“And if he’s not drunk somewhere and those men really have something to do with his disappearance, what do you think is going on?” Shay asked.
Rick knew of someone who’d been found dead—in Alaska, no less—recovering an airplane. That had been several years back. He hadn’t thought of it until that moment. “I couldn’t say.”
Considering they were about as far from civilization as a person could get, anything in the world could have happened to Aiden.
A deep sense of dread lodged in his gut. He had to find his brother. Couldn’t leave him behind. Images of a raid in the desert accosted him. He squeezed his eyes shut for an instant, hating the unbidden memories. In the end, he’d failed.
But never again.
Especially not this time, when it was his brother who needed him.
Around the curve in the road, a fallen tree log blocked their path. Rick jammed his foot against the brake, sliding to a stop inches from the log.
“Rick!” Shay’s scream sliced through the cab.
He jerked around to stare down headlights—the truck plowing straight for them.
THREE
Bright lights—laser beams on the grill of the truck—loomed in Shay’s vision, blinding her, growing larger as the truck raced toward the Jeep.
Her screams echoed in the cab, seeming to come from outside her body. She reached for the seat-belt clasp.
“We have to get out of here!” she yelled, struggling with the button. The seat belt kept her imprisoned, helpless against whoever in that truck wanted them dead.
To her right she glimpsed the ridge that dropped off only a few yards from her. She couldn’t breathe. Her heart hammered against her ribs, demanding to be free, but her fingers were too slippery as she grappled with the clasp.
“Rick.” Her desperate whisper cracked. “Who are these guys?”
Instead of answering her, Rick shifted into Reverse.
The truck roared forward, closing the distance too fast. Before Rick could back out of the way...
Impact!
Everything happened in slow motion.
The Jeep rocked with the collision, lurching to the side.
Oh, God, save us! Shay prayed as she felt her body thrown against the door, her head hitting the window, her screams filling the cab of the Jeep.
We’re going to die!
When the initial crash was over, Shay gulped a breath.
The truck had just barely missed Rick’s door, which would have completely pinned him behind the steering wheel. Behind his seat, the Jeep was crushed inward. The crash hadn’t killed her and Rick, but pain, fear and shock kept her frozen in her seat. She tried to gather her wits and take in what was happening.
Through Rick’s window, she could see into the cab of the other vehicle. She looked into dark, sinister eyes beneath an Alaska moose baseball cap, unable to grasp that the man driving the truck seemed to be enjoying this.
The truck pressed in on the Jeep; they were like two elks that had locked horns. The Jeep was moving, but not because Rick had put it in Drive. Instead, the tires ground against the dirt road as the truck pushed, and the Jeep slid sideways, gravity pulling it downward along the ridge. She squeezed Rick’s shoulders. His door jammed shut, he moved toward her, climbing over the console, his intention clear—to get out of the Jeep and away from the truck.
The big-wheeled truck shoved the Jeep again, wheels spinning, throwing gravel and dirt. Shay peered out her window. “Rick?”
His expression was grim as he looked past her to see the ledge the Jeep was being pushed toward. They were powerless to stop what was happening. She’d never seen fear pour from his eyes like this. Slow and malicious, death awaited them at the bottom of the fall. Terror struck her heart at the thought of tumbling down the rocky precipice.
The Jeep edged them closer to the fall. “What are we going to do?” she asked. Desperation twisted her voice. She struggled, gasping for breath.
Rick slipped her seat belt off.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“It’s our only chance.”
The right back tire breached the drop. “Hurry,” she whimpered.
Weakness coursed through every limb in her shaking body.
“Hold on,” Rick whispered in her ear. She heard a measure of reassurance in his voice but knew that was for her benefit only.
“Hold on to what? Rick, what are you thinking? Tell me so I’ll know what I need to do.”
She turned to stare at him, to look into his gray eyes that pierced her soul, his face millimeters from hers.
“Hold on to me.” His gaze shifted to the window behind her.
She heard him swallow, an echo of her own horror. Did he really want her to hold on to him as they plummeted to their death? “Isn’t there another way out?”
The right front tire slid over the edge and the Jeep shifted onto the forty-five-degree incline. They had fifty yards maybe before the incline took a complete two hundred-foot vertical drop.
Shay’s breathing turned rapid. Not now!
She couldn’t afford to hyperventilate now.
Behind Rick, she saw the truck’s grille as it backed away. It had pushed them far enough and would leave gravity and momentum to do the rest.
“Rick.” She gasped out his name. Hoping, praying for an answer.
“We’re getting out,” he said.
Shay could hardly believe him, but their options were limited.
Physics worked against them now, the tires slick against the gravelly incline even though the Jeep was parallel to the edge. They continued sliding, bouncing, and in fact picked up momentum.
“Now!”
Fast as lightning, Rick shoved her door open and wrapped his arms around her. She wasn’t sure how he did it, but they tumbled from the vehicle milliseconds before it met with air and dropped over the final edge, the crashing noises resounding against the valley below. Greenery and gray sky flashed in her vision as branches stabbed and ripped at her body. She rolled with Rick, and yet somehow he protected her. Kept from crushing her.
Finally, they stopped rolling and her body crashed against Rick’s. Air left her lungs. Blackness edged her vision. Strong arms squeezed her. She gasped for breath, listening to the Jeep as it continued to fall, smashing against the rocks.
Broken to smithereens.
A whimper broke from her throat. That could have been them if not for Rick. If not for his quick thinking. His ability to act on it and actually pull it off. And she still didn’t know how they’d survived. Where had they fallen if not the bottom of the gorge? Looking around, she realized they’d landed on sort of a terrace of foliage before the drop-off.
“Rick,” she said, and tried to move away, embarrassed at her pathetic moans.
“Shh,” he whispered, and his arms tightened around her.
All her life, Shay had tried to hold her own. Didn’t want to need anyone. But right now Shay couldn’t help herself—she needed Rick at this moment. Needed his arms around her. Shay kept quiet and still, trusting the man that