Page 9 of Zin and Celeste: A Fortis Family Christmas

Hunkering down as they reached the trees and some cover, Zin let out a groan of pain when K let him go to sit on a snow-covered log. The snow was falling thicker, heavier now, which was both a good and bad thing. It covered any tracks they made quicker, so the gunman wouldn’t have such an easy job, but it also meant visibility was worse for them too.

“You have the radio?” K held his hand out to Will, who winced as he tried to get his jacket open to extract the radio. Aubrey helped him, and he cursed when she slid the padding of her scarf against the wound.

“Don’t be a baby, William.”

Will’s eyebrows almost hit his hairline. “Baby, are you kidding? It hurts like a bitch.”

“I know it does.”

The look of love she gave Will bellied her words, and Zin knew she was using the banter to keep Will’s mind off the fact that someone had shot him. Zin knew from way more experience than he wanted that a bullet wound hurt like a son-of-a-bitch.

Kanan took the radio Aubrey handed him and sent out the alert to Zack and the team. They would likely send in mountain rescue, but with the shooter still out there he knew who he wanted coming in to extract them. The trackers they all wore in their watches would show Zack and the guys where they were and how they were. The devices that read all their statistics would give them a snapshot of what shape they were in physically. Zin just hoped nobody told Celeste because he knew for a fact if they didn’t get him out in the next twenty-four hours there was a good chance meeting his son would be just a dream.

His eyelids began to droop, and shiver ripped through his body causing K to glance over.

Moving towards him, his brother-in-law dropped to his haunches. “You doing okay?”

“I’m okay for now, but we both know unless I get this bleeding stopped then I won’t be.”

“You will be. No way I’m watching my sister raise your son alone because I dragged your ass out here.”

Zin saw the look of guilt and devastation on his brother’s face. Grasping his forearm, Zin forced him to look at him. “This isn’t on you.”

“Yeah, well, Roz won’t see it that way and neither do I.”

“You send the alert out?”

“Yeah, just waiting for a reply. They received it though, or at least someone did.”

“They’ll find us. We just need to stay alive and out of the way of the shooter.”

K looked across at Will and Aubrey who were murmuring to each other. “We have no weapons and two injured. We’re sitting ducks. We need to keep moving.” He looked up as Kanan pointed deeper into the woods. “That’s our best bet. It has more cover, but it’s taking us further away from the main resort.”

“Good, I don’t want to lead this fucker anywhere near Celeste and the others.”

“So, we agree. We move deeper into the woods.”

“Yes, let’s move.”

Kanan explained the plan to Will and Aubrey who nodded. They would need every skill they had to survive this, but then his sister had survived being shot and alone in the snow in a Russian hell hole and so would Zin. He had a woman to marry and a child to love, and nothing was going to stop him, especially some unknown enemy hiding behind a scope.