Chapter 19

CHAPTER

NINETEEN

Stephen didn't want to use his gun. Only if he had to.

Instead, he grabbed a rock and threw it in the opposite direction.

As the man turned his head, Stephen darted from his location. He rounded some trees and approached the guy from behind.

Before the guy could realize he was there, Stephen launched forward and put the man in a headlock.

"What the . . ." The man thrashed against him, and his radio fell to the ground.

Stephen didn't think the guy had finished his call yet, that he'd given his location.

But he couldn't be sure.

The man continued to struggle against him, but Stephen was stronger.

He held him in the headlock for twenty seconds until the man went limp.

He wasn't dead, only passed out. But maybe this would give Stephen and Heidi just enough time to get away from here.

He grabbed the man's radio so he could hear any updates. Then he smashed the tracker in case anyone else could follow it.

Stephen darted back to where he'd left Heidi.

Her eyes were wide with fright when she saw him. When he saw the blood on her neck, it caused him to suck in his breath.

But she was okay. The blood was only from removing that tracker, he reminded himself.

He reached out his hand. "Come with me. We don't have any time to waste."

Her eyes were still wide as she nodded and scooted from her hiding place.

She took his hand, and the two of them began to run in the opposite direction.

There was no time to slow down. These guys weren't going to give up. That meant he needed to get Heidi out of here.

If someone was going through all this trouble to kill her, then she was definitely a valuable asset to whatever was going on.

Stephen had to keep her safe.

Not only for professional reasons, but because he had the undeniable urge to protect her. She didn't deserve any of this, and he'd do everything within his power to keep her safe.

Heidi wished she could ask questions. But she couldn't.

All she could focus on right now was breathing and not losing her balance on the uneven terrain.

Whatever had happened back there had spurred Stephen into action.

If she had to guess, that man had found him.

She continued running, hardly able to catch her breath or catch up on her thoughts.

She did, however, notice the radio at Stephen's waist. He'd turned the volume low, probably because any noise from it would reveal their location. Had that radio belonged to one of their pursuers?

She didn't recognize it. It wasn't one of the ones Blackstone used.

Who were those men? Who had hired them?

Stephen gripped her hand, and they kept running farther down the mountain.

How far did this wilderness stretch? They could probably walk for days out here without running into a road or anyone else, for that matter.

The thought made her shiver. She definitely wasn't equipped to survive in circumstances like this.

But she knew Stephen would help her.

She wasn't sure if she should be thankful for his presence or not. When he'd broken into her house, that was when everything had taken a shift.

They reached a stream and paused.

Heidi leaned forward, her hands on her thighs as she tried to catch her breath.

Finally, she glanced up. She saw a thin sheen of sweat spread across Stephen's face. Otherwise, he appeared unaffected by their swift escape.

"You doing okay?" He shifted to look her in the eye.

She nodded and used her sleeve to wipe the sweat from her face. "I suppose. But how much longer do we have to do this?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out." He scanned their surroundings again as if making sure he wasn't being followed. Then he grabbed the radio from his waist and turned up the volume.

Voices crackled through the speaker.

"We found MacAvoy," the voice said. "Someone knocked him out."

"Then we must be close," another unfamiliar voice said in response.

"What do you want us to do?"

"Keep looking. They have to be around here somewhere."

A knot formed in Heidi's stomach. That wasn't what she wanted to hear. She wanted to hear that these guys had decided to give up. But she'd been hoping for too much.

The race for survival was still going strong, and she didn't have any time to recover. They needed to keep moving.

She glanced up at Stephen. "What about Gage?"

His jaw hardened. "I haven't heard from him."

"Do you think he's okay?"

"These guys didn't say anything on the radio." He held it up. "That's a good sign. Gage is capable."

"I know . . . but these men are dangerous."

Stephen didn't argue.

Instead, he held out his hand. "We need to keep moving."

She stared at his thick, strong fingers another moment before placing her hand into his again.

Then they continued their escape.