“Thanks.” Draining the bottle, she tore into the granola, speaking around the food in her mouth. “You should drink up, too. It might be the middle of fall, but you’re still sweating.”
Dehydration would slow them down faster than her swollen, achy body would, but she wasn’t about to admit that out loud. Definitely not to him.
“That was the last of it.” He stared out into the trees, never making eye contact with her. Replacing his hat on his head, he shouldered their pack, as though the fact he’d given up the last of his water—their water—for her in a moment of exhausted weakness wasn’t a big deal. “Unless we come across another of your buried packs, that’s all we have until we reach the ranch.”
“You didn’t have to do that.” She chewed the last of the granola bar, the oats and Craisins sticking along her throat. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and pushed upright. There were only a handful of properties out here on the other side of East Lake, most of which were owned by horse trainers or wheat farmers. Someone had already gotten to her cofounder, and a gunman had tried to kill her and Beckett less than twelve hours ago. They couldn’t involve anyone else. Not without putting innocent lives in danger. “What ranch?”
“USMS manages half a dozen seized properties up and down these parts. The one we’re closest to was seized from a drug dealer after we connected him to one of the southern cartels for pushing their product into Eugene.” He waved his finger to the right. Beckett slowed his escape along the trail, his jacket shifting over powerful shoulders. Unpocketing his phone, he shook his head. “Don’t expect anything fancy. We’ll be lucky if there’s still running water, but we’ll at least have a roof over our heads and be in cell range so I can make contact with the rest of my team.”
His team? Raleigh spread one hand under her abdominals as a shiver chased down her spine. She forced one foot in front of the other, fighting to keep up with his long strides, but the fear of going back…of being found before they had a chance to clear her name…tunneled deep. She stopped in her tracks. The confidence that’d waned since she’d realized she’d put him on the wrong end of her shotgun charged forward. She’d been living off the grid for months, and she hadn’t made any mistakes. Not on her end. There was only one way that gunman would’ve been able to find her, and it wasn’t a coincidence he’d shown up minutes after Beckett had located her. “You can’t do that. You can’t involve the Marshals’ office.”
An inner earthquake shook through her as he narrowed that steely gaze on her. He slowly turned to face her, and suddenly he seemed so much…bigger than he had when he’d offered her the last of his water. Suspicious. “I’m a United States marshal, and you’re a fugitive. If my boss finds out I’m interfering with this case, I’ll be charged with aiding and abetting a known criminal, and your baby won’t just lose one parent. She’ll lose us both. Is that what you want?”
“It was you,” she said.
“What are you talking about?” Confusion cleared some of the tension from his expression, but he was still too close.
“I’ve been out here for four months. I’ve been off the grid, running my own investigation into who could’ve stolen that money while making sure none of what I uncovered connected back to me.” She fought the urge to increase the space between them as a hint of rain and pine from his clothing filled her lungs. “Whoever shot at us… They shouldn’t have been able to find me, Beckett.”
“Then maybe you’re not as good as you think you are.” He swept his coat to either side of his hips, hands leveraged against the lean muscle she’d memorized under those clothes. “Maybe you made a mistake. Your name is on that sonogram you showed me. There’s a chance someone in the doctor’s office recognized your photo from the most wanted list and called it in.”
It was a possibility, but the chances were slim. She’d been careful, met with the doctor after hours for a hefty price, altered her appearance for the nurses. Because it wasn’t just her life at stake anymore. She had a daughter to think about now, and she would do whatever it took to make sure she got out of this unharmed. Raleigh raised her gaze to his, the knot in her stomach tight. “Or maybe someone knew about our past connection. Maybe whoever stole that money used you to make sure I’d never walk out of these woods alive.”
CHAPTER FOUR
“Let me get this straight.” The muscles down his spine seized up. He rolled his lips between his teeth and bit down, the rustic tang of blood sliding across his tongue. Spreading his hands palms-down in front of him, he studied her for a sign—anything—that could give him an idea of where the hell she was going with this. “Instead of considering you might’ve made a mistake and given up your location on your own, which, I’ll add, wasn’t too hard to predict, you’re saying I’m responsible for what went down at your aunt’s cabin.”
“It’s not hard to believe whoever framed me knew about our relationship and used that to their advantage, knew you’d follow those unwavering Boy Scout morals of yours to bring me in.” She slid her hand along her lower abdominals, a nervous habit he bet she’d picked up somewhere between finding out she was pregnant and today. “I’d say whoever we’re dealing with doesn’t just know me. They’ve done their homework on you, too. They could’ve easily followed you with the intention of taking us both out to keep me from getting to the truth. They might even have a connection in the Marshals Service and made sure you were assigned my recovery.”
The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, but Beckett kept his expression smooth as her words registered. Finnick Reed, Jonah Watson and his chief deputy, Remi Barton. They’d all put their lives on the line for him on the job, just as he’d done for them over the past decade they’d been assigned to work together in the Oregon district office. Their team had apprehended a record number of fugitives, dismantled criminal enterprises and aided in more statewide manhunts than any other office on the West Coast. The four of them made up the backbone of the federal government, and he trusted every single one of them with his life. But the fact a shooter had tried to kill him and Raleigh less than fifteen minutes after Beckett had found her grated on his instincts. Damn it. He couldn’t discount her theory. Hell, it was the only thing they had to go on right now, and that meant leaving his team out of the investigation. For now. “You obviously have someone in mind. Someone from your list of suspects at the foundation.”
She nodded, stringy, damp hair skimming the bullet graze at the side of her neck, and it felt as though blood had pooled in his legs, cementing him in place. Another inch to the left and that bullet would’ve killed her. He would’ve lost her, lost their baby. This far out, with the closest hospital more than thirty miles away, he wouldn’t have been able to save either of them, and his chest tightened at the imagery. “My assistant, Emily Cline. She’s worked for me since the beginning and had access to the donations anytime I had to travel. She would’ve had the perfect opportunity to transfer those funds when I was guaranteed to be out of the office.”
“I remember her from the background checks the feds ran. I assume she arranged all your travel, kept your schedule, had your bank account and Social Security numbers to arrange hotels and car rentals?” A cold bite of wind ripped through the trees, but it was the weary hint of exhaustion playing out across Raleigh’s features that held his attention. It took everything inside him to keep himself from chasing back the dark circles under her eyes with the pad of his thumb.
She cast her attention to the gravel under her boots. “Out of all of the suspects I’ve compiled, Emily is the only one who had the means and opportunity to move that money, aside from Calvin, but I can’t see the connection between her and the US Marshals Service. Maybe there isn’t one. I don’t know.”
He hadn’t gotten a good enough look at the shooter to rule Emily Cline out as a suspect, but having a name was a start. Looked like their only leads were an assistant who possibly knew too much and a missing CEO, but Beckett cou
ldn’t dig any deeper than that without alerting his team to what he and Raleigh were doing out here.
“You obviously trusted her,” he said. “Did she give you any reason to think she might be in debt or in trouble? Taking care of a sick relative, or does she have access to a gun?”
“No. Nothing like that. We were…friends.” Her voice softened, tugging at some invisible string Beckett had used to sew up the gaping holes she’d left behind when she’d been arrested, but that was as far as he’d let it go. This effect she still had on him, this gravitational pull, was nothing more than his body adjusting to being around her again. Temporary. That was it. As soon as they cleared her name of the embezzlement charges, they could each go their separate ways and work out a custody-and-visitation agreement along the way for their daughter. If they couldn’t… Hell, he’d have to cross that bridge when he got to it. Raleigh tucked her hands in her front pockets. “At least, I thought we were friends. Guess it goes to show how little we actually know the people around us, or how blind we can make ourselves when we don’t want to see the truth.”
Was that supposed to be an underhanded accusation directed at him? Because she was right. They might’ve been sleeping together for six months, but they’d each kept the darkest part of themselves from the other. They didn’t know each other at all. A bird called off to their right, then silence. Warning prickled a trail across his shoulders. He automatically drew her in to his side with one hand as he scanned the trees around them. He couldn’t take the risk of another ambush from the shooter. Not with their daughter the perfect target. “Come on. We’ve been out in the open for too long.”
She didn’t respond, a first for her, as he led her along the unofficial path carving through the trees. The pines thinned after another twenty minutes of them walking in silence beside each other, giving way to one of the most exquisite sights Oregon had to offer. Jagged obsidian lava rock spread out along each side of the path they’d been following toward the smooth incline of Newberry volcano. Dark clouds cast shadows over the second lake in the area on the other side of the inactive caldera. From this vantage point, he calculated they’d walked approximately four miles around the southern end of East Lake and were nearing the Big Obsidian Flow Trailhead. Miles of green pines smothered the valley floor below, and a lightness he hadn’t felt in a long time spread through him.
“My brother and I used to hike out here every weekend when we got the chance. Just the two of us.” A wistful smile transformed her features, and for a split second, his heart jerked in his chest at the sight. Her shoulders rose and fell with her heavy breathing, that warm gaze taking it all in. “We’d pack a lunch, bring our swimsuits and make sure the rangers weren’t around when we climbed the volcano. I forgot how beautiful this place can be.”
“You haven’t been back out here?” He wasn’t sure why he’d asked, or why he cared much about the answer. The lines between them had been drawn, but every second she’d been near, he could feel that old part of himself—the part that wanted to believe her—rise to the surface.
“Not since he died. I thought about it. I wanted to see if it’d changed any, but…it’s not the same without him.” Smoothing her hands over her shirt, she shook her head, long tendrils of her hair sticking to the fabric. Raleigh turned toward him, resurrecting the atmospheric hint of rain and her vanilla scent in one move. “Earlier, you said you unsealed my juvenile records, but did you read them?”
“I read enough of the police report to know what happened that day. I was able to piece together the rest.” In reality, there hadn’t been a whole lot to read. He’d had to track down the autopsy report himself. “Your aunt had taken custody of you both at the insistence of your and your brother’s social worker because you kept getting passed from home to home. Reports said you had trouble adjusting. You instigated a handful of fights and were caught stealing from one of your foster parents. Am I right so far?”
The muscles along the column of her throat worked to swallow. “Keep going.”
“You, your brother and your aunt were down at the shoreline of the lake. Police found a couple easy chairs, a picnic and an umbrella. The scene looked like it was supposed to be a fun day, but there was a fight. Something your aunt did made you snap.” He set his hands on his hips, the bottom of the pack she’d dug up brushing against the space between his index finger and thumb. “You caved her skull in with a rock you found in the water.”
She flinched, obviously not ready to hear just how much he’d uncovered about her past, but she couldn’t hide from it anymore. Couldn’t hide the truth from him. She’d kept her secrets to herself when they’d been together, but Beckett knew her better than anyone else in her life, was the only one who knew exactly what she was capable of. Innocent people didn’t run, didn’t go into hiding. They didn’t hurt the people who cared about them. Directing her attention back out across the valley as the wind rustled in the trees on either side of them, she ran one hand through her hair. “That’s all the files say? The police report, the court documents?”
“It’s enough, isn’t it?” he asked. “Proves you have a history of violence and theft, which, I might add, is what you’re up against now, and that you’re willing to do whatever it takes to get what you want, even when it hurts the people who care about you.”
“You’re right. My brother and I were eating lunch together like we always did on the weekends. I wasn’t feeling too good that day. I think I was coming down with the flu or something, so he said we should set up down on the beach instead of taking our normal hike, and I agreed. I didn’t care where we went. I just wanted to spend time with him. For as long as I remember, we were all we had. Then…” She blinked against the sunlight reflecting off the water of Paulina Lake about a mile northeast of their location. “Then my aunt came charging down to the lake, accusing my brother of getting into her gun safe. I’d never seen her so angry before, and no matter what I said, she didn’t believe me.”
“Because it was you.” Memory of the cabin, of the open armored safe tucked into the room off the main living space, flashed across his mind. Dread curled in his gut. Hell. “You were the one who’d gotten into the safe, weren’t you?”
“I’d learned to break into it a few weeks before by listening for the click of the combination cams, and I was so damn proud of myself, I wanted to see if I could do it again.” She stared out over the expanse of trees and water. “My brother was everything to me, the only person I’d always been able to count on growing up in all those homes, the only one I had left, and suddenly she was choking the life right out of him in front of my eyes.” Nodding, she rolled her lips between her teeth and bit down, as though to keep herself under control, but he could see the pain in her eyes, the crack of emotions bleeding through her expression. Raleigh wiped at her face with one hand. “I tried to pull her off, but she hit me in the face, and I fell back into the water. I wasn’t strong enough to pry her loose, so I grabbed a rock I’d landed on, and I swung it as hard as I could.” Green eyes focused on him. “But it was too late. She’d already killed him.”
He cleared his throat, completely void of a response other than an apology for what she’d been through at such a young age. Guess they both had that in common. Her losing her brother, him losing his mom.
“All those accusations you have of me starting fights and stealing? I was making sure my brother and I stayed together every time we got transferred to a new home. We only had each other, but none of it mattered in the end. I lost him anyway, and now I have no one.” Loose gravel slipped down the rocky incline as she stepped into him. “Everything I’ve done hasn’t been to hurt the people I care about, Beckett. It’s been to protect them, and I’d do it all over again.”
He stared after her as she made her way down the steep hill dropping them onto the main trail carved through the trees, his voice low. “You had me.”
* * *
THE HUMIDITY OF anoth
er imminent downpour stuck to the exposed skin under her collar as they followed the Big Obsidian Flow Trailhead around the southern end of Paulina Lake. This time of year didn’t bring a lot of tourists to the area, and she’d never been more grateful for that than now. The idea of pasting another smile on her face, of pretending everything was okay, even for a stranger, intensified the headache at the base of her skull. Sweat built along her hairline and slid down her spine, but she only pushed herself harder.
Those records had been sealed. She’d moved on with the intention of never letting those two adrenaline-charged minutes of her life define her. She’d given everything she’d had left after the incident with her aunt from that time forward to save lives. Not take them, but now Beckett knew the truth. The one person she’d tried to shield from her past knew she was everything he’d accused her of being: a killer. The fist around her heart squeezed tighter. There was nothing she could say, nothing she could do, to redeem herself in his eyes.
“We’re here.” His words punctured through the sweaty haze that’d taken over for the past hour, and Raleigh pulled up short too fast. Her boots slid along a loose patch of gravel on the incline leading down into a valley nestled between the mountains, and she fell back, arms thrown out for balance. Strong hands caught her under her rib cage. “I’ve got you.”
A warmth that hadn’t been there before blossomed inside as she tried to get her bearings. “Thanks.”
Setting her upright, Beckett let his hand linger at her waist as she pressed into his chest for balance. Her heart thumped wildly at the base of her throat as his gaze journeyed a trail down along her neck. His outdoors scent dived deep into her lungs, making her lips tingle to close that short distance between them. She could still remember what he tasted like, how safe she’d felt in his arms.
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