by Rebecca Deel
A faint voice carried on the breeze. Trent frowned, listening. Female. He corrected his course slightly to the left and moved cautiously forward. The angry words berated someone in the woods. Definitely not Grace. He’d never heard his girlfriend raise her voice to anyone. Fifty more feet and the words became clear.
“I told you to keep an eye on her.” The strident tones belonged to Clarice Bowen. “You let her escape. She’s a scared, spineless woman, and injured to boot. There’s no excuse for your inability to hold on to her.”
“Stop nagging. My eyes still burn from the pepper she threw in my face.”
Despite the circumstances, amusement made Trent’s lips curve up. Pepper? Good job, baby, he praised her silently.
“Oh, quit whining. I washed them out. After she’s dead, we’ll go to the store and find eye drops for you. Just a few more minutes, sweetie.”
Trent’s smile faded, disgusted at their interaction.
“There.” Ron’s voice rose. “I see her.”
“She’s limping.” Mocking laughter rang out in the silence of the forest. “Not so much of a threat, are you, Grace?” Clarice taunted. “Run faster. Maybe I’ll let you escape.”
Trent’s jaw clenched.
“Stop shouting,” Ron said. “Someone might hear you and come to investigate. I’m not killing anyone else. Grace and Nicole are the last ones. If you want the other boyfriend dead, kill him yourself.”
“There isn’t anyone around to hear. That’s why I chose this spot to take care of business. Are you really leaving Mason to me?” Her voice dropped into almost a purr.
Like that was going to happen. Devin’s wife didn’t know who she was dealing with. Mason was a gentle man, but he wasn’t a pushover. Being in prison for 13 years had taught him to take care of himself and those he cared about. He wouldn’t be duped by Clarice or leave Grace’s sister unprotected.
“Maybe you should have found someone else to do your dirty work, Clarice. There are plenty of people who hire out.”
“They also have loose lips. Never mind. I already took care of the SEAL. I can handle a thug and Nicole. I’ll go to the left, cut Grace off,” Clarice told Ron. “We’ll box her in and end this. If you catch up with her first, don’t wait for me. Kill her. We need to find her sister and take care of her, too. Once she learns her sister is dead, she’ll come out of hiding soon enough and I’ll be waiting for her and her lovestruck bodyguard.”
Clarice jogged to the left, her movements telegraphing her location clearly. Adam wouldn’t have any problem locating the woman and dealing with her. Devin’s wife wouldn’t see him coming. The Marine was at the top of his game, his skills world-class.
Trent turned his attention to the man bearing down on Grace with ground-eating strides. He angled his approach to intersect with Satterfield. Ahead of the lawyer, Grace stumbled, fell to her knees. She tossed a quick glance over her shoulder, scrambled to her feet, and took off again.
Trent increased his speed, no longer bothering to hide his approach. With his dark clothes, Ron wouldn’t see him until he broke out of the tree cover. He leaped over a fallen log, skirted a large oak tree, and dashed out of the tree line as the lawyer reached for Grace.
“Satterfield!”
Instead of turning to face Trent, the other man lengthened his stride, leaped onto Grace’s back, and took her to the ground. She tried to wiggle out from under Ron’s weight and failed.
As he ran to his girlfriend’s aid, Trent shrugged his pack off with a grimace, and tossed it aside. He couldn’t afford to have his movements hampered any further. The duct tape had kept him from bleeding out, but it wasn’t flexible. Adam had been more interested in getting on the road than his taping finesse.
Satterfield grabbed a fist full of Grace’s hair and yanked her head back, gun pressed to her temple. “Get up,” he growled out. He dragged her to her feet, her body shielding most of him from Trent.
“Stop right there, St. Claire.” The lawyer retreated several steps, forcing Grace to retreat with him.
“You don’t want to do this, Satterfield.” Trent shifted his position, looking for a better angle on the man holding Grace. “You can’t escape us.”
A frown. “Us?”
“Did you think I’d come out here alone? I didn’t know how many people Clarice had duped into doing her bidding.” He gave Ron a mocking smile, hoping to goad the lawyer into focusing all that anger on Trent. “Guess you’re the only one foolish enough to believe her lies.”
Satterfield’s cheeks flushed. “Why aren’t you dead?”
“Your lover is a bad shot.” He shifted a few more inches to the left. His blood ran cold at the sight of the land dropping off to nothing mere feet behind Satterfield. If he slipped off, he’d take Grace with him.
“Stop moving,” Ron snapped. “I’ll shoot her if you move one more step.”
“And lose your leverage to control me?” Trent shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
Satterfield retreated another foot, forcing Grace backward.
“I’m the bigger threat, Ron. If you shoot Grace, I’ll drop you where you’re standing and I won’t miss. Do yourself a favor. Let my girlfriend walk away. Tell Clarice you killed her. How will she know you showed compassion to an innocent woman?”
A snort. “You must take me for an idiot. If I let her leave, you’ll kill me.”
He still didn’t have a good angle and didn’t want to shoot Grace by accident. Time for another tactic. “There isn’t another option unless you lay down the weapon and give yourself up. I’ll make sure you leave these woods alive.” He tilted his head. “Unless you have a better plan to end this stalemate.”
Satterfield was silent a moment. “I’ll let Grace go on one condition.”
Satisfaction zinged through Trent’s body, already knew where Satterfield would go with his offer. “Name it.”
“You take her place. I’ll kill you instead.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“No!” Grace wouldn’t allow Trent to sacrifice himself for her. Ron might not have noticed how pale her boyfriend was, but Grace had. As a woman crazy in love with Trent St. Claire, she believed he would prevail. As a nurse, however, she wasn’t sure he could handle a healthy lawyer desperate enough to fight a Navy SEAL, even one who was injured. “Baby, don’t.”
Her boyfriend ignored her heartfelt plea, gaze fixed on his opponent. “Clarice will demand proof of Grace’s death.”
Ron shifted his stance, edging further away from Trent. “I’ll tell her I pushed Grace over the side of the cliff and her body is too far down to see.”
Cliff? Grace clawed at Ron’s restraining arm. Oh, man. Not good. A cold sweat broke out over her body. No wonder Trent had been bargaining so hard. Ron was planning to use the natural drop off to kill her instead of using his gun. From his perspective, what was one more death? He’d already killed two people and tried to kill Grace and the rest of them. “Ron, don’t do this. Clarice isn’t worth losing your life over.”
“I told you. All I have to do is leave the country with her and the money, and we’ll be set for life. No worries, no more pressure, nothing but time on our hands and a lifetime of being together.”
“That’s what this is about?” Trent asked, moving a few inches closer. “Money and a woman who cheated on her husband? You’re a lawyer. You make a good living, certainly more than Grace and Nicole. Why didn’t you just take their trust fund and disappear without Clarice? Ten million bucks is plenty to live on for years.”
A short laugh from the man behind Grace. “What money?”
Several pieces fell into place for her. “You stole the trust funds.”
“Mrs. Bowen set them up right after you and your sister were born. There hadn’t been account activity for years except for all that lovely interest accruing. The old lady croaked before I had everything in place for Clarice and I to leave.”
“When you ran out of time, you decided to kill us before we tried to withdraw
the funds.” She dug her nails deeper into his skin. “You’re the one who forced me off the road. What about the Randalls? Did you have anything to do with their deaths?” Positive of the answer she’d receive, Grace pushed for confirmation anyway. Hopefully, Zane was recording the conversation.
“Randall found out, didn’t he?” Trent’s face paled further, his voice a little weaker. Ron probably didn’t realize the difference since he didn’t know Trent. Grace did. The contrast between his voice on a normal day and this one scared her.
“Simon checked the balance in the accounts. When he called me to ask me about it, I realized I couldn’t wait any more. I was on the verge of being turned in to the cops. That couldn’t happen if I wanted a life with Clarice.”
Cold rage filled Grace. “You killed Simon and Judy. They were a sweet couple. How could you do something so despicable?” Before the sound of her last word faded, she felt the muscles in Ron’s body harden against her own.
“Easy, sweet cheeks. I’m not a nice man.” With that, he tightened his hold on her and shifted his weight.
“No!” Trent lunged forward, but he wasn’t fast enough.
Ron twisted and flung Grace over the side of the cliff.
She screamed, flailing, searching blindly for anything to stop her freefall into the dark abyss below. Grace hit a ledge, her hands grabbing onto an outcropping of rock shaped like a cone. Her momentum sent the lower half of her body sliding off, leaving her dangling in mid-air. She fought the panic exploding in her gut. She hated heights with a white-hot passion. Later. She’d give herself permission to fall apart after her feet were on solid ground.
Dirt and small rocks rained down from above. Vile curses from Ron reached her ears as well as the sound of fists connecting with human flesh. “Trent!”
Seconds later, two gunshots were fired off, in rapid succession, and Ron fell over the side of the cliff. His body missed Grace by inches.
“Grace!” Trent’s head peered over the edge. Relief flooded his face when he saw her. “Don’t move.”
“Hurry. I’m losing my grip.” Even as she said the words, her hand slid and she scrambled to readjust her hold. Grace couldn’t keep this up for long. She wasn’t a rock climber.
“Hold on, baby. I’m coming to get you.”
She refused to look down, an exercise in terror that would end her chance of marrying the man of her dreams. Grace couldn’t think of anything worse than losing her life on the rocks at the bottom of this cliff.
More pebbles and dirt fell from above. Blinking the grit from her eyes, she chanced a quick glance, saw Trent descending the cliff face at amazing speed. Shocking he could move that fluidly even though he’d been shot in the shoulder.
Trent stopped his downward trajectory when he reached her side, then dropped a bit more until he was slightly below her. He did something she couldn’t see with his harness, then said, “Do you trust me?”
She nodded, sucking in a ragged breath.
“Here’s how we’re going to do this. I have a second harness I’ll attach to my own. I’m going to slip this on you and we’ll rappel down to the bottom of this rock face.”
“I’m afraid of heights,” she whispered.
“Me, too. I won’t let you fall.”
“What about your shoulder?”
He was silent a few seconds. “We shouldn’t delay long. I can’t handle climbing to the top, but I should be able to get us both to the ground in one piece. If my arm stops working, we’ll just hang out here and wait for Adam to lower us to the ground.”
Hang out on the side of the cliff? “When we get off this mountain, don’t make plans to take me camping.”
He gave a mock sigh as he slipped the harness up her legs and made sure it was secure. “Too bad, beautiful. I was planning to beg you to marry me while we were on a wilderness retreat. At least there, no one else would bother us and we could turn off our phones so I won’t have to worry about Fortress tracking me down for another mission.”
Her heart lurched into a wild, erratic rhythm. He thought about proposing to her? “Ask me now. We’re alone and can’t answer phones.”
“No way, Ms. Rutledge. I don’t have my speech worked out nor do I have a ring that will knock your socks off.”
“Trent! Ask me already.”
He chuckled as he clipped her harness to his. “I love you, Grace Rutledge. Will you marry me?”
“Yes! Now get me off this mountain!”
“Whatever you say, sweetheart. I want you to wrap your arm around my neck and let go of the rock. I’ve got you now. I promise I won’t let you fall.”
She glanced at his beloved face. “How will we go down the side? I don’t see how you can rappel with me in front of you.”
“Easy. Hug me tight, then let me do all the work.”
“Trent!” Adam looked over the side of the cliff. “You and Grace okay?”
“I can’t make the climb and you won’t be able to pull me up along with Grace. Our combined weight is too much for one man.”
“Agreed. Safest for both of you to rappel to the ground. Let me know when you’re ready. I’ll make sure you reach the ground, haul up the ropes, then retrieve the SUV. There’s a dirt road a quarter mile to the right. I’ll drive to meet you and take you to the hospital.”
“Copy that.” Trent glanced down into Grace’s eyes. “You ready, honey?”
“More than. How do we do this?”
“Since you’re not a fan of heights, don’t look down. Just look at my face, nowhere else.”
Not a hardship as far as she was concerned. Grace remembered many nights when she’d longed to see Trent’s beloved face while he’d been on some unknown continent in a third-world viper’s nest, tracking kidnapping victims or hunting down terrorists.
As they started their descent, Grace said, “Did I tell you the first time I saw you, I thought you were a male model?”
A startled look crossed his face. “No.” His cheeks flushed, the color a stark contrast to the icy pallor of his skin. “Must have been a shock when you learned what I do for a living.”
“I think you’re even better looking now,” she murmured.
“My face is still the same and so is my body, although it’s beat up right now.”
“Now I know the heart of the man. I’m so in love with you, Trent St. Claire. I’m glad you let me catch you.”
He huffed out a surprised laugh. A moment later, their feet touched the ground.
Grace sagged against Trent for a second. Safe. They were safe. Knowing her boyfriend was weaker than he wanted to admit, she kissed him gently and straightened. “Thank you for saving my life.”
When he didn’t bother replying, just concentrated on unhooking the harnesses and the ropes with carefully controlled movements, Grace’s stomach twisted into a knot. “How can I help?”
“You heard Adam. The dirt road is to the right. If I go down, find Adam and get yourself to safety. We don’t know if Clarice and Ron were working with a third person. I can’t lose you, Grace.”
No way was that happening. She wouldn’t leave him alone. What if someone else was out here who might harm Trent while he was unconscious? She could stall until Adam arrived. Trent’s friend would find her. Of that she had no doubt.
“Come on.” She wrapped her arm around his waist and urged him to move. His arm settled heavily across her shoulder. Thankfully, the sunlight was stronger, giving them more warmth and better light to navigate the rough landscape.
Twice Trent stumbled and almost dropped to his knees. He righted himself at the last instant with Grace’s help and continued forward at his plodding pace. So not like him. She’d jogged with him many times when he was home from deployments. Her SEAL was fast. This snail’s pace wasn’t normal for the Trent she loved.
As they walked, Trent’s breathing grew more ragged and his temperature rose higher. She’d give anything for water. Trent needed fluids and antibiotics. Both were in short supply in this mountainous re
gion. Unfortunately, the hospital was a good distance from here.
Maybe Zane could help. Grace unzipped the pocket of her sweatshirt and pulled out her phone. The screen lit up. Amazing. She was still connected to Trent’s friend. “Zane?”
“How are you, sugar?” he answered immediately.
“Banged up. Ron got in a few good hits. I’m more worried about Trent.”
“What do you need?”
“I don’t know what resources Fortress has, but Trent needed to be at the hospital an hour ago. He’s lost a lot of blood. He’s still mobile, but I don’t think he will be for long. His pulse rate is too fast, breathing ragged, temperature elevated. I don’t have fluids and I’m afraid he needs blood.”
“Hold.”
“I’m fine,” Trent muttered and stumbled again, this time going down on one knee. After a several gasping breaths, he struggled to his feet and continued toward the road.
“You need medical treatment. Sit down and rest a minute. I don’t hear anyone coming.” Surely they would be safe for five blessed minutes while he caught his breath.
The SEAL shook his head, putting one foot in front of the other in increasingly erratic steps. “Can’t. I’m moving on sheer adrenaline and will. If I stop, I won’t get up again. Can’t leave you vulnerable.”
Stubborn man. Good thing she adored him. She had a feeling their life together would never be dull.
“Grace?”
“I’m here, Zane.”
“I contacted a friend who owes Fortress a favor. A chopper is on the way to you. Should arrive in fifteen minutes.”
She took at the wooded terrain. “I’m not a pilot, but I don’t think there is a place for the helicopter to land. We’re in the middle of a forest.”
“I sent Adam the coordinates of the nearest clearing. The pilot will fly you and Trent directly to the hospital in Dumas. The ER has been alerted and will be ready for him. They also promised to have a surgeon on standby if Trent needs surgery.”