Darkness closed in around her followed by an eruption of stars as Gabby hit the hard ground. Her mind fought to focus as she waited for the sound of another gunshot. Someone was out there. Close enough to fire shots at them. And Mia... She had to be with them, which terrified Gabby. She listened for the sounds of Mia crying, but all she could hear was the rush of wind around her. If Mia was somewhere nearby, she had to get up and find her.
“Gabby... Gabby talk to me.”
She opened her eyes and stared up at Liam, who was framed in darkness with only a hint of moonlight allowing her to make out his features.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I think so.”
“Move slowly, but you need to get up. We have to get out of here. Now.”
She let him help her up, making sure as she moved that nothing was broken. For the first time all night, she was thankful for the cover of darkness. But why shoot at them? So far, the men had seemed to want her alive. Liam put his arm around her and helped her to her feet. She stared down the path ahead of them, but darkness made navigating the terrain almost impossible. If it wasn’t for Liam and his training, they’d never have made it this far.
“Why did he shoot at us?”
Liam was guiding her down a smaller trail that deviated away from the main path, keeping his arms around her as they hurried through the icy darkness.
“Maybe he was trying to slow us down. I don’t know.”
She glanced around her as another realization hit her foggy mind. “Where are the horses?”
“They were spooked by the gunshot and ran. I managed to grab my rifle, but that’s it.”
“So what do we do now?”
“We’re going to have to walk out of here.”
She heard the anger in his voice. The cold felt like a knife through her lungs as she took in a deep breath, trying to settle her nerves. They’d been traveling on horseback for a couple hours, but now that it had started to snow, the terrain was going to be even tougher to cross. If they turned back to the ranch, it would take even longer. She had no idea what was out there. Only that trusting Liam was her last hope now.
The realization left her feeling vulnerable. Out of control. And she hated feeling out of control.
She glanced back through the eerily shadowed forest. “Do you think he’s behind us?”
“He’s out there, but I don’t think he’s coming after us.”
“Which leaves us where?”
“There’s a cabin south of here off the main path. The one I mentioned earlier that belongs to a friend. It will be a lot quicker to reach that than heading back to the ranch. The man who lives there should have a way for us to warm up.”
She zipped her coat up a couple inches, then wrapped her scarf around her neck a second time. They pressed through the trees in silence. She forced herself to keep up with his pace, trying to follow in his footsteps so she made as little sound as possible. Night sounds echoed around her. She shivered, both from the cold and from the fear that had settled in her gut. They were out there. The men who had broken into her house...killed Casada...kidnapped her daughter.
Where are you, Mia? Mama will find you. I promise.
Her lungs were burning, and she didn’t know if it was the altitude, the fall or both, but either way she needed to stop and catch her breath.
She stood in the middle of the trail and turned to Liam. “I just need a minute.”
“Of course. How are you feeling? How’s your head?”
“It’s sore, but fine. I just need to catch my breath.”
He led her to a flat rock on the side of the trail. “Rest here. I’m going to try and radio my brother.”
An owl hooted in the distance. An ensemble of insects chirped, even in the cold.
“I can’t get through.” He knelt in front of her. “Tell me how you’re really feeling. Do you feel nauseated or dizzy? You took quite a blow back there falling off that horse.”
“I really do think I’m fine, though the back of my head hurts. I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up with a lovely goose egg.”
He shot her a smile. “Trying to compete with me, huh?”
“Funny, because I’d have been perfectly happy to have skipped this drama. Do you know where we are?”
“More or less. Not sticking to the main trail is going to make it harder, but this is a shortcut to the cabin.”
“I’m slowing you down.”
“You’re fine, and besides...you’re definitely much better company than my brothers used to be when we played hide-and-seek out here. We’d spend half our time arguing about who was the best tracker, or the best aim.”
“Let me guess. You were the best tracker out of the four of you?”
“My brothers would never agree with that statement, but I was pretty good. Their problem was they couldn’t go more than a minute without talking or making some kind of noise. I loved tracking, even back then.”
She glanced toward the east where a hint of light was already breaking above the horizon. “It’s going to be light soon.”
“We will find them. There’s nowhere they can escape. We’ll figure out how to let my brothers know where we are. The cabin’s not too far now.”
She nodded, wanting to believe him, and yet whoever had taken Mia still had the advantage.
He caught her gaze in the soft glow of dawn. “You’re shivering.”
He sat down next to her and wrapped his arm around her waist, letting her burrow her head into his shoulder. He took her gloved hands and rubbed them between his, trying to warm her up. She was so cold. They were dressed for the weather, but losing the horses put them at a huge disadvantage. Besides that, they had no access to water and food. They needed to get somewhere safe and warm, but at the moment all that mattered was finding Mia.
A branch creaked overhead while the wind whipped around them. Her head throbbed, but she couldn’t focus on that. His warm breath tickled a small exposed place on her neck. And with his arms around her, she finally felt as though she were warming up.
“When I found out Will was dead, I felt as if my whole life was over,” she said. “No matter how much you prepare for the possibility of something bad like that happening, you really can’t know what it’s going to be like until it happens. The grief and numbness that follows. The feeling that nothing will ever be okay again. But in the middle of everything was Mia. This part of Will that was still alive.”
She took in a deep breath before continuing. “Then in my third trimester, suddenly I had something else to worry about. The doctor diagnosed me with preeclampsia. I had high blood pressure and my hands and feet were swollen. Once again, I was suddenly facing another crisis.”
“You never told me that.”
“There was nothing you could do. I didn’t even know what to do except follow the doctor’s orders. My parents were there for me. I was so scared something would go wrong and I would lose her.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No. And when Mia was finally born, the doctor laid her on my chest and told me she was perfect. I suddenly felt that somehow things would be okay again. Not perfect. Not even happy-ever-after, but okay. It seemed impossible. I was a single mom, about to raise a child on my own, and to be honest, I was terrified and anything but prepared. But this beautiful baby had managed to take away some of the numbness.”
“I’m sorry. I wish I could have been there.”
“No. I don’t want you to feel guilty at all. You came home fighting for your own life. You did exactly what you needed to do.” She dropped her gaze. “But I feel like I’m there again. Hearing the doctor telling me the risks of what could happen. I can’t lose her, Liam. I can’t give them what they want—I don’t even know what they think I have—so how are we going to end this? I don’t know what to do.”
“We’re going to find her, but in order to do that we’ve got to keep going. We need to get to that cabin and get ahold of Griffin. Can you do that?”
She pulled away from him and nodded. “Yeah.”
Because Mia was out there somewhere. There was no way she was going to give up.
They started walking again, pressing through the early morning glow of dawn toward the cabin. Snow was falling, but not hard enough that it was slowing them down. Even though Gabby was managing to keep up, Liam was worried about her. She’d proven to be strong over the past few days, but that fall had knocked the wind out of her—and possibly more. He’d continue to monitor her symptoms, but the reality was she needed to be checked out by a doctor, not trooping through the woods in the middle of the night.
He glanced at her silhouette in the soft light. He’d never really noticed how beautiful she was. Those big brown eyes, long hair and full lips... It shouldn’t make him feel the way he did, but he couldn’t deny it. This was more than just wanting to keep her safe. More than just wanting to ensure they found Mia.
He was falling for her.
Which seemed insane when he stopped and really thought about it. For one, she’d never fall for someone like him. She knew far too well the cost of being a military wife. How could he ask that of her when she’d already lost so much? Expect her to wait for him while he was deployed, never knowing if he’d come home. To deal with him leaving in the middle of the night for a mission he couldn’t tell her about. To handle being separated for months on end...
It all sounded so brave and patriotic and even romantic, but what about the day-to-day realities of her having to be a single mom when he was gone. Assuming he was finally cleared for active duty, that was what he had to offer her and that was asking too much.
No, he couldn’t—wouldn’t—ask that of her.
He could see her breath forming a mist in the early morning air. The sun would rise above the horizon before long, hopefully warming up the temperatures, but they had to keep moving. Their best bet was to find a way to communicate and give Griffin a heads-up as to where the men were likely to emerge on the other side of the forest.
He forced his mind to shift gears and picked up their conversation from the day before. “We started talking yesterday about your struggling to pray.”
She hesitated before responding. “Since Will’s death, I haven’t been able to pray. I mean, really pray. Even if it just meant crying out to God in anger and fear and hope, believing He’s really there.”
“I think I understand. After the accident, I struggled with so much guilt. I’d watched my best friend die and couldn’t stop it. For a while, I took it out as anger against God. Which really didn’t make sense, but I didn’t know how to cope with what I was feeling.”
“What changed things for you?”
“I finally realized that there was something left in the middle of all the loss. That my faith was still there. Not intact, maybe, but there.”
“And now?”
“I still struggle to accept what’s happened, but I realize that God is there through the healing and doubts now, just like he’ll be there in the midst of whatever the future brings. I’m not sure if my doctor is going to approve me for active duty. And without that, I’ll end up with a medical discharge and back in civilian life. I’m not sure how I’ll deal with that.”
“So you don’t want to leave the military?”
“It’s what I know. Who I am. I honestly can’t imagine doing anything else.”
He spoke the words, knowing what they would mean to her. Knowing that his need to serve his country meant he could never win her heart.
“You warm enough?” he asked.
“Walking actually helps. Plus, I’m trying to imagine sitting in your house, watching a movie with a huge mug of hot chocolate and marshmallows.”
“Ha! What kind of movie?”
“Nothing in particular. I’m guessing you like action. Maybe sci-fi.”
“Yep, but they’re not your favorite.”
“No, but I do love a good apocalyptic movie. You know...end of the world meteor shower or devastating virus.”
“Really...then we’ll have to make it a date.” He stopped, wondering how he’d just opened his big mouth again and said something stupid. “I’m sorry. I just meant, you know, I thought we could hang out some. Like we used to.”
When Will was alive. Boy, he was getting good at saying the wrong things.
“I’d like that, actually.” Her response surprised him. “Though I have to ask you one question, why aren’t you married or at the least dating someone? You’re smart, good-looking, funny...”
He glanced at her. “And...”
She laughed. “Seriously. You’re a catch.”
“I don’t know. Saying I haven’t found the right person sounds like a cliché, but it’s true. And being deployed didn’t help, either. Most women aren’t looking for someone who’s going to be gone a good chunk of the time. It tends to make them run the opposite direction toward the stable guy working a regular job who’s always home for dinner.”
“I suppose being a military wife takes a certain kind of person and some getting used to—on both sides—but if it’s the right person, it’s worth it.”
“I was always amazed at how you and Will managed to balance your marriage with all his field training and deployments. What about you? Have you thought about dating again, or is it too soon?”
The pause left him regretting his question. “I think I’m going to have to apologize again.”
“No...you don’t. I just... I haven’t really had time to think about it. You mentioned how being deployed didn’t help a relationship, try throwing in a baby and a full-time job. Between work and taking care of her, I don’t exactly have a lot of free time to go out on dates. Falling in love again sounds frivolous between changing diapers and working full-time.”
“I can’t see why that would be an issue. Mia’s adorable. Just like her mom.”
“You’d be surprised at how many guys start flirting until they notice you’re carrying a diaper bag. Then they suddenly vanish out of your life. No. Most guys are not interested in a ready-made family. It’s not exactly a Cinderella story.”
His hand brushed against her arm as they maneuvered over a spot of uneven ground, making him pause. Why did she look completely kissable? A narrow sunbeam lit up her dark hair. He stopped walking then reached down and pushed back a loose strand from her face, fighting the unwanted feelings of longing that continued to surface. If he kissed her, everything would change. If he didn’t, he’d never know what might have happened between them.
And maybe that was best. He was risking far too much by letting this scenario between them play out.
“You look so serious,” she said. “What is it?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe it’s just the sunrise and this golden halo over you from the sunlight. You’re so beautiful.”
“I’ve been out half the night in freezing temperatures, was thrown off a horse and—”
“Trust me.” He smiled at her. “You still look beautiful.”
“Liam...”
He tried to read her expression, but he couldn’t.
“Liam...” She was staring at something behind him. “There’s a mountain lion.”