Forbidden River (The Legionnaires #2.5)(10)

“Good. Then I’ll hide until help comes. Easy.”

“That river is basically just melted snow and ice. You swim it without a change of clothes, you’ll be hypothermic by midnight.”

“My clothes are pretty much made of plastic. They’ll dry quick.”

She shook her head.

“Tia, none of the options here are good. There’s no easy decision in a situation like this, no risk-free choice. You know that. You’ll be taking a risk in lifting off. I’ll be taking a risk in running and hiding. But if you don’t get away safely, we’re both screwed, and so are those climbers and the other tourists, if they’re still alive, and so are the next people who come wandering up here.”

Dammit. “Help probably won’t come until first light.”

“I can handle a night in the open.”

“A lot of tough guys say that, going in.”

A dog barked nearby. She shrank against the rock. Cody slung his arm across her belly, pinning her with his elbow. Like she was going anywhere. The gunshots had stopped.

She tiptoed to reach his ear. He was a couple of inches taller. In another situation she’d consider that the perfect height. “We’re downwind,” she whispered. “The dogs won’t be able to smell us yet. I’ll go back the way I came. You—”

She froze. A second later he held up a palm, frowning. Through the trees ahead skulked the silhouette of the shooter, rifle held low across his hip, machete slung across his back like a ninja sword, two dogs running alongside. One was a short dirty-brown mutt, wide across the forelegs, thick neck, big jaw. Bred for fighting. The other was a greyhound cross, its nose skimming the river stones. Pig dogs—an attacker and a tracker? With the sun in his eyes, the guy wouldn’t spot her and Cody, but she stilled her breathing anyway.

“A man,” Cody murmured, his lips grazing her lobe.

Her best no shit look was wasted.

The shooter turned back, briefly swinging his head their way. He was skinny, with a dirty-blond buzz cut and scraggly beard, wearing head-to-toe khaki camo. Snake tattoos circled his neck, as if they were trying to strangle him.

“Oh shit, him?” she said under her breath as he disappeared.

“You acquainted?” Cody removed his arm.

“A hunter. He came up to me on the tarmac a few months back, asking for a ride up here, but I turned him down because he wanted to take dogs—they’re not allowed in this forest. He was pissed off but I guess someone took his cash.”

“Ex-military?”

“In his dreams. More of a survivalist, I reckon. I figured at least he was taking out his fantasy on the deer and pigs. I got his name and Googled him ’cause it was bugging me. Shane something. Did time for armed robbery and assault.”

“Good call not to take him.”

“Yeah. Mostly I’m good with being up here alone, but being up here alone with him...” She twitched as an image of the tourist’s body flashed in her mind. “Shit, so where’s the dead guy’s girlfriend? And the other couple who disappeared? If he’s... Oh God, I delivered them to him. He could be living in the hut, lying in wait.”

“Best thing we can do for all of them is get help. Let’s do this.”

She nodded. “True. Be careful, Cowboy.”

Another grin, like this was a game. “Always. And you know, I’m a city boy. I earned a business degree and worked in a tech company, so this ‘Cowboy’ thing you got going...”

“So disappointing. See you tomorrow, Cowboy.”

“Look forward to it.” He winked, still grinning as he walked off.

Was that...? Was he...flirting? Now?

Hell. She’d better bloody see him tomorrow.





CHAPTER FOUR

TIA CLAMBERED UP the bank and retraced her steps as Cody melted into the bush behind her. She really didn’t want to leave him but, like he said, it was the best plan they had. As the hut came back into view, the shooting resumed, bullets hammering metal like a thousand nail guns firing at once.

She crept to a point that gave her a limited view of the clearing—the closest she dared to get. The hunter—Shane—was standing on a half-buried boulder, his body jolting with the recoil. Shit. He was disabling her chopper—with an AR-15 with a telescopic sight. He paused, slammed in a new magazine, angled the rifle through the open pilot’s door and sprayed the controls, left to right to left to right... She winced. Cartridges pinged against the hull. The dogs whined and yelped. The straining head of the attack dog was just visible around the side of the hut, an orange lead attached to its collar. He’d tied them up.

Movement behind her. She swung, tensing. Cody, a meter away. She thumped a fist onto her chest. “Oh my God, stop doing that.”

He dropped behind a rotting tree trunk, gesturing for her to join him. “I’m thinking our plan’s just been shot to hell.”

“Yep. And he’s taken out the radio.”

“Could we set off my distress beacon?”

She pressed her lips together. Tempting, but... “Too dangerous for Search and Rescue. Out here it can take hours for the satellite to fly over and catch the signal. By the time they get here they’ll be flying in darkness, with no clear place to land.”

“And a madman going nuclear on them.”