Guarding the Witness Read online

  “That’s a good way to put it.” After withdrawing another protein bar, he gave it to her. “This isn’t much, but we really shouldn’t take any more time to rest. Let’s get over this mountain first.”

  As Arianna looked up the slope, thousands of feet high, the scent from the blaze on the other side of the river invaded her surroundings. Through the break in the tree canopy, she caught glimpses of the haze caused by the fire. “Yeah, we need to get over by nightfall.”

  “What nightfall?”

  “I know it’s not much, but it does get dark for a few hours. I’ve had to come down a mountain in the night. Not fun.”

  “Maybe there’s somewhere we can rest up there. Find a place where we can see if anyone is coming up this side.”

  Arianna moved until she found a large hole in the canopy and shielded her eyes from the sunlight. “There doesn’t look like there’s one, but maybe there’s a cave tucked in up there for us.”

  * * *

  Several thousand feet higher than the surrounding forest, Brody situated himself between two boulders, lying flat on the ground and looking upon the terrain below. Using the binoculars, he scoped out the area between the mountain and the river.

  Activity across the river near where they had come out of the woods caught his full attention. They were too far away to see if it was Mankiller, but there were three men and two dogs. Not good. And where was the other dog he’d seen earlier?

  Still, they might be able to rest and sleep for a couple of hours. He hoped the men chasing them were smart enough not to try to climb the mountain in the dark. Arianna and he had had a hard time doing it in daylight.

  Arianna crawled up next to him. “Anything?”

  He passed her the binoculars. “What do you think we should do? Stay and rest a little or keep going?” She was in good condition. From Ted’s daily reports he knew she worked out each morning, keeping in shape. Even after that battering she took in the rapids, she still wouldn’t stop.

  She turned toward him, one eyebrow raised. “You’re asking my opinion?”

  “Yes. You’re part of this two-person team. If you can’t make it, then there’s no reason for us to try to hurry down the other side.”

  “Even if I was dead on my feet, there’s no way I would pass up a challenge like that. I can make it down the mountain. We have enough rope to do the Dulfersitz rappel method. It was what climbers used in the 1800s before all the safety equipment we use today was created. It works, especially in this situation. Rappelling is a faster way down the other side of the mountain. It’s dangerous, but the alternative is even more dangerous.”

  “Yeah, Rainwater’s men are catching up with us.”

  “We’ll have to leave the rope dangling from the mountain because we’ll have to tie it to an anchor up here.”

  He peered at the three men and dogs across the river. “We have no choice. I’ve never rappelled, but I’ve done some rock climbing on indoor walls.”

  “You’re in good hands. I’ve done it a lot.”

  She’d trusted him that he would get her across the river. He would trust her this once to get him down the mountain rappelling, but beyond that he couldn’t totally put his trust in anyone. He crawled back away from the edge and stood when the rocks behind him gave him cover from the men after them. “I’m game. If you can swim across a raging river, I can go down the mountain the fast way.”

  “Not the fastest. That way would kill you.” She grabbed the rope and searched her surroundings. She made her way to a rock jutting up and tested it to see if it was firmly in place. “I’ll anchor the rope to this.” After tying the rope to the boulder, she knotted the ends of the rope. “I wouldn’t want you to rappel off the end of it.”

  “Thanks. I wouldn’t want to either. You think it will reach all the way?”

  “Let’s see.” She went to the edge and dropped it over. “It’s about a hundred feet to the ledge. The rope almost reaches it. We’ll have to drop the last yard, but it looks pretty flat and there’s enough room. The rest of the way looks easier—probably like what you did at the indoor rock wall?”

  “I know I don’t take the rope and hand over hand creep down it.”

  “No. I’ll show you how you need to do it, then I want you to try. You’ll go first.” Arianna put the rope between her legs then brought it around her front, across her torso and over her left shoulder. She held the rope anchored to the boulder in her left hand and the other end of it in her right one, behind her and near her waist. “This will help you control your descent. Do you think you can do it?”

  “There’s only one way to find out.” When she stepped away and gave him the rope, he took it and mimicked her earlier position.

  “Good. Now when you lower yourself over the ledge, you’re going to walk yourself down the side of the mountain. Slow and steady. When you get down there, I will lower the backpack and rifle to you, then follow after that. Okay?”

  “I don’t like leaving you up here by yourself.”

  “No choice. Besides, I can—”

  “Take care of yourself. I know. I’ve seen you in action. Even in the river you didn’t give up.”

  “Giving up isn’t an option. I told you I’m not gonna let Rainwater win. I saw what he did to Esther’s husband and most likely he’s responsible for doing something to Esther.” Her voice roughened as she finished her sentence.

  His respect for her went up another notch. She continually amazed him. In all the witnesses he’d protected, he’d never encountered someone quite like her. “Let’s do this.”

  He walked backward to the edge of the cliff, paused and looked at her, her long white-blond hair pulled up in a ponytail. The wind played with it, causing strands to dance about her shoulders. Her eyes appeared silver in the light.

  Easing himself over the ledge, he let the rope slide slowly in his grasp. His heart rate spiked as he began walking down the almost ninety-degree rock facade. He peered up at Arianna watching him, worry apparent in those silver-gray eyes.

  He forced a smile of reassurance to his lips although that was the last thing he felt. “I’m fine.”

  “You’re doing great. Are you sure you haven’t done this before?”

  “Yep. I think I’d remember it,” he said, his hands burning from the scrape of twine across his palms. No wonder climbers used gloves. Too bad they didn’t have any.

  An eternity later he came to the end of the rope, and finally looked down at where he was. Three feet to the wide ledge. With a deep breath, he pushed out of the makeshift harness slightly and dropped. When his feet landed on the stone surface, he bent down, absorbing the impact from the ground with his legs.

  Immediately he straightened and shouted, “Piece of cake. I’ve got a new hobby when we get out of this. Send the backpack and rifle down.”

  “Coming.” Arianna raised the rope, tied the objects on it then lowered them to him.

  Not long after that, she started rappelling down the side of the mountain. What took him ten minutes she did in seven. He wished when this was over that they could rappel together with the proper equipment, especially gloves. But after she testified, she would leave Alaska for a new home, in an undisclosed place. With her location compromised, she wouldn’t return to where she had been before coming to Alaska to testify. Whoever was behind the cabin attack might have discovered her previous residence.

  When she planted her feet on the ledge, he finally breathed normally. Although she knew what she was doing rappelling, their equipment wasn’t something most climbers would use and the sport was dangerous, even in desirable conditions. These were less than advantageous. Desperate was a better description.

  He inched toward the edge to stare down at the rest of their descent to the base of the mountain. “Once we are about halfway, we should be able to walk. It might be a
steep one, but we won’t have to climb down.”

  The stone shelf ran about fifty feet across. Arianna moved down its length and stopped not far from one end. “Let’s go down here. It isn’t the easiest way, but it slopes into a different area from where you’re standing so if they find the rope and bring dogs in from below this will give us more time.”

  He approached her and peered around her. The angle was seventy or eighty degrees, which wasn’t much better than what they had done, but a lot of rocks jutted out to use as steps. “Agreed.”

  “We’ll go together. There’s room for us both to descend near each other. I’m carrying the backpack. You can sling the rifle over your shoulder.”

  “You can tell you like to be in charge.”

  “In this case it’s only because I’ve done this probably a lot more than you. Balance is important and the backpack might throw you off. Doing this in an indoor place is different from outside with the elements.”

  “I bow to your superior experience.” He bent forward at the waist and swept his arm out.

  She chuckled. “It’s nice we have different skill sets or no telling what kind of trouble we would be in by now.”

  He turned in a full circle. “It’ll be dark in an hour and a half.”

  Arianna took the backpack and shrugged into it. “The bottom part of the mountain will be a cinch after this.”

  Twenty minutes later Brody hung in the middle of the rock wall, Arianna about a yard from him, below him slightly. The skill she exhibited marveled him. Too bad this wasn’t the time or place to admire them. He couldn’t lose his focus on protecting her. Admiring her would have to wait. She’d slowed her descent because of him.

  His left hand grasped onto a hold, and then he found a rock outcropping for his right one. Next, he lowered himself until he found a foothold that would take his weight and brought his left foot to it. When he shifted to place his right foot on a one-inch ledge, he began looking for his next move.

  “Doing okay?” Arianna called up to him.

  “Yes.” He leaned toward the left, reaching for an indentation in the rock facade.

  His right foot slipped off the foothold, plunging into the air.

  FIVE

  Arianna looked up to check on Brody’s progress, and was just in time to see the ledge where his right foot gave way. For a second his leg hung in midair. He floundered, teetering for a second, before he finally lost his balance and plummeted.

  When his body hit against a small stone ledge, the rifle shimmied down his flapping arms and dropped to the ground below. He clasped the rock shelf, breaking his downward fall.

  Arianna swallowed a scream and moved as fast as she could to get to him. He hung under the protrusion, trying to secure his hold. In the midst of rushing, she lost her grip but hadn’t moved her feet yet. She searched for another hold and dug in, determined to get to him before he lost his grasp. His legs flailed as he searched for a place to put his feet.

  She was capable, but she didn’t want to do this alone. She needed help. Please, God, keep him safe.

  She probably wouldn’t have made it across the river without him. She wasn’t going to let him die. Feeling utterly helpless at the moment, she mumbled over and over a prayer of protection for Brody.

  When she was a couple of feet from him, she saw his arms begin to slip from around the stone outcropping. She lunged toward it with her right foot as his grasp first on the left then the right came loose. Recklessly she leaped totally onto the small ledge and went down to grip him. Her fingers grabbed air.

  All she could do was watch Brody crash downward the remaining few yards. As he lay collapsed, completely still at the bottom, Arianna hurried her descent.

  Please, please let him be alive.

  A constriction about her chest squeezed tighter the closer she came to him. She jumped down the last feet and shrugged off the backpack as she knelt next to him. With a quivering hand, she felt for his pulse at his neck. It beat beneath her fingertips, and relief shivered down her.

  A second later, the sweetest thing she’d heard was his groan. Then he moved.

  “Take it easy. Where do you hurt?”

  Carefully he rolled over and looked up into her face. “Everywhere.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me. You had quite a fall. That’s why you don’t climb without ropes and safety gear.”

  One corner of his mouth quirked up. “Thanks for telling me now. You could work on your timing.”

  “I do believe you’re gonna be all right if your comebacks are any indication.”

  “What about my head? It’s throbbing.”

  She probed his scalp, producing an “ouch” from him. “You might have a concussion. You’ve got a nasty gash to go with all the new scrapes you acquired on your plunge downward. Don’t you remember I said it might be the fastest way down but not the safest?”

  “I’ll keep that in mind next time. Wait, there isn’t going to be a next time. I don’t think rock climbing and me go together,” he said as he struggled to his elbows, flinching as he planted them on the ground to prop himself up. “At least the ground isn’t tilting too much.”

  “Tilting? It’s flat right here.”

  “Oh, then things may be worse than I thought.” As he pushed himself to a sitting position, he closed his eyes.

  “Is your world spinning?”

  “In slo-mo, but yes, it’s spinning.”

  “Then we aren’t going anywhere for the time being.”

  “We can’t stay here. We need to get the rest of the way down the mountain.”

  Arianna peered up at the dimming sky—some of the darkness from the sun going down, some from the smoke of the fire. “Not in the dark. It’s bad enough navigating over rough terrain when you are in top physical condition, but when you’re suffering probably from a concussion, no.” She emphasized that last word.

  “Did anyone ever tell you that you’re bossy?”

  “A few clients have, but they usually came to appreciate it in the end.”

  Putting his palms on the rocky earth beside him, he shoved himself up and immediately crumpled back onto the ground. “Okay, we’ll stay here and have something to eat, rest a little bit but not long. I’m leaving in an hour and you’re coming with me.”

  “I could argue with you.”

  “You could, but I’m an injured man. Surely you wouldn’t add any more distress to me than a fall from twenty feet up a side of a rocky mountain.”

  “Oh, please, don’t pull the woe-is-me card.”

  He eased back onto the ground and closed his eyes. “I’ll just rest for a few minutes.”

  The comment was said casually but with a thread of pain that heightened her worry. “You going to sleep?”

  “No, just trying to alleviate some of the tap dancers in my head. They’re having a jolly ole time at my expense.”

  Arianna brought the backpack around and rummaged inside until she found the first aid kit at the bottom. When she opened it, she saw that some of the contents were ruined from the swim in the river, but the pain relievers in the packets weren’t. She shook out two tablets and opened a new bottle of water. “Here, take these. They might help.”

  Lifting his head, he grimaced. He took the pills and swallowed a mouthful of liquid. “I’ve got a feeling this is like throwing a pail of water on a raging fire.” He settled back on the ground. “Do I look as bad as I feel?”

  Her gaze trekked down his length. His torn shirt matched hers after her encounter with the rapids and his scrapes against the rocks left welts and abrasions all over him. “I never thought you were the kind of guy who worried about his good looks.”

  He opened one eye. “I have good looks?”

  “I’m not answering that question. It might swell your head even more.�
��

  He smiled. “You’re not half-bad either.”

  “I’m warning you now. I’m cleaning as many of your scrapes as I can with the limited first aid kit we have. I think we have almost exhausted its contents. We seem to be accident-prone.”

  “And the river...didn’t help...either. I’m glad you...” His voice faded the more he spoke until no words came out.

  She felt his pulse again. Strong. That reassured her. About all she could do was pour antiseptic on the worst of the wounds. There was no gauze left that wasn’t wet with river water. They needed to find somewhere she could really tend to his new injuries. When they reached civilization she was going to insist on trying to find some kind of help.

  As she finished what she could do with the antiseptic, she sat back and retrieved another protein bar, their mainstay. Before this was over, she would never want another, but at least it gave her some energy. She counted how many they had left. Three. A lot of the food never crossed the river with them.

  After two hours of standing guard and fending off the mosquitoes, she woke Brody and said, “We better get going.”

  “How long did you let me sleep?”

  “Do you feel better?”

  “Yes. How long, Arianna?”

  “I gave you enough time to get some rest.”

  “How about you?”

  “Someone had to stand guard, but it’s time to go now.”

  “Time? It’s way past the time.” He shoved himself up, darkness shrouding him in shadows.

  Arianna helped him to rise to his feet. When he put weight on his right leg, he sank down. Quickly she wrapped her arm around him and held him up against her. “What’s wrong?” The night made it difficult to see details, only an outline of Brody.

  “My ankle. I did something to it.”

  “Lean on me. Do you think it’s broken?”

  “No.” He shifted and must have put his foot down because he jerked back. “Maybe. But this will not hinder us. We keep moving if I have to hobble the whole way. No matter what, you’ll get to Anchorage to testify.”