Laura opened her eyes and saw Seth’s back again. She wasn’t alone. He was here. He was strong and he was armed and he would not let anything happen to them.
Laura was overcome by the strength of her gratitude. After Josh had died, Laura had come back to the mountain. To be alone. She had decided that her dad was right and being alone was best. The world and its people was not for her. Right now, though, Laura was beyond glad that she wasn’t alone. That she had Seth. Whatever might happen, it wasn’t just her and Abby against the world.
Laura’s feelings for Seth were all caught up in the trauma of the past days and the relief that she was not by herself. He was a ranger. She was a widow with a small child. But Seth was here and Laura was extremely happy.
Laura saw Seth’s back tense, his arms raising the gun and aiming it at the door. She murmured a reminder to Abby to hush and held her close. And waited.
Then Laura heard it. The leaves were crunching. Loudly. There was the sound of men talking. And the thump of feet on the ground. At first Laura thought she was imagining it, that she wanted to hear something to explain the running and hiding so her mind gave her something. But as it got closer and Seth seemed to get tenser and tenser, Laura knew it wasn’t a hallucination. It was all too real.
She wished they had been running from the fire. Or a bear. She could make out the words the men were saying.
“Man, I’m about sick of looking at trees.”
Laura did not think those were the men from before. Maybe. She didn’t know. What she did know was their dash through the woods had been fast. And messy. Neither she nor Seth had taken the time to cover their tracks. If those men had any experience hunting at all, they could probably pick up the signs of their flight. And follow them to their hiding place.
Seth hadn’t thought those men looked like outdoorsmen when he saw them at her dad’s cabin. Please, God, let him be right. Cover our tracks and don’t let them find us.
“Shut it, dude. Complaining isn’t doing anything besides making me angry. I’m tired of hearing you complain. I’m tired and my feet hurt and I want a real bed and a real meal. But if I can’t have that, then I want you to be quiet.”
“Okay, okay. We’re done here. Let’s move on.”
Laura felt her heart lighten.
“No, we’re not done here. You heard the boss. There are not a lot of places they can be, but that woman is probably good at hiding in these woods. We have to search it all. He said to look under every rock, and I’m not going back there without following orders. He wants them dead and he wants confirmation that it happened.”
And Laura’s heart crashed into the ground.
The sounds got louder. The men were doing a lot more walking around and it sounded like branches were either being moved or run into. If they were looking under the foliage and forest growth, those men would find the cave for sure.
One of the men made a loud noise. “Hey, dude. Come here. Do you see this?”
Laura’s heart stopped completely.
* * *
Seth was definitely going to have cracked teeth when this was all over. If it ended in such a way that he was alive to go see a dentist, that is. Seth had never hoped to visit the dentist before, but he was wishing it now.
These two men were doing a much more thorough search than the previous two had done. Of course, this rock-cave thing was a lot smaller than the cabin. Smaller was harder to find. And it had been so well hidden that even Laura, with her innate forest sense, had struggled to find it. So those were things in favor of them not being found.
But Abby was awake this time. Even though she had been admirably quiet, that could change at any time. From what little Seth knew about children, Abby had been beyond good so far. Probably because of her slight fever. That was bound to change sometime. No one was perfect, and Abby was only getting more exhausted and hungry. And probably sick and tired of this walking through the woods nonsense.
And also, this cave thing was small. Tight. Seth was prepared to fight his way out, but he didn’t exactly have a lot of room to maneuver if the men found them. And there was absolutely no place at all to hide if the men just started shooting into the enclosure.
Seth wanted to spring at them. To jump out and get the men before the men found them. It went against everything in Seth’s nature to sit and wait. To see if they were found. He had been trained to be proactive, and he was much more comfortable bringing the fight to the opponent.
But he wasn’t alone. And the grim reality was that these men were not alone. There had been a lot more than two at the cabin. The others were probably close enough to hear gunfire if it came to that. And they probably had radios. No, Seth needed to sit and wait and pray that the men passed them.
“What is that?” They had found something. Hopefully not a trace of Seth, Laura and Abby.
“I don’t know. Some kind of print.”
No, God. Please, no. Seth’s plea was almost guttural, and his hands wavered as they held the gun.
“Dude, what was that?”
“Some kind of animal. A bear maybe. Do they have bears up here?”
“How should I know? Do I look like Ranger Rick to you?”
“That’s hilarious. Do you see any sign of the woman? Or that park ranger?”
“No. All I see are trees and leaves. That’s all I’ve seen for two days.”
“I’m so tired of this. Maybe they got away?”
“Nah. Boss is monitoring the radio in the park ranger’s truck. There hasn’t been any mention of them. No one knows they’re missing and no one is looking for them.”
Seth felt a jolt at that. He’d been gone for over twenty-four hours. Surely someone had noticed he never came back down the mountain? His boss or coworkers? Had it really come to this? He could disappear and no one would even notice?
“Well, that fire is getting closer. I know boss says he’s got it under control, but that thing scares me. I don’t know why he had to set it in the first place.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not your job to know why. Boss said this was the best way to kill the woman. They are trapped by the river and the fires will make them run to us.”
“I don’t know why we don’t just set this entire mountain on fire and be done with it. Then we could get back to where they have restaurants. And cable.”
“You know why. She knows about her husband’s safe-deposit box. Boss needs to make sure she’s dead. And, after the last two days, I think he wants to make it hurt.” The man’s voice took on a gleeful note. “I hope he wants to make it hurt.”
Seth didn’t know if he felt or heard Laura’s gasp, but when he turned around to look at her she had her hand physically over her mouth as though she was muffling her own voice. He wanted to reach out and comfort her but this was the very definition of not the right time. He turned back to the entry and focused on where the men were. He wanted to have as much notice as possible if they started closing in on the cave’s location.
The other man sighed loudly. “Fine. But can I be the one to shoot the park ranger at least?”
“Yeah, dude. If boss agrees, you can shoot the park ranger.”
The men’s voices faded and the sounds of their search also lessened. They were moving on, searching somewhere else. Thank You, God. Thank You.
Seth lowered his gun, but did not stop his vigil at the entrance. Thoughts were whirling around in his head, but he tried to push them away. First, he needed to be sure that the men were gone. And make sure Laura and Abby were safe. Then he could deal with the implications of the men’s conversation.
Seth looked at his watch. He waited five minutes. Ten. At fifteen, his muscles started to relax. Well, not relax. Just lose some of their tension. He still had a really difficult conversation to get through. And then they had to leave the relative safety of this place and continue the journey off this mountain. No,
it wasn’t time to relax.
He sat back and leaned against the side of the wall. His legs ached in a good way as he stretched them out in front of him as much as the space allowed. He looked at Laura. She was still holding Abby in her lap. Her arms were wrapped around the girl like she wanted to cover her and protect her from the world. Both, at once.
Seth felt like he understood. He was struggling with some conflicting emotions and urges himself. His time overseas had taught him so much. One of those lessons was that it is always better to face the truth head-on than to deny its existence. If something was going to be hard and dangerous and risky, well, it was better to acknowledge that. Wade in the muck and deal with it. Pretending it didn’t exist would only lead to ambush and unexpected casualties.
“Laura, are you okay?” It was a dumb question, he knew that. Of course she wasn’t okay. He wouldn’t exactly say he was okay and it was not his whole world being turned upside down. “I’m sorry. I know you’re not.”
Laura unwrapped her arms from around Abby. The little girl was sound asleep, and Seth envied her ability to leave the tension of this hiding place. Laura’s voice was very quiet, but they were close enough together that Seth could hear her.
“They’re going to kill you.”
That wasn’t what Seth had expected her to say. Not at all. Not even a little bit. “If they find us, they are just going to kill you.”
“I heard.” He wasn’t really dwelling on that part, though.
“I mean, I know they’re going to kill me,” her voice hitched, but she continued, “and Abby, too. But I...don’t know. I just don’t know. They’re calling dibs on who gets to kill you. And they are happy that Mahoney is going to make my death horrible. How did this happen?”
Seth didn’t know how this had happened. He just knew that it had. And now they had to deal with it. “It’s okay, Laura. They’re not going to find us. We’ll make it off this mountain.” Seth prayed that he lived to see the truth of that statement. It hit him that the worst part of being killed was that he wouldn’t be there to protect Laura and Abby. He’d never know if they made it out okay.
No. That wasn’t going to happen. He needed Laura to keep hope. To believe. She was smart enough to realize if he was telling her to do something he wasn’t doing himself. So he needed to do it with her. For her. And for himself. It was one thing to be realistic and practical and aware of the dangers. It was another thing to get caught up in defeatist thinking. Seth wasn’t going there. Not today.
They just sat there, held tight in the space that cave made. The men were probably long gone by now, but Seth wasn’t in a hurry to leave this safe little place. He wished they could just curl up together, the three of them, and forget what was on the other side of that foliage.
But they had to leave. Their escape path was narrowing. They were scared. And it all just felt very pointless.
“Laura? Do you know what’s inside that safe-deposit box? How Josh came to be mixed up with Mahoney?”
She bent her head down, breathing into Abby’s hair. Seth hated that he couldn’t read her expression, couldn’t tell what she was feeling. Besides fear, that was.
“Laura, look at me.” He waited until she did. “I know that was a shock. I believe you when you say you don’t think Josh was involved with this. I believe you.”
He wasn’t sure if he did. But she needed her husband to be a good man. And Seth didn’t see any advantage to proving her wrong. At least not now.
Laura’s voice was distressed. Pleading, as though she automatically expected him to disbelieve her. To call her a liar. Turn against her. “I’m sorry, Seth. But it has to be a mistake. Josh would not have been involved with a criminal.”
NINE
Laura owed Seth an explanation. Actually, Josh owed both of them explanations. But he wasn’t here and Laura just couldn’t believe that he was anything less than the good man she knew. Seth was asking the same questions that were pounding inside her own head, though. Because they both needed to know why they were suffering like this.
And Laura could tell that Seth was trying very hard not to pressure her. To let her sit with the idea that this was all some kind of mistake. She appreciated that.
That is what made Laura try to answer his question. “I know it doesn’t make sense. The key was in Josh’s things. Mahoney came because of the key. The man is an awful criminal. But there is no way Josh was involved with him. It is just not possible.” She held herself very still as she waited for Seth to respond. This was the part where he accused her of being naive and delusional.
“Okay.”
Okay? He just said okay?
“I believe you, Laura.” He leaned back fully and stretched his legs out a bit more. He did not look threatening and his posture was almost comforting. Inviting. “Tell me why you’re so sure Josh was not involved.”
Even though it seemed Seth was not going to become her adversary, she still felt completely unsettled. Laura took a deep breath and felt Abby slightly trembling in her lap. Regret overflowed in Laura’s heart. She had wanted so much for her child. Safety and security. Giggles. Arts and crafts, and pudding and cookies. Friends. Instead, her girl had lost her father. She’d been yanked away from all she knew to live alone on a mountain. And now they were running for their lives. Even though Laura had not told Abby about the danger, the child was well aware that things were bad. And scary.
She began to run her fingers through Abby’s hair, smoothing. In theory, the actions were meant to soothe the small girl, who looked confused and scared. It was something Laura often did when Abby was upset. But it worked both ways. Laura’s own breath evened out. Some of the painful stiffness in her shoulders began to melt away.
“First, Josh wouldn’t break the law. He was a Christian.”
“Christians can mess up, Laura. They can make mistakes.” He sounded like he was walking through a house of booby traps and Laura almost felt sorry for him. Except it was her life that was blowing up.
“I know. I know. Josh wasn’t perfect. He was as human and fallible as the rest of us. But his faith was strong. He is the one who helped me come to terms with my own faith. He was a good man, Seth.”
Seth was just looking at her. Watching. Laura kept moving her hands through Abby’s hair. Soothing them both.
Seth nodded slowly. “Okay. In our current situation, it doesn’t really matter. There’s a safe-deposit box out there that Mahoney wants bad enough to kill three people and set a mountain on fire. That’s a good lead we can give to the police.”
“If we ever make it to the police.”
Seth slid over to where Laura was, angling his body so he was sitting next to her as much as possible in the small area. He took her hand in both of his. Her other hand slid out of Abby’s hair and into her lap. Seth squeezed her hand gently and then let go to put his arm around Laura’s shoulders. He was holding both her and Abby in a gentle, supportive hug.
The residual tension left Laura’s body altogether and she rested all her weight against him. Her head fell back against her shoulder and she turned in to his body, breathing in his warm scent and listening to the steady beating of his heart. Tears welled up and spilled over.
Laura didn’t want to cry. Not here, stuck in a literal hole. Not in front of Abby. Not when she felt so weak. But she couldn’t stop the tears. It was all too much. She had not been safe out in the real world and she had not been safe back home on the mountain. There was nowhere she was safe. Worse, there was nowhere she could keep her daughter safe. Her daughter was in danger, it was somehow her fault and there was nothing anyone could do.
The only person who had ever been able to make her feel safe was her dad. And he was gone.
She muffled her sobs in Seth’s chest and felt him wrap his arms to more completely embrace her and Abby. Abby’s little hands patted her on the back and she cried harder that her sweet d
aughter was comforting her instead of the other way around. When it was over, and she could hear beyond the cries of her own heart, she became aware that Seth was murmuring to Abby.
“Your mommy is fine, honey. She’s just feeling sad and sometimes we cry when we’re sad. But she is okay. She loves you and everything is going to be okay.”
Laura laughed and moved her arms to complete the group hug. She felt better, as though she had bled out some of her pain. “Seth is right, honey. I’m okay. I just got sad for a minute, but I’m okay.” Laura lifted her head and looked at Abby, cupping her chin with one hand and stroking her cheek with the other. “Are you okay, baby?”
Abby nodded and hugged her even tighter. Laura looked at Seth. She didn’t want to peer in his eyes and see whatever was lurking there, but she owed him that much. But looking made her even more confused. She thought she saw affection. And sympathy.
He should hate her for dragging him into this mess. But he didn’t act like he hated her at all. Laura added that to the list of things to figure out once this whole mess was over.
“What do we do, Seth?”
His hand was rubbing her shoulder, and Laura was leaning into it. She had missed the touch of another person, of someone who was not Abby. She had not had physical contact with someone besides Abby since her dad died. It had been months. It suddenly felt like it had been decades.
“Priority one remains getting off this mountain. We keep on with our plan, staying in the trees as much as possible, tracking the river, heading over the mountain.”
Laura nodded. So much had happened and yet they were still in the same place. They still had the same objective. The same plan. It was back to her. Her turn to step up and do her part, use her knowledge of this place to get all three of them to safety.
Laura had felt like throwing up when that man had called dibs on killing Seth. And when he talked about her forthcoming painful death. But she couldn’t think about those things now. If she let fear cripple her, she might as well walk out there and turn herself in to Mahoney.
Rocky Mountain Showdown Page 9