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BEAU ROLLED OVER AND smacked Rachel’s nose with his elbow. She was covered in kids. Cole lay behind her under her legs. Kayli snuggled on the side opposite Beau.
Andy’s absence was profound, even with an extra three bodies warming the bed with her. The light flickered. She rubbed at her tight eyes, gritty from the silent crying she’d done most of the night.
What time was it? Andy’s degree in mechanical engineering had lent itself to the creation of their shelter, but no matter which way he turned the numbers, he’d frowned every time he’d had to tell her he couldn’t get a window of glass that thick for the room deep in the mountain. Rachel had laughed. She’d considered the whole thing a joke. Never in a million years had she believed her family would actually need the land and supplies he’d worked on.
Reuniting with Josh Hughes came to mind. Had he stayed? The crash. Was it safe to go out of the room? Had he stayed? She didn’t want to take any chances, but the four of them would go crazy trapped in there for long. If there had been another attack, she needed to know. She could handle anything with information... not-knowing did her in.
She lifted Kayli’s leg draped over her waist and laid it on the sheet.
The door leading to the underground spring was built like the one leading to the house. Completely encased, Rachel and her kids were safe for at least three months from any external threat. The thought both relieved and nauseated her.
“Mom, do you want me to move?” Cole murmured from his spot. He rolled over and Rachel sat up.
She brushed her hand over his forehead and leaned him back on the bed. “Thanks, Cole. I’m going out the back door to see if we’re safe. Lock the door behind me. I’ll knock with the tuning fork when I get back, okay?” Rachel pulled on her pants and then tucked her Glock into the waistband at the rear.
Her son nodded. He’d had to grow up so fast. Matter of hours. And his growing wasn’t done. Cole would be mature well beyond his years in no time. No amount of behavioral adjustment would change that.
Rachel pulled her flannel on. She smoothed her hands over her hair.
It could be morning or night. A small amount of concern for Josh grew inside her. He’d only been checking on them. Andy had trusted him enough to not tell her but continued being friends. If Andy had told her about the situation sometime in the last two years, she wouldn’t remember. She’d blocked a lot from that period.
She twisted the heavy aluminum bar vertical and pulled the door open. In the dark, she turned and watched her kids disappear behind the metal shield. The damp hadn’t changed. The same musty, moldy scent greeted her mixed with the refreshing briskness of spring water.
A flashlight magnetically stuck to the door, but Rachel had to find it... running her fingers across the trim and over to the corner. An odd shape, smooth on the edges, resisted her push. Two hands and a lot of work finally worked the light free.
The yellow beam shafted through the dark, more than welcome across the old mountain’s fresh water hidden away like a miser-protected mine. Andy had laughed when he’d brought Rachel through the first time, and had pointed at an untapped vein of gold as thick as his thumb running in jagged angles through the cave. Splitting into two and sometimes three to come back to one, the metal shined in the walls the entire path upward.
Rachel had no idea why they hadn’t excavated it, but Andy had reassured her over and over they didn’t need it as bad as privacy. Some things would have to do as decoration or as a trail to the exit. Follow the yellow brick road.
Her light bounced off the wet rock and the stream rushing through the holes in the cavern. Echoing, the cacophony should have been deafening, but instead Rachel had her own symphony.
She climbed the natural rock stairs layered in silky underground flora, careful not to slip. That’d be her luck, tripping and falling into the water. What would her kids do? Rachel dug her fingers into the crevices of the wall for additional support.
A rock cluster overlapped in a zigzag pattern, left-right-left-right back and forth until the damp air faded. She sucked in the fresh air, tasting for radiation. Wait, what did radiation taste like? Fresh blooms? If so, she was done for because the pungent aroma was heady and concentrated enough to saturate her tongue. Blossoms overwhelmed the entrance and further disguised the hole. Maybe radiation smelled like pine needles, bark or dirt... Or men’s deodorant? Rachel spun around, her hand to her mouth, the flashlight ready to bring down on someone’s head.
Josh held up his arm to ward off the impending blow. Rachel gasped and sobbed. “What are you doing? Oh my gosh, you scared the crap out of me.” Anger filled her. Every time she turned around this man startled her. Who needed to worry about radiation? Rachel would be dead from stress.
Holding out his hands, Josh spoke calmly, “I’m sorry. I haven’t heard anything from your room all night. I needed to stretch my legs. Why’d you come out the back?”
How long had they slept? Rachel shook her head. “Because I didn’t know if the front was safe.” Unharmed, trees led away from their position on the slight hill. Radiation would damage the plants, right? A small plume of white smoke snaked into the cloudless sky in the north.
He looked the direction she faced. “I poked around a bit, but I didn’t feel comfortable leaving the house for too long. It will take a good hour to get there by foot.” He rubbed a hand down his face and sighed. Josh took her elbow, the warmth zingy and not-altogether-unwelcome, and propelled her down the hill toward the front of the house, about five minutes easy going. “From what I could gather, I think a plane crashed on the next ridge over. Since you’re up and okay, I’ll run over and check it out.”
“Are you expecting anyone in particular?” Who would be up this way in a plane? There weren’t any landing strips and no groups of people to attack.
“No, but if the enemy is out here, then they know about operations they shouldn’t and a leak of information like that would be more significant than a bomb or two going off.” He stayed beside the door while Rachel let herself inside.
“What information would be worse than a bomb going off?” She offered a laugh shrouded in disbelief. “You know where the headquarters are for the Northern Militia?”
Josh ducked his head and pulled the door shut. Rachel’s chuckle died in her throat. She grabbed his arm. “Do you? Know where the headquarters are?” Impossible. The location hadn’t been uncovered even by their own government. Some people didn’t even believe the Militia branch existed. He walked to the kitchen. Where was her answer? “I’ll grab the kids. We’ll go with you.” He whirled, his eyes wide. Rachel turned down the hall. Two can play that game. Maybe on the way she could get some answers.
By the master door, she pulled the tuning fork from the small slot beside the trim and struck it against the metal handle. A musical hum vibrated in her hand and up her arm. The prong, touched to the door, made the metal sing.
The lock revolved and clicked. The door opened. Cole’s hair rooster-tailed in the back at the crown and a smudge under his eye plucked at Rachel’s maternal nature to rub it away. He ducked from her reach. Beau and Kayli rolled over on the bed and sat up.
“Mommy, I’m hungry.” Beau grabbed his belly and slid off the short bed. At her side, he buried his face into the soft spot above her knee. Of course he was hungry, they’d been in bed nearly twelve hours.
“Well, let’s get something to eat. Kayli-girl, come on.” Rachel herded her children into the kitchen and dining area.
Cole poked his head out the front door to Josh loitering by the opening and smiled, “Hi, Mr. Hughes. You coming in to eat? Mom’s gonna make us something.” Returning inside, his smile slipped a notch at Rachel’s dubious expression. “He’s a buddy of Dad’s, Mom. When I’d come up here we’d eat over at his house or over here. He’s really nice and has an Army-issued HumVee. Isn’t that the coolest thing ever? The tires are bigger than me.”
Rachel didn’t dare update him on the true nature behind Andy and Josh’s relationship and how she played in all of it.
If he stayed to eat, Josh couldn’t go to the site without them and she really wanted to see what they were dealing with. “That’s nice, Cole, but next time check with me, okay? I don’t want guests to feel obligated.”
“No, I don’t have anything going on right now. Thank you for the invitation, Cole. Call me Josh, okay?” The familiarity bugged Rachel. She didn’t know why.
Cole’s smile widened and his green eyes squinted at the edges – like his dad’s. Eh, the pain hadn’t even begun to ache like it was bound to, but the little paper cuts here and there were growing larger and more invasive like butter knife cuts. When would reality sink in completely? She’d had her cry last night, but that was just loneliness enhanced by trauma and shock and fatigue. Andy had been away from her longer than two days before. She’d never blinked an eye. But the reasons were different. Business trip versus death. Comparing a worm to a snake.
Rachel offered a tight smile to Josh and nodded to the table. Anger hadn’t taken effect yet. Shock and denial would be first, but was that last night and now? Or was she just barely starting the grieving process? Analyzing oneself was always frowned on at school, but it was hard having the knowledge and being unable to apply it in a personal aspect. If she’d been a biology major, she could’ve applied the physical information like adrenaline response and fatigue syndromes to their situation, personal or not. Maybe psychology really was a pseudoscience like Brenda said.
Pancakes and eggs would be a good way to start in their cabin of solitude. Comfort food worked wonders in improving outlooks. Plus she needed to keep her hands busy.
She whisked eggs in a large bowl and set them aside until the stove heated the pans. The mix was ready in less time. Rachel peeked over her shoulder at the table. Josh and her three kids stared at each other. Andy’s loss was significant.
Rachel had never considered the possibility of losing her husband. The nightmare had been there, of course, but in her conscious thoughts, she’d never contemplated how or why or when he might go. If Andy could die, then logically so could their extended family.
Where were Brenda and her husband? Rachel had informed her not long ago that if anything happened, Brenda was to get to Rachel’s place in the woods.
Rachel hoped Brenda had listened, even if only to the part of how to get to the cabin. But Brenda would do what she wanted. She always did.
“So Josh, um, do you have family at your place? Did you get married? Have kids?” Was she seriously making small talk when a plane had crashed nearby? She didn’t think she wanted to know about what future he’d chosen when she’d walked away.
“No wife. No kids that I know of.” He offered a stilted laugh. ‘I can’t believe I just said that’ written all over his face with a blush and downcast eyes.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I just...” No kids or a wife? That didn’t fit. She’d always pictured him married and settled. No family was hard to correlate with what she’d been told. She turned with a plate filled with eggs and pancakes and placed it in the center of the table. “Cole, syrup and forks, please. Kayli, cups and Beau, milk.” The kids scrambled to do their part, comforted in the normalcy of the tasks.
“Josh, how’d you meet my dad?” Cole plunked the bottle of syrup on the table and leaned toward Josh.
“We went to the University of Idaho together. We joined the Engineer Everything club. He was mechanical and I was electrical. After school, we worked on a few projects for a couple jobs and when I found this place by me was for sale, I emailed the link to him.” Josh helped distribute the utensils around the table as well as the plates from Rachel’s hands. Their fingers touched and his eyes flickered but didn’t move from Cole’s face. “I’m surprised he didn’t say anything.”
He didn’t sound surprised, hurt more accurately fit the bill. Rachel stifled a suspicious ache as well. Josh had been a large part of Andy’s life and yet her husband had never disclosed information about him since college. Odd.
Why would her husband hide his acquaintance from her? She could have dealt with it. Especially if they were as close as Josh said. What was she missing? “Weird he never clarified you were the one up here with him.” She took the seat on the outer edge of the table and cut Beau’s breakfast after everyone else’s plate had been filled.
Josh cleared his throat. Syrup puddled on his plate. He avoided her gaze and muttered, “Not really.”
Rachel tilted her head. “What?”
Awkward. How did she engage the conversation from that point? She couldn’t force the topic. If she further pursued his absence from their lives, did she damn herself or Andy or was she insinuating paranoia into the moment where there was none?
Rachel’s discomfort rose three-hundred percent. She brushed it off. “Okay, guys, come on, let’s get done. We need to go on a little mission.”
Part of her wondered at Andy’s intention. He’d kept Josh away in the normal world, but had stowed his friend away in his family’s only sanctuary, but to what end?
Continuing the conversation without embarrassing anyone or shoving her foot in her mouth or being disloyal to her husband would be the test. A change in topic would be welcome, but Rachel was at a loss. No matter which way she turned, she was rude.
“I want to go to college in Boise.” Cole spoke up, a stray bit of egg escaping his mouth.
College was a ways off and in their situation who knew if it was even a possibility. The new conversational path didn’t bring the relief she’d hoped for, instead opened up a new wave of despair to focus on.
“What do you want to go to school for?” Josh ignored Rachel’s silence. At least she had gratitude for Cole’s comment in that regard.
“Firefighting and pyrotechnics. If I’d been trained, I could’ve saved my dad.” The smaller children stared at their plates, no longer interested in their food.
Rachel swallowed the lump in her throat and put her hand on Cole’s. “It wasn’t your fault. The fire was too far gone. I don’t think grown firemen would’ve been able to save Dad, if they’d been there. I can’t lose you, too.” Afternoon sunlight filtered past brown curtains. Forcing joviality into the conversation, Rachel laughed. “How long did we sleep, Josh? Do you know what time it is?”
Josh glanced at her and the kids. The younger two followed the exchange with eyes wide as owls. “It has to be close to two. I think after a quick scout around, we might be able to go for a fishing trip down to my pond. Anybody interested?”
“That sounds great. I’d love to see the crash site, too.” Rachel sipped at her milk.
“Wha – why?” Josh rested his hands on the table, a square of pancake stuck to the spikes of his fork. “I can go while you unpack your things.”
True, the cartons and bins had yet to be placed in their new home. But unpacking could wait. Rachel arched her brow. “On the quads we could get there fast and get back. You said it’s just on the next ridge, right?” Was he hiding something? A crash site shouldn’t be off limits, especially to her. She had kids to protect and she wanted to see for herself that everyone was dead. He didn’t need to go alone and she didn’t see the harm in taking the kids with them. She hadn’t seen him in a long time, which meant she didn’t know him from Charles Barkley. He hadn’t had a chance to earn a lot of her trust, yet.
His opinion whether she went or not didn’t matter at the moment. She had to protect the kids. Not him. Her gun snuggled the small of her back, a piece of security in the insanity of the situation.
She stared the blue-eyed man down. The kids, familiar with the eye challenge, lowered their gazes and shoveled food into their mouths.
Josh didn’t look away.
Rachel added a long drawn out sigh.
Cole picked up his milk glass and muttered to Josh, “Man, give it up or the guilt will be next. She’ll get her way. Just give in.”
The revelation startled Josh and he broke the eye contact, his gaze flitting to Cole and back to Rachel. But once broken, the stare was hard to reconnect and since he’d given first, the control had been handed over. He probably didn’t even know it. One point for Rachel.
“Let’s finish eating and we can head out.” Avoiding his gaze was the next move. Why hand over the control she’d won. If she acknowledged his stare after winning, she’d be acquiescing there might be something wrong with what she was planning.
Psychology – play the game.
~
RACHEL DUG HER HEELS into the thick grass, tugging on the hitch of the trailer. Adrenaline had given her strength the day before to move the wagon like it’d been made of plastic. But chemical strength had abandoned her sometime over the night and fatigue worked with worry. She pushed the wheels forward a few feet at a time.
Cole tumbled out the front door with his sister. He handed his water bottle to Kayli and rushed to help his mom. Rachel grunted her gratitude and bared her teeth in an attempt at a smile. The wagon jerked ahead of them and became too light too fast. She glanced over her shoulder, startled to find Josh pushing against the trailer from the rear.
“How did you do this by yourself last night?” He grunted.
“Me? Rachel wiped her chin. Cole and Kayli did the other one.”
Attaching it to the quad was a cinch after that.
Kayli and Beau climbed into the well of the trailer with Cole’s aid. Emptying the contents had increased the depth and the kids’ heads bobbed above the edge, their napes disappearing behind the walls.
At Rachel’s side, Josh pulled his work gloves from his hands. “Are you sure you want to take them?”
Her voice low, Rachel didn’t look at the kids. “They’ll be safer with me than here alone, worrying. We don’t have to take them up into the site. But I want them with me.”
“It won’t be pretty. Are you certain you want to go? I don’t mind going alone.” Josh arched his eyebrow at her. He asked questions like Andy – subtle suggestion techniques to make her think any choice was hers but actually pointing her in the way he wanted her to go.
“I’m sure. Thanks.” Andy hadn’t gotten away with it, either. “Where’s your ride?” The perimeter was clear and his arrival had been soundless.
“I hiked here. I don’t have ATVs. I go on foot everywhere unless it’s an emergency which I use the HumVee for.”
“Oh.” That didn’t make sense. “Why?”
“Because we don’t have a gas station or pump out here and I only have so much stored which has an expiration date. I go to your place and food plots. We live close enough to each other I can be here in a matter of minutes.” He shrugged then grabbed at the nonexistent padding around his middle. “And then of course, I can always do with the exercise.” She never would have guessed he had dimples which increased his charm. Dumb boy.
“Right.” Yep, he was Andy’s friend. Making jokes about his weight like a woman, even without an extra ounce of fat in sight. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing, him being around. He reminded her of Andy and the reality of her husband’s death was easier to push away. It probably wasn’t the best route to approach grieving, but she could push the process off a bit longer. Well, she didn’t know for sure. She was a psychologist who specialized in fear identification and its treatment. She had no clinical analysis for the steps and effects of grief. Maybe she’d research it in her spare time.
The busier she was, the less time she had for the pain. “There’s room on the quad, if you want to ride with me. Since I’m already driving, it’s like car pooling, right?”
Josh met her gaze. “Thanks, I’d appreciate that. Do you have a gun?”
She nodded. “Do you mind if I drive? Redistribute the weight a bit instead of concentrating it all in the back.” Josh climbed on the seat and held out his hand. Rachel suddenly regretted her offer. On a bike behind Andy would be fine. He was her husband, dead or not. On a seat behind a different, slightly attractive man less than forty-eight hours after her husband’s disappearance, Rachel wasn’t sure she was in the right state of mind. She would have to wrap her arms around Josh’s waist.
Her interest in the crash site waned. She should have driven. But then his arms would be around her waist.
The quad tires rolled over and under trees dripping in moss called bear hair. Lichen painted the southern sides of the trees with camouflage-floral patterns of greens, whites and grays. The fire bombs hadn’t been sent this far inland. Lack of significant population combined with the absence of any military presence protected the mountains and woods for imminent attack.
The breeze bit at Rachel’s face and ears. She’d been stupid not to bring a hat. Of course, she’d made the kids grab theirs, but as a mom she failed to apply the same measures to herself. Month of May for crying out loud.
They ducked under a tree resting in the forked crotch of two cedar trunks split four feet from the ground. She focused on keeping her legs skewed and grabbing the metal rack behind her for support rather than the man in front of her.
Dipping into the valley between ridges, the quad’s engine held them from speeding into the thick down-slope. Rachel didn’t know how to proceed into the silence with Josh. Something neutral. The wreck? “Maybe they have a radio or extra fuel on the plane.”
“If it didn’t burn up.”
Right. The wreck had smoke.
“The white smoke tells me the heat was high. If there are any survivors, which I doubt, they’d have to make it out before the flames started and I don’t think they’d have much time to grab anything.”
“Radio or information of any kind would be nice.” Rachel might not have believed every conspiracy Andy had dropped on her, but she’d listened and learned how to be prepared. Information and necessities would be helpful in a survival situation. Rachel, Josh and the kids had food. What they needed included who, what, when, where and how.
She leaned forward, careful to keep her mounting irritation under control. “What’s going on? And don’t tell me you don’t know.”
His back tightened, pulling him away from her. Over his shoulder, his words carried just enough. “I’m not sure exactly who it is, but I can tell you it isn’t our normal enemies.”
Rachel rolled her eyes. “Who is it then? Are you saying it’s our friends?” Andy had never tried that one on her.
Josh shrugged and didn’t answer.
The air chilled between them, stiffened in part by the upper elevation’s drop in temperature. Okay, the temperature didn’t have any effect on the discomfort building between them. Rachel’s tendency to argue with everything he said was the problem. She leaned back. Her obvious attempts to keep distance between them on the quad couldn’t be helping either.
Something about him grated her nerves. Like when they were younger. The way he looked just a little too knowingly at her. The soft scent of Dial soap curled around her and strapped her to the rack.
Knowing what was going on out in the world would help Rachel’s growing loss of control. Maybe if she gained some knowledge, she’d be less cranky and wouldn’t be on edge.
The quad growled up steeper and steeper, thin, rocky paths to the peak of the ridge. Rachel switched her hold from the rails on the quad to around his waist.
What if there was no world left? Maybe her little family and Josh was it. What if America was obliterated and the enemy was taking over? Radiation everywhere? Another country would be stupid to assault the US with nuclear bombs – not because the US would retaliate in kind, but because they would destroy a very valuable asset. Radiation would ruin any chance of inhabiting or colonizing the country. And isn’t that what she would do? Infiltrate. She’d taught the concept in her fear training courses. One could essentially take over another’s life, if they controlled it with fear.
“Mom, what’s that?” Cole pulled Rachel from her musings, pointing at a large chunk of white and gray metal half-decapitating a tree near its base.
Josh interjected before she could compose a response. “It’s the first part of the plane to fall off. We should see more of the wreckage as we get closer.”
Shafts of sunlight sparkled off a rectangular fragment protruding from the brush, another oblong tip of a wing lie on green moss, and fingernail-size metal shards littered the forest floor in sporadic bursts. Josh slowed the vehicle. “I don’t know how much further we want to take this. With the metal on the ground the tires might get ruined.” He slid from the seat and Rachel’s hands fell to her lap.
The kids left the trailer without urging. Rachel climbed from the seat. She stood beside the quad and looked behind them. They’d traveled far. Thank heavens, they had the ATV. The kids would have been too weakened to do a round trip. Josh walked ahead and Cole, Kayli and Beau followed.
“Watch your step, guys.” Josh stepped over razor-edged debris thrown around like wedding rice. He stopped and offered an arm to Rachel, but she looked past him, like she didn’t see it.
Unexpected how the glittering metal pieces added beauty to the forest in random ways – flash of white and red in a dark section of bark, the spots of light from metal as if tossed from a mirror, large pools of sunlight through the damaged treetops, and rainbows swirling in small collections of fuel on rocks and the thawing dirt.
No one spoke, as if they all understood, even the littlest one, something bad had happened there.
In the middle of the path, sudden like the appearance of an aneurysm, the body of a plane rested with its left side crumpled underneath a pile of young trees and rocks while the right side posed, ready to take off in its undamaged state. Burnt fuel and plastic warred with the spring breeze carrying the scent of melting snow and burgeoning growth. Black smoke had stained a weaving pattern over the white paint almost obscuring the red circle on the tail.
Blinking at the symbol of the Japanese flag, Rachel herded her kids into a bunch at her side. “Josh, I thought Japan was an ally. Why is their plane up here? After all the aid we’ve given each other over the last couple years, why would they do this?”
He shook his head and met her gaze over Cole’s head. “I don’t think it was Japan. I think this is a rogue plane that was sent to make people think it was Japan. I don’t remember a Japanese plane ever having only the flag painted on the side – usually they have a saying or symbolic gestures included as well, but this is just the red dot.” Josh pointed at the cockpit. “Japan isn’t known for cowardice. They’d have attacked us as we came up the trail, if they’d been able to. I don’t think there are any survivors.
“I could see the flames yesterday from your place. The wet spring prevented the fire from spreading or it was a flash burn, constrained to the fuel. I’ll bet the metal is still too hot to touch.” He motioned toward the carcass of the plane and stepped onto the charred grass. A crunch marked his movement.
Right. “Cole, stay with the kids.” Rachel patted his shoulder and walked into the crash-made clearing on the balls of her feet, ready to flee at the slightest provocation. She glanced back at her kids. On the edge of the clearing, danger was less of a threat... she hoped.
The air warmed a degree with each step. Heat, as if the plane was the sun, radiated from the center of the circle and the ground was swamp-like under melting snow mixed with dirt. Mud sucked at her boots. The cooler air waged a battle against the plane’s heat and little by little pushed against the force field created by the burned metal.
Rachel circumvented the outer ring of the wing span until she was even with the cab. The glass was black from smoke and if she wanted to see more, she’d have to get closer and wipe off the glass. Bare hands? Heck, no. She darted to a tree along the edge of the clearing and pulled down some moss, the spongy hair would protect her hands and work well to break through the black soot.
Feet from the door, Rachel looked around the hood for Josh.
A potential enemy didn’t run from the plane or the woods and attack her kids. The clank of metal on metal broke the reverence they’d been trapped in. “Sorry.” Josh called, his voice burning in the heat of the plane as it crested from the other side.
Rachel swiped at the shimmering glass. Heat sizzled the ends of the moss but a large enough cut through the black coating showed nothing in the front seat. No chairs, no bodies, no steering wheel, nothing.
She dropped the moss and stepped backward. No body. The heat would have killed anything, but it wouldn’t have turned a body into a pile of nothing. The bones would still be there, or a pile of ash, anything, not nothing.
A twig snapped under foot and she glanced down. Long parallel drag marks led a path into the woods a few trees away from where she’d grabbed the moss. The survivor or more than one might wait in the woods. Was she stupid enough to check?
Josh called to her from the other side, but she couldn’t place his words. He called again.
Rachel raised her eyes, placing her hand at the small of her back.
He rounded the mashed nose of the plane. Josh watched her every move, his gaze flitting to check on the kids. His stance stiffened and he watched the plane and Rachel for an indicator of what exactly was going on. Rachel answered the question in his eyes with a shake of her head. His jaw tightened. Her fingers wrapped around the gun and she pulled it from the band of her jeans.
He removed his own gun from some hidden place. Rachel tapped the drag marks with her toe, bringing his attention down. She moved backwards, eyes on the trail and their point of disappearance. Her kids. She had to get to the kids.
The sound of an engine turning over broke the tension. Rachel stepped toward the trail. The quad.
Running toward the path, she skidded over loose metal and rocks in her hard-soled boots. Mid-stride, she cocked the Glock, passing the kids in her flight. The thunder of Josh’s steps slowed behind her and his voice carried on the mild breeze. “Cole, all of you, follow me.”
Even in their haste, the small group arrived too late. The tail end of the trailer crashed along behind her four-wheeler at a terrified pace. Rachel aimed and shot at a spot above the driver’s head. He only ducked and pushed the engine harder.
Son of a bitch.