Deadly Mountain Trap, page 29
Please don’t let him be dead.
She hurried to his side. She could see the bullet wound, which looked like more of a graze. At least there was that slight bit of reassurance. He wasn’t going to die from that wound, not unless she couldn’t get him out of the line of fire. She tugged at him but he was too heavy. She looked behind her, toward where the shot had come from.
Nothing. No hint of movement. Wasn’t she the one in danger? She could be in their sights right now, kneeling on the hard concrete sidewalk that was digging through the knee of her pants. Cassie could imagine the scene. She was vulnerable, no question.
So why wasn’t anyone shooting?
“Jake, you have to wake up.” She shook him.
Still nothing.
“Jake. Now!” She raised the volume of her voice as she felt frustration building in her. Not toward Jake, he couldn’t help it, but at the entire situation. Doubt clouding her mind, she reached for his wrist and felt for a pulse on the off chance she was wrong, and something had been fatal. The fall, maybe. Her own heart pounded as she waited for her fingers to feel the reassuring thump of his heart rate.
There it was. He was alive and breathing, she now saw when she looked at his chest. All of that was good news. He was just very, very unconscious.
Movement out of the corner of her eye caught Cassie’s attention. There, coming from the side of the library, one hundred feet away, maybe, someone was heading slowly in her direction.
She opened her mouth to ask for help, human instinct overriding her caution. Until her brain finally registered that the man coming toward her was dressed entirely in black and had some kind of firearm strapped to his waist.
Not help. Someone she needed to run from.
Cassie glanced back at the car, right there, so close but doing her no good. She wondered if the librarian had heard the shot, but even if she had, here in Alaska she might just figure it was a hunter too close to town. Cassie could leave Jake, which is what she knew he would want, but she wouldn’t. Not now. She’d done it once and paid for it every day since. This time, she wasn’t going to make the same mistakes.
“I. Am. Not. Leaving. You!” She punctuated each word, gritted out through her clenched teeth, with a tug on Jake’s shirtsleeve. On the last Jake’s lashes fluttered. Then his eyes went wide.
“Hurry!” she yelled at him and he stood, slowly, but enough that she was able to pull him toward the passenger side of the car. She climbed in the driver’s seat, took the keys he offered and floored it out of the space just as the man who’d been coming closer started running at her. Cassie exhaled deeply, then startled as she realized there had been another man she hadn’t seen. He was dressed the same way, all black, nothing identifying about his features, running for the front of the car.
“Don’t stop,” Jake ordered.
Cassie kept driving but felt herself tensing as the figure moved to the center of the road. “I can’t hit him.”
“He’ll move. Go, Cassie!”
She hit the gas. The man dove out of the way at the sound of the engine revving and relief flooded her. She drove without saying a thing for at least the next sixty seconds and then finally managed to put a thought into word form. “Are you okay?” Not wanting to take her eyes off the road, but needing to see for herself that he was really awake, alive and sitting next to her, Cassie glanced in Jake’s direction quickly.
Her own heart jumped, skittered in her chest. Adrenaline, surely. Not a reaction to Jake.
Everything in her wanted to go straight to Will and pick him up, but even though a glance in the rearview mirror showed no one following them, Cassie wasn’t taking any chances.
The first couple of attacks in broad daylight had been easy to explain away, at least for Cassie. First, she’d been alone during hours that most people weren’t on the streets. Next, they’d been in the woods. No witnesses there except for the other people in the group.
But attacking outside the library? Shooting onto the actual sidewalks of Raven Pass? Cassie couldn’t remember this kind of attempted violence in town ever. Not at any time during her childhood. She supposed at some point years before that a double murder would have had to have taken place in order for the whole Raven Pass treasure legend to be true, but even that was rumored to have happened in the mountains outside of town.
She wasn’t safe here. Cassie pressed her foot down a little harder on the gas.
She shouldn’t have come here. She pressed harder.
“Cassie, you’ve got to slow down.”
His voice was calm. Steady but firm, and she let her foot off the gas immediately. “I’m sorry. I just can’t...” She trailed off. Her voice was wavering, and her hands were tight on the steering wheel. Being in this kind of danger wasn’t something she was used to.
“Drive us back to my house, okay?”
She had been driving with no destination in mind, but she was close to the edge of town. Cassie suspected she was subconsciously heading for Anchorage, though of course leaving town wouldn’t solve any problems and she’d never leave without Will anyway.
For that matter...would she leave again ever? What was waiting for her in Florida?
Emotions still running high, she stole another glance at Jake.
“We should get you to a doctor,” she said. His face looked pale, and she could tell he was hurting.
“I’m fine. Between the two of us, we can clean the wound and patch me up.”
“Jake...”
“You’re a nurse, right? I’m an EMT. Head home.” His voice was strained, and she didn’t want to upset him, so she did as he asked.
Maybe it was okay to admit that she cared about him still. Almost losing him today had made that hard to deny.
He caught her looking this time, and looked back at her. She turned her eyes back to the road immediately.
“So someone knew we were at the library...” Jake trailed off. “Did they know what we looked at? Or just that we were there? No one saw the books we looked at, not even the librarian.”
“Are you thinking she let someone know that we were there? Like on purpose?” Cassie couldn’t picture the old librarian being involved with any of the people who wanted her dead.
“No, but I heard the door open and close a few times while we were in there and saw some other people in the library.”
“Of course, it’s the library and it’s morning. I would imagine that’s one of their busier times.” Cassie pulled into Jake’s driveway, finally, and let out a deep breath when she had put the car in Park.
“My point is that she saw us come in and easily could have made a comment to someone that we were there, and they could have guessed what we were looking at.”
“Like a coincidence thing? You think someone came in at the same time and passed the information along to whoever is after me.” She frowned as she said the words. Were they even after her? It was starting to seem like they were after Jake.
“It could be that. I was thinking more like someone could have been following us and watched us from a distance in the library.”
Cassie shivered, remembering how she felt someone had been watching them.
“Are we going inside to continue this conversation in the house? Personally I’m partial to the house as it has water and I’m extremely thirsty, and there are some bandages in there. I’d prefer not to bleed all over my car.”
Cassie felt exposed on the walk from the car into the house—Jake’s garage was too full of tools and other equipment to park inside it—and right now Cassie wished she could tease him about it instead of dealing with this serious situation.
Once they were inside, she wanted to clean his wound and bandage him, but he insisted on stopping in the kitchen for water first. “Someone watching from inside the library, like you said, someone who maybe followed us there and came in afterward, could explain how I felt like I was being watched.”
Jake seemed to be considering the idea, as he leaned against the counter and took another long sip from his glass. “You thought it was coming from outside though. It could just as easily have been whoever shot at us.”
“True.” Cassie had to concede the point. “But I’m also not used to pinpointing where someone might be watching me from. I just know when I have a general creepy feeling come over me, you know?”
That seemed to make sense to Jake.
“Either way, there’s a small chance today was purely a target of opportunity, but it seems like a strange place for an attack if it was.”
“It’s much more likely we were attacked because we’re getting closer,” Cassie said, lowering her voice some even though they were the only two people in the house.
“I agree.” Jake nodded. “Which means...”
“We need to turn the investigation over to the police and stay out of it?”
Jake shrugged. “I was going to say that it means we need to be extremely careful. Someone is tracking you.”
ELEVEN
Cassie seemed to be thinking over his words, but told him to go into the bathroom so she could look at the bullet graze where his first aid kit was. He’d listened to her and made his way into the large guest bathroom downstairs, and she’d followed him in, but then he’d thought better of letting her touch him when his thoughts about her were already so confused, and had resisted her efforts to see it, clean it or put any kind of antiseptic lotion on it.
“Just let me see it.” Cassie reached for his arm again, her tone growing more frustrated.
Jake tugged his arm away as she stretched out her hand, barely moving it away in time. He almost wished he was wearing long sleeves, but then again with the way she was taking this so seriously, she’d probably make him peel his shirt off. Not something he wanted to do in a small room alone with Cassie. Just thinking about it made him swallow hard and wish he had something else to focus on right now.
“It’s fine, Cassie.”
“I still think you need to go to the hospital. How are you supposed to keep me safe if you have an untreated concussion, or if this wound goes septic, hmm?” She stepped closer.
Jake stepped backward. She was cute when she was mad. He’d never tell her so, since it was far from politically correct and would only make her angrier, but it was true. He tried not to smile.
Apparently not hard enough. Her frown deepened.
“Do not laugh at me, Jake Stone.” She stepped closer again.
He tried to move back, but there was nothing behind him but the bathtub. She’d blocked him into the room. Despite her warning, he laughed, and tried to deflect from the fact that he was so overwhelmed by her closeness right now that he didn’t care about a stupid gunshot wound or a little head trauma. “You know, I’m a paramedic. I do know some of the same stuff you do. Concussion protocol, wound care...”
“And you’re also proof of the fact that doctors or people in the medical field make the worst patients. You can’t treat yourself and you know it. Now hush.” She grabbed his arm, far enough away from the graze that it didn’t hurt. Her hands on his arm brought all his focus there, and all he could think about were her fingers on his skin.
So he hushed. Didn’t say a word.
She examined the wound first, then proceeded to clean it, apply triple antibiotic and then dress it. All things he could have done himself. And without the overload of emotions.
If she hadn’t left, they could have been married by now. He’d thought it more than once before, but it kept surfacing, probably because he couldn’t for the life of him figure out why they weren’t. On his end, were there any real reasons not to start something again? Other than the fear of being hurt.
Fear was no way to live. He’d almost died today.
Maybe that was why when she came near, he caught his breath, was fully aware of how close their faces were with her leaning down like that, and how easy it would be to press his lips to hers and pick up where they’d left off with that kiss yesterday...
But it wasn’t wise to do so. Not in this room alone, emotions high from the day. He’d determined to do better this time. So he decided to talk instead.
“About today...” he started.
Cassie shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it yet.”
Her voice quavered at the end and Jake stopped speaking. She looked over at him, relief relaxing her features. “Thank you.”
He nodded. Then couldn’t resist. “I’m okay, Cassie. God protected me.”
She snorted.
And he felt himself pull away.
“What did that mean?” he asked, wanting to stay calm. She’d said several things about God during their relationship and engagement that he’d been a little concerned about, but she hadn’t grown up in church like he had. Jake had been raised in church and had trusted Jesus to save him when he was seven years old. Cassie...
At the time Jake hadn’t known much about Cassie’s story, faith-wise. He wasn’t one to preach, but rather to lead by example. In hindsight, he wished he’d pushed a little more, asked more questions. He’d been in the dark then about her deepest beliefs, if she had any at all.
And the same was true now, he realized.
Dread settled in his stomach as all the pieces fit together. Her lack of knowledge, comments like this, the way she’d pulled away from any attempts at spiritual conversations when they’d dated before. “What, Cassie?” he asked again, needing to know now. He had years’ worth of questions he feared might be getting answered right now.
Did Cassie even know Jesus? Jake wasn’t judging. He didn’t think doubts defined a person’s faith. But the fact was...he wasn’t sure she’d ever given him any reason to believe she trusted Jesus personally. She’d only been very tolerant of his faith, he now realized.
“I just don’t know why you say stuff like that.”
“About God protecting me?” That seemed obvious to him. He was alive. She was alive. Surely she could see how that provided some evidence of God at work, especially when one considered how many other times they’d been attacked in the last few days.
“If He’s God, why doesn’t He just stop it all, Jake? Why?” She’d stopped doctoring his arm and was pacing the bathroom, looking back at him now and then. Her shoulders were tense, in a defensive posture, like this was something she wasn’t fully comfortable talking about.
Now that he let himself think about it, Jake remembered her asking before about how God could let bad things happen, but he’d written it off as a common struggle some Christians have.
Now he was wondering...
“Cassie, it comes down to this. Do you trust Jesus?”
She stopped. Looked straight at him. “No, Jake, I really don’t.”
And he didn’t know what to say to that. Instead he prayed, right there, his arm bandaged, head pounding, sitting on the closed lid of a toilet while the woman he’d wanted to marry stood in front of him telling him that they never should have planned to get married in the first place.
Why had he never realized Cassie didn’t believe?
God, why did I fall so deeply in love with her if I was never supposed to have her? He’d no sooner articulated the prayer than he rejected part of its premise. He had full confidence they were supposed to be together. Or...were supposed to have been at one point?
All confidence faded.
I love her, God. But she doesn’t love You.
And they had a son together. But she wasn’t a believer.
What did he do with that?
“Cassie.” Jake took a breath, focused on her, on the fact that there was a real person in front of him, one he loved very much, who didn’t understand how much the God who created the world loved her personally. “I don’t want to fight with you, but I promise, God can handle your anger, okay? He’s real and He gets what we are feeling better than we do. You can ask Him all this stuff.”
“Even if I’m not sure I believe in Him?” Her face was defiant, but he saw in her eyes a flicker of hope he chose to cling to.
“Talk to Him, Cassie. And think about this week, okay?”
“My aunt was killed. Not died in her sleep or anything like that, killed. Homicide. You know the coroner is going to confirm that. That’s what happened this week.”
“And even though we’ve been shot at multiple times, we are okay. Will is okay. Even the fact that you left before could have saved your life—what if you and Will had been with your aunt the day she was taken? Look at the other side here and maybe you’ll see God at work, Cassie.”
“I may not.” She said it like a warning. But she didn’t argue, and Jake thought that was positive.
“Just try, okay?”
She nodded and then moved back to him. “How is your head? Any double vision?”
He let her keep nursing him for now, even while his heart pounded along with the churning in his stomach. He still loved her. But he couldn’t let himself think past being her friend for now, not when she didn’t believe like he did. Even if the Bible didn’t say not to marry an unbeliever, he’d known too many people who had divorced over faith issues. When he did get married, he wanted it to be forever.
But he also wanted it to be with Cassie.
God, help me. And help her believe.
* * *
Cassie turned over in the bed again and pushed the button on her cell phone to see the time. 2:28 a.m. At this rate, she might not sleep at all tonight, if she didn’t fall asleep soon.
Jake’s words from earlier, about God’s protection, kept rolling through her mind. It was crazy how much shifting her perspective, to tentatively wondering if his explanation could be right, made her see things differently.
Could it be true that God had protected them?
Yes, she admitted finally as she turned over another time, back to the side where she’d started just now.
