"For G.o.d"s sake, Jake, don"t get my hopes up." For the first time, emotion rang in her voice. It hit Jake like a tuning fork held against a broken bone. "Please," she said. "Don"t make promises you can"t keep. I"m really not up to the disappointment."
"Abby-"
"If you want to do the right thing, let me go."
"I can"t do that."
"I"m dead if you take me back."
Jake recoiled inwardly. "I"ll make sure you"re put under watch."
"Oh, that"s big of you. Always looking out for my best interest. A twenty-four-hour guard will be terrific-"
"The police aren"t going to stop looking for you. If I don"t take you back, someone else will."
"I won"t let them catch me."
"You"re exhausted and have absolutely no way to travel."
"You could give me a head start."
Jake laughed, but it was a bitter sound in the silence of the forest trail. "And in case you"ve forgotten, there"s a sniper on the loose who evidently doesn"t want you around-"
"I"d rather take my chances with the sniper."
"Use your head, Abby. Handle this through the legal system. I"ll help you-"
"Don"t say it, d.a.m.n you."
"This isn"t personal, Abby."
"It is for me. Saving my life is very, very personal."
Jake ran his hand over his face and struggled for patience. He wasn"t sure how to deal with all the bitterness and pain. "Abby...."
She wouldn"t even look at him, just stared straight ahead, as if he wasn"t even there. What did she expect him to say? Jeez, who knew what was going on in a woman"s head at any given time? He sure as h.e.l.l didn"t. As far as he was concerned women really were from another planet.
"Do you understand?" he asked after a moment.
"Oh, yeah. I gotcha, Cop. Loud and clear."
They traveled through deep snow for another hour, tension filling the chasm between them. Jake had realized in the last few days that Abby liked to chat. He found himself missing that today. He missed her smart-aleck remarks, her dry wit, her sense of humor. He hated seeing her so discouraged, so...hopeless.
Struggling to keep his mind off of her, he focused his attention on the animal beneath him, on making good time. He kept his eyes on the surrounding ridges for signs of the sniper. He was uneasy traveling in the open, and there were several places where the trail opened up and they could easily be picked off by a sniper"s bullet. The thought made the hairs on his nape p.r.i.c.kle.
Two hours later, he pulled Brandywine up next to the mule and stopped. "You hungry?"
"No."
"You"re quiet."
"I don"t think there"s much else to say." For the first time in a while, she looked at him. Jake almost wished she hadn"t. The anguish in her eyes made his chest ache.
"But I would like to know one thing," she said.
"What"s that?"
"I need to know if you believe me."
"Abby...." He sighed, not sure what to say next.
She looked away abruptly, blinking rapidly. "Okay."
"That"s not a fair question," he said lamely.
She raised her hand, silencing him. "That"s enough. That tells me all I need to know. Forget it, okay?"
"d.a.m.n it, it"s not that simple."
"Yes, it is, Jake. It"s infinitely simple. Either you do or you don"t. Evidently, you don"t." She stared at him, her expression level and far too calm. "I can accept that. I just...after everything that"s happened, I...needed to know."
"Abby, I-"
"Don"t say anything else. Please."
"Listen, whether I believe you is not the problem."
"Then what is the problem?" she cried.
"That I do believe you, and I don"t have the slightest idea what I"m going to do about it!"
She stared at him, her expression stricken. Tears shimmered in her eyes like liquid amethysts. Then she simply broke. Lowering her face into her hands, she began to cry. It was the first display of weakness he"d seen in her and it tore at him like claws.
"If you take me back, it"s over," she choked. "I can"t let you do that to me."
"I"ll make sure you"re protected from whomever is trying to get to you."
"Forgive me if my faith in the criminal justice system is a little shaky right now."
"I"ve got some contacts in different police agencies. These guys are sharp. They know the ropes. h.e.l.l, I"ll look into your case myself. I"ll do everything in my power to-"
"Let me go, Jake."
"I can"t do that."
"d.a.m.n it-"
"You can"t survive up here in the high country by yourself! Look at the problems we"ve had since we"ve been up here. The storm. You falling through the ice. The sniper. I"ve been doing this since I was old enough to walk. You don"t have that kind of experience. You don"t have any gear. You don"t have supplies. You don"t even have a compa.s.s. Another storm comes along and you won"t make it out of these mountains alive."
"I"d rather die than go back!"
Anger and guilt churned like hot tar in his gut. He pointed his finger at her, felt his lips pull back in a snarl. "Don"t let me hear you say that again."
"Why not? I"m dead either way. At least if you leave me up here, I"ll have a fighting chance."
The thought of her dying such a needless, senseless death sickened him. "That"s a chance I"m not willing to take."
"You take me back and it"s out of your hands."
A cold fist of dread twisted savagely in his gut and for a moment he couldn"t take a breath. "I know the ropes, Abby. I"ll talk to D.O.C. I"ll-"
"Do you actually think the cops are going to believe you after...this? They"re going to take one look at...us and the accusations will start flying."
He didn"t want to believe it, but he knew it was true. A male officer and a female inmate trapped in a cabin for two days was fair game for anyone"s imagination. "They"re not going to know anything happened between us." G.o.d, he hated the way that sounded. Officers of the law who took advantage of female inmates were lower than sc.u.m in Jake"s mind. Saying out loud what he"d allowed to happen between them made it sound as though he was no better, as though he"d taken advantage of a situation. That was twisted as h.e.l.l, and it made him feel lousy.
"If you feel the need to tell someone about what happened, then you should," he said evenly. "I"m not going to ask you to protect me. I was clearly out of line."
"Stop being so d.a.m.n honorable, will you?"
He didn"t see anything honorable about anything he"d done since setting foot on this mountain with her, but he didn"t say as much.
"Jake," she said quietly, "the moment you speak out on my behalf, you know what the reaction is going to be." She looked down where her hands twisted on the horn. "Tell me someone isn"t going to jump to conclusions about...how we spent two days together in that cabin."
She had a point. A filthy point that stuck in his craw like a needle. Jake hated it more than anything. Taking off his hat, he raked his fingers through his hair and cursed.
What a mess.
He was about to suggest they get going and discuss this on the way, when sudden pain streaked through his left side, just below his rib cage, as if someone had slammed a red-hot branding iron into him. Jake grunted, the impact nearly knocking him from the saddle. An instant later, a rifle retort echoed in the distance.
Vaguely, he heard Abby"s voice call out to him. He looked down, saw a tear in his duster. Opening it, he saw blood coming through his shirt on his left side, just above his belt. Oh h.e.l.l, he thought dully. He"d been shot.
Glancing up at the ridge to the north, he thought he saw movement, and slid the rifle from its sheath. Taking aim, gritting his teeth against the pain, he squeezed off two shots.
Behind him, he heard Abby urging the mule closer. "Jake!" she cried. "My G.o.d, you"re bleeding!"
"I"m okay." He motioned toward the line of trees. "Take cover!"
But she kept coming, and there was only one way to keep her out of the line of fire. Leaning forward, he grabbed the mule"s lead rope and nudged his mare into a gallop.
"Hang on!" Clutching his side, Jake took them down a treacherously steep ravine toward a copse of aspen, praying the bullet wound in his side wasn"t as bad as it felt.
Chapter 11.
Abby should have been accustomed to medical emergencies. She"d been an ER nurse for more than four years at Mercy General, after all. She"d seen all kinds of injuries from motor vehicle trauma to heart attacks to sprained ankles and broken bones. She"d even seen a bullet wound once when a local police officer had gotten into a shootout with a robbery suspect.
She wasn"t sure why she was panicking now, but she could taste it at the back of her throat like the bitter aftertaste of rank medicine. At least she"d survived the ride down the side of that blasted ravine. Jake must have been thinking she was some kind of trick rider, taking the animals down a treacherous slope like that. As she slid off of Rebel Yell, she promised herself if they ever got out of this mess, she was going to kill Jake Madigan.
He was already off his horse and lashing the reins to a low branch of a nearby pine when she reached him. His back was to her, but she could hear him cursing.
"Son of a-"
"Let me see it," she said, coming up behind him.
On an oath, he turned to her. Worry quivered through her when she saw the sweat beading on a forehead that was nearly as pale as the snow.
"I think he just winged me," he growled. "But it hurts like h.e.l.l."
"I"m a nurse. Let me see it."
Clutching his side, he walked over to a fallen tree and leaned against the gnarled trunk of a pion pine. Abby followed and brushed the snow from the trunk. "Sit down," she said.
Jake yanked off his duster and jacket, then pulled his shirttail out of his jeans. "d.a.m.n it, it burns like a son of a-"
"Yeah, well, bullets tend to do that when they rip through flesh."
He scowled at her. "I was wondering when you were going to get around to your smart remarks."
"Just trying to keep your mind off the pain." Lifting his shirt, Abby glanced down at the wound and swallowed hard. The bullet had dug a jagged path just over his lowest rib. It would require a few st.i.tches, but it didn"t look as if there was a hole so the slug probably hadn"t lodged inside his body. Of course, it could have broken that rib....
"It"s just a graze," she said.
"Lucky me."
"It"s bleeding pretty badly, but I don"t think it"s life-threatening."
"Things are definitely looking up," he said through clenched teeth.
Her hands trembled when she reached up to unb.u.t.ton his shirt. She tried not to look him in the eye as she worked the b.u.t.tons, but she could feel his gaze on her. Like the sun warming her skin-and her knowing it would be burned later. She wasn"t sure if it was the remnants of adrenaline or being this close to Jake, but her blood was pumping furiously.
"I need to stop the bleeding," she said.
"I"m leaking bad, huh?"
"Bad enough. You"re going to need st.i.tches. Where"s the first-aid kit?"
"Saddlebag. Right side."
Rising, Abby jogged over to Brandywine and flung open the saddlebag. She took out the kit and walked back over to Jake and knelt in front of him. "This is probably going to hurt."
"It already hurts."