Lone Defender

Stop thinking about it, and do something.

Now!

He aimed, fired to the left of the struggling pair, the shot reverberating through the desert. One momentary explosion of sound, one small flash of light and then silence, the two heaving figures frozen in place. Skylar to the right. Her assailant to the left. An easy shot this time.

“Don’t move, buddy. If you do, I guarantee it will be the last move you ever make. Where’s his gun, Grady?”

“He dropped it while we were fighting.” She panted, crawling through spiky desert foliage, coming up with the gun in her hand. “Got it.”

“Good. Come over here. Let’s give our friend a little space.”

“I’d rather give him something else,” she muttered, but she did as Jonas asked.

Surprising.

According to Kane, Skylar often fought for the sake of fighting. Tough and strong is how he’d described her. Jonas had still doubted that he’d find her alive. He had, and there was no going back and saying no as he had a hundred times since his wife and son were murdered.

No. I won’t be coming back to work.

No. I won’t help find the missing hiker, biker, photographer.

No, no, no.

This time he’d said yes. He’d committed to finding Skylar, and now he had to get her out of the desert alive.

“You got here just in time. That guy’s pretty strong,” she huffed, and he frowned.

“And you’re pretty weak. I thought you were going to stay where I left you.”

“I’m not the kind of gal who waits around for the cavalry to arrive. I’m surprised Kane didn’t mention that while he was filling you in on my stubborn determination and charming nature.” She started toward the perp, and Jonas tugged her back.

“He did. This time, though, the cavalry is here, and you are going to wait. I’ll handle our perp.” He didn’t give her a chance to argue, just approached the gunman the way he’d done countless others, adrenaline pumping, gun drawn, all his focus on the potential threat.

“Face down. Keep your hands where I can see them.” He issued the order, and then patted the prone man, found no other weapons. “He’s clean.”

“Let me go. You got no cause to do this to me.”

“No cause? You tried to kill me.” Skylar moved closer, crouched down beside the man, pressed the gun to his temple. “How about you tell me why?”

“There’s nothing to tell. If I’d tried to kill you, you’d be dead.” The man spat, his face pressed to the ground, his body still.

Jonas moved in, yanked him up by the arm as much to get him away from Skylar’s gun as anything else. “How many people are with you?”

“Who said there’s anyone with me?” His voice had a raspy smoker’s edge, his braided hair falling over narrow shoulders. Old. Frailer than Jonas expected.

“How about we don’t play games, old man? I saw your fire last night and the night before. You’ve been following me for a couple of days, and you’re not alone. I want to know who is with you, and I want to know why you’re after Skylar.”

“I’m not after anyone. I’m out mindin’ my own business, enjoyin’ the desert. Nothin’ wrong with that, is there?” He shifted, the subtle movement putting Jonas on edge. The desert had gone silent, the stillness more telling than any words the perp could have spoken.

“I think we’d better get out of here.” He grabbed Skylar’s hand, pulled her away from the old man.

“We can’t just let him go. He tried to kill me.” She pulled back, but he didn’t release his hold.

“I want to survive the night. I want you to survive. If that means he escapes, so be it.”

“But—”

“He’s not alone, Grady. His friends could be anywhere, and I’m not willing to wait around for them to show up.” Not only did he not want to wait around for them to show up, but he wanted to put as much distance between them and the perp as he could as quickly as he could.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t sure how fast Skylar could move, how long she could keep going.

“I still think we should take him with us. I want answers. He’s the only way to get them.”

“Getting them won’t do you any good if you’re dead.”

“I’m not planning on dying anytime soon.”

“Most people aren’t.”

Gabriella hadn’t been.

And Jonas hadn’t been planning to lose her.

He shoved the thought aside, shoved aside the grief that went with it. He needed to focus on the moment, on the danger that followed them, on doing what he’d told Kane he would.

Find Skylar.

Get her back to civilization.

That was the mission. He’d fulfill it, then he’d go back to the life he’d built for himself. His woodworking shop, his job, the routine he’d forged in the months following Gabriella’s death.

Nearly four years of routine.

It hadn’t brought him peace, but it had brought him safety. No more heartache. No more sorrow. Nothing but restoring what had been left to decay. Old houses were easier to deal with than people.

Easier.

Safer.

Emptier.

“Do you think he’s following us?” Skylar panted, pulling him back to the moment, the mission.

“He doesn’t have a gun. We have two. I think he’ll hang back and wait for his buddies to join him.”

“I hope you’re right, because I’m telling my legs to move, but they don’t seem to be listening.”

“You’re doing fine.” But he was nearly dragging her along, her stumbling steps keeping him from moving as fast as he would have liked. As fast as they needed to.

Somewhere in the distance a bird called, the sound crawling up his spine, urging him to hurry. Another call answered the first, and he tensed. He knew the desert and her creatures, and he knew the sound of a posse moving in, a net tightening. Knew it … felt it. If they didn’t move fast, they’d be trapped, boxed in by the men who were hunting them.

“Kane said you’re a marathon runner. Think you can turn on a little speed?”

“I—?” Skylar began, but he pulled her into a dead run, not giving her time to think, to doubt her ability. She had to know. Had to sense what he did. Danger breathing down their necks, nipping at their heels. Whatever she’d gotten involved in, it wasn’t pretty, and if they weren’t careful, it would take them both down.

“How much time do you think we have before they find us?” Skylar panted. A runner for sure, but a runner at the end of her reserves. How much farther could she go? How much more energy did she have to expend?

“Not enough,” he answered her question and his own.

“I was afraid you were going to say that.” She coughed on the last word, the sound tight and hot. Her hand was hot, too, heat coming off her body in waves. He could feel it through his sleeve.

The mesa was just ahead. A mile or less, but Skylar’s pace was slowing, her breath coming in short, frantic gasps.

“We need to keep going, Grady. Another few minutes. You can give me that, right?” He tightened his grip on her hand, and she squeezed back, not bothering to waste breath responding.

Lightning flashed to the north, the low rumble of thunder reminding Jonas of another night, another woman. Pouring rain. Lightning. The sound of a gunshot. Gabriella falling, blood pouring from her chest. His frantic, futile attempts to staunch the flow as the storm raged around him.

He pulled his thoughts up short. The memories could still bring him to his knees if he let them. He wouldn’t. Not now. Not when there was another life hanging in the balance, another woman depending on him.

Thunder rumbled again, and the first drop of rain fell on Jonas’s cheek. A downpour would wash away their footprints, make it more difficult for their hunters to track them. More difficult, but not impossible. There were plenty of men in the area like Jonas, trained in the old ways and capable of finding the smallest trace of their prey.

“How much farther?” Skylar huffed, her words barely carrying above the sound of rain hitting the desert floor.

“We’re almost there.”

“Almost where?“

“The mesa.”

“It’s a sheer cliff, Jonas, a rock wall. We’ll be trapped.” She bit out the words one at a time, every ounce of her fear and anger ringing with them.

“It’s not a sheer cliff, and we won’t be trapped. Now, how about you save your energy for what lies ahead instead of wasting it on words?”

“Call me crazy, but when my life is hanging by a thread, I like to know the plan.”

“The plan is we keep quiet, we keep going and we escape.”

“We’re about to run into a granite wall. Give me something more than that.”

“You ever free-climb?”

“Not at night. Not in the rain. Not …” Her voice trailed off.

“What?”

“You’re right. I need to save my energy.” She clammed up; whatever she thought about climbing the mesa was her secret.

Jonas understood that.

He knew all about holding things close to the cuff, keeping them hidden, and he let silence take them both.

Thunder cracked, the sound reverberating through the darkness, the sudden, heavy downpour soaking through Jonas’s shirt, dripping from his hair and into his eyes. There were ponchos in his pack, but he didn’t waste time pulling them out. A dry corpse was just as dead as a wet one.

The rain drowned out any sound of pursuit, but Jonas’s skin crawled, the hair on his nape standing on end. Danger was closing in.

Skylar must have sensed it, too. She tensed, her grip on his hand tightening, then loosening as she tried to pull free. “You go … ahead. I’ll find a place to wait … and ambush our … followers.”

“I didn’t take you for a quitter, Grady.”

“I’m not quitting, I’m—”

“Trying to make sure at least one of us survives? Because, if that’s your plan, you’d better change it. I told Kane that I’d get you out of the Sonoran. That’s what I’m going to do.”

“One of us living is a whole lot better than both of us dying.” She ground out every word deliberately as she yanked her hand away from his. She didn’t stop running, though, and he pulled her up short as they reached the mesa, turned her to the east.

“This way.” He knew the area well, had climbed the mesa dozens of times when he was a reckless teen searching for the next challenge. Had climbed it again as an adult seeking solace after the murders. The ridges in the rock face were as familiar as an old friend, and he slid his palm along the cool stone as he sought the large crevice that would lead them up.

There. Just under his fingertips. “This is it. There’s a cave a hundred feet up. Ready?”

“I don’t think I can do it.” The words were barely a whisper, but Jonas heard the admission and the defeat.

“You don’t have a choice.”

“There are always choices. I can die with my feet planted on the ground, shooting it out and fighting. Or I can die trying to escape. I choose to fight.”

“Who says trying to escape isn’t fighting?” He pulled a rope from his pack. He hadn’t bothered with full climbing gear, hadn’t imagined he would need it. That had been his mistake. Hopefully, he wouldn’t live to regret it. Wouldn’t die regretting it.

“Me.” She dropped onto the ground, pressing her face to her bent knees.

“Here’s the thing, Grady.” He crouched beside her, forced her chin up so they were eye to eye. “If you stay, I stay. That means I die, and I’m not willing to die tonight.”

She stared into his eyes, rain streaming down her face, sopping her hair so that it clung to her head. She looked cold, tired, miserable, but she didn’t look done. She looked angry. “How about you do your thing, and I do mine? How about you climb, and I stay?”

“How about we stop arguing and get moving?”

She hesitated, then stood. “Fine. We’ll do it your way, but if I fall to my death, it’s on your head.”

“You won’t fall.” He tied the rope around his waist and hers, brushing her hands away when she tried to stop him.

“Says the man who hasn’t been wandering around in the desert for six days,” she muttered, but she was already reaching for the first handhold, already feeling her way around the lower edge of the wall, pulling up along the slippery rock, her muscles tight with effort, her face set.

A birdcall sounded through the storm, as out of place as a lion’s roar in the city. Whoever followed had found their trail. It wouldn’t be long before the hunter spotted the prey.

Hurry.

That’s what he wanted to say, what he wanted to shout as he followed Skylar’s slow ascent. Ten feet. Thirty. Fifty. Jonas could almost taste their victory, almost feel the relief that would come when he pulled himself over the ledge and into the cave.

Another birdcall and another.

Skylar slipped, her soft scream carrying above the storm. Jonas wedged his hand into a crevice, preparing to support her weight if she continued to fall. She slid another foot, then caught herself just above Jonas’s position. He scrambled up beside her, pressing his free hand to her back, holding her steady as she caught her breath.

“I told you this was a bad idea,” she mumbled, but there was no going back, and she knew it.

“We’re almost there.”

“This isn’t a car ride through the country, Jonas. Almost may as well be a million miles away.”

“A million mile journey begins—”

“With a single step. Right. How about we not get philosophical while we’re hanging from the face of a cliff?”

“How about—”

“We keep moving?” She reached up, her fingers clawing at slick rock as she searched for a hold, found it, pulled herself onward with trembling arms. Below, a light jumped and swayed, the beam touching the base of the mesa before moving away.

Hurry, hurry, hurry.

The word chanted through Jonas’s mind, but he didn’t dare say it. Didn’t dare push Skylar out of the slow, steady progress she was making. Almost done in, that’s how she’d looked. There was a very fine line between that and done. Skylar had no choice but to move slowly, and Jonas had no choice but to follow. God willing, they’d make it. If not, at least they’d die trying.

The thought was cold comfort as Jonas moved into place beneath Skylar and started climbing again.

THREE

The rope loosened on Skylar’s waist, and she knew Jonas was on the move. He seemed to easily navigate the same path she struggled with. No fear. No hesitation. If not for Skylar, he’d already be at the top of the mesa and moving away from the danger that stalked them. Instead, he stayed beneath her, matching her plodding pace. The weight of that, the responsibility of it, drove her on.

Rain poured from the sky, turning rough rock into slick ice. Too slick. One more missed handhold, one more slipped foot, and she’d go down, carrying Jonas with her.

Two bodies lying on the soaked desert floor.

She shuddered, reaching for the next handhold. She should have stayed on the ground. Should have insisted he go on without her, but he’d been right to think she wasn’t a quitter. She’d never quit anything in her life, and she couldn’t quit this. No matter how much her burning muscles might want her to.

“Come on, Grady, keep moving.” Jonas’s words penetrated her pain-induced fog, and she realized she’d stopped, was hugging the wall like she planned to stay there all night. Cold rain, throbbing heat, her body shaking with fatigue or fever or both, and all she could do was cling to her position and pray her cramped fingers didn’t let loose, her trembling legs didn’t give out.

“Climb!” Jonas shouted as if that would give her the impetus to move.

What he didn’t seem to understand was that she wanted to move. She really did. But her body refused to cooperate. Her fingers dug deep into small niches, her feet pressed hard onto a tiny ledge of rock, and she could not move.

Could.

Not.

The rope slapped her hip as Jonas eased sideways and up. She didn’t need to watch to know what he was doing. Moving into position to pass her.

No. Not pass.

He wouldn’t leave her clinging to the mesa.

She hadn’t known him long, but she knew that. Sensed it the same way she’d sensed trouble when she’d arrived in Cave Creek and started asking questions about the deadbeat dad she’d been tracking. Something had been brewing in the little town, and she should have turned tail and run. Instead, she’d dug in her heels, kept on asking, kept on pushing.

Someone had pushed back.

Who?

It was a question she’d been asking for the better part of a week. If she ever got out of the desert, she’d find the answer.

For now she needed to focus on surviving.

Focus on climbing.

Focus.

But her thoughts were as clumsy as her movements and scattered as easily as dry leaves on a windy day.

“Move it, Grady, because I’m not in the mood to toss you over my shoulder and carry you up to the cave.” Jonas perched inches away, his eyes gleaming in the darkness.

“As if you could,” she responded, the words slurred and thick, her teeth chattering on each one.

Not good.

She was losing it. She knew it. Jonas knew it. She could see it in his eyes, could sense it in the urgency of his words.

“I’ll do what I have to do.”

He would.

Of course, he would.

And they’d both die because of her.

Not the way she wanted to go. Not the end she’d imagined for her life, that was for sure. She’d much rather die an old lady, sitting in an easy chair reading a good book. Preferably after eating a very large and satisfying meal.

She scowled, reaching up, her muscles screaming in protest. Just a little farther. She could do that.

Please, God. Please, help me do it.

Jonas moved past her, the rope pulling tight on Skylar’s waist. Seconds later, he called out from above.

“The rope is secure. Just another foot, and I can grab you and pull you into the cave.” His words penetrated the thick haze that had wrapped itself around Skylar’s brain. Another foot might as well have been a hundred, but she kept moving anyway, letting momentum carry her.

A hand wrapped around one wrist, grabbed the other as she reached again. Hard hands. Firm and warm. She had a split second to think those things, and then she was off the wall, lying on hard ground, staring up at blackness. No rain pouring down her face. No cold breeze biting through her borrowed jacket. No endlessly tall mesa to climb.

Nothing but darkness, and she slid into it, her eyes closing.

“Good job, Grady.” The rough words echoed off the cave walls, and Skylar wanted to respond, but she had nothing left. No words. No energy.

A soft cloth wiped rain from her face, gentle hands tucked a Mylar blanket around her shivering body, a palm pressed to her forehead. “You’re feverish.”

Feverish?

Of course she was.

She had to be if she was letting someone take care of her.

The thought gave her enough energy to open her eyes, push onto her elbows. “I’m fine.”

“You will be. Here.” Jonas handed her two tablets and a bottle of water.

“What is it?”

“Something for the fever.”

“I’m not much for taking medicine. I’ll let the fever burn itself out.” She thrust the medicine back, but he folded her fingers over the pills.

“It’s a couple aspirin, Grady. It won’t kill you, and it might make the night a little more comfortable.”

She nodded, fumbling to open the water bottle. Aspirin she could do. It was other things she had to avoid. Hardcore painkillers had taken her mother twenty years ago, had almost taken Skylar seventeen years after that. She’d been a hair’s breath from addiction in the months after she’d been shot and nearly killed in the line of duty. If not for Kane Dougherty, she might have chosen the path of least resistance, gone the way of her forefathers.

She owed him big for what he’d done.

Then again, he owed her big for sending her to Cave Creek and into a boatload of trouble.

She’d tell him as much once she made it back to civilization.

She yanked at the bottle top, scowling when it still refused to open. It was a water bottle, for goodness’ sake. Not a combination lock. All she needed to do was twist, but her fingers were still clumsy from cold and exertion, and no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t manage the simple task.

“Let me.” Jonas eased the bottle from her hand, opened it, then returned it, his fingers brushing her knuckles, the contact spreading warmth through her chilled skin. She wanted to lean close, let his heat seep into her icy body. Instead, she took a swig from the bottle to help swallow the aspirin, pulled the Mylar blanket close, trying to stave off the tremors that racked her body.

“Thanks.”

“Maybe you should save the thanks for after I get you to the airport and on the plane back to New York.”

“That might take a while, seeing as how I have a score to settle and I’m not leaving town until I do it.” She took another sip of water, pulled the gun from her waistband and set it on the ground. She had firepower, and she wasn’t alone. She’d managed to free-climb the mesa without falling to her death.

Things were definitely looking up.

“It might not take as long as you think. I have express orders to get you out of the desert and onto the next plane back to New York.”

“Funny, you don’t seem like the kind of guy who takes orders.”

“Depends on who is doing the ordering. When it’s a good friend who’s concerned about his employee, I’m willing to go along with the plan.”

“Unfortunately, I’m not.” She set the water bottle on the ground, tried to see Jonas’s face through the darkness. She had the sense of harnessed energy and restrained strength, of corded muscle and irritation. He’d come to her aid, and he expected her to want to be rescued.

And she did.

From the wilderness. From her six-day nightmare, but not from her obligation to follow up on the case she’d been investigating. Certainly not from her obligation to find the person who’d tried to kill her.

Was still trying to kill her.

“You may not have a choice, Grady. You’re done in. Sticking around town, searching for answers when you’re sick and exhausted could get you killed.”

“Not if I’m careful.”

“Were you being careful when someone knocked you out and drove you out into the desert?”

“How about we have this argument after we’re back in civilization?”

“Avoiding the question doesn’t change the answer.”

“And asking it doesn’t change my mind. I’m sticking around until I figure out who wants me dead and why.”

“Kane said you were stubborn.”

“I see that as one of my better qualities.”

“Good to know.” He chuckled, the sound rusty and dry.

“You should also know that after we get out of here, I’m planning on doing things my way. No trip to New York. No hiding away while someone else solves my problems.”

“We’ll see.” He moved away, leaving her shivering under the Mylar blanket.

“Where are you going?”

“Just checking on our friends.”

“Do you really think you’ll be able to spot them?” She pulled the blanket around her shoulders and followed him to the mouth of the cave. Rain blew in on a gust of air, and her teeth chattered, but she was not going to lie on the floor of the cave while Jonas did what she should be doing herself.

“Maybe.”

“And you’re sure they found our trail?” She peered out into the darkness, seeing nothing but gray-black night.

“Yes.”

“I’d ask you why, but you’d probably just say ‘because.'”

He chuckled again. “They followed my trail for at least two days. I don’t think they’ll have any trouble following it here.”

“The rain might have washed our tracks away.”

“Possibly, but they’ll know we were heading this way, and the only thing here is the mesa.”