Bitter Wild Read online

  “Where’s your friend?”

  The boy nodded back the way they’d all come. “We were hiding behind a fallen tree.” He dropped his gaze to the ground. “I left him there when I heard you coming.”

  Casey did step away from Jack then, reaching out to touch the boy’s face. “It’s all right, Terry. Let’s go find him, okay?”

  Terry nodded and Jack watched as Casey limped along beside him.

  “She turn her ankle?”

  Jack started to shake his head, then stopped and shrugged instead. It was the first time he could ever remember not being entirely truthful with his partner. He had no idea why he’d crossed that line, either. Except he’d seen the pain on her face and knew what it must have taken for her to keep running after the kid in spite of the pain. He was furious with her for being so rash but he had to respect her determination. They found Terry’s friend lying on the ground beside a fallen tree. The boy was no older than Terry and from the looks of him, he’d be lucky to ever see another birthday. He was unconscious and as pale as a ghost. But he was still alive. Casey checked him over and praised Terry for the job he’d done of bandaging the bullet wound in the young man’s shoulder. If the boy survived, he’d have his friend to thank for at least stopping the bleeding. Terry explained what had happened.

  “Me, Paul and Jesse decided to do a little camping this week. We went up to Hanging Rock and then decided to come back down to the lake and fish. Jesse was worried about Tina, though. You know, she’s due any time now.”

  Casey nodded and the boy continued. “Anyway, he wanted to hike to the ranger station to use the radio to check on her. We told him we’d wait for him at the fork. When he didn’t come back after three hours we got worried and went after him. Paul and I were just clearing the tree line around the tower when I heard the shot. Paul went down and I dragged him to his feet and started running for the trees. There were more shots, I don’t know how many. One of them hit my backpack. My dad’s old canteen stopped it, though.”

  He paused for a moment and Casey could see the tears gather in his eyes. “We ran as fast as we could until Paul couldn’t go any further. Then we hid. Paul passed out sometime during the night and has only come around for a little while a couple of times since then. I knew he needed help, but I was afraid to go back to the tower to try to find help.” He stopped and the tears started sliding down his cheeks.

  “Jesse’s dead, isn’t he? Mom’s going to kill me. I was supposed to take care of him. It’s my fault for letting him go alone.”

  Casey pulled the boy into her arms and held him. “It’s not your fault, Terry. It’s the fault of the lunatic with the gun. And we don’t know what happened to Jesse. He might have gotten away just like you did. He could have gone to ground, just like you did. I promise you that we’ll find him.”

  The boy nodded and Casey got up. She caught Jack’s eye and he and Skip followed her as she walked toward the horses. Once they were out of earshot of the boy, she spoke.

  “Terry’s friend isn’t going to survive if we don’t get him some help in a hurry. I can make a call with the satphone, but the only area around here with a clearing large enough to get the chopper in here is at that Ranger station.”

  Jack shook his head. “You’re not going anywhere near that station. If Jester’s decided to hole up there and pick people off as they try to approach then you could get yourself shot.”

  She seemed to be ignoring him as she reached into a pocket to pull out the satphone. She lifted it, then cursed softly. Jack’s gaze flicked to the phone. The large crack in the screen was obvious. Still, she tried to turn it on but after fiddling with it for a few minutes, she lifted her gaze to him. “It’s no good. It must have happened when I was struggling with Terry.”

  Jack saw the concern and determination in her gaze.

  “You’re right about the danger of going to the station, but if we don’t get to the radio there, Paul will die for certain and while I don’t relish the thought of being a target, I don’t see where we have much choice.”

  Skip spoke up. “We’ll go to the ranger station. You stay here with the boys.”

  Casey swung her gaze to him. “And how are you planning on finding the station?”

  Skip opened his mouth, then shut it again. She had a point. She turned to Jack.

  “I propose that one of you come with me and the other one stay here with the boys. It’s the only sensible choice.”

  After a few seconds of thought, Jack was forced to agree. He suggested Skip stay with the boys and his partner didn’t argue. Casey explained what they were going to do to Terry, then she and Jack left the others behind.

  “How far is it?”

  “About three miles or so.”

  Jack frowned. “You mean that kid ran three miles with a bullet in his shoulder?”

  Casey turned to meet his gaze. “Fear can give you the strength to do things you wouldn’t believe.”

  Jack nodded, then carefully approached a subject he knew she wasn’t going to like. “By the way, before we get to the station I think there’s something we need to straighten out.”

  Casey resisted the urge to groan out loud. Instead she reined her horse to a stop and turned to face him.

  “Yes?”

  Jack tried to broach the subject as carefully as he could. “I don’t want you to think I’m questioning your abilities. I’m not. Believe me when I say that by now I’ve seen enough to know you are every bit the expert you were touted as.”

  She gave him an annoyed look. “Just spit it out, Jack.”

  “Okay, I hate to sound like a broken record, but we agreed that your job was to track. Nothing more, nothing less.”

  She frowned. “What’s your point?”

  He leaned forward in his saddle. “My point is, you took off after Terry like a dog after a rabbit. You could have gotten yourself killed. What if he’d been Jester instead?”

  He watched as she stared at him for a long moment. He could see the flush creeping up her skin and knew she was purposefully holding back her temper as she answered him.

  “First of all, I knew it was Terry.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a silver chain that held a small medallion. She held it up so he could take a look at it. “His mother gave him this when he graduated last year. It’s got his name etched onto the back. I found it just before he took off like a terrified deer.”

  Jack shook his head. “It could have been Jester wearing his clothes. Don’t underestimate the threat he poses.”

  Casey sighed as she slipped the necklace back into her pocket. “I’m not underestimating anyone. I’ve known Terry all his life. I’ve watched him play high school football. I know how he runs. There was no doubt in my mind that it was him. In addition to my own conclusions, I relied on Chance’s reaction as well. If that had been anyone he didn’t know he would have been all over them long before I could have caught him.

  “Secondly, I didn’t have any choice. He was scared out of his mind. He wasn’t going to stop until he collapsed in exhaustion and I knew that wasn’t going to happen nearly quickly enough.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Casey shook her head. “You didn’t even see it, did you?” At Jack’s blank look she continued. “Just about sixty yards beyond where I caught Terry is a sudden drop. It’s close to fifty feet straight down. He would have run right off that cliff if I hadn’t tackled him first.

  “I’m not nearly as naïve or careless as you seem to think I am, Jack. I have no intention of trying to do your job for you. But I’m not going to pretend to be overwhelmed just so you’ll feel less threatened. I can take care of myself when I have to. Which, in case you’re wondering, is my way of saying that if your fugitive makes the unfortunate mistake of thinking I’m just another woman he can have his way with I won’t hesitate to put him down like a rabid animal. I don’t carry my gun for show. I carry it because I am both willing and able to use it. It’s that simple. Now why don’t we get movin
g and stop wasting time?”

  She turned her horse around and left him to stew in his annoyance. Okay, so maybe he had a way of sounding condescending when he was talking to her, but did she have to turn every conversation they had into some kind of battle of the sexes? He wasn’t threatened by her. He liked strong women. A voice in his head taunted that he liked this particular woman more than any other he’d encountered in a long while. He shoved the irritating thought away and focused instead on the task before them. It was the only topic he could think about rationally.

  They dismounted long before Jack saw any sign of the ranger station. Casey led the way as they cautiously moved closer. Finally, Jack began to catch glimpses of the tower through the trees. By the time they were close enough for him to make out the outline of a building he was dealing with a constant expectation of getting shot. They kept to the shelter of the trees until they ran out of trees to hide behind. That’s when Jack put a stop to Casey’s involvement. The tower stood in the center of a small clearing. There were a couple of buildings at its base. Jack could see into the larger of the two. Inside was a four-wheel drive vehicle. Off to their left was a narrow track that Jack assumed was supposed to be a road. From where they stood, Jack could see that the two rear tires of the vehicle were flat. He was guessing that the front two would be as well. What he couldn’t see was whether or not Jester might be hiding behind the vehicle, waiting for them to show themselves. The truth was, he could be anywhere. The hiding places were abundant. They couldn’t just sit there, though. They had to get to that tower. The only way to do that was to run for it. If Jester were out there somewhere then they’d find out soon enough. He turned to face Casey.

  “I’m going for the tower. You stay right here. Don’t move so much as an inch. I want to know exactly where you are, okay?”

  Casey nodded. “You know that if he’s here, the smartest place for him to be would be the tower. It’s the high ground. If he’s up there, he’s bound to have seen us by now and he’ll be waiting for you.”

  Jack nodded. “I know.”

  He started to turn away, but she reached out and touched his arm. He met her gaze once more. “Be careful, Jack.”

  He almost kissed her. They were so close that all he would have had to do was lean down. He was shocked by how much he wanted to taste her. He was even more alarmed by how hard it was to resist that desire. Finally he just nodded and turned away. He leaned against the tree for a moment, then took a deep breath and hoped it wouldn’t be his last as he ran toward the base of the tower stairs. He expected to hear a shot with every step he took. When he reached the stairs without incident, he didn’t dare let himself relax. He climbed the stairs as quickly as he could, not stopping until he was crouching beneath the window just outside the door. He took another deep breath, then jerked the door open and rushed inside.

  Casey held her breath as she saw Jack enter the tower. It seemed like minutes before he came back out, though she knew it must have been mere seconds. Immediately his gaze sought her out. He shook his head and she nodded, then shifted her gaze to the buildings. The shed that held the vehicle was open. She hadn’t seen any movement from inside, though she knew that didn’t mean it was empty. The other building was the ranger’s living quarters. It was a small two room wooden structure. She’d been inside it several times. From where she stood, she couldn’t see either of the two windows. The door was closed, which left her wondering if the man they were chasing might be holed up inside. It wouldn’t have been a wise choice. She doubted that this fugitive would be so foolish. If he had a death wish he would have just waited for the authorities to catch up to him so he could die in a hail of gunfire. The fact that he was running implied that he still hoped he might reach freedom. He’d managed to stay ahead of his pursuers for days, now. She couldn’t imagine why he would suddenly stop running. She focused on Jack once again as he stepped off the stairs and headed for the building. It took him several minutes to go through it and the other one. Finally, he called her name and she joined him at the foot of the tower stairs.

  “He’s gone.”

  She couldn’t say she was particularly surprised. “And what about the ranger?”

  Jack nodded to the tower. “He’s dead and the radio has been destroyed.”

  Casey tried not to think about the family of this latest victim. “And Jesse?”

  Jack shook his head. “I didn’t find anyone else.”

  Casey mulled that over. If Jesse wasn’t there, then where was he? She’d suggested that he might have gotten away, just like Terry and Paul, but she had said that more to give Terry some comfort than out of a genuine belief that it was true. She turned and scanned the area, then released a sharp whistle. A few seconds later, Chance came trotting up.

  Jack stared at the dog. He’d assumed it had stayed with the horses. She’d told it to sit and wait. “I thought you left him with the horses.”

  Casey looked up at Jack. “I did. But Chance has a way of always being around when I need him. Call it a sixth sense or just plain stubbornness, but there’s never been a time when he wasn’t somewhere close by. I figured he’d followed us.” She glanced up at the tower. “I need to get up there and take a look at the radio. Maybe I can get it working.”

  Jack shook his head. “I don’t think so. It looked like it was pretty much beyond repair.”

  She shrugged. “It can’t hurt to take a look at it.”

  She started to turn for the stairs and Jack reached out to catch her arm. She met his gaze as he shook his head again. “It’s a mess up there.”

  She understood then that he wasn’t just talking about the broken radio. She nodded. “I can handle it, Jack.”

  He let her go then, because he couldn’t very well demand that she stay. He followed her up the stairs while the dog prowled around the buildings.

  Casey braced herself for the sight of death. Even so, she felt her stomach lurch when she stepped into the interior of the tower. The ranger lay in a heap on the floor. His face was gone and there was blood all over everything. Jester must have shot him at near point blank range with a shotgun. She pulled her eyes off the dead man and focused instead on the radio. It took her only seconds to come to the same conclusion that Jack had reached. It was beyond repair. She turned away and watched as Jack draped the ranger’s jacket over his mutilated face. When Jack met her gaze she nodded. “You were right. There’s nothing I can do to fix this.”

  Jack glanced around the small room. “Is there anything else here that we might be able to use?”

  Casey shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m sure there are basic first aid supplies, though I imagine those would be in the main building.” She scanned the interior of the room, then stopped when she spotted the backpack resting against the wall near the open door. “Jack.”

  He turned as she moved to pick up the bag. She sat it on the nearby table, then opened the zipper. It took her only seconds to determine that it must belong to Jesse. She lifted her gaze to Jack.

  “This is Jesse’s backpack. I’m sure of it.”

  Jack didn’t argue with her. She stared at the bag for a moment, then turned to look out the windows that surrounded them. The trees stretched on as far as the eye could see. There were mountains rising all around them. As far as Jack could tell, they were in the middle of nowhere. Casey turned away from the windows and met Jack’s gaze.

  “He took him.”

  Jack frowned at her. “What?”

  “Jester took Jesse with him when he left. He must have.”

  Jack could imagine how much she wanted the boy to still be alive, but it wasn’t Jester’s style to take hostages. Not unless they were female. He shook his head. “He wouldn’t, Casey. The boy would just slow him down.”

  Casey turned so that she was facing him fully. “Think about it, Jack. When he left Millie’s house he took everything he needed to stay in these woods indefinitely. He has experience with nature. He must have thought it was a brilliant idea to head off t
he beaten path. But he’s had a couple of days now to learn just how different these woods are from anything he’s ever known before. I told you it wouldn’t be easy for him. Even with maps and a compass, it’s incredibly difficult to find your way if you’re not at least vaguely familiar with the area. And unless he was traveling with an electronic GPS unit, he wouldn’t have found one of them at Millie’s. There aren’t all that many large markers. There’s this ranger station and a handful of others scattered over thousands of square miles of raw forest. He found his way here, but there’s no guarantee that he’ll get to the next one.”

  Jack still didn’t see what that had to do with the boy. “What’s your point?”

  “Put yourself in his shoes. He’s fought his way through the woods to this station. He kills the ranger because he knows he can’t risk letting him live. But then he’s got to decide where to go next. He can’t go south because that will take him right back into town. He knows someone will be coming after him, and if he wanted to face that kind of fight, he wouldn’t be running in the first place. So that leaves North, East, or West. East and West would be the shortest routes out, but he’d have to know we’ll be expecting that. Which leaves him with only one other choice: north, deeper into the heart of the mountains. And then Jesse falls right into his lap. Jester must have enough sense to realize that the boy is a local. A local who obviously knows his way around the area. So he doesn’t kill him. Instead he hangs around, knowing that Jesse’s brother will eventually come looking for him. He shoots Paul and tries to hit Terry. He couldn’t have known for certain if he got them both. But he wouldn’t have wanted to waste any more time than he already had. So he leaves, taking Jesse with him as a guide.”

  Jack had to admit that it made a certain kind of sense, but he still wasn’t all that sure it was anything more than wishful thinking. At the moment, he couldn’t come up with any better ideas, though, so he shrugged. “Maybe. But there’s no way for us to know if that’s what really happened. Not until we find either the boy or Jester.”