Guarding the Witness Page 5

  Brody signaled he had his rifle pointed at Mankiller. She lifted her Glock and targeted the man’s comrade, her breath bottled in her lungs.

  One minute passed. Mankiller pointed at the sky in the direction of the fire. Arianna glimpsed the growing smoke, obscuring the sun and leaving a dimness in the forest as if it were dusk instead of the middle of the day.

  The two parted—one went to the left while the other moved to the right and slightly toward the fire, fanning out. She saw through the foliage another pair of guys a hundred yards away. She leaned toward Brody and whispered, “They’re trying to close in on us.”

  “They may be part of an inner ring around the cabin. We need to watch for any people forming an outer circle. Let’s go. It’s even more important to get to the river.”

  When he said the word river, a ripple of fear snaked down her spine but her fear of the water was far outweighed by fear of the men after her. In this small part of the forest she knew that Rainwater had four men looking for them. Multiply that over the large area of this wilderness and he must have hired a small army to look for her and anyone left to protect her.

  Sneaking out from under the brush, she ran while crouched right behind Brody, swinging her attention back every once in a while to make sure no one had spotted them. Her back hurt from being hunched over and her thighs screamed in protest at the punishing pace Brody set but she didn’t dare voice a complaint.

  Forty-five minutes later, Arianna stared down at the raging river, its water churning like a boiling pot of liquid. She froze at the sight.

  Brody came up beside her. “You okay?”

  She opened her mouth to answer him, but no words formed in her mind, her full attention glued to river. Reminders of when she had been young and swept away from her parents in something similar inundated her. Her younger sister had died in the flood. Arianna had tried to save her, but her grip on Lily had slipped away. The last thing she remembered was her sister’s scream reverberating through her head against the backdrop of the gushing sound of the water—a raging turmoil.

  Brody grasped her arm and swung her around. He waited until her gaze latched on to his before saying, “All you have to do is get yourself across the river. I’ll take care of everything else. Okay?”

  She nodded, her mouth so dry she should be happy to immerse herself in water. She wasn’t. Fear held her immobile, unable to take a step toward the bank.

  She hadn’t known how hard controlling her fear had been until her army unit had been forced to cross a swollen river. Watching one of her comrades swept away by the power of the water brought her childhood trauma to the forefront after years buried deep in her subconscious.

  “We don’t have much time to get across the river and hide before the dogs track us to here.”

  Her attention drifted away from the water to focus on Brody. “What do you need me to do?”

  “We need to wade in the water along the edge as far upstream as we can go, then go straight across. They’ll assume the current will take us downstream.”

  “Or they might assume the opposite. Either way we’ll be taking a chance. Actually with all the men I have a feeling are out here, they probably can cover both areas.”

  “Don’t forget they can’t be openly looking for you. By now the U.S. Marshals Service is all over here, too.”

  “If only we knew who to trust.”

  “Can’t take the chance. You don’t know how much that pains me to say.”

  She stared into his brown eyes, full of sadness. “I was betrayed by a team member, so yes, I do know how you feel.”

  “When we have time, you’ll have to tell me about that.” He took her hand and started down the incline to the river.

  Scaring off a bear was nothing to Arianna, but this was a big deal. She stepped into the water until it was swirling about her ankles. Still grasping her hand, Brody led her a few more feet out to where the river came up to her knees, then he trudged upstream. The feel of his fingers around her fortified her with the knowledge she wasn’t alone to face her worst fear.

  After about a hundred feet up the river, Brody rounded a corner and came face to face with the water racing over a mound of rocks. Blocked from going any farther in the shallow part of the river, he stopped and took her backpack. He opened it and gave it to Arianna to hold.

  “You can’t swim holding the rifle and a duffel bag,” she said.

  After removing some rope from his duffel bag, he piled it into the backpack then began adding other items. “I know. I’m putting what I think we need the most in the backpack. The rest I’ll sink in the middle of these rocks. It’ll be hard to find.”

  He left food or items that would be ruined from being dunked in the river in the duffel bag, then scrambled up the rocks. When he slipped and fell back into the river, Arianna rushed to help him. Suddenly she realized she stood in thigh-deep water with a strong current tugging at her. Panic seized her. She shoved it down. She had no time to be afraid. The alternative was to stay on this side of the river and try to evade tracking dogs and men with rifles.

  She waded to Brody and helped him up, taking the backpack from his hand. “I’ll toss you it when you get up on top of the rocks.”

  This time he succeeded without the burden of carrying the pack. She threw it to him. He caught it and disappeared from view. Arianna hastened back closer to shore and waited. Two minutes passed and worry nipped at her composure. She thought about shouting his name over the rushing sound of the water, but that might only lead the dogs and men to their location.

  Opening and closing her hands, she gritted her teeth. She’d never been good at waiting. Lord, I know I haven’t been talking with You lately, but please help Brody and me get to Anchorage safely. Rainwater needs to go to prison for what he did. I need You.

  The last sentence had been the hardest to say because she’d come to depend on herself so much in the past four years. I don’t know if I can make it across this river without Your help.

  As she stared at the rushing river, the earlier tension eased. Suddenly Brody popped up over the rocks then lowered himself down into the water.

  He sloshed to her and took the rope and backpack. He slung the backpack over his shoulders, then lifted the rope. “I’m tying this around your chest. This’ll be your line to use. As long as you’re attached, I should be able to help you. Don’t go in until I reach the other side.”

  He moved farther out into the rapids, water hitting the rocks and spraying up into the air. With long, even strokes, he headed for the opposite bank at an angle. He didn’t stop until he was over on the other shore. Waving to her, he held up the rope and signaled for her to start.

  Sucking in a steadying breath that did nothing to fill her lungs, she waded as far as she could, fighting to keep herself upright with the strong current. Even though Brody had swam at an angle upstream, he’d ended up about ten feet downstream. Was that far enough away from where they first went into the river? But even more importantly, could she keep herself from being swept up in the current?

  Two seconds later she plunged into the river, using all the strength she had to dog-paddle toward the other side. Water splashed over her head, and she went under, swallowing some of the river water. Panic threatened to take over. Again she fought to squash it as she struggled to the surface. Her head came up out of the water, and she gasped for air at the same time the current slammed her against some rocks. Black swirled before her eyes.

  FOUR

  Brody saw Arianna go under halfway across the river, and his first impulse was to drop the rope and go into the water after her. Instead, he searched for something to tie the rope to then he’d go after her, using it to guide him to her. He used a tree nearby, keeping his eye on the area where she went under.

  As he hurried into the river, she surfaced feet from some large boulde
rs. Before he could do anything, she crashed into the rocks like a wet rag doll. Next the river swept her limp body, bobbing up and down, into the fast current, heading away from him.

  The rope grew taut, the thin tree he’d tied it to bowing but holding strong for the time being. Gripping the line, he held on to it and swam the fastest he could with one arm. The rush of the river tossed him about and drenched him as he tried to get to Arianna.

  Then the churning water swamped him, pushing him under, and he lost sight of Arianna.

  * * *

  Pain jerked Arianna from the black void. For a second she didn’t know where she was until the same feeling of drowning from when she was child overwhelmed all her senses. Her chest felt as though it were about to explode. She needed to breathe. She couldn’t. Water encased her like a tomb. She couldn’t see through the murkiness as she tossed and twisted in the river.

  I can’t panic.

  Lord, help.

  A memory punched through the panic. Brody had tied a rope around her. A lifeline. She fumbled for it, her fingers grazing the rope about her torso. When she grasped the length connected to Brody, she willed what strength she had left into her arms and pulled. One hand over the other. Again. And again.

  Light filtered through the dim water. The surface. Air. She moved quicker while her lungs burned in excruciating pain.

  I won’t—let—Rain—

  She broke free of her watery tomb. Oxygen-rich air flooded her starved lungs. Her thinking sharpened. That was when she realized her grip on the rope started slipping. She clutched it and began dragging herself toward shore. Her gaze latched on to Brody only a few yards from her in the river. Although still tossed about, she fixed her full attention on him as he came closer.

  When she reached him, he enclosed an arm around her, a smile on his face—the most beautiful thing she’d seen in a long time.

  He treaded water. “Okay?”

  She nodded.

  “Hold on to the rope. I’ll be next to you.”

  Those words made her feel totally taken care of and protected. Something she did for people, not the other way around. The calmness that descended surprised her because they still had half the river to cross. Was this what she instilled in her clients—this sense of security? Then she remembered in her time of need calling out to the Lord. That was when she was able to calm herself and get to the surface.

  When she pushed to her feet a couple of yards from the bank, her shaky legs barely held her upright. Brody slung his arm around her and helped her to shore. She collapsed on the ground, still inhaling gulps of air as though she couldn’t get enough of it, like a person left in a desert without water.

  Hovering over her, he offered her his hand. “I wish I could give you a minute to rest, but we can’t stay here. No doubt the men and dogs will end up at this river soon. We’ve got to keep moving.”

  “I know.” She fit her hand in his, and he tugged her to her feet. “And you don’t have to worry about me. I know what has to be done.”

  He grinned, untying the rope from the tree and reeling the long length in. “I’d like all my witnesses to cooperate like this. Maybe I can hire you to teach them.”

  “Sure, but I think that would be breaking a number of WitSec rules,” she said, using the shortened nickname for Witness Security.

  “Yeah, I guess I’ll still have to keep trying to train my witnesses myself.” Brody picked up the backpack and slung it over his shoulders, then reached for the rifle.

  “Let me carry something.”

  “Let me play the male here and take both.”

  “Can’t give up that gun? Now that doesn’t surprise me. But I can take the backpack at least part of the way.”

  Brody gave it to her, then climbed up the bank of the river.

  Arianna tried clambering up the incline behind him and nearly slid back down. She gripped a small tree growing out of the mini cliff and kept herself stationary. The swim had taken more out of her than she realized. “Okay. You can have the backpack for now.”

  Standing above her on the rise, he bent over and grasped one arm then hoisted her up. “When we get away from the river, we’ll stop and eat something while I take care of your injuries.”

  Finally, at the top of a small ridge, Arianna glanced down at herself. Cuts and marks that would probably become bruises later covered her arms. She hoped the jeans protected her legs or she’d look like she’d been through a meat grinder. She touched her face and winced. When she peered at her hand, blood was smeared on her fingertips.

  As they progressed across a clearing toward the forest at the bottom of a mountain range, her body protested each step she took. Everything had happened so fast in the river, but she must have been knocked against the rocks pretty hard to feel this bad.

  An hour later at the bottom of a mountain beneath a line of trees, Arianna sat at the base of an aspen and leaned back against its whitish trunk. “This isn’t gonna be easy to go over.”

  “No, but this range goes for miles. Walking around isn’t an option with the clock on the trial ticking down.”

  “Not a complaint. An observation. With the right equipment I love to climb mountains.”

  “Sorry, all we have is rope, and I’m not sure how good that will be for us.” Brody took out the first aid kit. “Let’s get you patched up. Your cuts aren’t bleeding anymore, but I’d feel better if they are cleaned. I remember a wise woman telling me that cuts can get infected.”

  With Brody only a half a foot from her, she wished she had a mirror in all the items she’d thought to bring. His nearness did strange things to her inside. As he looked into her face, the chocolate brown of his eyes mesmerized her, holding her tethered to him without the use of any ropes. His touch as he tended to her injuries was gentle, in direct contradiction of his muscular, male physique. Through the sting of alcohol, she concentrated on him.

  “I don’t know much about you personally, and since I didn’t have the advantage of reading up on you before you came to the cabin, maybe you could tell me a little about yourself.”

  His hand stilled; his gaze locked with hers. “What do you want to know?”

  “Are you married?” came out before Arianna had time to censor her question. Although she really wanted to know, she could have phrased it a little less obviously. “I mean you aren’t wearing a wedding ring, but some men don’t. Is there a wife waiting for you to come home? Children? I mean not that it’s important...” She clenched her teeth together to keep from making it worse by explaining why she’d asked. That was when she realized how dangerous his touch, his nearness was. She forced herself to look at a point behind him.

  “I have no one to worry that I won’t be home. This job requires a lot of time away from my home, not to mention putting my life on the line to protect a witness. I won’t subject a wife to that kind of uncertainty.”

  “That was the way I felt about my job, first in the army and then with Guardians, Inc. I was usually gone from my home three weeks out of four, sometimes more. Not easy to have a relationship that way.”

  “Sounds like our lives are similar.”

  “Not exactly, at least now. My bodyguarding days were over when I became the star witness against Joseph Rainwater.”

  “I’m sorry about that.” He took out a pair of scissors. “I want to cut the sleeves off your shirt. They’re shredded anyway.”

  She glanced at the ruined shirt and nodded. “When I get a chance, I’ll be chucking it. Not a souvenir I want to keep of this trip.”

  His laughter filled the air. “True.”

  Arianna looked away from him again before she forgot how serious their situation was.

  “It’s my turn to ask you a question. Why did you leave the army? From what I read about your service record, you were very good at your job.”

/>   “Being in the army had been in my blood since I was a child. My father served in the army as do two of my brothers. A third brother is a Navy SEAL, and my family hasn’t let him forget it. I’d planned to stay in.”

  “What changed your mind?” Brody cleaned each scrape and cut on her right arm, his fingers whispering across her skin.

  Goose bumps rose on her flesh. She knew he saw them and wished she could control her reaction to his touch and proximity. “The army didn’t appeal to me anymore.” She couldn’t share what had happened to her. It was too personal. The team member’s betrayal still cut deep.

  “How did your family feel about your decision?”

  “Hey, I believe—” she twisted toward him “—it’s my turn to ask a question.”

  “I can’t get anything by you,” he said with a contrite look.

  She chuckled. “I may be exhausted, but I’m still sharp up here,” she said and tapped her temple. “What made you become a U.S. marshal?”

  “Probably the same reason you became a bodyguard. To protect those needing to be protected. I had a friend in school who was bullied by a group of boys. I found myself standing up to them and liking the feeling of protecting Aaron. I hated seeing what those kids were doing to him. He didn’t want to go to school. He stayed in his house. It changed him.”

  “But you often guard criminals that have agreed to testify for a lesser sentence or protection in the program. They’re not exactly innocent.”

  “Yes, but their testimony gets some criminals convicted that are often untouchable without their testimony. Besides, if those criminals weren’t protected, they would be killed for daring to testify against the people running things. Everyone should be able to do what is right, to start over in life.” He put the antiseptic swabs he didn’t use back into the first aid kit. The ones he’d used, he stuck in the backpack pocket where trash went. Nothing was left behind to be found by the people after them.

  “I’ve discovered everything isn’t black-and-white,” Arianna said. “There’s a whole lot of gray in life.”