Page 88 of What Doesn't Kill Her

He had disposed of the firearms. In a wretched, rugged, ridiculous wilderness like this, that was easier than he could have hoped.

But he’d had enough of hiking and tracking and waiting for these supposed professionals to do their jobs. He would make one more attempt to handle matters using the help, and if that didn’t do it, he’d take over. He would get the job done, clean up the loose ends and be gone.

How hard could it be to kill one lone woman and her brat?

36

Three days later, late in the afternoon, the message from Zone arrived at Horizon Lookout.

I’m on the way back. Get out.

“Mr. Rogers he’s not,” Kellen observed as she helped Max pack his backpack full of whatever foodstuffs they were able to scrounge from Zone’s pantry. It wasn’t much; they had to get down the mountain quickly or they’d starve.

Max took one last look at the screen that scanned the area for life. “Nobody out there,” he said. There had been no signs of humans since Zone had disappeared off the screen.

“That’s good,” she said.

“Sure is,” he agreed.

They were both spooked.

And she was uncomfortable.

Max had proposed, naked and exposed.

She had rejected him and refused to tell him why.

He’d been mild, calm, conciliatory. For days. Hands off. A caretaker.

She was still waiting for the other shoe to fall. Because she’d come to know Max well, and the man wasn’t mild and conciliatory. He had an agenda and he worked it until he got his way.

But she had too much at stake to abandon her stance.

I’ve got the scar of a gunshot on my forehead.

Max shouldered the backpack, stepped onto the deck, performed a visual survey of the Horizon Lookout surroundings and lowered the stairs. “If you feel weak or need help, you tell me, but the sooner we’re off the mountain, the better.”

She followed Max down the steps and into the canyon. “You don’t believe we’re safe.”

“Do you?”

No. Of course she didn’t. Someone had murdered those men, those thieves and assassins, and that person was still out there somewhere. Their days in Horizon Lookout had given them a respite, but whoever it was, he was still out there, waiting and watching.

She was not completely recovered; the stitches in her arm itched, her hip ached, she slept hard and ate with appetite. Having abandoned her backpack on the trek here, she now walked unencumbered, carrying her weapon in her holster and a sleeping bag strapped to her shoulder. Going downhill would be easy...until they passed through the canyon and into the site of the battle for the Triple Goddess head.

Everything about this place was haunted: the bloodstains, the ashes caused by the burning tablet, the few human remains that lingered after three days of predation... Kellen had visited and revisited battlefields, but this was different. In this one, she had feared not for herself, but for her daughter, and as she stood here and remembered, her heart pumped fear and desperation through her veins.

Max took her arm. “We can’t linger.”

“I don’t even want to. Though somehow I think—”

“You could find a clue about the man who hired the hunters?”

“Yes.”

“We looked. Zone and I searched separately and together.” Max herded her down the mountain. “Whoever was chasing you and the head had access to funds.”

“Considering the value of the head, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.” It wasn’t until they turned onto the bicycle path that she relaxed and walked with Max without looking over her shoulder. “It’s beautiful up there on Horizon Ridge—and I don’t ever want to go back.”

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