Bulletproof Christmas

by Barb Han

By the time she located a water source, a creek, she was barely able to make progress on that foot. Pain screamed at her and she was hobbling, grabbing on to anything that would keep her upright.

  Cadence plopped onto the earth beside the rushing water. She eased her foot into the stream before flipping off her left shoe and doing the same with it. The cool water soothed her aching feet and gave some relief to her swollen ankle. Both of her feet were filthy and in pain but all she could think about was Rory and keeping her babies safe. She wished she knew what had happened back there after she’d taken off.

  Another thought struck. She was alone in unfamiliar territory. She had no idea how to get out of the woods and Rory might not be able to find her.

  The creek pooled ten feet downstream and she glanced at the surface for water moccasins. Also called cottonmouths, these snakes were venomous and aggressive, and they seemed to be in every creek or lake in the state of Texas.

  She glanced around, scanning the area, aware of being vulnerable to an animal attack unless Wiry and/or Athlete found her first. Was there anything she could use to stand and maybe help her walk? Better yet, was there anything around that she could use as a weapon?

  Sticks? Branches?

  Those things had done serious damage to her foot already. In fact, she’d have to figure out something because walking with her ankle swollen might not get her very far. Then again, sticking around could put her and her babies in worse danger. Cadence wiped away a tear that sprang at the thought that her babies weren’t even born yet and she was already having trouble protecting them. Would she be a good mother? Could she be a good mother when she’d had no examples of one from her own parents?

  She might not live long enough to find out.

  As she swept her hand over the ground, she made contact with a sizable branch. She pulled it over to her, aware that her muscles were already screaming at her from all the movement and running.

  Seemingly out of nowhere, a male figure appeared from behind her. She gasped and spun around to get a better look.

  “Rory.” Tears sprang to her eyes.

  “We have to go,” he urged, as he moved next to her and helped her to her feet.

  Cadence dug deep to stand and his gaze flew to her bad ankle.

  “Did you lose your shoes?” She remembered him being intense before but not so angry. What had happened?

  “One is all I have left.” She motioned toward the left shoe.

  He immediately slipped off his tennis shoes and offered them to her, muttering a curse.

  “These are too big.” About three sizes in her estimation.

  The sound of branches crunching caused her to gasp again. And then there were voices.

  “We’ve got to go.” Rory glanced around, and there was a desperate quality to his features that she’d never seen before. Her fault?

  Feeling responsible for someone else when he had always been such a loner seemed to create a whole new hell for him and his emotions were playing out on his features so clearly.

  He slipped her left shoe on before standing and taking her arm to pull it over his shoulder.

  “Lean on me.” He put an arm around her hip and she ignored the fission of heat that pulsed through her at the contact. This wasn’t the time to think about how well their bodies fit together or how intense and satisfying their sex had been. “Will you be okay?”

  “Yes. Let’s go.” It wasn’t okay, because angry pulses shot up her leg with every movement, but what was the alternative? Stick around and be killed?

  Leaning on Rory, she was able to deal with the pain. She ignored all the electricity vibrating from where they touched, chalking it up to her body remembering how incredible they’d been together in bed. Sizzle and passion may have made for the best sex of her life—and created the two biggest gifts—but it didn’t make two people compatible outside the bedroom. And when she really faced the situation honestly, most of life happened in the other rooms. What good was the hottest sex if it didn’t translate into an amazing relationship?

  The fact that he’d been able to sneak up on her without making a sound earlier made her realize just how good he was at his job—a job that was as necessary as breathing to Rory.

  She didn’t know how long they’d been running but everything hurt and there was no sign of the men who’d been chasing them.

  “Can we stop?” she finally asked, gasping for air.

  “Not yet,” he responded with no such sounds of struggle. She’d always known Rory was in tip-top shape; remembering the ripples in his muscled chest wasn’t helping matters in the attraction department. But he wasn’t making any noise breathing. No panting. No gulping air. Seriously?

  After what felt like an eternity, he finally slowed the pace before stopping. He put his other hand up to make sure she knew to be quiet. She was doing the best job she could under the circumstances, because she hadn’t run like that since high school track and she’d been a sprinter, not a pregnant woman who had fallen off her strict exercise routine a couple of years ago. She’d worked the ranch and that had made her strong, but it wasn’t the same kind of cardio she needed for this.

  Rory crouched low and listened. There was so much intensity to his actions.

  She did the same but couldn’t hear much over the sound of her own breathing.

  Glancing at her feet, pain registered. Her right ankle looked like Shrek’s. Her foot had been jabbed by sharp tree limbs and looked angry. She wiped at the blood to reveal fresh cuts oozing more of the red liquid. She had no idea where she and Rory were and no idea how to get out of the woods.

  Pain throbbed from her ankle to her hip as adrenaline faltered and she started to shake.

  And there was Rory, looking at her like she’d just punched him in the face.

  What was his deal?

  * * *

  RORY CURSED UNDER his breath. What good did it do him to have skills if he couldn’t keep Cadence and her baby safe?

  He dropped down and examined her ankle and then her foot, ignoring the frissons of heat that came with touching her. This wasn’t the time to think about those long silky legs wrapped around him as he drove himself home.

  A mental headshake loosened the inappropriate image. He missed more than great sex with Cadence. She was intelligent, fiery and had a sense of humor that had calmed him down even when he was wound tight after a tracking job. To be honest, that had happened more than he cared to admit. A voice reminded him that it was easy for her to be carefree. She had her father’s fortune to back her up and hadn’t suffered a day in her life. Deep down, he knew that wasn’t completely true or fair but he wasn’t in the mood to argue with himself.

  Getting her and his child to safety was priority number one. His child. Damn. That was going to take some getting used to.

  “You can lean on me the rest of the way,” he offered.

  “Okay.” She winced as she stood and a fire bolt shot straight through him. None of this should be happening and now he was damn certain the rifle being pointed at her bedroom window was no coincidence. He thought about having to ditch his own shotgun because he hadn’t accounted for enough variables. Hell, it was his fault that she was in this position to begin with. His mistakes were racking up.

  Leaning her weight against him sent a lot of other feelings he couldn’t afford swirling through his body. He gripped her waist a little tighter, noticing how much fuller her hips had gotten because of the pregnancy. It was sexy on her, he thought, even though he shouldn’t have allowed himself to notice.

  He glanced down at her right foot, noticing the amount of blood. He did the best he could by making a field bandage with his undershirt. Cursing himself again for not having supplies out here might not be productive, but he did it anyway.

  At least she didn’t have to walk on the foot. She could lean on him for support and hop on her left. He’d ma
de a critical error in underestimating the enemy. Rory hadn’t seen anyone follow them to his place but those two guys must’ve done just that. It was the only explanation for why they’d shown. But who was after Cadence and why? There were more questions looping through his thoughts. None he had answers to.

  After walking for a half hour, she doubled over and took in a sharp breath.

  “What happened?” Panic tore through him like a tornado strike.

  “Cramp,” she said and there was desperation in her voice.

  “Has this happened before?” he asked.

  She nodded as he supported her weight.

  “What do you need me to do?” Rory had never felt so helpless in his life.

  Another sharp breath and this time he had to ease her to her knees. She grabbed her stomach as her face turned red. “Do you have cell reception out here?”

  He palmed his phone and checked the screen for bars. “No. There’s no cell tower out here to pick up a signal on.”

  Watching her bent over, wincing in pain because of his mistakes, shredded everything inside him.

  “I need to get to the ER,” she said.

  No bars on his cell. She couldn’t move with those cramps. Her foot was torn up.

  An owl hooted and Rory tried not to put too much stock into the omen. Many local Native American tribes believed it to be a sign of death.

  Anger ripped through him. No one was dying on his watch. He also knew that determination to live was often the dividing line between life and death in a survival situation. He knew Cadence. She would put up one hell of a fight. That spark was part of the reason he had fallen for her. The operative words being had fallen. When it came to emotion, he could only get so far before his warning system flared and he pulled back. Of course, his job made sticking around long enough to have a real relationship next to impossible. His feelings for Cadence had caught him off guard five months ago, causing him to retreat. It was most likely familiarity—he had known her since childhood—that had had him falling down the slippery slope of love. Love? Had he loved her?

  No. He couldn’t have. Rory didn’t do that particular emotion.

  The owl hooted again, bringing his focus back to Cadence. With her in this state, they’d be traveling even slower than they already were.

  “How’d you get away from them?” she asked. “You were outnumbered.”

  “I know this area better. It gave me an advantage.” The guys who’d caught up to them a little while ago were most likely still in the woods searching. It could only be a matter of time before the pair showed up again. These guys were new to the picture.

  “Was it the guy from the campsite?”

  “Nope.” Neither one was Dex and that really threw Rory for a loop. He didn’t have time to examine the implications right now, but he’d need to get this new evidence over to the sheriff as soon as possible. Any new information or lead could break this case and possibly Mr. Butler’s murder open for Sawmill.

  Rory had learned a long time ago that it was best to work with law enforcement rather than against it.

  “Hold on,” he said to Cadence, easing her to a sitting position.

  He scouted the area and located the best tree to climb. Height could give him an idea of what was around and also if the pair of men on their tails were catching up.

  Rory didn’t doubt his tracking skills but a pregnant woman was not something he’d had to factor in before.

  This was one in a long list of signs that reminded him he was in no way prepared for fatherhood.

  But he was surprised at how deeply the thought of losing this baby cut into him and the bottomless well of anger that sprang up when he made mistakes that put Cadence and her—their—child in jeopardy.

  Chapter Seven

  “The coast is clear for now,” Rory said through gritted teeth. He climbed down from the tree and helped her up. “A few more steps and we’ll be near a clearing.”

  Cadence knew that he was frustrated with the situation and not at her. Although, she wouldn’t have blamed him if he were considering how much she was slowing them down.

  She was worried about the breath-stealing cramps, about her cut-up foot catching some kind of jungle disease—never mind that she wasn’t actually in the jungle—and about never finding their way out of these cursed woods.

  Thankfully, Rory seemed to know exactly where they were at every turn and she could see why he excelled at his job.

  While she believed they were walking in circles—everything looked the same!—he cut a steady course toward freedom. Her injuries were slowing them down, though. She prayed the men stalking them were lost and far away because if they caught up, there could be more trouble than Rory could handle. In her condition, she was no help whatsoever.

  “I don’t want to leave you alone but I can hide you in a small cave not too far off the road and go get my vehicle. It’ll give you a break from walking and speed up getting you to the hospital.”

  Just the thought of being tucked into a cave in her state was enough to cause icy fingers to grip her. What would be in there? Spiders? Snakes?

  An involuntary shiver rocked her body. Her mouth went dry thinking about it. Then there was poison ivy. She’d learned a long time ago how allergic she was to it and remembered her childhood saying: leaves of three, let ’em be.

  But what choice did she have?

  The cramps were almost nonstop and there’d been no break in the pain pulsing up from that ankle. The worst part was that she couldn’t feel the babies move and that scared her more than anything else. She’d had cramps before and her doctor had reassured her that everything was normal. But these felt different. More intense. Or maybe it was just the situation causing them to feel that way.

  Cadence was tired, thirsty and she wanted to go home, take a warm bath and go to bed. A good night of sleep always did wonders to help erase a bad day. But this was more than that. Her life was on the line. Her babies’ lives were threatened. And no amount of sleep could stop the people stalking her or erase this nightmare.

  Since curling up in a ball and throwing her own version of a temper tantrum wasn’t an option, she decided to suck it up and not complain.

  “There won’t be any creepy crawlies in there, right?” she asked, trying to sound as brave as she could under the circumstances.

  “Shouldn’t be. I’ll double check if it makes you feel better.” His steady voice was surprisingly reassuring and kept her nerves at a notch below panic.

  “I can’t believe I lost my shoe. Sorry to be such a hopeless case in an emergency,” she said.

  “You’re not. You can’t help what happened back there and you kept yourself and the child safe. Sometimes things get lost in the shuffle. You should be proud of the way you handled the situation,” he said, and there was a hint of admiration in his voice. Or was that something she wanted to hear but didn’t exist?

  A wave of guilt hit her at not telling him earlier that she was carrying twins. This was definitely not the right time to distract him with the news. It had come as a complete shock to her and she could only imagine what hearing it would do to him.

  Rory squeezed into an opening at the base of a small hill that looked like a lump of leaves. The trees in this area were thick enough to make it impossible to see in a straight line. There was a lot of underbrush to cover the opening, which most likely had been created by coyotes. Wolves? Or some other den animal. Okay, Cadence could admit that she was letting her imagination run a little wild.

  Nothing inside her wanted to crawl inside the unknown.

  Growing up on a ranch had taught her everything she needed to know about scorpions and snakes. With twin brothers, she’d had her fair share of spiders being tossed at her. The boys had grown out of those antics early on, but she still remembered the times when they’d come running at her with some creature in hand.
She got the willies just thinking about it and it felt like a hundred fire ants were creepy crawling across her skin, ready to attack at a moment’s notice.

  But she was determined to do whatever it took in order to protect her babies, even if that meant facing some of her worst fears. Getting from where she was to the den was another issue. Okay, she could do this. Maybe not walk the entire distance with these mind-bending cramps, but she could get to the next tree. It felt like all the blood rushed from her as she sucked in a burst of air and planted her right hand on the tree trunk next to her. She could take one step. She did, pausing after in order to breathe and regain her balance.

  Rory emerged from the opening. “Nothing scary in there.”

  “Great.” She took in the distance between them. She could make it to the small boulder two feet in front of her...take another step or two.

  “What are you doing? Hold on there,” Rory said but it was too late. She made it to her next goal.

  “I can do this,” she said. So much of her life in the past year had been about taking one step at a time, not looking too far ahead because her head might explode.

  The next thing she knew, Rory was beside her. She took in a breath meant to fortify her before taking hold of his outstretched arm.

  One more step. She could make it to the mesquite tree near the opening.

  Getting inside the small opening was the easy part. Not letting her imagination run wild was going to take some effort.

  “A few more steps and you’re there,” he said in that low timbre that was so reassuring.

  She knew on some level that Rory wouldn’t put her in jeopardy. At least not on purpose.

  “I’ll be back as fast as I can,” he promised before his face disappeared. She’d known that he was good at his job before but seeing him in action brought her awareness to a whole new level. She didn’t hear one single tree branch break or a hint of Rory’s footsteps. He was like a ghost and it was even more apparent to her how much she must’ve been slowing him down and how much attention she had been drawing with her heavier footsteps. Her right foot felt every scrape, rock and branch.