Gone Away (10 page)

“Huh, he’s a real card-carrying Injun.” The kid held Mason’s tribal ID card between two fingers and flipped it in the air.

The older man snickered, “Half-breed mutt with those blue eyes. I guess setting up a trap down here wasn’t such a waste after all.” He reached out and rubbed his hand over the kid’s hair.

“We can’t let him out of here,” Red Hair said.

Mason took a deep breath. “Look, no one has done anything wrong or broken any laws that I can see. He’s a photographer, and I’m here to make sure he doesn’t get lost. We walk away, no harm, no foul. You go on about your business and we go on about ours,” Mason said.
And when Riece is somewhere safe, I track you down and throw your collective asses in prison. Maybe beat the shit out of you first.
He didn’t voice those thoughts.

Then the older man spoke up and things went from bad to worse. “What we seem to have here is a redskin ranger, and that’s going to be pretty good hunting.”

Mason’s stomach twisted.

“I’m willing to bet he’s going to do anything to see to it that one is safe.” The man nodded at Riece. His eyes narrowed, and he stared down at Mason. “Being that you’re a squaw… or”—he turned to look at Riece, smirking—“is he the squaw?”

“Might as well have fun,” the woman said. “We’re out here to hunt, so let’s hunt.”

Mason stole a look at Riece. He was clearly confused. Mason, however, was beginning to see what they were up to. Drug dealers or escaped criminals would have been so much more preferable.

“If he’s a fed, then people know where he is,” the third man spoke up. “He doesn’t check in, they’ll come looking for him. Trapping hikers is one thing, but killing a fed? News flash, they’ll come after us, Banjoff.” Mason watched Riece shift his gaze downward. He was staring at his camera. When Riece looked at Mason, he lifted his eyebrows ever so slightly.

Banjoff, the older man, rounded on the third man. “Idiot! No fucking names.”

Red Hair moved farther from Riece and joined the argument. “He’s right. We should kill them and dump them. It’s too risky. He knows the area, and he’s trained. I don’t know, man.”

The man holding his weapon on Mason turned toward the others. Mason nearly burst out laughing.
Big mistake, asshole.
All three men were looking at each other. The kid was near them, yammering that he wanted to make the kill, and the woman was looking up the gully at the line Mason and Riece had used to get down here.

This was as good as it was going to get.

“Hey, there’s a—” the woman started to say something.

Riece moved faster than Mason thought he was capable of. On his feet he took a few long steps until he was behind the woman, then said in a loud voice, “I have to….”

She turned, yelped, and ducked. Riece had gotten right up behind her and was rapidly firing the camera’s flash in her face.

Mason surged to his feet. He grabbed the shoulder of the closest man to him, spun him around, and slammed his fist into his face. That sent the man crashing into Red Hair, and they both landed in a heap on the ground. Sprinting at Riece, he bent and scooped up his badge. His wallet and gun were too far out of reach, but the badge would be all the identification he needed.

Grabbing Riece’s wrist as he ran by, Mason shouted, “
Run
.”

THEY CRASHED
through the underbrush of the gully. Mason’s hand was a vise around Riece’s wrist, keeping him steady when he tripped. Riece’s lungs were burning and his thighs aching when they came to a spot that wasn’t as steep.

Mason stopped. He was breathing hard, but not as hard as Riece was. Riece envied Mason’s athleticism and the easy and confident way he moved, though he’d never admit it out loud. While athletic ability was something Riece had dreamed of having, he knew it for a fantasy. But it was Mason’s grace that appealed to him the most. Riece often thought how nice it must be to have the ability to navigate any terrain and not constantly trip.

“You can get up here,” Mason said between deep breaths.

“I think—”

“
Riece
. I
wasn’t
asking. We’ve got to get out of this damn gully. We’re sitting ducks.”

“But we got away,” Riece said. He leaned on his knees, inhaling and exhaling rapidly.

“Get real,” Mason said. “They let us go. There is no reason one of them couldn’t have shot us. They have all those guns and crossbows. I have to believe one of them can use those weapons and has decent aim. Those people want a hunt. You don’t get a hunt if your prey is right under your nose.”

Riece shook his head. “I don’t… what’s going on?”

“They’re hunters, and I think we’re the game.”

Riece opened his mouth and shut it again. He shook his head once and stared at Mason.

Mason took hold of Riece’s shoulders. “Listen to me. Those men didn’t know who I was until the other two showed up. That means they weren’t specifically targeting us but probably have a few traps scattered around this area. It’s reasonable to think they don’t know we have supplies a few miles from here. We have to get there. Our cell phones are there. We have food and water. Here’s the plan: we get somewhere to get a signal, call for help, set off your locator, and hole up where we can stay safe and hidden until that help arrives.”

“They took my locator beacon before pulling you out of the hole,” Riece said. His voice shook, then cracked.

“We’ll deal, don’t worry. We still have phones, and I know this territory very well.” Mason grabbed Riece’s wrist again and spun him so he faced the side of the gully. “Up. Now, Riece,” he ordered and shoved Riece into motion.

Riece lost his footing after only a few feet and slipped downward. Trying to grab at the trees succeeded in doing nothing but scraping up his palms. He came to an abrupt stop against Mason. Gripping one of the trees Riece had tried to hang on to with one hand, Mason steadied them both. He put his other hand between Riece’s shoulder blades and pushed hard. “
Go
.”

Again Riece tried. This time he made it a few feet farther with Mason urging him on from behind and acting as a brace. He tripped and tried scrambling forward on hands and knees for a few feet before going face-first into the dirt.

Mason grabbed his arm and hauled him up almost at once. “It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay. Keep going.”

“Mason, I can’t—”

Without warning Mason spun Riece around and shook him. He pointed one finger at Riece and snarled, “You listen to me. ‘I can’t’ is no longer in your vocabulary. You can and you will because I love you and there is no
fucking
way I’m leaving you here or losing you. I
will
keep you safe and get you out, but you will
not
goddamn give up on me.” He gulped in a few deep breaths and ran one hand through his hair. “Riece, we can do this. Now move your ass.”

Riece wanted to make a quip about how sexy it was when Mason took control and got all macho like that, but he was too busy trying to keep his footing. He was sure they’d be found and shot in the back before reaching the top. The way down had looked precarious, though short. The way up seemed as if it was ten times the distance and a much steeper incline.

Finally Riece reached the top. Mason reached around him and grabbed a sapling with one hand and Riece’s arm with the other. He hauled both of them over the gully’s edge and onto more level ground. Riece flopped on his back, gasping, trying to get control of his shaking body and ragged breathing.

Mason grabbed Riece under his armpits and pulled him backward a few feet, then put one hand on Riece’s chest and pressed down gently. “Stay there, stay down.” He crouched beside Riece while he gazed at the gully below.

“Do you see them?” Riece asked.

Holding one finger to his lips, Mason shook his head. After a minute he stood up and took a few silent steps in the direction they’d last seen the men and woman. Riece turned his head and watched as Mason hunkered close to the ground and leaned over the edge, looking one way, then the other. He stood and moved a few yards farther away. His movements were soundless, and he hunched over as he walked. The landscape here consisted of swaths of tall grass interspersed with small open spots and thick patches of trees. The terrain rolled up and down, the ground peppered with big rocks that made it rugged but not impassible. To Riece it seemed as if they’d been going in circles, but Mason definitely appeared to have a direction and destination in mind.

Riece rolled far enough to the side to keep Mason in his line of sight. Twice Mason met his gaze and held a finger to his lips, then motioned for Riece to stay where he was. Riece nodded and smiled when Mason moved one hand up and down his torso, wordlessly telling Riece to breathe. He gave himself a silent pep talk. Mason had come right out and told Riece he loved him. There was no way Riece was going to die and miss this chance to fix his relationship with Mason.

Mason waved at Riece to follow him. Riece got up and hurried toward Mason as quietly as possible until Mason waved at the ground. Riece nodded and knelt down at the edge of one of the groups of trees. They continued on that way in short bursts. Their movements kept them within a few yards of each other until Mason was close to where they’d tied the rope to a tree and gone down the side of the gully. He pulled the quick-release knot he’d used to tie the rope off and very slowly and quietly used a hand-over-hand motion to inch the rope back up and coil it around his shoulder.

Staying low to the ground, Mason moved quickly back to Riece’s side. Closing his eyes and sighing with relief, Riece reached out, took Mason’s hand, and gave it a squeeze. When he tried to let go, Mason’s grip intensified, and he pulled Riece closer to him and brushed his lips over Riece’s forehead.

“We’re going to survive. Both of us. Together. Don’t think anything else, even for a second,” Mason whispered.

Riece nodded. “I know.”

“Did they take your water purifier?”

“No. They searched me and my bag and left me everything except the locator beacon.” Riece studied Mason for a few seconds. “I guess they wanted us to have some supplies to survive longer.”

“Yeah. So we could give them a better hunt. No fun if you bag the quarry too soon. It’s not the trophy, it’s the chase,” Mason muttered. “Though I suspect they are regretting letting you keep that camera.” He twisted and pointed back to where he’d retrieved the rope. “Let’s go see if the rest of what we carried here today is still where we left it. Then we’ll head to our base camp. Odds are good they have no idea that exists or where it is. Stay behind me and walk exactly where I walk. Heel down first and roll your foot forward gently to evenly distribute your weight and push down any leaves, twigs, or anything that might make noise. We’ll try to keep to bare dirt when we can. Move slow and take deep, even breaths through your nose.”

“Okay,” Riece said.

Mason smiled and put his hand on the back of Riece’s head for a few seconds. “I know that’s a lot to process, but you can do it—you’re smart.”

Riece nodded. Mason stood up and held out his hand to help Riece to his feet. “We stick together.”

Mason held up one thumb and used two fingers to point out the direction they would go. Riece did his best to imitate Mason, bending at the knees to stay low when they were in more open ground and stepping where Mason stepped.

They reached the spot they’d started from without incident. The few supplies they’d left were still there. Whether they’d been left on purpose or the hunters never realized they were there, he and Mason might never know. The important thing was they had canteens of water and some food. Mason had considerable skills in this environment. Riece had always claimed he’d trust Mason with his life.

That sentiment was about to be put to the test.

Mason took Riece’s pack and shouldered it, then hooked the canteen they’d left behind to it. He started wandering around the area, looking up into the trees and down onto the ground. “I need a branch, preferably with leaves still on it.”

Riece moved a few yards one way while Mason went the other. Spotting a tree with several branches bent at odd angles, Riece turned toward Mason. “What about one of these?”

Mason jogged to Riece and looked up as well. “That’ll work.” He jumped up and grabbed one of the smaller offshoots of a larger branch and gave it a yank.

As soon as Mason had the branch within his reach, Riece took hold and helped Mason. The branch bent, and together they pulled it almost to the ground.

“Wait,” Riece said and managed to move his hands farther up the branch. He bent his knees and lifted his feet off the ground. “Now try.”

Mason threw his weight back, and Riece saw the muscles of his arms tense and bulge as he jerked downward. For a second they and the branch seemed suspended in time. The only warning Riece had was a loud crack. The branch let go, and he and Mason crashed to the ground.

As he rolled to his feet, Mason grabbed Riece’s arm and pulled him up as well. “Keep low and go check to see if anyone is coming up the gully who might have heard that,” Mason said.

Riece ran as quietly as possible to the gully edge and knelt down. He leaned forward and looked left, then right, before he scuttled back to Mason. “Nothing.”

“Okay, good,” Mason said. He took the branch and wiped it over the ground, shoving dirt, stones, and leaves around. “That’ll have to do.” He tossed the branch as far away as possible. “Let’s get going. Since there was no reason to hide our trail on our way here, we’ll have to take another route back to base camp. Try not to bend any plants or break branches.”

“Oh, yeah, sure, I’m always neat while on the run from psychotic killers,” Riece said.

Mason pulled a face, shook his head, grasped Riece’s wrist, and led him to a more densely wooded area.

Once they were far enough into the trees that it was hard to see the gully when they looked back, Mason let go of him. Riece wasn’t sure how far they’d gone when Mason stopped. He took his canteen and handed it to Riece. “Why don’t you sit down and take a break.”