Czytaj książkę: «Rocky Mountain Showdown»

ONE

The first thing Laura Donovan saw when she regained consciousness was the man leaning over her.

The first thing she felt was her fist connecting with his jaw.

“Hey!” the man exclaimed, stepping back quickly while holding his jaw. His hat fell to the floor.

Laura scrambled to her feet, trying to keep an eye on the man while desperately scanning the cabin for Abby. She didn’t see her daughter anywhere. “Where’s my daughter?” Laura was breathing hard like she had just run for miles, and she could feel her heart pounding in her chest. The muscles in her fingers tightened as she thought about fighting this man. She would do it if she had to. She would do anything to save her daughter.

The man’s eyes widened and his hand moved away from his face. Instead, he held both hands in front of him, palms out, as if trying to show Laura that he was harmless. He was looking at Laura like she was a crazy person. “Your daughter?”

The man was dressed like a park ranger, right down to the ridiculous hat. Maybe he was a park ranger, since Mahoney’s men had all been dressed in black from head to toe. Laura didn’t care. She did not have time for this game. She had no idea how long she’d been unconscious, and she had no idea where Mahoney and his men were.

“Abby! Abigail!” Laura tried to sound calm, but there was no keeping the emotion from her voice. “It’s okay, honey! Please come out. Please!” Laura ran into the cabin’s first bedroom, flung open the closet door and dropped to her belly to look under the bed. Nothing. She ran into the bathroom and frantically pulled open the cupboard doors looking for the three-year-old. Where was she?

Please let her be hiding. Please let her be in the cabin. Please, please, please. Abby had to be terrified. What if she had run outside? What if Mahoney took her? What if he didn’t, instead just killing the girl? Her baby.

No.

“It’s okay, Abby! Mommy promises. Please come out.” Laura ran to the closet in the second bedroom and threw the door open. She fell to her knees, crying in relief. Abby was there on the closet floor, arms locked around her knees pulling them tightly into her chest. She just looked at her mother, tears running down her cheeks.

“Abby. Oh, Abby. Come here, baby. It’s okay, just come here.” Laura pulled her sweet girl into her arms, then stood up while trying to press the child’s warmth as close to her body as possible. Laura turned and swallowed hard when she saw the park ranger standing in the doorway.

He still had his hands held out in front of him, still had a confused look on his face.

Laura froze, trying to decide what to do. She had Abigail. Her daughter was okay. She was okay.

“Mrs. Donovan?” The ranger’s voice was soft like he was trying to calm a wild animal.

Laura felt a whole lot like a wild animal right now.

“Get out of my way. Now.” She sounded deranged, and that was not far from the truth. Laura needed to get her daughter out of the cabin. Off the mountain. And that man was standing between them and the door. His weapon was still holstered, and Laura decided he probably was a park ranger. One who had picked today to come check out the recluse living on the mountain.

“I don’t know what I walked into, Mrs. Donovan. But I’m not the enemy here.”

Laura’s short laugh was bitter. Sure he wasn’t. Even before this terrible, terrible day, park rangers had never been her friend. Laura couldn’t tell if she was shaking or if the vibrations were from Abby, but either way they were less than stable. She needed to get it together.

Laura wished she could wipe her sweaty hands off on her jeans. Relax her shaky arms. Find some medicine for her pounding headache. But that would mean letting go of Abby and that wasn’t happening. She sucked in a breath, trying to make the flow slow and steady. And subtle. The bright lights that had been floating in her vision faded. The haze of static in her head cleared.

“How do you know my name?” She sounded like she was accusing him of something. Because she kind of was.

“I told you. I’m a park ranger assigned to this part of Colorado. I know most of the people who live bordering the public lands.”

“Great. You’re not the enemy. Congratulations. Get out of my way.” Laura tried to sound as authoritative as possible.

The ranger took a step back but Laura did not move forward. He didn’t look like any of Mahoney’s men, and that uniform looked authentic, but Laura wasn’t sure what was real anymore. Not after today. He was still too close for her comfort.

“Mrs. Donovan, I don’t know what is going on. But I can help you. My name is Seth.”

Laura snorted. “You think you can help, huh? Just wandered up here on the off chance I needed some help?”

His eyes were still wary and confused. “Yes. There’s a fire out there. I got caught up in it while doing patrol. The only way out was up the mountain toward your land. I passed your cabin on my way and stopped to warn you. That’s when I found you.”

Laura bit her lip for a second. Okay. That rang true. And, more important, his vehicle sounded like a way to get off the mountain. Mahoney had slashed her tires earlier. Right in front of her. Just to show her how completely trapped she really was. “All right. Let’s go.” She jerked her chin, indicating that he should walk in front of her and she would follow.

Seth looked unsure. “Yeah. We’ll go. But what did I walk in on? Why were you unconscious on the floor? Are you okay? I mean, what’s going on?”

Laura swallowed, increasing the pressure of her arms around Abby even though she had already been holding the girl tightly. “It doesn’t matter. We need to get out of here.”

Bringing his hand back to his face, he rubbed the place where she had hit him and looked at Abby. Then he nodded and turned to walk through the living room and out the cabin door.

Laura took a deep breath and kissed Abby on the top of her head. “Okay, honey. Okay. We’re going to go away from this now. It will be all right.” Abby just pushed farther into Laura’s front in response.

Seth had walked out. Laura needed to follow.

She exited the cabin’s front door and saw a park ranger’s truck parked in front. Seth really was a ranger. Once Laura was off this mountain, she would appreciate the irony of a ranger saving Malcolm Grant’s daughter.

Seth was standing by the passenger side of the truck, holding the door open and waiting for her. She was a couple yards away, walking quickly, when the gunshot came from her left. Out of the forest. Seth was to her before she realized he’d moved. He grabbed her and began to pull. Away from the gunshot. Before Laura fully comprehended what was going on, she and Seth were back inside the cabin, and he slammed the front door shut.

“I only heard the one shot, but that doesn’t mean there’s only one shooter.”

Seth didn’t sound nearly as shaky as Laura felt. He had walked over to one of the windows and was peeking through the curtains with a gun in his hand. She hadn’t seen him take it out. Belatedly, stupidly, Laura realized she was just standing there holding Abigail.

Reaching for an empty loop on his pants, Seth patted around his belt with a force that matched the intensity coming off him as he looked down. He let out a deep huff. Before Laura’s brain could catch up with her runaway nerves, he was focusing all that intensity on her. “My radio must have fallen off when I ran. Please tell me you have one. I radioed in about the fire before I got here, but I need to call in for help with a shooter.”

Laura was shaking her head before Seth even finished the question. “No. We don’t get cell service this far up the mountain, and we don’t have a radio.”

“What about for emergencies? If you or Abby needed help?”

Laura’s mouth tightened. “We rely on ourselves up here on the mountain. We don’t like outsiders.”

Laura watched his face, her stomach tightening. She knew the rumors surrounding her father. People said Malcolm Grant was the stereotypical ex-soldier turned recluse. Antisocial. Living off the grid and holding himself accountable to no law or authority. They were wrong, of course. But Laura had given up defending her father to people like park rangers long ago.

The man quickly moved back to the window, peering through the curtains. He spoke to her without looking her way, his voice curt but not entirely mean. “I think now is a good time for you to tell me what in the world is going on.” He was moving as he talked, pushing the couch in front of the door.

The ranger moved through the living room, pushing the table against the back door. The cabin was really only four rooms—the living area/kitchen, two bedrooms and the bathroom. Now that both outside doors were blocked, Seth was looking out the windows again.

Laura didn’t know where to start. Or what to say. “There is a man named Victor Mahoney. He is trying to kill me.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

Seth looked ready to argue with her when a second shot sounded. Laura heard it hit the outside of the cabin. She thought she could feel the walls shake from the impact, even though she knew that had to be her mind playing tricks on her.

Seth’s face turned grim. “We need to get out of here.”

How had all this happened? Laura didn’t know. But she was trapped in the cabin with a park ranger. And Mahoney was outside still trying to kill them.

So now she was relying on the park ranger for help. He’d saved them. Maybe. Park rangers were always the enemy. Twenty years of being her father’s daughter had taught her that. She’d watched park rangers harass, and even arrest on occasion, her father more times than she could remember. Her father refused to follow their rules. He wasn’t hurting anyone, but the rangers couldn’t let it go.

But, when faced with Victor Mahoney, this particular one was probably the lesser of two threats. Maybe.

Help us, Lord.

Laura had closed her eyes as she prayed. Habit. When she opened them, the ranger had this look on his face. An almost gentle expression, though the gentleness was offset by the tight lines around his mouth. As quickly as it had appeared though, it was gone. He went to check the other window again.

Laura’s head hurt. She missed her dad. He would know what to do. From the day he’d adopted her, he had known what to do. She looked at the cabin door and could hear her dad’s gravelly voice in her head. So rough and blunt, but never cutting. “Get it together, girl. Be still. Assess. Plan. Try.”

“Okay, Ranger, let’s make some plans.” When she spoke, the ranger turned from where he had been peering out the window.

“Seth.”

Laura was jolted from her imposed calm. Disjointed again. “Seth?”

His smile was slight and his voice did not betray the urgency of the situation. “I told you, my name is Seth. Seth Callahan. Maybe you can say it without the venom you use with the word ranger.”

The smile was absorbed by hard lines again as a third shot came in through the window, sending glass flying everywhere.

* * *

Yep, he had definitely walked into something. Something bad. His routine patrol had turned into an unexpected fire had turned into a detour onto Old Man Grant’s property. Seth had suspected that he might receive a hostile welcome when he walked up to the cabin door, but this was beyond hostile. This felt like a siege.

Once Seth ventured another look out the now-broken window, he could see at least two men out there. They were dressed in black, wearing dark sunglasses, and had earbuds. This wasn’t good. Seth didn’t need to rely on his military training to recognize an assault team when he saw one, though it certainly helped to solidify the feeling of dread in his stomach.

At least they hadn’t fired a second shot into the cabin. Yet, anyway.

The doors were blocked. For now. But a couple pieces of furniture were not going to keep those men out for long. They needed a plan. And some serious help. Please, God. Show me what to do. Give me the strength to do it. That prayer had almost become a daily plea when Seth had been in Afghanistan. And an hourly one when he was in the hospital and rehab center. And now it was back, seemingly his default mode when his life fell apart.

Seth took a deep breath, trying to be as calm as possible around Laura. Whatever this was, she was clearly hurt and upset. And, well, she should be, given their current predicament. He had left this morning for what was supposed to be a simple patrol, not a foray into an action movie. Seth had put combat behind him. Now, it seemed, it was back in his life.

Seth looked back out the window. The men were holding their position. For now. They were not firing their weapons. For now.

Laura was still clutching her daughter, who seemed to have snuggled up on Laura’s chest. Seth just stared. It was rude and this was definitely not the time, but he couldn’t help himself. The child looked...well, little. Seth tried to remember what his nieces had looked like before he left his hometown. The girl in Laura’s arms seemed about the same age Beth had been when he last saw her. That would make her around three years old. Beth wasn’t three anymore. And he had missed it.

Laura murmured something else to the girl, though Seth couldn’t make it out. The tone was comforting and reassuring. She looked at him, indicating the girl with her chin. “This is my daughter. Abigail. Abby.”

Seth moved from the window, trying not to be offended by the way Laura tightened her hold on Abby and shifted away from him as he approached. He walked past Laura and Abby to see what the situation was in the bedrooms. There was a window in each one, but no door. Looking out the bedroom window, he tried to make his voice low and calm. But he wanted to keep Laura informed.

Plus, he needed her. The public, including rangers, had not been welcome up here for decades. Old Man Grant excelled at keeping people off his land. Laura knew this mountain, and she knew what resources they had available inside the cabin. They were going to need her expertise to get out of this.

“I don’t see anyone else—just the two men out front. How many men did this Mahoney guy have with him?”

Laura’s dark eyes were serious and she kept one hand moving in a steady circle on Abby’s back. “Eight maybe? I was more focused on him and the gun he had pointed at Abby.”

“Why are they trying to kill you?” He looked at Abby, not wanting to frighten her. But he had to know, and the situation was beyond urgent. “Why did they leave you unconscious on the floor only to try to shoot you later?”

Laura’s voice was a sound of anguish. “I gave them what they wanted. I gave them the key. Then he said he wanted our deaths to look like an accident. He hit me. I don’t know how this happened.”

What key was she talking about? Every instinct Seth had was screaming at him to quit talking and start acting. But he’d seen more than one mission go sideways because of bad information. Getting the details correct was often the difference between life and death. “I need you to back up. Start at the beginning.”

“I found a safe-deposit key last week. This Mahoney came up the mountain today. With a lot of armed men. He said he wouldn’t hurt us if we gave him the key.”

“But he lied.”

Laura actually rolled her eyes at him. “Clearly.” Her voice was dry. Sarcastic.

“What’s in the safe-deposit box?”

“I don’t know,” she said.

“How do you not know?” This was not the time for Laura to keep details to herself.

“I didn’t even know the box existed. My husband, Josh, was killed eighteen months ago. I just boxed all his stuff up when we came back here. Last week was the first time I opened them. That’s when I found it.”

Seth had heard that Old Man Grant’s daughter had moved back home. She’d stayed even after Grant had died.

Seth quickly walked to the front windows and tried to look out without being seen. The two men were still there, not moving or talking. Assault teams were very good at waiting. He made his way to the windows in the back of the cabin. Nothing but typical Colorado mountain terrain. Two men out front in plain sight. Nothing visible anywhere else. Seth’s clenched stomach tightened even further. Those men had a plan and Seth knew he wasn’t going to like it.

“Laura, we still need a plan. If we can’t call for assistance, then we have to figure out some other way of getting it. Some other way to communicate that we are in trouble. We need help. Backup. More people with guns on our side.”

Laura held her daughter closer to her body and shrugged her shoulders in an almost desperate manner. “I don’t have any way to call for help. Believe me, if I did, I would have used it when the shooting started.”

Seth blew out an angry breath. He hated this feeling. This trapped and useless sinkhole that he somehow found himself back in. His voice was harsh, but getting shot by the two men out front would definitely be harsher. “Well, think. You said you gave them what they wanted? So they just left? Then why are they back?”

Seth sounded accusatory. Too bad. It needed to be asked and being nice was going to get them killed if they didn’t figure out how to get out of this situation.

Laura’s voice was almost stiff. “They knew I had the key to the safe-deposit box. They said if I gave it to them, they would leave. I did.” Her voice became even more brittle. “They lied. They said they had to kill us but it needed to look like an accident.”

The fire. It had to be the fire. Seth had been completely surprised at the fire when he came across it while out patrolling. He’d assumed it was started by careless campers. Now he knew.

Laura wasn’t done. “They said the smoke from the fire would kill me and Abby long before the actual flames. I panicked. They hit me, and the next thing I knew was you were there waking me up.”

Seth exhaled deeply. He had asked and now he knew. The men must have been watching from somewhere safe to make sure the fire actually consumed the cabin. The cabin with an unconscious woman and a three-year-old little girl inside.

Seth looked out the window again. The men were still waiting. The more the men outside stayed still, the more Seth felt like he needed to be doing something. Standing and waiting for someone else to act did not sit well with him. He wouldn’t—no he couldn’t—play the victim and wait to see what his fate would be.

He wondered if something had gone wrong with the fire. While it was certainly healthy when he’d come across it, it wasn’t moving terribly fast. It had run horizontally, blocking the road back down. And it would eventually reach the cabin and probably burn it down. But it wasn’t going to do so in the next few hours.

This Mahoney must have started the fire far away from the cabin so it wouldn’t look deliberate. But he’d miscalculated. And now it seemed that Mahoney would settle for Laura and Abby dying even if it didn’t look accidental.

Seth really wanted to know more about this Mahoney and how Laura found herself in this situation. But not now—right now, Seth wanted a satellite phone and an extraction team. He wasn’t going to get either. He needed to be smart and deliberate. And quick. He doubted the men would wait much longer.

Laura was just looking at him. Her hand was still making that steady circle on Abby’s back. Her other arm must be hurting from supporting all of Abby’s weight, but Laura wasn’t showing any signs of stopping. The little girl was resting her head on her mother’s shoulder, breathing into Laura’s neck. One tiny fist clutched a stuffed yellow duck. She looked warm and sleepy. Safe. Seth glanced at the back door. The clear path into the forest. They could make a run for it, but it wouldn’t work.

Laura spoke, her eyes also on the back door. “We won’t make it, will we?” It wasn’t really a question. Seth wanted to puff out his chest, flex his muscles and tell her that he would keep her and her daughter safe. That he could pick them both up and run them out that back door. Run them to safety. But Laura deserved honesty more than false assurances.

“No. If there are two men out front, then someone has to be watching the back. Even if they aren’t, the men out front would hear us. Chase us. And we—”

Laura finished for him. “Have Abby. We’re trapped.”