Tami Hoag - Dark Paradise

The crack of rifle fire dispelled the second possibility. The bullet slammed into the same tree stump Del had struck the first day Mari had ridden up here. Rotted wood splintered in all directions. Sam screamed, doubling over as if the bullet had passed through her. She pressed her hands over her ears and screamed again. Mari shoved her roughly toward the cover on the hillside, yelling, “Go! Go! Go!” and pushing the girl onward and upward.

From the deep cover of the woods behind them, the eerie sound of laughter floated through the rain, and Mari’s blood ran like ice in her veins.

God help them. They were both as good as dead.

I’LL KILL HER.

Will braced himself on the passenger side of J.D.’s truck with one hand on the dash and one on the door. Explosions of pain went off inside him with every bump and jerk of the truck as it roared up the old logging trail. The fire in his ribs and back and head served only to temper his fury into something as rigid and sharp as a steel blade. Images of the tale Orvis had told kept flashing behind his eyeballs. Sam tied up. Bryce’s bitch cousin touching her. His vision misted red. He felt as though a wild animal were in his chest, fighting to get out.

“I’ll kill her,” he snarled for the tenth time. “If she hurts Sam, I swear, I’ll fucking kill her.”

J.D. shot him a look across the cab. “There’s no chance Sam’s there by choice?” he asked carefully. The question left a bad taste in his mouth.

Will gaped at him, looking like a maniac with his battered face and bugging eyes. “If you weren’t driving, I’d beat the shit out of you for that! Jesus, J.D., you know Sam better than that!”

“I know she dumped you to hang out with Bryce’s crowd.”

“Bryce seduced her, that son of a bitch.” The truck lurched over a mass of exposed tree roots, and he hissed through his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut for a second, then picked up with his threats. “I oughta kill him too.”

J.D. shifted down and gunned the engine. The old Ford screamed up a steep incline, back end sliding sideways. The headlights punched into the gloom of the fading day. Overhead, the sky had turned the color of gunmetal and lightning broke across it in brilliant spider-web lines. He prayed they would make Del’s camp before the deluge came. The old trail only grew steeper and rougher the higher they went. Rain had the same effect as pouring grease down the ruts.

They had agreed the best and quickest route to Bryce’s cabin north of Five-Mile Creek was to drive to the summer cow camp and take horses down across Red Bear Basin and over the Forest Service land to Bryce’s neck of the woods. J.D. didn’t think Will was in any shape to ride, but he didn’t want to waste time going the long way around if Sam was in danger.

He stole a glance at his brother out the corners of his eyes and hurt for him. Love-’em-and-leave-’em Will, ever the good-time cowboy, not a care in the world, was frantic with worry, torn up with guilt. It didn’t matter that he expected Samantha to divorce him. He loved her. That was plain enough. Loved her enough to rip limb from limb anyone who might hurt her. J.D. had never thought Will capable of feelings that deep, that unselfish.

And what about you, J.D.?

He negotiated the truck around a curve where the shoulder of the hillside dropped eighty feet almost straight down. The needle on the truck’s tachometer was swinging wildly upward toward the red zone. The engine roared. A warning light was glowing red on the dash, and a hot smell rolled out of the air-conditioning vents. The odometer showed 153,189 miles. The trail disappeared over yet another crest. He held his breath and punched the accelerator.

The Ford jumped to meet the challenge, lunging for the hilltop. At the same instant, over the crest of the rise came Mary Lee’s mule. There was no time to react. The mule was flying, long ears back, reins blowing behind him like streamers. He twisted in midair, trying to avoid the truck, but it was too late. They collided with a sickening thump. His front feet skidded up the hood. The cattle guard over the grill caught him in the ribs, and his whole body came up onto the hood, threatening to crash through the windshield. But he slid off on the driver’s side as he scrambled in panic, eyes rolling white in his big ugly head.

J.D. swore and slammed the brakes. Every molecule of his body was trembling as he jumped out of the cab and ran for the mule. Clyde had landed heavily on his side, wedged up against the trunk of a fallen tamarack. He thrashed wildly, trying to stand. J.D. caught hold of one rein just as the mule got his feet under him and surged upward.

“Whoa, whoa. Easy, fella.” J.D. spoke softly, but he couldn’t keep the urgency from his voice. The mule rolled an eye at him and danced in place. His hide was slick with sweat and flecked with lather. His muscles quivered as if an electric current were running through him. The cattle guard had opened a gash in his right side, ugly but not life-threatening. His legs were all intact.

“He all right?” Will demanded as he tried to jog over from the truck. He had pulled a catch rope off the gun rack. His knuckles were white as his hand squeezed around it.

“Doesn’t look like he broke anything,” J.D. mumbled. His attention was less on the mule than on the mule’s empty saddle.

“Where the hell did he come from?” Will groused, slipping the loop over the animal’s head and twisting it over his nose into a makeshift halter.

“He belongs to Mary Lee.”

“She must have gotten herself dumped,” he said, tying the rope around an aspen sapling. “Let’s get the hell out of here. If we see Mary Lee on the way up, she can jump in the truck. Let’s go.”

He started back to the truck, too concerned about Sam to consider anything else. But J.D. stood there and stared at that empty saddle. With fear clenching a fist in his belly, he thought of Mary Lee, the little city girl who liked to act tougher than she was. And he thought of all her suspicions and her determination to find the truth. And he thought of the signs he had seen up on Five-Mile creek, signs of a hunt. He thought of Samantha, who had been seen bound to a bed, and Lucy, who had been found with a bullet blown clean through her.

Above the trees, thunder tumbled through the swollen clouds. A sense of doom descended on him like a shroud.

They scrambled up the hillside, Mari dragging and shoving Samantha along, pushing her own body far beyond its limits. The cover of forest had grown dense again, giving them a small measure of security. Any shot would have to be taken from close range.

Her foot slipped on the trail, and she went down hard, what little breath she had leaving her on a grunt as her right knee cracked against the dome of a rock buried in the soft loam. Gravity and the weight of Samantha hanging on her left arm threatened to pull her backward, and she grabbed wildly to catch hold of a handful of a huckleberry bush.

We’re dead. We’re dead . The words pulsed through her brain. The expression on Sam’s face seemed to confirm them. Her eyes had gone flat and dull, as if there were nothing behind them, as if her soul had already departed. Her mouth hung slack. She was in shock, Mari supposed, her systems shutting down one by one until the only thing left to kill was a body running on autopilot. The plan held a certain appeal. As she sat in the mud, her body on fire with pain, she had to kick herself mentally to keep from succumbing. Her will was flagging, her stamina gone. Del’s place was still a distant dream.

We’re dead. We’re dead!

There was no way on earth they were going to make it. She couldn’t drag herself any farther, let alone drag Samantha with her. The sounds of the dogs baying rang in her ears.