Scout was wearing his work harness, and Selena’s jacket displayed the patch from her MCK9 unit, so she wasn’t worried about being mistaken for an armed and dangerous civilian despite the mud that clung to all of them.
Raising an arm, she tried to hail a passing car. It kept going. The same happened with a couple of motor homes. She pulled out her cell phone. The signal was weak but usable.
“Duck down and stay out of sight so you don’t spook the tourists,” she called to Finn. “I’ll get us some help.”
Identifying herself to dispatch in Sagebrush, Selena said, “I’m not sure exactly where we are. It’s a long story. You can use my cell signal to locate us. The prisoner and I are the only survivors of the wreck I reported earlier. We were under fire, so we hid in a cave, moved underground and used a different exit. I think we’re back at Highway Seventeen now.”
“Do you need an ambulance?”
“Not that I know of.” She looked to Finn. “You doing okay or do you want an ambulance ride?”
“Will it be warm?”
Selena frowned at him. “Where’s the silvered sheet?”
“In there.” He cocked his head. “I’m not going back inside. I was beginning to think I’d never see the sky again.”
“Negative on the medics at present,” Selena reported. “Just get a fix on us and send a patrol car.”
“Affirmative. Can you stay on the line?”
She glanced at the phone. “Not for long. Battery’s low. I should save the juice for emergencies.”
“Radio?”
“Not working.”
“Okay. Copy. Stand by.”
While Selena was waiting, several more cars passed. A third slowed a little, then kept on going. Behind her, Finn was being cautious and crouching to stay out of sight, standing only when there were no drivers to see him. Selena could tell he was nervous, which made perfect sense given that he was still clad in prison garb under all that mud. If she’d had the option, she’d have let him change into dry clothes rather than keep shivering even though that would have been against protocol. The bright orange jumpsuit was meant to mark him as a convict no matter where he went, so wearing civilian clothing was a definite no-no.
Low gears of an approaching vehicle caught her attention. All trucks had to shift down on steep hills, so that wasn’t unusual. The appearance of a white delivery truck, however, caused her to look more closely. It’s right front fender was bent and scraped, the bumper dented and showing fresh damage.
Selena jumped back off the road shoulder, nearly knocking Finn down. He caught her momentarily, then quickly let go. She was yelling into her phone. “It’s them. The attackers. They’re back.”
She didn’t fight against Finn’s second grab. His arms closed around her, and they began rolling downhill away from the pavement. Scout stayed with them, teeth bared and growling.
“My phone!” Selena was shouting. “What happened to my phone?”
“You must have dropped it.”
She began clambering up the slope. “I have to get it.”
Finn made a wild grab, caught and held her ankle. “Leave it. You have a radio.”
She remained determined. “Not the same range. We need that phone.” She looked to her K-9 and pointed. “Scout, fetch. Phone.”
The dog started to climb. A window in the truck rolled down. Finn shouted, “Look out!”
Selena saw the doors of the truck cab opening. Men in dark clothing were getting out. One of them had a bandana tied around his calf and was limping, ostensibly because one of her shots at the site of the van wreck had found its mark. She’d thought so when he’d screamed in pain and, God help her, she’d felt glad. It was a lot easier to follow the Bible teaching to love your enemies when they weren’t shooting at you.
Someone at road level shouted. Cursed. Then fired wildly.
“Scout. Come,” Selena yelled. Scout retreated without the cell phone, but at least he wasn’t hurt.
Finn yanked her behind a large rock and hunkered down. At this point, her fondest hope was that her phone was still functional and that dispatch was hearing this attack happening.
“Now what?” Finn asked.
“We run again,” Selena said.
“Why don’t you shoot back?”
“I would if I was alone and had unlimited ammo. Right now, my primary job is to preserve life, mainly yours, and get you delivered as promised.” She rose to kneeling and peered over the boulder. “Besides, I won’t shoot at anybody if I can’t identify clear targets. All I see now is their truck.”
Without explaining further she grasped her weapon in both hands, rested her grip atop the rock, sighted and fired twice. Front and rear tires on that side of the truck flattened. “That should slow them down and give them something to do,” she told Finn. Holstering the gun, she pointed. “Go that way. Into the trees and all the way to the bend in the road. We can cross up there without being seen.”
“I knew I should have been a Boy Scout when I was a kid instead of playing video games.”
“Strategy from those games will help,” Selena said. “Just keep in mind that this incoming fire is real bullets.”
Running and climbing kept Finn warm enough to think straight and function well. Fleeing through the forest and scrambling over rocks gave him a jolt of primal energy that seemed to focus his thoughts and strengthen his body beyond its normal capabilities. Several sworn enemies from his time in prison could have arranged for the attacks even though they were still incarcerated. Men who were already sentenced to life had little to lose by doing so. The worst part of all this was Selena’s unexpected involvement and he was tempted to scoop her up and carry her like the hero in some B movie. The thought of actually doing so brought a smile. She’d love that, wouldn’t she? he joked to himself. Probably sic the dog on him if he tried it.
Finn was still smiling when they crested a ridge and took temporary cover behind a thicket. “Whew. I think we lost them.”
Resting her hands on her knees, Selena bent over as she fought to catch her breath. “Yeah. I think so, too.”
“Speaking of lost, do you have any idea where we are?” He watched her scanning the terrain.
“Maybe. I’m not sure.” She straightened slowly, cautiously. “If there’s an old cabin over that west ridge, then yes, I do.”
Clearly, no one had followed them on their mad dash from the disabled truck, so Finn stood, stretching and flexing his shoulders and neck. “I sure hope so. This has been a rough morning.”
“Ya think?”
That made him chuckle.
“Shush,” Selena ordered. “Sound travels out here.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He was so relieved to have ditched the assassins that he seriously considered giving her a mock salute to go with his comment. She deserved a real acknowledgment, and more, for her bravery and leadership during this crisis. Many people, men and women, would have lost their cool or even broken down completely when faced with the severity of the attack they had just experienced. Truth to tell, the Selena Smith he’d once known and loved would not have handled herself nearly as well as this trained, seasoned officer did.
Which pointed at another fact. A man like Finn was no fit match for her—never had been, never would be. Even without a felony conviction, he wouldn’t have been right for her, and with one, he was totally unacceptable. Not that it mattered, Finn reasoned. After all, he and Selena had parted ways a long time ago. Nothing major had changed since then.
Her quietly spoken, “Come on,” interrupted his reverie. Hesitation brought a low growl from K-9 Scout. Finn huffed, turned and followed her up the incline with the Malinois at his heels. He’d had dogs as pets when he’d been younger, but none of them had behaved the way this one did. If Scout had a funny, goofy side to his personality, it sure didn’t show.
A couple of quick steps brought Finn even with Selena. “Tell me. Does your dog ever play? I mean, he seems so serious all the time. Do you let him have fun?”
“Of course. Why?”
“I don’t know. I guess I wondered because he never seems to let his guard down.” Finn hesitated, waiting for her to comment.
Selena sent a benevolent smile toward her K-9 partner. “He knows he’s working when he’s wearing that MCK9 harness. It’s like me being in uniform.”
“Or me in this ugly jumpsuit,” Finn added, spreading his arms wide. “Even when it’s not covered with mud, it makes me feel dirty.”
“I’m sorry. I really am.”
“Not as sorry as I’ll be if we don’t survive to get back to civilization and clear my record.”
“Do you really think that’s possible?” Finn saw her beginning to blush before she added, “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. What I was asking was, how strong is the new evidence? Do you think there’s a chance your conviction will be reversed?”
“I do.” He was nodding. “I told you the main witness against me lied. Plenty of bar patrons heard him after he got drunk and started bragging about being bribed to say he saw me. Some of them have already given sworn depositions. My attorney thinks he’ll recant his testimony if he’s threatened with a charge of perjury.”
“That is wonderful.”
“You sound like you mean that.”
“Of course I do.” Selena scowled at him. “Why would I want any innocent man sent to prison?”
“Right.” Finn figured it served him right for taking her casual comment too personally. For a moment, however, it had felt good to think of her being solidly behind his acquittal. There was one other extremely important reason he needed to be found innocent. His younger half brother, Sean, was not only impulsive; he had a temper. Combine those two traits in a sixteen-year-old boy, and you had the makings of a real criminal unless somebody was able to convince him that the law was worth honoring.
Stepping closer, Finn spoke quietly. “Listen, I have a favor to ask.”
“I’m not sure I should listen.” The look she gave him was half quizzical, half amused. Their gazes met and locked. “Wait. You’re serious?”
“Completely.”
Selena paused and faced him. “Go ahead.”
“You remember my brother, right? Sean?”
“Yes.”
“I’m worried about how he’ll take it if I can’t prove I’m innocent. He’s young and impressionable. Something of a hothead, if you must know.”
Selena began to smile. “Like his big brother, Finn, you mean?”
“Hey, I wasn’t that bad. And I’ve mellowed. Anyway, Sean and I kept in close touch while I was in jail. I know how disillusioned he is about fairness and the rule of law. I’d hate to see him throw his life away just because I made a few mistakes in mine.”
“Such as?”
Finn did not like the way her eyes narrowed and her brow began to knit. “Not committing murder, if that’s what you’re hinting at. I mean being a wild teen. Driving too fast. Making the wrong friends. Hanging out in questionable places. Stuff like that. I thought I was just bucking the system a little when I was actually setting myself up as a prime suspect.”
“Your little brother doesn’t see that?”
“No. As far as Sean is concerned I was railroaded, which is actually true. The thing I can’t get him to accept is that my prior bad reputation contributed to the ease of my conviction.”
“And you’re asking me to do what?”
“Look him up. Talk to him. Reason with him.”
“You can do that yourself.”
Sobering, Finn sighed. “I can if I make it out of these woods alive. If something happens to me, Sean is liable to go berserk.” He reached for her hand. “Please, please, don’t let that happen. He’s really a good kid. He’s just confused.”
Selena huffed and pulled away. “You’re getting out of this. We’re getting out. Together. Us and Scout. Understood?”
“I’m just saying.”
“I know what you’re saying, and I refuse to listen to that kind of negativity. We’ll survive, period. Got that?”
“Got it. But...”
“What’s wrong with you? You used to have more faith than this. Think about it. What are the chances that I’d randomly be assigned to escort your transport, particularly since I don’t even work in Idaho anymore?”
“Slim and none.”
“Exactly. I came here looking for a serial killer and a stolen dog—at least, that’s what I thought I was doing. Yet here we are, you and me, having to team up to outwit assassins in spite of our history not because of it.”
Finn would gladly have stood there and listened to Selena longer if there hadn’t been a burst of static from her radio. She grabbed it and keyed the mic. It crackled again. The signal wasn’t good enough for conversation yet, but any noise was a good sign.
“We need to climb higher,” Selena said, starting out. “Come on.”
Finn fell into step behind her. Were they really together in all this due to divine providence as she seemed to be suggesting? He supposed it was possible, though not very probable. He wasn’t a pie-in-the-sky kind of thinker. His views tended to be more down to earth, more logical. Still, the way she’d presented her idea did seem plausible. If his police escort had been anybody other than Selena Smith, that officer would probably have left him cuffed to the van, and the assassin would have finished him off, too.
So who was the best choice to get him out and protect him? The very officer who had been sent.
Part of Finn wanted to accept the notion that his prayers had been answered. A contrary part of him kept insisting that bringing Selena back into his life was a terrible idea. That was one of the big problems with faith and prayer, wasn’t it? A believer could ask for something specific and get an answer so totally opposite that it was often too obscure to grasp.
He knew from experience that he couldn’t count on the passage of time to make everything clear. On the contrary, distance from the past often made everything worse, or so it seemed. Nevertheless, Finn did see how advantageous it was to have Selena involved in his current dilemma. What he couldn’t see for the life of him was how he was going to keep his problems from adversely affecting her career.
Step away, echoed in his mind and bruised his heart. Of course. That had been his reasoning in the past, and it would suffice now. As soon as she turned him over to the authorities he’d make sure she wasn’t involved any further. It would kill him to shun her, but he saw no other choices, not as long as he wanted to protect her, to do what was best.
Climbing ahead of him, she topped the final ridge and disappeared. Finn’s pulse leaped. He raced after her. So did Scout.
Selena was grinning and speaking on her radio. “Yes, yes. We’re fine. The prisoner is still in my custody. I’m not sure exactly where we are, but there’s an old cabin on this hill, so we should be easy to find. Just get here before the guys who’ve been shooting at us figure it out.”
The radio reception wasn’t great, but it sufficed. Finn heard a positive reply and a report that a stolen box truck with flat tires had been located on the highway.
“I didn’t see anybody on our trail, and Scout isn’t alerting, so I think we’re in the clear for the present,” Selena said.
The ensuing order for her to shelter in the cabin and wait to be picked up didn’t surprise Finn.
The idea of being alone with her for an unknown length of time, however, made his stomach feel like he’d eaten a bowl of rocks for breakfast.