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Tapping the light for her cell phone, she pivoted on the toes of her sneakers and took a step forward.
Then a hand grabbed her ankle.
Chapter Two
The scream chilled his blood. It was the sound of a terrified woman—Scarlett.
Why had she stopped following him? Why had he let her?
“Scarlett?” He reversed course, staggering and tripping through the underbrush, cursing his bum leg. Cursing the men who’d caused it.
She screamed again, just as loudly but with a little less edge. His flashlight flickered on the path ahead of him as he charged back the way they’d come.
He plowed through the tree branches back onto the trail, which allowed him to move faster. “Scarlett?”
“I’m here, Jim.”
His light picked her out, crumpled on the ground at his feet, and he jerked to a halt. He grabbed on to a tree branch to stop himself from falling on top of her.
“What happened?”
She pointed into the underbrush beside her. “There. It’s a man. H-he’s injured or...”
Jim crouched beside her and aimed his flashlight at the bushes, where it illuminated an outstretched arm, hand fisted into the dirt.
He pushed aside the foliage that covered the man and reached out with two fingers to feel the pulse at his throat.
“He’s dead. How did you even see him there without a light?”
She gasped, covering her mouth. “He grabbed my ankle. Are you sure he’s dead?”
“What?” He scooped aside more of the underbrush and flattened his palm against the man’s chest. Blood seeped through his shirt, moistening Jim’s hand with its stickiness. He bent forward, putting his ear close to the man’s nose and mouth.
“Call 911.”
“I can’t get reception out here. I’ll have to at least walk down the access road to the front.”
He gestured to the man’s body. “He’s dead. He’s not going anywhere. I’ll come with you.”
“What happened to him?” She clambered to her knees, and he held out the hand that didn’t have blood on it.
“He has a chest wound. I can’t tell what did it, but he lost a lot of blood. I’m surprised he had the strength to reach out and grab you, or even the wherewithal to realize anyone was passing.”
She grabbed his hand, and he pulled her up beside him, where he could smell her musky-sweet scent.
“He must’ve been the one moaning out here. Maybe he lost consciousness and then came to when we passed him. He reached out to me as a last-ditch effort.” She bent her leg at the knee and rubbed her ankle.
“Let’s go.” He tugged on her hand to get her away from the dead guy in the bushes. “From the looks of the blood pumping out of his chest, he was fast on his way out and wouldn’t have survived even if we had discovered him when he was moaning.”
As they burst onto the access road, he aimed his light at the ground and hurried across the gravel and dirt, practically dragging Scarlett behind him as she kept trying her phone.
He didn’t want to run into whatever...or whoever that man had encountered.
When they reached Scarlett’s mailbox on the road, she nudged his arm. “Got it.”
“Let me report it.” He took the phone from her and spoke to the emergency operator, giving her what he could. When he finished the call, he dropped the phone back into Scarlett’s palm.
She asked, “Did you see his face? Do you know him?”
“I didn’t get a good look at his face, but I doubt I know him. It’s been a while since I’ve been back to Timberline.” He held out his hand in front of him and lit it up with the beam from his flashlight. “I got his blood on my hand, though.”
“Ugh. Do you want me to get a towel while we wait for the cops? I have paper towels in my car.”
“I’ll leave it until the sheriff’s department can have a look at it.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “What happened back there? Why’d you stop following me?”
“I—” Her eyes darted to his pocket where he’d stashed his weapon. “I didn’t want to go any deeper in the forest.”
Especially in the company of a man with a gun—a man she’d just met even though they’d been high school classmates years ago. Smart girl.
