I'll Be There Part 3

Cord stood. "There's no helping him."

He looked at her then. His expression was cold as stone. Jenny shivered and pressed the back of her hand to her mouth.

"If you're gonna be sick-"

"I'm fine," she insisted, though she looked anything but.

"How many marshals were here with you?"

"Two when I left."

"Did they radio for help?"

"I don't know. It all happened so fast. They got me into a tunnel leading away from here as soon as the gunfire started."

He moved into the back room, and Jenny followed. They found Pierce in the middle of the room. Blood stained the floor and walls. He lay on his back, gray and lifeless... a chest wound darkened his t-shirt. Jenny backed away from the dead man until the wall stopped her progress. She rubbed her arms, looking around the room, anywhere but at the man who'd helped her into the tunnel last night. When she felt a hand on her shoulder, she jumped, surprised to see Cord towering over her.

He shook her a little. "The last thing I need right now is for you to go into shock."

"They're dead because of me, so forgive me if I go all girly and get emotional."

"Whatever went down here, that's over."

How could he be so cold and unfeeling? She looked back at Pierce, and bile rushed into the back of her throat. She turned and threw up in the corner of the room. When she'd emptied the meager contents of her stomach, she straightened, her hand covering her mouth. Cord was right. She did need to get out of here.

"Did the marshals have a radio?"

She nodded, but couldn't speak through her constricted throat.

Cord looked around the room, moved a few things, rolled the dead man over, like he was inconsequential, looking for the radio. When his search brought up nothing, he went into the other room.

Gunfire vibrated the walls of the cabin. Jenny crouched in the corner of the room, her eyes squeezed shut. Cord rushed back from the other room, and shut the door, sliding the bar lock home. "I need you out of here. You said something about a tunnel?"

Jenny nodded, still unable to speak.

"Where?"

She pointed at Pierce. He got the message. Ducking to avoid the window, he moved over to the marshal and pulled him back out of the way. He moved a blood-soaked rug, exposing a door in the floor. He opened it then looked back at her. He motioned her over with his gun. No. Not again...

He pulled a flashlight from his pack and tossed it to her. "Go back to the cave where we stayed last night and wait for me."

Her gaze moved from the dead marshal and back to him. "No."

"Don't argue. Move."

She got moving, but instead of doing as he said, she grabbed his hand to get his full attention. "What if you die, too?"

His gaze intense, he squeezed her hand. "I'll come for you."

She tilted her head toward the dead man in the room. "He said the same thing."

Someone rattled the doork.n.o.b, and Jenny wrapped her arm around his. He instinctively turned to put her behind him, then they started pounding something against the door. It gave with every blow.

"Go."

He helped her into the tunnel. The door above her closed. She crouched there several moments listening, but heard nothing other than the pounding on the door. She pushed the hood back off her head, raking a hand through her hair. Would this nightmare never end? The door to the room crashed open, and like last night, Jenny began to move.

Chapter 3.

Jenny quickly made her way through the tunnel. It didn't take nearly as long as it had seemed last night. The door at the end opened more easily this time. She closed and concealed it as she had before.

She darted behind some trees and looked back at the cabin in the clearing below. The first thing that registered was the quiet. No gunfire. Jenny watched as a dirty group of men in camouflage gathered outside the cabin. One man's voice carried above the rest.

"They just disappeared. We saw them go in, but no one came out."

"Don't give me that bull c.r.a.p about haints and such. You think the boss is gonna buy that when two of his men is dead in there?"

The largest man shoved one of the other men to the ground, then turned. He scanned the area around him. His gaze stopped. He looked right at her. Jenny slowly sank behind a tree, concealing herself completely. Her hair; she'd forgotten. Again! Pulling the hood up, she closed her eyes.

Someone grabbed her from behind. A strong arm banded her waist and a large, gloved hand covered her mouth. The man pressed his lips to her ear. Fear and awareness coursed through her body.

"I told you to go to the cave."

Weak with relief, she pried Cord's hand off her mouth. "I just got out of the tunnel."

"There! I saw something move up there," one of the men at the cabin shouted.

They didn't move. Jenny didn't breathe, but she was aware of the danger and every hard, square inch of the man whose body was pressed up against her from shoulder to ankle.

"Probably just a squirrel."

"Check it out!"

"Aw, h.e.l.l," Cord said, then grabbed her hand and ran.

"There she is!"

"There's someone with her."

They darted into the trees. Cord shoved her into the crevice of a rock, then pulled a knife with a long, thick silver blade from its holder on his belt, cut some branches from a bush and covered her up. When concealed, all she could see was the feral look in his dark eyes as he placed the last branch in front of her.

Her breathing sounded unnaturally loud in the silence. Then they came, thrashing up the trail.

"Their tracks end here."

"Spread out."

Jenny put her hands over her nose and mouth and made herself as small as possible. She saw a man with an a.s.sault rifle approach. He poked every bush with his weapon. He was headed right for her. Cord silently came between the man and her. Then almost immediately, the man went limp. Cord threw him over his shoulder, and blended silently into the landscape.

Two more men appeared "Where's Bob?"

"I don't know. Probably back at the cabin. There's no one here."

"Yeah, you're right. This is a waste of time."

"She's gotta come off this mountain sometime."

"And we'll be there when she does."

"Yeah, puttin' a bullet in her's gonna be a real pleasure."

Crude laughter trailed behind them as they retraced their steps to the cabin. Watching the men walk away, she should have felt relief, but instead terror clinched her chest. Closing her eyes, she couldn't stop the replay of Cord so easily taking that man out, like he'd done it before.

That knowledge brought home the fact that she knew nothing about this man. She'd spent the night with him. Had even been irrationally attracted to him. She rubbed her forehead, trying to think clearly. He hadn't tried to harm her. She'd never find her way off this mountain without him. He was her only hope for getting out alive. Still, one fact outweighed all the rest...

He might have just killed a man.

Jenny didn't know how long she sat there, shivering against the rock in the freezing cold. She looked around the clearing. Where was he? Would he come back for her? Did she want him to? Her mind churned with the reality of the danger she faced from the men pursuing her and the dangerous man she had to trust to help her get back to civilization. And then there were the marshals who, up to now, had failed miserably at keeping her safe. She couldn't help thinking how much better off she'd be on her own.

Someone began dismantling the brush covering her. Before Jenny could react, her arm felt like it had been placed in a vice grip. "Let's get moving."

Her heart barely had time to begin beating again before she was pulled upright to stand in front of the man she both feared and needed. "Lord, would you stop doing that? I had no idea who had just found me!"

"We don't have time for this."

She looked down at his hand, remembering what he'd done.

"Did you kill that man?" The question was out before she could stop it.

"Let's go," he said, pulling her along behind him.

"You didn't answer my question."

"You talk more than anybody I ever knew. He's fine. He'll wake up in an hour or so with the worst headache of his life. He deserves a lot worse."

He moved them into a dense copse of trees. There was no path, but like before, Cord weaved through them like he knew the way. "How do I know you're telling the truth? You could have killed him. You had a knife."

Stopping, he brought her up short and pinned her with an icy glare. "You watch too much TV. First, I'm not a cop. I can't just kill a man because *I can' without there being consequences, and I don't plan to go to jail. Second, there was no reason to kill him. I just needed him out of the way."

"Where did you learn how to do that?"

Cord sighed. "I can take care of myself. Look, if you're finished with your interrogation, we need to get out of here."

She nodded. "Of course."

He began walking again, and she followed. "Where are we going?" she asked.

His sigh was loud enough to echo through the trees. "I have a car. If we make good time, we should reach it by noon."

She'd run there if it meant she could be away from this present danger and safe again. "Safe" being a relative term. She hadn't been safe since she'd stumbled on this crime ring.

What the h.e.l.l were the police and federal agents who were supposed to be making arrests doing? Grady said he'd see that enough people were put away that she might even be able to come home, but every time she turned around, it seemed a dozen or more men were gunning for her. That had to mean it was more involved than they'd first thought. She'd done her best to get up to date information from the marshals by eavesdropping on their conversations, but had learned nothing.

For now, she'd follow this man off the mountain and into what was sure to be another precarious situation. Once he got her back to civilization, she'd make a run for it. How could she be worse off on her own?

They'd been walking for several hours in blessed silence, giving Cord a chance to rea.s.sess their situation. He'd clearly misjudged things. He didn't have many facts, but he didn't like what he knew. Jenny had to be in some phase of witness protection if she was in the custody of U.S. Marshals. Fine. His plan had been to turn her back over to them. But with them dead and their killers still on this mountain and looking for her, that wasn't happening here.

How could a woman like her be in so much trouble? He'd read The Chronicle. It wasn't known for hard-hitting investigative pieces. Just a bunch of small town, local interest pieces mostly. Besides that, there was no crime in Angel Ridge other than a few recent break-ins and the explosion that had leveled the newspaper.

No matter. He'd get back to his car and call Angel Ridge's sheriff. With any luck, he'd drop her off, pick up his supplies in town and get to his cabin by nightfall. He didn't plan on venturing out again until spring.

He was just about to turn and check on how Jenny was doing when a bullet whizzed past him and lodged in a tree. He instinctively moved to protect her, but she was p.r.o.ne with her hands over her head. "Get up."

Before she had time to react, he got his gun out of his waistband, hauled her to her feet, and pulled her along behind him as he sprinted over to an outcropping of rocks. He crouched behind one and got her down to her knees. A man with a rifle appeared where they had just been standing and looked around.

"Hey, Luke. That you?"

He was wearing a bright orange hunter's jacket and a camouflage hat with ear flaps.

Another man appeared. "Back here, man."

"d.a.m.n. My rifle misfired. Glad you was behind me."

The hunter named Luke laughed drunkenly and slapped his buddy on the back. "Let's find a couple of trees for our deer stands."

They shuffled off in the opposite direction, and Jenny slumped against him. After a moment he said, "Just a couple of drunken hunters."

Jenny nodded. "Yeah. Harmless in comparison to those other guys, huh?"

"Well, I don't know if I'd call two drunks with guns harmless."

She looked up at him, smiling. "That was sarcasm."

Ignoring that, he made sure no one else was coming. Jenny seemed tired, but they weren't far from the parking area at the trailhead. She could rest in his car. Regardless, he found himself asking, "You all right to keep going?"

"Of course."

He made the mistake of looking back at her. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears. Great. Whether her reaction was from fear, frustration, or exhaustion, he didn't know. He offered a hand, and she surprised him by taking it despite her obvious mistrust of him, which he had to admit he admired. She should mistrust a total stranger.

He helped her up, and she followed him over to a stream he knew was nearby. She sat on a rock as he fished a bottle of water out of his pack. "Here."