Chapter Sixteen
Tanner never wanted to hear that sound from Bree again. She screamed his name like she was terrified out of her mind.
Which she may be, although she certainly hadn’t shown any sign of breaking.
He kissed her again to stop the scream, then grabbed her hand. “Let’s go.”
They started pushing themselves almost unbearably hard. He could hear Bree’s breaths behind him, sawing in and out, but she didn’t complain, and he didn’t stop. But after a couple of miles, they finally slowed.
These first few miles were critical. They had to get enough distance not to be caught, but not go so fast that the hunters figured out they were the decoys, not whom they really wanted.
But most important, they needed to provide Noah and Marilyn a chance to get back to safety.
They continued to move as the sun came up. They didn’t speak, not knowing how far away the trackers might be. Tanner left very deliberate clues at first—ones they would have to be blind to miss.
They went deeper and deeper into the wilderness.
If the men hunting them were as familiar with this area as he was, that would’ve been an instant clue that something was awry.
It would be stupid to lead the children deeper into the wilderness with no supplies and a storm coming.
At what point would that thought cross their minds?
Would Noah have enough time to get Marilyn and the kids to safety?
Now that it was daylight, he and Bree had to move much more carefully, staying in the cover of the trees. If they went too much out in the open, they might be spotted with binoculars, or even worse, a rifle scope.
Like Marilyn had said, Jared wanted her and the kids alive, but anyone else might be considered expendable.
By midafternoon their energy was starting to fail. They ate some berries and drank water everywhere they could, but the calories they were getting into their bodies were nowhere near their output. That would begin to take a toll quickly.
Bree was amazing—not that he’d had much doubt she would be. She didn’t complain, not even once. Not when he looked back and she was pale or sweating. She just kept pushing even when it got harder and harder.
The hunters were gaining on them. They had nourishment and equipment he and Bree didn’t have.
Tanner wasn’t exactly sure when they’d spotted him and Bree, but there was no doubt they had.
The good news was they were still following, so that meant they must think the kids were still with them.
The bad news was...everything else. No food or weapons, and moving farther from help with each step.
Noah would be back with the assistance they needed. Tanner just had to buy him more time.
A quiet cry fell from Bree’s lips as she stumbled on the uneven ground and crashed hard onto her knees, barely catching herself before her face hit the ground. Tanner couldn’t even move fast enough to stop her.
He let out a low curse. “We’ve got to stop. This is game over if one of us breaks a leg,” he whispered.
“Where are they? They are still following us, right?”
“Yes, but it’s harder for me to tell exactly where they are.
The sun isn’t shining so brightly, so I’m not catching any reflections off their scopes like I was yesterday.
But then again, they’re not exactly trying to hide, so I catch a glimpse of one of them every once in a while. Last time was over an hour ago.”
He kept his voice low because over an hour ago was an eternity when you were talking about hunting someone in the forest. They could be much closer now.
“So we need to keep going.” Exhaustion skirted across her face. She struggled to push herself back up into a standing position, but her movements were jerky and uncoordinated.
Damn it, she was more tired than she’d let on.
He sat down beside her and pulled her down next to him.
“I thought we needed to go? That they are gaining on us.” But she didn’t try to get back up.
He scooted down next to her and tucked them both up against the tree.
“No, rest for a while. At some point we need to turn back toward civilization.”
She closed her eyes. “Have we given them enough time?”
The fact that she was asking that rather than demanding they continue to push forward told Tanner what he needed to know. Bree was getting awful darn close to her breaking point.
Mentally and emotionally she could keep pushing herself. She’d proved that over and over since he’d met her. But the body could go only as far as it could go.
“Quit looking at me like that,” she said without opening her eyes.
“Looking at you like what? And how can you tell anything anyway if your eyes are closed?”
“I can tell just by the way you’re breathing.”
His eyebrow rose. “All right, smarty, exactly how am I looking at you, then?”
“Like you know I want to go on, but my body isn’t going to make it.”
Damned if that wasn’t exactly what he was thinking.
“We can’t keep going at this pace.” He reached over and kissed her temple.
Now those green eyes opened. “But we can for another few hours. Give them the time they need to make sure they’re out safely. My body will do whatever I tell it to. And if I tell it it’s going hard for another few hours, that’s what it’s going to do.”
Tanner sighed. “I’m sure that’s true right up to the point where your body completely collapses. We don’t want to let it get to that point.”
But he knew they needed to get moving again.
And then it began to rain.
Storms in the Colorado wilderness weren’t to be messed with at any time, and this one was a doozy. Rain was pelting them by the time he helped her to her feet a minute later.
“Hopefully this will work in our favor,” he told her.
It would certainly make them less visible and might make the hunters stop altogether.
They didn’t know Tanner knew who they were.
He may not have enough to arrest them—what he’d seen and heard had been minimal, and circumstantial—but he damn well wouldn’t be taking his eyes off Jared Ellis or any of his posse for as long as needed.
They would slip up, and Tanner would be there to take them down when they did.
But right now, they needed to survive this damn wilderness.
They began moving forward again at a slower pace this time, because no matter what Bree said, there was only so much her smaller body could handle.
They tried to keep out of the cold rain as much as possible, dashing from point to point under anything that would offer them shelter. But it still didn’t take long before they were completely soaked.
The only good news was that the farther they went, the less Tanner saw any sign of the hunters.
As lightning lit up the late-afternoon sky, he prayed it was because they’d done the smart thing and chosen to wait out the storm.
Of course, the storm was probably going to last another ten hours, but he doubted the men knew that.
By the time they did, Noah would definitely have made it back to Risk Peak.
As the wind picked up and began whipping through the trees, Tanner knew they were going to have to find shelter themselves.
A quick look at Bree confirmed it. Her teeth were chattering, lips starting to turn a little blue, despite their exertion.
He needed to get her someplace where they could stop, allow themselves time to dry off and raise their body temperatures.
He knew just the place and would bet anything the hunters weren’t aware of it.
They were almost back to the river. His original plan had been to cut back up the river, leading away from town.
But not anymore. He and Bree had bought Noah and Marilyn and the kids plenty of time.
If he knew his brother, he’d already gotten Marilyn and the kids to old man Henrikson’s house.
That old goat was the only person Tanner knew who disliked people more than Noah did.
But he had a damn impressive collection of shotguns.
And his place would be the first they’d come across on their way into town.
Noah would be borrowing a couple of those shotguns his way back out here.
The rest of the cavalry would be right behind him.
“Is the storm getting louder?” Bree asked as they stopped to catch their breath by a clump of trees.
Right now, Tanner was playing a game of choose your enemy.
Hanging out under the trees was a bad idea because of the storm, but they provided them cover from the hunters.
Getting away from the trees would be better to avoid the lightning but might make them visible to the people with guns.
“No, that’s the river. It’s about twenty yards ahead of us, then about ten or fifteen feet straight down over the ledge.”
“The same river you told me to run toward this morning with the kids if you didn’t make it back?”
“Yep, although you would’ve hit it about three miles downstream and that’s much closer to town.”
Her mouth tightened at the thought of having extra miles to walk, he was sure, but she didn’t say anything.
“Don’t worry, we’re not walking the whole way right now. It’s time to get out of the storm.”
Walking down by the riverbank would be easier but would put them in a weakened tactical position. If one of the hunters came up on the ridge, they’d have a clear shot at them even though the ridge wasn’t very high here. They’d have to be doubly careful.
“Okay, let’s—”
Tanner felt the burn in his upper arm at the same time the shot rang out.
He and Bree were diving to the ground as a second shot exploded in the tree next to them.
Those weren’t rifle shots or Tanner would be dead right now.
They were from a handgun. That explained why Tanner was still alive—rifles were a hell of a lot more accurate—but it also meant somebody was much closer than he’d expected.
And it also just changed all the rules of the game. Anything Tanner did now would be considered self-defense.
But that fact wouldn’t help them if they were dead.
“Are you okay? Are you shot?” Bree began patting him all over his torso.
“Just a graze on my arm. I’m okay. But we’ve got to move right now.”
“Okay.”
He grabbed her hand with his, keeping his eye out for the shooter. “We’re going to have to split up. Stay down and crawl toward the river. I think it’s only one of them, or we’d already be in a lot more trouble.”
Bree nodded and began crawling in the direction she needed to go.
Tanner doubled back toward where the gunfire had come from, ignoring the pain in his arm. He could move it, and it wasn’t bleeding too much, so treating it would have to wait. Hopefully the rain had muffled the gunshot enough that it wouldn’t bring the shooter’s buddies into the area.
Tanner kept low and moved in a zigzagging motion, trying to make himself as hard a target to hit as possible.
But he was also moving blind, since he didn’t know exactly where the shooter was.
Tanner let out a curse when another shot rang out. Near the water. Near Bree. The bastard had somehow circled back behind him.
He gave up all pretense of hiding or weaving and bolted toward where he’d sent Bree.
“Bree, stay down!” He yelled the words, hoping to redirect the danger back to himself. At least then it wouldn’t be pointed at her.
He spotted the shooter at the very edge of the riverbank’s cliff. The shooter was facing to the side, away from Tanner, gun pointed at something ahead of him on the ground. It didn’t take a genius to figure out it was Bree in front of him, staying low the way Tanner had told her.
The guy was going to shoot her.
Tanner forced every ounce of energy into his legs and rushed as fast as he could toward the man with the gun, praying he’d reach the shooter in time.