The gun went off, and I found myself running before I’d thought it through.
My fingers closed around the bear spray almost on autopilot, and then I was yanking the pin free and spraying it before I’d gotten much thought into what I was doing.
The man, who’d appeared in my line of sight as soon as I passed the big trees between me and the trail, froze.
I sprayed, and he was crying out and screaming.
The moose I’d been watching scrambled off.
Possum screeched again.
And I stopped, picked up the man’s phone, the shotgun, and started to run down the trail.
The man stayed behind screaming, likely hating himself and the world as the bear spray did its thing.
My sore foot protested the quick movements as I all but tripped over every single fallen log, rock, and uneven surface on my way down the mountain.
By the time I got midway, I was dying.
I was tired, out of breath, and had no idea what to do with the items I’d collected.
Hell, I didn’t even know how to shoot.
I should call someone.
Tell the police what had happened. Let him know that someone had put a tracker on my SUV. That the man who’d been trailing me had been talking to someone on the phone about me.
I didn’t know what the man’s plans were for me, but I did know that I wasn’t going to be here to find out when he finally came up for air.
I was so focused on what I was doing—that being not falling down the mountain—that I didn’t spot the burly looking man in the game warden uniform until I all but ran into him.
An “oomph” left his lips as he caught me and kept us both from eating dirt.
“What the…”
I gasped and stepped back out of the man’s arms, my eyes wild.
He must’ve read the desperation on my face because he stepped back with his hands up.
My brain finally caught up with my feet, and I thrust the gun at him and said, “Take this!”
He did, eyes wary.
“There’s a man that I bear sprayed.”
He blinked.
“He was talking to someone on the phone.” I gasped. “He was going to shoot my bird!”
Fifteen
She gets more beautiful every time I look at her.
—Odin’s secret thoughts
Odin
Why had I joined the search and rescue team again?
