A sudden chill, much colder than the air around her, slid up her spine.
She searched the woods again for his tracks, but they were now long gone.
“Rich!” she called.
She was torn about what to do. Should she keep searching until she found him or go back for help? Either decision could be the wrong choice. She could be too late to save him either way.
God, what should I do? I can’t just leave him out here. He needs help now!
Indecision twisted her insides.
Another snowmobile approached. Friend or foe? Who else would be up here besides her, Rich and whoever was the reason he’d fled the house?
Run!
Her mind screamed but her legs struggled to respond.
As the rider parked next to Rich’s snowmobile, she backed away and pressed her hand against a tree trunk as though she could turn it into a weapon if needed. A knife in her pocket her only real weapon, she slipped her other hand around the hilt, wishing for the gun she’d left in her bedroom.
The rider slid from the snowmobile and pulled his visor up. Familiarity wrapped around her.
She didn’t think the man was Coop or Gray, or anyone else from the Wilderness, Inc. crew. She stepped closer. “Who... Do I know you?”
But then she noticed his eyes. Those ice-blue eyes like the color of snow in the shadows—she would never forget them.
He pulled his helmet off, his own surprise at seeing her still registering on his rugged features, his winter-wheat hair thick but mussed from the helmet.
Zachary Long.
Gone were the smooth but chiseled features of the younger man she’d known and loved. A pang shot through her. Ten years had changed him significantly. His handsome features were stronger, the sharp look of life’s experiences and losses evident in his gaze, and it almost sucked the oxygen from her.
“Olivia?”
His voice wrapped around her, cradling her against the shock of seeing him. “Zach. What...what are you doing here?”
Olivia shook off the rush of emotion. “No. Scratch that. It doesn’t matter. I need to find Rich. He’s bleeding somewhere out there. I don’t know where. The weather is turning bad and I have to find him!”
Lines creased Zach’s forehead, growing deeper between his brows. He acted as if he wanted to ask questions but thought better of it and gave a subtle shake of his head.
“Let’s get some help.” He removed his gloves and pulled out his smartphone. “If I can’t make the call, I’ll try a text. Something has to go through.”
Olivia wanted to laugh at that, except this was no laughing matter.
“Who could I text locally—”
Bark exploded from the tree next to her.
* * *
“Get down!” Zach hadn’t been sure he could find the old Kendricks vacation place when Rich had left his cryptic and urgent message about meeting him there, but he’d been a detective in Portland long enough to know when to heed that sense something was wrong.
And he’d just gotten his confirmation.
The sound of gunfire still echoed from the shot. Zach’s mind registered the danger as reflex took over.
He lunged for Olivia and threw her to the ground, pinning her under him to protect her. He remained in that position, waiting, listening.
“Why is someone shooting at us?” he whispered through the opening in her helmet, his face close to hers. This could have everything to do with Rich and his message.
“Get off me!”
Her harsh tone startled him. He’d only tried to protect her. Apparently she didn’t need protecting. Didn’t she understand it was second nature to him as an officer of the law? Make that an ex-officer, ex-detective with the Portland Police Department.
He rolled away. “Stay down.”
Zach crept over to hide behind the snowmobiles, trying to get a look at who had fired the shot. Olivia crawled over to him and another bullet pinged against the snowmobile closest to her. Another hit the tree behind him.
To let the assailant know Zach had come armed and prepared, he reached for the weapon in his shoulder holster, chambered a round and fired toward the shooter to hold him off. Even though he was no longer a detective, he still carried a weapon, his concealed weapon permit legal anywhere in the state of Oregon. This incident confirmed the necessity.
He hoped the rounds he fired would hold off the shooter while he and Olivia made a quick plan.
“I said to stay down.” He turned to look at her, softening his expression. She didn’t seem to notice he’d snapped at her, but under the circumstances, that hardly mattered.
She glared at him. “I’m not a child.”
Take that back. She had noticed his harsh tone. “Someone is shooting at us. At you. What’s going on, Olivia?”
“I don’t know.” She crouched behind her snowmobile, a few feet from him.
Entirely too far away for him to adequately shield her if needed.
“We can’t stay here.” He searched the woods around them to make sure they were not being ambushed from behind.
“But we’re safe behind the snowmobiles for now, aren’t we?” she asked.
“If there’s more than one shooter, we’re going to get pinned down if we sit here.”
Zach listened for movement, but all he heard was the gentle sound of snow falling through the trees. Unfortunately, the soft white stuff created a cushioned ground and would likely mute the shooter’s approach if he decided to move in.
“What do you suggest?” Olivia inched close enough for him to see the flecks of gold in her warm cinnamon eyes.
Zach used to vacation here with his best friend Rich—Olivia’s brother—and his family. A lot had happened since the last time he’d been here. But he’d never forget that special summer fourteen years ago when he was seventeen and Olivia had turned fifteen—it had been the first time he’d thought of her as more than Rich’s kid sister. Four years later he was on the cusp of entering the police academy and proposing marriage to Olivia when it all fell apart. Not now! Not now... Terror filled her eyes, yanking him back. Gripping his heart and squeezing. He shoved the memories away. “I’m thinking.” He peered around the bow of the vehicle. Nothing. He saw nothing but wilderness.
“Well, think faster.” Olivia slid away from him.
“I don’t know the area like you do,” he said. “So you’re going to have to lead us out of here.”
“You mean on foot?”
He nodded. “We’re not getting out of here on the snowmobiles, at least not yet. We’d be too exposed if we got on them now. We can’t risk it.”
He eyed the area on this side of the vehicles. Through the white-frosted evergreens he spotted a slope.
Zach gestured toward it. “Where does that lead?”
“There’s a dip down to a small brook.”
“Where will it take us?”
Olivia shrugged. “Away from here.”
A spray of bullets splintered the trees near them. A semiautomatic. Once again, Zach’s