She struggled against the weight of the Kevlar vest to climb out of the footwell. He grabbed it and tossed it behind him. She crawled onto her seat and fastened her seat belt before lifting her head to look through the gaping hole where the windshield had once been. She gasped and pressed a hand to her throat.
“Safe? We’re going straight up a mountain.”
He chuckled. “It’s not that bad. My truck couldn’t make it up a grade that steep. That’s why this road weaves back and forth, to give us a more gradual slope to climb.”
“This isn’t a road, it’s a path for mountain goats.” She let out a startled squeak as a small tree branch whipped through the hole, nearly hitting her.
“Good grief.” She brushed leaves and twigs off her arms. “Assuming we don’t end up falling off this mountain and we actually make it to wherever you’re heading, where is that exactly? Where are we going?”
“Where I was hoping we wouldn’t have to. Plan B.”
Chapter Eleven
Sierra adjusted the straps of Beau’s backpack she was wearing and glanced at him, standing a few yards away under a massive oak tree. She didn’t know how he was managing their hike up the mountain with his large bag from the truck strapped across his back. It made her much smaller backpack seem paltry in comparison. And the man wasn’t even breathing hard, dang it.
She leaned against an equally massive oak tree to the one where Beau stood, trying to catch her breath. It had probably been around since long before she was born. At any other time, she’d have treated it with reverence and awe, gaping up at the thick canopy overhead. But not today, or tonight really since the sunlight was rapidly fading. She clutched her aching side as she tried to recover enough to continue the grueling pace up the mountain that Beau had set.
“Plan B is going to kill me,” she accused. “What’s your goal? Hike the Appalachian Trail all the way to Maine?”
He grinned. “We haven’t been hiking all that long in the grand scheme of things. We’re almost there.”
“Seriously? I feel like I’ve hiked a full marathon. Uphill. In heavy brush, with no real path to follow after you ditched your truck. And that amazing monster gun of yours. I still wish you’d held onto that.”
“I didn’t want to ditch the truck. Even with four-wheel drive there was no way it was getting through the thick forest up here. Next time, I’ll take a Jeep or something similar. Or better yet, drive up the backside of the mountain. That’s the easiest andbest approach. But we didn’t have a choice. As for that so-called monster gun, it’s a SIG Sauer AR-15. And believe me, I hated to leave that behind too. But I ran out of ammunition for it. A heavy empty gun isn’t worth toting, especially when I knew we had quite a hike to make. Hopefully I hid it well enough that I can come back and retrieve it later.” He arched a brow. “You’re still breathing hard. Are you okay?”
“What do you think? You’ve been driving me like the meanest of sheepherders. My legs are cramping. My side hurts. I’m thirsty and starting to get hangry.”
“Starting?”
“Watch it or you’ll find out just how mean I can be.”
He lifted his hands in surrender. “Duly warned. It isn’t much farther now. I’m hoping to get there before the sun sets. I don’t want to have to use a flashlight since its light would be visible a long ways off.”
His concerns had her stomach dropping with renewed worry as she glanced around. “Do you think they’re actually in the mountains looking for us?”
“Count on it. But even if they eventually find my truck, they won’t find our tracks or figure out that we used a tunnel under some boulders and popped up a hundred yards away. The tunnels in this area aren’t on any official maps because they were never used for mining. They were created by moonshiners and smugglers decades ago, long before Mystic Lake was around.”
Her breaths were coming easier now, her side barely hurting. She wiped the perspiration off her brow and straightened. “Then, how doyouknow about them?”
“The knowledge has been passed down through generations in my family. The land belongs to another family whose great-great-grandfather was best friends with my great-great-grandfather, on my mother’s side.” He glanced at the darkening sky. “You think you can hike a little bit farther now? There won’tbe much moonlight tonight to help us find our way once the sunlight’s gone.”
“How long? How much more torture do I have to endure?”
He shrugged. “Depends on how fast you can hike.”
She frowned at him. “There had better be a soft bed, hot food and a solid roof over my head at the end of this ordeal.”
“That might be expecting a bit too much, for today. I didn’t realize I’d need this place anytime soon, so I didn’t get to stock everything. But I promise there’s a soft bed. And a solid roof.”
“Food? Water? Come on, Beau. I haven’t eaten since breakfast.”
“I’ll get supplies tomorrow. I can’t feed you a hot meal. But I promise I won’t let you go to sleep on an empty belly.”
She grumbled beneath her breath.
“What was that?”
“Forget it. Lead the way. My blisters and I will trudge behind you at our own pace.”
