Page 42 of Protective Assignment
She lifted the rock above her head with both tied hands, and used the momentum to bring it down with a sickening crack into the side of Ryker’s head.
He fell like a stone to the ground, not even making a sound as he dropped.River’s eyes widened and she gasped.The rock slipped out of her fingers.Had she killed him?His eyes were blank and vacant, the same way her father’s had been when she had seen him laid out on the ground of their driveway.
Cade rushed toward her and pulled her into his arms.
“Hey, hey, I’ve got you,” he murmured, and quickly removed the bindings from her wrists before he gently took her face into his hands.
River knew she should say something, acknowledge Cade in some way.But she couldn’t take her eyes off Ryker’s body on the ground, unmoving.Dead.Before she could stop herself, she let out a wail of shock, the sound bouncing off the trees as she tried to wrap her head around what she had just done.
“Are you okay?”Concern laced his words as he waited for her to answer.She still couldn’t look away from the body.Cade leaned forward and kissed her forehead before wrapping her in his jacket and trying to move her away from the scene.
She felt like she was floating outside her body and had to force her feet to move.She was shaking so hard from the cold, she thought she’d crumble into pieces.
“Let’s get you out of here,” he told her, and leaned down to check on Ryker’s body before he led her away from the clearing.She was crying, her body wracked by enormous sobs that she couldn’t control.Cade pulled her closer to his side and continued walking them away.
Once he had gotten her out of the clearing, he paused to let her catch her breath.
“Are you hurt?”he asked, looking her over.
She couldn’t say anything.She couldn’t even breathe right now.Had she killed him?She’d killed him, right?She saw him lying on the ground, empty eyes looking up.He was dead.He had to be.Was it…over?
Cade checked her for injuries, and she let him.She couldn’t react to anything he was saying.Her body was in lockdown, both shock from the cold and the adrenaline leaving her system.His hands were strong and sure as they moved over her, and she wondered how she could have done that.Had she had that in her all along?Was she really capable of it?Killing someone?Why hadn’t she done it before?He really was gone, right?Dead.So many thoughts.Too many questions.It was suddenly too loud in her mind, but silence surrounded them.
Finally, she was able to speak again.
“Is he dead?”she croaked, her voice sounding broken.It had started to snow even harder, the cold closing in around them.She knew they couldn’t stay out here much longer, but she needed to know for sure.
Cade nodded.“He is, River.He is,” he assured her.“There was no pulse.You killed him, River.It’s over.It’s really over.”
She felt her legs turn to mush and heard Cade’s startled “umph” as she collapsed into him.How long had she been waiting to hear those words?She couldn’t believe it.Ryker was dead, just like his father.There was nobody to lead the Shepards anymore.
She couldn’t believe it was really true.Ryker was gone.His followers had no leader.He was lying dead in the woods while they were all trying to run away.No one knew.Shewanted to laugh out loud, or scream, or…something.Her emotions were scattered all over the place.
She kept replaying the moment where she swung the rock at his head, the feel of it thud against his skull, even the sickening cracking sound.Seeing him fall lifeless to the ground.His dead eyes.She’d done that.
“Let’s get you out of here,” Cade told her.“You need to get warm and we need to get you checked out for real.”
She shook her head and her eyes suddenly felt heavy.She felt like she was wading through mud.It must be the adrenaline crash.Cade seemed to realize this and stopped to pick her up.
“No, I need to walk on my own.I can do it,” she said more confidently than she felt at the moment.
Cade nodded and wrapped his arm around her again to steady her.He seemed to know where he was going, so she allowed him to guide her through the trees.It was a relief to rely on him because all of these trees looked the same to her.She’d get turned around in a heartbeat, especially in the state she was in now.She trusted him to get her to safety.
She might have been dragged into this forest as a victim, as just another one of the dozens of people the Shepards had hurt over the years, but she wasn’t walking out of it as one.She had finally done it.She’d stood up to Ryker and finally ended his reign of terror.She was free.
The elated feeling was almost more than she could take, and she nearly felt drunk on it, knowing she had freed herself and her mother and her sister and many others from the clutches of a man as evil as Ryker.But she also felt guilty, knowing she had taken a life, even if he had been a monster.
She clung on to Cade for dear life, and kept her eyesfixed ahead of her.She didn’t know what she was going to do now that she didn’t have to run anymore.One thing she was sure of, though—whatever came next, she could handle it.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Cade lifted his hand to try and keep the snow off his face.The blizzard was really starting to set in now, and he wasn’t sure how much longer they would be able to make it out here in the cold.
River wasn’t saying anything, but that didn’t surprise him.God knew what they had done to her since the last time he had seen her.He would get to the bottom of it once they were safe again, but right now, all he wanted was to get her back to the lodge and make sure she was okay.
He couldn’t believe he had found her.His instincts had been right—the two people breaking away from the larger group were Ryker and River.Cade didn’t know where Ryker had been planning to take her, but he was glad he had managed to get to them in time.She seemed to have broken free from Ryker’s grasp, at least for long enough to put some distance between them, but Ryker had trained a gun on her by the time he reached them.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he told her over and over again, as he guided her through the forest and back to the freedom waiting for her beyond.He still couldn’t believe what he had seen, but he should have known she was capable of something like that—of showing that strength.She hadfought so hard to get away from the Shepards, and she had proven herself willing to do anything to make sure she never had to go back.
