Ryker had only taken a few bites of his breakfast sandwich when he caught a glimpse of a black SUV with tinted windows driving past the restaurant. It slowed dramatically, causing the driver behind it to lay on the horn.
A warning chill snaked over him. He instantly stood and stuffed his meal back into the wrapper and tucked it in the bag. “Get Aaron. We need to go.”
“Go where?” Olivia turned to follow his gaze, then went pale. She stashed her sandwich with his, then rose to her feet looking for her son. “Aaron!”
“Wheee!” The little boy was laughing with glee as he came down the slide.
Ryker shouldered the oversize bag, then crossed over to get Aaron. Thankfully, the boy didn’t cry, but wiggled around impatiently. “No. I wanna go down the slide.”
Ryker ignored him. “This way.” He headed toward the back door of the restaurant.
Outside, he could see the path going down to the ravine. He debated for a moment, then realized that if the Blake-Moore mercenaries had run his license plate, the vehicle wasn’t safe.
“We’re heading down the path,” he whispered.
To her credit, Olivia didn’t complain, but led the way down the winding trail. He worried she might fall, so he didn’t rush her despite his instincts screaming that they needed to hurry.
Two car doors slammed loudly. From this angle, he couldn’t see his vehicle, but imagined that the two men would check his SUV first, before going inside the restaurant. Precious seconds that they needed in order to stay ahead of them.
He and Olivia continued down the path dropping out of sight from the restaurant, but it wouldn’t be long before the mercenaries realized they were on foot and likely on the hiking trail.
Escaping two armed men without a set of wheels would be impossible. He was armed, but they would have double the firepower.
Dread tightened his chest, making it difficult to breathe. Once again, he’d waited too long to call for backup and had put their lives in jeopardy.
FOUR
Her heart thundered so loudly she was surprised Ryker didn’t hear it. Maneuvering down the dirt path wasn’t easy because she couldn’t see her feet over her stomach. The only reason she was able to move quickly was because Ryker was carrying both her bag and Aaron.
“Where are we going?” Aaron asked.
“Shh. Be quiet. We’re playing a game of hide-and-seek.” Ryker’s attempt to keep her son silent was genius.
To be honest, she hadn’t seen anything suspicious when Ryker had rushed them out of the fast-food restaurant. But once they’d gotten outside, she’d heard two car doors slamming shut. Two men? Like the two who’d come after her and Aaron in Harrisburg? She swallowed hard, horrified at the idea of more men coming after them, yet she was extremely thankful she wasn’t alone.
She firmly believed God had sent Ryker to keep her and Aaron safe.
How in the world had the Blake-Moore Group found them again? They weren’t that far from Harrisburg, yet she couldn’t begin to understand how they’d tracked her and Ryker to the fast-food place.
Except, Ryker hadn’t killed the man who’d grabbed her on the street; he’d only knocked him out. Could the assailant have regained consciousness long enough to watch them escape in Ryker’s SUV? Had he somehow used the license plate to track them down? She knew from firsthand experience that the Blake-Moore Group had connections within law enforcement.
Her right foot slipped on a rock, sending her reeling off-balance. Her weight shifted and she teetered for a long second, her arms flailing, knowing she was going to fall. Ryker’s hand shot out, grabbing hers in the nick of time, holding her steady.
“You all right?” he whispered.
“Yes.” Her voice cracked as she realized how close she’d come to falling the rest of the way down the trail. Ryker’s hand was strong, but not painfully so and she gripped it like the lifeline it was. “Thanks.”
“We have to keep going.” His low voice held an unmistakable urgency. She nodded and continued down the path, doing her best to keep from slipping on another rock.
“I thought we were playing hide-and-seek?” Aaron’s tone was plaintive.
“We are,” Ryker assured him. “Shh.”
Thankfully, Aaron stuck his thumb in his mouth.
Their progress seemed incredibly slow and she knew that it was her fault. But even though she felt Ryker’s tall, lean frame behind her, she never once heard him sigh impatiently, the way she knew Tim would have.
Enough. She couldn’t keep comparing Ryker to Tim in her mind. Her husband was gone, had frankly disappeared emotionally long before he’d died.
She needed to stay strong and focused on surviving, for Aaron’s sake and for the baby.
When she stumbled across a fork in the trail, she paused and glanced over her shoulder at Ryker. “Which way?”
“Right.”
Right? That path went uphill, while the other one led down. Her instincts were to keep going down, but she didn’t question Ryker’s decision.
If she thought heading down was difficult because she couldn’t see her feet, climbing up was even worse. Sure, she could see the trail ahead of her as they went, but it didn’t take long for her to begin panting heavily with exertion.
At this rate, the bad guys would find them within seconds by following the sound of her breathing louder than a wounded buffalo.
Her thigh muscles were on fire and it was all she could do to keep from groaning out loud as she forced herself to keep climbing. Praying helped for a while, but then even that was too much work. When she stopped, even for a moment, she felt Ryker’s hand on her lower back, keeping her steady without pressuring her to go faster.
She kept climbing, for him. For Aaron. For the baby.
I can do this.
The words became a chant in her mind, until she couldn’t think of anything other than taking the next step, then the next. I can do this. Sweat slid down the sides of her face, dampening her hair and her clothes.
Still, she climbed.
The only good thing
