Guarding the Witness Page 7

  “We’ll hobble toward Fairbanks on one condition.”

  He snorted, but gestured for her to continue.

  “You’ll let me help you and the first time you can get medical attention you will.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “And no lip or you’ll hobble all the way to Fairbanks without my help.” She thrust the protein bar she’d saved for him into his hand. “You’re gonna need all the energy you can get.”

  “Where’s the rifle? I can carry that.”

  “In several pieces. So it’s in the backpack. Can’t leave it.” Slowly Arianna started down the slope, letting what moonlight there was illuminate their path. “Here’s some water to wash the bar down.”

  He took it. “Did you get any rest?”

  “And leave us unguarded? No way. Remember I’m a top-notch bodyguard and don’t forget it.”

  “But I’m supposed to be guarding you.”

  “So I’m the client?”

  “Yeah, so to speak.”

  “I thought we were a team.”

  He stopped and twisted toward her, sticking the water bottle in his jean pocket and then settling his hands on her shoulders. “We are and for just a few minutes I could forget about the pain shooting up my leg and the throbbing in my head to enjoy some fun bantering. Thank you, Arianna.”

  She didn’t need to see his face clearly. She felt his gaze on her as though he could pierce through all her barriers and touch her heart, one she had kept protected for four years. She’d been dating the man who’d framed her for giving out intel to the enemy. She’d been used. She wouldn’t forget that feeling.

  “C’mon. Quit this dillydallying.”

  He laughed. “Dillydallying?”

  “A word my grandmother loved to use with us kids. Quit dillydallying. Move it. She would have made a great drill sergeant.” She resumed their hike down the bottom half of the mountain.

  “It sounds like you have fond memories of your grandmother. Is she still alive?”

  “Yes, as far as I know.” Another family member she couldn’t see. Sadness enveloped her. A lump rose in her throat, and she swallowed several times, but she couldn’t rid herself of the fact she wouldn’t be surrounded by her family at the holidays as oftentimes in the past. “She was my role model.”

  “I’m sorry about what you’re going through.”

  His gentle tone soothed her. In the last few months she’d tried not to think about having to give up all she’d known—people, career—to start new. She’d focused on bringing Rainwater to face justice. But soon she would have to deal with it. For now, though, she would concentrate on getting herself and Brody to Anchorage alive.

  In the distance a wolf bayed, reminding her that all they had now to protect themselves were two Glocks. They wouldn’t stop a charging bear.

  * * *

  Midmorning of day two, with the backpack on, Brody leaned over and picked up a piece of wood that would be perfect as a walking stick. “Honest. My ankle is probably only twisted. The ACE bandage gives me some support, and the pain is bearable. I promise,” he added when he saw Arianna’s skeptical look.

  “I see you wince when you put too much weight on that foot.”

  “That’s your imagination.”

  “Hardly.” She scanned the field before them. “I’ll feel better when we get across it. I hate being out in the open.”

  He lifted the binoculars and swept the area before them, noting the dry meadow, the vegetation shorter than usual. He spied some elk at the edge. “Me, too. But it’s not far and I don’t see anything suspicious.”

  “That kinda worries me. Nothing since we crossed the mountain. I smell smoke so the fire is probably still burning.”

  “Forest fires can be hard to contain. When I lived in California, we had one that nearly reached my housing subdivision. I only lived in an apartment, but I certainly didn’t want to lose all my possessions. We had to evacuate, and all I could take with me was what I could get in my car.”

  “What was the first thing you decided to take with you?”

  “My laptop with all my pictures on it.” He let the binoculars drop to his chest and looked at her, thinking of all she’d had to give up. Much more than he would have if the fire hadn’t been contained.

  “Of family?”

  “Yes. I had everything digitalized.”

  “You don’t have a backup service?”

  “Yes. But when I get lonely, I like to look at them.” Which had been often of late. He loved Alaska but he felt cut off, especially in the winter months, from his friends and family in the lower states.

  “Are your parents alive?’

  “My mother’s in Florida. She remarried after my dad died. I don’t have any siblings, but I have aunts, uncles and cousins. We usually have a big gathering once a year. I try not to miss it.” Brody strode next to Arianna, realizing she was keeping her pace slow because of him. He sped up his step. They still had a way to go to get to Fairbanks—not to mention Anchorage.

  She matched his faster gait, sliding a glance at him.

  “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”

  “Who said I was worried?”

  “Your expression. It takes more than a fall from a mountain to get me down.” He cocked his head and listened, bringing his finger up to his mouth to indicate quiet. The sounds of a helicopter filled the air.

  Arianna rotated in a circle, looking up at the sky.

  He grabbed her hand and half ran, half limped toward a cluster of trees in the middle of the field that would offer shelter from prying eyes. The whirring noise grew louder. They needed to be under the trees before the helicopter came into view. If someone was looking for them, they would be scanning the terrain.

  Three yards away.

  Arianna glanced back. “The helicopter’s coming from over the mountain.”

  Brody moved to the side and dropped down, dragging her with him. “This brush should hide us until we get to the trees. We’ll have to crawl under it.”

  With Arianna beside him, he crept on his belly toward the trees, pulling the backpack along the ground in order to fit under the brush.

  “This reminds me of my service in the army. I did this many times.”

  “I can’t say I’ve had the pleasure.”

  A few feet to the green canopy. He peered back and realized the chopper would fly right over the pasture.

  Even under the trees, he continued to crawl until they were safe in the center of them. Slowly he rose and faced the helicopter as it swooped across the field. He could see its flight path without viewing the chopper because the wind from its rotors stirred up the dust and flattened what vegetation there was. The herd of elk panicked at the noise and ran toward them. They pounded through the stand of spruce, firs and pines.

  Pressing up against a large trunk on the backside of a black spruce, he glanced over at Arianna who had done the same thing. His gaze riveted to hers as the helicopter flew overhead and the elk passed by. In the middle of the tense situation a connection sprang up between them. They were in this together. She wasn’t a U.S. marshal, and yet he knew she had his back. That feeling heightened his respect for her and the regret about the ordeal she had to go through just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  Why, God? This wasn’t the first time he’d asked the Lord that question. From all he’d read about Arianna and seen over the past few days, she did a good job helping guard people who needed it. Now she would never be able to go back to that job. How would he feel if he couldn’t do what he did?

  “Did you see any writing on the helicopter?” Arianna asked, pushing away from the tree she’d hugged. “It was too dense over here.”

  He had glimpsed only one word through a slit in the green canopy. “In gold le
ttering I saw the letters CAR. I’m not familiar with a helicopter service with that name, but then I don’t know all of them. It wasn’t military or government.”

  “Which means we have to assume it was part of Rainwater’s search for us.”

  “Yep. Let’s get into the forest. We’ll be safer there.”

  “I hope you don’t regret saying that.” She picked up the backpack from the ground. “My turn to carry it.” She started out, throwing a grin over her shoulder.

  He limped after her, chuckling to himself at her attitude. Take charge. I can do anything you can. So refreshing. His usual witnesses weren’t anything like Arianna. As he watched her a few feet ahead of him, he liked what he saw. And in that moment he realized he’d better watch where his thoughts were taking him.

  Arianna Jackson was off-limits to him. She would testify and then disappear, and he wasn’t interested in a relationship without long-term commitment. His relationship with Carla had taught him at least that much.

  At the edge of the forest she turned and watched him, her eyes intense, her confidence conveyed in the way she carried herself. Planting one hand on her waist, she grinned. “Marshal Callahan, I do declare you’re a slowpoke.”

  “Is that another phrase your grandma likes to say?”

  “Yes, she’s a Southern matriarch. She rules her husband and household with a sugarcoated firmness I’ve never been able to match.”

  He stepped into the dimness of the forest. “Have you ever been married?”

  “Your dossier on me didn’t tell you that?”

  “All I know is that you’re currently single.”

  “Nope. Although I had two serious boyfriends in my life, neither one led me to the altar.”

  “What happened?”

  Striding next to him because the forest floor didn’t have a lot of underbrush, she tilted her head toward him. “I had three older brothers who were standing between any guy and me. They made it tough on any boy in high school or college who was interested. Only one guy was stubborn enough to date me seriously and even he got run off eventually. I had to join the army to get away from their hovering.”

  “Ah, so your other boyfriend was while you were in the army?”

  She nodded.

  “Was he in the army, too?”

  A frown crunched her forehead. “Yes, though his loyalties lay elsewhere. Thankfully for my sake his dubious character was uncovered before it was too late.”

  “For the altar?”

  “No, for me to be sent to prison.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “No, it’s the past. I want to forget it.” The steel thread woven through her words and the pursed lips underscored how hard that was for her.

  “But you haven’t.”

  “No, still trying. We haven’t talked much about this, but it seems one of your fellow marshals betrayed the location. How does that make you feel?”

  “Angry. Determined to find out who did this and make him pay.”

  “I still feel angry, too, even though I know who was responsible and saw him face justice. I know I should forgive and move on, but I can’t. I figure you know what I experienced.”

  “Yeah, knowing what we’re supposed to do and doing it can be two very different things.”

  “I can’t do what God wants me to do. After what happened, I left the army. It wasn’t the same for me. My dad thought I should have stuck it out and stayed. Dirk was responsible for sullying my reputation, and although he was caught and stood trial in the end, some still thought I was in it with him. I tried staying but realized all chances of promotion were gone. I disappointed my father and our relationship changed. When we saw each other at family gatherings after that, it was like we were two polite strangers.”

  “What were you charged with?”

  “Selling intel to the enemy.” Her frown deepened. “I would never betray my country.”

  “I’m sorry that happened to you.” The sound of a stream nearby echoed through the trees. “I hear water.” Brody looked ahead through the binoculars. He pointed to the left. “It’s over there. It would be a good way to throw the dogs off if they come this way.”

  “Stream or river?”

  “The wading kind of water. C’mon I’ll show you.”

  As Arianna trudged toward it, she said, “Since I spilled my guts to you—and, by the way, I don’t make it a habit to do that—I get to ask you a few questions.”

  “Okay,” he replied warily, noting a gleam in Arianna’s gaze.

  “I noticed a certain amount of tension between Carla Matthews and you when you came to the cabin. Why?”

  “You are good. I thought I covered that pretty well.”

  “Not well enough. You both tensed up, exchanged looks that could freeze a person.”

  “I guess I need to work on that.”

  “I doubt the others noticed. I’m very good at reading the subtle messages. Her eyes narrowed slightly, and she drew herself up straighter. A tic twitched in your jaw, and you made it a point not to look at her.”

  “Definitely I’m going to have to work on my unreadable expression.”

  “So why was there tension between you two?”

  “I was hoping you would forget the question.” He stopped at the edge of a stream, the water flowing gently over round rocks in the bed.

  “Nope. Do you really think you can wade through this stream? Look at the rocks.”

  “I don’t have a choice. If they bring the dogs into this forest, they’ll pick up our scent. We need to do what we can to confuse the trackers.”

  “And we probably won’t hear them coming.” After taking off her tennis shoes and socks, she stepped into the cold water. “Use the stick but also hold on to me.”

  “What if you go down?”

  “Then let go and let me go down. You don’t need to twist your other ankle. I’ll go first and you follow where I go.”

  He put his hand on her shoulder and trailed behind her into the water. “We need to walk as much in the center as possible where it’s deeper.”

  “Deeper. Not my favorite word when connected to water.”

  He squeezed her shoulder. “I’m right here. Nothing is going to happen to you.”

  “I know. This is nothing compared to a raging river. Have you been coming up with an answer to my earlier question?”

  “You’re relentless.”

  “No more than you.”

  “I’m not going to get any peace until I answer you, am I?”

  She laughed. “Don’t make it sound like some kind of torture. I’ve told you things I don’t normally share with people I’ve only known for a few days.”

  “But what a couple of days they have been. It’s not torture so much as me being unaccustomed to sharing at all.”

  “I bet you were fun on the playground as a kid.”

  “I’m talking about sharing feelings, not toys. I have a hunch you don’t share much either.”

  “Who am I gonna tell my secrets? My clients? I’m on the road all the time. Not conducive to long-term friendships and I don’t share with casual acquaintances.”

  “How about me?”

  She looked back at him, took a step forward then another and nearly went down. Letting go of his stick, he caught her. Her cheeks flamed.

  “I’m sorry I distracted you.”

  Facing him, she narrowed her eyes. “No, you aren’t. You’re using delaying tactics. Back to the original question.”

  He sighed. She was right—no point in stalling anymore. Besides, after what she’d shared with him, she deserved his honesty. “Carla and I dated for a while. She was way too intense for me. I realized our relationship, if you could call it that, wasn’t leading anywhere and broke it off. Sh
e didn’t appreciate it. Since we worked together, I couldn’t say she was stalking me technically, but there were times when it felt like it. Weird things started happening to me. Calls in the middle of the night. A flat tire when I’d go to work in the morning.”

  “Flat tires aren’t that unusual. I’ve had my share.”

  “Three times over five weeks?”

  “No. It sounds like someone wasn’t happy with you. Is that why you left Los Angeles for Alaska?”

  “Not entirely. I lost a witness.”

  “Like disappeared?”

  “No, like was killed.”

  “Not that this witness is worried, but what happened to the other one?”

  He wasn’t going to lie to Arianna, but he did not share that dark time with anyone. “Nothing to concern you. The situations are totally different.”

  As they rounded a bend in the stream, Arianna halted, then moved back. “I see the top of a car on the left side up ahead.”

  He stepped around her, brought the binoculars up and surveyed the situation. “There’s a tent. I don’t see anyone though. It may be campers.”

  “Or?”

  “Or someone looking for us.”

  SIX

  “Make a wide berth around them?” Arianna asked, searching the terrain for any sign of the people connected to the car.

  “Let’s check them out more closely. They could be our way out of here. The best way to evade dogs is a car. Can’t track us when the scent vanishes.”

  Arianna eyed the steep incline on the left side of the creek. “How’s your foot?”

  “Numb from the cold water, but I think that’s helped it. Like a pack of ice.”

  She nodded toward their route out of the stream. “I’ll go first, and if you need help up the slope, I can give you a hand.”

  Picking her way through the rocky bottom, she made it to the side, Brody right behind her. “This should be easy after the mountain.”

  She grabbed hold of the trunk of a small tree and used it to hoist herself up and over to the forest floor above the creek. Favoring his good leg, Brody followed suit, rolled over and sat up to put his socks and boots on over his soaking wet ACE bandage. Arianna was on her feet and peering around the bend in the stream toward the car and campsite.