Lara opened the door and stepped onto the porch, cradling the baby in her arms. “Don’t be trying to hide anything from me,” she told the two men, glaring from one to the other.
“How did you know?” Ethan scratched his head.
“When Jake shows up, he marches right in.” She motioned toward her forest ranger friend, then jerked her chin at Ethan. “You don’t go outside and close the door.”
He raised his hands in a surrender gesture. If this were a time for levity, she’d laugh at the red on his face.
“Spill!” she ordered Jake, who also had a slightly pink face. “What happened?
He raised the bags he carried in his hands. “I got this stuff at the grocery store in Big Piney. As I was checking out, I noticed a couple of burly hard cases standing around watching people. An old friend who works there was checking my groceries and started to make conversation. ‘You got company with a baby?’ he says. Those hard cases perked right up.”
“Did they approach you?” Ethan relieved Jake of the bag holding the baby supplies.
“They started to trail me as I headed for my truck in the parking lot, but just then, a cop car pulled in. The officers got out and started asking these guys questions. Evidently, the presence of strangers lurking around like scary vagrants had bothered other folks, and someone had called the police to check them out.”
Lara popped the empty bottle out of Maisy’s mouth, put the child on her shoulder and began to pat her back. “So you got away without being followed?”
“Yeah.” Jake frowned. “But I’m not fooling myself that they won’t come looking for me as soon as they can, expecting to find you three. And they’ll know where to hunt me up. They saw me in my uniform, and this is the only national forest in the vicinity. I’m sorry, but those guys and some of their pals might even now be preparing to storm the forest.”
Lara’s heart dipped into her toes. This refuge in the forest had seemed idyllic, a calm cocoon of protection for their little pseudofamily to rest in. Something about it had felt like time had stopped for them while the outside world went on spinning. Now the respite was at an abrupt end, and the threat was closing in again.
Ethan jerked a decisive nod. “Our presence in the forest is known—or at least suspected. Drayton’s people will be along anytime to search every campground and cabin for us. We need to get out of here ASAP.”
“Won’t take me more than a few minutes to repack my go bag,” she said, heading into the cabin with Maisy, who had done her burping and was now cooing and blowing bubbles. The men followed her inside.
“I’ll throw together Maisy’s things,” Jake offered.
“Do it,” Ethan said. “I need to call Terry about our situation and ask him to send in whatever law enforcement is available. Then we have to get going.” He turned toward Jake. “Buddy, you need to warn your fellow rangers and other personnel throughout the forest and tell them not to engage these guys. None of you are trained to handle the kind of trouble hired guns can dish out.”
“Don’t worry. I’m out ahead on that.” He winked at them. “On my way here, I got on the radio and instructed my people to give the runaround to any strangers asking questions about a couple with a baby staying in the forest. Tell them, ‘Oh, yeah, I saw them here’ or ‘Oh, yeah, I saw them there.’ Should buy us a little time to get away.”
“Us?” Lara stared at her friend.
“Jake’s going to have to hang with us,” Ethan said, “until we shake our pursuers and can disappear again. If Drayton’s goons spot him, they’ll do more than ask semipolite questions, because he’s the guy who was seen buying our supplies.”
Tears stung the backs of Lara’s eyes. “I’m sorry I got you caught up in this mess.”
Jake shook his head at her. “Don’t be. I’m honored you came to me.”
“We’re going to get through this.” Ethan’s tone commanded confidence.
Lara met his rock-steady gaze, and her fluttering pulse settled into a more natural rhythm. If anyone could get them to safety, it would be this man. She laid Maisy on a blanket near the hearth and left the child kicking her feet and trying to grab her toes while she went to the loft to pack. Ten minutes later, she arrived back downstairs, a strap of her go bag over one shoulder and carrying a few of Maisy’s things to stuff into the child’s diaper tote. Ethan and Jake already had everything else put together and were carrying it out to the pickup.
“Last load,” Ethan told her. “Let’s go.”
Jake headed for his forest service truck, and Ethan led the way to the pickup they’d arrived in. In one hand, he carried a heavy-duty backpack bulging with supplies. In the other, he held the shotgun provided by the forest ranger. Maisy was yawning as Lara snapped the baby carrier into place in the center position of the back seat. She buckled herself in next to the child.
Ethan started the vehicle and looked over his shoulder at Lara. “Jake’s going to guide us along a little-used route out of the forest that doesn’t appear on publicly available maps of the forest.”
“Good thinking.”
The national forest vehicle pulled out, leading them away from the main exit and deeper into the woods. They soon took a turnoff onto a track so narrow that pine branches rasped against the sides of the pickup. The road was deeply shadowed by tree branches, and progress was slowed by ruts in the dirt road. The bouncing aggravated the knots in Lara’s stomach, but it didn’t seem to faze Maisy, who’d fallen fast asleep for her morning nap.
“In about twenty minutes,” Ethan said, “we should reach a paved county road that will take us into Cokeville. Since those goons we left behind in a ditch saw this truck, Terry’s going to call ahead, and a car dealer there should have a vehicle ready for us to switch out for the pickup. Then the dealer’s going to hide the truck until we give the all clear. Jake’s going to lie low in Cokeville, but we need to head on to Interstate 80. If we can make it to district headquarters in Cheyenne, we can take refuge there. It’ll be cots to sleep on and takeout to eat, because HQ isn’t set up for overnight guests, but we’ll make do in a pinch.”
Lara snorted a laugh. “I’ll take a cot and boxed lunches any day for the luxury of safety. If the Draytons discover where we are but see they can’t get to us, isn’t that going to drive them to desperate measures? My mom will be in more danger than ever.”
“You’ll have to trust the marshals service to look after her.”
Lara’s heart squeezed in on itself. Ethan had shared with her a scary and dangerous incident when he and his people had been betrayed by a frightened person under their protection, nearly costing many innocent lives. Yet, she had a glimmer of understanding what had driven the old man from Ethan’s story to make the fateful choice. Of course, the marshals service would do their utmost to protect her mother, Maisy and her, but the outcome was anything but guaranteed. As long as the Draytons remained at large, anything could happen, and the hunt for the criminals seemed no closer to ending than it had when this whole episode had begun.
“We’re almost out of the woods,” Ethan said with a slight chuckle at the obvious pun.
Lara spirits lifted. Brightness beckoned at the end of the narrow tunnel between the trees.
“Whoa!” Ethan cried out.
A sudden jerk threw Lara forward against her seat belt and brought a yip from Maisy, who startled awake. The truck abruptly halted nearly on top of Jake’s bumper. Lara peered ahead through Jake’s rear window. Her friend was motioning frantically for them to back up. Ethan flung his arm over the back of his seat and swiveled his head to the rear. The tires spun as the truck surged into retreat.
Pulse throbbing, Lara looked behind them. Ethan was going to have his hands full keeping them on the bumpy narrow track in fast reverse. She looked ahead of them, and her heart leaped into her throat. Beyond Jake’s pickup, a massive black SUV charged toward them. They were under attack!
Ethan fought to stay on the slim road. Clearly, their enemies had gained quick access to a nonpublic map of the forest that included the service roads, and here they were, waiting at the end of the trail. Drayton’s people probably had the forest surrounded.
A crash and screech of metal drew Ethan’s attention forward. Jake’s pickup was sideways across the track, and the oncoming enemy vehicle had collided with it. Had Jake turned his truck into a roadblock on purpose? There was no time or opportunity to investigate. Armed thugs were piling out of the SUV. Ethan swiveled his head and continued guiding their truck backward on the rutted road.
“What about Jake?” Lara cried.
Ethan’s heart wrung at the tremor in her voice. If only there were some way to aid the man who had helped them, but he wasn’t going to waste the opportunity Jake had given them to put distance between a crew of rabid thugs and his precious cargo.
“We can’t stop,” he said. “Hopefully, they won’t bother him in their haste to come after us.”
“We can’t back up all the way to our cabin. They’ll be waiting for us there, too.”
Nothing wrong with Lara’s deductive faculties.
“I saw a road even rougher than this one veering off to the left with a sign that said Dead End,” he told her. “We’ll follow it as far as we can go. Then we’ll have to hike. Jake put that infant harness he bought for us to use on our walks into the diaper bag. Dig it out and get ready to tote Maisy.”
Without another word, Lara got busy complying. If he could wipe the sadness from her eyes and ease the tension from her jaw, he’d do it in a heartbeat.
Soon, they came to that dead-end road he’d spotted. He backed the pickup past the entrance to it and then gunned ahead into the tree-crowded route. If the branches had been brushing them before, now metal met wood in groaning squeals. He powered the vehicle over a small fallen log. The bump jounced his head nearly to the roof of the cab. A small cry came from Lara, and Maisy began to fuss.
“Hang on. I see an end in sight. We aren’t going to be able to drive much farther.”
A moment later, they burst into a small clearing, and the road came to an end. The stone-ringed firepit in the center of the area suggested this was one of the rustic campsites offering no amenities for those who wanted the true backcountry experience.
He stopped the truck at the far edge of the clearing and got out with his backpack and the shotgun. Lara, wearing the infant harness, stepped out her door.
“We shouldn’t leave my go bag behind,” she said. “I’ve got some trail snacks in there and even rudimentary fishing equipment that could suffice in a pinch.” She slung the bag over her shoulder. “And we’ll have to take Maisy’s diaper bag and one of those gallon jugs of purified water for her bottles.”
“No need for the jug,” Ethan told her. “Jake filled all Maisy’s bottles with water before he put them in the diaper bag. They’re ready for mixing. She should have enough to last a day or two. My backpack has bottled water for us.”
“Prepared is your middle name.”
“Thank Jake. He loaded the stuff.”
At the mention of her friend, Lara’s gaze shadowed and she looked away. “There’s a footpath in that direction.” She pointed.
Ethan frowned. “I hate to take an obvious path, but on the other hand, I hate to head into unexplored territory. Who knows what trouble we could get into?”
“How could it be much worse than what’s pursuing us? But I vote for taking the human-made path to start with. Maybe an alternate route, like a deer trail, will present itself.”
Lara retrieved Maisy from her car seat, and Ethan helped her buckle the child into the harness. The gadget left Lara’s hands free while providing comfortable transportation for the baby. Judging by the smile on the little one’s face, despite her interrupted nap, Maisy was looking forward to a hike like those she’d gotten used to while they were staying at the cabin.
Ethan started up the footpath. They were heading slightly downhill. It might be a fair guess this trail would lead to a creek or even a small lake. His study of the forest map and their daily walks in the woods had shown him those were common in the area. They might be up against overwhelming numbers in this bid for escape, but they had one big thing going for them.
He looked over his shoulder at Lara, striding free and easy behind him. “If the hired guns behind us are anything like the ones who hunted us at that convenience store, they’re not going to be too comfortable in the woods. I was raised hunting and camping in the Great Smoky Mountains of Virginia, and you’re something of an expert on the Wyoming wilderness, so we should fare all right.”
She shot him a tight smile. “We need any advantage we can get.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
He glanced behind them, and all appeared peaceful. They might have a small respite. It would take some time for the thugs in that SUV to run on foot the distance Lara, Maisy and he had covered in the truck.
Their little party trekked onward for another ten minutes or so. Ethan kept the shotgun in the crook of his arms, ready for use. There was still no sound of pursuit. Didn’t mean there wasn’t any—that would be hoping for too much. It just meant the armed thugs weren’t close enough to hear.
Maisy was talking soft baby-babble. During their walks, she’d proven herself to be an outdoors aficionado. That was a good thing, because a bawling infant would lead their enemies right to them. They just needed to be sure to keep Maisy happy and quiet, which meant, in a sense, that the smallest and youngest was the boss of their progress.
The forest abruptly ended at the shoreline of a pristine blue lake. Ethan sucked in a breath. It was impossible not to be awed by the sheer beauty around them, despite their dire situation. The water of the small lake was so clear that the mountain looming beyond was reflected in its depths, like a mirror. Wildflowers in vivid shades of red and yellow were strewed in grassy patches around the water, creating a vibrant frame for the tableau.
Lara came up beside him, gaping like he was. “Wow! When I was here before, I never found this location. I have got to come back here sometime and snap some shots and take video.”
At her positive words about a happier future, he smiled down at her golden head, and his chest warmed. The view he was looking at this instant was as breathtaking as the lake. But he couldn’t tell her that right now. Maybe never. They needed to move along.
He pulled the forest map out of a pocket of his backpack and spread it out. “I figure our pursuers are probably a good fifteen to twenty minutes behind us. They are likely on foot since their vehicle and Jake’s looked fairly wrecked by the collision.”
“But they’re surely calling in reinforcements.” Lara’s lips pressed into a thin line.
“No doubt, but those hired guns aren’t going to be any closer than the others. As far as I can tell, our current location is here.” He placed his finger on a spot that depicted a small lake with a rustic campsite nearby. “Here is the little-used route we took into the area, but there is a better access road on the other side of the lake that may be the direction from which those reinforcements you mentioned will come at us.”
“So we take a different way out of here entirely.”
“And fast.”
Lara turned in a slow one-eighty. “Deer path right there.” She pointed toward a spot on the east side of the lake with the barest suggestion of an opening in the woodland undergrowth.
“You’re right. There it is. Let’s go.”
Lara shot him a grin, and Ethan fell into step behind her, gaze sharp as he continually scanned the area for threat. How they were going to escape the net of well-resourced hostiles closing in around them, he had no idea, but Lara or Maisy falling into the hands of Drayton’s thugs was beyond unthinkable.