Shirlee McCoy - Lone Defender

“Are they on the move?” Skylar’s voice carried through the darkness, scratchy and raw, breaking through thoughts that were just as raw, just as scratchy.

“You’re supposed to be sleeping.” He glanced her way, saw that she was moving toward him, the blanket crinkling as she pulled it close.

“It’s hard to sleep when death is knocking on your door.”

“He’s not knocking, yet. Go back to sleep.” He turned his attention back to the desert floor. Dark and empty of life, it was shadowed with night, the thick winter foliage offering shelter to anything or anyone who might want to hide there.

“You know I’m not going to do that, right?” Skylar dropped down beside him, Mylar crunching and crackling.

“I guess I do.”

“And I guess you know I’m going to ask until I get an answer. Are they on the move? “

“Things look quiet.”

“But?”

“They don’t feel quiet. My gut is saying that company is coming.”

“A person should never ignore his gut. I think we need to get out of here. Come on.” She rose, but he grabbed her hand, holding her in place.

“Moving quickly and without a plan won’t do either of us any good.”

“Sitting around waiting to be killed won’t, either.” But she settled down beside him again.

“That was easy.” Surprised, he studied her face, tried to read her expression.

“Lately, I’ve been thinking that I should spend a little more time planning before I jump into things. Now is as good a time as any to start.”

“Glad to hear it.”

“Yeah, well, when a life is on the line, I can’t afford to make foolish mistakes.”

“Lives. Last time I checked, there were two of us in this cave.”

“True, but your life is the one I’m worried about. I made my own mess. If I die because of it, it’ll be my own fault. If you die …” Her voice trailed off, but she didn’t need to continue for him to understand.

He knew all about guilt. Had felt it every minute of every day for four years.

“It won’t be your fault. It will be the fault of the men who are after us.” “The men who are after me. You’re an innocent bystander in this.”

“I’m a willing participant, and I assume all risk and responsibility for myself.”

“You wouldn’t be here if I’d done what I should have and asked Kane to send backup as soon as I realized something about the case was off.”

“Off?” A shadow moved a hundred yards out, and Jonas tracked it. Human, animal or simply a product of rain and wind and shifting foliage? He couldn’t be sure, but his gut said that the trouble they’d been waiting for was about to find them.

“The guy I came to find? He supposedly left town a week before I arrived. Thing is, he was still getting mail at his house. His truck was still in the driveway.”

“Could be he got a new ride. One that couldn’t be traced to him.”

“Could be, but people in Cave Creek seemed awfully closemouthed about a guy who’d only been in the area for a few months.”

“Small towns are notorious for protecting their own.”

“He wasn’t theirs.”

“Maybe not, but he belonged there more than you did.” The shadow moved again, and this time there was no doubt.

Human.

For sure.

Moving stealthily, keeping low.

Skylar tensed, and he knew she’d seen what he had. Danger closing in. “Your instincts were right. Now are you ready to get out of here?” Skylar stood again, and Jonas followed, grabbing his pack and pulling out extra ammo.

“What I’m ready to do doesn’t matter. What matters is what you’re capable of doing.”

“You don’t think I can climb out of here?” She lifted the gun she’d left near his pack, held it like it was part of her hand, part of her.

“How good of an aim are you?”

“You’re avoiding the question,” Skylar noted.

“And asking my own. How about we don’t waste time with verbal sparring?”

“I’m good. I was better before I left the force, but I still go to the range for target practice. You never know when being a crack shot could come in handy.”

“Wish I’d been thinking that way over the past few years,” Jonas remarked.

“You were a police officer?”

“Border patrol, but that was a lifetime ago.”

“How long of a lifetime?”

“Nearly four years.” He scanned the area below the mesa. The shadow had disappeared, fading into the rest of the landscape, but Jonas had no doubt the person was still there, still coming. And he wasn’t alone. There’d been other shadows moving in the past hour. Other furtive advances on the desert floor.

“That’s not so long. I’ve been out of the force for three.” She might have been making idle conversation, but Jonas sensed a change in her, a tension that spoke of the same need for action he felt.

“No, I guess it’s not.” And he guessed he hadn’t forgotten how to hold a gun, how to use it. Hadn’t forgotten the way adrenaline felt coursing through his body, the way every nerve ending came alive during the waiting and during the hunt.

Hadn’t forgotten.

Had maybe even missed it.

“You said we needed a plan. I think now is as good a time as any to come up with one, because that feeling you have? I’ve got the same one. Things are about to get ugly, and I’m not sure I want to be around when they do.”

“Go back in the cave and rest. If they start climbing, I’ll start shooting. If I need backup, I’ll call for it.”

“ That’s your plan?” She sounded so disgusted Jonas would have smiled if the situation hadn’t been so serious.

“It’s that or climb, and I don’t think we’re in any condition to do that.”

“You don’t think I’m in any condition to climb, you mean.”

“Same thing.”

“How many people do you think are out there?” She didn’t argue, just lifted the rope from the place where he’d dropped it.

“I’ve counted at least seven. Probably closer to a dozen.”

“A dozen? I guess I really did make some friends in Cave Creek.” She ran a hand over her hair, staring down into the desert as if she could read it and the secrets it held.

“We’re both good shots. I have extra ammo. We’ll be fine.”

“Not if they have high-powered rifles and night vision. We start shooting, we give away our location. They’ll start shooting. There’s a good possibility the bad guys won’t be the only ones who die. We’re going to have to go with Plan B aka, my plan. We climb.”

“Grady—”

“To take a page from your book, how about we don’t waste time with verbal sparring? I can make it, but not if I spend too much time thinking about it.” She tied the end of the rope around her waist, tossed the other end to Jonas.

He could argue, or he could do what he’d been wanting to do for the better part of an hour—get out while he still could. Another fifty feet, and they’d crest the top of the mesa. Fifty feet wasn’t far. Not for a good climber, and Skylar obviously was one.

What she wasn’t, was healthy.

“It’s fifty feet, Grady. Up wet rock, in the dark. And it’s a long way down. We could both die.”

“We could both die, anyway, so I’m willing to take the chance. Besides, you didn’t seem all that worried when we had to climb a hundred.” She grabbed the end of the rope from his hand, leaned close to knot it around his waist.

“I was. I’m just good at hiding my feelings.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” She patted his cheek, her palm hot and dry, and he captured her hand, holding it when she would have pulled away.

“What are you planning, Grady?”

“An escape.” But there was something in her tone that didn’t ring true.