Page 58 of SEAL of Fate

Luke would wait for the transportation Roberts had requested in case Jordan circled and returned while Travis, Coop, and Jake followed her trail. With their cell phones useless again, they would be incommunicado as soon as they progressed beyond earshot. Their only satellite phone was in Coop’s unmarked FBI vehicle, parked at Halstead’s house.

Coop reappeared, the backpack strapped in place, and handed his rifle to Travis. Jake slowly rose when Travis said, “Let’s go.” The three friends exchanged worried glances. Pushing the dog to keep going gutted Travis. He could track Jordan, but using Jake to follow her trail would be faster. Not knowing what shape she was in or how long she could stay on her feet made speed compulsory.

“Find her and bring her back.” Luke’s gaze pierced Travis’s heart, convincing him that his friend knew finding Jordan represented more than just a job.

How the hell?He’d never understand Luke’s perceptiveness, but he’d never doubt him. Travis straightened with more confidence than he felt. “I will.”

“No one left behind,” Coop added.

A bark from Jake as he found the trail returned Travis’s attention to the trees and the steadily falling snow. With Luke’s words running through his mind, he broke into a jog.

It wasn’t long before they had to slow their pace through the thickets and downed trees. Occasionally, Travis found grass crushed by a recent footstep or freshly snapped twigs on low branches, but the snow quickly covered the ground. Jake never hesitated, though, immediately determining when Jordan left the relatively flat terrain, veering right toward a steep incline.

Coop halted to readjust his pack. “Why go to higher ground? Hypothermia?” Coop’s suggestion hit too close to the concern that was topmost in Travis’s mind. Dread rose in his throat like a hot air balloon.

“It’s not that cold yet, and she’s dressed warmly.” Was he trying to convince himself or Coop?Shit!“Let’s find her before nightfall.” His long strides ate up the slope and reduced the dog’s lead. He was grateful the storm appeared to be letting up. The specter of Jordan dying from exposure wasn’t one he could entertain and still remain on task.

The incline was a tough climb, slick with melting snow, but it eventually plateaued. He could see a wall of rimrocks through the thick trees, jutting into the sky ahead. Jake trotted straight toward them, handing Travis a seed of hope. If Jordan could reach them, there was a chance she would find shelter from the elements. Dry wood to burn shouldn’t be a problem. Did she have anything with her to start a fire? Once he found her, it wouldn’t matter. Barely staying within sight of Jake, he picked up the pace and heard Coop do the same.

Silence and troubled thoughts weighed heavily on his shoulders. The cloud cover, darkening sky, and dropping temperature told him they were running out of time. At their last pit stop, he’d tied Jake to a short rope Coop pulled from his backpack and hooked the other end to his belt. Travis wasn’t taking a chance on losing the dog again as darkness fell.

The trees began to thin the closer they got to the rimrocks, where he hoped to find Jordan holed up in a cave with a blazing fire and smoke visible for miles. Each time they stopped, he borrowed Coop’s binoculars to scrutinize the rocks within view. This time, his friend handed them over before he could ask and knelt to pour water into a metal cup for Jake.

Travis leaned the rifle against a tree trunk and raised the binocs. Studying the rocks from left to right, he searched for smoke or anything that moved within his restricted view. He’d grown used to being disappointed, and he almost missed the slim, dark-haired figure in blue jeans and a red-checkered shirt struggling to reach the base of the rimrocks.Where the hell was her coat?A steep slope littered with loose, fallen rocks stood between her and an aperture in the wall that might be a cave.

“Coop, take a look at this and tell me my eyes aren’t playing tricks on me.”

Grabbing the rifle, Coop looked through the scope, following Travis’s line of sight. “That’s her, all right, but shit, do you see movement at two o’clock?”

Travis jerked the glasses to see what Coop was viewing. “Shit! It’s a damn mountain lion.”

“It’s stalking her, and she doesn’t know it’s there.” Coop lowered the rifle and scanned the surrounding trees. “What do you think? A half-mile?”

“Maybe. Can you get him?” Travis’s calm voice shocked the hell out of him since he’d never felt so helpless or scared.

Coop sprinted twenty feet to the right and rested the rifle barrel on a three-foot-tall boulder that protruded from the ground. Travis followed the cat's progress as it sprang to the top of a flat rock that formed a ledge a few feet from where Jordan toiled. His whole world tilted when the cat readied to pounce.

“Jordan, behind you!” He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled for all he was worth. It didn’t matter that there was nothing Jordan could do to defend herself once she saw the predator. He was too damn far away to help, and her only chance lay with Coop as he carefully and systematically prepared to take the shot.

Against all odds, Jordan must have heard him. She jerked around, lost her balance, and began sliding toward the rock where the mountain lion perched. She clawed at the earth with her fingers and finally got her feet braced in the loose ground enough to stop. The instant she scrambled up, the cat leaped from the slab, striking her chest with both front feet, knocking her down, and landing a few feet below her. Travis couldn’t tell if Jordan knew what hit her, but she immediately started crawling up the slope with the cat stalking her every move.

She’d done everything she could under the circumstances, though pelting the wild animal with rocks barely got its attention. Jordan didn’t have the upper body strength to take on a hundred and fifty-pound mountain lion with her bare hands, but she did the next best thing. Letting her body roll down the incline put the needed distance between predator and prey.

Coop squeezed the trigger. The report blasted through the silent forest, but the suppressor on the end of Coop’s barrel saved his ass since there’d been no time to don hearing protection. Almost simultaneously, thecrackfollowed as the 50-caliber bullet went supersonic.

Travis counted down the nearly three seconds it would take the projectile to reach its target.

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