“Are you saying you’re leaving me?” I grab hold of his wrist and lock on to him with all my strength. “Don’t do that. We can—”
“The four-wheeler is going to be our best option to get us to safety quickly,” he says, cutting me off, and I wonder how he can be so calm right now. “I need you to trust me, sunshine.”
I do trust him, but this isn’t him getting me up the side of a mountain. This is me trusting that he won’t get shot while leaving me behind to cower behind a tree. “I do trust you, but what if you’re wrong? What if they’re still following us and they see you?”
“They won’t see me.” He smiles like he thinks my comment is adorable. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.” He forces me to let him go, touches the tip of my nose with his finger, then disappears like he’s gone up in smoke.
Letting my eyes close, I listen for anything out of the ordinary, but with the water just in front of me, it’s difficult to distinguish between sounds. As the minutes pass, my hands start to shake. I’ve never felt more anxious in my life than I do right now. When I hear a branch break nearby, my eyes shoot open, and I roll to my knees and peek around the tree first on one side, then the other, not seeing anything. Then a hand wraps around my mouth from behind, cutting off the scream climbing up my throat.
Panicking, I start to rip at the arm holding me but then still when a deep voice rumbles “It’s me” against my ear.
“Tanner.” I spin around to face him, and when I see it’s really him, I wrap my arms around his middle. “Oh God, don’t ever leave me again.”
“Shhh, it’s okay. You’re okay.” He runs his hand over the back of my head as he holds the side of my face against his chest.
“Are . . . are the guys gone?”
“I didn’t see them, and there were no tracks following us.” He stands and takes my hand, pulling me to my feet. Once I’m standing in front of him, he pushes me back against the tree and presses his body flush against mine. “Now I need you to hold it together for just a few more minutes while we run for the four-wheeler. Can you do that?”
“Yes.”
“Good girl.” He kisses me hard and fast, then leans back, giving me a look that makes me feel warm before he takes my hand, and we both run for the four-wheeler.
Chapter 10
TANNER
Even with Cybil tucked against my back with her arms wrapped tight around my waist, I have to keep reminding myself that she is safe. I fucked up. She shouldn’t have been able to wander so far away from where we were fishing, but I let Oliver and Lauren’s drama distract me. When I realized she was gone and that she wasn’t within shouting distance, I called Maverick and told him to come down on the four-wheeler and hike with the group back to camp.
Not surprisingly, everyone but Lauren wanted to help with the search, but I knew I’d be better off tracking Cybil on my own. She hadn’t been gone out of sight long; I just needed to be able to focus on locating her. Now, given the circumstances, I’m glad I followed my gut. If she’s right about what she witnessed, then the men who shot at us were poachers, illegally hunting bull elk, which if caught could lead to prison time and a fine of up to $20,000. Most men wouldn’t take the risk, but there are some who don’t believe the rules apply to them, especially when getting a bull elk tag during hunting season is like winning the lotto.
“I’m going to stop at the clearing just ahead and call Maverick,” I shout over the engine, and I feel her nod against my back as her arms tighten around my waist.
When I get to the small clearing about twenty minutes from camp, I set the engine to idle and grab the satellite phone out of my pack, wait for a signal to show up, and quickly call Mav. I let him know I’ve got Cybil and tell him what went down so he can call the warden along with the police and have them meet us at the campsite tonight.
By the time I hang up, Cybil’s body behind me has begun to shake. Lifting my shirt, I place her frozen hands against my stomach, then pull my shirt down before I take off. I know she’s cold, and the fact that her clothes are soaked isn’t helping. I’m also sure she’s about to crash, and when that happens, I want her to be somewhere safe. As we pull into camp, all eyes come to us, but I ignore everyone standing around the fire. I don’t even acknowledge them as they start to ask questions. Without a word, I turn and drag Cybil onto my lap before I get off with her and carry her toward our tent.
“Cops and warden are on the way up,” Maverick says, stepping forward to unzip the tent. “It shouldn’t be long.” He turns his attention to Cybil. “You okay, sweetheart?”
“Y-yes, thank you.” She burrows against me.
“I’m gonna get her dry and warm,” I tell him, and he lifts his chin before I duck inside the tent and set Cybil on the ground.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” Her hands tremble and her teeth chatter as I remove her wet clothing before helping her into a dry shirt and tucking her into her sleeping bag.
“You’re crashing, sunshine. It’s normal after going through a high-stress situation. It will pass; you just need a few minutes.”
“I’m so cold.”
“I know.” I lie down next to her and then drag my sleeping bag over the two of us, turning her into my chest, curling myself around her, and resting my lips against her forehead. “You did good today.”
Her body starts to shake harder; then I hear her laugh before she tips her head back to look at me. “I did so good that I ended up lost and shot at.”
My entire body tightens at the mention of a gun being fired in her direction, and her fingers come up to touch the space between my brows. “I’m guessing from the look on your face it’s too soon to joke about it.”
“Yeah, it’s too soon,” I agree. “Then again, I don’t know that I’ll ever think it’s funny.”
The truth is that seeing the look on her face as she ran into my arms when I finally found her caused me to feel fear like I’ve never felt in my fucking life. I wasn’t worried about myself; I was worried I wouldn’t be able to protect her from whatever it was that had scared her.
“Well, thank you for finding me. I don’t know what I would have done if you didn’t show up.”
“You would have been okay.” I curve my fingers around the back of her head and tuck her face against my neck. This woman in my arms is stronger than she thinks she is; she just needs to be reminded of what she’s capable of.
“I’m not so sure about that. I used ‘eeny, meeny, miny, moe’ to choose which direction to go, and it obviously didn’t work.”
Groaning, I close my eyes. “You didn’t.”
“I did. It was cloudy, so I couldn’t make a compass with a twig like you taught us, and honestly I didn’t know what direction the river was, so it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.”
“Right. Well, tomorrow, I’ll get you a compass, and from here on out, I’ll make sure you know which way you should go if you get lost again.”
“So we’re staying here?” I hear the worry in her voice. “I thought we would be leaving tonight, after what happened.”