Shirlee McCoy - Lone Defender

“We’ll see.” He moved away, leaving her shivering under the Mylar blanket.

“Where are you going?”

“Just checking on our friends.”

“Do you really think you’ll be able to spot them?” She pulled the blanket around her shoulders and followed him to the mouth of the cave. Rain blew in on a gust of air, and her teeth chattered, but she was not going to lie on the floor of the cave while Jonas did what she should be doing herself.

“Maybe.”

“And you’re sure they found our trail?” She peered out into the darkness, seeing nothing but gray-black night.

“Yes.”

“I’d ask you why, but you’d probably just say ‘because.'”

He chuckled again. “They followed my trail for at least two days. I don’t think they’ll have any trouble following it here.”

“The rain might have washed our tracks away.”

“Possibly, but they’ll know we were heading this way, and the only thing here is the mesa.”

“So, they could be on their way up.”

“Not with the storm still raging and not until they know for sure where we climbed.”

“So, we’re safe until the rain stops.”

“Safe enough for you to lie down and rest.”

“I don’t need rest. I need answers. I came to Arizona to find a deadbeat dad who owed twenty thousand dollars back child support. Now I’m running for my life. I want to know why.” She stared out into the darkness, rain splattering her face, icy against her overheated skin.

“Could be the dad doesn’t want to pay up.”

“And decided to commit murder to avoid it?”

“People have committed murder for less reason.”

“True, but not this time. My brain might not be functioning on full capacity, but it’s still working well enough for me to know that. I hadn’t even found the guy. He had no reason to think I would. He ran from New York two years ago. Ran from Chicago seven months ago. Every time the police close in on him, he runs. Why stop running now?”

“Good question, but you won’t find your answer tonight. Come on.” He led her back into the depth of the cave, urged her to lie down again.

She wanted to protest.

Couldn’t.

Her body felt leaden, her legs weak, and all she could do was exactly what he wanted—lie down, close her eyes, sink into darkness.

He brushed sopping hair from her cheek, felt her forehead again, and she let him. Let him take care of her in a way she hadn’t let anyone take care of her in a very long time.

She didn’t like it, felt helpless to do anything else.

Jonas lifted her head, slid his pack beneath it and she opened her eyes, looked into his face.

“Who are you, Jonas Sampson?” she asked, the question stumbling out without thought.

He hesitated, the shrugged. “Just a friend of your boss.”

“Kane wouldn’t have called in someone who was just a friend to do this job.”

“No. I guess he wouldn’t have. Get some sleep, Grady. We may have a long night ahead of us. I’m going to see if I can get some reception and call for transport. With any luck, we’ll have a ride out of here by first light.” He moved away, and she didn’t have the strength to say what she was thinking.

It would take more than luck to get a ride out before the enemy closed in. It would take skill, determination, faith.

Faith.

That illusive thing that she clung to with both fists, but that always seemed to slip from her grasp when the going got tough. She’d beg for help but instead of waiting for an answer, she’d jump in to solve the problem herself. Headfirst, not even looking to see where she might land.

She’d learned her lesson about depending on others early, and she’d learned well. A drug-addicted mother, an alcoholic father, no one she could really trust to help her when she’d needed it—those things had made her the person she was. Maybe that’s why she constantly struggled for control, tried to call the shots when she should really be allowing God to lead the way. Jumped into things without a firm plan in mind.

Any way she cut it, the results were always the same. Trouble.

And she was in it again.

This time, she had no choice but to depend on God.

Depend on Jonas.

A stranger who’d stepped in and offered help she desperately needed.

A stranger she could trust with her life?

She hoped so, because the darkness she’d been holding at bay was closing in, her hold on the world was slipping and she was falling into dreams and nightmares and memories.

She jerked upright, afraid to let go, afraid of what it would mean if she woke and Jonas was gone and she was there, alone in a cave a hundred feet above the ground.

“Hey, calm down, everything is okay.” He was at her side, pressing her back before she could stand.

“No. It’s not. I’m out in the middle of nowhere, running for my life with a man I don’t know.”

“You know Kane, and you know the kinds of friends he keeps. Isn’t that enough?” The question seeped in, eased her frantic thoughts.

He was right.

She did know Kane.

She did know the kind of friends he kept.

Good people, all of them.

But she still didn’t want to let go, didn’t want to give in.

She tracked Jonas’s movement as he walked back to the mouth of the cave, watched as he settled there, cross-legged, watching the desert floor, doing what she should be doing herself.

What she couldn’t do herself.

She didn’t like it.

She didn’t like it at all, but darkness edged in anyway, stole her thoughts, her fears, her need for control, and she couldn’t fight it, couldn’t stop it as it swept her away.

Jonas had been prepared for a lot of things when he’d headed out to find Skylar. Days trekking through the desert, nights in subfreezing temperatures, an injury victim, maybe even a body. What he hadn’t prepared for was a posse of armed men.

But that’s what he’d gotten.

He’d have a few words to say to Kane when he made it back to civilization.

If he made it back.

The way things were looking, he might not.

Rain still fell heavy and constant, the thick clouds and poor weather preventing Phoenix Search and Rescue from coming to their aid. That left Jonas and Skylar to find their own way out of the trouble they were in. He was up to the task. He wasn’t so sure about his companion. She hadn’t moved in the past hour, her body curled into a fetal position, her head resting on his backpack.

She was tough, he’d give her that.

As tough as Kane had said.

But even the toughest people had their breaking point, and he thought Skylar might have reached hers. Feverish and weak, she’d barely managed to make it to the cave. Sheer grit had carried her the last dozen feet. Maybe sheer grit would see her the rest of the way out of this mess.

Maybe.

He couldn’t count on it, though.

And he wouldn’t leave her behind.

He’d come to the desert with a mission—find Skylar Grady and bring her back to civilization.

He’d leave the desert with her, or he wouldn’t leave it at all.

In the first weeks and months and even years following Gabriella’s murder, the thought of failing might have had a tantalizing ring. Death seemed like a friend when life became the enemy. He’d survived that first wave of grief and self-loathing. Slowly, he’d come to accept that life could go on without his wife and son.

Could go on. Did go on. But it could never be the same again. He couldn’t be the same, couldn’t be the man he once was.

So, he went on with it, drifting from old house to old house, refinishing, rebuilding, creating beauty from decay.

Too bad he hadn’t been able to do that with his life. Create something new from the ruins of what had been. Something meaningful out of something senseless.