Tracking Secrets

He panted, trying to catch his breath while ignoring the pain in every part of his body. His elbows had escaped unscathed thanks to his flailing arms. Alexis! Had it worked?

He propped himself up on his elbows as he watched the Honda come to a standstill. His truck had moved to the very edge of the cliff. Maybe he could’ve remained inside after all and avoided the massive amounts of pain currently begging for his attention.

The truck groaned, teetered, tipped...and fell.

An unearthly groan escaped his lips. Crunching metal and booms rivaling thunder echoed throughout the valley. His mouth went dry.

The Honda door flung open, and a cry reached his ears before he could utter one himself. She was safe...unlike his gorgeous truck, but she was more important. Obviously. His head fell backward, his body and emotional energy utterly spent.

Moisture and soft fur brushed against his cheek.

“Nick. Nick!”

He opened his eyes to find Raven kissing his cheek. “I’m alive.” He held up a hand to reassure the dog, and the dog licked it instead. His brain told his body to move, to get up, but his sore backside didn’t respond. “Are you okay?” he asked instead.

Alexis’s tear-filled eyes met his gaze. She nodded. “My brakes wouldn’t work.” Her voice shook and her shoulders began to follow suit. “And...and I thought you were still in the car.”

“It was a truck.” Calling it a car would insult its memory, but in the back of his mind, he knew now wasn’t the time to argue the point. “Do you think it was because your car was old or...”

Alexis held out her hands and helped pull him up to standing. If not for the stinging sensation in his palms, he would’ve enjoyed how soft her hands felt. She looked into his eyes as he fought against the discomfort in his back and straightened.

“It wasn’t an accident,” she said. She let go of him and pulled her phone out. “I’m calling the police.” She frowned at the screen and jumped up, straining her arm, most likely in an effort to find a signal. On her tiptoes, she held the phone to her ear.

Light from above hit his eyes, which didn’t make sense as the sun was setting. He turned his gaze ever so slightly to the top of the ridge above them. For a brief second he thought for sure he’d seen a man watching them.

It seemed possible, in his state of mind, that his eyes were playing tricks on him. Maybe it’d just been a flash of reflection from her shiny sandals.

The sun continued its rapid descent, but the colors in the sky illuminated the tower of rock above him enough for him to see a shadowed form kneel. It was almost as if someone was holding a...

“Gun.” His insides seized up. No more time to lick his wounds. In one motion, he curled into a crouched position. His spine and muscles objected to the fast movement, but he fought through it. “Alexis, take cover! Gunman!”

The sound of tires fast approaching from the direction of town barely registered before a truck pulled up in front of him. Alexis lunged toward Nick, staying low enough that she was also underneath the cover of the silver truck. The passenger window rolled down and the man leaned toward them from the driver’s side. “Everything okay?”

“Stay down, Gerald. Nick said there was a gunman.”

The man in a ball cap flinched and looked around.

“On top of the ridge.” Nick pointed upward.

Gerald stuck his head out of the driver’s window. His shoulders relaxed, and he huffed. “There’s nothing but a lone tree and a bird circling up there. Eyes can play tricks on you when the sun is setting.”

Nick had never met the man, but Alexis seemed to know him, so maybe he was credible. He straightened to look for himself. Sure enough, there was nothing but pink and orange streaks in the sky.

He wasn’t crazy, though. He’d seen someone, and the silver truck had apparently scared the person off. Odd. If the gunman had been part of the drug ring, Nick would’ve thought that knocking off another witness would have been nothing to them.

“You guys look a little rough for wear. Everything okay?” Gerald gestured at Alexis.

She looked down at her stained shirt and skirt, and then glanced at Nick, uncertainty crossing her face. “It’s fair to say we’ve had a bad evening.”

Nick remained silent. If she knew the man in the truck and wasn’t gushing about what had happened to him, perhaps he’d be wise not to say anything, either. But if the man drove off, there was a chance the gunman would return. They needed him to stay until the police arrived. If Nick had to, he’d talk to the man until he was blue in the face.

“We had a little accident,” Alexis said.

That was the understatement of the year.

Gerald leaned forward, straining his neck to see over the cliff from the comfort of his vehicle. “You certainly did. It’s a good thing your truck went down in the river instead of causing a fire. Otherwise you really wouldn’t have a chance with the voters, Mr. Kendrick.” He winked and chuckled. “Not that you have any chance against me in the first place.”

Nick flinched as he connected the dots. He leaned forward to see the face underneath the ball cap. This man was his neighbor and opponent?

* * *

Alexis kept her eyes on the ridge above them. While Nick could have a motive to lie about drugs being stashed on Gerald’s property, he’d had to run away from the gunmen the same as she did. Besides, someone had messed with her brakes. If it hadn’t been for Nick, it would’ve worked. So she couldn’t fathom what reason he’d have to lie about a gunman on the ridge. Whoever had been there would’ve had the perfect view if she’d wrecked.

She shivered involuntarily. What was taking the police so long? While she had no doubt that Gerald would hear about the incident on his land eventually, she didn’t want to be the one who told him.

“Did this out-of-towner make you crash?” Gerald asked Alexis, a teasing lilt to his voice. Despite his smile, his eyes looked a little red, as if he’d either suffered an allergy attack or heard some upsetting news.

Nick’s jaw tensed. “I think I’ve earned resident status if my name is on the ballot.”

After the day she’d had, the last thing Alexis needed was to be the only audience member for an impromptu political debate. “Nick saved my life. My brakes stopped working.”

Gerald shook his head. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but take it from me. There’s a point when it’s time to put a car to rest, Alexis. I make more money keeping cars in business, so you know I’m not lying.”

She didn’t need a lecture. Her car’s age hadn’t been the problem. If Gerald had anything to do with the men on his property, then it followed that he would want her dead, as well.

Her parents had considered him their trusted mechanic for most of her life, so she wanted to think Chief Spencer had the right idea. The more likely scenario was that Gerald had been used as a pawn. She’d learned time and time again, though, that she wasn’t the best judge of character.

She smiled and nodded as Gerald finished his speech on when a car wasn’t worth repairing.

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