Rocky Mountain Showdown

by Victoria Austin

  They were moving fairly quietly, and Laura was doing a great job of keeping them out of exposed or open spaces. She was carrying Abby for now, though Seth intended to insist on carrying her later. He already had an argument prepared about how they were in this together, a team.

  As two people comfortable in the outdoors, they were managing to move without leaving too much of a trace. There were no broken branches. Since they were hiking through the trees, the ground was covered with a thick layer of pine needles and leaves. Seth looked behind them every once in a while to make sure they weren’t leaving obvious tracks.

  Seth’s stomach churned as he looked more closely. Though adept in the forest, there were still signs of their passing. Three people could not move with any semblance of speed without leaving some trace of their route. But Seth thought that speed was more important than erasing their tracks. Especially since he didn’t know where those men were in their search pattern. There was a very real possibility that some of the men were ahead and that he and Laura would walk right into them.

  A very real possibility that Seth wasn’t going to harp on. Every mission had risks. All you could do was be aware. They were. Laura had apologized earlier for all the zigging and zagging, but she said she wanted to be close to the river and stay in the cover of the trees. She had grasped the possibility of the men being in front of them instead of behind them without Seth ever having to tell her.

  Laura Donovan was many things. Stupid was not one of them. No. Watching her walk confidently in these woods, barely making sound, charting a course based on trees and trees and some more trees was the opposite of stupid. It was amazing. Seth was good in the woods. He was considered a skilled tracker. He was the one who went in to find lost hikers. And yet, these woods intimidated even him. They didn’t have a map. They didn’t even have a compass. They just had Laura.

  Of course, they were on Old Man Grant’s land still, and no one had ever been here before. At least, no one wearing a park ranger uniform. Seth was walking blind right now, in more ways than one.

  When Laura suddenly stopped, Seth looked around in a quick three-sixty. He closed the distance between them and made sure to keep his voice low. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  Laura shifted Abby in her arms and turned to look at him. “Nothing. I mean, I don’t see or hear anyone. I just don’t know where to go from here.”

  “You’re lost?” Seth was more incredulous than upset. Laura moved like she was a part of this land.

  “No. I know where we are. We’re just out of cover.”

  Seth looked ahead and saw plenty of trees. “What do you mean?”

  “The river is going to turn sharply up here. By almost half a mile. The tree cover doesn’t turn. It’s a beautiful stretch of open ground that seemed almost magical to me when I was young. It’s where my dad would take me to fly a kite.”

  Seth smiled at the image of Laura as a child flying a kite on this mountain. Then his smile faded as the rest of the picture came into his mind. Laura with a mountain man. And that was it. Had she been happy trapped up here with only a grown man?

  “Why do you look sad?” Laura’s voice was curious, not accusing.

  “I was just picturing you up here and thinking that it must have been very lonely.”

  “It was just me and my dad. And it was a great childhood.” She sounded defensive. That wasn’t what he wanted.

  “I’m sorry, Laura. I’m really sorry. I don’t know why my head is so thick, but I promise I’m working on it. Forgive me?”

  Some of the warmth came back, though Seth could feel the distance she was placing between them. “Yeah. I’m sorry. I’m a little sensitive about my dad.”

  Seth could understand that. Family was family. And Malcolm Grant could not have been all bad if he raised a woman like Laura. Laura looked out ahead of her, and Seth wished he knew the layout of this part of the mountain. He hated that she had all the responsibility for this decision. She shouldn’t have to be the only one weighing the risks and fearing making the wrong choice.

  “A lot of my defensiveness is because I used to agree with you.” She was still looking away, and all Seth could see was Laura’s back and Abby’s sweet face, looking drowsy and flushed as she rested her head on Laura’s shoulder. “My parents died when I was seven. Malcolm Grant was biologically my uncle.” Seth felt his eyes widen and was glad Laura wasn’t looking at him. For all the gossip about Crazy Old Man Grant, no one ever talked about the fact that Laura was not his biological daughter. “And Malcolm came to get me. I was hurt and scared and alone. I would have gone into foster care without him. You’ve heard about him—the last thing he wanted was a child. But he came and got me anyway.”

  Seth heard her sniffle and curled his hands into loose fists to keep from touching her. Comforting her. “He came and he did his very best. And you know what? It was good enough. More than good enough. I’m a functional, well-loved adult. The homeschooling education he gave me helped me excel. I was a well-loved child. But even though I loved him, and I did, I could not wait to leave this mountain. I just wanted to be normal. He was my teacher and my father and all I could think about was how I wanted more.”

  Her voice was thick with regret, a tone Seth recognized. One that tugged at him and made his own throat swell with longing for a chance to have done things differently. She sniffed one last time and Seth watched her straighten her shoulders and stand a little taller. Well, taller for her. She turned and looked at him then.

  “Sorry. I’m done.”

  Seth started to tell her she never needed to apologize for her feelings but she shook her head, holding her hand up in a stop gesture. “I can’t anymore, Seth. Let’s just decide which way we’re going.”

  Seth actually clenched his jaw shut for an instant to keep quiet. He was in no position to insist that anyone talk about their past or regrets. And she wasn’t wrong. They needed to keep moving. “I hate to say this again, Laura, but it’s your call. I trust you. Which direction do you feel better about taking Abby in? The meadow closer to the river or the trees farther away?”

  She looked in two different directions, back and forth. Her hand was rubbing circles on Abby’s back again. Slow, repetitive movements that were almost calming to watch. After a very long minute, Laura took a deep breath and pointed to the trees. “I feel better about the trees. If we need to, we can make a run for the river. But, like I said before, crossing the river is going to be hard. The trees at least give us a chance to hide.”

  That assessment was fair enough. “Okay. I agree. Let’s head to the trees.”

  Laura took a step forward, and Seth reached out to touch her arm. He tried to ignore how nice it felt to make contact with her warm skin. Instead, he gestured to Abby. “You’ve been carrying her for a long time. Please give me a turn?”

  There was no long, tense wait like there had been the first time he’d asked to carry her daughter. Instead, she gestured to his shoulder. “Okay. But only if you let me carry the bigger pack.”

  Seth wanted to say no. He really wanted to say no. But he’d been raised by a fierce mama and had three older sisters. Yeah, he knew exactly where a no would land him in this situation. Instead of answering, he just took off the pack and set it on the ground, reached out his arms and gathered the still-dozing little girl into his arms.

  He was shocked again at how light she was. How her little arms wrapped around his neck. How her face nuzzled his shoulder without the slightest care in the world. Abby had abandoned the quiet game for a nap, and she seemed more than happy to use Seth as her mattress.

  Seth had nieces and nephews. Several. He’d been deployed when they were born. Then, later, he’d been too broken to enjoy them. What did they look like now? Maybe he even had another one. One who would never know him. That was a small distinction since none of them really knew their uncle Seth.

  Abby made a murmuring
noise and shifted her head, and Seth realized he had increased the pressure he was using to hold her. He forced himself to relax. This wasn’t the time. It was never the time to go down that road.

  Laura shouldered the pack and started walking. She stopped after a few feet, bent over to pick up a large branch and began to use it as a walking stick.

  “Have you walked over the mountain before? I mean all the way?”

  Laura looked surprised at his question. “Yeah. Several times. It’s been a few years, but I still remember.” She gave him a goofy grin. Seth really liked that teasing look on her face. “If I’d been able to get school credit for it, I would have a PhD in walking around this mountain.”

  “All right, then, Doctor Donovan, do you have any idea how long it might take us to go over? To get to the nearest house or ranger station on the other side?”

  “It’s about fifteen miles until we start to reach civilization on the other side. I’m not exactly sure what we’ll find, though, since Dad just stopped us at a certain point. But if he wanted to stop, that had to mean there were people ahead. And people means help.”

  Seth looked at his watch and considered the distance they had already traveled that day. “If we keep our current pace and don’t run into any, um, troubles, it should take us about fifteen hours.”

  Laura sighed. “I agree. At least fifteen hours. This is going to be one of the longest days. Ever. And I say that as a woman who was in labor for thirty-one hours.”

  “Do you think we can walk straight through? It’ll be dark before we get over the mountain. Do you think we can walk in the dark or should we camp out somewhere?”

  “I think we’ll probably need to camp, but can we reevaluate as we get closer?”

  “Hey, I’m not in a hurry. It’s not like we have reservations or a check-in time to meet.”

  Laura bit her lip, eyes wide. “The fire?”

  Oh, how he wished he had a sure answer to that question. “I don’t know. But I think I’d rather hide and rest while it’s dark and risk it. At least until the smoke becomes thicker or we see flames.”

  Their voices were low, hushed. It was probably wiser to be completely silent, but Seth couldn’t make himself stop the conversation. He enjoyed talking to Laura. He wanted to know about her.

  “Seth?”

  “Yeah?”

  “What’s the plan after we get to safety?”

  Seth liked that she was assuming they would make it. Belief in a mission could go a really long way. But she asked a good question. A hard question.

  “I don’t know, Laura. We need to go to the police. I’m sure they’ll protect you. They’ll try to catch this guy. But with a forest fire, all resources will be stretched to the limit. Thackery is the closest real town, but it’s still pretty small. I just don’t know how much they’ll be able to do, at least in the immediate future.”

  Laura didn’t argue with him, and that said too much. She knew how small the police force was. And she also had a long history of the police being the enemy.

  “Laura, I know I asked you before. But things were crazy then.” His lips twitched. “Well, crazier than now. Do you have any idea what’s in that safe-deposit box?”

  “No.” Her voice was a horrible cross between desperate and pleading. “I told you the truth. After Josh died, I moved home. I just boxed up his belongings and brought them with me. But I couldn’t go through them.”

  “But you did eventually?”

  “Last week. It’s been eighteen months and I finally felt like it was time to fully move on. Deal with the past. I found the key inside a box Josh kept under the dresser. I have no idea what bank it goes to or what is inside.”

  “Mahoney didn’t mention how he knew Josh? Or how he knew you had found the key? It can’t be a coincidence that he showed up so soon after you found it. How did he know?”

  “I don’t know,” Laura said. “It’s all crazy. Impossible.” She bit her lip, looking almost ill. “I keep thinking he must have been watching me somehow. But inside the cabin? Inside my home? That’s the place I’ve always been safest. I just don’t know.”

  “It still doesn’t make sense, Laura. Even if they were watching you, they’d have to be really close to see a solitary key. That just seems like too much of a stretch.”

  Laura gasped. “I called Josh’s old firm and asked them if they knew anything about a safe-deposit box.”

  “You did?”

  “After I found the key, I went to town for supplies. I used the cell signal down there to call Josh’s old firm to see if they knew about the key. Could Mahoney have been listening to my calls?”

  “That sounds more likely than them visually seeing you find a key,” Seth said. “What did they say?”

  “They said no.”

  Seth had more questions. But he couldn’t think of how to ask them without insinuating Josh had done something wrong—something to bring all this violence to his wife and child.

  So he said nothing.

  They kept on walking.

  SEVEN

  Laura was going to get three people killed, including herself, and she would never know why. Even though she was in excellent shape, she was having trouble keeping her breathing even as they walked up the mountain. The air kept catching in her lungs, and she felt like no matter how deep she sucked it in it just wasn’t reaching her organs. Laura had never come close to drowning, but this had to be what it felt like. It just had to be.

  Laura began moving them away from the river, into where the trees were thicker. The noise was louder in here, too. Or at least it should be. There should be birds and insects and squirrels and the noises from all the animals who lived in these wild woods. But all Laura could hear was her heart pounding.

  Her despair was a train, roaring through and blowing its horn. The train really ought to slow down, but it wouldn’t. It just gained speed and shot off steam and plowed through whatever might be on the tracks.

  She stopped walking. She couldn’t move another foot. Not right now.

  “Laura?” Seth was there, with Abby, one of his warm hands on her shoulder.

  She looked at the ground, afraid to meet his eyes. “Josh did this. Mahoney knew Josh. Knew about the key. Somehow the man I loved did something that is going to get us all killed.”

  Laura hated the tears running down her face. She wiped them off, trying not to sniffle too loudly. “I’m sorry,” she said. “We don’t have time for this. I’m sorry.” Laura felt calmer just having her fears out in the open. “Okay. I’m done now.”

  Laura started walking again, away from Seth’s warm hand.

  “Will you tell me about your husband?” He was walking behind her again.

  Laura smiled as a wave of bittersweet memories came over her. She found that she wanted to tell Seth about Josh. She had done a lot of healing in the last few months. “Sure. I left the mountain when I was eighteen. I went to college in Denver and met Josh my freshman year.”

  Laura flushed, feeling self-conscious at this next part. It made her sound naive. Too simple. But it was the truth, and Laura treasured the way it had all just seemed to happen. “He was the first friend I made. He was my first boyfriend. He proposed our junior year and we married the summer after we graduated. We had Abby two years later. He died eighteen months ago.”

  Laura’s legs were moving on autopilot at this point. Her body was walking through the trees on her mountain but her mind was back in Denver. Back in that time of her life when things spiraled out of control. When nothing she did could make anything better. Her husband had been killed in a freak accident. Her daughter would never know her father, all because Josh was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That was when Laura had realized her dad was right and the outside world was not for people like them.

  “My dad came off the mountain to get me. Again. He hadn’t left since my
parents died, except to buy supplies in town. When I called him, I thought I’d have to leave a message. Wait until he went to town and had a signal. But he was in town when I called.” Laura smiled remembering her shock at hearing her dad’s voice over the line. “When I told him that Josh was dead he said he was on his way. To hold on because he was coming. And, you know what, he did. He was there before it got dark, and I didn’t have to face a night alone. He held me and told me he loved me and that everything would be okay.”

  Laura was jerked back into the present when Seth put his hand back on her shoulder. Suddenly, she wasn’t in that awful time. No, she was on her mountain. She could hear the birds and smell the pine. And the faint scent of smoke from the fire that was coming up to get them.

  “I’m sorry, Laura. You were right about Malcolm being a good man.” It was the first time Seth had not called her dad Old Man Grant. “He sounds like a very, very good man. One who was misunderstood.”

  “He was. He was so gentle, Seth. And hurt. He was just a hurt man doing his very best. Trying so hard.”

  Seth nodded. “Tell me more about Josh?”

  “He was a good man, too. He was. I know it sounds like I married the first man who gave me the time of day, but it wasn’t like that. He took the time to get to know my dad. He came up to the mountain and appreciated the world my father had made. He understood that I was the product of how I was raised, and he never tried to change me. When I just wanted to stay home, not socialize, he stayed right home with me. Josh never made me feel weird. Or deficient.”

  There was a silence and then Seth’s voice sounded almost choked. “I’m really glad you found a man like that.” Laura wondered what he was feeling to make his tone sound like that. They walked for a bit, the quiet almost soothing after the rawness of her words.