Page 29 of Manhunt in the Narrows
Something was off.
Sayles forged ahead along the rim of the canyon, that impenetrable mask back in place, a few feet ahead. His feet ached. The blisters along the inside of his thigh screamed for new dressings as the weight of his gear wore him down. He’d lost his usual gait in the days they’d pushed themselves to the brink, overcompensating on his right foot and aggravating both injuries. It was harder to breathe up here. Took more effort to take that next step. None of it explained the change in his partner.
She’d lied to him. He’d read it in her face, but Elias wouldn’t push. Not yet. Not while they were still on the verge of losing the Hitchhiker Killer to the backcountry spread out ahead. She was on the cusp of burning out. He could already see her instinct to shut down, shut him out, but they’d been through too much already. He couldn’t lose any part of her, and that scared him the most. How thoroughly she’d pulled him in with that gut-wrenching smile, borderline rude retorts and sour attitude. How utterly dependent he’d become on her out here. And how quickly he’d given up on making up for his mistakes, for letting his dad down. Justice had always called to him, but with Sayles… It didn’t have quite the same pull anymore.
The ground shifted underneath one boot, and Elias jerked to the right. To the edge of the goat trail. His arms went wide ina fight for balance, but he’d overcorrected. A hand shot out to stabilize him—strong and sure—pulling him back to safety. Her fingers dug into his wrist, and his pulse jumped against her touch. Out of control. Then again, when had he been in control around her? His heart had taken a beating over the past two days. Level for one moment and rocketing into the atmosphere the next. He wouldn’t be surprised if he failed his next annual physical with the damage he’d done to his cardiovascular system. Not to mention the invisible scars. “Thanks.”
A flush worked up her neck, her mouth parting on a strong exhale. “You’re not getting out of here that easy.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” While he had no intentions of hiking this particular trail again, Elias had already accepted that Zion National Park would be in his future. As many times as it took before she realized he wasn’t her bastard of an ex. That she mattered. “You can let go now.”
“What?” Sayles dropped her gaze to where her hand gripped his, then pulled away as if he’d burned her. Stepping back, she added a couple feet between them, but no more. Ready to grab him again, he imagined. “Sorry.”
He managed not to go tumbling over the edge this time and closed the distance she’d added. Sliding his fingers into her ponytail, Elias tipped her head back, forced her to look up at him. An entire galaxy swirled in her green gaze as dark as any pine tree he’d caught on the way into the park, full of a combination of hesitation and brightness. “I’m not. That’s the second time you’ve saved my life.”
“It’s a wonder you’ve gotten this far in life without me.” Her hand found its way to his chest, to push him away or draw him closer, he wasn’t sure yet. He didn’t dare ask.
His smile tugged at the dry patches at the corners of his mouth. Damn, he hadn’t expected this. Hadn’t expected her. This case was supposed to be the next rung to getting his careerback on track, but she’d solely knocked him down a couple of pegs. “What else does that mouth of yours do?”
“Probably hurt your feelings.” There wasn’t an inch of give in her position. No inclination to run. Or hide. She stood toe-to-toe, every inch his equal, and he couldn’t get enough of the sight. Of the power she held over him.
He couldn’t stop the laugh charging through his chest. Releasing his hold on her hair, Elias swiped at the dryness around his mouth. “Go out with me. After this case is finished and I’ve arrested this asshole we’re hunting, go out with me.”
“I’ve slept in your sleeping bag the past two nights, whether I realized it or not.” Sayles swung around to face the goat trail, giving him her back. “Kind of feels like we’ve already missed our chance at a first date.”
She wasn’t going to make this easy, was she? And, hell, Elias wasn’t sure what he would do if she had. He followed in her mud-stiff tracks. “All right. Then tell me what you see happening between us after this case is finished.”
Sayles didn’t answer for a breath. Two. And he realized he’d stopped breathing to avoid missing her answer. “Why can’t we just appreciate what we have now?”
The sucker punch struck as a physical hit that nearly made him falter. “What does that mean?”
Turning her face toward the sun, she gripped her pack’s straps. “It means I’ve lived through the mind games and the manipulation, the isolation and control, and come out on the other side worse for wear. I want to be able to make my own decisions and have a say in my life. For the first time in over a decade, I’m putting myself first, and I’m not sure going from one bad relationship into another is going to give me that freedom.”
His hand found hers, and Elias pulled her to a stop. While they were headed for the same end point on this trail—aligned in their goals on this investigation—she’d donned those damndefenses again. He scanned her expression, looking for a way through, but she’d locked him out. “Have I given you any reason to believe I would try to control you like that?”
That intense gaze, highlighted by the sun’s arc through the sky, bounced between his eyes. Her lips pursed at the edges. He could see the gutting response forming, but a rush of defeat smoothed her features. “Being thrown together on a death-defying assignment for a couple days doesn’t amount to anything, Elias. I knew my ex for years before I married him. There weren’t any red flags until it was too late, and I paid for it with eight months behind bars. I refuse to go into anything that blindly.”
“You’re serious.” His fingers tingled to touch her. To pull her against him and remind her she had more instinct than she gave herself credit for. That she was the one who held all the power in this dynamic they’d forged over the course of the investigation. What would it take for her to see herself the way he saw her? “I’m not your ex, Sayles.”
“I know that.” She slipped her hand out of his, leaving him colder than he’d expected. “That’s what makes this all the more terrifying.”
Because for her it would be better to go back to that familiar misery than take a risk on something new. Tension radiated down his spine as he squared off with the meaning behind her words, and it wasn’t until right then Elias realized how much he’d allowed himself to hope. For this. For her.
At some point since losing his father, he’d stopped working for anything other than justice. The next killer, the next victim, the next break in the case—they were all that mattered. He’d sacrificed friendships and what little family he’d had left. Nights out, vacations, sick days. Every waking minute had been filled with that unending craving for forgiveness. For not finding the people who’d killed his father, for costing his confidentialinformant her life. He’d thrown himself into the work until it’d consumed him and left nothing but a husk of the man he’d wanted to be in honor of his father.
Until her.
Over the course of the past two days, he’d felt like a new man. A better man. One who wasn’t held back by everything bad that had ever happened to him. None of it had mattered. Because of her. She’d pulled on some internal string he hadn’t known existed, hidden deep and out of reach, and had managed to unravel him in a matter of days. He’d had a lot of firsts, but Sayles was the first person to show him he was more than a man shaped by mistakes. That he could be anything he wanted if he just let himself, but that required letting go of that familiar misery, didn’t it? He hadn’t been prepared for the force of this attraction, and now it was going to cost him. Elias cleared his throat. A distraction. He needed a distraction. Mountains towering over 5,000 feet in elevation crowded around their position along the Narrows cliffs. No way to discern if the Hitchhiker Killer had come this way. “What are the chances the killer will take one of these smaller branches off the end of the trail to avoid us?”
“I don’t know. Most of the smaller canyons are impassable after a few hundred feet, which is why park rangers made Big Spring the official end of the trail.” Confusion deepened the lines between her brows, but she didn’t call him out on the change of subject. “I think he’s more likely to head into the backcountry along the east river that feeds into the Narrows. Hikers are required to apply for permits so we can keep track of who is out here and how many, but I doubt he filled out the paperwork. That would make finding him too easy.”
“Then we head for the backcountry.” Swiping the disappointment to the back of his mind where he would neverunpack it again, Elias maneuvered ahead, taking the lead. “Can we access the east river from this trail—”
An explosion of pain ripped through his shoulder.
Sayles’s scream echoed off the opposite canyon wall and seared into his brain as he fell back against her. They slammed into the rock face together, his feet hanging over the edge of the trail. Her breath crushed out of her beneath his weight. Long fingers clamped directly over the new hole he’d acquired, and Elias kicked against the dirt to make them as small as a target as possible. They were cornered. Unable to flee without putting them back in the shooter’s path. “Stay down.”
“You’re bleeding.” She scrambled to free herself of her pack’s straps, but the movement only jarred the bullet lodged in his shoulder deeper.
