Angel Fire

Chapter Ten

Sam savored the strong black coffee with a sigh. She’d slept better but not much. He’d left her hands untied, but the ground was hard and she’d gotten cold. And, of course, she was sharing the tent with a man and his gun. And a knife.

She looked at him from across the fire. “You didn’t take the time for coffee yesterday,” she stated. “You’re not afraid of someone catching us?”

He lifted one corner of his mouth in a smile. “You still think someone is coming after you?”

“Yes.”

He nodded as he folded up the map he’d been studying. “Yes, I suppose eventually they’ll attempt to track us, once their roadblocks don’t pan out. I can’t imagine there’d be much of a trail by then.” He motioned to her food. “How was it?”

Sam looked down at the pile of yellowish goo. Powdered eggs. “It was delicious,” she said dryly.

He laughed. “Yes, I know.” He held his hand out. “Give it here if you’re not going to finish it.”

She handed him what was left of her breakfast and he finished it off in three bites. She knew he would be ready to head out soon so she drank the last of her coffee.

“If we make good time, we’ll camp by a river tonight,” he said.

Her eyes lit up. “Like, a bath?” she asked hopefully.

“For you or me?”

She wrinkled up her nose. “Both.”

He laughed again, and she thought he sure seemed to be in a good mood this morning. But at least he was talking about their next camp. That meant he wasn’t getting ready to ditch her just yet. He stood and she was about to do the same when he sat back down again.

“Can I ask you something?”

She gave him a quick smile. “I don’t know. Can you?”

He smiled too, then his expression turned serious. “The other night…the first night in the tent, you had this terrified look on your face.”

She bit her lower lip. “Yes. I guess I did.”

“You were afraid I was going to…”

“Yes.”

“Had you been raped before?”

She was surprised at the gentleness of his question, by the genuine concern in his eyes. She nodded. “Yes.”

“I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. “It was…it was right before Tori and I…well, we weren’t lovers yet,” she said shyly. “We worked in Homicide and we were on a stakeout. We saw a drug deal go down, and well, we became targets. Anyway, we were leaving Tori’s boat one evening and these guys grabbed me. They knocked Tori out and handcuffed her and threw her in the lake.” She paused. “I thought she was dead,” she said in a quiet voice. “They took me to this warehouse. Stripped me naked and tied me to a bed.” Her hand was trembling. She set the cup down and linked her fingers together. “There were five of them in the room. They were taking turns.” She closed her eyes. It was something she’d not thought about in a long time. “One guy had a whip and when he came toward me, I started screaming.” She met his eyes. “Tori found me. She knocked down the door and started shooting. It was all so fast. I didn’t have time to think. Tori was there. They were dead.”

“I guess she survived the lake then.”

Sam nodded and smiled. “Yes.”

“I may be a lot of things, Sam, but I’m no rapist.”

“I know. You would have already done it if you were.”

* * *

Cameron had called for a rest and Tori had to hide her impatience. They’d only been at it for a few hours. But as Cameron had implied yesterday evening, she was the one doing all the work. Tori and Andrea were only following her.

She took off her backpack like they did and stretched her shoulders. The morning coolness was all but gone and she’d shed her sweatshirt an hour earlier. It was a sunny, cloudless day, making her long for shorts instead of jeans. But that would be foolish. As Cameron had explained, they were bushwhacking. They weren’t on a trail.

They were stopped on a ledge, and she took that opportunity to look around. To really look around for the first time. Her eyes widened as she looked across the mountain and saw nothing but trees and woods and rocks for miles and miles. Not a single structure to be found.

“Damn. We’re like in the middle of nowhere.”

“I know exactly where we are,” Cameron said with her normal arrogance.

“Of course you do,” Tori mumbled as her gaze took in the view around her. It really was pretty up here. They’d only done a couple of hikes and most were near the campground and not strenuous. She could almost see the lure of a long backpacking trip. Almost. At the end of her hike though, she was ready for a cold beer. And a lawn chair chat with Casey while Sam and Leslie got things ready for dinner. She smiled quickly as she pictured it, knowing how much she and Casey acted like typical guys. Sam and Leslie had said as much on several occasions.

“Here.”

She turned as Cameron walked over to her. She had a gadget from her backpack and she touched the screen.

“GPS. Here’s our location.” Cameron tapped again. “This is the route we’ve taken so far.” She made the image bigger. “Here’s your campground.”

“We’ve come a long way.”

“Yeah. And as you can tell, he’s not following the terrain at all. He goes up, then crosses over for a bit, then back up. He’s definitely hiking as if someone is tracking him.”

“And you’re sure you’re on his trail?”

Cameron turned off the device and returned it to her backpack, not bothering to answer the question. Tori turned to Andrea who gave her a quick smile.

“The problem is, you two are too much alike,” Andrea said.

Tori nearly snorted. “I am nothing like her.”

* * *

Sam walked gingerly behind him. They were on a ledge and she was afraid to look down. The drop looked…well, it looked like it would hurt if she fell. He’d left her hands untied again, and she wondered why she was being so amicable and not trying to escape. But then, where would she go? He was bigger and stronger and most likely ran much faster than she did. Of course, there was his threat that still haunted her. He would kill her when he didn’t need her any longer. She supposed that wasn’t really a threat. More like a matter-of-fact statement.

She pushed that thought aside and set her sights on the view around her. It was certainly beautiful up here and if the circumstances were different, she would be admiring the scenery and taking mental pictures, if not real ones. The air was fresher than she could ever remember it smelling, but she was also aware of her labored breathing as they climbed higher. Lost in thought and not paying attention, she felt her right foot start to slip. It was almost in slow motion that she felt herself falling.

“Angel!”

She reached out for him, just missing as her feet slipped away. She grabbed at rocks and the lone scrub brush that clung haphazardly to the ledge. She missed the brush and slipped farther down away from him.

“Sam!”

She felt a strong grip on her wrist, and she looked up, meeting his eyes. He was lying flat on his stomach, reaching over the edge for her.

“Hang on,” he said. “I’ve got you.”

With her free hand, she dug her fingers into the crevice of a rock, using all her strength to hold on. He slowly pulled her up and she reached out, clutching her hand tightly around his arm as she climbed the last few feet to the top.

She was breathing hard, her heart still pounding in her chest. She sat up and crawled away from the edge, still holding tight to his arm.

“Oh my God,” she said between breaths. “I thought, well…”

He shook his head. “My fault. This was a stupid route to take.”

She leaned forward just a tad, chancing a peek over the side. It wasn’t quite as steep as she’d feared. She had at least ten or fifteen more feet before the bottom dropped off. Damn.

“Thank you,” she said, finally releasing his arm. “I have just a…a tiny fear of heights.”

“Now you tell me,” he said with a smile. He stood up and held his hand out to her. “Come on. We’ve got to backtrack a bit. It’s actually shorter.”

“Shorter? To the river and my bath?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why this?” she asked, motioning around them.

“In case we’re being followed.”

“Oh.”

* * *

“Here’s where they camped last night,” Cameron said, pointing to the fire ring. She knelt down beside it and felt the ash. It was cold but powdery. Fresh.

“So we’re not really making good time then,” Tori said.

“No.” Cameron looked to the sky, seeing white, puffy clouds gathering. They didn’t look like rain clouds, but if they lingered through the day, they would block out the sun, bringing dusk to the mountainside earlier than normal. She glanced at Andrea. “How are you doing?”

Andi nodded. “I’m good.”

Cameron nodded too. She felt like they hadn’t had a second alone, which they hadn’t. Last night in the tent, she’d been exhausted and had managed little more than a kiss before falling asleep. She was used to them working alone. Used to talking—saying—what she pleased. Used to their teasing, used to their playfulness. But playfulness and teasing had no place here, not with Hunter along. Not when her lover was the victim they were chasing.

And she didn’t want to tell Hunter this, but Angel Figueroa was a cold-blooded killer, nothing more, nothing less than that. She’d seen him pull the trigger too many times. He was good at his job. Her only solace for Hunter was that they were still following two sets of tracks. How much time Sam Kennedy had left was anyone’s guess though.

She tightened the straps on her backpack and headed out again. It looked like they were heading up the side of the mountain. She got her GPS out and studied the terrain. If her guess was right, they’d be hard-pressed to find a place to make camp. That was probably why Angel had camped here, where it was still flat. Well, they had no choice but to push on. She guessed they were at least three hours behind him, if not more.

“Looks like we’re climbing, ladies,” she said as she took off.