Elle James - Taking Aim

“A woman needs our help.” Hank turned to Zach. “Are you coming or not?”

The woman in question’s eyes narrowed as she stared from Hank to Zach. “I don’t care who comes, but we need to get there fast. If they take her hostage, the longer we wait, the harder it will be to find them.”

“Understood.”

Zach stared at the woman, his pulse pounding against his eardrums, his palms damp and clammy. “I’ll come.” The words echoed in the room, bouncing off the walls to hit him square in the gut. He’d committed to helping an unknown woman when he’d failed to help the partner he’d been with for three years.

Hank steered the woman toward Zach. “Find out what you can while I call the sheriff and let him know what’s going on.”

When Hank left the room, the woman glanced at Zach. “Are you coming or not?”

Having committed to the task at hand, Zach hooked the woman’s arm, ready to get the job over with as quickly as possible. “It would help if we knew who you are.”

“Jacie Kosart. I work on the Big Elk Ranch. It’s a three-hundred-fifty-thousand-acre spread bordering the Raging Bull and the Big Bend National Park.”

“Jacie.” He rolled the name on his tongue for a second, then dove in. “What were you doing out this late?”

“My sister and I were leading a big-game hunting party for my boss, Richard Giddings. The two men who’d commissioned us didn’t want to hunt on the normal trails the deer like to travel.” Jacie explained how they’d come to the canyon, the subsequent shootings and her escape. “We have to get back. I think they killed the two hunters. If not, they need medical help.” She gulped, tears welling again. “Tracie has to be all right. She just has to.”

“We’ll do the best we can to find her and bring her home.” Zach tried to sound confident when he felt nothing like it. If the men in the canyon had anything to do with the drug cartels, Jacie’s sister was as good as dead.

The sound of engines revving outside signaled the end of their conversation and the need to move.

Zach cupped Jacie’s elbow and led her through the French doors and out to the barn where five ATVs idled in neutral. The man Zach assumed was Hank’s foreman sat astride one of them giving the engine gas.

Hank, dressed in jeans, a denim jacket and cowboy boots, jogged down from the house flanked by his two bodyguards, each carrying an automatic assault weapon. Hank carried two, one of which he tossed to Zach. “In case we run into some trouble.”

Zach dropped his hold on the woman’s arm and caught the high-powered weapon, slipping it into the scabbard on one of the four-wheelers.

“You all right?” he asked Jacie.

She nodded. “Yeah. I just want to find my sister.”

The two bodyguards mounted a four-wheeler each and Hank took another, leaving only one left.

“The girl can ride with you. I don’t want her falling off and injuring herself. This way you can keep an eye on her and lead the way.”

Zach frowned but mounted the ATV and scooted forward for Jacie to climb on the back.

She balked, staring at Zach and the space allotted to her. “I can take the one I rode in on.”

“We don’t know how much gas it has in it, and given that you’ve passed out once, you’re better off riding with one of us.”

Zach sucked in a deep breath and let it out. “Get on.”

Jacie flung her leg over the back and slid in behind Zach, her thighs resting against his, her chest pressing into his back.

He revved the engine and shot out of the barnyard headed south.

With Jacie looking over his shoulder, directing him, he raced across the dark earth, dodging clumps of prickly pear cactus and saw palmettos.

The woman held on lightly at first, her grip tightening as Zach swerved in and out of the vegetation with nothing but the stars shining down on him from a moonless sky.

As they neared the edge of the canyon, Jacie pointed and yelled over the roar of the engine. “There!”

Zach pulled up short of the edge of the canyon. On the slim chance the assailants were hanging around at the bottom of the canyon, he didn’t want to provide them with a target at the top. He cut the engine.

Before he could dismount, Jacie was off the back and scrambling toward the edge.

He caught her as she lunged for the trail, yanking her back from the edge and out of line of sight from the bottom. “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

“My sister was down there. We have to save her.” She struggled against his hold.

“For all we know they could still be down there.”

She fought to free her arm. “Then let’s go.”

The other riders had pulled to a halt and dismounted.

Zach dragged Jacie over to Hank. “Hold on to her while I check it out.”

“Take Joe with you in case you run into trouble.”

“I do better on my own.” Zach crouched low and dropped over the rim of the canyon, slipping down the trail as quietly as possible. In the light from the night sky, he could make out where the trail was disturbed, one edge knocked free. Probably where a horse, a motorcycle or a four-wheeler had run off the side.

The bottom of the trail was bathed in shadows, making it hard to distinguish the boulders from crouching thugs waiting to pounce.

Careful not to fall off the edge himself, Zach moved swiftly down the trail, reaching the bottom. The shadows proved to be boulders and one wrecked ATV, crumpled among them. Nothing moved. Zach explored among the boulders to the other side of the ATV and found the body of a man laying at an awkward angle, facedown, his leg bent, probably shattered in the fall. The ground beside him sported an inky-black stain.

Zach didn’t have to guess that the stain was a drying pool of this man’s blood. This guy hadn’t died from the fall, based on the dark bullet-sized circle in the middle of his back. If Zach turned him over, he’d likely be a mess on the other side where the bullet exited his body.

Zach searched the area around the base of the cliff and shouted up, “Clear!”

Five four-wheelers inched down the narrow trail, lights picking out the way.

Joe led the pack followed by Hank, Max, the foreman and Jacie.

Zach frowned and met her as she cleared the trail. “You should have stayed at the top.”

“Did you find her?” Jacie glanced around, her eyes wide, hopeful. Then her shoulders sagged and she slumped on the seat of the ATV. “That’s Mr. Smith, one of the two hunters we were escorting.” She sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Tracie’s not here, is she?”

“Believe it or not, that’s a good thing.” Hank left his four-wheeler and crossed to Jacie. “If she’s not here, it’s a good chance that she’s still alive.”

Jacie’s jaw tightened. “Then come on, let’s find her.”

Zach shook his head. “It would be suicide to continue searching in the dark. If the attackers are in the canyon still, they would have the advantage and pick us off from above.”

“We can’t leave her out there.”

“Zach’s right. We have to wait until daylight.” Hank stood beside Zach. “Going in at night wouldn’t be doing your sister any favors.”

“Then I’ll go on alone.” As she pressed the gas lever, Zach grabbed her around the waist and yanked her off the bike.

“You’re not going anywhere.” Zach slammed her against his chest, his arms wrapping around her waist. “One captive is enough. We don’t want to risk another. Besides, your sister most likely wouldn’t want you to risk it.”

Jacie struggled against him. “Let go of me. My sister is my responsibility.”

“Then take your responsibility seriously and do what’s smart. We need to wait until daylight before we risk going into that canyon.”