Page 112 of Break My Fall

Her teeth chattered. “I don’t think I can stop. If I stop, I might not go again. Ever.”

He pulled his phone from his pocket. Still no signal. “I think we should back away from the river and see if we can make a big enough circle that we don’t run into anything near the hut.”

“Okay.” Her eyes were huge in her pale face.

“You’re amazing. You got us to the river. And you got us to the right spot. Will you let me take over from here?”

She nodded. “Please. I’m so afraid I’m going to get us killed.”

He pressed a kiss to her wet forehead. “You’ve done great. Now it’s my turn to keep us alive.”

She dropped her head to his chest. “Okay.”

Her trust in him nearly broke him. He had no idea if he could keep her alive or not. All he knew for sure was that he would die trying.

They’d been walking roughly downhill for a while now, and the ground was oversaturated. It took several minutes to make the wide loop he wanted to make. He caught one glimpse of the hut. Eight months of the year, it would have been completely hidden. You could walk within fifty yards and miss it.

How had the Quinn cousins ever found it?

And why was it so weirdly marked but hidden?

Questions he might never get answers to.

A rush of sound filtered through the rain and the river. A motor. No. Several motors. Not car engines. Motorcycles? ATVs? How could anyone drive either of those through this mess?

There must be a trail, narrow and intentionally allowed to be somewhat overgrown. He’d seen things like that, and unless you knew exactly where they were, like this hut, they were difficult to spot.

He pulled Meredith against him. The rain made the acoustics tricky, but he thought their company was coming from their left. If he knew more about where he was and who was after them, they could run. As it was? The safest option was to hide.

He looked around them and made for a small copse of evergreens. The white pine had branches that came almost to the ground. But the pine needles were mostly on the ends of the branches. If they climbed under the branches and got up against the trunk, they could probably sit on the lower branches and be completely hidden.

It took a few minutes to find the best spot. He motioned to Meredith to go first. She wrinkled her nose but dropped to her hands and knees. He held the branches back and she crawled through them. When she was far enough in, he followed her, then allowed the branches to close around them.

Meredith’s body shook from the cold. Her lips were blue.

Panic gnawed on the edges of Gray’s mind. He had to get her warm.

Doubts flooded him again. The hut they’d been looking for was a few yards away. From what Meredith said, it was unlikely that it would have heat, but it would give them a chance to getout of the elements. Maybe even get dry. But instead, they were hiding in a tree.

Had he made the right call? He couldn’t explain why he’d been so sure it was best to take off on foot. Or why he’d been determined to avoid the hut.

But as the revving engines grew even closer, he prayed.Protect us. Show me how to protect her. I’ll die for her if I need to, but I’d much rather live with her for the rest of my life. Please don’t let us have made it this far just to lose each other.

A new sound filtered through the forest. People running. Yelling. And then the unmistakable sound of machine-gun fire.

Meredith grabbed him and held on.

He pressed into her and drew his own weapon.

Private citizens weren’t permitted to own machine guns in North Carolina. Gray wasn’t naive enough to believe that meant there weren’t any in his jurisdiction, but he also didn’t think any of the people he suspected of owning one were out here today, in the rain, shooting up the forest.

The gunfire continued sporadically for the next three minutes. From the sound of it, Gray feared that at least one shooter was nearing their position.

Then three men emerged from the left. They were dressed in camo, and each held a weapon. One had an M16. One a handgun. He could only see part of the third man’s weapon. Best guess was another handgun.

They paused near enough to the tree that Gray could hear them talking.

“It shouldn’t be that hard to track them,” the tallest man said. “They’ve been sliding all over the woods. How could we have lost them?”

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