Northern Renegade Page 16

  “Hey,” he called out. “Hold your fire. People here.”

  His words echoed through the woods and were met with nothing but silence. The woods were too sparse for the shooter not to have heard. To get off a shot and have it land that close, and based on the fairly straight entry line of the bullet into the tree, Liam estimated it had been fired from no more than one hundred and thirty-seven meters, definitely close enough for the person to hear him call out.

  He scanned the woods through the scope. Nothing. He lowered his rifle. They were going to have to move. It would’ve been a whole helluva lot easier had he been by himself, or if Tansy was trained personnel. He had worn his BDUs but Tansy was in jeans and a red shirt. He pulled off his pack and yanked out his extra

  military-issue brown T-shirt, then took her pack off of her back. “Take off your T-shirt and put this on.”

  Thank God she had the sense not to question him. He reached down and grabbed a handful of dirt, smearing it on his face and arms. He motioned for her to do the same to her face, arms and neck. She did. He shrugged back into his pack.

  “We’re going to move out now. Leave your pack.” He could handle his. Hers would slow her down. Plus, she was only carrying her clothes and sleeping bag. “Stay low. Be as quiet as possible. We’re going to backtrack in a zigzag pattern, using the trees and brush as much as possible for cover. Got it?”

  She nodded. “I’m scared.”

  “You should be.” She was taking this seriously. She should. Someone was stalking them.

  * * *

  TANSY’S HEART WAS THUMPING so hard she could hear the blood rushing in her ears. Fear like she’d never known before coursed through her, filled her mouth with a bitter metallic taste.

  She squatted behind a bush while Liam scanned the area behind them. He pointed to his left and she nodded. Another dash for cover when all she really wanted to do was sit and cower and have this all be over. They made it to their next destination and he motioned for her to drop and stay. Gladly. A bullet whizzed past her to her left. Liam was positioned to her right.

  Liam eased into a prone position and pulled out his binoculars. He scanned the woods again. He’d done that each time. His hands were steady. His breathing slow. His face impassive, devoid of any emotion. She was shaking like a leaf. She felt as if she was running a marathon.

  She thought about all the things she wanted to do and it wasn’t die in the woods in the middle of nowhere. Anger kicked in, tamping back the fear. This was madness. She’d descended into a hell she didn’t understand.

  Calmly, methodically, he braced his rifle on a branch and used his scope. He positioned himself with one leg under him, his upper body off the ground. It was as if he quit breathing, his body grew so still, and then he moved his finger against the trigger. She jumped at the shot, even though she knew it was coming.

  A terrible screeching filled the air.

  “Got him,” Liam said. “And now I want some answers.”

  “How do you know it’s safe? There might be more than one.”

  “If there was more than one, we’d be dead. I didn’t aim to kill, just to wound. I want answers and a dead man can’t talk.”

  The screeching gave way to sobs and moans. “You can stay here—”

  The thought nauseated her. And she was infinitely relieved it wasn’t her or him, but was some nameless stranger. Bile rose in her throat and she lay there and puked. Fear, and everything else, spilling out of her as she emptied her stomach. Liam waited, his hand on her shoulder. When she was through he passed her a bandanna. She wiped her mouth.

  He sat up and pulled her to him. Fear roiled through her again. “Get back down,” she said frantically, trying to get both her and him back to the ground safely. She felt exposed sitting up.

  “Do you hear that thrashing? That’s someone with a serious injury trying to get away. His trigger arm and hand is disabled. And I want some answers before whoever it is loses too much blood and can’t give any answers.”

  She pulled herself together. “Okay.” She handed him back his Glock.

  He holstered it. “Once again, follow my instructions. He’s wounded, which will make him still dangerous.”

  They moved fast, Liam with his Glock drawn.

  The thrashing had ceased but it wasn’t difficult to follow the trail of blood. He motioned her to his left, to take cover behind a tree. The shooter lay propped against a tree, eerily outfitted in camouflage gear, face paint and a camouflage hat. The chest was still moving up and down but the right arm hung useless, blood flowing steadily from a debilitating wound. There was something vaguely, disturbingly familiar about the figure slumped against the tree. At Liam’s approach, the shooter looked up.

  “She needs to die so we can be together,” Mallory Kincaid said, pain and madness shining in her eyes. “I love you.”

  * * *

  LIAM WRAPPED THE LAST of Tansy’s shredded T-shirt into a makeshift bandage and stood. “She’s lost a fair amount of blood but she’s young and strong. Her pulse and heart rate are steady, so that’s a good sign.”

  Tansy nodded but said nothing. After her initial horrified expression when it had become clear that Mallory, mentally unstable and clearly obsessed with Liam, had set out to kill her, Tansy had pretty much shut down.

  She’d dutifully helped organize the supplies and assisted him in stabilizing the other woman, but she hadn’t looked at Mallory and she hadn’t spoken other than monosyllabic responses. Acute stress reaction. He’d seen it time and time again.

  He put his arms around her and held her close. “Tansy, it’s okay. You’re fine. I’m fine. It’s all going to be okay.”

  “What do we do now?”

  “Now that she’s bandaged, I’m going to secure her to the tree with our rope, just as a precaution. I needed your help stopping the bleeding, but now you can stay away from her. It would probably be best.”

  Tansy shivered. “The three of us are going to be out here together tonight, aren’t we?”

  He patiently went over it again with her. At least she hadn’t descended into hysteria. “Hopefully not. She needs medical attention. Hopefully they can pick us up north of here, where it opens up.”

  He got on the two-way and Merilee came back to him. As briefly and concisely as possible, he outlined the situation. He waited while she arranged for an emergency medical chopper.

  Tansy sat on the ground, her arms wrapped around her knees, staring in the other direction.

  Within minutes Merilee came back with an evacuation ETA and pick-up coordinates. It would be four hours until the medevac helicopter would arrive...and in the meantime Liam and Tansy had to get Mallory to the designated area. It would be too late for her to be portaged out after the chopper arrived.

  Liam approached Tansy and explained the situation. “I can rig together a stretcher but I’m going to need your help in transporting her. Are you up to that? If not, I’ll manage but if we’re working together, it’ll keep her stabilized. I understand if it’s something you can’t do.”

  For a moment he wondered if she had even heard him as she stared straight ahead. Finally, she turned to look at him, squaring her shoulders as she stood. “Tell me what we need to do.”

  In fairly short order he and Tansy had fashioned together a stretcher of branches and sleeping bag. He used the other sleeping bag as a blanket. Although it was a warm enough day, Kincaid didn’t need to go into further physical shock from her trauma. He secured her to the stretcher with the other rope.

  “If you’ll carry her feet, I’ll take her head.” The feet were much lighter and he wasn’t even sure that Tansy was going to be up to that. “Use your legs to lift, not your back. Ready? On three. One. Two. Three. Lift.”

  It was slow going as the terrain was uneven and there was no designated path. Not once did Tansy complain or loosen her grip, although she did request a break a couple of times near the end. Her arms had to be burning with exertion. Mallory Kincaid wasn’t overweig
ht, but she was a tall woman with an athletic build—she was no lightweight.

  Mallory drifted in and out of consciousness. Tansy remained quiet and Liam simply reassured her they were getting her help. She obviously needed more than medical attention but medical care was his primary objective at this point.

  They had reached the clearing and rested about ten minutes when he heard the approaching thwack-thwack-thwack of rotors. He stood but Tansy remained seated some distance away from where they’d deposited Mallory.

  The chopper touched down and an emergency team disembarked, heading toward Mallory stat. Within minutes they had her loaded onto the helicopter.

  Tansy had stood and watched everything unfold from a distance. Liam approached her now. It was time for her to go.

  “Come on, let’s get you loaded on the chopper.”

  She looked at him. “What about you?”

  “There’s only room for one of us, so on you go.”

  She shook her head. “I’m not leaving.”

  “Tansy, be reasonable.”

  “I came with you and I’m not leaving until you leave.” A fierceness pierced the numbness in her eyes.

  “I’m used to these kinds of conditions. I’m used to operating alone. I’m ordering you to get on that helicopter.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “And I came with you and I’ll leave with you.”

  He shook his head at the pilot and gave them the liftoff signal.

  General Wellington was a helluva woman.

  * * *

  TANSY FELT NUMB, DETACHED. The whole thing had been surreal. No one had ever tried to kill her before. It wasn’t a good feeling. The thought was so ludicrous she had to tamp down the hysteria that wanted to surface at the mental understatement.

  Liam mercifully interrupted her thoughts. “We need to set up camp, Tansy.”

  She wanted to do something, needed to do something. “I’ll gather firewood.”

  “Good. I’ll pitch the tent.”

  She walked back to the edge of the woods, suppressing a shudder at all that had unfolded in there. She was grateful—grateful to have something physical

  to do, grateful that things had turned out the way they

  had, grateful that she was alive, grateful that she’d stayed behind with Liam rather than leave him, grateful that he thought she was strong enough to move forward and contribute rather than treat her like a helpless invalid.

  She picked up sticks for kindling and then rounded up some bona fide firewood. Half an hour later they had a campfire going and dinner was served up.

  “What happens next?” she said. The routine and the food was restoring some sense of normal for her.

  “The Alaska State Troopers will come out first thing in the morning. They’ll want to inspect the scene, gather statements. At some point we’ll both have to show up in court.”

  She nodded and he continued. “Tansy, I had no idea that was what she was thinking. She came on to me at the end of our interview. I turned her down.” He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. “I never led her on. I never touched her.”

  She sat for a moment, digesting his words. It seemed fairly incomprehensible that Mallory would’ve gone off the deep end without provocation. However, she believed him. He was a man of integrity, which was a boat Bradley had fallen short of boarding. Then there was the madness glimmering in Mallory’s eyes. Shuddering, she nodded, accepting his word as the truth. “I believe you,” she said.

  “Thank you. You’ve been through a lot today. I’ve seen men not handle it as well as you have. You okay?”

  “Yeah, I suppose I’m fine.” She got up and moved to sit next to him, suddenly wanting, needing, his solid strength beside her. “I guess this...today...was what it was like for you all the time.” She had a new appreciation for who he was, what he was, what his job had entailed. How did someone live with that kind of fear, facing death as a part of their job? And yet, that’s what men and women in combat did every day, every hour.

  “Yes and no. Today it was personal.” He slid his arm around her, pulling her hard and tight to his side. She was more than happy to be there. “Especially when I realized you were the target, not me.”

  “How’d you know?”

  “Where the shot landed. It was the tree nearest you. If I’d have been the target, it would’ve been the one behind me or to my right.”

  So, he’d known. “Did you have any idea it was Mallory?”

  “No. As far as I knew, she left after Bull and I did yesterday. At that point it didn’t matter who it was, the person just needed to be stopped. I knew it was someone who had a working knowledge of tactics, but not a lot of practical experience. I also knew it wasn’t a professional. It was too personal, based on the number of shots fired. A professional would’ve sat tight and bided their time to get off a kill shot. She wasn’t operating with a cool, detached head and it came through.”

  Tansy suddenly didn’t want to talk about or think about Mallory and her madness. “Tell me about going out on missions.”

  He talked and she let it wash over her and through her, bringing a new sense of understanding. Of stalking the enemy, but for a cause, a greater purpose, the end result ultimately to save lives by neutralizing the enemy. She didn’t ask how many men he’d killed. It didn’t matter, except for the toll it might have taken on him.

  They cleaned up their dishes, hung the packs and then it was simply the fire, the night sky and the two of them. Tansy came to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, holding him close, her head resting against his chest. She offered him comfort, solace, and sought the same in return.

  She was suddenly infinitely grateful for the man he was. He smoothed a hand over her hair, his breath whispering wordlessly against her hair. He laughed softly against her. “This has been a hell of a day and a hell of a trip—certainly not what you’d anticipated. I bet you wish you’d stayed at Shadow Lake.”

  She didn’t have to think about it, there in the shelter of his arms, offering support to him while she took her measure of the same. She stepped back and looked him in the eyes. “No, I don’t regret being here. I could be at Shadow Lake now, if I’d wanted to.”

  “Why didn’t you get on that helicopter and leave?”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t want to leave you,” she said.

  “I would’ve been fine.”

  “I know.” He was a lone wolf. A man unto himself. Yet, she’d wanted to stay. Staying had felt right.

  And it was as simple and as complicated as that. She’d been operating on adrenaline, numbness, instinct, and she hadn’t wanted to leave him. Quite simply, she loved him.

  He sighed, twining his fingers in her hair. “You know we don’t have any sleeping bags. They went on the chopper.”

  There’d been no question of transferring Mallory to another stretcher. They’d simply started an IV, assessed her medical state, loaded her on board as she was and left. However, Tansy hadn’t actually gotten as far as thinking they were sleeping bagless. And in the big scheme of life and death, it really didn’t matter.

  “We’ll layer on all the clothes we have, put our bedrolls next to each other and share body heat,” Liam said. “It’ll get cold tonight but we should be okay in the tent together. I would’ve never let you stay otherwise.”

  “I know that.”

  She realized she trusted him implicitly, with her safety, her life, but more important, with her heart. She hadn’t been looking to fall in love with Liam Reinhardt. She hadn’t wanted to fall in love with him. But she had.

  And in her book love was meant to be shared, to be offered freely, without expecting anything in return, but her heart told her he wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready to hear it, to receive it. Plus, there was the little matter that one crazy woman had already declared her love for him today. Tansy figured that was enough for any one man, even one as extraordinary as Liam, in any one given day.

  Plus, she knew him well enough, t
he way his mind worked, that he’d write it off as gratitude or mistaken emotion based on him saving her life. Nope. She knew her own heart. She’d perhaps known it from the moment she’d first seen him but her head and her heart hadn’t been ready. And he wasn’t ready. For now, she’d hold her own counsel...and love him nonetheless, because her heart hadn’t given her any choice in the matter.

  15

  LIAM WATCHED OUT THE window as the town of Good Riddance came into view. It had been a long night. He’d stayed awake all night, which had felt like being back on alert on a mission, but this time it had been different.

  He’d held Tansy, kept his arms around her, keeping her warm, keeping her safe, while it danced through his head over and over just how damn close she’d come to being killed because of him.

  He’d done a lot of thinking through the night. He’d never put Natalie first. She’d been right about that. What he’d finally realized last night was that he’d never wanted to put her first, never allowed himself to make that commitment, that leap.

  He didn’t want anyone to mean that much to him. He could face down the enemy all day, but the thought of allowing someone to mean that much, to matter that much, to be that vulnerable—no. The very idea struck a fear in him that he’d never been willing to acknowledge. He didn’t want to be that vulnerable to losing someone. And fast on the heels of that thought had come the thought that what he’d felt for Natalie was a drop in the bucket to what he felt for Tansy.

  Tansy could mean that much to him, could be that important to him if he opened himself up to it...and he wasn’t going to. He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. So now she was back in Good Riddance and they could both get on with their lives.

  He’d been damn glad when dawn had broken and they’d been busy breaking camp, packing in anticipation of the state troopers’ arrival. They’d answered questions, retraced the events of the day before and then all loaded up on the chopper and were touching down now.