TEN

“We’ll never reach cover before we’re spotted,” Hayley said. “But we need to make a break for the trees anyway.”

She darted toward the forest. Sean’s footfalls hammered at her heels. Mack remained behind them, barking and growling as if he could hold the plane at bay by sheer ferocity.

The circumstances of Sean’s tragic loss of his mother at a tender age kept him emotionally isolated to this day. What did that reveal about her alone status and the health of her own emotions when she’d almost prefer running for her life over baring her still-raw anguish to another human soul?

At least, at this moment, they didn’t have to worry about being shot at. That could wait until Glenn’s hunters caught up with them.

“Faster!” Sean’s shout rang inches from her ear.

The buzz of the plane grew almost deafening. Hayley risked a look over her shoulder, and her pulse rate rocketed. What was it that she’d been thinking about no one shooting at them? How wrong could she be?

The aircraft loomed large and all too close as someone poked the dark barrel of a weapon out the passenger window. Her imagination drew a manic grin on the face of the man about to rain bullets on them.

Suddenly, Sean halted, got down on one knee and raised his automatic weapon.

“Go, go, go!” he shouted urgently. “You and Mack get out of here. Somebody has to survive.”

Hayley stumbled, and her healing ankle protested the awkward movement. She started to lift her rifle, but Mack’s powerful jaws clamped onto her jacket, whirling her around and dragging her onward toward the tree line.

A cacophony of gunfire rent the air, lending wings to Hayley’s feet. Her pulse throbbed in her neck and her heart hammered against her ribs. If she looked over her shoulder, what would she see? Sean’s body sprawled in reddening snow?

Please, God, let him survive.

A second spate of gunfire roared, and the timbre of the plane’s engine changed.

Hayley reached the trees, slid to a halt in the slick powder and turned around, every muscle in her body drawn tense as bowstrings. The breath heaved in her lungs as her gaze sought out Sean. There he was, still kneeling, gun raised.

Thank You, Jesus.

The aircraft had pulled up and was turning away from them, a slight sputter in its progress. As the plane began to grow smaller, a tendril of smoke spurted in its wake. Hayley grinned. So, there, bad guys. A cheer left her lips. The ATF agent had clipped their bird’s wings, figuratively speaking.

She returned her gaze to Sean, who had pulled himself into a standing position. He turned and took a few steps in her direction, then stumbled and fell on his face.

“Sean!” Her feet flew over the ground toward him.

By the time she reached him, he was stirring and groaning. Not dead. Hayley hauled in a deep breath. Shaking, she fell to her knees beside him as he struggled to rise.

“Whoa! You’re hit,” she said, pressing him back down to earth.

His face had gone paper pale. “Took one in the left side.” He huffed between gritted teeth. “I think—hope—it’s a graze or a shallow through-and-though.”

She examined the left side of his jacket, which sported a telltale hole, front and back, but it was impossible to see how much damage had been done to his flesh. However, the wetness soaking through the fabric wasn’t a good sign.

Hayley frowned. “We need to stop the bleeding.”

“Let’s make tree cover first.” He began getting to his feet, uttering deep groans.

She had no choice but to lend her arm for assistance, though she was far from sure standing up and moving around was the best behavior right now. “The bad guys won’t be coming back. You damaged their plane.”

“I don’t care to take that chance.” Sean stood upright, swaying.

“I’m taking the pack.”

Hayley stripped the heavy item from his back, then turned and offered him her shoulder to lean on. Mack trotted up to them, whining softly. She held the pack strap toward him, and his jaws gripped the canvas.

“Go, boy.” She motioned him to go ahead of them.

The dog dragged the pack across the snow as they all made their way into the forest. About ten paces in, Sean stopped. He let out a moan as Hayley helped him lower himself to the ground and lean against a birch trunk.

“Can you get your jacket open?” she asked.

Without a word, Sean pulled down the zipper and spread the outer garment wide. Hayley sucked in a sharp breath. Blood had soaked one side of his checked, flannel shirt. The tip of her tongue poking out between her teeth, she lifted the shirt and peered closely at the wound. It wasn’t gushing blood, at least not anymore, but it was oozing steadily.

“A graze,” she pronounced. “But it’s deep and long. I think a rib deflected the bullet.”

Sean let out a grunt. “No wonder it hurts to breathe. The rib may be broken.”

“We need to stop the bleeding and disinfect the gash.”

Hayley hurriedly dug in her pack for the trauma kit. She pulled out a strip of hemostatic gauze and pressed it firmly against the wound. Sean inhaled a sharp breath but didn’t flinch or complain as they waited several minutes to give the clotting process time to begin. At last, Hayley eased the gauze away from the area and inspected it.

“Good. The bleeding is arrested, and the wound looks clean. This is going to sting,” she said as she took disinfectant pads from their sealed packets.

The process of applying the pads and wrapping his torso firmly with cloth bandages took several minutes of soft groans and huffs from Sean and gentle clucks from Hayley. Then she sat back on her haunches and surveyed her handiwork.

“I’d love to get you to a hospital ASAP. You need stitches. But until that becomes possible, this will have to do.”

“You did great.” He offered a strained smile. “Thank you.”

“No. Thank you.” Hayley blinked her eyes rapidly against the sting of tears. “You risked your life for Mack and me.”

A trace of color crept onto his cheeks. “The least I can do when you’re a total innocent caught up in trouble, not of your making.”

“Not. Your. Fault.” She pronounced each word with emphasis. “I would be dead now without your presence. Mack, too, probably.”

Their gazes locked, and the breath vacated Hayley’s lungs. What exactly was this yearning feeling deep within when she looked at Sean? Gratitude? Yes, but not merely that. It was the something else that scared the skittish part of her that had so long guarded her heart.

Sean broke eye contact with her and stirred. “We should get going.”

“No.” Hayley shook her head. “You need to rest, hydrate and eat—at least for the next twenty minutes to a half hour.”

“Twenty minutes. No longer.” He shook a finger at her. “Glenn’s crew will have our coordinates now.”

“Then, the more reason you’ll need your strength.”

“Agreed.” His expression relaxed into a smile.

Hayley handed Sean the canteen and some of the painkiller and analgesic tablets she’d been taking for her ankle. Then she pulled out the bag of pine nuts. Sean accepted her offerings with soft words of thanks. With him settled, she allowed herself to sit opposite him with her back against a tree trunk. Mack huffed at the humans snacking without him, turned and trotted off into the trees.

“While we regroup,” she said, “and Mack hunts for his lunch, let me tell you the story I promised to share.”

“You don’t have to do that. I was being touchy.”

“No, I do have to.” She leaned forward and touched his booted foot. “I want to tell you.”

Hayley’s spirit jumped. For the first time in eight years, she truly did want to share with someone else the most painful event of her life.


The bullet crease in Sean’s side burned like someone was holding a hot poker to it, but his desire to hear Hayley’s story burned brighter. She sat stiff and still opposite him, seemingly studying the toes of her boots. Probably gathering her thoughts. Absently she stuck several pine nuts in her mouth, chewed, swallowed and at last looked up and met his eyes.

“I met Ryan when I was in my senior year as an art major at the College of Liberal Arts in Fairbanks. He was passionate about being an up-and-coming patrolman with the Fairbanks Police Department. A guy who was going places. He had his sights on climbing the ranks as quickly as possible. Our connection was instant, and it didn’t take long before we were engaged. I was swept away by the intensity he brought to anything he did, including our relationship...or so I thought.”

Her lips flatlined, and she gazed away into the trees.

“What was off about him?” Sean asked gently.

Hayley let out a dry laugh. “Pretty much everything. Turns out I misread him. For one thing, I finally figured out that I was simply a puzzle piece for him to fit into his life’s master plan, but not a priority piece. The most important thing to him was the job.”

“Law enforcement is a demanding career.”

“I understand that.” She nodded. “Weird—sometimes long—hours. Crime doesn’t happen on a schedule. That part never bothered me, though I can’t promise it wouldn’t have down the road, but I never got the chance to find out how I would have coped long term.”

“What happened?”

“The robbery happened.”

Robbery? Sean adjusted his seat against the tree trunk to take pressure off the rib he suspected was broken.

“Is that pain reliever kicking in yet?” Hayley asked.

“Still in the works.” He offered her a half smile. “You mentioned a robbery.”

“Right. The infamous Denali Credit Union Heist a little over eight years ago.”

Sean hissed in a breath, but not from pain. “I remember hearing about the incident on the news. Nothing subtle about that job. Four masked men stormed into the lobby with submachine guns, demanding the money at the teller stations and from the vault. A manager at the back hit a panic button, and before the crooks had collected all the loot, the cops had arrived and were trying to negotiate a surrender. But the thieves were amped up on something and not dealing rationally. Things went from bad to ugly. Innocent people were killed before the thieves were arrested. Was your sister in the bank? Was she among the victims?”

Hayley’s eyes hardened to dark marbles. “She was a victim, but not at the bank. We had no business being that close to the action.”

“We?”

“Ryan, Kirsten and me.” She drew her knees up to her chest and hugged them.

Sean frowned. “I get why Ryan would have been there as a cop on the scene, but what were you and Kirsten doing—”

“The whole situation was so foolish and unnecessary!” Hayley burst out. “Ryan wasn’t supposed to be there either. It was his day off. Like a gallant gentleman, he’d taken Kirsten and me out for lunch for our birthdays. On our way home, the call about the robbery in progress came in over the police band radio in his car. The words electrified Ryan. He whipped the car around and headed for the bank. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he had to see if he was needed at the scene. Kirsten and I argued against going, but he insisted and we were more or less captive passengers in his car.”

A fist clenched around Sean’s heart. “He brought the two of you to the crime scene?”

“Not all the way. He parked two blocks back and asked us to wait for him. If he didn’t return within twenty minutes that meant he was needed on-site, and we should take his car and go home. He’d catch a ride with one of his buddies. I’ll never forget the manic look in his eyes. I began to realize something at that moment. The adrenaline rush of his job was more important than I was, and always would be. I was in shock with the realization. My sister was less so. She’d always seen him with a clearer lens than I did. But then, she wasn’t in love with Ryan.”

Hayley went silent, her stare fixed and distant.

“I can see talking about this is taking a toll on you,” Sean said. “We can stop.”

Her gaze snapped to his, fire in her eyes. “Stop? Not hardly! I need to finish this.” Then her rigid shoulders visibly relaxed, and she let out a long breath. “Sorry. It’s just been a long time since I’ve talked about that day. Doing it feels sort of like picking a scab off a poorly healed wound, but at the same time a healthy thing to do. Like I need to let it out to someone, and you seem like that someone.”

“Okay, good.” Sean nodded. “How did the situation result in your sister’s death?”

Hayley offered a sad smile. “We waited in the car for about ten minutes, and then we heard gunfire. We started to debate whether we should stop waiting for Ryan and get out of there. I kept expecting to see him tearing back to us intent on whisking us away. Then the gunfire stopped, and we waited another five minutes. Shots sounded again, and Kirsten made up our minds for us by leaping out of the back seat and into the front driver’s seat. She was about to put the car into gear when an armed man ran up to the car, pointed his gun at us and demanded we get out.”

Sean’s breath caught. “One of the robbers?”

Hayley nodded. “He’d managed to sneak out of the bank, leaving his buddies behind, and was intent on escaping capture. We happened to be sitting nearby in a running car. Ripe pickings.”

A low groan escaped Sean’s throat. “A carjacking.”

“Apparently, we didn’t comply with his demand fast enough for this amped-up crook. As soon as Kirsten opened the door to get out of the driver’s seat, the guy grabbed her, yanked her out and shoved her sprawling onto the sidewalk. I was already most of the way out of the passenger seat, one foot on the pavement and one still in the vehicle. My view of what was happening was partially blocked by the bulk of the car. But I heard the shot... I heard it.” The final three words emerged in a ragged whisper.

Hayley sat, legs gripped tight to her chest, rocking like she was struggling to find her balance.

Sean’s eyes grew wide, and his mouth went dry. “He shot her?”

Hayley stopped rocking and went utterly still, her eyes tightly closed. “Just like that. No warning. No reason. Then he got into the car and drove off like nothing had happened, leaving me standing in the street, staring at...my sister’s...body...”

Uncaring of the pain movement cost, Sean got on his knees and went to her. As he put his arm around her, she buried her face against his chest and her shoulders began to shake. Sean’s heart squeezed in on itself. Her pain and tragedy ranked every bit as profound as his. He didn’t know or care how long she cried. However long she needed, that was how long she would get.

At last, she simply rested quietly against him. “I miss her so, so much every single day.”

The words came out muffled against his jacket, but his heart resonated loud and clear.

“I hear you from head to toe, inside and out,” Sean whispered.

Hayley lifted her head and looked at him, their faces mere inches apart. “I know you do. Perhaps that’s why I could tell you.”

Their breaths mingled, and he floundered to stop thinking about closing the distance and kissing her.

Then she stiffened and pulled back, her gaze wrenching away from his. “Now you also know why I don’t ever consider dating a cop.”

Sean’s lungs went as vacant as his arms. “I’m not a cop. I’m a fed.”

How pitiful did that sound, almost begging her to reconsider on a technicality?