by Debra Webb
They had no food or water, so reaching the village as quickly as possible would be the most desirable strategy. Going back to Sloan’s house for supplies before making this journey hadn’t felt like a smart move. Still didn’t.
“We need to get moving.”
Gabrielle whipped around to face the older of the two boys. She cursed herself for showing her surprise. She hated that he could sneak up on her like that.
“No kidding. I’ve been waiting on the two of you to finish your beauty rest.”
He strode up to her, towered over her just because he could. “We should have gotten there last night. My brother was cold last night. He’ll be hungry this morning.”
Gabrielle refused to be baited by the ungrateful man-boy. “You know the reason we couldn’t make a straight line for the village. Do you want the bad guys to catch up with you and your precious baby brother?”
She hadn’t intended for the demand to come out so cruelly, but it had just the same. Too late to take it back now. She’d definitely hit a nerve. Mark’s face reddened with fury. His blue eyes turned a couple of shades darker, but to his credit, he kept his mouth shut.
“We’re leaving now, because it’s the right time,” she added before he could regain any momentum and initiate a rebuttal as to whose idea it was and who was in charge. “Carry your brother if you have to.” With that order still ringing in the air, she did what she could to plump up the leaves where they’d flattened them down. She made sure nothing else stood out like a red flag to indicate someone had used the spot as a rustic Hilton.
“We’re ready.”
Her gaze swung to Mark’s. His sleepy-eyed brother clung to his back. As Gabrielle watched, he yawned widely. “Where’s Mommy?” he asked.
“Don’t ask questions,” Mark rasped. “Go back to sleep.”
“I’m hungry.”
“Let’s get moving,” Gabrielle said, hoping to head off the whole we-have-no-food discussion. She was hungry herself. Talking about it would only make it worse.
When they’d been walking for half an hour or so, she decided to attempt some conversation. Okay, maybe decided was a flat-out lie. She wanted…needed information. Stupid as it sounded, considering neither of these kids likely knew anything about her father. But they did know Sloan.
“Why did your folks have to go to a hospital?” That seemed safe enough territory.
“Mommy’s having a baby,” Josh piped up.
“Shut up,” Mark snapped.
Gabrielle glared at him. “Stop yelling at him like that.” She gave herself a good, swift mental kick for saying it so ferociously. He wasn’t her brother. Not by a damned long shot.
Mark sulked for a while, then he answered the question. “She lost a baby a couple years ago. They’re trying to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
So Rachel was pregnant. Gabrielle couldn’t help wondering how that child, or one of these would feel, if they never got to know their father.
Well, Josh hadn’t. If her suspicions were on the money.
“That man back at the house,” Gabrielle ventured, hoping the question wouldn’t upset them further, “he was taking care of you?”
“He worked for my father. Took care of things,” Mark said without explaining, but Gabrielle had pretty much decided the man had been a sort of butler or housekeeper.
“Pablo’s dead,” Josh said sadly. “So’s Valerie.”
So the kids did know the girl. “Did you know the man who hurt them?”
Mark glowered at her. “He didn’t hurt them,” he snapped, “he killed them.”
Gabrielle didn’t argue the point. He was right.
“Manuel was Valerie’s boyfriend,” Mark said eventually. “They’d stopped by once or twice before to help Pablo with things around the house. I don’t think Pablo liked Manuel. He didn’t trust him, for sure.”
Well now they knew why.
“Why would Manuel want to take you and Josh?”
Mark shrugged. “Who knows? People disappear down here all the time.”
That much was true. “Will someone at the village be able to reach your folks?”
Mark stopped abruptly. He faced her, his expression unyielding. “We can’t bother them for this. If she gets upset, she might lose the baby. They can’t know.”
“She’ll cry. A lot,” Josh added knowingly.
Gabrielle didn’t want to hear any of this. Whatever problems Rachel had were of no consequence. Gabrielle had her mission. She needed Trevor Sloan back here.
“What hospital did you say they were at?” she asked offhandedly as they started forward once more.
“I didn’t.”
Her gaze connected with Mark’s and in that instant she saw the resolve there. No way was he going to endanger his father or his mother, or whatever Rachel was to him.
Gabrielle didn’t have much choice, it seemed. She would ensure the boys reached the safety of the village and then she would go back and wait. Unless she could find something in the house that would tell her where Sloan was, she’d have no choice.
She put that out of her mind for the moment. Keeping all her senses on full alert was of primary importance.
Those men she’d seen last night would be hot on their trail this morning.
And if by some miracle they decided not to pursue the situation, that still left the Colby Agency.
Gabrielle knew without doubt that someone from the Colby Agency would be after her. The image of a tall, broad-shouldered man bullied its way into her head. She shivered. She told herself it was because she was still cold from sleeping on the ground last night. But that wasn’t the case.
She banished the image and decided then and there that she didn’t care who they sent after her.
The only question was whether or not whoever came was as good as Gabrielle or not.
Chapter Six
A.J. crouched and touched the earth. Cool. The threesome had been gone for an hour at least. He studied the area around the spot where he felt they had rested for a while during the hours before dawn. He couldn’t help being impressed by Gabrielle’s ability to disappear without having left much of a trail.
But she wasn’t as good as him.
A.J. had twenty years’ experience on her. He’d been tracking targets since he was a kid following his old man around the woods during hunting season.
He no longer doubted whether or not it was Gabrielle with the children. He knew it was.
She’d made her first mistake.
She hadn’t policed up after herself where she’d rested during the night. He’d found three very long, very black hairs. Her hair. It wasn’t much, but it was all he needed.
First rule of covert maneuvers: never leave anything behind for the enemy to find.
The question was, what the hell was she up to? Did she believe she could lure Sloan into some trap of her own making? And why would she kill a man to that end? Or was the man’s murder an effort to rescue the children?
There wasn’t any way to estimate the motivation for that move, he could only assume. A.J. felt relatively certain there had been more than one visitor to the scene of Estes’ murder besides the local authorities. If Estes was supposed to have rendezvoused with his partners in crime, they may have come looking for him when he didn’t show.
A.J. stood, glanced around the dense woods. Evergreens, pines and oaks soared up from the rugged terrain, in places effectively blocking out the sun entirely. The air smelled clean and fresh. The scene could have been ripped right from the pages of a picturesque calendar. But the serenity seemingly all around him was not to be trusted.
If, as Cervantes suggested, there were others involved, then, in all likelihood, A.J. wasn’t the only one out here looking for the children…and whoever had taken them.
But, he had to be the one to find them first.
Careful of each step he took, he examined the thick undergrowth as well as the decaying foliage covering the ground of the occasional clearing for
signs of disturbance. Tiny broken limbs, damaged leaves, any indentations in the softer areas of the terrain. And if he was really lucky, the occasional imprint of a shoe sole.
Anticipation revved as his instincts kicked in and his movements went on automatic. Every sensory perception was devoted to finding the next clue that would help him follow the path they had taken. He eased across the landscape with an efficiency of movement and without leaving a traceable trail. There was no time to waste. His search uncovered a small cave, there were likely dozens in these mountains, but there was no sign of Gabrielle and the children.
The near nonexistent trail she’d left behind headed upward and to the west, then downward as if Gabrielle and her companions were lost or couldn’t decide which way they wanted to go. A.J. paused along a sharply angled bend in what could only be called a goat trail. That she would resort to following this path or any other obvious one surprised him. Giving her credit, she apparently had faith in her ability to keep the evidence of her passage to a minimum. Only a trained tracker would be able to keep up.
Realization had him shaking his head in admiration as well as irritation. She understood that someone would be tracking her so she took an extra measure of precaution. Like laying a decoy route.
Unsure how long he’d been following the wrong trail, he retraced his steps until he reached the place where the clues had first become somewhat more obvious. When he’d noted the slight change, he’d blamed the lapse on mounting fatigue. The children would be tired and hungry. But he should have known it wouldn’t be as simple as that.
A.J. thought about the young woman he’d watched at the Colby Agency. She’d been quiet and attentive, but he’d sensed a raw kind of energy radiating from her. He had felt certain that was part of what had made her so undeniably attractive as a recruiting candidate. Gabrielle would be intense and focused, not to mention relentless.
Case in point, a deceptive maneuver any team leader would be proud of. He shook his head again, tried his level best not to let his professional respect for the woman expand further. It was bad enough his high personal regard for her wouldn’t be hindered.
The rhythm of his heart accelerated and A.J. cursed himself for allowing the attraction to simmer. He’d felt it the moment he laid eyes on her, but he’d dismissed the chemistry as out of hand. He had more than ten years on her age wise and she was a colleague. He’d had no business going there. But those facts didn’t change a thing as the days had gone by. Every day he went to the office and she was there, her very existence making him want to know her on a wholly unprofessional level.
He’d figured it would pass with time, but he’d been wrong. Not even the news that she’d fooled them all and that she was now a fugitive changed his relentless need to reach out to her, to know her better.
That kind of indulgence was a mistake professionally and personally. Not only would he be crossing a hazardous line professionally, he knew that personally he couldn’t make a long-term commitment of any sort. His future was too uncertain. Allowing anyone else to get caught up in that aspect of his reality was just plain wrong. He wouldn’t do it. Not to Gabrielle. Not to anyone.
He hadn’t allowed himself to become intimately involved in nearly two years. He wouldn’t now. Not until he had more answers and only time would give those.
A.J. sucked in a deep breath and reassessed his prey’s movements. When he’d located a secondary path, he resumed his journey upward toward the next ridge. He decided that she’d likely acquired the older boy’s help in laying down that decoy trail. If the kid knew these mountains, they could move a fair distance apart and meet back up close to their ultimate destination, but A.J. wasn’t sure Gabrielle would want to let the kid out of her sight. Again, how she interacted with the children would be relative to whatever motive drove this escape into the mountains.
The destination couldn’t be that far away, taking into account that they probably had no food or water. The trip hadn’t been planned. Gabrielle was improvising here, but doing a damn good job.
He cleared his mind of the thoughts related to her ability and refocused his full attention on staying on track. He felt reasonably certain he was closing in. Alone he could move faster than a woman and two kids. Even if he had temporarily gotten off course.
The crack of a twig made him freeze. He listened. Not Gabrielle, he decided, since the sound had come from well behind him. And his gut told him she wouldn’t screw up so blatantly. Doubling back like that would cost her too much valuable time and without survival supplies that could be dangerous business.
Then again, maybe there was no ultimate destination. Maybe she was acting on instinct, operating by the seat-of-her-pants method. Also risky business.
If this wasn’t Gabrielle, then someone else was either tailing him or following the same path he’d pursued this far. There were only two groups who could know he’d opted to take this journey into the woods. The local authorities because Cervantes likely had someone watching him as he’d left Sloan’s residence and any cohorts Estes may have had. Estes’ friends, if they still wanted the children, could be nearby. Either scenario wasn’t particularly optimal. The cops tromping around up here could send his target rushing deeper into this craggy terrain. The latter possibility could cause far more trouble.
A.J. immersed himself into the underbrush like a sniper taking cover in preparation for long-term observation. He soundlessly pulled the foliage in around him and sat stone-still.
As he watched, three men emerged, with a surprising lack of noise considering their lumbering movements, into the area where Gabrielle had opted to put down a decoy situation. The men were Hispanic, late twenties to early thirties, and well armed.
Estes’ friends, he surmised.
A.J. wondered again if Gabrielle had any idea just how much trouble she was in.
His tension didn’t ease until the group had taken the bait and followed the wrong trail. A.J. would like to have been smug about it, but since he’d made the same mistake he decided it was better to be thankful for his training and leave it at that.
When enough time had passed, he surfaced from his hiding place and headed after his target. Reaching Gabrielle quickly was critical now.
A single second could mean the difference between life and death…possibly for her as well as the children.
THEY HAD company.
Gabrielle held very still and listened.
Following her cue, Mark and Josh did the same.
Her heart thudded in her chest but she ignored it, she had to determine exactly how close the enemy was.
Too damn close.
She turned to Mark. “How much farther to the village?” The words were scarcely a whisper, it was a miracle he heard her at all.
“Fifteen minutes.”
That intensity that took her aback time and time again flashed in his pale blue eyes. He was afraid though he would die before he’d admit it. Josh waited beside him, his smaller hand grasped tightly in his older brother’s.
Gabrielle moved in nose-to-nose with Mark. “Listen carefully to me, I want you to take Josh and move as fast as you can toward the village. Try not to make too much noise, but let speed be principal.”
“How many of them are there?” Mark’s square jaw hardened, giving his male features an even more grown-up look. She couldn’t help admiring what a good-looking man he would ultimately be.
She shrugged. “Three or four.”
He moved his head side to side. “You can’t take all of them by yourself.”
Foolish kid. He was going to get himself and his brother killed trying to play hero. “I said,” she murmured fiercely, “take your brother and get the hell out of here, kid. I’ve got this under control.”
“Mark, I’m really thirsty.”
Their movements in concurrence, Gabrielle and Mark glared down at the boy. He blinked those dark eyes, the move doing nothing to conceal the absolute fear and exhaustion there. She was startled all over again when she sta
red into those too familiar eyes.
“Be quiet, Josh,” Mark muttered. “It’s okay. We’ll get something to drink at the village.”
“Take him, now,” Gabrielle ordered. “We don’t have time to argue.” As emphasis to her statement, she surveyed the wooded terrain around them. Standing here wasting time like this was dicey at best.
“Fine,” he snapped a little louder than he should have. They both flinched. “Get yourself killed. See if I care.”
And just like that he left, with his brother in tow and moving like a jackrabbit around nature’s obstacles without making the slightest noise.
Gabrielle considered her options for a few seconds then made a decision. She would lead the enemy away from the direction the boys had gone. When she’d ensured they had made it to the village, she would return to Sloan’s residence and wait for his arrival.
Then she would finish this.
She moved quickly, allowing her body to fight the terrain rather than flow with it. Broken sapling limbs and rustling foliage would be the result. If she were lucky, the bastards following her would think she’d gotten scared and clumsy.
Hesitating long enough to catch her breath, she listened above the sound of the air hissing in and out of her lungs and her heart bumping against her sternum. Nothing. Dammit. Where were they? Surely they hadn’t picked up the boys’ trail instead.
Maybe she’d have to drop back a few yards to see if she could determine the exact direction they’d taken.
When she would have turned to put thought into action, a hand suddenly closed over her mouth. A powerful arm banded around her waist.
Fear rocketed through her veins. She kicked. Scratched at the hand clamped over her mouth.
“Be still,” her captor snarled against her hair.
The gruff male voice sounded vaguely familiar but she didn’t stop fighting him.
“Scream and we’re both dead,” he warned.
With that admonition still vibrating in her ear, he released her. She whipped around to face him, her weapon already in her hands and aimed right between his eyes.