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Justin hopped off his own bike and helped Carly to her feet. “Are you hurt?”
“Only my pride,” she muttered. He helped her to her feet, and they froze for an instant with his hands resting on her upper arms. The tension grew. Carly bit her lip, and Justin’s gaze lingered on it for a moment. He seemed about to say something, but he turned and walked to the back of the wagon to begin unloading their camping gear. She caught herself eyeing the back of him as he walked away and forced herself to look away.
“We’ll stop here for the night.” He didn’t look at her as he said it.
“I’m sorry,” Carly whispered. Shadowfax lumbered up to her and snuffled at Carly’s ear, and Carly hid her face against the horse’s neck. She hated that Justin was mad at her, but she guessed she had been kind of dumb to crash her bike like that.
Chapter Four
The animals and Justin were on high alert as they approached Carcross. Something just wasn’t right. It was so silent that Carly could hear the wind whisper through the long grass beside the road and the tiny waves that lapped at the shore of the lake.
Justin took another gun from the wagon, stuck it in the back of his belt, and pulled his T-shirt out over it. He told Carly to check her weapon to make sure it was loaded, and she fumbled through the process while he scanned the town, his eyes sharp and intent.
Beside Carly, Sam let out a soft whine. His ears swiveled as he searched for sounds. Justin cursed. “I don’t like this.”
“Neither does Sam.” Carly tried to reassure the wolf by stroking his soft ears, but he ignored her. Behind them, Shadowfax gave a snort and shook her head.
“I’d leave you here to wait if I thought that would be safer,” Justin murmured. “But I don’t think we should split up right now.”
“Is there someone here?”
Justin nodded. “I think so. No need to assume the worst; it could be someone just wanting to trade, and they’re watching to see if we’re friendly or not.”
“Let’s go around. We don’t need any supplies right now.”
“We can’t go around,” Justin said. “This is the only way across the lake, and we’re leaving the Klondike Highway here. This is the last town you’ll see for a long while.”
“I don’t care about seeing a town. Can we maybe go around once we get on the other side of the bridge?”
“We’ll be all right, Carly. Just don’t wander off.”
The end of the bridge opposite the town had two police cars parked nose to nose to block traffic. Someone had tried to ram their way through in a Chevy Cavalier, and the front of the car was crushed all the way up to the cabin. Carly avoided looking at the interior. Behind the crushed car was a line of vehicles, which stretched all the way across the bridge into the little town. Carly kept an eye on the buildings while Justin scavenged a few things here and there from the cars themselves, canned goods, a few cases of bottled water.
Sam let out another soft whine, and Shadowfax stamped her hooves with a toss of her head, as if to say, “Come on! Let’s go!”
“We’ve got to grab supplies wherever we come across them,” Justin said, and Carly wondered whether he was speaking to the animals or to her.
The last vehicle in the line was a van. It sat just a few feet from the end of the bridge. Justin slid the side door open. “Jackpot!” It was loaded with food and water, even a couple of twelve packs of soda.
A shot rang out and hit the road behind the van. “Down!” Justin shouted at Carly and used the corner of the van as cover while he fired off shots in the direction from which the gunfire had come. Carly was only a couple of steps behind him when the gunfire started, and she immediately crouched down behind the wagon. Shadowfax, who had strolled ahead, let out a squeal of fear at the sudden noise. Sam darted toward Justin just as a man surged up from under the end of the bridge behind them and threw a fishing net over Sam. Carly fumbled for her gun, but she didn’t have Justin’s quick reflexes. The man grabbed her around the waist and yanked her back against him. He pressed a knife to her throat so hard that she felt it burning as it sliced through the top layer of skin before she felt a small trickle of blood.
“Don’t move, bitch,” the man said with a hiss. His sour breath fanned across her face, and Carly gagged.
Justin spun to face them, his back to the van and his gun pointed straight at the man behind Carly. Beside them, Sam snarled and writhed in the net, entangling himself more with every movement.
“Drop it, asshole,” the man spat at Justin. “Or the bitch dies.”
She had seen the icy calm in Justin’s face only once before—when she had been attacked in Fraser. Justin opened his hand, and the gun fell with a clatter to the pavement.
“We got ‘em, Mikey,” the man shouted.
A second man emerged from behind a corrugated metal building with the words “General Store” painted on its pink, false front. He crossed the road to them and grinned at the man holding Carly. “She’s a cutie. We’re going to have a lot of fun with this one.”
“Kill him,” the man holding Carly said in the same mildly contemptuous tone he might have used to direct Mikey to step on a bug.
“Nah, it’s more fun to tie ‘em up and make ‘em watch.” Mikey began poking around in the wagon to see what they had brought.
Then several things seemed to happen all at once. Carly heard the clomping of hooves on asphalt as Shadowfax ambled up to the man holding her. Out of the corner of her eye, Carly saw the horse stop just a few feet away. Her captor glanced back once but ignored the horse, turning his gaze back to Justin. Casually, as though she were munching on some grass, Shadowfax extended her neck and chomped down on the man’s shoulder. He bellowed, and the hand holding the knife to Carly’s throat fell away as he grabbed his shoulder. Carly let her legs go limp before she dropped like a sack of cement to the road in front of his feet. Justin moved so fast she could barely track him. He whipped the gun out of the back of his belt and shot the man who had been holding Carly.
