Two
Huddling beside Jackson, Nina shook uncontrollably. Bad enough that a gunman had shown up at her uncle’s cabin and followed her through the woods. But the full-on assault of Jackson’s SUV had shocked her to the core. It was a deliberate and violent act.
One, she was forced to admit, that was intended to kill them.
Nina couldn’t relax, even after the truck and gunmen roared away.
“Stay quiet and follow me.” Jackson’s murmur was low in her ear.
She gave a jerky nod, unsure if he could even see her in the darkness.
Getting far away from there sounded good to her.
Taking several deep breaths, she willed herself to stop trembling.
This was no time to fall apart. The gunmen were gone, but she wasn’t sure who they were or why they’d come in the first place.
None of this made sense.
The only good news was that she wasn’t alone.
The woods were still dark and scary, but having the tall, muscular ranger with the intelligent, assessing dark brown eyes at her side was an immense relief.
He might have the reputation of a playboy more concerned with having fun than settling down, but she trusted his expertise.
And knew, without being told, that he would guard her with his life.
Jackson moved through the woods with a stealth she tried to emulate.
It wasn’t as easy as he made it look. Her feet seemed to find every stray twig scattered on the ground.
When she peered down at her feet to make sure she was stepping where he had, a branch slapped her in the face.
Tears pricked her eyes but she willed them away.
They continued going deeper into the woods, the darkness enveloping them like a cloak. Yet she knew the sense of safety was an illusion. The gunman who’d fired at her in the woods could still be out there.
Unless he’d managed to meet up with the pickup truck? How many gunmen were there?
Jackson kept moving without hesitation, seeming to know exactly where he was going.
She wanted to ask if he had a particular destination in mind.
She supported all the rangers when they needed technical expertise, and knew they traveled the entire state.
Thankfully, Jackson was familiar with this area.
Then she remembered her car was still at her uncle’s cabin. The key fob was in her pocket, and they could easily jump in to escape. Unless the gunmen had used it for target practice, shooting it up the way they’d attacked Jackson’s SUV.
Yet she didn’t think that was the case. She’d have heard bullets striking her car, wouldn’t she?
In her attempt to elude the shooter after her she’d learned that despite the towering trees surrounding her, sound traveled far.
Hearing the gunman’s progress through the woods had made her determined to keep going.
Her breath hitched in her throat, a cramp in her side slowing her down. She’d run through the woods for what had seemed like an eternity.
And there was no end in sight.
The scratches on her arms and face stung a bit as she and Jackson pushed deeper into the woods.
She strained to listen, but it wasn’t easy to hear anything above the frantic beat of her heart.
The buzzing insects had returned, though, and she swatted at them half-heartedly.
After what seemed like forever, but was probably only ten to fifteen minutes, Jackson stopped near a couple of lean trees and pulled her close.
“Are you okay?” His low, husky voice had a calming effect, and her trembling faded away.
“Yes.” She kept her voice as quiet as possible. “I think we need to get back to my uncle’s cabin. I left my car there and—” she patted her jeans pocket “—I have the key fob.”
His dark eyes were hard to read. “Do you know where it is in relation to our current position?”
She bit her lip. “Not really. The cell service isn’t great.
But the distance you drove down Banyon Road is in the right direction.
” At least she thought so, but again, she wasn’t a nature girl.
She didn’t want to admit that the trees surrounding them all looked the same.
They could be anywhere, from what she could tell.
“Okay, if you’re right about Banyon Road, that helps.
” Jackson caught her hand, squeezed it and then turned to scan their surroundings.
She was reassured when he glanced up at the starry sky, then pointed up ahead.
“That’s north and the cabin is likely a little to the northwest of our current location. ”
“Okay.” She was in no position to argue. Despite her tech skills, she didn’t know this area, and without actual working tech, she was truly lost.
“We need to be quiet, though, because I don’t know if that gunman is still in the forest. We left him a few miles back. He’s either with the guy—or guys—in the truck or he’s still out there.”
“I understand.” She shivered at the thought of the killer lying in wait to take them down. She shot a furtive glance over her shoulder, hoping he had met up with the truck. “Maybe we should call the police.”
“Oh, yeah, we will. Let’s get to the cabin first, maybe the cell service will be stronger there.”
She suddenly remembered that Jackson wasn’t aware of her uncle’s dead body.
She’d been so focused on not getting killed that she’d entirely forgotten to tell him.
She grabbed his arm, tugging him closer.
“I need to tell you that when I showed up at the cabin, I found my uncle dead at the kitchen table. I believe his death was staged to look like a suicide.”
“Staged as a suicide?” His dark eyes narrowed. “I’m sorry to hear about your loss. That must have been awful for you.”
“Yes.” Now that the worst was over, tears welled in her eyes.
Jackson pulled her in for a quick hug. She reveled in the brief embrace, gaining strength to face whatever stretched before them.
“The gunman showed up shortly after I found him. I barely made it out of the house before he came after me.”
“That’s interesting.” He frowned, then added, “I’m sure the police will investigate, proving that his death wasn’t a suicide.”
“I hope you’re right.” She decided this wasn’t the best time to get into the entire story of how she found him via a DNA match. Once they were safe, there would be time later to go through the events in more detail.
For now, Nina was glad to have a destination and possible escape plan in mind. She desperately hoped the gunman hadn’t damaged her vehicle.
As she fell into step behind Jackson, she tried to understand why the assassins had opened fire on their SUV. Considering how they’d set up her Uncle Mark’s death to look like a suicide, it seemed odd that they’d come after her in the first place and then blatantly shoot the SUV to smithereens.
There was no way to hide the bombardment of gunfire as anything other than a deliberate act.
Granted it had taken place away from her uncle’s cabin.
Still, the fact that she’d been chased into the woods, followed by a shooting rampage on the SUV, should be enough to convince the local sheriff’s department to take a closer look at her uncle’s death.
Her thoughts continued to whirl in her mind, yet no matter how hard she tried to piece things together, the few puzzle pieces she knew to be fact didn’t fit. Her uncle had claimed he might be responsible for her mother’s murder. But he hadn’t said how or why.
Now that he was gone, she doubted she’d ever know the truth about how her mother had died that night, just ten days after Nina’s birth. Nina put a hand over her belly, imagining the gunshot wound her mother had sustained. Not to mention the bruises on her mother’s face.
Despite everything, Nina was more determined than ever to uncover the truth.
She and Jackson walked for another fifteen minutes before he paused and drew her close. “Do you recognize that broken tree branch?”
With a frown, she looked at the large branch in question. It was broken at a distinctive angle, so his question made sense. Yet for the life of her she couldn’t remember seeing it before.
“No, sorry.” In her defense, she’d been running from a gunman. Even with all her tech savvy, it hadn’t occurred to her to look for identifying markers within the forest.
“It’s okay, just asking.” He flashed a reassuring smile, then moved forward to continue their trek to her uncle’s home.
With the nearly full moon overhead, she could just make out the path before her. Creeping through the woods wasn’t as scary with Jackson beside her.
Less than five minutes later, she caught a glimpse of an open space up ahead. She snagged Jackson’s arm to stop him.
At his questioning look, she whispered, “That’s the backyard of my uncle’s cabin.”
He nodded and turned to peer through the trees to the open space beyond. For long seconds they simply stood there, listening. Nina didn’t hear any sounds of a car engine, people walking around or anything else, for that matter.
And from what she could tell, the cabin interior was still dark, the way she’d left it. Was that a good thing or a bad one? She didn’t know.
“Stay here,” Jackson murmured. “I’ll check it out.”
She tightened her grip, preventing him from leaving. “I’m coming with you.”
For the first time since he’d gotten there to help her, a flash of annoyance crossed his features. She swallowed hard but didn’t let go. She didn’t care if he was upset, she was not spending another moment alone in this creepy forest.
“Stay behind me.” The growled warning was curt. When Jackson made his way through the trees, she moved silently behind him.
The yard looked the same, as if she and a gunman hadn’t raced through it, what, an hour or so ago? She shivered as they left the shelter of the trees, crossing the open yard. When Jackson reached the cabin, he put his back against the wall and gestured for her to do the same.