by Lisa Harris
She was lying on her side when he got there, blood running down her forehead where she must have hit it on something. There were scratches across her arms and a long gash on her right calf. He watched her chest rise and fall and let out an audible gasp of relief. A foot or two to the right and she could easily have ended up at the bottom of the canyon.
He crouched down beside her, surprised at how familiar she looked. He searched his memory for a name, but came up with nothing.
“Ma’am…” He gently grasped her shoulder. “Ma’am, I’m here to help.”
She groaned as she tried to turn toward him.
“Hold on…” he said, recognition still playing in the back of his mind. “I need you to stay still until I can determine where you’re injured.”
He unzipped his backpack and pulled out a bandana and his water bottle. After soaking the cloth in the water, he started wiping the blood off her forehead. There was a cut along her temple that probably needed stiches, but it didn’t look too serious.
Her eyes widened as she looked up at him. “Caden?”
He pulled back his hand and stared at her a few more seconds as the realization hit him like a punch to the gut.
“Gwen?”
Of course. Gwen Ryland. How could he forget the woman who’d accused him of breaking her best friend’s heart? A flood of memories surfaced, but none of that mattered at the moment. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder how he’d managed to run into the one woman in the entire state who hated him.
But what she thought about him didn’t matter at the moment.
“How did you find me?” she asked.
“I was out hiking the falls today.” He hesitated. She had to have seen the two men that had taken her brother, but he wasn’t sure how much she knew.
She pressed her hand against her head, as if trying to remember what had happened. “Where’s my brother? They grabbed him. Had a gun on him.”
“They took him up the hill. There was nothing I could do to stop them, but he told me you’d slid off the trail. You became the priority.”
“I need to find him.” She managed to sit up.
“Slow down.” Caden pressed his hands against her shoulders. “We’ll figure out where he is, but you’re not going anywhere right now. I need to know where you’re hurt.”
She frowned. “It might be easier to tell you where I’m not hurt, but my left shoulder is throbbing pretty badly.”
Caden started carefully checking her over. “It doesn’t look like it’s fractured, though I can’t be 100 percent sure until it’s x-rayed. Do you think you can walk down the rest of the way if I help you?”
“Do I have a choice?” She winced as she tried to stand up.
“Does your ankle hurt? It looks a little swollen.”
“It feels sprained. But only mildly. I think I can walk.” She put pressure on it, winced again, then took a step. “What I need to do is find my brother, and if they took him up the trail—”
“You’ll never make it back up the trail like this—”
“I have to find him.”
He heard the sharpness in her voice and bit back his frustration. He might have purposely buried memories of her and Cammie all these years, but he did remember how stubborn she’d been. Clearly nothing had changed. But she was right. Her brother’s life was in danger, but his wasn’t the only one. Finding her had only been the first step. He had to get her out of this canyon.
“Let’s take one thing at a time. Even if there were enough hours of daylight left, there’s no way you can walk back up before it gets dark. But if I get you down to the bottom of the canyon, I’ve got a camp set up not far upstream with a first-aid kit.”
“And my brother?”
“We’ll search for phone service and try to get help.”
She frowned, but he knew he was right. Traversing the trail was difficult enough for a fit person, which meant it was still going to take them two or three times as long to reach the bottom of the canyon with her injuries. On top of that, even if they could get a hold of the authorities, it might take hours for help to arrive. Their best plan was to get her down to his camp and clean her up the best he could, then try to find help in the morning.
“Do you have any idea why they targeted you?” he asked.
“I don’t know. It all happened so fast.”
“Did you get a look at their faces?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Me, neither.”
“I’m pretty sure they weren’t expecting any witnesses to whatever their plan was,” she said.
“What about enemies?” he asked.
“It’s possible.” He didn’t miss the hesitation in her voice. “I’m a prosecutor, so I’ve faced my share of run-ins with bad guys, but this… I don’t know.”
He’d press for answers later. Right now, he needed to get her off the canyon wall and somewhere safer.
“Stay behind me and be careful. The actual trail is difficult enough since it’s not maintained, but this is going to be even rougher until we can get back to the trail.”
Caden let out a sharp huff as he stared down the steep terrain toward the trail. Gravel slid beneath her feet behind him. He reached and grabbed her hand, then immediately caught the look of irritation in her eyes. Still, he held on to her a few more seconds to ensure she was okay.
“Thanks,” she said.
He would have laughed if he didn’t know how serious the circumstances were. He was certain that if he was the last person on the planet and she was in trouble, she still wouldn’t want to accept his help. And that was fine. In truth, he didn’t blame her. She only knew one side of the story, but at the time he knew it wouldn’t have mattered what he said. Maybe he’d handled the situation wrong back then, but he knew the truth, and for him that was all that had mattered. And, in the end, he’d never regretted his decision to walk away. He’d never looked back.
“You remember who I am, don’t you?” she asked.
“Of course.” He needed to find a way to cut the tension between them. “You haven’t changed at all.”
It was true. After ten years, her blue eyes were just as intense, and her hair, while a few inches shorter, had the same honey-blond highlights.
“Do you still live near here?” she said.
“I work on my father’s ranch.”
He paused, wanting to ignore the questions he knew were hanging between them. Questions she had to assume he was going to ask.
How is Camille? Has she gone on with her life?
But they were questions he had no desire to pose. Instead, he decided to shift the conversation back to her.
“Are you—?”
He didn’t get a chance to finish as a shot rang out and a bullet slammed into the tree beside them.
TWO
There was no time to react. The realization they were being shot at had just barely registered in Gwen’s mind when Caden grabbed her hand and pulled her behind the trunk of a spindly tree for cover. A second shot rang out, this time hitting the bark above them.
He signaled at her to stay down, then fired two shots in the direction of the shooter before ducking back behind the tree beside her. “We need to keep going.”
She nodded, then followed him down the steep incline. Her mind spun as it tried to process everything that had happened. The men grabbing them. Slipping off the trail and tumbling down the side of the canyon. Realizing whoever had just shot at them also had her brother. It was like a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from.
But he was right. With at least one shooter after them, they couldn’t stop now.
Adrenaline masked most of the pain as she followed his lead. All it would take was one slight misstep, and she could slip again. And this time, there might not be anything to stop her fall.
“You can’
t hide out here,” the man shouted from above them, rustling through the brush as he made his way closer. “I will find you.”
Caden pulled her into a small, hollowed-out depression just big enough for the two of them and signaled for her to be quiet.
Heart pounding, she listened for movement. A small avalanche of stones trickled over the lip of the hollowed-out area above them. Her mouth went dry. The shooter was there, somewhere above them. Looking. Searching. She could hear rustling in the brush. Another small shower of rocks.
Then suddenly everything was silent. She waited, holding her breath until her lungs began to burn, then slowly let out the air.
Where was he?
“Do you think he’s gone?” she whispered.
“It sounded like he headed back toward the trail.”
She glanced up at the sunlight drenching the top of the canyon, but where they were, shadows had already begun to move in. Before long, it would be dark, and the terrain would be too dangerous to navigate. A bird called out, echoing below them, as every unfamiliar sound around them sent her heart racing. She tried to shake off the layer of fear that had settled over her, but it was impossible.
“Do you think you can keep going?” he asked. “We can still take it slow, but I don’t want to make this descent after dark, and we’ll quickly run out of daylight if we don’t start moving.”
She nodded, determined to keep up with him despite the pain. She started down beside him in silence, ignoring the sounds around them that echoed off the canyon walls, focusing instead on each step. And she listened for any signs that the shooter was still out there. But with every minute that passed, there was nothing to indicate they were being followed.
Then where were they? Had the men given up? Were they planning to use her brother as leverage to get to her? There was no way to know the men’s endgame. All she could do now was make it to the bottom of the canyon, then find a way out of here alive.
By the time they got to Caden’s camp, she was exhausted and hurting. A one-man tent had been set up on the edge of a small clearing a few dozen feet from the nearby river. Canyon walls surrounded them, reaching toward the cloudy spring sky that was already chasing away the last bits of light. It was the untamed wilderness, with its scattering of scrub oak, sagebrush and aspen, that made it a favorite for people wanting to escape the modern world for a short time. And that was the reason she’d chosen to come here.
“This is a beautiful spot,” she said.
“I camp here every year. Spend a few days hiking by myself. Gives me some time to reevaluate things.” He helped her sit down on a sleeping mat. “I’ll go grab my first-aid kit.”
As she watched him head inside the tent, she struggled to pinpoint what was different about him from the last time she’d seen him. He was still quiet and serious, and he looked the same with his brown hair, blue-gray eyes and tall, muscular frame. Even she couldn’t deny the appeal of his rugged stature, with his cowboy hat and the start of a beard. But that wasn’t what had changed. Instead, he seemed more…calm. Focused. Not that it really mattered. She’d seen him walk out on Cammie, and while she was grateful he’d saved her life, she’d never fall for a guy she couldn’t trust not to do the same to her.
He came back out with the small kit and opened it. “You’re going to need some painkillers. There should also be some antiseptic wipes in here for any cuts, and I’ve got clean water if you’re out.”
“I should have some water in my backpack, as well as some food.”
The last thing she wanted was to make him think she expected him to take care of her out here. She’d come prepared for anything. Well…almost anything.
“Good, then we should have plenty to last us through tomorrow.” He nodded at her backpack. “Go ahead and drink some more water. We need to stay hydrated.”
She followed his instructions and took a long swig, while he pulled out what they needed. The same awkwardness that had followed them down the canyon settled in between them again. They’d been silent most of the way down, and when they had spoken to each other, they’d never gotten beyond the basic small talk. Which, in all honestly, had been fine with her.
“How long were you planning to stay out here?” Caden asked.
“We were just going to hike down and back up in one day.”
Caden, on the other hand, was clearly prepared for a week out in the wilderness.
“I can rig a splint for your ankle, but that and the pain medicine is really all we can do at this point, other than clean you up,” he said.
“I don’t think I need a splint, but I will take the pain medicine.” She grabbed the two pills he offered her and popped them into her mouth.
He pulled out an antiseptic pad and quickly cleaned up the smaller scrapes on her forehead and arms, then grabbed a second one for the larger cut on her calf.
“Do you think it needs stitches?” she asked.
“I don’t think so. It will leave a scar, but you should be okay.”
“Where’d you get your medical training?”
“After college I joined the army.”
His answer didn’t surprise her. She remembered he’d been organized and efficient when she’d known him in college, along with a number of other things she’d rather forget. But she wasn’t too stubborn to recognize the fact that she needed him.
Her jaw tightened as he cleaned the gash. “Thank you. For rescuing me.”
“It’s not over yet, but by this time tomorrow we should be out of here, in touch with the authorities and hopefully have found your brother.”
“I’m worried about him,” she said.
“I know. We’ll find him.” Caden took another couple of minutes to finish, then stood up. “I want you to lie down and keep your foot elevated while I get some dinner going.”
“Wait…there’s something you need to know first,” she said.
“Okay.” He sat back down and caught her gaze. “What’s that?”
She hesitated to bring up the matter that had been plaguing her since the attack, but he needed to know. “I don’t think this was random.”
“Did you know those men?”
“No, but I think I know who sent them.”
“Who?”
She drew in a deep breath. “I believe it’s connected with my job.”
“As a prosecutor?”
She nodded. “His name is Carter Steele. He was arrested for domestic abuse, drug trafficking and child endangerment. I reported the threat he made toward me in the courtroom, but didn’t think he could actually follow through. Not from prison. But this… I can’t just dismiss this as a coincidence. Which also means I’m sorry for the entire situation I just roped you into.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“Maybe not, but you’ve still been dragged into it. Threats like this have increased over the past few years, and while most won’t follow through, this… I think this has to be related.”
“You think he wants you dead?”
“Whoever was out there shot at us, so it seems likely. What I don’t understand is why didn’t they just break into my apartment or run me off the road on the highway. This whole setup was extremely dangerous.”
“It was, but it also makes sense on one level,” Caden said. “An accident here would be easy to cover up. A couple of hikers fall off the rim, bodies are found a few days or months later, or not at all. Everyone would simply believe it was an accident.”
She felt a shudder run through her. If that had been their plan, and she was still alive…
“So they grabbed my brother…for what? To use as leverage?”
“Maybe, and then they came after you because they need to make sure you’re dead.”
“If that’s what they want, then we have to assume they’ll be back.”
Caden nodded. “Which means we need
to be ready.”
Twenty minutes later, Caden dumped the dry pasta into the boiling water on top of his small propane stove. So much for his five days of solitude in the mountains. He worked to rein in his irritation over the entire situation. It wasn’t that he minded helping out a fellow hiker—it was simply that he’d managed to run into her. But feeding his irritation was only going to make him even more agitated, and there was no reason to let her control how he felt.
He flicked a fly off his pant leg and frowned. Had he let Cammie’s betrayal affect him so much that he’d managed to shut himself off from feeling or caring for anyone again? He loved working on the ranch, because it made him feel free. He didn’t have to concern himself with anyone else. Just him and the open range. But what if he really wasn’t as free as he thought he was? What if he was still running because of Cammie?
He glanced at Gwen’s profile. While he hadn’t known her well, they had hung out a few times with his fiancée and several of their other friends. Until the night Cammie had called off their wedding and walked out on him, blaming the break up on him.
At the time, he hadn’t even seen it coming, and Cammie had caught him completely off guard. Though, looking back, all the signs had been there. Unfortunately, he’d been young, and somehow thought Cammie’s devotion to their relationship had been as strong as his. That had proven to be just one of many lies Cammie had told him.
But for now, none of that mattered. He’d formulated a plan. While the distance to the top of the canyon was just over a mile, the vertical drop was so steep, experts estimated it took double or even triple the descent time when going back up. He’d noted how long it had taken them to make it to the bottom. Going up would be even slower for her, if not impossible. The only alternate route was the river, but even that came with its own set of issues. The shoreline was often narrow and bordered with slippery rocks. Rafters frequently tackled the challenge, but there were sections that should only be attempted by those with experience. More than one overconfident person had lost his life from a foolish move on the water. But Caden believed she’d be able to handle the water route better than trying to hike back up the canyon.