“Hey, it’s going to be okay. This is almost over.” He hoped to console her, but in truth his internal radar was going crazy.
She tried to smile, but he doubted if either of them believed what he’d said.
With nothing left to say, he focused on the road ahead while his thoughts raced over the files, jumbling things up. Confusing details. He couldn’t deny the woman’s resemblance was uncanny. That photo got to him because it reminded him of... No way.
Abby was dead.
He blew out a breath. Was he just so exhausted that he was grasping at straws?
What then was Eddie trying to tell him? The photo had to be important. Why else would he go to such great lengths to get that photograph to Reyna? He shook his head. Soon, with God’s help, they’d be in the presence of others with whom they could examine the evidence thoroughly.
The gravel road ended outside of Jackson Valley and they picked up the highway from there.
“Not much farther,” he told her. “It’s only about five miles to the base.”
Turning toward him, she gently squeezed his bicep. “I am so ready for this to be over.”
He smiled at the way she enunciated every word. “Me, too. I want to start living again without looking back over my shoulder. I’ve almost forgotten what that feels like.”
She didn’t answer, but she was still smiling and it held so much promise.
Jase glanced in the rearview mirror and frowned. A vehicle was coming up behind them. Still some distance away, it could just be some innocent traveler.
Reyna noticed it, as well, her gaze locked with his, and he quickly tried to reassure her. “We don’t know it’s them. It could be anyone. Besides, they don’t know what we’re driving and they certainly can’t know about the meet up.”
She nodded but the fear didn’t leave her face.
The vehicle, a large SUV, continued to keep the same amount of distance between them, almost as if they were deliberately trying to fake them out. If it was the men chasing them, he couldn’t lead them to the meeting place. It was too risky. Jase had seen firsthand the manpower this group possessed. Aaron’s team wouldn’t stand a chance.
“I’m going to try something. See if they follow.” He turned off onto a smaller road. The SUV did the same.
“They’re still behind us,” Reyna whispered. “How did they find us? There’s no tracking device left.”
She was right. How did they know their whereabouts? He didn’t believe it was just a coincidence that the men hunting them had ended up on the same road leading to the base.
His mouth thinned. “Aaron’s the only one who knows where we’re meeting and I trust him completely.”
“I do, too,” she assured him. “Do you think someone who helped Aaron organize the rescue might be part of their team?”
It was plausible. “I’m going to see if I can contact Aaron and let him know we have a tail. Maybe he can delay leaving or at least send help.” Jase called Aaron’s number, but the call didn’t go through. He checked the service bar on his phone. It was nonexistent. “There’s no cell signal. I don’t like it, Reyna. We can’t lead them to Aaron’s team. There could be a bloodbath.”
She glanced behind them once more. “What do you want to do?”
“We’ve got to lose them before we get there.” He glanced at his watch. It was already the scheduled meet time. They had half an hour to spare. “Aaron’s team won’t wait much longer. There’s a bad storm moving this way, and if we’re not there soon, they’ll have to leave.”
Jase spotted a four-wheel-drive path up ahead and to the right. “Hold on,” he told her as he whipped the truck onto it and floored it. The SUV did the same, confirming the truth. This was no innocent bystander. These were the men who had been chasing them. They’d found them again.
Reyna clutched the grab handle of the truck and stared straight ahead, all color gone from her face.
The tire chains spun out of control in the deep snow. Jase’s hands grew sweaty on the wheel. The SUV was now right on top of them. It rammed the truck hard. Jase fought the wheel but, with the snow and ice accumulation, he had almost no control. The truck slid sideways.
One of the men in the SUV shot out the driver’s side tires. The truck ground to a halt. Reyna screamed and squeezed her eyes shut. They were stranded up here with a group of cold-blooded killers and the worst part was no one knew where they were.
Two men got out of the SUV and ducked behind their open doors, weapons aimed.
Jase pulled out the Glock. “Reyna, I need you to do exactly what I tell you. I’m going to do everything in my power to get us out of here alive, okay?” Silently he prayed he could make good on that promise.
“Get out of the truck with your hands up!” one of the men yelled.
Reyna fearfully glanced Jase’s way. “What do we do?”
“We do as they say. Stay close behind me. We’re going to pretend to go along with their plan.” He tucked the Glock behind his back and they got out.
Jase put his hands up and started walking toward the SUV.
“That’s close enough,” the man called.
Behind him, Jase heard Reyna gasp.
“Are you okay?” he whispered.
“That’s the man from my church. That’s Frank.” Her voice shook with the revelation.
Frank grinned nastily when he realized she had recognized him. “That’s right, Reyna. You should have gone along with the plan. None of this would have happened if you had. But you got suspicious.” He shrugged. “I should have realized the wife of a former CIA agent wouldn’t be an easy mark. You figured out I wasn’t there to be your friend...and now you and Bradford are going to pay the price. Get your hands up,” Frank barked at her.
“You were watching her. Trying to get her to tell you where Eddie left the laptop,” Jase surmised. He needed to keep the man distracted while he figured out how to neutralize the situation. It was just the two men. If he could manage to disarm one of them, then he could deal with the other.
“Well, aren’t you the master detective,” Frank said in a sarcastic tone. “Yeah, Bradford, I was watching her. It was my job to make nice. Get her to trust me and then get the laptop.” He waved the gun their way. “Just think how much trouble you could have saved yourself, Reyna, if you’d just talked to me,” Frank mocked. “Now do as I said and put your hands up.” He was growing more annoyed, so Reyna complied and lifted her hands into the air.
“That’s better. Too bad you weren’t as obliging when I was going to your church. You and Bradford are in a world of trouble. You’re going to regret the day you met me.” Frank motioned to his partner. “I’ll cover you. Get him under control first. I’ll take care of her.” His threat was unmistakable: Jase and Reyna were not supposed to walk out of this alive.
The partner didn’t like being ordered around by Frank. “Why me? You take care of him.”
Frank’s anger exploded. “Do as you’re told unless you want to end up with the same fate as them.”
Reyna inched closer. Jase could feel her warm breath against his neck. She was trembling and terrified.
“It’s going to be okay. Trust me,” he murmured so that only she could hear. God, please guide our steps.
The second man reluctantly left his hiding spot and moved cautiously toward them. He stopped a few feet away and tucked his weapon behind his back before ordering, “Keep your hands up. Don’t try anything, Bradford, or I promise I’ll kill her.” He glanced back at his partner, who was now standing behind the SUV’s door. “You got me covered?” he asked.
Before Frank had the chance to answer, Jase snatched the man’s arm, twisted it behind his back and clenched it as tight as he could.
The man yelped in pain. “Let me go!” he demanded furiously while trying to free himself. Jase tightened his hold and the man slumped against
him.
Using the disabled man as a shield, Jase swiped the man’s weapon and handed it to Reyna. “It’s loaded and the safety’s off. Just point and shoot.” He removed his Glock and aimed it at the man near the SUV while keeping pressure on his prisoner.
Frank didn’t flinch at the sight of the weapon. “There’s no way out of this for you,” he said. “We have more people on the way here now. It’s over, Bradford. Give us the laptop and we’ll make sure your end isn’t so painful. Otherwise...” Jase didn’t believe a word of what the man said. The sneer on Frank’s face assured him they’d be dealt with in the worst possible way.
Jase didn’t respond to the man’s threat. “Put down your weapon if you want your partner to live.”
Frank actually laughed. “You think I care about him? I have orders to get the laptop and take you two in dead or alive. Him, I could care less about.” Before Jase had time to process the threat, Frank fired at his partner, hitting him in the leg. He screamed in agony and dropped to the ground at Jase’s feet.
“Frank, why’d you do that?” he raged while grabbing his injured leg.
Jase realized Frank would stop at nothing, even harming his partner. “Run, Reyna. Get behind the truck,” he commanded while he aimed at Frank’s weapon and fired. The gun bounced from Frank’s hand and he screeched in pain before ducking beneath the door. Jase fired again and the bullet splintered the window. With his weapon still drawn, he advanced on the SUV. His training had taught him to strike while you had your enemy on his heels.
He reached the spot where Frank had been seconds earlier only to find he was gone. The adrenaline rush of being back in the line of fire had him gasping for breath. Jase slowly moved to the back of the vehicle. Suddenly, Frank jumped from a crouching position and lunged for the weapon, hitting Jase full force. He teetered backward but somehow managed to keep his footing while the man continued to snatch at the Glock in his hand. They wrestled back and forth for its possession, but Jase kept control.
Frank jerked one hand free, drew back and slugged Jase as hard as he could in the jaw. The pain was staggering, but he somehow managed to keep his wits about him. Jase shoved at Frank’s chest with his full strength and sent him reeling backward onto the snowy ground.
Frank quickly bounced back onto his feet and he raised one leg, intending to strike a blow. Jase jerked to one side just in time to avoid the disabling kick. Jase could tell he was well-trained in hand-to-hand combat.
Frank’s face contorted in fury that his move hadn’t resulted in the desired effect. He lunged for Jase once more, his arms outstretched. Jase caught his right hand and jerked it behind him, throwing him off balance. From nearby, Jase heard Reyna scream and his heart thundered against his chest. Had the second man gone after her? Was she hurt? He had to deal quickly with Frank so that he could help her.
Jase wrapped his free arm around Frank’s throat and held on tight. It took only a matter of seconds before he was out cold. He laid Frank’s body on the ground, grabbed his weapon from where it had flown, and raced toward the sound of her voice.
“Reyna? Where are you?”
“Over here,” Reyna managed, and then screamed again. “Help me, Jase. He pushed me over the edge of the mountain,” she said in a frantic tone. “Hurry, I—I can’t hold on much longer.”
He spotted the injured man leaning over the mountain’s edge. He was trying to pry Reyna’s hand free.
With a low growl, Jase grabbed the man up by his shirt collar and punched him hard in the face. He dropped like a rock to the ground unconscious, then Jase got on his knees and knelt close to Reyna. She was dangling off the side. If she lost her precarious hold, she’d plunge some fifty feet to the bottom of the valley.
She glanced up at him with stark terror in her eyes. “Help me, Jase. I’m... I’m losing my hold.”
Lord, give me the strength to pull her up, he silently prayed.
“I’m going to get you out of there, but I need you to relax,” he said with as much calm as he could muster.
She was crying from fear, but as she looked into his eyes, she slowly nodded. “I’ll try.”
“Good girl. I’m going to pull you up, but I need you to grab hold of my hand with one of yours.”
She frantically shook her head. He couldn’t imagine how frightening it was to hear that the only way to be saved was to let go of the one thing keeping you alive. “No, Jase, I can’t. I can’t let go. I’ll fall.”
He held her gaze. “I’m not going to let that happen, I promise. I need you to trust me, Reyna. We have to get out of here before the rest of the thugs arrive. Please trust me not to let you fall,” he said hoarsely.
After what felt like an eternity of his heart slamming into his chest, she pried one hand free and he grasped it as tightly as he could. Reyna screamed when her hand slipped for a second in his, and then she was kicking and flailing in the air.
“Jase, help me.” She looked at him desperately, her eyes pleading to live.
He needed to calm her enough to pull her up. “Reyna, I’ve got you, sweetheart. But you have to be as still as you can.”
After another tense second went by, she visibly forced herself to relax.
“Good. That’s good.” He smiled gently down at her. “On the count of three, I’m pulling you toward me. Ready?” She finally nodded.
“One. Two. Three.” With both hands on hers, he pulled with all his might and lifted her off the side of the mountain and up into his arms.
THIRTEEN
Reyna clung to him and he held her tight. She couldn’t believe how close to dying she’d come.
“You okay?” Jase whispered roughly as he stroked her hair. His voice held so much tenderness. She pulled away and looked into his eyes. The one thing that kept her from giving up while she was hanging there was the thought of him. She believed she’d been given another chance at happiness with him. She wasn’t about to let these horrible men take that away from her.
She smiled genuinely and nodded. “I’m alive, so I’m okay.”
He returned her smile and her pulse beat a crazy rhythm. “Good. We need to hurry, though. We might still have a chance at meeting Aaron.”
Jase glanced at the man who lay unconscious behind him. “We’ll take their SUV. I’ll leave them in the truck. Once we’re safe, I’ll let Aaron know where to find them.”
She watched as Jase went over to where Frank lay by the SUV, just beginning to regain consciousness. Jase grabbed him by the arm and lifted him to his feet. “Who are you working for?” he demanded.
Frank glared at him. “You’re wasting your time. I’m not going to help you.”
Jase dragged him over to the truck. He found a piece of rope in the bed and secured Frank’s hands, then he put him in the cab and tied him to the steering wheel.
Once he was satisfied Frank was no longer a threat, he slammed the door and came over to where Reyna knelt in front to the wounded man.
She had just begun to examine his leg. “Don’t try to move,” she said, and gently pushed him back down when he would have sat up.
He stared at her in shock. “You’re going to help me?”
He saw her as the enemy and wasn’t expecting her to show kindness. “Of course. You’re hurt,” she told him simply.
Dumbfounded, the man slumped back against the ground while Reyna gingerly pushed his pants leg up and examined the wound.
“How bad it is?” Jase asked while he kept a close eye on Frank.
“It’s not bad. The bullet didn’t do much damage. It missed hitting a major artery by inches, though. Thankfully, it took a clean exit.” She glanced up at Jase. “It could have hit you.”
“But it didn’t,” he assured her. “Can he make it without further medical attention?”
Reyna ripped pieces of the man’s shirt and snugged it tight around the wound. “For a while.
This should stop the bleeding.”
When she had finished, Jase helped the man to his feet and led him over to the truck.
Once he’d secured his hands to the grab handle, he said, “If you talk, it’ll go easier for you. Tell me who’s behind this.”
Satisfied he wasn’t going to die, the injured man smirked at Jase. “You think I’ll help you? I’d be a dead man. So will you and the lady soon enough. They’ll have a dozen men here soon. You can’t run forever.”
“Yeah, well, you and your partner will be here waiting for them when they arrive,” Jase bit out, and then retrieved both men’s phones. “You’d better hope our people get to you before yours—otherwise, I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes.”
He took the backpack containing the laptop from the truck and he and Reyna got into the SUV. He slowly eased it back down the trail and retraced their path until they were on the road leading to the base.
Reyna saw him check his watch. “Are we too late?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he admitted gruffly. “I hope not, because it may be our only way out of here.” The clouds had continued to gather in the morning sky and a dusting of snowflakes had begun to blanket the windshield. “I’m pretty sure those men were correct, though. They’ll come here soon and they’ll know we got away.”
The reality of his words set in. “Jase, when he shot that man...” Tears filled her eyes. “I was so frightened. I thought you were next. I thought I’d lose you.”
* * *
His thumb brushed away the tears from her cheeks and he held her gaze a moment longer. “Eddie was blessed to have you in his life, Reyna. You’re strong and courageous and—” He jerked in a breath. He’d almost laid bare his heart.
“I loved Eddie so much,” she said softly, and each word was like a knife. “He cared so much about you, Jase. Now I understand why. I...care about you, too.” She hesitated and he hung on each word. “Being with you these last few days, well, you’ve made me feel special. Important. I haven’t felt that way in a while.”
Rocky Mountain Secrets: Rocky Mountain Sabotage ; Rocky Mountain Pursuit Page 32