CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
AT THE SENATOR’S INSISTENCE, a command center had been set up at the edge of Forest Service property on the Hamilton Ranch. The sheriff hadn’t put up a fight when he’d gotten the request from the governor.
“Buckmaster is worried sick about his daughter,” the governor had said.
“We all are,” Frank had told him, knowing he shouldn’t be surprised that Buckmaster had pulled strings to get what he wanted. It did make him wonder how much power the man had—and he wasn’t even president yet. He couldn’t help but think about Russell’s theory.
Frank had always liked and admired Buckmaster, but there was no arguing that he got what he wanted and always had, either through the money or the political power he’d inherited from his father. “I think having the command center there at the trailhead makes sense,” the governor had said. “Just between you and me, it might also keep him out of your hair so you can do your job.”
“That would be nice,” Frank had agreed.
Now he watched as a second National Guard helicopter set down in the pasture fifty yards away. Earlier one had headed for the mountains to look for the missing Hamilton woman.
Buckmaster was headed for the chopper when Frank caught up to him.
“I’d prefer you stay here, Senator,” the sheriff said.
“My daughter’s up there. I’m going to look for her. The only way you can stop me is to arrest me. You sure you want to do that, Sheriff?”
Frank sighed. “I got word this morning that Ray Spencer’s father might be up the mountains with him. He was last seen taking horses and supplies up a trail on the other side of the Crazies.”
“You think he’s meeting his son up there,” Buckmaster said.
“I suspect that’s exactly what he’s doing.”
The senator looked toward the mountains. “That outfitter was killed on the trail that comes up from the other side.”
No one could say that the senator wasn’t quick-thinking.
Buckmaster let out a curse. “My daughter might be in those mountains with two murderers?”
“I think anyone looking for Bo right now could be in danger,” Frank said. “That’s why I don’t want you to get into that helicopter.”
The senator shook his head. “Try to stop me.”
* * *
BO STEPPED TO the front of the cave as the army-green helicopter came into view over the tops of the pines. She began to wave her arms wildly before she realized that dressed as she was, there was no way anyone in the chopper could see her.
She rushed back into the cave, grabbed the yellow slicker and rushed to the rock ledge again. Jace, still covered with the sleeping bag, had braced himself on his elbows so he could see. The helicopter was closer now. She waved the jacket frantically, yelling as she did, even though she knew they wouldn’t be able to hear her.
But they had to see her! She couldn’t bear the thought of the chopper going on past. A sob rose in her chest as it started to turn away. “No!” she cried.
“It’s okay, there’ll be more,” Jace said.
Now was the moment he picked to try to reassure her?
“No, I have to climb down and build a big fire. Or write ‘Help’ with sticks in a clear spot. I can’t let—” She faltered as she heard the helicopter. It had turned back toward her. “He’s coming back,” she cried and began to wave the yellow slicker again. “He sees us!”
Tears burned her eyes. “He sees us!” She started to turn to smile back at Jace when she caught something out of the corner of her eye. A flash. It happened so fast, for a moment she couldn’t make sense of it. The chopper was headed in their direction. One of the crew members had seen her waving to them. The next second there was another flash and noise like a whistle as something streaked across the sky.
“What—” Bo didn’t get to finish. Smoke suddenly billowed from the helicopter. Like a wounded bird, the chopper rolled to one side and, as if unable to fight gravity, began to fall toward earth.
It disappeared from sight beyond the pines and the slope of the mountain. Bo held her breath, her heart in her throat. For just a moment before that, she’d been so happy. She’d thought they were going to be saved. She’d thought this whole ordeal was almost over.
Then she heard the horrible sound of the chopper as it crashed and exploded.
* * *
AT THE SOUND of the explosion, everyone at the search command center turned to stare up at the mountains. Smoke curled up from the pines into the clearing blue sky.
“Tell me someone didn’t just shoot down that chopper,” the senator said to Frank, his eyes wide with fear. Only moments before, they’d been arguing about the senator getting into a helicopter.
“What the hell is going on?” Buckmaster demanded.
Frank had no idea.
“What was that we saw before the helicopter went down?” one of the search and rescue men asked.
“It looked like an RPG, a rocket-propelled grenade,” a National Guard man said. The officer in command was already on his radio. “Who up there would have shot it down?” he demanded of Frank.
“I can’t say for sure, but I suspect Ray Spencer Sr. is up there. He’s an ex-military sniper turned antigovernment survivalist. His son, Ray Jr., is the escapee we believe is also up there. Ray Jr. is wanted on a murder charge.”
“We have to get up there,” Buckmaster said and stepped toward the National Guard helicopter.
“Sorry, Senator, but I have my orders. No civilians,” the commander said. “This is now a military operation.”
* * *
BO STOOD FOR a long moment, too shocked to move. “Someone shot down the helicopter.” Even as she said it, she still couldn’t believe it.
“Whoever fired on it is close by,” Jace said. “And that wasn’t a rifle shot.”
She swallowed as she looked down the mountainside. The sun had come out, making the snow sparkle like something out of a fairy tale. It seemed so incongruous since she and Jace were in a nightmare that she suspected was never going to end. Or would end too soon.
His words finally registered. She’d seen the streak of light before the chopper took the hit. She had a pretty good idea where the shot had originated. Help wasn’t going to be coming. Not quick enough.
“Ray’s father was in the military,” she said. “He told me that his father was a crack shot.”
Jace looked as worried as she was. “But to shoot down a National Guard helicopter?” He shook his head, clearly shocked. She figured he’d also come to the same conclusion she had.
Ray and his father weren’t planning to be taken alive. Since Ray blamed her, that meant they would be coming for her and Jace, and soon.
Pushing to her feet, she pulled the handgun from her pocket to reload it. She found more ammunition in Ray’s pack.
“What are you doing?”
“The only thing I can do. You saw what they did to that helicopter. Clearly they’re planning to go out in a blaze of glory. As you said, if Ray is alive, he isn’t going to let me get away. I’m not going to let them kill you. If I can help it.”
“Hold on, Annie Oakley. We already talked about this. If you go down there, do you really think you can kill one of them?” She hesitated just a little too long. “That’s what I thought. Forget it, Bo. You aren’t going down there.”
She understood what he was saying. But she also knew that if she stayed here, they would be sitting ducks. Whoever had shot down that chopper could just as easily turn one of those rockets on them.
Bo had to do something, and Jace wasn’t going anywhere. “You keep the rifle. If I fail and they find you...”
“Bo, don’t do this,” Jace said as he tried to get up, grimacing in pain.
She gently pushed him back down. “Thank you,” she said, leaning down to brush a kiss across his lips.
“For what?” he demanded, clearly both frustrated and upset.
“For being my hero.”
He looked at her, fear in his expression. “I’m no hero, and if that kiss was supposed to be goodbye...you promised me a whole lot more than that last night. I’m planning to collect in full once we’re off this mountain.”
She smiled. “I’m counting on it, too.”
Rising, she put the loaded gun into her coat pocket and stepped off the ledge into the snow. Fortunately it had snowed only about half a foot overnight. She slogged through it, taking a longer route so she didn’t leave a trail right back to Jace if she failed.
Could she kill Ray or his father? The thought made her shudder, but the alternative was so much worse...
She didn’t worry about making too much noise as she approached the spot from which she believed the men had fired to take down the helicopter. Remembering the gunshot they’d heard the day before, she wondered what she would find when she reached their camp.
Before she saw anything, she heard the whinny of one of the horses.
“Hello?” she called out. She knew there was no way she could sneak up on them, fearing her attempt would get her killed.
“Hello?” she called again as she kept walking. She had to be close. But who was out there, and could she pull the trigger when she came face-to-face with one or both of them?
* * *
JACE HAD NEVER felt so helpless. Bo was going to get herself killed. Or worse. He tried to get up again, but it was useless. He couldn’t walk let alone climb off this mountainside in the snow with a broken leg.
He could barely breathe as he listened for the sound of a gunshot.
Damn that woman. He had to do something. He knew what she planned and why. She thought she could save him by giving Ray Spencer what he wanted—her!
Jace couldn’t bear the thought. If there had been any way to stop her—
The days of pretending he didn’t care about Bo Hamilton were long gone. Hell, if he was honest with himself, he’d been in love with her since junior high. He’d screwed things up with the senior prom, but they’d been given a second chance. Then five years ago, Bo had broken it off. Now he understood why, but now this. He feared they might have run out of chances.
The one thing he knew was that he couldn’t just lie here and let the woman he loved get killed or become a mountain bride to a psychopath. He had to do something and quickly. He’d always been so capable, so sure of his abilities.
But he’d never been trapped on a snowy mountain with a broken leg before. It was a humbling experience to be this helpless. He wasn’t about to let it beat him, though.
* * *
HER BREATH COMING out in puffs of white frosty clouds, Bo tried to still her trembling from the cold and her fear. She’d told herself that she would do whatever she had to. She couldn’t let them kill Jace. All she had to do was stall for time. The Spencers had to know that this mountain would soon be crawling with armed men determined to stop them.
But the rescuers wouldn’t be coming quickly enough. She had to do this if she hoped to save Jace, save both of them.
And yet she feared what would happen when Ray saw her. He and his father had just shot down a National Guard helicopter, sealing their fates. That’s if Ray was still alive. Even if his wound hadn’t killed him, his father might have.
But either way, she figured Ray’s father knew about her. She’d heard enough about RayJay and seen what he’d done to his son to know he would blame her for all of this.
As strange as it seemed, she hoped Ray was alive. Even though he’d told her what would happen if she ran, she thought she could convince him that she would go with him. If she could talk him into trying to get away rather than dying up here on this mountain...
Bo knew how foolhardy this was. But she’d had to do something. Otherwise, they would find Jace and...
She heard a sound ahead, something alive, and it wasn’t a horse. She thought about last night in Jace’s arms and knew she would do whatever she had to. Her love for Jace pushed her on. If she had to kill one or both of the Spencers... As if she would get that chance.
Still, the thought made her tremble harder. Where was the Bo Hamilton who used to be so determined? That old Bo was definitely not the woman who’d packed up and headed for the hills when she’d realized money was missing from the foundation. Or the woman who’d been drinking too much at her sister Livie’s engagement party.
Ahead, she saw several horses, but not hers. A weathered older man sat bundled up against the cold as he huddled over a small fire. She looked around for Ray but didn’t see him. Standing there, stone still, she wondered if there had been a mistake. This man didn’t look like someone who’d just shot down a helicopter.
Thinking he hadn’t heard her approach, she stepped closer. She had to assume this was Ray’s father, RayJay.
Where was her horse? More to the point, where was Ray?
The older man looked up slowly as if sensing her standing there. But the moment she looked into his blue eyes, she knew he’d heard her coming all the while. He gave her a once-over and then, his gaze going to the gun in her hand, began to laugh. “Ya plannin’ to shoot me?”
“Where is Ray?” she asked.
The man rose. He’d looked small, even frail, hunkered over the fire. But as he straightened to his full height, she saw that he was almost as big as his son. And like Ray, he looked fit for his age. “He said ya were a looker. Explains why he done somethin’ so stupid.” The man took a step toward her.
She glanced around, listening for Ray, but hearing nothing. “Don’t come any closer.”
“What ya goin’ a do? Shoot me in cold blood? Ya already kilt my son. Might as well kill me, too.”
Ray was dead?
He took another step toward her. “We coulda lived up here just fine, me an my boy. Now look at the mess ya made.”
I made! Bo thought. She took a step back. She didn’t want to shoot this man. And she doubted that one shot would stop him. The thought of emptying the gun into him turned her stomach.
But she could tell by the look on his face that she would have no choice but to kill him. If he reached her, he’d wrench away the gun and—
He took another step. If she didn’t fire now... She aimed the pistol at his heart and pulled the trigger.
It clicked.
The safety! She hurriedly flipped the safety off as the man launched himself at her.
* * *
RAY HAD HEARD the voices. He couldn’t believe his ears. His daddy had Bo? He dropped the halter rope of the lead horse he’d been moving back to camp. Grabbing the gun his old man had brought him, he rushed toward the fire as he heard the first shot.
When he cleared the trees, he saw his father knock the gun from Bo’s hand and send her sprawling in the snow. He rushed to her, helping her up and shielding her as his father pulled his own weapon and pointed it at Bo.
“Git outta the way!” his father ordered.
“Ya ain’t gonna to kill her.” Ray hadn’t stood up to his old man since he was twelve. That beating had left scars worse than all the other beatings. “I’m keepin’ her.”
“Keepin’ her?” his father crowed. “Yer grabbin’ her in the first place is why we’re goin’ to die up here.”
“We kin get away. Take her to Mexico.”
RayJay shook his head. “Ya’ve lost yer mind. Ya think she’s goin’ anywhere with the likes a ya, yer crazy. She don’t want ya.”
Ray rubbed a hand over his face. “Tell him it ain’t true,” he said without looking at Bo. When she didn’t answer, he faced her, praying to see something other than disgust in her green eyes.
* * *
JACE HEARD THE GUNSHOT, then the sound of raised voices. Looking off the mountain, he thought he knew where the voices were coming from. It was too steep and the snow too deep for him to try to walk down there even if he could put weight on his broken leg.
But he recalled something he and his brothers had done as boys. The pain in his leg took his breath away, but he managed to pull himself, the rifle and the sleeping bag to the edge of the rock face. It took some maneuvering, but he got his legs into the sleeping bag and zipped it up. He held the rifle. He hoped to hell this was going to work. The mountain was steep enough. The snow slick enough. If he could use the stock of the rifle to steer, he could ride the sleeping bag like a sled down the mountain. The June snow was wet and would hold him up, although it would also be fast. With luck, he could get close to where the voices were coming from without nailing a tree.
Saying a prayer, he pushed himself off feetfirst and went sledding down the mountainside on the slick fabric of the sleeping bag.
* * *
“I WILL GO with you,” Bo said as Ray turned to look at her. She nodded, meeting his gaze, hoping he believed it. Anything to get him away from Jace. More searchers would be coming, only this time armed. She didn’t want to speculate on her odds of getting out of this alive, but she had to try.
“Yer ain’t goin’ nowhere,” RayJay spat.
“Look out!” Bo cried as, past Ray, she saw his father take a long stride, gun raised.
He struck his son in the side of the head with the butt of the weapon. Ray’s gaze locked with Bo’s for one heart-stopping moment. Then his eyes rolled back into his head, and he went down hard at her feet in the snow.
RayJay let out a curse as he looked at his son and then lifted the gun in his hand. “I shoulda shot ’im the other day instead of tryin’ to scare some sense into ’im. My son’s a damned fool,” he said as he took aim. “I ain’t so gullible.”
Bo heard the boom of the shot, felt the sound rumble through her and then blinked in surprise when she felt nothing. She hadn’t realized that she’d closed her eyes until she opened them to find RayJay standing in front her. He had a surprised look on his face. His free hand had gone to his chest. Blood flowed out over his fingers as he lowered the gun in his hand to look down at his son as if he’d assumed it had been Ray who’d shot him.
Ray hadn’t moved. His eyes were wide-open, but blood pooled in the right one, and the snow was dark where blood had leaked from his ear.
Bo had assumed the same thing as RayJay. But with a shock, she realized that Ray couldn’t have shot his father, because the blow to his head had killed him.
RayJay seemed to come to that conclusion even slower than she had. Like her, he glanced around for a second before he started to raise his gun again, defeat and regret in his expression, none of it for Bo.
Everything had happened within seconds. She’d frozen at RayJay’s attack but now forced herself to move. She grabbed for the older man’s gun, trying to wrestle it out of his hand. Even with him wounded, he was strong and fierce. He broke her grasp and shoved her away, raising the gun again to fire.
Bo fell into the snow just inches from where RayJay had knocked the gun from her hand earlier. She snatched it up and rolled over, the weapon clutched in both hands as she pulled the trigger.
The air around her exploded with the sound of two shots. She blinked sure she’d only fired once. RayJay had stopped a few feet from her. Now he dropped his gun, his eyes glassy with shock. His legs gave out under him. He slumped to his knees. As he fell face-first into the snow, Bo looked past his body to see Jace propped up against a tree, most of his body cocooned in a sleeping bag, the rifle in his hands.
Tears burned her eyes as he smiled at her. At the sound of more helicopters, she dropped the gun and stepped out in the clearing to wave her arms.