chin. “Still visit Aaron’s Landing?”