Linda Howard - Prey

He had to figure out how to make that happen. He had no doubt that he could, he just had to settle down and let his brain start working. He could still make this happen to his advantage. Wounded or not, Angie wouldn’t be riding off the mountain, because he had all the horses. He’d like to think that taking the animals was enough to ensure his safety, but he knew it wasn’t. No, he had to make sure she was dead before he made his escape. He needed that head start.

It was a shame, in a way. He liked her. Angie Powell was a nice person. She’d treated him well even when she’d thought he was a world-class schmuck. She hadn’t flirted with him-women didn’t flirt with men like him, unless they were desperate-or put on a fake smile and a false front; she’d been decent to him, which was more than he got from a lot of people. Unfortunately, nice people ran to the cops, which was why he couldn’t let her live.

Too bad, but he wasn’t going to let her interfere with years of planning. He had a fortune socked away, and he’d be damned if he’d let Angie Powell or anyone else get in his way now. He’d lived on the edge, dealing with murderers, torturers, drug dealers, the scum of the earth, to get that money, and he deserved to spend the rest of his life enjoying it.

So. What were his options? What were the possibilities? Best-case scenario, and worst-case scenario?

That last one was easy. The best-case scenario was if the bear had killed Angie. Not only would it mean there was no evidence linking her death to him, but that would also throw a lot of doubt on what had happened to Davis. Add that to the body Angie had found, and any investigation would focus so sharply on the bear that they might completely overlook whatever evidence remained showing Davis had been shot. He guessed it depended on how much of Davis the bear ate. If they hunted the bear down and killed it, would they analyze its digestive system? If the bear ate a bullet, how long would it take for it to crap it out?

For that matter, would the bullet still be in Davis anyway, or would it have gone straight through? Chad’s pistol was a 9mm, but all he knew about it was how to use it; he hadn’t studied damn ballistics. Point and shoot, and hit what you aim at. What more did he need to know?

Worst-case scenario was if Angie wasn’t wounded, she’d gotten away from the bear, and she was heading back toward the rancher’s place as fast as she could.

Chad listened to the god-awful storm roaring around him, and calculated the odds. No, she probably wouldn’t try making that trip in the dark, in this weather. She had the rifle, so she probably wasn’t worried all that much about the bear, and in fact, the bear might already be dead. Would she then stay at the camp?

No, because she wouldn’t know where he was.

An edge of excitement curled in his stomach. If not for his pressing need to get out of the country, he liked the idea of pitting his wits against Angie’s in a real man, or woman, hunt. She was way more savvy about these mountains and this kind of life, but a big plus for him was that she’d underestimated him the way everyone else did.

Back to the scenario: She’d hole up somewhere, then, when the weather improved, she’d head down the mountain. His advantage was that he knew where she was going.

But his disadvantage right now was that he didn’t know where he was, exactly. He sat there and concentrated, forced himself to tune out the storm, the restless horses. He wasn’t a great outdoorsman, but he did have a general sense of direction. He and Davis had been to the left of and behind the camp; the bear had come from that direction. When he’d fled the camp he’d raced to the right, away from the bear, which had taken him generally north. He needed to go back south, then east. He had no idea how long he’d ridden, driven by panic, but he figured he couldn’t be more than a couple of miles from the camp.

He’d oriented himself with some visual landmarks when they’d arrived, so he was pretty sure he could find the campsite again if he needed to. Did he need to? Did he really need to make sure Angie was dead, or should he just get to Lattimore’s as fast as he could and get out of the country? He was riding, she was on foot. He’d be at least a day ahead of her, right?

Was a day long enough?

Maybe, maybe not. He’d rather have that week he’d planned on.

Then suddenly a horrifying thought occurred to him, and he groaned aloud. Fuck! How could he have been so stupid? He’d lost his head, panicked, and now… double fuck! He had to go back to the camp, and this had nothing to do with Angie and tying up loose ends.

He didn’t have the keys to the SUV.

Davis had had them. They might have been in his pocket, or they might be somewhere in his tent, but one way or another Chad had to get those keys or his whole plan evaporated beneath him and left him sitting in a big pile of shit.

He’d have to go back to the camp, pick a position from which to watch, and see if Angie was still there. If she was, he’d have to wait for his chance to pick her off, then he’d go after the keys. He only hoped they were with Davis’s belongings in his tent, and not in his pockets… or in the belly of a black bear.

Angie hugged the ground and dragged herself along, over rocks and bushes, through rivulets of water that had already turned into rushing streams as the runoff from the mountain storm threatened to turn into a flood. Going through that water required her to check her common sense way back somewhere along the trail, because only an idiot would try to crawl through fast-running flood water without being tethered, but all in all she figured flood water was the least of her problems. If she got swept down the mountain and drowned in three inches of mud and water, well, to her that was more acceptable than getting mauled to death by a bear, or letting that murderous twerp Chad Krugman get the best of her.

So she made up her mind that she wasn’t going to drown. The only way to get through this was to focus on only the moment, not letting herself think about how far it was to Ray Lattimore’s place, or how long it would take her to get there, or how cold she was, or how much her ankle hurt-none of that had any place in her head right now, because she had to concentrate on surviving.

She’d always loved the smell of rain, the freshness it brought, the promise of life, the renewal. She’d loved to listen to it beating on the roof, lulling her to sleep at night. Oh, she’d worked out in the rain many times and that wasn’t any fun, but livestock had to be taken care of regardless of the weather, and doing so was simply part of life and she hadn’t wasted any time or effort fretting about it.

This was different. She didn’t know if she’d ever be able to enjoy the rain again.

She moved forward inch by painful inch, her ankle throbbing so much sometimes she simply froze in place, her teeth grinding together, as she fought through the waves of pain. Her hands were like clumsy chunks of ice, so cold from the water that she could barely feel them, but at least the cold would slow down any bleeding and the water would wash away the scent of her blood.

Survive .

She would. No matter what. She made that promise to herself.

And she kept going.

One moment became another. Every muddy inch was a victory. Every breath she took could be counted as a win.

That son of a bitch Chad Krugman was not going to get the best of her.

Whenever lightning flashed she lifted her head and looked around, trying to keep track of her direction and progress, and keep a sharp eye out for any pitfalls and obstacles ahead, because without the lightning and not daring to turn on her flashlight, she was literally moving forward blind. She also looked for movement, of any kind in general, but specifically Krugman or the bear. So far all she’d seen were trees whipping wildly in the wind.