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ChapterThirty-Four
Jae and Luke had halted at the first sound of gunfire. They’d left the main trail an hour ago and were making their way downslope toward the lodge when the crack of a bullet pierced the air.
“What the fuck?” Luke scanned the hillside. “That wasn’t Simunition.”
“And hunting is illegal in the park.”
Another shot sounded, and they both scanned the woods. It was hard to tell where the noise came from, but it couldn’t be far.
Jae nodded to a spot downslope that jutted out a bit and was free of trees. “Might be able to get a view from there.”
They scrambled down and planted themselves on their bellies, with binoculars pressed to their eyes, looking out over the treed hillside while keeping their exposure to a minimum.
Another crack of a bullet, and Jae zoomed in on the forest to the left and above, not far from a creek that flowed down the steepest part of the slope. Another degree or two and it would be called a waterfall, not a creek.
A person would have to be insane to climb that slope with the ground as saturated as it was. He and Luke had opted for a longer route to the north to avoid that very stretch of hillside.
“Can gunfire cause a mudslide?” Luke asked.
Jae shook his head, “Not a geologist, so not sure, but it’s not a risk factor I’ve heard of, not like an avalanche.”
After an interval, the gunshots stopped. Jae thought he caught movement on the hillside. He adjusted the distance and scanned the area. Before he could get a fix on anything, a massive boom echoed across the basin.
Jae caught the edge of the flash and scanned upward from there, seeing a man standing above and looking down. “That’s Xavier, above the blast zone.”
“I see him.”
Then there was a loud crack, followed by another. Jae watched in horror as Xavier was dragged down into the slide.
Audrey wanted more than anything to run down to Xavier. To save him. But how could she save him? She’d probably get sucked into the mud river and die with him.
Die with him.
No. She couldn’t believe he was dead. He was above the debris, not below it.
But still, she knew mudslides and exactly how deadly they could be.
NO. No. No.
She knew what Xavier would want her to do. What he did want her to do. She had to keep climbing. Head toward the destination they’d decided on last night and make the vital call.
She turned her back on the collapsed slope and let out a loud sob even as she took steps that would widen the distance between herself and the father of her unborn child.
She placed her hand on her belly and sobbed as she placed one foot in front of the other. Over the ridge and into the next drainage. Up another hill. Then, and only then, could she make the call that would end this nightmare.
But with Xavier gone, the nightmare would never be truly over.
