Aimed at them.
She turned and saw several large, angry men running their way. And they were shooting as they came.
* * *
Seth didn’t know if he was irritated his explosion didn’t wait until he was back to Laura before going off or proud that he had managed to make it go boom at all. That crate had not been full of the ordinances of Seth’s dreams. He’d had to take apart several smaller weapons and use their parts to make an explosive device. He’d also had to rig up some kind of fuse to get any delay at all.
He’d done his best, but he’d known, he had just known, that it would not be good enough. That was okay. When he was running back to Laura, when he heard the explosion happen much earlier than it should have, he had known that she would probably leave without him. And, with that knife, she would probably take away the option of him using another raft to follow.
And that was okay. He was running, using his legs for all they were worth, feeling the pain from the old injury jolt in his knees as he pushed even harder, and he was okay. Laura and Abby would make it to safety. They would go down that river and away from these guys and past the fire. They could ride until they reached help. And Seth would know that he had done a good and honorable job.
Dying was not a new concept. Dying in an unexpected and painful way wasn’t new, either. Seth had come to terms with the choices he made in his life.
He had lost that peace for a while, back home. How ironic that it was the safety of home and the love of his family that had taken away his blasé acceptance of what was to come. And he had run. But he had fixed that as much as possible. Laura would help him make amends and his family would have some kind of closure.
So Seth had run and run and run. Even though it was pointless. Even though he was too late and he had missed his chance. But Laura would have hers. He ran, rounding that corner, fully prepared to see two destroyed rafts and one missing raft. And he was ready to thank God for that, to thank Him that Laura and her sweet girl would make it. To give thanks and then to fight until he couldn’t fight anymore.
He’d almost fallen over when he took that corner and saw Laura and Abby. Standing there. They were just standing there looking at him. Why were they just standing there when the explosion had gone off minutes ago? He’d yelled, as loud as he could. There was no point in trying to be covert. Not if Laura and Abby never made it to the rafts.
They’d pushed the raft into the water, skipping the step where they disabled the other rafts. There just wasn’t time.
Then the bullets came. One hit a rock that sat halfway in the water. The rock burst into little pieces, tiny shards of warning that their time was well and truly up. They needed to get in that raft and get speeding down the river or they would not be going anywhere.
Those men would catch Laura and Abby and they would kill them. That could not happen.
No.
Abby was on her stomach in the raft, her little body as close to the floor as it could be. She was holding on to some of the inner ties. Good girl. Laura must have told her what to do and she was doing it perfectly. Such a smart and good girl.
It took three shoves to get the raft in the water, and the shots behind them didn’t stop. Seth did not know how none of them hit the raft or him and Laura. No, that wasn’t true. He did know. He always knew who protected him in this world.
Laura and Seth jumped in the raft before the current could carry it away and Seth was thankful yet again for Laura’s outdoor skills. She knew exactly what to do and Seth did not have to worry about her in that respect. They each picked up the oars that were lying next to Abby and began to paddle. The current was powerful, so if they could get the raft floating they would be okay.
They should be okay.
They would have a fighting chance at least.
And a fighting chance was all they needed to make it.
“Stay as low as possible.” He had to yell to be heard over the noise of the water all around them. He could see the men running toward them, guns still pulled. The closer they got, the better their chances of actually hitting their target.
“I didn’t think you were coming.” Seth jerked his gaze away from the men and looked at Laura. Her voice was pure anguish. Absolute pain. She was...she was...crying.
Seth gripped the oar harder and used every bit of strength the adrenaline rush had given him to paddle, willing the raft to move faster. They needed to be away from these men. They needed to be down this river. To be safe, so Seth could hug Laura and reassure her and do whatever he needed to do to make that look leave her face. To make that tone go away. It was unacceptable that she was feeling this way. Unacceptable, and Seth needed to fix it.
They both jerked down at the sound of a gunshot that was much, much closer than the others had been. Too close.
He looked and saw a Jeep speeding along, tracking them on land while their raft tried to run away downriver. The Jeep was going very fast and the ground was bumpy, so the man standing up in the back and trying to kill them wasn’t able to aim accurately.
Another shot. Seth flinched again.
He might not be able to get a clear shot off, but he was sure getting close enough. Seth pulled his own gun and returned fire. His shot didn’t land, but the Jeep did swerve a bit, so that was good. Something. Better than nothing.
Seth turned and saw Laura struggling with the oar. He immediately put his gun back in its holster and resumed working with his oar. The current provided momentum. They were going plenty fast, and though Seth wanted to get away he didn’t really want to go any faster. This raft already felt like an out-of-control amusement park ride.
No, they weren’t using the oars for speed. They were using them to navigate around the obstacles in the water. Rocks, tree branches, rocks, rocks and rocks. They were high up in the Rocky Mountains and this part of the country was aptly named.
Abby was wet, very wet. Seth could see her shivering. All the water that sloshed into the raft as they pushed against rocks with their oars and encountered the churning liquid landed on the floor of the raft. Where Abby was. But she was still holding on. Laura was sitting with one leg over the child, helping to hold her in place.
Seth worried about Abby drowning, but she was on her side. Her face was clear of the water on the floor. And down there was safer than the alternative.
He flinched as another shot came from the Jeep. And then another.
This needed to stop. One of those shots was going to land. Seth knew it. Statistics said it would land eventually and the shooter was not giving up. Seth looked down the river, almost hoping to see the active fire. They needed to get to that part, where the Jeep could no longer follow.
Seth saw smoke, but no flames. The river was windy at this part, so it could be around the next bend. It could be close. Please, God, let it be close.
“Seth!” Laura’s scream was just as anguished as her last statement. He looked to where she was pointing. At a raft. Following them down the river. It had four men in it and they were close enough that Seth could see the murderous expressions on their faces.
And the guns in their hands.
THIRTEEN
When Laura had first seen those rafts, she’d thought they were God’s way of answering her prayers. Now she thought they were the physical embodiment of every nightmare she had ever had. They should have tried to sneak around the barricade. Or to go through the fire. Either of those options suddenly seemed better and more reasonable to Laura than their current predicament.
It couldn’t be possible, but it seemed like the men on the raft behind them were catching up. Even though they were in the same water, with the same type of boat, theirs looked like it was going faster.
Laura closed her eyes, squeezing the handle of her oar until the pain cut through the numbness. They had four large men in that raft. Each man had an oar. Those men were not using their oars to avo
id rocks. They were using them to propel the raft through the water.
The raft was going to capture them.
It was going to catch up and then they would shoot Seth. They looked angry enough that they might shoot Laura and Abby, too, no matter what Mahoney had said.
This was going to end badly.
But she wasn’t about to give up. “Seth, they are all using their oars to go faster. The raft is going to catch up with us.”
Seth didn’t respond to her yell, but the look on his face showed that he either heard her or he had realized the same thing.
The Jeep was still following on the side of the river. The man in the back was yelling into some kind of radio. He was talking instead of shooting. That couldn’t be good.
What was he planning? Why had he stopped shooting?
“Laura! Look! The fire!”
Laura looked and saw. The fire. They had rounded several curves in the macabre pinball game they were playing, and the flames from the fire were now very visible. Laura thought she could feel the heat, but that was probably her imagination.
The flames moved and danced and Laura had to force herself to look at the river, to focus on the boulders there. Those large, hard obstacles were every bit as much a threat as the men with guns who followed them on land and water.
The only good thing about getting ready to raft through a fire was that the Jeep would have to stop. That would take away an attack from at least one side.
“Laura. Get down. Now.” Seth’s voice was somehow low and deadly and still loud enough to carry to her. She looked ahead and saw a second Jeep parked on the side of the river, at the spot right before the flames were consuming the mountain.
It was parked and waiting.
There were several men standing by it.
With guns.
Pointed at them.
That was what the Jeep man had been doing. Radioing for backup. Backup that wasn’t hindered by being in a moving Jeep traveling over uneven ground. Backup that could probably hit its target.
And they were the target.
Laura got down as much as possible. She moved so that both of her legs were over Abby, and she could feel her child’s heat under her thighs. Getting down to avoid getting shot meant the raft was going to hit more rocks.
Seth handed her his oar. “Hold this. I’ll shoot better with two hands, but I don’t want to lose my oar.”
Laura clung to the handle, pairing it up with hers. She had them both pulled inside the raft, clutching them like some kind of shield. Too bad they weren’t bulletproof. She crouched down as low as possible, shoving the oars under one armpit and holding them with one hand. Laura reached down with the other hand and held on to Abby. She tried to make her hand gentle and reassuring, but she doubted her girl felt anything but terrified.
This was not the kind of childhood a little girl should have. How had it come to this? All Laura had wanted to do was get off this mountain and live a normal life. Be a normal girl. Normal.
Yet, here she was. Back on this mountain. Widowed. Running for her life. Dragging her child through one traumatic experience after another. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It wasn’t supposed to be like this at all.
She looked up from her crouch and saw Seth holding one of the raft ties in his fist. She knew he was hoping to secure himself to the raft, but the sight didn’t make her feel better at all. He couldn’t wrap it around his wrist or hand because if he went over that could really hurt him. But she didn’t think he would be able to hold on, either. It was just too much to ask of a human being. Right now, the sight of him holding that rope felt very useless to Laura. Pointless. And depressing.
She flinched at the sound of the first shot. Suppressed a scream. Heard Abby cry out.
Then there was a second shot. A third. Coming from Seth. From that parked Jeep. From the raft behind them. Back and forth, and all too loud and too close.
The raft was jerking, bouncing off of boulders. Slamming into waves. Those movements were painful and terrifying and probably the only reason that the men on the riverbank or raft behind them had not managed to shoot them yet.
Seth fired one more time and then he stopped. He slid over to where Laura was and shielded her body with his. He was around her and over her and covering her and Abby much more than Laura would have thought was possible. “I hit the other raft, but I didn’t do anything to the men on the shore. I’m out of bullets. We’re almost to the fire line. Almost.”
Almost. Almost. Almost. Laura chanted the words in her head. They were a plea. And a prayer. They had come so far, they had to make it through this, too. They just had to.
The weight of Seth’s body increased and Laura was almost lying down on top of Abby. The water in the bottom of the raft was freezing and they were all soaking wet. None of that stopped Laura from feeling the heat, though. It came out of nowhere, though really it had been their end goal all along. They were past the fire line.
The bullets stopped. That horrible popping noise that made Laura tense every muscle waiting to see if a bullet would hit its mark. It was gone.
But it wasn’t quiet. The fire was every bit as alive and growling as the water. The men in the Jeep had been intent on killing them. This fire seemed intent on killing anything. Everything. In its path or not. It was hungry, and they were nothing more than fuel.
About a minute after the last shot was fired, Seth sat up. He grabbed one of the oars that Laura was holding and moved back to the front of the raft. Now that they were done fighting the men, they only had to fight the river. And a fire.
The river was substantial, but the flames were jumping toward it. They needed to stay away from that side. Laura positioned her own oar and started helping. It was a relief to be proactive when it came to all these boulders. The repetitive jarring of slamming into rock after rock lessened.
Laura’s arms began to ache with the effort she was expending, but it felt good. She was alive, and she was still fighting. Her eyes began to water, maybe from the heat. Maybe from the wind.
She gazed at the part of the mountain on the other side of the river. It looked dry. And, most important, not on fire. It was so tempting to try to navigate over there. To try to stop, get out, walk on her legs. Make Abby dry and warm.
But that was not an option. It wasn’t safe to try to land the raft over there. Those men were not giving up. How long would it take them to cross the river and come down the mountain? Though it was bumpy and cold and flat-out miserable, this river was still the fastest route down. It was still their best shot at getting off this mountain and to help.
Laura could only see Seth’s back. And more fire. Up ahead, for as far as she could see, fire. Flames and heat and fire and the consumption of this mountain she loved so much.
Her dad’s part of the mountain. His refuge.
Her part of the mountain. Her refuge.
The river curved and Laura actually sobbed when she saw that the fire had burned out up ahead. She hadn’t even realized she was crying until those tears became a fountain of emotion. Seth turned to look at her, and she just pointed. His smile was somber, but it was there. He turned back around to face the front again and Laura reached down to pat Abby on the back.
She smiled at the girl. “It’s going to be okay, Abby. We’re almost done with the worst part.”
As quickly as it appeared, that heat ended. Smoke was still heavy in the air, but Laura glanced over to where the sky looked blue. She imagined the town at the base. The town that this river was taking them to. The town full of people, and not the kind who wanted to kill them. The kind who could help to keep Abby safe.
This was going to be okay.
“Laura!” Seth’s tone told her that she was wrong. This was not going to be okay. He leaned to the side, and she looked up ahead. There were several large trees lying across the river. There was no
way to get around. Their raft would hit nature’s equivalent of a brick wall.
* * *
This wasn’t happening.
Okay, it was. And, frankly, Seth didn’t know why he was surprised. This week was going down in history as one of the worst weeks ever. And he said that as a man who had fought in a brutal war, been injured and run away from his family. Yeah. This week had been that bad.
“Go right. Try to go right.” He had to turn around to make sure Laura heard him. She immediately started trying to push the raft that way. He did, too. But it wasn’t enough. Even with their combined efforts, their skilled efforts, the raft was resisting any attempt to go toward the side of the river that had not been burned by the fire.
“Seth, it’s too hard. The current is working against us.” She was right of course. He should have realized sooner. Much of their ride down so far had involved trying to stay away from the side of the mountain that was on fire. Because the raft wanted to list that way.
“The left. Go to the left.” His aching muscles almost appreciated the change in exertion.
And it was working. It was absolutely working. The raft moved over to the bank, hitting some of the smaller rocks lining that side. They were in the right position now. They just needed to slow down.
Just.
“Seth, look. We can use that to ramp up on the bank.” Laura was pointing to a place up ahead where the bank dipped in. Made a little inlet. Yes, this could work.
Seth tensed his arms as they approached the inlet. He used every bit of strength he could muster and pushed toward it. He heard Laura give a yell as she pushed, too.
And the raft was stopped. They were in the inlet. Seth quickly scrambled out, taking one of the raft ties with him. He pulled it taut and looked over to tell Laura to follow.
Rocky Mountain Showdown Page 13