Rocky Mountain Pursuit

They headed past the storage shed at the back of the house and slowly down the mountain. They’d covered a quarter of a mile before he stopped to listen for a second. He couldn’t hear the noise of the engines anymore. The men had reached the house. It wouldn’t take them long to realize he and Reyna had escaped out the back.

Jase flinched as he tested his shoulder. It hurt like crazy, making him aware of every little move he made. Reyna saw his pain and she came closer and unbuttoned his jacket and shirt. He tensed as she examined the wound with gentle fingers. She took the towel, snugged it as tight as she could to stem the bleeding, then closed his shirt and jacket back up. “It should be okay until we reach the vehicle.”

“Thanks,” he gritted out. “We have to hurry. They’re at the house. It won’t be long before they come after us. It’s not much farther to the Land Cruiser.”

Reyna nodded, but he could see she was exhausted already. She’d been through enough to send most people to the breaking point and this night wasn’t close to being over.

They continued their treacherous trek through the woods, but finding the stashed vehicle in the dark in the middle of a snowstorm was next to impossible. He’d deliberately hid it well. It took him a few minutes to gain his bearings and then he whispered a prayer of gratitude when he finally spotted it.

“This way.” He pointed at the dark shape to his left. He glanced behind them and saw a half dozen flashlights fanning out behind his house.

“They’re coming. Hurry, Reyna.” She looked over her shoulder and saw what he did.

He let go of her hand and she followed him over to the camouflaged tarp covering the vehicle. Jase went about removing the tarp as quickly as possible.

One of the men with flashlights yelled to his comrades, “Hey, back here. I see them. They have another vehicle. They’re getting away!”

“Hop in and buckle up. It’s going to be a rough trip downhill,” Jase told her, and waited while Reyna braced one foot against the running board and boosted herself inside.

He rushed to the driver’s side. Behind them, he could hear engines firing once more. He started the SUV and shoved it into Drive.

Reyna reached for the grab handle above her door and braced herself against the jarring ride. She glanced back behind them. “Jase, they’re still coming,” she said in a tense tone.

He tried to reassure her. “We’ll be okay. We have the advantage. I know the layout of the land. They don’t. Hang on!”

The Land Cruiser bounced along the rough terrain lurching over brush and dead tree parts. Jase clenched his jaw to keep from grunting in pain. He checked the rearview mirror and could see five sets of headlights.

“So far, they’re not gaining on us. No doubt they’re taking it slow until they get familiar with the landscape.” He glanced her way. “That won’t take long. They appear to be highly trained. Probably former military.”

“They’re not going to give up. They’ll keep coming until they have what they want,” she said desperately. “We can’t let that happen.”

“I’m not going to let those thugs hurt you, Reyna.”

She stared at him for a moment, then slowly nodded. She believed him.

Jase had a white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel, his shoulder wound throbbing every inch of the way. He jerked the wheel in time to dodge a stump only to be launched into midair by a rock he’d completely forgotten.

The SUV shot the rest of the way off the mountain and onto a gravel road. Jase killed the lights and floored the gas pedal. They needed to put as much distance as they could if his plan was going to work.

“Hang tight, I have an idea. This road leads to a small town called Glazer. We’re going to head that way and then go off-road and circle back. If I’m good at concealing our tracks, I’m hoping those men will think we continued on to Glazer.”

“Don’t you need the lights to see? It’s pitch-black out.” Reyna shot him worried look.

“We can’t afford to use them,” he said, keeping his focus on the darkness in front of them. “They’ll see the lights and follow us.”

He drove another five or six miles down the gravel road to Glazer all the while checking the rearview mirror. So far, nothing.

Jase slowed to a stop when he saw thick brush growing near the edge of the road. “Here. This is our best place to leave the road.” Jase edged the Land Cruiser from the road, drove into the wooded area some ways up and stopped. He turned to her. “I’m going to do my best to conceal what little tracks we might have left behind. Stay here.”

Jase waited for her to say something. When she didn’t, he squeezed her hand. “I’ll be right back.”

He jogged back down the path they’d just traversed. Other than a few squashed bushes there was no discernible evidence the Land Cruiser had left the road. On this side of the mountain the trees hung close to the road sheltering it from the brunt of the storm.

Jase did his best to straighten the bushes and then hurried back to the Land Cruiser.

He put the vehicle in gear. “There’s a small logging road a little ways from here. It’s not used much anymore, so it’s not on any map and no one but the locals know about it. It should bring us out on the other side of Defiance.”

It had been a while since he’d been four-wheeling this way and the landscape had changed quite a bit. It took several minutes to spot the logging road down below.

Jase eased the Land Cruiser onto it. “Hopefully they bought the diversion. It so, it will take our friends a little while to realize we gave them the slip. That will buy us some much-needed time.”

It took all his skills to maneuver the Land Cruiser down the road without the headlights. After what felt like a lifetime, Jase saw the lights of Defiance.

He hit the brakes and the vehicle slid on the ice some fifteen feet and then spun toward the ditch before it finally came to a grinding stop.

“Thank You, Lord.” He breathed the prayer aloud, then turned to Reyna. She had her eyes closed, her hands braced on the dash. “Are you okay?”

Slowly she opened her eyes and nodded. “Yes, I think so. How about you? How’s the shoulder?”

He could feel beads of sweat on his forehead. “It’s holding up all right, but I think it’s time for that bandage. There’s a first-aid kit in the back. I’ll get it and be right back.”

He hopped out of the SUV and walked a little ways behind it. Listening carefully, he heard the noise of engines fading into the distance. The men chasing them were continuing on the road to Glazer. They had time to breathe, but it wouldn’t last long. He and Reyna needed to make good of the advantage they’d been given, which meant he had to find out what she had that those men wanted.

What troubled him the most was Reyna’s conviction that Eddie had been murdered. It just didn’t add up in his mind. What could Eddie have possibly gotten involved in to end his life?

Jase drew in a deep breath and fell back on the training he’d received from one of the best in the spy business. The man who had taught him how to survive when his back was against the wall and there was nowhere to turn. Kyle Jennings had been a legend by the time Jase signed on. He’d recruited Jase straight out of the university and had become his handler as Jase had moved up through the ranks to lead the Scorpion team.

Jase could almost hear Kyle reprimanding him now.

Go back to the cause of the matter. Start there. Figure out why our men had to die.

He remembered the key he’d found in Reyna’s bag. Obviously, it fit something important, because she hadn’t let the bag out of her sight for a minute. He needed to find out what it belonged to.

Realizing he was wasting valuable time, Jase dug out his first-aid kit and got back in the Land Cruiser.

“They aren’t following us. We’re safe for now.”

Reyna blew out a visible sigh of relief. “Good. Honestly, I can’t believe all of the things that have happened recently.”

When he didn’t answer, she took the first-aid kit from him, rifled through it and began to examine his wound. Her full attention on the job at hand, he studied her while she was unaware of him. Her lustrous brown hair, much the worse for wear after their grueling hike, hung loose around her shoulders. She’d lost her ponytail holder somewhere along the way and he doubted she were even conscious of it. Swallowing convulsively, he resisted the urge to brush away a silky strand that had fallen in her face. He was letting his chaotic emotions get the better of him.

Reyna tore the rest of his shirt away from his arm and he froze. He wasn’t used to people taking care of him. Her eyes locked with his. Hers were huge pools of green. She drew in a breath and he realized he was staring at her full lips, thinking things that couldn’t fit into his life.

“Let me take care of your wound properly,” she managed in a soft, soothing voice.

Jase tried to gather his straying thoughts. “There’s no time. We have to keep moving. They could have snipers on this side of the mountain. A roadblock.” The possibilities were limitless.

She didn’t listen. Instead, she dabbed the wound thoroughly while he tried not to wince as the antiseptic hit the exposed area, and then she stuck a bandage over it.