Montana Standoff. Sharon Dunn

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      The memory of the gun pressed against her temple returned. Her throat constricted and her heart raced. “Do you think it’s a good idea to just sit here?”

      “We’re not just sitting here.” He handed her the binoculars. “Look, they’ve already left. I figured they would give up.”

      She walked over to the windows and peered through the binoculars at the shimmering water below. No car. She focused on the road where she saw the light-colored SUV heading away from the lake. So he was right. “Can they drive up here?”

      “It will take them over an hour. And if they don’t know these roads, they’ll never find us.” His voice was filled with reassurance.

      Sarah let out a breath, relaxing a little.

      He leaned close to her and touched her forehead where the tree branch had cut the skin. “I’ve got something for that. Go sit down.” He pointed toward the cot.

      Sarah put the binoculars down and wandered to the cot. She tried to take in a deep breath. Those men had meant to kill her. Would they give up that easily? After grabbing the first-aid kit from a storage box, Bryan walked across the room and sat close to her. She could feel his body heat.

      He handed her a piece of leather. “Tie your hair back, so it’s out of the way.”

      She gathered her hair into a ponytail.

      He pulled disinfectant out of the first-aid kit and touched the end of the tube lightly to her forehead. “It’s going to be okay, but we should get moving. After I deal with this cut, we’ll hike over to my truck.”

      She closed her eyes as he gently pressed the bandage against her forehead. Memories of his touch all those years ago awakened old feelings. The power of the attraction made her forget the pain of how everything had ended...for a moment.

      “There’s a little country store eight miles up the road. You can call for a friend to come and get you.” He wadded up the packaging the bandage had come in. “By that time, the sheriff will catch those guys.”

      The warm feelings evaporated. So he meant to ditch her as quickly as he could, just like old times. He’d only been doing his duty. It was the kind of person he was. But now that his duty was finished, he wanted nothing more to do with her. “I suppose I should go to the police.” She hoped her voice didn’t give away the hurt she felt.

      “Yeah, you’ll want to report this.” His voice was tainted with a bitterness she didn’t understand. “But not to the city police. This happened in the county. You’ll want to talk to the sheriff.”

      “But they grabbed me at my house...in town.”

      He rose to his feet and ran his fingers through his wavy brown hair. He spoke without turning back to look at her. “If you don’t mind my asking, why were those guys trying to kill you? What did you do?”

      His tone was disconcerting. Did he actually think she was mixed up with something illegal? It had been a sore spot with them when they dated. His parents had never thought she was good enough for their football star son. His lawyer mother and business-owner father viewed her as the girl from the wrong side of the tracks. By that time, Crew was already having problems, too.

      It didn’t matter that she had been a good student and never been in trouble. She didn’t have the wrong pedigree. She had no pedigree.

      She took a deep breath and idly picked up one of the books in his stack. “They were looking for Crew.”

      Bryan’s face brightened. “How is Crew?”

      “I wish I could tell you. He has a drug and alcohol habit. Sometimes he has a place to live, sometimes not.” Now she was the one who sounded bitter. Crew, two years older than her, had been her protector when they were kids. But years of having to be an adult too soon had worn him down. He’d started out a petty thief and picked up a drug habit along the way.

      Bryan stroked his chin. “I always liked Crew. I liked the way he looked out for you.”

      Sarah felt a stab to her heart. Crew had made bad choices; she knew that. But the image that burned in her mind of her brother was of him offering her his last morsel of bread when they’d run away from an abusive foster home and hidden in the forest. Her heart warmed toward Bryan that he could remember the most positive thing about Crew, the reason she still loved her brother.

      “I keep hoping he’ll turn things around.” And she wouldn’t give up that hope no matter how bad things looked.

      Bryan stepped away from the window. “Sometimes people do, you know. Get their lives together.” He rested his gaze on her long enough to make her feel self-conscious. His look could still send an electric charge through her.

      Sarah glanced down at the book she had picked up. C. S. Lewis, one of her favorite authors. But what was Bryan doing with a book like this? He’d never been interested in books with faith messages when she’d known him. Maybe his comment about people getting their lives together had been as much about himself as her brother. She hoped so. She’d found faith at the home where she stayed while she was pregnant. She’d gotten her life back on track at Naomi’s Place. Maybe somewhere along the road Bryan had had a similar transformation. She’d never stopped praying for him.

      She put the book back on the stack. “We should get going.”

      “Yeah, it’s a little bit of a hike to get to the truck.” Bryan walked across the room. “Do you want a drink of water before we go?”

      She rose to her feet and stared out the windows that provided a panoramic view of the forest. “My throat is dry.” She still couldn’t figure out why Bryan would choose such a lonely job. He’d always been so outgoing. “How long do you stay up here at a time?”

      Bryan lifted one of the gallon containers of water to the desk and retrieved a cup. “Three weeks on and one week off.”

      She crossed her arms and stared down at the rocks and forest they had climbed through to get here. She saw a flash of yellow and then Deep Voice stepped free of the thick forest. His gaze traveled up toward the tower. Panic pulsed through her. “Bryan, I think we have a problem.”

      THREE

      Adrenaline flooded through Bryan’s body. The thug charged straight for them at a steady and intense pace. He was the bigger of the two men, muscular to an excess. The short, thin man must have taken off in the vehicle, maybe planning on taking the winding road that would eventually bring him to the other side of the fire-lookout tower in case his friend didn’t make it up the mountainside. It was a rookie mistake for Bryan to assume they’d both left in the SUV. He’d been too distracted by Sarah to think straight—and he was paying for that now.

      “What do we do?” The fear in Sarah’s voice intensified.

      His mind catapulted from one possibility to another. She was the prime target. He had to get her out of here.

      Bryan flipped open the glass door that led to the catwalk, grabbed a length of rope and tied it off on the central post in the tower. “He’ll come up the stairs. You slip off this side of the tower. Go due east, and you’ll see a trail that leads to an open СКАЧАТЬ