Reese thought about changing the subject or ignoring her question. But she’d been vulnerable with him. And if he was ever going to have a chance with her—and he wanted one—he was going to have to open up. It was a risk, but so was every mission worth achieving. Ella was trustworthy, and she was a risk worth taking. Even if it hurt. Even if it killed him.
He stared up at the stars as if they could guide his heart the way they did the paths of ancient explorers. He was certainly treading into unknown territory.
“My parents are pacifists. I don’t know if you know that.”
She made a sympathetic noise, but he didn’t meet her gaze. It was easier telling it to the stars and the trees.
“When I was a kid, I was small for my age, didn’t get my growth spurt until well into high school. There was a boy in fifth grade—Darrin—who bullied me mercilessly. He was the biggest kid in our class, and he enjoyed his size. I’d tell my parents, and they’d tell me to use my words, that violence only beget violence.” He could hear the cynicism in his voice.
“One day I was walking home from school, hurrying as fast as I could hoping Darrin wouldn’t catch up to me. I constantly wished I was taller or bigger so that he wouldn’t mess with me. Mostly I just wanted to get on my street before Darrin caught up with me. Maybe he’d find someone else to mess with that day. But sure enough, I heard the pounding of sneakers on the pavement behind me. I turned, and Darrin and his buddies were bearing down on me.”
He let out a breath that felt like it held years of pent up frustration and glanced at Ella. Even in the faint starlight, he could see her soft, open gaze on him. It was encouragement enough to keep going.
“I resisted the urge to run. Maybe if I didn’t, they wouldn’t chase me. No such luck. A smack hit the back of my head and caused me to stumble. I thought about what my parents had told me, about using my words to state what I wanted. So I said, ‘Stop it, Darrin. I don’t like that. Please don’t do it again.’
“This just egged him on. ‘What? This?’ Darrin smacked me again. So I tried one more time. ‘I said stop. If you don’t stop, I’ll have to report you to the teacher.’ Darrin’s friend Lucas—yeah, there’s a reason I don’t like your ex-fiancé’s name—called me a tattletale, and Darrin said I was a crybaby. ‘You can’t handle anything. Have to go running to Mommy.’”
The words still punched Reese in the chest, old feelings resurrecting. He was that boy again, trying to block out the words, blinking back the tears that threatened, knowing that would just make everything worse, making Darrin’s accusation of being a crybaby true. “I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I just had to make it to my street. Then I had a chance of running home before they caught me. But Lucas blocked my path, and I bumped into him. I asked him to let me pass and tried to go around him, but Darrin grabbed my arm from behind and spun me around.”
Ella’s hand slid over and wrapped around his.
He squeezed it, grateful for the warmth. “I knew where this was going, but I tried the last threat I knew. ‘I’m reporting you to the teacher tomorrow, and you’ll get detention.’ Darrin said, ‘Kinda hard to talk with a broken jaw’ and took a swing at me. I ducked, but it caught the tip of my nose.
“My face burned and turned warm. Blood dripped from my nose. Even though I expected it, I was shocked he actually hit me. I’d never had that happen in my life. Everything in me wanted to strike back, but my parents forbade it. They abhorred violence of any kind, said that it never solved anything, just made the situation worse. I’d asked for karate or boxing lessons when Darrin first started hassling me, but my parents were adamant in their refusal.”
Reese hadn’t told anyone the whole story other than his parents, and the intensity of the long-buried emotions surprised him. “While I was still in shock that he hit me, he slammed me with another punch, this one catching me under the eye, and I spun and lost my balance. A well-placed foot by Lucas caused me to trip. When I put out my arm to break my fall, I was rewarded with a pop and searing pain in my forearm. I remember curling into a ball on the ground, barely able to catch my breath and hoping they wouldn’t do anything else.
“Darrin nudged Lucas and laughed, saying, ‘That’ll teach you. You say a word and you’ll get worse.’ They ran off. When I could catch my breath, I gingerly held my arm against my side and headed home, grateful Darrin and Lucas had left me alone but hoping I could make it home.
“Mom gasped when I walked through the door. She rushed me to the emergency room where I was given a cast. I liked the idea of having people sign it, but I didn’t want to say how it happened. I made up some story about breaking my arm falling off a neighbor’s trampoline, since that’s what had happened to a kid in our class the previous year.
“When we got home from the emergency room, I asked Mom if I could have those karate lessons as soon as my cast got off, thinking surely they’d see the need for them now. But she was still adamantly against them. Instead, she was going to talk to the principal. Darrin got a couple of days’ suspension; Lucas got nothing. Mom drove me to and from school after that, but there were only a few days left in the school year.”
He leaned back and tugged Ella’s hand closer to him. “I missed swimming the first part of that summer. But I did learn one thing.”
“What was that?” Ella’s voice was a quiet whisper beside him in the now full dark.
“I knew Darrin would pick up where we left off when school started again. Maybe I couldn’t fight him, but I could outrun him. Mom couldn’t object to that. So as soon as the cast came off, I asked to join a local track club. I found out I liked running. And while Darrin was built like a football player, he couldn’t run. After unsuccessfully chasing me a few times in sixth grade, he turned his attention to someone else.”
“And you still run.”
He nodded, surprised at first that she knew then remembering it was a small town. “Yeah. It’s saved my sanity.” He let out another deep breath, feeling a piece of his past slip away. “But that’s why I came into high school with a chip on my shoulder. My parents had moved us up here once Raul and Rachel were out of the house. By that time I was taller and fast and figured a good offense was the best defense. If I acted tough, no one would mess with me.”
“And no one did.”
“Nope.” But he hadn’t made many friends either. “By the end of high school, the military was looking like a good choice for me. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was angry at my parents’ pacifist ways. I’d been hurt by them. I guess going into the military was the most opposite thing I could think of from what they believed. They were pretty upset with me. We had a lot of arguments. They never stopped speaking to me or anything like that, but things have always been strained. Then I got my TBI and a medical discharge. I figured maybe it was time to come home and mend some fences. My parents are older. I was an unexpected, late-in-life surprise. So helping Raul is one way I can try to make things better between us.”
The silence fell soft between them.
Then it was shattered by the snap of breaking branches.
* * *
Ella hardly knew what was happening when Reese grabbed her hand and yanked her to her feet. “Wha—?”
“Shh. Trust me.” His voice was barely above a whisper. She hoped he could see better than she could as he dragged her through the campsite.
He snagged up his pack, and they kept on going past the tents and up into the rockier part of the slope, keeping to the granite slabs and bare ground.
She’d heard something in the bushes and thought perhaps the mountain lion was back. Or maybe a bear. But didn’t animals settle down at night? Then again, it wasn’t as if they had a fire to warn them off.
But then she saw the beam of a flashlight. And knew it was a human predator after them. What were the odds that it was some poor hiker bumbling around in the woods in the dark?
She concentrated on keeping her feet under her and staying quiet as Reese tugged her along. Her heart pounded, and she actively pushed the fear away, trusting that Reese knew what he was doing. Of course he did. And he was their only hope of getting out of this alive.
He skirted them around a copse of trees before hunkering down behind some scrub brush. His voice was in her ear, sending tingles down her spine and into the confusing mix of emotions running through her.
“I think we lost them for now.”
“Were those the guys who were after us before?” She put her hand on his shoulder to lean close to him. The sense of safety he provided was almost overwhelming.
“Can’t imagine who else it would be.”
“What do we do?”
“Wait. They won’t find us here. In the morning we can get to the trailhead and contact the sheriff.”
“We don’t have tents or sleeping bags.”
He shifted slightly, quietly opening his pack, pausing between movements. He pulled out something soft and handed it to her. A fleece. She eased off her jacket and pulled it on, then put her jacket over it. Based on the slight rustling, he was doing something similar.
He moved, putting his back against the large pine. “Come here.” He pulled her between his legs, against his chest and wrapped his arms around her. “I have an emergency blanket, but it crinkles when you move. We’ll have to be very still.”
She nodded, not sure if the pounding in her chest was from being chased or from being held by him. She had gloves in her jacket pocket, so she eased those on. She wished she had her knit cap that was back in her pack, but her jacket had a hood.
Reese seemed to read her mind as he eased her hood out and over her head. He moved his arms around her, slowly opening the emergency blanket, each crack sounding as loud as a gunshot.
She was certain they’d be found out. But there was nothing to be done about it. It would get close to freezing tonight, and they’d need all the warmth they could get. What she wouldn’t give for her sleeping bag. But she was grateful Reese had grabbed his pack or they’d have nothing at all.
When he’d gotten the blanket over them, he tightened his arms around hers crossed over her middle. His head rested on her shoulder. “If they find us, I want you to run toward the top of that hill that’s just past these trees. You can hide in the rocks up there. Or head down the other side. If you head toward the lake, you’ll hit the trailhead and Raul will be there.” He paused. “Whatever you do, don’t wait for me. Understand?”
She nodded, but her throat tightened. The thought of leaving Reese behind in the hands of those men who had done what they’d done to Dalton Brandt… Please, God, no. Don’t let it come to that. Let us get out of here safely.
* * *
Reese hoped Ella couldn’t feel his heart pounding as she leaned up against his chest. And he hoped he was doing the right thing. He’d been questioning his judgment ever since his decision had gotten two of his men killed. He’d never forgive himself if something happened to Ella because of his bad choice. He knew what these illegal growers were capable of. He’d seen what they’d done to Brandt.
While he’d never said anything to Ella, he’d been keeping an eye on their tail, making sure they weren’t being followed and picking paths that wouldn’t leave as much of a trail. He wasn’t sure how wilderness savvy these dudes were but was banking on the fact that they were more muscle than anything.
The only way he could figure how they’d been found was that small plane earlier today. He’d thought maybe someone was just sightseeing, given the plane was circling around and flying across the valley. But they could have been looking for Ella and him. He didn’t think these guys were that lucky to find them, since he’d purposely stayed away from common campsites and trails.
He’d deliberately dashed out of their previous camp in the opposite direction and then circled back, hoping that if those goons heard them, they’d think he and Ella were headed to another trailhead. Deciding to hunker down here was the safe bet. Wandering around in the dark was just asking for one of them to end up with a sprained ankle or worse. And not being able to move quickly would be their biggest liability. Those guys would literally have to stumble over them to find them here. Once the sun came up, it would be a different story. But they weren’t too far from the trailhead. He still thought his plan to approach from the north would be unexpected.
His mind spun. After everything he and Ella had shared tonight, she was much more than a client he felt responsible for. His heart was intwined with hers, for better or worse.
He wasn’t going to sleep; he was on watch. He’d done this enough times that he knew what to do. But this was the first time his heart had been involved. He just hoped he was capable of it this time.