Walking on Her Grave (Rogue River Novella, Book 4) (10 page)

“Propane tank.” Seth drew up at the entrance to the campground. The fire was rolling into the dry forest like an ocean wave. “Carly!”

“I’m here.” She jogged toward them.

Seth had the radio in hand. “We’re at the old O’Rourke campground.” He reported the fire, as well as finding Peter, alive and well, and Mike’s body.

“Emergency responders are on the way,” the search coordinator responded with a burst of static.

Seth hustled Peter and Carly away from the flames and toward the trail. One shift in the breeze and that fire was heading straight for them. In fact, even without a wind change, they were in grave danger. They ran over the rise and back to the trail Carly and Seth had hiked. The canopy closed over them, the coolness of the shade feeling like a false sense of security. Radio contact faded. Seth shoved the walkie-talkie into his pocket.

They rounded the first bend in the trail.

“Hold it!”

Seth slid to a stop, dirt and rocks shifting underfoot.

One of the men from the Bronco blocked the trail. In his hands, pointed straight at them, was a shotgun.

“Hands in the air.”

Carly’s heart slammed against her ribs. The man who held the gun was tall, rangy, and filthy. Under his green ball cap, gray eyes narrowed in a mean squint.

“The fire’s coming.” Seth glanced over his shoulder. Smoke drifted through the trees. “We have to get out of here.”

“Oh,
we
will.” Green Hat jerked the barrel toward Peter’s face. “Toss your gun on the ground.”

Seth complied, pulling his weapon from its holster with two fingers. The redheaded man emerged from the woods, a roll of duct tape in his hands. “What we doing with them?”

“Tie ’em up. The fire’ll take care of them.”

Seth gave Carly a look. He blinked from her to Peter to the woods. She shook her head slightly. Red stepped in front of Peter and spun him around to bind his hands behind his back.

With Peter out of the gunman’s direct line of fire, Seth rushed Green Hat, grabbing the shotgun in both hands. They struggled with the weapon. The man grunted as Seth drove a knee into his groin. Red reached for a gun in his waistband. Green Hat crumpled to the ground.

“Drop it.” Red pressed a handgun to Peter’s head. Seth released the shotgun. The weapon fell to the ground. “Tie him up.”

Green Hat knelt at Seth’s ankles.

Carly’s breath locked. Though Red pointed the gun at Peter, both men were focused on Seth. No one was paying any attention to her. She scanned the ground. The shotgun was a few feet away. There was no way she could let these men tie them up. The fire had increased to a popping roar on the other side of the hill. The entire area was dry and brittle, and help was at least twenty to thirty minutes away.

In one smooth movement, she snatched the shotgun off the ground and brought the butt up hard under Green Hat’s chin. His head snapped back. Blood flew from his mouth as he fell backward. With little room to bring the weapon into firing position, she whipped the barrel around, catching Red solidly across the face and flaying his cheek open. White bone gleamed through the separated flesh. Clutching his face, he dropped the gun. His eyes rolled back in his head. His knees buckled, and he fell face forward into the dirt. Neither man moved.

“Peter. We have to get out of here.”

But Peter didn’t move. He stood, rooted to the forest floor. Fear opened his eyes wide.

Carly ripped at the tape binding his wrists, but the layers were too thick. Her knife was in her backpack in the clearing by the body. “I need you to move.”

Seth used his keys to cut the duct tape at his ankles, then separated Peter’s hands. “Run!”

Carly kicked the handgun into the trees as she broke took off. Fire rounded the bend in the trail. Smoke rose into the sky, tinting the horizon in a swirl of charcoal.

“We’re not going to make it,” Peter sobbed. “It’s all my fault. Everything.”

“Save your breath,” Carly yelled.
How far to the river
?

The wind shifted. Smoke blew in their direction. Fire rolled toward them.

Grabbing Carly’s hand, Seth pushed forward. The smoke thickened. She could feel the heat on her back. The trail bent. A rushing sound filtered through the trees. She lost track of their position. Was that the river? Or had the fire circled around?

They burst from the trail. The river lay ahead, at least fifty feet wide at this juncture, but the current wasn’t as swift as it had been under the bridge. They plunged into the water. Icy cold gripped Carly’s skin as she waded thigh-deep.

“The water’s shallow over here,” Seth yelled.

Carly turned toward him. Her boots slipped out from under her. The water closed over her head and swept her away.

Seth searched the bubbling surface of the river. “Carly!”

Her head came up twenty feet away. Her arms flailed as she turned onto her back, bobbing and working to keep her head above water. The current sucked her toward a boulder in the middle.

“Stay here.” He pointed at Peter and leaped toward Carly.

“Look out!” he yelled, but it was too late.
No!

An eddy pulled her into the side of the rock. His lungs seized as she hit hard and sank. Frantic, Seth swam toward her, riding the current. He went under and fought his way to the surface. Spitting out a mouthful of river water, he gasped. “Carly!”

Seth reached the boulder, bracing for the impact with his arms. He hit, gripped, slid, and finally got a handhold. Pain zinged up to his elbow. He clung to the side of the rock with numb fingers and scanned the water. Coughing and sputtering, Carly surfaced a few feet away, her eyes blinking wide-open, her face pale, her hand reaching out. Seth made a desperate grab. Their palms connected, slipped. He lunged, wrapped his fingers around her slender wrist, and hauled her back to the rock. She clutched his chest. Trembling and choking, she rested limp against him.

“Seth, you’re bleeding.” Blue with cold, Carly’s lips quivered.

He looked down. Blood ran from a three-inch gash in his bicep. “It’s fine. Are you all right?”

His fingers worked through her wet scalp but found no injury. He swept her ponytail aside and lifted her T-shirt off her back. An abrasion covered the back of her shoulder and neck.

“We need to get out of this water.” Seth climbed, dragging Carly out of the icy water and up onto the boulder to wait for help. He wasn’t taking a chance crossing the rest of the river without a lifeline. He would take no risk of ever losing Carly again.

“How’s the arm?”

“Fine.” Seth looked up at Carly standing in the ER cubicle doorway.

“I brought you clothes.” She handed him a duffel bag.

He glanced inside. Shorts, T-shirt, flip-flops.

“Thanks.” Standing, he tossed the hospital gown onto the gurney.

This time Carly didn’t look away. Nice.

“Thirty stitches isn’t fine.” She grabbed him by the hand and turned his arm to look at the underside. A square of gauze had been taped over his new stitches. The burn on his forearm had a fresh bandage as well. “I hope neither of those get infected.”

“Don’t worry. They shot me up with enough antibiotics to kill whatever was lurking in the water. Where did you get the clothes?” Seth stepped into the shorts and sniffed her head. “And you smell nice. How did you manage that?” Not that he was complaining. She hadn’t suffered any injuries more serious than scrapes and bruises. Considering they’d been in a fire, attacked by armed men, and nearly drowned, Seth considered this a good day.

“I didn’t need to wait two hours for X-rays and stitches.” She smiled. “I went home and showered.”

He pulled the T-shirt over his head. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Brianna wants to see you.”

“I want to see her too.” He also needed to tie up a few loose ends. The entire Solitude PD, and fire departments from all the surrounding counties, were busy with the now contained but still burning wildfire. The camper had been where the illegally imported chemicals had been stored, and where the two lowlifes had cooked the raw materials and applied the solution to small paper strips to sell.

“The case can wait.” Carly wasn’t fooled. She tapped an irritated sandal on the tile.

“I’ve been working on this damned case for months. I want it over and done with so I can weasel my way off this task force. Now that we found the manufacturing site and cut off the drug supply in Solitude, I should be able to go back to my old job.”

His regular hours as a special investigator for the county sheriff’s office were bad enough. He wasn’t giving up every moment of his life to chase drug dealers. Balance. That’s what he needed. His gaze went to Carly: her lithe body, outfitted in shorts and a T-shirt—an outfit that would have been totally ordinary on anyone else—sent his heart into overdrive.

“I can’t believe those two men were Walt’s underlings, and that he’d been the mastermind behind the drug operation,” Carly said.

According to Peter, the two men had been making C-22 “bacon” in the camper since the previous winter. He’d seen them deliver boxes to Walt, who had passed the product on to JD for distribution.

Carly shuddered. “I know they were criminals and they tried to kill us, but I still hate to think of them burning to death. What an awful way to die.”

Seth pointed at her. “Remember, that’s exactly what they wanted to do to us. I have no doubt the investigation will prove they killed Mike. It was us or them. I’m very happy with the way things turned out.”

“You’re right.” She nodded.

But Seth knew Carly hated to think anyone was beyond saving.

“Be happy. You saved Peter.” Seth tugged the privacy curtain aside. The movement pulled at his stitches. Pain burst through his arm. He closed his eyes until it passed.

Carly’s eyes narrowed at him. “I hope so.”

Seth swallowed. “He made some really stupid decisions, but he’s not a totally bad kid.” Seth grudgingly admitted that the teenager’s dumbassery in the woods had been caused mainly by his being a teenager. “As soon as he heard about Mike’s disappearance, he figured it was only a matter of time until those men came for him.”

“He wanted to make everything right.”

“You know where good intentions lead. Setting a fire in the middle of a dry forest was the ultimate in stupidity.”

Carly winced. “He didn’t think it through or plan to set a fire. He wanted to destroy the drug operation. He saw the men loading more chemicals into the trailer, he saw the gas cans they used to run the portable generator, and he acted on his anger.”

“Okay. I’ll give him a break, but he’s not getting off scot-free.”

“And he shouldn’t,” Carly said. “It isn’t healthy for him to avoid responsibility for his actions.”

Seth grabbed the plastic bag of personal effects on the bed. He shoved his wallet and keys in his pockets. Pain clanged through his elbow like church bells. Under the thirty stitches was a bruise the size of a watermelon and the color of a ripe eggplant. “I’m ready.”

“Are you all right?”

He pulled his lips off his teeth. “Fine.”

Carly wasn’t fooled by his ridiculous attempt to smile. She rolled her eyes. “Stubborn as a mule.”

Seth shoved his feet into his flip-flops. “Let’s go.” He walked out of the room.

Carly grabbed his discharge papers from the tray table. “Don’t you want these?”

He shrugged. “You can hold on to them for me.”

“Do you want to come to my mom’s with me?”

Seth rubbed a hand across his hair. “But I’m a mess. I don’t want Brianna to see me like this.”

“She won’t care.”

“No. But I might scare her, and I smell like three-day-old trout,” he said. “Can you drop me at home? I’ll clean up and come over.”

“You promise?”

“Of course. I have to check on my kittens.”

“Your kittens?” Surprise raised her voice.

“Yes, why is that so shocking?”

“You said no one was home enough for us to get a pet.”

Seth shrugged. “I’m going to be home more. Besides, with two of them, they’ll have each other for company.”

“All right.” She drove him home, parked in the driveway, and walked him in. “Do you need help?”

“I might not be able to get my shorts off.”

“Not funny, Seth.”

“I thought it was pretty funny.”

“Let me cover your arm in plastic. Again. Seriously, Seth, please stop getting hurt. We’ve made too many visits to the ER this week.” Her phone buzzed. She read the display. “Mom says she’ll heat up some leftover pot roast.”

He turned toward the bathroom. Carly stepped up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. She pressed her face into his back. Seth turned and folded his arms around her. Tears soaked his borrowed shirt. “Hey, what’s all this for?”

“It was a hell of a day.” She sniffed.

“Can’t argue with that.” Seth rubbed her back. Despite the horror of the day, warmth spread through his chest. His wife had had a horrible day and turned to him for comfort. She might not be ready to take him back yet, but baby steps still moved him closer to his goal.

With a deep sigh, she pushed back and wiped her knuckles under her eyes. “I’ll see you soon?”