by Sharon Dunn
They were ten yards from the trees. Trevor stole a glance toward Murke as he lifted his gun. He dove to the ground and scrambled toward the trees. Valerie stayed low, as well. The pistol shot he’d braced for never happened.
A panicked look spread across Murke’s face as he stared down at his gun. He was out of bullets. He raced back to his car.
This was his chance to take Murke into custody before he drove away. He turned to Valerie. “Hide in the trees. Wait for me.”
“No way! I’m coming with you.”
“You’re unarmed,” he growled. “You need to lay low. And besides, you have Bethany to consider...”
Valerie’s eyes clouded over, but she obeyed without protest. He could see the yellow of her jacket as she stepped behind a cluster of trees.
Murke crawled back in his car and disappeared beneath the dash. Trevor ran toward the car, ready to shoot. This was his chance. He could get Murke.
Murke popped his head up behind the steering wheel and lifted a rifle, aiming it in Trevor’s direction.
Trevor hit the ground and then soldier-crawled toward the cover of the trees. His pistol was no match for a rifle. A shot zinged over his back. Murke’s footsteps pounded hard ground.
When he entered the trees, Valerie found him and pulled him to his feet. They ran deeper into the Lost Woods as shot after shot reverberated around them, breaking branches and stirring up dust.
With no clearly defined trail in front of them, they pushed through the thick underbrush and trees. He held on tight to Valerie’s hand. Another shot rang out, and a branch above them broke. Murke was gaining on them.
They zigzagged through more trees, their feet pounding the dusty earth, both of them growing breathless from exertion. When twenty minutes passed without any indication that Murke was still close by, Trevor stopped, taking in a raspy breath. Valerie pressed close to his back.
“It looks like Murke is playing offense and has decided to take me out of the equation,” Trevor said.
Valerie nodded. “This score he told his half sister about must be pretty big for him to take this kind of a risk.” She leaned over, placing her hands on her knees and drawing in deep breaths.
All the trees around him looked exactly alike. “How do we get back to the main road?”
Valerie shook her head, turning in one direction and then the other. “I have no idea.”
Going back to the car wasn’t a viable option. He didn’t have a spare, and trying to drive with a bad tire would just make them an easy target for Murke. He pulled his cell phone off his belt. No reception. He had to find a way to turn this thing around and take Murke down, but how?
“Let’s just keep moving in the general direction of the main road. We got to come to it sooner or later.” She placed her hand in his.
Despite their earlier fight...despite snapping at him for suggesting the safe house and forgoing her job...Valerie trusted him enough to lead her out of the Lost Woods.
As they started running again, he prayed that trust wasn’t misplaced.
TWELVE
Valerie’s leg muscles burned from running, and her lungs felt like they had been scraped with a steak knife. Her throat was parched.
Trevor continued to lead them through the woods, but every bunch of trees looked like the one before. They might even be going in circles. They risked running around a cluster of trees and ending up face-to-face with Murke.
She had to get her bearings, had to obtain some sense of direction. There was a reason these were called the Lost Woods. She’d heard the stories of people who went in and never came out. The thick undergrowth and trees were like a maze.
Trevor stopped. “I’ve got one bullet left,” he said, clicking the magazine out of his gun. “Murke has outmatched us firepower-wise, but maybe we can still catch him.”
Valerie swallowed, trying to produce some moisture in her mouth. It felt like she had swallowed dust. How much longer could they keep this up? “Maybe we should just try to get back to the main road.”
Trevor glanced at his phone panel again. “If I could get some cell reception, we could get backup out here. Murke wouldn’t be able to leave these woods.”
Murke could be lying in wait for them around any corner. How on earth would they catch him? Valerie studied her surroundings. They’d been running for at least half an hour. She wasn’t so sure they could even find their way back to the car if they had to.
They heard voices, two men exchanging verbal jabs and raucous laughter.
“Maybe we’ll get some help.” Trevor’s voice tinged with hope.
As the conversation carried over the trees, something about the way the men talked seemed menacing. “I’m not so sure about that. Let’s hide.” She pulled on his shirt and then slipped behind some thick undergrowth.
He hit the ground and scooted toward her. “What are we doing?”
“Lot of drug deals go down here and lots of transients hang out here, too,” she whispered. “Let’s see if we can get a read on these guys before we go asking for help.”
She lay close enough to Trevor to feel his body heat. His soapy-clean scent mixed with sweat. Despite the fear coursing through her, his closeness calmed her.
The voices of the two men grew distant and then loud again. As their conversation became more distinct, it was obvious that they had been drinking. They could have been on a bender and been out here for days. There was no guarantee they even had a car. They might have hitchhiked and been dropped off, or come from one of the low-rent housing districts that were close to the woods.
As the men passed within twenty feet of them, Trevor turned to look at her, rolling his eyes. He was probably thinking the same thing. Not the rescue party they were hoping for.
When the voices faded, they crawled out from under the bush. Valerie dusted off her pants. It had been a while since they had seen or heard any sign that Murke was close. Maybe he had given up or gotten lost himself. She reached out for Trevor’s hand, but he didn’t notice.
Now that the threat from Murke had died down, she could feel the wedge between them again, probably over their fight. Trevor had been so great in helping with Bethany, and the kiss had been wonderful, but he seemed to be closing down again. His feelings for her were even more unclear.
He walked with his back to her, talking over his shoulder. “What kind of drug deals take place out here?”
If he only felt comfortable talking about work, she would talk about work. “It’s one of the syndicate’s favorite places to do business. It’s a hard place to patrol. We usually know something has gone wrong when we find a body.”
She stared at his back as the emotional chasm between them seemed to grow. Was he just preoccupied with dealing with Murke?
She scurried to catch up. “Captain McNeal thinks that Rio was taken because the syndicate needs him to find something that is hidden out here.”
“Really?” Only half his attention was on the conversation as he turned in one direction and then another.
All around her, the trees and boulders looked the same. She struggled to shake off that sinking feeling. They were lost. “Maybe we should try to get back to the car. We can navigate our way out from the road.”
He stopped and looked directly at her. “Good idea. Which way would that be?”
She turned a half circle until her gaze traveled up toward a high rock formation. She caught movement on top of the rock. An instant after it registered that what she was seeing was a man holding a gun, she heard the zing of a rifle being fired.
Trevor pulled her to the ground, shielding her with his arm. They crawled behind a boulder.
Trevor spoke into her ear. “We know where he is at now. I’m going to see if I can sneak up on him.”
She grabbed his sleeve. “Trevor, I don’t know if that is a good idea.” He was down to only one bullet. He’d be walking into a death trap.
“He’s got to come down off that rock sooner or later...and I’ll be ready for him.�
� He pulled his cell phone off his belt. “Keep trying to get some reception. Backup would be nice, but if I have to do this myself, I will.”
Staying low and moving quickly, he disappeared into the brush. Valerie beat down the approaching sense of doom. Maybe Trevor could succeed. She hadn’t had time to notice if there was brush around the boulder Murke had climbed onto. There might be a place for him to hide.
After slipping out of her yellow coat, which made her too easy to see, she angled around the thick brush where they had found shelter. She spread the coat over a bush, so it would serve as a decoy.
Valerie soldier-crawled on the ground until a rock outcropping came into view. The rock formation was at least twenty feet high. Cell reception might be better up there, and it would allow her a view of the landscape. Pushing aside the worries about Trevor that plagued her, she found a foothold and climbed up to a flat spot. A finger-shaped rock that was higher than the flat spot shielded her from view on one side.
She craned her neck around the rock. She could see the boulder where Murke was perched. Though the sniper’s movements were small, she caught the glint of his rifle barrel in the noonday sun. When she scanned the surrounding area, she saw no sign of Trevor.
Dear God, keep him safe.
She checked the phone and breathed a sigh of relief. She had a signal. Dispatch promised to send three patrol cars, but she could only give them a rough idea of where they were at in the Lost Woods.
The dispatcher’s voice came across the line strong and clear. “Then we’ll probably have to send a chopper, too.”
Valerie hung up. It would take at least twenty minutes for the units to mobilize and get out here. She peered out at the landscape again. Murke was crawling down from the boulder. Where was Trevor?
Murke stopped and looked in her direction. She swung around and pressed hard against the finger-shaped rock. Had he seen her?
With her heart racing, she rolled over on her stomach and peered out. She still saw no sign of Trevor. Had he even made it over to the boulder? The view from high up made the layout clear, but it would be easy enough to get turned around if you were on the ground.
Valerie heard branches breaking some distance from her. Several deer jumped out of the brush and bounded toward a clearing. She caught a flash of movement not too far from where the deer had been. That had to be Trevor.
A rifle shot shattered the stillness. Murke had spotted the yellow coat and taken aim. The shot reverberated off the cliffs and rocks. The deer scattered, their hooves pounding hard earth. Valerie had a clear view of the action below. She gasped.
Trevor had mistaken the echo of the rifle for the rifle shot and was headed in the wrong direction, but that was not what had sent a charge of fear through her. Murke was stalking toward where Trevor had been. It was only a matter of time before Murke saw Trevor.
As Murke closed in on Trevor, Valerie’s heart seized up. She couldn’t cry out. That would put both of them in jeopardy. Murke drew closer to the rock where she hid. Murke kept looking through the sight of his rifle. He must have spotted Trevor moving through the brush and was trying to line up a shot.
Murke was almost even with the rock where Valerie hid. She had only one option to stop him and a split second in which to do it. She peered out behind the outcropping and waited until Murke was directly below her.
Valerie leapt from the rock, landing on top of Murke and taking him to the ground. The rifle fell from his hand. Valerie struggled to get Murke into a hold by immobilizing his neck. Murke swung free of her grasp and reached out to hit her. She angled away, grabbed his foot and pulled him to the ground.
Murke let out a groan, showing his teeth. The sneer on his face communicated pure hatred. He meant to kill her. He leapt toward her, hands curled like claws.
Trevor came up behind him and wrestled Murke to the ground.
Sirens sounded in the distance, and the mechanical hum of a helicopter grew louder.
Murke twisted and writhed and cursed, but Trevor held him down face-first.
Valerie tore the heavy-duty laces from her boots. “Tie him up with these. They’ll hold until backup gets here.”
Within minutes, the helicopter was low to the ground and directly overhead. The sirens grew closer. The helicopter must have alerted the police cars to their position.
Trevor placed a knee on the small of Murke’s back to keep him from moving. He looked up at Valerie. Gratitude colored his voice as his mouth turned up in a smile. “Thanks...you saved my life.”
“It’s what partners do for each other.” However, what she had done was more than just one lawman looking out for another. She cared about Trevor.
“You could have died. You didn’t have to do that for me.” The tenderness in his eyes made her heart flutter.
“Your life was worth saving.” She looked at him for a long moment, expecting him to say more. His gaze rested on her, but he remained silent. What words had gone unspoken between them? What was he thinking?
“You’re hurting me.” Murke cursed and struggled beneath the weight of Trevor’s knee. Trevor focused his attention on making sure the fugitive stayed put. Valerie picked up the rifle and kept it trained on Murke until help arrived.
About twenty minutes passed before the first of several officers emerged through the trees. One of the officers pulled his handcuffs from his tool belt. Trevor stood up, his hand on his gun while the officer cuffed Murke and pulled him to his feet.
Trevor spoke to the officer who had cuffed Murke. “I want to interview him as soon as he is processed. He’s got a lot of questions to answer.”
Murke looked at Trevor with his dark soulless eyes and then spat on the ground before being led away.
As she watched Murke being escorted through the trees, a sense of satisfaction swept over her. Trevor had his fugitive.
Detective Jackson Worth emerged through the trees with Titan taking up the lead. The lab’s black fur shone in the sun. Seeing Titan was a sad reminder that her own K-9 partner was not with her.
Jackson held out a hand to Trevor. “Job well done. They are going to take him in the chopper to get him to the station faster.” He shook Valerie’s hand, as well. “I saw what he did to your car. I bet you two could use a ride back into town.”
Trevor nodded. “I suppose I will have to make arrangements for my car to be towed.” With Jackson and Titan in the lead, Trevor and Valerie followed, pushing brush out of the way until the dirt road came into view.
“I’d like to swing by Doc Mills’s place and see if Lexi is ready to come home,” Valerie said as she walked beside Trevor.
“Consider it done,” Jackson replied.
“I need to be dropped off at the station,” Trevor said. “So I can find out what this big score is that was Murke’s undoing.”
Trevor’s words brought her frustration to the surface. She couldn’t be a part of that questioning, not as long as McNeal had her on forced sick leave.
Trevor must have sensed her disappointment. He reached over and touched her hand, squeezing her fingers. With Murke in custody, it would only be a matter of days or even hours before Trevor returned to San Antonio. She might never see him again.
They drove along the road that bordered the Lost Woods back to the vet clinic. Jackson had barely stopped the patrol car when Valerie pushed open the door and rushed into the clinic.
Doctor Mills’s assistant stood behind the tall counter. Recognition spread across her face when she saw Valerie. “She’s in the kennels out back. You are free to take her home.”
Valerie rushed down the long hallway and pushed through the door. The first kennel had a collie with a cone around its neck and the second was empty. She found Lexi lying down in the third kennel. The dog leapt to her feet and trotted over to Valerie. She stood up on her hind paws, resting her front paws on the chain-link fence.
Bursting with joy, Valerie leaned down so Lexi could kiss her face. “I missed you.” The dog’s face with the light brown m
arkings above her eyes and the head tilted sideways communicated love. She wrapped her hands around Lexi’s thick neck.
Dr. Mills came and stood by the back entrance. “You might want to walk her around a little bit, let her get her land legs back. We just put her out in the kennel a few minutes ago.”
Valerie took the leash from Dr. Mills and opened the gate. “Lex, come.”
The dog looked up at her, but didn’t move. Then she bowed her head. Valerie thought her heart would break. Lexi had been traumatized by what she had been through.
Trevor came and stood at the edge of the building. “We should get going. I’ve got to make arrangements for Murke to be transported back to San Antonio.”
Valerie stepped into the kennel. “Can you just give me a few minutes? Lexi is still not herself.” Her voice faltered. Seeing her strong, brave dog cower because of the abuse she had endured tore Valerie to pieces. “I can get a ride into town some other way if you’re in a hurry.”
Trevor put his hands in his pockets. “No, we can wait.” His voice filled with compassion. “Take all the time you need.”
She clicked Lexi into the leash and pulled. Lexi obeyed, but the confidence she had always seen with Lexi seemed to be deflated. The dog hung her head as Valerie led her around the field by the clinic.
Valerie dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around the dog’s neck. Lexi’s coarse fur was warm against her skin. “What did they do to you?”
The dog licked her cheek as though to reassure her that everything would be okay. Valerie pulled back and rubbed Lexi’s velvety ears. Dark brown eyes looked back at her. “We’ll get through this together.”
She took in a breath and rose to her feet. Valerie worked with her a little longer, hoping to see some of Lexi’s tenacious spirit return. Though she obeyed the commands, the drive that had made Lexi such a great K-9 wasn’t there.
Valerie glanced over her shoulder where Trevor had been watching at a distance.
She moved toward him. “I know...we need to get going.”