It was all his fault.
He shouldn't have scared her. He should've explained who he was and what was happening.
Sitting up, he let his hands rest in his lap as he took slow breaths and tried to get used to being in an upright position.
It wasn't the first time he'd been hit around the head, not even the first time he'd been smacked with a branch. He knew that he had to keep still and give himself time to recover. It would take him a while to get past the nausea stage and then he'd be able to trek back to the cabin.
All he could do was see if she was there. If she wasn't, he'd be going in a little earlier than planned. He couldn't leave her there. He couldn't let her get dragged into all this. He pressed his hand against his head again and winced.
He should've told her.
Picking up the branch that she had hit him with, he used it to help him get to his feet. He wobbled as his head spun, and closed his eyes as he waited for it to pass.
When he found her, there were going to be harsh words about hitting him with what was practically a tree.
He scanned the area for a sign of the direction she had gone in and stood motionless, waiting for the sickness to ease before he made a move. The snow had erased all signs of her, making it impossible for him to tell whether she'd run on to the other cabin, or had gone back to hers.
He sniffed and wiped his bloodied nose against the back of his hand and then started to walk back towards the cabin.
* * * *
Pushing the back door open, Jack walked straight through the cabin and went upstairs. He checked every room and then stopped when he reached hers. It looked exactly the same as he'd found it last night. The covers were thrown back on the bed, her suitcase was in the corner and the fire was out.
He sighed and wished that she'd came back here rather than going to the Donovan's.
Heading into his room, he grabbed his bag and threw it onto the bed. He unzipped it, pulling everything out and staring at the clothes.
Picking his black combats and jumper out of the mess, he stripped off his damp clothes and then slipped a black thermal t-shirt on. He pulled his combats on and buttoned them up before putting his black zip-up jumper on. Picking up his discarded t-shirt, he wiped the dried blood off the side of his head with it and then threw it back onto the bed. He frowned as he thought about the other cabin and Kate. She didn't know much about him, but Donovan was going to care as much about that as he would about her being a girl he'd watch grow up, or that she was Nick's stepsister.
She had information on him and that meant Donovan wasn't going to let her go. He wouldn't believe that she didn't know who he was and he certainly wouldn't believe that she had nothing to do with this.
Jack reasoned that Donovan had probably already told her who he was and what he did for a living. He wondered if that would make her trust him more or less. He hoped that it would make her see that she had been wrong about him, and that he really had been out to protect her.
If it didn't, she was damn well going to trust him after the stunt he was about to pull.
There was no way that he could complete his mission with her trapped in the house. He wouldn't be able to concentrate while knowing that she was in danger or wondering if she was dead. He needed to get her out of there and get her safe.
Putting his black boots on, he picked up his gun holster and slipped his arms into it. He grabbed his thermal gloves and took the gun out of his jacket pocket, putting it into the holster.
He needed the rest of his stuff.
Glancing at the window, he frowned as he saw something move in the woods, and then froze as he heard a noise on the back porch. He crept out of the room as voices rose into the still mountain air, and moved along the hall to the window at the side of the house nearest the stairs.
He pressed his back against the wall as he watched the men outside.
They certainly weren't rangers.
Rangers didn't carry sub-machine guns.
He breathed shallowly as his eyes followed their movements and then stopped breathing altogether as one of them pointed a gun at the propane tank below the window.
"Crap."
Jack felt as though his limbs were made of lead as he tried to run down the stairs to the front door.
He moved as fast as he could, his heart pounding hard and making his headache worse as he tried to make it out of the cabin in one piece. He heard the gunshot echo around the mountains as he reached the front door and he yanked it open, sprinting across the porch.
The tank exploded, causing the cabin to go up with it and a ball of fire to engulf the surroundings.
The blast threw him through the air like a rag doll.
He realised too late that he was being thrown towards the edge of the mountain.
Landing hard on the rocky, snowy ground, he began to skid down the slope towards the sparse trees.
He gritted his teeth as he hit rocks and tree stumps, and desperately tried to grab hold of something that would stop him from falling all the way to the bottom of the valley.
The wind was knocked from his lungs as a tree stopped him by hitting him directly in the stomach. He lay still, doubled over it, and tried to breathe again.
This mission wasn't going at all as planned.
His entire body protested when he tried to move, his joints aching from the fall. He was certain that he must have fractured at least some of his ribs and breathed shallowly as he slowly built up the energy to push away from the tree.
Looking up at the plateau the cabin was situated on he saw that he'd fallen at least forty foot down the near-vertical valley side.
Getting back up was going to be a bitch.
He could see the glow of the cabin against the darkening sky as it burnt. The heat was almost reaching him where he was resting against the tree, balancing carefully so he didn't continue his bumpy journey down into the valley.
He wheezed as he tried to take a deeper breath and then frowned as his ribs ached.
Something was definitely fractured.
It didn't matter. It wouldn't be the first time that he'd had to continue a mission with a fracture. He'd done it in Paris the time he'd been brought in to close down a military faction who were attempting to sell nuclear weapons to the Middle East, and he'd done it in Moscow when he'd taken down the leader of the mafia there. It hadn't mattered then and it didn't matter now.
All that mattered was getting to Kate and getting her out of there alive.
Then he'd go and complete his mission by clearing up the arms dealing ring that Donovan was operating.
Hopefully, Nick would show his ugly face at some point, too. His mission didn't encompass disposing of him, but he deserved to get some payback for what he'd done.
Pushing himself onto his knees, he pulled his gloves out of his pockets and slipped them on, wriggling his fingers to make sure they were snugly in place before testing his grip on the icy ground.
Sniffing, he rolled his shoulders and listened to them crack. He stretched slightly and then sighed as everything clicked back into place. He felt worse than he had done at the end of his last mission, and this was only the beginning. Psyching himself up, he pushed all the pain to the back of his mind and sharpened his focus so he was concentrating wholly on getting his job done.
The ascent to the cabin was going to be treacherous at best. The only way of getting back up was to follow the trees along towards the road and gradually work his way upwards. The trouble was that some of the gaps in the trees were a few feet—further than his legs would stretch.
Standing up, he held onto the tree that was supporting him and moved to the next one, carefully testing his footing before placing his whole weight onto it. He moved to the next and followed them until he reached the first of the big gaps. It looked to be a good five feet.
Looking down the slope that led to the valley bottom, he noted that there was nothing to stop his fall if he missed.
He really wasn't in the mood for t
his.
Taking a deep breath, he swayed backwards and then leapt forwards. He kept his eyes fixed on the base of the tree where it met the rocks and focused on landing there. When he did, he wobbled and immediately grabbed hold of the tree.
It creaked, swayed, and then gave way.
Leaping to the next tree, Jack wrapped his arms around the trunk as he watched the other tree tumbling down into the valley, creating a miniature avalanche as it went. He breathed heavily as he listened for a sign of someone up above, and then sighed in relief when nothing came.
Moving to the next tree, he carried on until he reached another gap and then paused. It was shorter than the previous one, but the drop was just as deadly. Focusing on the base of the tree, he swallowed hard and then leapt over to it.
His foot slipped as he hit the snowy rocks, sending him skidding downwards. He scrambled for purchase as he hit the deck and closed his eyes as his fingers finally found a hold. Looking down at the near-vertical drop below him, he felt dizzy as he saw the tree laying broken on the bottom of the valley.
There was no way he'd survive a fall.
He dragged his eyes away from it and looked up at the tree above. It was only a couple of feet away. He could make it. Stifling his nerves, he clawed his way carefully back up the side of the valley to the tree and pulled himself up until he was resting with his back against the rocks and his feet firmly planted on the base of the tree.
Giving himself a few moments to recuperate, he stared at the darkening sky and thought about Kate.
She was all he ever thought about these days. Ever since he'd first seen her that night, she'd been constantly on his mind. He knew that it was insane to think that anything would happen between them. It wouldn't. At least not when she found out who he was and why he knew her stepbrother. But then, she'd shown on several occasions that she didn't like Nick. Plus, she'd shown on several occasions that she did like himself. It was there in her eyes when she looked at him; trepidation, a fear, a hope that the feeling he gave her was the same one she gave him.
And it was.
He'd not felt like this towards a girl since his last partner and that had taught him that business and pleasure rarely mixed. Business always won out in the end.
But Kate wasn't in his business, at least not in the way that she had been.
He shook his head and sighed.
He should've told Kate that he'd killed the mountain lion and that he had a gun.
They could've been in the cabin still, safely tucked away without anyone knowing that they were there. He could've waited for the road to clear and then driven her down in his Hummer so she could be with her sister while he went back to complete his mission.
He should've told her who he was.
Hopefully she would have understood why he did what he did.
Hopefully she wouldn't have said what every other girl said.
He was no James Bond, no matter how many times they told him he was.
Grabbing hold of the tree, he moved to the next one and continued along them until he reached the point where they began to creep up towards the road and thicken. He hauled himself up, scouting the area to see if anyone had remained behind when the others had left.
Seeing that no one was there, he walked out into the road and looked at the cabin.
She was going to kill him.
Half the first floor had fallen in because of the blast, and the fire was rapidly consuming the rest of it. A trail of black smoke was spiralling several hundred feet into the air. He slowly walked towards the cabin, shaking his head as he listened to the wood splitting in the heat and watching sections of the roof as they fell in.
He remembered what she'd said about this being her first vacation in three years and he wondered if she'd ever take another one after everything that had happened to her.
He roused himself as he realised that she wouldn't get a chance to have another vacation if he didn't get to the Donovan's cabin and rescue her.
Pulling his keys out of his pocket, he unlocked his Hummer. The heat from the explosion had managed to instantly melt most of the snow that had been covering it and Kate's Jeep. In fact, most of the area now looked as though it was summer rather than winter. He glanced at the trees and their proximity to the cabin. The wood would be damp enough to withstand the flames until the rangers got here. They wouldn't be long now. They would easily see the smoke from their base station in the town.
Opening the boot of his car, he pulled a heavy bag towards him and unzipped it. Picking up the clips for his handguns, he put them into his combats and took the other handgun out, fixing its silencer into place before putting it into the holster opposite the one that he'd brought into the cabin the night before. He pushed his sniper rifle to one side, knowing that there wasn't time for it. He had to get Kate away from Donovan as quickly as possible. Besides, there wasn't an element of surprise any more. Donovan knew he was here. The important thing now wasn't the mission, it was getting Kate out alive. He couldn't let her die.
He ran his fingers through his hair as he looked at the rest of the kit—the explosives and the high power rifle. Once Kate was safe, he'd come back for them and finish the job.
He picked up an eight-inch hunting knife and weighed it up while he thought of a plan. In order to save Kate, he was going to have to slip in silently. He couldn't use guns until he was inside, better yet until Kate was with him. He couldn't risk drawing attention to himself and getting himself caught.
Shutting the boot of his car, he locked it again and pocketed the keys before heading into the woods. He skirted the cabin, moving swiftly but silently through the trees as he headed towards the other side. As he came out near the path that Kate had taken last night, he looked at the ground and smiled.
It seemed that Donovan had his men using skidoos.
And skidoos left a perfect trail for him to follow.
Chapter 14
It was dark by the time that he reached the other cabin and he was silently thankful for the cover. He kept himself pressed up against a broad tree trunk as he watched the men milling around outside the house. Kate had been right—it was huge. It was still built in the fashion of a log cabin, but it had to be at least five times the size of Kate's cabin and was spread out over three storeys. It looked more like a hotel than someone's holiday home. Thick trees surrounded the place, and, at the rear of it, he could see the mountain gradually rising up. The snow had been cleared from the area in front of the cabin, but was still thick on the roof. There was a road off to the right, and it looked as though it had seen heavy traffic in the past but nothing over the previous two days. The snow there was untouched. The road must have been made impassable by the snowstorm just like the one down from Kate's cabin had.
He scanned the area. The house had clearly suffered a similar fate to Kate's cabin in terms of power. It must have been on the same line and they had lost power, too. The bright spotlights in the courtyard area were being run off generators. He could hear them rumbling away in the distance and noted that their noise would give him some cover if he needed it.
He watched two men that were talking near the road. There was a small building there that looked like a miniature cabin, and he figured that it either housed some kind of security watch or was purely the garage. He'd spotted security cameras on the house and on the smaller building. There were others mounted on a few of the trees he'd passed but they were all trained on the courtyard. The easiest way to the house was to go past the outbuilding. The gap at the other side of the wide courtyard was too great a distance and took him too close to busiest side of the house. All of the curtains there were open and he couldn't risk being seen before he had a chance to rescue Kate.
There were at least seven vehicles parked haphazardly in the courtyard and he could count twenty-four men. It was more than he'd expected and probably didn't bode well for him. The more vehicles there were, the more people he might have to deal with in order to successfully complete the missio
n. Near the outbuilding, he could see the three skidoos that had given him a trail to follow in the woods.
The men in the semi-circular courtyard of the house seemed to be loading things into the dark pickup trucks, and he couldn't tell if they were just supplies or if they were weapons. If they were weapons, he was glad that they were putting them into the trucks and not taking them out. The last thing he needed was facing a heavily armed army of men that seemed to outnumber him almost a hundred to one.
He listened hard, catching snippets of their conversation and piecing them together. They were talking about a shipment, payment and an interfering girl. He frowned as he realised that they were talking about Kate. Listening closely, he heard them discussing her and what they were going to do with her. It was a good sign. They hadn't done anything with her yet and he damn well wasn't going to give them a chance to.
Looking at the house, he scanned the windows. Most of them were dark. The majority of the ones on the ground level had a warm glow emanating from them, and two at opposite ends of the first floor were lit. The second floor was in complete darkness. Most of the activity seemed to be happening on the ground floor. He could see people moving around and causing breaks in the light as they passed the windows. Instinct told him that Kate would be kept on the first floor, away from the men and out of the way.
He slipped back into the shadows as a man walked past, patrolling the perimeter of the courtyard. It was the second man that he'd seen pass in half an hour. Hopefully they'd be the only two guards that he'd have to worry about before he reached the house.
As the man disappeared into the darkness, he looked back at the others and saw that they were heading back to the cabin.
This was it then.
Taking a deep breath, he moved through the shadows to the next tree, roughly following the guard that had passed him a moment ago. He watched him nod to the other guard and then continued to follow him. When he neared the end of the semi-circular courtyard, the guard paused and shuffled slightly, placing his gun by his side as he rubbed his arms and attempted to warm up.
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