The side of his left leg burned like crazy, but he knew the bullet had only grazed him. The wound wasn’t bad enough to slow him down. He figured there would be time later to examine the injury.
His instinct was to use one of the cabin motels. From the research he’d done online, the cabins in the Shawnee forest were spread out from each other creating a better sense of isolation than what he and Hawk had experienced before Christmas.
He cast a sidelong look at Olivia. She appeared to be resting, her palms spread protectively over her belly. He had a picture of Olivia and Aaron that he’d taken from her home tucked deep in his pocket, but the photo didn’t do her justice.
She was heart-stoppingly beautiful. Her dark hair was cut shorter than what she’d worn in the photo, but he liked the way the ends curved along the edge of her jaw.
Wait a minute. He gave himself a mental shake. There was no point in thinking about how pretty she was, or how cute Aaron looked sucking his thumb. The last thing he wanted was a relationship. Not after the way he’d lost his girlfriend and her young daughter in a senseless carjacking while he’d been deployed overseas. He never wanted to feel that kind of sorrow again, yet couldn’t help but reach out to help women and children in danger.
The way he’d wished others had helped his girlfriend and her daughter.
Besides, Olivia was mourning the loss of her husband and brother, and he’d been personally involved in their deaths, in a big way.
He hadn’t shied away from telling her about his role in their deaths. He didn’t want to lie to her, yet he hadn’t exactly told her the entire truth. There was no good reason for her to know that her brother had held a gun to Jillian’s head while threatening to kill her and her four-year-old daughter, Lizzie.
Ryker always felt remorse when he was forced to shoot someone, even knowing that the deed had been done to save the lives of innocents. It was the main reason he had only done one tour in the army. Being deployed in Afghanistan had been difficult. For one thing he’d left his girlfriend and her daughter behind, along with his foster parents. But more so because of the seemingly endless violence.
And here he was tangled up with another case that forced him to use skills he’d rather forget he possessed.
The close call at the nanny’s house had sent a cold chill down the back of his neck. He and the perp had both fired their weapons at nearly the exact same time but thankfully Ryker had had the advantage.
If not, the outcome would have been much different.
He rubbed a weary hand over his face and focused on taking less-traveled highways to reach the Shawnee National Forest. When he came up to the gate, he pulled out his wallet and rolled down his window.
“Good evening,” he greeted the guy at the gate. He sensed Olivia was awake, but she kept her eyes closed. “We’d like a week-long pass. We’re spending some time at the Cedar Rock Cabins.”
The guy nodded and took the cash Ryker offered in exchange for a seven-day pass. He slid it in the lower-left-hand corner of the windshield so it was visible to the rangers, and then drove through the gate.
When they’d cleared the area, Olivia straightened. “You have this all planned out, don’t you?” Her accusatory tone caught him off guard.
“Not exactly. I mean I know about the Cedar Rock Cabins, but we don’t have a reservation. I’m hoping they aren’t booked.”
“And if they are?”
“Then we’ll keep going until we find a place to stay.” He glanced over at her. “I won’t make you and Aaron sleep in the car. We’ll find something.”
She let out a sigh and relaxed. “Okay, sorry. All of this seems so crazy. I keep thinking of Willa. She didn’t deserve this. I hate knowing her death is my fault. I just don’t understand why the Blake-Moore Group is going to such lengths to get me back.”
The idea had bothered him, too. He’d been focused on finding Olivia and Aaron, but he didn’t really understand why she was in danger. His instincts had been right, but he had no idea why they wanted her.
“You really don’t know why they’re after you?” He tried to sound nonchalant, even though he’d always suspected she knew why she was in danger.
“No. I’ve thought back over those last few months before things got so crazy.” She grimaced and rubbed her stomach again. “I hadn’t seen much of Tim during that time, and when Colin showed up that day, dragging me and Aaron out of the house, I knew something was wrong.”
He found that information rather curious. “Your brother didn’t tell you why you had to leave in such a rush?”
“He only said that we were in danger.” Her tone was defensive. “But after twenty-four hours I could tell the guy watching over us was getting nervous. I heard him talking on the phone, that’s how I learned Tim had been killed. That concerned me, but when I asked about Colin, the guy told me he’d be there soon, but I felt certain he was lying. That Colin was dead, just like Tim. Then I discovered the door was locked from the outside, which only heightened my feeling that something was wrong. The guy was basically keeping us prisoners in that dive of a motel room and I started to think that it might be on orders from someone higher up at Blake-Moore. At that moment, I decided that it might be best to go off on our own.”
“You escaped?”
“Yep. Told Jeff I was pregnant and bleeding. He panicked and when
