by Janie Crouch
“We need a plan,” Noah said.
Tanner nodded. “Let’s get back to Bree. I know she’s worried sick. And then, yeah, a plan. Which probably involves us splitting up.”
Tanner was right. A group of six, including two inexperienced hikers and two children, was way too big to move stealthily.
The only thing Noah knew for certain was that there was no fucking way Ellis or his little buddies were taking Marilyn or the kids. Not while there was still breath in his body.
19
Marilyn basically crawled over Tanner and Bree to get to the kids once they arrived at the cave where they were hiding. She pulled their sleeping forms into her lap, unable to stop the tears at seeing for herself that they were unharmed.
She could finally breathe again.
“Mommy?”
She pulled Eva closer. “Shh. I’m here. Go back to sleep.”
“We played hide-and-seek. Soldier style.”
“You can tell me all about it soon,” Marilyn whispered, smiling through her tears. If that was the first thing Eva wanted to talk about then she obviously wasn’t too emotionally damaged by what had happened in the last thirty hours.
Sam’s little arms wrapped around her and they both snuggled in closer. She just held them as Noah told Bree and Tanner how he found them and they explained that Jared’s friends were the ones behind all this.
Paul Wyn. Oscar Stobbart. Marius Nixon.
Just the sounds of their names was enough to set her stomach roiling. Them being so close and hunting her children had her struggling to stay in control.
“We need to get out of here as soon as possible,” Noah whispered. “Split up. They’re not sure where you are right now, but they’ll find you eventually.”
Tanner agreed. “I’ll lead them in the wrong direction. Give them just enough clues to have something to follow, then lose them when the storm hits. You take Marilyn, Bree, and the kids and get them to safety.”
“You sure that’s the best play?” Noah asked.
“I think it might be our only play. I can’t justify leaving a trail of dead bodies when we don’t know for sure what their purpose is, and they haven’t made any overt attempts on our lives.”
Tanner turned to Marilyn. “Their endgame is to bring you and the kids to Jared, right? Not to kill anyone?”
She swallowed hard. “He doesn’t want to kill me. Even the last time when he put me in the hospital, I don’t think he intended to kill me. And the kids have always been more of a means to an end to control me. Otherwise, Jared mostly ignored them. But you guys…I don’t know if they’ll hurt you.”
Noah let out a grunt that suggested he was pretty sure Jared’s friends would hurt anyone they needed to. “Why don’t I lead the bad guys into the wilderness,” he said, looking at Tanner, “and you take the merry gang back to town.”
Tanner shook his head. “Because if they do come after you guys, I want you to use your skills and take them out. I’m handy with a gun, but I don’t have the hand-to-hand combat skills you do. I’m not sure I’ll be able to protect them the way you would. Better for me to be the decoy.”
“I’m not letting you go alone,” Bree interjected. “You’re going to need more than one person if you’re trying to fool them into thinking there’re still four of us traveling through the wilderness.”
“She’s right, you know,” Noah said. “They won’t buy the ruse for long with you by yourself.”
Noah slid toward Marilyn as Tanner and Bree argued whether she would go with him or not.
“They okay?” he whispered, pointing to the kids.
“Seem to be fine. Tanner and Bree obviously took good care of them.”
Her heart clenched as he reached over and slid a piece of Eva’s hair out of her face where she laid against Marilyn’s chest.
“Let’s get them home. Get you home. There’s a big storm coming and it’s not going to be pretty.”
Bree and Tanner had stopped arguing, Bree evidently having won. She would be going with Tanner, providing a decoy. Noah and Marilyn would head for Mr. Henrikson’s house with the children.
Noah climbed back to the front of the cave. “I’m going to find a clear path for us. Try to get a beat on where they are searching now. I’ll lead them farther out if I can. I’ll be back in one hour. Be ready to move. That’s when they’re most likely to stop for a rest and we’re going to use it to our advantage.”
Without another word, he was gone.
Tanner took watch at the front of the cave and Bree slid back next to Marilyn. “They doing okay?”
“Fine, thanks to you.”
“Those two are incredible troupers. You should be so proud of them.”
“Bree,” Marilyn whispered. God, she and Tanner would be putting themselves in so much danger by leading Jared’s friends in the opposite direction so Marilyn and the kids could get away. It hardly seemed fair. “I’m so sorry I brought this into your life.”
“Don’t even start with me. I’m thankful every day that you are in my life. No one is to blame for Jared and his cronies except for Jared and his cronies. So, don’t talk like that. Let’s escape, get Jared thrown back in jail, and get my wedding over with.”
Marilyn couldn’t help but smile. Bree was head over heels in love with Tanner but not thrilled about their big wedding. Their talk about vows and traumatic events faded off as both women found their eyelids too heavy to keep open.
A hand shaking her shoulder gently jerked her awake. Noah was back. He was breathing heavily and drinking water from the canteen. “I’ve got us a window open with them, led one of them in the opposite direction. We need to take advantage of it.”
She nodded and woke Sam. “Hey, buddy. Time to wake up. We’re going to have to make a run for it with Noah. Is that okay?”
He blinked his eyes open. “Are you and Eva coming with us?”
“Yep. But we’re going to have to be quiet. Can you go over to Noah? He’ll tell you what to do.”
That woke Sam up. A chance to do something with his idol, Noah? No time for sleeping. Noah smiled at him as he scurried over.
Marilyn picked up the sleeping Eva in her arms. “We’re ready. She’ll wake up, but she’ll keep quiet.”
“That storm coming in is going to be worse than we thought,” Noah told Tanner. “And it’s going to hit soon.”
“Good. We’ll use it to our advantage.”
“Go back toward the waterfall,” Noah said. “It gives you multiple exit options. Once you’re there, let out a scream or something to get them headed that way.”
The two brothers hugged briefly, and Marilyn hugged Bree.
“We all better be back in time to be standing at that wedding, or Mom and Cassandra are gonna kill us.” Noah smiled but it was strained.
“Trust me, I know,” Tanner muttered.
They all slid out of the cave. Noah swung Sam up on his back. Marilyn still had Eva in her arms.
“You okay with her?” Noah asked.
She nodded. “I’ll swing her around back as soon as she wakes up.”
With one last wave, they headed the opposite direction from Bree and Tanner, moving slowly and silently. For them, stealth was more important than speed. Once they got out of this area, if Jared’s men took the bait and ran after Tanner and Bree, they’d move a lot quicker.
They hadn’t gone far when they heard Bree’s bloodcurdling scream of Tanner’s name. Marilyn couldn’t help but turn back and look.
“It’s okay,” Noah said. “She did that on purpose. They’re trying to draw Jared’s guys away from us.”
“Are you sure?”
There was hesitation just for a second in his eyes. They both knew the plan, but it wasn’t difficult to imagine a number of situations—all of them really bad—that might cause Bree to scream like that.
“Either way, we’ve got to keep going.”
She couldn’t imagine what it cost Noah to leave his brother in certain danger like this. Fo
r them. For her.
She loved him.
In the middle of the wilderness, being chased by sociopaths, was a hell of a place to figure that out, but it didn’t matter. She loved him.
He gave her a nod. That nod. The nod that meant everything would be okay. That they were in this together. That they had each other’s backs.
When had that become their secret form of communication? Just a nod from him meant more to her than an entire conversation might’ve meant from someone else.
She nodded back, hoping it conveyed everything she was trying to make him understand.
I trust you. I’ll run as long and as hard as you need me to because you know exactly what I’m capable of. I understand the sacrifice you’re making to get us out.
Hopefully, it did because he gave her the tiniest smile then turned and started moving again.
She knew when they’d gotten out of the general vicinity of Jared’s friends because their speed dramatically increased.
It wasn’t long before her arms were becoming too tired to hold Eva’s weight. “Hey, pumpkin, I need to switch you to my back and give you a piggyback ride. Let’s be very quiet.”
Eva nodded and all of a sudden, her earlier words about playing soldier-style hide-and-seek made sense. Bree and Tanner must’ve needed her to be quiet earlier and had made it into a game. Marilyn was even more thankful for her friends and how they’d made a potentially traumatic situation much less so for her kids.
Noah glanced over his shoulder at them every once in a while but didn’t slow down. Good. He knew getting the kids to safety was more important to her than her own discomfort.
Although she could admit her discomfort was significant. The farther they went, the more her muscles screamed. And then it started to rain.
Rain wasn’t the right word for it. This was a torrential downpour.
Still, they kept going.
Storm. That had been Noah’s codename in the Special Forces. He certainly looked right at home in the raging weather now.
For hours they kept going, switching between walking and carrying the kids as needed. The sun came up, and Noah found them various edible snacks along the way that provided a little energy.
Eva offered her strawberry to Noah since he was carrying her. Marilyn thought her heart might melt.
Noah didn’t take it.
The kids walked when they could. When they began to lag, she and Noah hoisted them up as long as they could. There wasn’t much chit-chat. They were all too exhausted and hungry—just focusing on putting one foot in front of the other.
But, like her, her kids knew how to survive. And that’s exactly what they did right up to the point where old man Henrikson’s house came into view.
“Are we stopping at that house, Mom?” Sam asked. He’d walked the last couple of miles holding her hand while Noah carried Eva.
“I think so, buddy.” She looked over at Noah.
“Yep,” he said. “We’ve made it.”
They were safe. But what about Bree and Tanner?
20
It felt like half the town of Risk Peak was waiting for them at old man Henrikson’s cabin. When Barb and Francis had arrived yesterday and told him about the raft and the bridge being out, he’d immediately called in the cavalry.
Noah’s sister Cassandra ran out crying as soon as she saw them. She took Eva from his arms and ushered them all inside, immediately providing water, hot soup, bread, and towels to get them dried off.
Every cop Tanner worked with was crowded into the cabin, as well as some paramedics and some of the town’s best trackers.
Marilyn met Noah’s eyes. She knew he needed to talk to these people about what was going on, but he didn’t necessarily want to do it in front of the kids. Without a word, Marilyn and Cassandra ushered the kids back into one of the small bedrooms with their food. They’d probably be asleep soon anyway.
Noah shoveled food into his mouth as everyone surrounded him to get the details.
“What the hell is going on, Noah?” Sheriff Duggan took the seat right next to him at the table. “Francis and Barb said Tanner’s raft collapsed? That shouldn’t have happened where you were on the river.”
He nodded at the woman as he chewed. His brother had the utmost respect for Sheriff Duggan, and she had gone out on a limb to help him a few months ago when there had been some trouble. “The rafts were sabotaged. I found an incendiary device on the raft Marilyn and I were on also, but it didn’t go off for some reason.”
“Why?” Duggan asked, getting straight to the point.
“It’s Jared Ellis. He’s trying to get his hands on Marilyn or use the kids to get to her.”
Ronnie Kitchens, one of the sheriff deputies, shook his head. “Ellis hasn’t left Denver. There’s been no change in his tracking device. I double-checked with the marshal there a couple hours ago. He actually talked to Ellis himself.”
Noah wasn’t surprised. Ellis was basically using the ankle monitor to create an alibi for himself.
Noah still needed to borrow someone’s phone so he could talk to Zac and get his take on the situation. Not that he didn’t trust the marshal’s office, he just trusted Zac more.
“It’s not Ellis himself out there. It’s his friends, and they’re not opposed to resorting to violence.”
He finished off his bread and soup as he told Tanner’s colleagues everything that had happened and the conversation he and Tanner had overheard. Somebody put a mug of coffee in front of him and he reached out and squeezed Marilyn’s hand when she set some creamer and sugar next to his mug. He gave her a nod and a little smile, then showed them on the map where everything had occurred and where he thought Tanner would have led Ellis’s friends.
“You’re eating and drinking like you’re planning to go back out there,” Sheriff Duggan said as he finished a second plate of food and another mug of coffee. “This is a matter for the law now, Noah.”
Bree’s scream still echoed through his head. Yes, it had been part of the plan to try to drag attention away from Marilyn and the kids, but still…
Sheriff Duggan’s eyes narrowed. “I mean it. You need to stay here and let us handle this. We’ve got a team—officers, paramedics, people familiar with the wilderness. You’ve done your part. We’ll get Tanner and Bree back safely.”
Noah wasn’t going to waste time arguing. He didn’t care how big or professional the team was, he wasn’t being left behind. Not when the safety of his family was at stake.
That also included the woman and children Noah loved. He was done pretending like that wasn’t the case.
He held up his hands in a sign of innocence. “I have no intention of getting in your way. But you need to get your team out there and get Tanner the help he needs immediately. That storm is brutal and the people after him and Bree are deadly.”
He gave them more specific locations for where Tanner and Bree should’ve been heading—the survival cabins west of the river. Of course, there were a lot of factors that might have disrupted that plan.
Sheriff Duggan began giving orders for her team. Noah could see why Tanner respected the woman, who was calm and competent under pressure.
Ronnie Kitchens was assigned the duty of driving Marilyn and the kids back into town and keep them under protective custody. He would also notify the Denver marshal’s office what was going on out here. Noah had known Ronnie most of his life. The guy was small-town solid, more of a follower than a leader, but had proven himself loyal and brave as hell when he’d saved Bree’s life last year. Marilyn and the kids would be safe under his watch.
Noah drank another cup of coffee and kept off his feet to rest his muscles as the sheriff and her men headed out. But the moment they were gone, he jumped and asked Mr. Henrikson if he could borrow a phone and a gun.
“God damn it, come on now, Noah.” Ronnie shook his head when he heard Noah’s request. “You heard Sheriff Duggan tell you to stay here. I knew you weren’t going to listen to her.”
/> Old man Henrikson handed him a Glock 42. “You’re welcome to this and more if you want them, but I don’t have a cell phone, just a hand radio to get in touch with town.”
Damn it, he couldn’t use that to contact Zac. But he took the firearm Mr. Henrikson offered.
Ronnie let out a long-suffering sigh. “Here, use my phone. Call your Special Forces mob squad or whoever it is.”
He gave Ronnie a smile. “I’ve got someone with sights on Jared Ellis. I just need to check in with them.”
“And then you’re going back out to help Tanner.”
He looked past Ronnie to where Marilyn stood in the doorway, her arms wrapped protectively around her middle, her lips pinched tight.
He answered Ronnie, but his words were meant for her. “I have to go back out there. I have to make sure my family is safe.” He glanced back at Ronnie. “But I’m trusting you with something precious, Ronnie. The people I’m leaving in your care mean the world to me.”
“I’ll keep them safe, Noah. You know I will.”
He clapped the other man on the shoulder. “I know you will.”
He looked back up at Marilyn, but she was gone. He wasn’t sure what that meant, if she had left before his declaration or because of it. Now wasn’t the time for him to find out.
He walked back into an empty bedroom so he could call Zac.
He answered on the first ring. “Yeah?”
“It’s Storm. Do you have eyes on Ellis?”
Zac let out a curse. “Ellis? Yes. Asshole cohorts? No. I assume you’ve been out in BFE because I’ve been trying to send you this info for the past forty-eight hours.”
“Yeah, camping. Asshole cohorts decided to join us out here for a little rough and tumble.”
“Shit,” Zac muttered. “I should’ve realized that was their plan when I saw all the maps. They’ve been studying them pretty hard.”
Noah briefly told him what had happened over the last few hours.
“Denver marshal’s office has eyes on Ellis too, but if you see anything that gives you the heebie-jeebies, I want you to call this number. Deputy Ronnie Kitchens. He’s got protective custody of Marilyn and the kids.”