The Last Bride (DiCarlo Brides #6) (32 page)

The wind had calmed, though there was still a pretty regular breeze. Gage looked at the sky, checked his watch, and tried to figure out which direction they had been moving, and which direction they would need to go to get to a road.

Calculating, he looked at the hill they were nestled against. They would have to go over it. He didn’t dare take her back to the trail, so how would she make it around the bramble-covered hill? And if they did make it back to the road, would the shooter be waiting for them by the truck?

“It’s time to go again, don’t you think?” Jonquil asked, interrupting his thoughts. “The shooter will be on the move again.”

“Yeah.” Gage knelt beside her and touched her ankle, which was bigger than ever. “I don’t know if you should be hobbling on this.”

“I’ll be fine,” she said with a determined expression. “I’ve been through worse.”

“When is that? The summer camp your dad sent you to with Delphi?” he teased as she repacked her bag. “Delphi survived the place, surely it wasn’t that hard.”

She stuck out her tongue at him. “I broke my leg once on a hike. A full break. It didn’t go through the skin, but we had to splint and everything and then I had to walk out with a homemade crutch. Trust me, this won’t be half as bad.”

Gage’s opinion of her rose even more. “You are entirely too accident-prone for someone who loves the outdoors so much,” he teased, wanting to keep her thoughts away from whoever had been following them. “How many times have you broken your leg? Just the two times or were there more?”

She didn’t say anything for a long moment, frowning a little. “Last fall doesn’t count. That wasn’t from hiking. And it’s only been twice. Before this crazy year.” She looked away, though she was a tad flushed.

“And your other broken bones?” he asked as he stood again.

“A few. The number is irrelevant.” She offered him both hands, but still didn’t meet his gaze.

Gage took her hands and helped her stand, keeping hold of her until she steadied, feeling sick about her injuries and problems. He brushed back some damp tendrils of hair from her face, feeling things he never thought he would. Tenderness poured through him. “So you say. You have to know, though, that I care about these things. I need to know just how fragile my woman is.”

Fire lit her eyes and she punched him in the arm, though not hard at all. “I’m not
fragile
. I told you I could blacken your eyes. I’ve done it before a few times, with guys who were jerks.”

“I bet you have.” Her face was so determined, her outrage so clear, he couldn’t help but lean in and kiss her, lingering for several seconds before pulling away to grab their packs, and stuff his wet poncho back into his. “You’re a tough cookie.”

“You’re rude, obnoxious and insulting.” Her lips pursed in irritation.

“How was that any of those things?” he asked, baffled.

“You didn’t mean a word you just said.” She took an experimental step and winced as pain flashed across her face again.

“I wasn’t trying to flatter you, you know.” He sighed and put his pack on forward, then crouched slightly in front of her with his back to her. “Climb on. I’ll carry you for a few minutes. At least until we can find a walking stick or something. That ankle is not pretty.”

“It’s not supposed to be pretty. It’s an ankle.” Jonquil grumbled, but climbed on.

“Your ankles are pretty amazing most of the time,” he said, meaning it. “Very feminine. It surprised me sometimes how strong and fit you are because you look like a waif.”

“I am not a waif.” This was barely audible, though, and then only because her mouth was practically at his ear.

“Right, you’re just small boned.” Thinking about falling and breaking one of those bones made him extra careful about where he stepped. He walked for a few minutes, stopping to check out a few heavy sticks along the way, before coming across one he thought would do for Jonquil. Not that he’d normally mind carrying her—she wasn’t very heavy, but going up the side of the hill, he didn’t want to fall and take them both down if she off-balanced him.

He pulled out his knife and whittled a head to the makeshift cane and then passed it to Jonquil, wishing he could do more for her. She nodded and accepted the staff, testing it out. “Thank you,” she said after a moment. “Sorry I’m being so grumpy. I’m not happy about being hurt today when you need me at my best. I hate being useless.” Her eyes drooped a little and her mouth turned down with sadness.

“Resourceful, capable Jonquil. You could never be useless.” He touched her chin, turning her face toward his and pressed a short kiss to her mouth. “I wish you weren’t hurt either, but it’s okay. We’ll be fine.” He had to believe it or they would never get out of this.

He wondered, as he considered the best place to climb the slope, if she’d do better being helped from the top or the bottom.

In the end, she insisted on going first, and he agreed.

The going was not easy, but with a little help, she got up the side of the hill. There were a lot of branches and fallen trees, rocks and other things in the way, but he had to admit, she wasn’t a quitter or a whiner.

They reached the top of the rise and he studied their surroundings. Where to next? He wasn’t sure.

“Keep going this direction?” she asked. “I’m a little turned around, not being able to see the sun though the clouds.” They were still dark and menacing.

“I think that’s the right way.” He wished he’d brought a compass, but they hadn’t intended to go off the trail. “I wonder how far it is to the road.”

He checked his watch. They had left the truck at 10 am. After running through the woods and the delays it was nearly two. No wonder he was starving again. There were still six hours of daylight left. He checked his phone again, hoping they might get at least one bar on this hill, but no luck. He frowned and was about to turn it off again when the satellite icon appeared in the top right corner of the screen. They had GPS. He sighed in relief and flipped on his mapping software. “Cross your fingers that this will work. If the GPS is functioning right we can at least be sure we’re heading toward a major road.”

She looked over his shoulder and they both waited silently as the software came up, then the map appeared and an icon showing their location popped onto the screen.

“Hallelujah.” Relief appeared on Jonquil’s face.

Gage pressed the hair back from her eyes, her damp curls twisting around his fingertip. “Don’t worry. It might take us a while, but we’ll get back to the truck.” He would have to figure out how to do so safely later. That was to worry about when they actually approached the truck.

“Stay here a moment. I want to make sure we’re oriented right.” He stepped away fifteen or twenty feet and the map rotated to put his current direction at the top. He paused, looked into the trees, and smiled. “Off we go.”

He helped Jonquil along, relieved to have some clue where they were. Now if the phone battery would last long enough to get them there.

Though he had been somewhat amused when Jonquil carried her own backpack with food and water, Gage was grateful for it. Their day hike which should have had them back to the truck by mid afternoon lasted until after seven o’clock, and the food he’d brought for their picnic didn’t last that long. Gage stopped several times—ostensibly so Jonquil could rest her ankle, but just as much to check their back trail, not sure if he trusted that they’d really gotten away. They went through most of the water, and they ate all of their food. He’d thought he over-packed lunch, but the sandwiches and cookies had their own limitations. Her granola bars were nice, but not exactly a real meal.

He checked his phone again. The battery bar indicated he had less than fifteen percent left but they were getting close to the main road. He didn’t see any indication of the turnoff to the hiking trail on the map, but wasn’t too surprised by that.

He let Jonquil pause to rest again. It was starting to cool off and he knew if they didn’t get inside soon he would be worse than slightly damp and cold. She couldn’t be much better, even if the jacket she wore was dry. The rain had soaked everything around them and their pant legs were wet to the knees from the long grass.

“How are you doing?” Gage asked Jonquil as they came over another minor rise. He thought he heard the sound of car wheels on asphalt.

“Not bad. Considering.” Her face was a little pinched and Gage didn’t know what to do. He wanted to protect and help her more, but even he had his limits. “We’re getting close to the road. I think I heard a car a minute ago”

“Great. Seriously, I can’t wait to get out of all of this nature.” She wiped her forehead with the back of her wrist. “Now there’s something I never thought I’d say.”

He pulled her close and kissed her forehead. “Just hold on a little longer, babe. Almost there.” He stuffed her backpack inside his and stood. “Think you can go a little farther?”

“Sure, why not?” Jonquil accepted the hand up and took up the cane again, sighing. Her face was pinched with pain and exhaustion and dark spots had formed under her eyes.

Gage helped her out to the side of the road. It had been only about a block away, but not being a major road, traffic was irregular.

He saw a dark truck driving their way and waved, but the driver continued on past. Gage helped Jonquil onto the edge of the concrete and turned them south. He was sure the parking lot must be that direction. He hadn’t passed the trail they had started that morning on their way to the road. The question was how far to the south?

His phone beeped that the battery was low but he ignored it.

“Do we have any bars at all?” Jonquil asked.

“Not when we stopped last. I would be surprised if there was any kind of coverage out here.” Gage smiled encouragingly. “We can’t be all that far from the truck now, though. So don’t worry about it. We’ll be back home where we can rest and relax in no time.” He could just imagine a long soak in his hot tub, Jonquil snuggled up beside him and the game playing on the TV. It sounded like heaven to him.

Another car approached and Gage moved Jonquil out of the way and waved his arms, but they didn’t stop either. He worried for a moment that he could end up flagging down the shooter, but at the moment, he decided to risk it—the trail head would be the best place for the shooter to ambush them again. Jonquil was starting to shiver and if he didn’t get dry and warm soon he was going to get sick.

“Friendly people around here, aren’t they?” Jonquil muttered under her breath.

“Usually, yeah. Mostly.” His stomach growled and he ignored it, focusing on helping Jonquil keep moving. “Come on, we’re getting close now.”

“You’re just saying that to make me feel better. You have no idea how far away the turnoff is,” she grouched.

Her attitude was making it harder to keep upbeat, but if he were in pain he wouldn’t exactly be happy-go-lucky, either. Considering the chaffing his wet jeans had caused, it was a miracle he was being half so positive. “But it can’t be all that far. We hadn’t gone more than a couple of miles down the trail. I bet we’re only a block or two from the turnoff.”

He couldn’t have been more wrong. It was almost eight and the sun had nearly set when they approached the tiny parking lot where they’d parked that morning. They could see it through the trees as they came up on it. He held up a hand to stop her and took a few more steps to get a better look around a bush.

It was empty.

“Where’s your truck?” Jonquil asked after he stared at it for a couple of seconds. “Isn’t this the right parking lot?”

“Yeah, there’s the sign we parked in front of.” Gage wanted to hit something. They had avoided the better trail all day while whoever had shot at them had taken his truck to strand them there.

“Now what?” Jonquil asked. “Take a seat and hope someone comes by?”

“And take a chance that whoever took it comes back for us? Yeah, that sounds like a terrific idea.” He ran his hands through his hair, almost at the end of his tether.

“You have a better one?”

He didn’t. He stopped and looked around them, spotting a downed log nearby. It was mostly protected from sight on three sides by bushes, so he hoped it would give them a little cover while he figured out what to do next. “Let’s go have a seat for a few minutes, at least.” He helped her over and they sat heavily.

“I’ve done much, much longer hikes than this one. Why do I feel so exhausted?” Jonquil asked.

“Maybe you’ve just gone soft sitting in that shop and playing with flowers all day.”

She glared at him. “Come again?”

“Because you weren’t injured the other times?” he corrected, not wanting to risk her wrath. He’d been teasing, but apparently this wasn’t the time.

She gave him the stink eye for a couple more seconds before responding. “That could be it. And wow, I could really use a hot, juicy burger.”

That sounded amazing. “And a shake, hot fudge with brownie chunks.”

“Oh, yeah. And Wendel’s fries. I could live on Wendel’s fries, if I didn’t mind becoming a blimp.” She gave a sigh of longing.

He watched the road as he tried to keep her mind on something besides the shooter, who could be waiting in the trees for them. What options were left? “I used to live on their fries when I was younger.” The images that appeared in his brain were enticing indeed. He really needed real food again. To distract himself, he pulled out his phone. It beeped at him—he was down to five percent. “Looks like my phone is going to die in a few minutes. And still no signal.”