Wilderness Secrets. Sharon Dunn

holster and paced back and forth in front of Abigail. His hair was dark and slicked back, and he had a tattoo on his neck.

      The other had bleached blond hair and a deep tan. He reminded Jesse of one of those men who appear on the cover of romance books at the checkout counter, kind of a pretty boy. He, too, had a gun, but it was not drawn, and their two backpacks were propped against a tree.

      How was he going to get in there and rescue her?

      “We would have been able to track him to the plane if Eddy here hadn’t gotten lost.” Pretty Boy pointed at the guard.

      The guard—Eddy—spoke up. “You wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without my skills.” Eddy had a low, deep voice, and every word he spoke seemed to contain a threat.

      Jesse assessed that Eddy was probably the most dangerous of the three men. He saw murder in his eyes. But the dark-haired man appeared to be the one in charge. The neck tattoo, a scorpion, meant that these men were connected to the drug trade.

      A plan sparked inside Jesse’s head. He stepped back from the unfolding scene, then ran as fast as he could. When he got some distance away, he shouted, “Abigail, where are you?”

      He bolted from the clearing where he’d made himself known, running in a wide arc back toward the men holding Abigail. Hopefully, at least one of them would run to find him. Then he’d have only two men to deal with.

      He heard one man shout something at the other, their voices getting farther away. He came toward the area where Abigail was being held. Sure enough, only Pretty Boy had been left to watch her.

      He waited until Pretty Boy’s back was turned, leaped into the clearing and hit the back of his head with the butt of his gun. The man crumpled to the ground.

      The voices of the other two men drew nearer. From their angry chatter, it was clear they realized they’d been tricked.

      Jesse grabbed Abigail’s hand. Fear was etched across her features.

      “You’re coming with me.” He pulled her to her feet and sprinted away.

      As he pushed through the trees, he let go of her hand. The steady pounding of her footsteps told him she was keeping up.

      The voices of the men grew louder, filled with rage. One of them barked orders at the other two. Abigail and Jesse neared the base of the mountain peak that would lead them to the plane.

      Jesse glanced over his shoulder. The man with the rifle, the one they called Eddy, had ditched his backpack and was taking aim with the rifle.

      The rifle shot pummeled the silence.

      Abigail did not even stutter in her steps. She only increased her pace, so she was now running beside him.

      There was a cluster of evergreens at the base of the mountain that provided them with a degree of protection. He slowed, tiring from the intensity of the run and needing oxygen. Then he stopped altogether to take in a deep breath.

      She quit running, as well. Sucking in air between each word, she asked, “Where are we going?”

      “I have a plan. Trust me.”

      Her face blanched, and a curtain seemed to fall over her eyes. “Trust is the biggest word in the English language.”

      Pain seemed to undergird her words. There was no time to consider what was going on with her emotionally. “Those guys are out to kill us. I can get us out of here.” He touched her elbow. “We need to keep moving.”

      He pushed himself off the tree he’d been leaning against and sprinted through the evergreens.

      She followed behind him. He stayed in the trees, trying to get a little more distance between them and their pursuers, before they could veer back out in the open and head up the mountain.

      They had to get to that plane and get it off the ground before the thugs caught up with them. It was their only way out.

      He burst out into the open, where the incline grew steeper. At first, they were able to keep up a solid pace. But rocks and the cliff-like slant of the mountain slowed them, so they were climbing more than running and had to reach out for handholds as well as stable places to put their feet.

      Rocks rolled down the incline, crashing into each other. This was much tougher going than how he had initially climbed the mountain. The peak was not even visible yet. He craned his neck, scanning the tree line below, half expecting to see Eddy with his rifle.

      It appeared that Eddy had not followed them into the trees. That fact was troubling. It meant Eddy and the others might be headed up the mountain on a different route. Maybe one that would get them to the peak faster. They risked being ambushed.

      The plane was camouflaged enough that it was not easily spotted from a distance. He doubted that even if the men got to the plane first, they would leave him and Abigail alive. They were witnesses. If Lee had set things up to make Jesse look guilty to the DEA, he might have been feeding lies to the cartel, as well.

      As he was dying, Lee confessed that his plan had been to sell the drugs slowly, so as not to draw attention. It made sense that if he didn’t want to be looking over his shoulder wondering if the cartel was after him, he would have Jesse take the fall for him. Lee had started to explain more, but he’d died before he could finish.

      No, these three thugs would not leave until they knew he and Abigail couldn’t talk. This wasn’t just about getting their product back. It was about revenge for being crossed.

       TWO

      Abigail’s leg and arm muscles burned as she reached up toward a rock that looked like it was stable. “This is getting too steep. We can’t climb much farther without gear. We need to move that way.” She pointed south.

      Off in the distance, she saw the forest where Jesse had helped her get away from the three men bent on violence. Though she didn’t see the men anywhere now, the memory of what she’d just been through made her shudder.

      “Is there some other way?” asked Jesse. “Those men are probably going to be coming from that direction.”

      Even though her heart was already pounding from the adrenaline and exertion, it sped up even more from uncertainty. What was going on here? She could not process what had just happened.

      Who was Jesse, anyway, and why were those men after him? Why did they think she was somehow involved in whatever had really brought him up here?

      “We’ll be stuck here if we don’t move laterally. It only gets steeper if we head north.” She didn’t wait for his reply before she stepped sideways, seeking less treacherous ground. “I assume we’re moving up this mountain to get to the plane those men mentioned?” Her voice was filled with accusation.

      She didn’t trust Jesse. She didn’t know what he was up to. The only thing she knew for sure was those three men wouldn’t flinch at killing her. And Jesse had risked his own safety to get her away from them. Getting to that plane seemed like the only way she would make it out alive.

      Jesse didn’t respond to her question about the plane.

      All of this felt so wrong. How had she gotten into such an ugly mess? Why hadn’t she trusted her gut feeling about Jesse, that he was up to something? Because the person she trusted the least right now was herself.

      After Brent’s grand deception, the new rule she operated under was that nothing was as it appeared. She wasn’t a good judge of character.

      Even though Jesse had risked his own life to get her away from those violent men, it didn’t mean he wasn’t a criminal, as well.

      She walked carefully on the rocky, steep terrain until it leveled off a little bit, allowing her to climb upward. There were fewer rocks and jagged cliff faces and more grass on this part of the mountain. Even a few struggling