False Security

Oh, Rich. What have you gotten yourself into? What have you gotten us into?

He’d brought these men here after him. She knew that in her gut. And now they were after her, too. Her and Zach. The man she wanted to forget, along with all that had gone wrong in her life, was in the mix, as well. Though he’d taken the lead, she pushed ahead of him. He didn’t know where to go. He didn’t know the area like she did and had said as much.

Still, she needed to hear from him. Did he have any ideas? An escape plan? “Where do you want me to take us, Zach? Where should we head?”

“Let’s lead them away from the snowmobiles, lose them, and then we can backtrack so we can ride out of here.”

She ducked under a branch. A bullet sliced across her helmet.

“Olivia!” Zach pushed her to the ground again.

“Will you stop doing that?” She pushed him off.

“Get behind the trees!”

She did as he asked, and together they crawled over and hid behind a thick-trunked pine—wide enough they could both press their backs against it. Catching her breath, she looked up and watched huge flakes dance on the air and flutter down toward her. They landed on her face and stuck in her lashes. She blinked them away.

Pulling her helmet off, she examined the damage. That had been close, much too close. She stashed it to the side, intending to leave it behind. The bright pink of the helmet had been intentional, meant to be visible in the woods to prevent hunters from shooting her by mistake. But now wasn’t the time for visibility.

“Good idea.” Zach peered at her, nodding his approval. “If anything, that helmet makes you an easy target.”

His icy blues turned more intense. Olivia peered out into the woods, looking anywhere and at anything except Zach. Sitting this close to him when she’d wanted to forget him, and having him with her in this far too surreal situation, would be her undoing if the shooters didn’t get her first.

“But without the helmet, you’re far too exposed.” He tugged his white helmet off. “Take mine.”

She whipped her gaze around to his. Yeah. Much too close. “What? No. Zach,” she whispered. “I’m not wearing your helmet. So put that back on.”

“I didn’t ask.”

Fury boiled inside. “I don’t need your protection.”

Hurt flickered in his gaze then vanished behind a stone cold stare. Oh... I didn’t mean to say that. She hadn’t meant to hurt him. When would it ever end?

Her legs trembled with fear and her lips weren’t far behind. She wouldn’t let him see her like this—a weak, scared little girl—though why she wanted to hide that from him she wasn’t sure. After all, someone was trying to kill them and she was scared. There wasn’t any reason to be ashamed of that. But she didn’t want him to protect her. She didn’t want to be that vulnerable.

Did she have a choice?

And wasn’t Zach scared, too? Trying to read his mind, sense his emotional state, wouldn’t do either of them any good. Again, she averted her gaze, listening, watching for the shooters as she caught her breath.

Zach gently touched her chin and turned her to face him. “Are you okay?”

It hurt when he touched her like that, all gentle and caring. She didn’t want that from him, or for him to see that she was absolutely not okay. But he probably already knew. “I don’t know how to answer that.”

He studied her, his blue-eyed gaze seeming to soak up every inch of her face. For a split second, she worried about her appearance. But she’d long ago given up the smoky eye shadow, snow plum blush and deep mauve lipstick she used to put on for him. Her self-consciousness fell away as she realized he hadn’t donned the helmet after her refusal to wear it, and that gave her ample opportunity to take him in up close and personal. That smattering of day-old stubble across his strong jaw. A few crow’s-feet that hadn’t yet emerged around his intense blue eyes when she’d last been this close to him. Protection practically spilled off him. That and something she couldn’t read behind his gaze. But maybe she shouldn’t even try.

Still...what was he thinking?

“We need to get moving.” He hesitated, then asked, “Can you lead us the long way around to the snowmobiles so we can get out of here? That is, if they haven’t already disabled the machines so we couldn’t do just that.”

“I can try. But what about Rich? I still need to find him. I can’t leave without him.”

She hadn’t wanted to entertain the possibility that Rich was already dead. She wouldn’t let her thoughts go there, but the hope she’d held on to was quickly slipping away.

“We’ll find him, don’t worry. But don’t forget he’s ex-military. He’s trained to survive. My priority is getting you to safety.” Zach suddenly stiffened and angled his head. He ducked low and peered around the tree. “Time to go.”

Zach stood and clambered around as he pressed his back against the tree. “I’m going to hold them off. You keep hidden behind the trees as you run and try get as far away as you can. Just keep going.”

“What? I thought you wanted us to make our way back to the snowmobiles? I’m not leaving you. I don’t want to find Rich only to have to come back and find you.”

“You won’t have to find me. I’ll be right behind you. I’m just giving you a head start.”

Zach aimed and fired off his weapon, the sound ricocheting through her head, ringing in her ears. Okay, well, maybe she could put some distance between them.

He fired another round, and then another in rapid succession. She wished for her own weapon, the one she’d left at home. She could help Zach. He would run out of ammo soon.

“Go, Olivia. I’ll find you. I can’t hold them off forever. Don’t make me waste these bullets.”

Just as she would have turned from him, he grabbed her collar and pulled her face close to his. His chest rose and fell, and the intensity in his eyes as he appeared to drink her in stole her breath away. “Be careful out there, Olivia. Don’t take any chances. I promise I’ll find you.”

For a split second, in the midst of lethal danger, her mind flooded with memories of kissing him. Her senses tingled. Her breaths came quicker, but not from the danger. Then he pushed away. “Go!”

She scrambled from him, keeping to the trees as he fired. She had to make this count and try to hide as she escaped.

Deep inside she felt like she was running from much more than bullets. She was running from past hurts she’d wanted to forget—she was running from Zachary Long.

Was there any way out of this situation, any possibility of survival that didn’t include Zach doing the thing he loved, the thing he’d left her for—serving and protecting? Risking his life for her. She should be glad she had a police officer, a detective, here to help her through this. But she couldn’t bring herself to be glad for it.

He loved the danger. The thrill of it ran through his blood since he came from a family of police officers, but Olivia had lost too much already with the death of her own police officer father when she was just eighteen. And she wasn’t willing to go through that again.

A bullet whizzed too closely and hit a tree to her right. She ducked, then crouched as she moved between a copse of Douglas firs and ponderosa pines. Would Zach be able to hold them off? And even if he did, then what?

What about him? How was he going to survive and find her? And just where should she go? Questions barraged her when she wanted tunnel vision, to focus on a single goal.

Running for her life. Escaping.

She pressed on, plowing through waist-deep snow, gripping branches for support in her push to escape, to get far from the assailants. All the while, she never stopped searching the woods for any sign of Rich.

There was none.

It was as if he’d simply disappeared from that snowmobile.

She believed he hadn’t fallen into the hands of these guys after them or else why were they after her and Zach if they had the person they’d come for? Could she be wrong about all of it?

Finally, exhaustion slowed her efforts. Her sluggish legs burning, Olivia leaned against a tree. She would wait for Zach here while she caught her breath. Rest her muscles, slow the hammer in her heart.

He would never find her if she didn’t stop. As her breathing calmed, she had the chance to get her bearings. A few feet from where she stood the ground dropped away into a deep fissure—a crack at least seventy feet deep or more. She knew about it from her summer hikes, but in the winter hidden dangers grew more treacherous. Snow and ice covered the fissure, hiding it in places.

She would definitely need to wait here for Zach, if for no other reason than to warn him and keep him from plummeting to his death in the crevice. She wasn’t sure if it was wrong but she wished that fate on the shooters.

A brutal storm moved in quickly. Could her predicament get any worse? Still, a raging snowstorm, possibly with blizzard-force winds, would also be a problem for the bad guys. They’d need shelter, too, and they couldn’t follow Zach and Olivia’s footprints.

A new cause for panic settled in her chest. Zach hadn’t caught up with her yet. In a snowstorm, would he be able to find her? Here she was hoping the storm would hide her tracks from the shooters, but if Zach hadn’t found her by then, he never would.

A twig snapped. Someone approached—had they seen her? Once again she found herself asking if she would see friend or foe. She’d long ago lost her knife in the scramble down to the brook. She grabbed a big branch she could use for a weapon and waited, the element of surprise her only advantage.

A figured moved past. She recognized Zach’s thick head of wheat hair as he stumbled forward into the deep snow around the group of Douglas firs where she’d been hiding. He’d followed her tracks, just as they would. But she was more than glad to see him.

“Zach!”

Bending next to him, she grabbed his arm and assisted him up and out of the thick white powder. Then Olivia threw her arms around him. “Zach, I was afraid you wouldn’t find me before the snow covered my tracks.”

She quickly dropped her arms and looked him up and down. “Are you hurt?”

He shook his head, too out of breath to answer her. Then finally, “They’re not too far behind so we need to keep moving. If we’re fortunate, we’ll get a blizzard.”

Zach had been counting on her to lead the way since she’d had many summers to explore the area before she’d made the vacation home permanent. With Rich’s sudden appearance, and just as sudden disappearance, and then the shooters, she’d been slow to process the events.

But beyond this stand of firs, she remembered the orange-trunked madrone trees and a few maples before the rocks. And then...

“Come on, I know where we can hide.”

He angled his head, his intense gaze catching hers, radiating reassurance as if to say, I knew you would.

His confidence in her had her heart dancing when it shouldn’t, especially in the middle of this threat. Still, she could use that to bolster her courage.

“Come on.” She held out her hand and he took it.

Olivia pointed out the fissure to Zach, just to be sure he wouldn’t fall to his death if he came back this way.

“I think I remember that from before.”

“Good. Just making sure. But you know what, maybe we could lure the shooters this way, trick them into falling in.”

Zach’s face twisted up. “Only as a last resort. No. Just no.”

“Fine.”

And as Zach had wished, the wind drove the snow hard into icy pinpricks against her face. They might even find themselves in a whiteout. Bad news, but they could use this development to their advantage.

Olivia kept to the trees as she led Zach, holding his hand as they hiked through what seemed like bottomless layers of snow in places, and up a rocky incline. She slipped once on iced-over rocks, but Zach’s hands slid around her waist and assisted her up and forward. Even without the heavy, driving snow to cover their trail, they could have already lost their pursuers in this treacherous part of the wilderness.

Zach hadn’t asked her exactly where she led them, which meant he trusted her to find the way. The longer it took, the more she began to doubt her sense of direction. She’d been here many times as a kid, but hadn’t come back even once since living at the cabin. Maybe all the gunfire and fear had confused her sense of direction.

But she kept moving, plowing and hiking forward. Now they faced off with a rocky wall, snow and ice catching in between the small cracks and fissures.

The cave had to be here somewhere.

And then it hit her. Would Rich have come here, too, knowing it was here? Had he thought to hide in the cave just like Olivia had?

Her hopes jumped.

She glanced back at Zach. He’d left his helmet behind, but he’d long ago covered his head with the hood on his winter coat, as had Olivia, so she couldn’t see his eyes at that moment. Maybe that was a good thing. She returned her energy to finding the cave, pressing her hands against the rocks as she went. Even though she wore gloves, her fingers grew stiff and clumsy.

One look at Zach’s red cheeks and she knew the truth.

The dropping temperature was getting to them.

And what of their pursuers? Did the shooters realize they could die if they didn’t find shelter, too? If the men after Rich were anything like him, then they too were survivors and were prepared for anything, carrying their bivouac gear with them in the mountains on their murderous hunting trip. Olivia’s shred of hope took a dive.

But why should she focus on them? She had yet to find the cave that would keep her and Zach warm, two people who hadn’t carried bivouac gear with them.

God, please, where is the cave? We have to find the cave!

Worry and doubt threaded through her thoughts. Did she have the wrong place, after all? And if she did, how would they survive?

If that was the case, they were as good as dead.

No. Olivia wouldn’t accept that. She cleared away the morbid thoughts and kept her gloved hands pressed against the rock wall, letting it guide her inward until she found the small opening.

There.

“It’s here,” she croaked out, almost not recognizing her own voice. Relief swirled through her.

The rock walls extending forward and out on both sides of the slender gap that served as the cave entrance saved them from the brunt of the building storm.

She hesitated before rushing in and turned to Zach. “If Rich could have made it here, this is where he would be hiding.”

Olivia dreaded looking in Zach’s eyes. What would she see in them? She wanted to cling to the smallest of hopes, but he could shatter those with one look.

He was a realist, after all.

“Let me go first.” Zach lifted his gun, gripped her hand and pulled her along behind him. “The shooters. They could have found the cave ahead of us. They might be waiting inside.”

* * *

“Stay here, just at the entrance.” Zach released her hand.

Olivia sucked in a breath as if she would counter him but then, surprising him, she nodded in agreement. The storm forced them to seek shelter and this cave served as their best option. But would he lead them inside to their deaths?

Or had Rich taken shelter here like she’d suggested?

“If the worst happens, you turn and run.” He pressed forward without waiting for her answer.

Sworn to protect.

Like that had worked so well.

He ignored his doubts and shoved his fears aside.

Entering the dark opening, he crept forward, weapon poised to fire, until his eyes adjusted to the darkness. If the shooters had taken shelter in the cave or waited for Olivia and Zach there, they could take Zach out before he was the wiser. He listened for movement, for breathing, anything at all, as he hedged the rock wall. The shooters weren’t the only possible threat. They could walk in on a hibernating bear.

Memories of this cave skittered through him. Rich had brought him here a few times in the summer. But that had been years ago and Zach wouldn’t count on his memory to guide him.

“Anyone here?” he asked.

Not that he expected someone with nefarious intentions to respond, but maybe Rich had come to hide here like Olivia hoped.

Zach had heard that hope in her words, and a sliver of pain skated over his heart. He had a feeling she would be disappointed.

She rushed by him, stumbling forward in the dark. “Rich! Are you in here?”

“What are you doing?” He grabbed her arm and pulled her back against him. “I told you to wait. Maybe the bad guys aren’t in here, but we could disturb a bear.”

“Rich!” Tears edged her voice.

But nobody answered.

She shifted forward and Zach caught her up in his arms to steady her. “I’m sorry, Olivia. So sorry.”

He never could have imagined he’d find her in his arms again. Good thing her bulky snowmobile suit served as a protective barrier. He didn’t want to feel her softness or be reminded of his attraction to her that obviously had remained even after a decade.

Zach would help her and support her now because she needed it, but he’d guard his heart against falling for her again—an act that would require all his strength. With his hands somehow in the silky copper locks that fell around her shoulders, and her distraught form leaning against him, Zach admitted that he could easily slip back into the past with her.

Except he couldn’t forget how she’d hurt him, asking him to give up his dream for her, then breaking it all off when he didn’t. He would use that now to stay free of any entanglement and continue to forge a future without her, though he found himself holding her in his arms once again.

Seeming to read his mind, she stiffened and moved away, swiping at her face. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“Don’t worry about it.” He cut her off and moved deeper into the cave, holding his weapon tightly in his grip. Though if anyone waited here, they would already have made their presence known.

Zach and Olivia could have been killed in that one moment of indiscretion.

“The cave doesn’t go back very far,” she said. “Maybe a few yards. I doubt there’s a bear in here or we would know it by now. Bad guys, too. Besides, I can’t believe they could find this cave. Even in the summer it’s well hidden. Forget about it in the winter, especially with the approaching storm.”

“We don’t know if they scouted the area before their attack. We can’t be too careful.”

Zach’s eyes adjusted to the dim light spilling through the cave’s opening along with the cold and snow. The weather looked bleak out there and made him grateful they’d found this temporary shelter.

“Might as well get comfortable.” Olivia put her hand against the wall and slid down to the hard ground, her boots scraping dirt and pebbles. She wrapped her arms around herself.

The cave’s temperature was much warmer than outside, but even wearing the snowmobile garb, he could feel the cold seeping in. Zach frowned. They had nothing with which to make a fire. He wasn’t sure they’d want to risk giving themselves away even if they could build one.

Remaining standing, he watched the entrance in case any moment one of the men who had been shooting at them entered the cave to shelter from the storm, too. He and Olivia could have been followed.

He glanced down at her. She’d leaned her head against her knees, hair spilling over her back and shoulders. He wanted to dispel the memories and the sudden longing to hold her, but just as he would have looked away, she lifted her head, her cinnamon eyes capturing his gaze.

“I was shocked to see you today, Zach. The men shooting at us, that whole thing was a shocker, too. But you appeared out of nowhere.”

Yeah, he got that. He hadn’t been expecting to see her either. It was here in the Siskiyous that he’d first fallen in love with her one summer. But seeing her in the flesh today? His throat grew tight.

“Seeing you surprised me, too, but when you think about it, it makes sense,” he said.

“Right. You were Rich’s best friend, maybe you still are. But obviously you came here to meet him for some reason. He didn’t know I was living here and acted downright put out to see me.”

Zach shifted then leaned against the rock wall. He’d watch the entrance another hour. If the men didn’t find the cave within that time, he doubted they would. Besides, they likely had their own supplies to set up a shelter or found an empty cabin somewhere. An empty house like the Kendricks’.

If not, they’d die in this weather.

“How did he seem?”

Olivia stretched her legs and leaned against the wall behind her, resting her head. “Something was wrong. I knew that I should have paid more attention. But I was so glad to see him and thought maybe whatever was disturbing him had to do with the job he left. So I dreamed that he could stay here and work with me at Wilderness, Inc. for a while. Coop even said he could use a new guide. I was on my way back from Gideon and talking to Coop about using Rich as a guide. He knows the area. And business has been good.”

“Coop?”

“Cooper Wilde. He runs Wilderness, Inc. here in the mountains out of Gideon. It’s an adventure excursion and wilderness training business. Anyway, I guess this answers the question about what happened to Rich.”

“What do you mean?”

“I followed the snowmobile tracks from the house. There was blood, Zach. Blood on the snow. It had to be Rich’s. The guys shooting at us? All I can think is they were after him and he took a bullet, maybe, before he ran and got away on his snowmobile.”

“We can’t know for sure, but that sounds like one possibility. Regardless, it seems they want to kill us, whatever the reason.”

If those men were after Rich and he had led them here, to his sister... Zach paced the cave, fisting his gloved hand and squeezing the pistol grip with his other. Every choice a person made could have catastrophic effects on everyone else. He’d experienced that firsthand and felt the repercussions of his own decisions to the marrow in his bones.

“If only we could find Rich,” Olivia said. “Make sure he’s safe, help him if he’s hurt. I’m worried about him out there in this storm, maybe even bleeding to death.”

“Nothing we can do about it.”

Olivia shot him a glare. He knew she saw the change in him—that he’d hardened over the years. Inwardly, he sighed, wishing for the younger version of himself.

He didn’t like the thought of Rich suffering out there either and should be more reassuring to his friend’s sister. “If I know anything about your brother, it’s that he has survival skills, and he’s out there surviving, making it through this storm, just like us. We have to trust that Rich will rely on his training.”

If he isn’t already dead.

THREE

Olivia had seen Rich’s pack on the bed. He hadn’t taken time to gather supplies before he fled for his life. She couldn’t share Zach’s confidence in her brother’s training.

She studied Zach as he watched the cave entrance. Her heart skipped a little. Back in high school, he’d been the kind of guy every girl could fall for, and now, to her chagrin, he looked even better.

He exhibited a kind of masculinity that was hard to resist. Skilled and confident. But those skills were the very thing that stood between them and had torn them apart. That and the choices he’d made.

Olivia shoved thoughts of the past away and focused on the very real and dangerous present. What else did Zach know about her brother? Why had Rich asked him to meet at the house? Her teeth chattered, preventing her from voicing the questions.

Shivering, she tucked her knees up against her chest and rested her chin on them again. How were they going to make it through tonight without a fire, even in this cave? It wasn’t deep enough to prevent the snow from swirling in, ushered by the ice-cold wind that had ramped up.

She buried her face in her knees, trying to keep the cold at bay.