Echoes at Dawn (6 page)

It was a painstaking journey, one that Rio himself could make in a tenth of the time it was taking him to traverse the terrain with Grace slowly at his back. But she didn’t offer complaint and she hadn’t gone down even once. For that alone, she earned his respect.

He halted in his tracks when Grace yanked on his belt loop to stop him. She pressed in close to his back, her body flush against his as she strained upward so her mouth was close to his ear.

“There’s someone out there,” she whispered. “I know you probably think I’m crazy, but I can hear him. Just ahead. He’s cold and angry and he’s thinking that he’d just like to kill the little bitch and be done with it.”

Rio stiffened. He didn’t think she was crazy. He wasn’t sure what her abilities were. From what he’d gathered, Shea’s were random and not controlled by her at all. Her
telepathy wasn’t something she could aim or even use at will. But was Grace more stable? How the hell was she picking up on someone in the distance?

“How do you know?” he asked. It wasn’t that he doubted her, but he needed all the information at his disposal.

She leaned her forehead tiredly against his back. “I can’t pick up on everyone, but this particular guy is broadcasting loudly. He’s an open book. No shields. No natural barriers. He’s pissed off, and the angrier he becomes, the more I pick up on his brain waves.”

“What else? I need to know how many are with him. If he’s armed. I need to know exactly what you see.”

She went quiet, resting against him. One hand curled against his shoulder and she seemed to be concentrating hard.

“He’s on post,” she said quietly. “He’s pissed because it’s just him and one other guy who he thinks is inferior. They were told to take position. Their goal is to form a triangle and pin us in. I don’t know how many, but there must be enough to stagger men over a wide area.”

“That’s good,” Rio said approvingly. He reached behind him to squeeze the hand that had dropped down his back. “That’s information we can use. I can take two out before they ever know what hit them. We punch a hole in their line and slip through.”

He felt her sudden surge of excitement. She straightened against him, her hand squeezing his. It was as if his matter-of-fact way of laying out his plan had infused her with confidence and renewed hope.

“I’m ready.”

The quiet tone was far different from the defeat he’d heard earlier in her voice. This time there was fierce determination.

“How far, do you know?”

“No. I’m sorry. Not far, though. He’s very loud in my mind.”

He turned and eased her into a sitting position against a large aspen. “Stay here. Don’t move.” He took the pistol
from his holster and handed it to her. “Use this if you have to. I’m going ahead to take care of the two men. I’ll be back, ten minutes tops.”

She nodded and accepted the gun. Her hands no longer shook and she gripped it like she was well acquainted with how to use the weapon.

He turned then, not wasting another moment. He melted into the darkness, heading in the direction that Grace had pointed him. Stealthily, he moved through the trees, able to move faster and more quietly now that he didn’t have Grace behind him.

Slinging his rifle over his shoulder, Rio quickly shimmied up an aspen that was sturdy enough to bear his weight. More than midway up, he paused, locked his legs around the trunk and pulled his rifle over his shoulder to do a quick scan of the area.

He was quickly rewarded when he found the first target in his sites. Before disposing of him, he found the second, made sure there were no others in the immediate area and then squeezed off the first shot.

It was easily a three-hundred-yard shot, but he was deadly accurate. The first victim dropped like a stone. Within two seconds, Rio had the second man in the crosshairs and dispatched him just as swiftly.

He slid down the tree and hurried back to where he’d left Grace. She looked up when he approached and he was pleased that she leveled the pistol in his direction.

“It’s me,” he called softly.

She lowered the gun and shot to her feet. “Are they dead?”

There was no regret, no anxiety in her voice. Nothing but hope that he’d accomplished what he’d set out to do.

“They’re dead. Let’s get moving. We’ll only have a short time to get beyond them before they’re discovered.”

As soon as he turned, she grasped his belt loop and all but pushed him forward. He picked up his pace, trusting that she’d keep up. She didn’t disappoint him. They hurried through the trees, descending the mountain once more.

He took her directly by the downed men, not to horrify her or cause her distress, but because he dared not take a wider circumference. He didn’t want to engage with Grace at his back.

She didn’t flinch. She didn’t react. She didn’t even slow her pace. He began to wonder just how much she’d endured. He knew it was bad, but he was beginning to think he had no grasp at all of the horrors she’d suffered.

They didn’t slow, and in fact, once past the dead men, Rio put on more speed, pushing Grace relentlessly. She stumbled more frequently and he knew she was tiring, but he pressed on. He’d push her to her limits and then he’d carry her the rest of the way if he had to.

He slowed to check his GPS when suddenly Grace shoved him hard. A shot sounded as they both went down, and the handheld unit went flying. Before he could react, another shot sounded in his ear and he realized Grace had yanked the pistol from his holster and had fired.

Instantly, he rolled, taking her underneath him even as he positioned his rifle to pick off any threat. Only silence greeted him and then the soft groan in the distance.

Holy fuck. She’d shot someone.

He scrambled up, keeping his rifle trained as he crept forward. He barked a command for Grace to stay down as he headed away from her.

Fifty yards away, a man lay sprawled on the ground, his rifle just inches from his fingers. Rio bent and did a quick assessment in the dark, but the man was no longer breathing. Grace had nailed him right in the neck.

He glanced back in Grace’s direction, stunned that she’d just saved his life. He hadn’t heard the man, and with Grace holding on to him, his reflexes wouldn’t have been as quick. He would have likely gotten shot before he’d have had time to react.

Instead, Grace had shoved him down and taken out the target with a single pistol shot.

He hurried back to Grace, kneeling to help her up.

“Are you all right?” he whispered.

“Fine. You?” Her voice sounded strained and he knew it had to have hurt her when he shoved her to the ground.

“I’m great, thanks to you. How the hell did you do that?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I just reacted.”

“Well, you saved both our asses,” Rio said grimly. “Let’s get moving. They’ll have our location pegged now.”

He very nearly grasped her splinted arm. It was easy to forget just how injured she was when she was keeping up his grueling pace and saving his ass in the process.

“How much farther?” she asked.

Her tone suggested just how much she hated asking, and he also sensed just how close she was to her limit.

He retrieved the GPS that he’d been consulting and studied the path they were taking. His lips pressed into a thin line and he stared into the night.

“We have to keep moving. We’re making better time than I counted on, which is good. If we can keep this pace, we should meet up with my team at dawn. If we slow or you can’t make it, we’ll have to bed down, wait for daylight and hope to hell we don’t have to engage.”

He could feel the quiet despair emanating from her. It was like watching a balloon deflate. But then she squared her shoulders, her chin came up and she chambered another bullet before setting the safety on the pistol once more.

“Let’s go,” she said in a quiet, firm voice.

ONE
foot in front of the other. Block the pain. Focus.

Over and over, Grace repeated the same instructions to herself. She’d long since lost count of the many times she’d stumbled and righted herself, determined not to slow Rio. By now she was performing by rote, and only sheer grit was keeping her upright and moving forward.

She played this ridiculous game with herself. Each time they topped a rise, she told herself she only had to get over the next one. Finally she stopped pretending at all and she clenched her jaw and blanked her mind to everything but taking that next step.

She retreated deep inside herself, where there was no pain, no exhaustion and no fear. Only the knowledge that if she stopped, she died. They died. And this man was risking everything because of a promise he’d made to her sister. She wouldn’t let him die because she was too weak to keep moving.

Finally Rio stopped, pulled out another handheld device and studied it a moment before raising his head to stare into the distance. Her knees locked. Cramps rippled through
her calves. Rio started forward and her finger slid from the belt loop that she’d clung to for the last few hours.

He pulled up and turned, coming back to her instantly. He put his hands on her shoulders and tilted her face to look into her eyes.

“Grace?”

She made a grab for his arms just as her knees buckled. She would have fallen hard if he hadn’t held her up. She bit her lip to keep from crying out as cramps knotted viciously, spreading into her feet and toes. Both legs were one gigantic cramp.

“I can’t,” she whispered brokenly. “I’m sorry. I can’t. Go on without me. Please.”

“Tell me what’s wrong,” Rio demanded.

“Cramps. Oh God, they’re everywhere.”

He eased her down onto the ground and then took both her legs, bending them at the knees and putting both her feet against his legs. He pushed forward, stretching her calves. Warm hands massaged and rubbed, easing the tense muscles.

At his side, he fumbled for a canteen and handed it down to her. “Drink,” he ordered. “You’re not hydrated enough. I should have had you drinking all along. Stupid of me not to have seen this coming.”

She drank thirstily, but the longer he stood there, open, exposed and vulnerable as he massaged the cramps from her legs, the more she panicked.

“You can’t stay here like this,” she said desperately. “Go, Rio. You can’t be far. Go find your team. Leave me here and come back.”

“Bullshit,” he said tersely. “You go where I go. I’m not leaving you so shut up.”

Even the words so rudely said slid over her like the best kind of comfort. His tone told her that she was safe with him and that he’d die before leaving her. Even as she knew it was what he should do, she was relieved that he had no intention of doing so.

He retrieved the canteen and then bent down to grip her free hand. “On your feet, Grace. Get off your ass and let’s
get moving. You can do this. Put the pain behind you, just like you’ve been doing. We have an hour at most until dawn. Don’t quit on me now.”

His words should have infuriated her. She should have dissolved into tears and refused. She should have rolled over and given up. She did none of those things. The harsh resolve in his tone didn’t fool her for a moment. There was worry and respect in his eyes, and she knew in that instant that if she didn’t get up, he would simply pick her up and carry her the rest of the way.

She wrapped her hand around his and allowed him to haul her to her feet. Her legs screamed. More cramps rippled down her calves, paralyzing her feet. The strips binding the splint on her broken arm had unraveled and one of the sticks slipped out. The sudden mobility sent pain streaking through her wrist and into her fingers, but she ignored it, ripped away the rest of the splint and tossed it aside.

Later, she’d never know how she made it that last hour. She didn’t remember trekking through the aspen forest or forging a cold stream that went as high as her thighs at one point. She only remembered when she realized that the sky had lightened in the east and that dawn was imminent.

Dawn had become her talisman. The end goal.

The sky was a soft lavender and the morning star shone like a ten-carat diamond against velvet. The trees took shape around her and she could make out the terrain.

She’d survived the night.

She staggered along, tripping and then righting herself before Rio could reach back. It had become important to her not to distract him. He slowed and it irritated her because she knew it was for her he had decreased his pace.

Not now. Not when they were so close. She could taste it. Could feel the sweetness of freedom and safety. Rio had promised to take her away. He’d promised he’d keep her safe. For that, she could fly.

She pushed at him, trying to force him to walk faster,
but he halted and slowly turned, his hands framing her arms. His eyes were gentle, his touch even more so.

“It’s okay now, Grace,” he said softly. “We’ve made it. My men are here.”

She stared dumbly at him for a long moment, not comprehending what he’d said. Then she saw movement over his shoulder, saw Terrence step from behind an aspen. And then the others. The one named Diego and she couldn’t bring to mind the names of the others.

As they neared, it was as if the last of her mental defenses crumbled. Pain screamed through her body, making her gasp as the full shock of it hit her with ferocity she was unprepared for.

She heard Rio bite out a curse as her knees buckled. She went down hard, blackness wrapping itself around her like a warm, welcoming blanket.

“SHE’S
a mess,” Diego said grimly. “I’ve reset her arm. Her respirations are shallow and her breath sounds aren’t good over her right lung. She’s dehydrated, run down, and there’s no way in hell she’s going to make it off this mountain unless we carry her. She’s done.”

“I can’t believe she made it this far,” Terrence muttered.

The two men hunched over Grace as she lay on the ground. Diego had given her a thorough examination and his face said it all. She was in a bad way.

“I don’t know how the hell she’s survived,” Diego said as he rose. “She’s a walking corpse.”