Page 30 of Manhunt in the Narrows
Elias gritted against the pain.
“That’s what happens when you get shot.” Her heart thudded hard against her chest and down his spine. Out of control. Though she wouldn’t admit it. Damn it. He had to get them out of here, but short of crawling on their hands and knees, the killer had every advantage. Where was the son of a bitch? He scanned their surroundings. He’d done this, let his personal agenda get in the way of this case. He’d made another mistake. “You need to run. Get out of here. I’ll draw him off.”
Sayles ripped the top of her pack open, the zipper protesting as she searched for something inside. In a matter of breaths, the first aid kit was balanced on her knee, and she popped the lid. “I’m not leaving you here to fight him alone. We barely survived the last time. We have better odds together.”
“Well, isn’t that romantic.” The Hitchhiker Killer blocked the path ahead. Raising his weapon. And took aim at Sayles. “I hope I’m not interrupting, but as I said before I do have need of your assistance, Ranger Green, and I’m on a bit of a schedule.” Hemotioned Sayles up with the wave of the gun. “So, if you don’t mind, chop chop.”
Positioning himself in front of her, Elias set himself up as a shield. Though he wasn’t sure it would do a damn bit of good considering he already had two holes punctured in his torso. Her hands clamped over the wound in his shoulder. Even at gunpoint, she was trying to ensure he wouldn’t bleed out in front of her. “She’s not going anywhere with you.”
Elias didn’t give the bastard the chance to pull the trigger. He lunged. The collision knocked him off-balance.
With a single shove, Elias went over the cliff.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“No!” She dived for the spot where Elias had disappeared.
The ground rushed to meet her in a frenzy of dirt and lacerating gravel. Her chest threatened to cave under the impact as she reached for nothing but air.
He was gone. There one second and gone the next. Acidic loss burned up her throat. No. It wasn’t possible. This was all some kind of nightmare. She was going to wake up. Any minute now they’d be in her one-person tent, her sprawled across his chest and him acting like he’d gotten the best night sleep of his life. They would have breakfast together and throw barbs at each other. He would flash her that smile that went straight to her insides and maybe kiss her again. “Elias!”
Only the Virgin River’s roar answered. Tears burned in her eyes.
“Yes, very sad. Shall we go?” A strong hand wrapped around her biceps and hauled her to her feet. Her legs had turned to Jell-O. Her inability to get her feet underneath her—to comply—testified to his strength as an all-around psychopath. “As I said, I’m on a deadline, and I’ve already wasted enough time trying to get my hands on you for this little project.”
They were moving. Along the trail. Away from where Elias had gone over the edge. She couldn’t just leave him. There was still a chance he’d survived, right? Sayles ripped her arm out the killer’s grasp. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Stumbling back, she spun on her heel. Ready to launch down the trail. But she didn’t make it far. She saw his shadow first. Then came the pain. Crushing weight tackled her into the ground. Her knee slipped over the edge of the two-foot-wide goat trail, but the killer’s weight held her in place. Her forehead bounced off slick mud. White explosions danced behind her eyes. Air. She couldn’t breathe. Excruciating agony threatened to snap her spine in half as she tried to suck in a breath.
“Unfortunately, Ranger Green, that’s not your decision.” He fisted his hand in her hair and pulled, forcing her back to compensate. The barrel of his gun cut into the side of her face. Somehow warm and cold at the same time. Mouth pressed against her ear, he exerted pure dominance over her. “Now, I’ve been patient up until now. Keep fighting me and I will burn this entire park to the ground before throwing you into the flames. Do you understand?”
The grip on her scalp tightened. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, quickly dying with the gust of wind over the top of the canyon. Not from the pain but the sudden gulf of darkness bleeding from her heart. Right where Elias had set up residence. She’d convinced herself she’d known emptiness and loss, but it was nothing compared to the void chipping away at her now. Dirt infiltrated her mouth and nose; thick layers of mud stuck to her uniform and face.
“Say the words.” Another wave of pain punctuated the Hitchhiker Killer’s point. “Say that you understand what’s at stake.”
Every cell in her body fought against agreeing to anything this man wanted. The fight might physically cost her, but inside, she knew Elias would expect nothing less. Her teeth locked. “Go to hell.”
“Oh, Ranger Green, where do you think I came from?” The pressure against her spine vanished.
She managed to suck in a lungful of oxygen a split second before the killer wrenched her upward by her hair. Slapping both hands over his to ease the pain, she had little physical control facing him. Any second now, Elias would drag himself over the lip of the canyon. He would tell this bastard to let her go. He’d look like hell but throw her that crooked smile to ease the anxiety churning nausea in her gut. One second. Two. She waited. Ignored the Hitchhiker Killer’s prompts for her attention. And waited. The hard pound of her heartbeat between her ears stretched seconds into minutes, into what felt like hours. But he never came, and her heart broke all over again. Gone. He was gone.
He’d been right there for the past two days. At her side. Keeping her from mentally breaking when all she’d wanted to do was curl into a ball and disappear. Elias had seen through the armor she’d built around herself and accepted every broken piece she’d tried to hide from the outside world, and she’d thrown it back in his face. Unwilling to give up a sliver of the hurt she’d survived in favor of the unknown. Because she’d been scared. Unfairly compared him to her ex when they couldn’t be more different. She’d regret it for the rest of her life.
“Let’s go, and if you try anything like that little rock-in-your-bag maneuver, I will shoot you in the arm. Then the other arm. And then I’ll move on to your hands until there is nothing left of you.” The killer shoved her forward, and it took everything in her not to hit the ground a second time. He collected her pack and tossed it at her chest with too much force. “You won’t need them where we’re going.”
She faced off with golden-yellow sun making its way toward the horizon, brushing off layers of dirt from her uniform shirt. Sweat beaded at her temples despite the consistent breeze skirting the rim of the canyon. “Asshole.”
His laugh hit wrong, disingenuous and sickly. He didn’t answer, but she had a feeling he wasn’t the first person people invited over to dinner.
“Where are we going?” Sayles kept awareness at her back while searching for a way to escape. Rocks shifted beneath her boots, the gravel much looser here than along other parts of the trail as they closed in on Big Spring. She could throw a handful in his face. Give herself a head start, but she wasn’t sure her ribs could hold up against another tackle. Emerald-colored waters rippled 1,000 feet below under the onslaught of two medium-size waterfalls. The river was shallowest here, a hub that swelled only with the onslaught of storms. There was no surviving a jump from this distance. Elias had fallen at a deeper section. He could’ve survived. He could need help.
“If I told you that, I’d be ruining the surprise. All you need to worry about is helping me avoid any other ranger patrols.” The killer’s footsteps kept in time with hers. Deliberate. Intimidating. He wanted her to know he could strike out, that he was the one in control here.
Damn it. Why had Elias put himself between her and the man at her back? He had to have known he’d lose a fight against a gun, but he’d made the choice to protect her anyway. To give her a chance to run. Because that was the kind of man he was. A protector, through and through, with the weight of the entire world on his shoulders. No one else would’ve been good enough to do the job, but that relentlessness had forced him to sacrifice so much. And for a stupid minute, she’d convinced herself she could be the one to help him break free of those self-inflicted responsibilities. For a stupid minute, she’d considered saying yes. But handing her heart over to someone else—giving him the same power she’d granted her ex—scared her more than falling over the edge of this cliff. She couldn’t do that. She couldn’t go through that again,
Sayles glanced back, vying for a view of the river. For some sign Elias wasn’t dead.
“I’ve never met someone who thinks so loudly before.” A nudge in her lower spine forced her to look ahead. The gun took shape in her peripheral vision. “Whatever escape you’re considering, Ranger Green, it won’t work. I will find you, and you will wish you were dead.”
