Need to slow it down, get a grip on the panic.
In his experience as a search-and-rescue, or SAR, member, he knew every minute was critical after a fall. As he edged his way down, he was glad he had a first-aid kit, water, extra food, rain gear and extra clothing with him. If Nia wasn’t ambulatory they’d have to be rescued by Echo Mountain Search and Rescue, and it could take a few hours for the team to get to them.
A crack of thunder reverberated in the distance.
Aiden tried not letting the threat of an impending storm ruin his focus. He took a slow breath in through his nose and exhaled through his mouth. He had to be close.
“Aiden?”
His grip tightened on the rope. She was hurting, all right. He could hear it in her voice.
“Hang on, Nia,” he said in what he hoped was a comforting tone.
He needed to get to her, save her. He wouldn’t allow his own incompetence to cause him to lose another person he cared about.
He ventured a glance below and clenched his jaw at the sight of blood trailing down the side of Nia’s face. Her big, brown eyes scanned her surroundings as if she wasn’t quite sure how she’d ended up down there. She looked confused, as if she was suffering from a head injury.
“Nia, talk to me,” he said, realizing he had farther to go than he’d originally thought.
“The men,” she croaked.
“What men?” He lowered himself a few more inches.
“Two men checked in…looking for you.”
She’d come out here to find Aiden and had been injured because of a work issue? Anger warred with worry. She shouldn’t have risked her personal safety for her job. Could it be that her fear of Aiden’s disappointment as a boss had driven her out here?
No, she was naturally and exceptionally efficient. He rarely had to offer constructive criticism because she was that good.
Maybe she excelled at her job, but she could use a tutorial in setting boundaries around her work. He was tempted to give her a quick lesson along with a stern lecture.
But if there was one thing he’d learned from his tumultuous relationship with his sister Bree, it was to tone down the domineering attitude when communicating with people. Sometimes he couldn’t help himself, especially when he was consumed with worry.
He finally touched down and uncoiled the rope from his body. Dropping to his knees beside her, he said, “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I’m okay.” She sat up.
“Whoa, take it easy.”
“No, no time.”
“I’ve got rain gear. We’re okay.”
“We have to go.”
She was determined to get up, so he helped her. She put pressure on her left foot and winced.
“That’s it. Back down you go.” He adjusted her arm around his shoulders for support.
“We can’t. Two men…they checked into the resort and I had to warn you—”
“It’s just work, Nia. It could’ve waited until tomorrow.”
It must have been his tone, because her eyes watered as he lowered her to the ground. Apparently he’d failed at softening his domineering tone.
Rather than say anything that might upset her further, he inspected her injury, a two-inch gash below the hairline on her forehead. It didn’t look deep.
She sniffed and his insides coiled into a knot. Terrific. He’d come down to rescue her and had only managed to cause more pain.
He wanted to apologize but didn’t know how.
He dug the first-aid kit out of his pack. “So, you came out here to warn me about two particularly demanding guests?” he said in what he hoped was a teasing tone.
“They’re federal agents.”
Curious, but not alarmed, he pulled out antiseptic wipes and gauze. “Where else are you hurt besides your head injury and your ankle?”
“I’m fine. Patch me up so we can get out of here.”
“Look, I know it’s your nature to tend to everyone else’s needs, but this time let me take care of you, okay?”
She gripped his arm. “They were determined to find you—”
“Well, I am the resort manager,” he interrupted.
“They followed me up here and tried grilling me about you.”
Okay, that was a little alarming, but he wouldn’t let Nia see his worry. “Maybe they’re working on a sensitive case.”
He brushed antiseptic lotion against her wound and she winced.
“Sorry,” he said.
“It’s okay.” She closed her eyes.
He hated that he was the one to inflict pain on such a lovely woman.
Lovely, intelligent, caring.
And completely out of his reach. Besides the fact that she was an employee, Aiden was in no position to explore a serious relationship, not until he unloaded some of his emotional baggage.
He’d never inflict that kind of angst on someone he cared about.
“Don’t be angry with me,” she said. “I was following my gut instincts.”
“I’m not angry.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“I guess my tone sounds angry. You should be used to that by now.”
“It sounds edgier than usual,” she said.
Of course it did. He was worried about Nia.
He finished dressing her head wound. “Okay, that’s done.”
She sat up again as if not wanting to appear weak. “Do you know your way down from here?”
“Yep, but you’re not going anywhere on that bum ankle.” He eyed the darkening sky. “I’ll call it in.”
“No, there’s no time to wait for SAR.”
“Hey, I’ve got everything we need to stay warm and dry.”
“But the federal agents—”
“Are going to hightail it back down once they sense the storm’s coming. Relax. It’ll be okay.”
He tried his cell phone but couldn’t get a signal. Thankfully, he’d brought his radio.
“Base, this is Aiden, over.” As he waited for a response from resort staff, he studied Nia. She looked younger in her hiking outfit, quite different than her office dress of dark suit and crisp white shirt.
“Why aren’t they picking up?” she asked.
“Give them a minute,” he said in a calm voice, to counterbalance her anxiety.
“Base, come in, over,” he tried again.
A few tense seconds passed.
“Read you loud and clear, over,” a voice finally answered.
“Harvey, is that you, over?” Aiden asked.
“Affirmative. I’m helping the new kid organize his marbles, over.”
Aiden smiled to himself. Harvey, the resort’s former security manager, was always the jokester, and Aiden appreciated him helping Scott, the new security manager, get acclimated.
“We have a situation,” Aiden said. “Nia came looking for me and took a tumble.”
“How serious, over?”
“I’m fine,” Nia interjected as Aiden was about to answer.
“Injured ankle, so she can’t walk, over.”
“You mean you can’t carry her down by yourself, over?”
“Very funny, over.”
“Give me your location, over.”
Aiden dug out his topographical map and gave Harvey the coordinates.
“I’ll contact the sheriff’s department. There was a minor mud slide north of Rockland. I’m guessing most SAR volunteers are headed up there, over.”
“Okay, keep me posted, over.”
“Will do, over and out.”
Aiden turned to Nia. “Let’s get you comfortable.”
“This is ridiculous. I can manage to walk down.”
“And make your ankle worse? Not happening. I won’t risk losing my best employee to bed rest because she aggravated her injury trying to hike down on a bum ankle.”
She glanced away, her eyes drifting across the horizon.
Way to go, McBride. He knew he’d sounded concerned for her only as an employee, not
hing more. Not what anyone wanted to hear. It wasn’t true, but she could never know that.
“I’ll set up shelter.” He pulled equipment off his pack and got to work. It didn’t make sense to pitch his small tent since the ground wasn’t level and there was room for only one. Scanning his surroundings, Aiden figured out a way to anchor the tent fly to surrounding trees.
He was glad he had something to do to distract him from the cute brunette sitting a few feet away. He realized they’d never been alone together for more than a few minutes. They were always surrounded by people at the resort, either guests or employees, and Aiden made it a point to keep his distance from Nia outside of work.
“What if the agents find us?” Nia said softly.
“I doubt they’re experienced enough to rappel down here,” he offered.
He got the shelter up and helped her shift beneath it just as the rain started to fall.
“We’ve got a good sight line from here,” he said. “Plus, the green tent fly offers good camouflage.”
She sighed. “So, maybe the men won’t see us.”
He adjusted himself next to her, making sure their bodies didn’t touch. “Why did they upset you so much?”
“People often are not what they seem,” she said.
He wondered if she was talking about the agents or someone from her past. “You want to expand on that?”
“The men weren’t forthcoming about who they really were when they checked in. Plus, they were trying to get me to say something bad about you.”
“That shouldn’t be too hard,” he teased.
She glanced at him. “The one guy said there’s more to your service record than has been made public. What did he mean?”
“I have no idea.” And he didn’t. Aiden had completed his tour of duty in an honorable fashion. Well, except for not being able to save Yates…
“What if they’re not even federal agents?”
“Nia, don’t let your imagination hijack your common sense. I’m sure it’s nothing sinister.”
The crack of a gunshot echoed across the mountains.
TWO
“Aiden!” Nia cried, gripping his jacket and burying her face against his chest.
Aiden couldn’t move for a second, the sound of gunfire paralyzing him. His heart pounding in his chest, he forced himself to take a shallow breath, then another. He gazed down at the top of Nia’s head. She needed him to be strong, to be undamaged.
He would not let his trauma prevent him from easing her fear.
“I’ll call it in,” he said.
Nia’s body trembled against him. He was torn between wanting to console her and being the soldier that could defend them against the enemy. Why would federal agents open fire on them?
“Hang on,” he said. He took off his jacket and draped it around her shoulders, wanting to keep her warm and prevent her from going into shock. She leaned into him again, this time clinging to his sweatshirt. He clenched his jaw.
“Base, this is Aiden,” he said into the radio. “We have an emergency, over.”
Gunshots could sound close but originate from far away. It wouldn’t surprise him if the shots came from idiots trying to hunt wild animals, or even a drug deal gone wrong. Everyone knew about the pot farms that occasionally sprang up in the most remote spots of the national park.
“This is Harvey, over.”
“Our situation is serious, Harvey. We heard gunshots—”
“Someone’s shooting at you, over?”
“Not sure if they’re shooting at us, but they’re definitively shooting at something, over.”
“Permission to call in more employees so Scott and I can come out and get you ourselves, over?”
“Have Scott stay at the resort. See if you can get a sheriff’s deputy to accompany you, over.”
“But Scott is an ex-cop, over.”
“Who’s still recovering from recent trauma. I don’t want to make that worse. See if you can track down Deputy Nate Walsh, over.”
“Roger that. Stay safe, over.”
Aiden clipped the radio to his belt. That was when he realized that although Nia clung to him, he wasn’t returning the hug. He hadn’t held a woman or comforted a woman since he’d returned from military service three years ago. As he tentatively slid his arm against her back, she pushed away from him.
“Sorry, sorry,” she said.
“For what?”
Nia leveled him with tear-filled eyes. “It’s inappropriate.”
“To be scared?”
“You know what I mean.”
“I’m not sure I do.”
“I don’t want to make this harder on you.”
“Harder on me?”
“You’ve got a lot going on, trying to save me, the storm, the gunshots.” She cast him a quick glance. “Are you…okay?”
His breath caught in his throat.
She knew.
Somehow Nia knew his deepest, darkest secret, the one he’d erroneously thought he’d expertly kept hidden from the world.
He ripped his gaze from her sweet brown eyes, ashamed that she knew how broken he was. She probably figured she didn’t stand a chance of surviving out here with Aiden as her protector.
“I’m sorry,” she repeated.
“Stop apologizing,” he snapped. He didn’t mean to sound so harsh, but it was his default when he came face-to-face with shame.
He grabbed his binoculars and shifted out from beneath the overhang into the rain. He didn’t care about getting wet. He needed distance from Nia and to keep watch of the area for signs of trouble.
Slowly scanning the ridge to the left, he calmed his breathing and struggled to figure out how to apologize for his sharp tone. On the other hand, maybe she’d stop being so nice to him if he acted curt, because the nicer she was, the harder it would be for Aiden to stay on his side of the boss line.
As his eyes followed the trail to the south, he spotted two men hovering below. Could these be the men who were looking for Aiden? The men who had frightened Nia?
Aiden watched. Waited. The only weapon he had to defend him and Nia was his knowledge of wilderness survival and military training—training he had tried to forget.
A crack of ominous thunder made the two men look up at the sky. With a nod, the taller man motioned down the trail, back to civilization. They were headed out of the park, away from Nia and Aiden.
Nia shifted behind him, a whimper escaping her lips. His fingers clenched the binoculars. He desperately wanted to ease her pain.
“I’m sorry,” he blurted out.
“What, they’ve found us?”
“No, I saw two men, but they’re headed down.”
“Oh, good.”
He lowered the binoculars and turned to her but held his position outside the tent fly. “I’m apologizing for my tone just now.”
“Oh, that.” She waved her hand dismissively. “It’s fine. Come back under the shelter. I won’t…you know, do anything that will make you uncomfortable.”
Was that what she thought? That her touch made him uncomfortable? She couldn’t be more off base. It wasn’t that he was offended by her touch but that he ached for it. And that terrified him on so many levels.
“Please?” Nia said.
Aiden took a deep breath. He crawled under the tent fly and gripped the binoculars as a distraction, a way to break the tension between him and Nia.
Emotional tension.
Which was odd since he’d worked so hard to bottle up his emotions. It was the only way to prevent the shame from rising up and consuming him. He’d walled himself off.
Yet somehow Nia was standing right beside him, inside the fortress.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw her shivering again.
“Let’s get you warm.” He pulled a dark gray blanket out of his backpack.
When he turned to her, she glanced away, avoiding eye contact. He didn’t blame her. He could be a real jerk. Hadn’t his sister told him so on c
ountless occasions?
He flung the blanket around her shoulders and pulled it together in front. “Hold it tight.”
When she reached for the two ends, their fingers touched and a spark of warmth rushed up his arm. He snapped his hands back and shoved them into his pockets.
“Why did you decide not to camp at Pleasant Point?” she asked.
“I was stressing about the staff meeting tomorrow and wanted to get back.”
She cracked a wry smile. “And you accuse me of being a workaholic. We had it all figured out.”
“Base to Aiden, over,” Harvey’s voice called over the radio.
Aiden snapped the radio off his belt. “Go ahead, over.”
“Nate, Will and I are on our way up with a litter to carry Nia back. It could take us an hour or two depending on the weather, over.”
“We’re not going anywhere, over.”
“Any sign of the shooter, over?”
“Negative, although I spotted two men hiking down the South Ridge trail.”
“Hang tight, over and out.”
Aiden clipped the radio to his belt.
“Do you think they’ll get here in time?” Nia said.
“In time for what?”
“Before the agents find us?”
“Nia—” he took one of her hands in his, surprised by his own action “—the two men headed back down were probably the agents. Besides, if they need to question me, they wouldn’t want to shoot me, right?”
She nodded but didn’t look convinced.
“Maybe they felt threatened by a wild animal and fired off a shot to scare it away,” he said.
“I guess that’s possible.” She nibbled at her lower lip and glanced down.
“Hey, look at me.” He would have tipped her chin to look into his eyes, but he was already touching her hand and couldn’t risk an even more intimate touch. “Nia? What is it about these men that terrified you so much?”
She looked up. “I don’t trust them.”
“Just federal agents, or law enforcement in general?”
“Busted,” she said softly.
“You want to tell me why you have a thing against police officers?”
She shrugged. A few seconds passed. He would not push her.
Love Inspired Suspense June 2015 - Box Set 2 of 2: Exit StrategyPaybackCovert Justice Page 20