Page 77 of Solid as Steele
She started to turn, but Ryan gently clasped her wrist. “There’s no shame in sitting this out.”
“Would you if you were me?”
“No, but…”
“But you’re a big tough guy, and I’m just a girl.” She jutted her chin at him.
He grinned. “And suddenly we’re back to when we first met and you had to prove you could do anything I could do.”
“And did I?” She challenged him with a look to tell the truth.
“Yeah, and sometimes better.” He laughed and released her wrist.
She headed for the cabin, and Owen continued on to the guest house. Inside the cabin, she stepped past the duffel bags Ryan had dropped inside while she and Owen had been changing her bandage. She made quick work of using the restroom then grabbed her backpack, but on the way out, stopped to pack crispy chocolate chip cookies her gran had sent back with her. The guys had brought MREs, but they would appreciate the treats.
Owen was waiting for her with the other guys. The moment they saw her, they silently hefted their packs loaded with overnight gear. Owen had grabbed a Kevlar vest and rifle from his truck and was clipping handcuffs on his belt.
Ryan looked back at her. “We’ll take both vehicles so we have two UTV’s on the end. You and Owen can ride with me, and we’ll let these two bozos drive by themselves.”
“Bozos?” Reid put Ryan in a chokehold and knuckled his head. “I can still take you if needed, so watch who you’re calling names.”
Russ glanced between them. “And I can take the pair of you, so do what he said.”
She laughed at the brothers. She’d loved summers spent watching them interact. They might be more than fifteen years older now but still boys at heart. Quite an accomplishment since they’d experienced tragedies and hardships. All of them seeing tough things in their law enforcement careers, but Reid especially, losing his wife to cancer and now raising a daughter by himself.
Mackenzie gave credit for their ability to remain young at heart to their wonderful parents and the slower lifestyle of Shadow Lake that had to help restore them all when they’d moved back home to start Shadow Lake Survival.
Owen opened the passenger door for Mackenzie. “You take the front. More leg room.”
“You have longer legs.” She slid into the back seat instead.
Owen mumbled something that included the word stubborn and climbed in front.
It wasn’t that she liked riding in the back. She couldn’t see any potential danger as well, but her smaller size made her better able to fit. Not to mention she was with four very capable guys. If danger lurked, they would spot it. And since she was in back, they were less likely to see her grimaces of pain that she was sure the rutted roads would bring.
Ryan got behind the wheel. “I’ll get flak from my brothers for wasting time if I get lost, so I already put the coordinates in my map program.”
She leaned forward. “It’s fun to see the three of you together again.”
“Yeah, we’re a real laugh riot.” He grinned in the mirror and cranked the powerful engine.
She sat back while he got the vehicle on the main road and watched out the window as the miles flew by. “We really need a plan for when we get there.”
“Way ahead of you,” Ryan said. “My brothers scout the area while we wait in the vehicle.”
“If Leach has an ambush planned,” Owen said. “I should be the one to take fire. Not them.”
“Besides,” Mackenzie said. “Leach might be lying in wait, not fire on Russ and Reid, and wait for us to appear.”
“Could be. But unless you both have wilderness survival skills that you didn’t demonstrate yesterday, my brothers know how to work this kind of terrain better than you do. If they take fire, they can also take cover much faster.”
“True,” Mackenzie admitted, though she didn’t want to sit back and wait.
“Let us do this for you,” Ryan said, his tone conciliatory. “If at any time they determine it’s better for you to be on the trail, then they’ll let us know, and we can join them.”
“Okay,” Mackenzie said. “I don’t like it, but I’ll agree.”
“I’ll reluctantly agree as well.” Owen looked at his phone. “No cell service. Can I use your SAT phone to update my lieutenant?”
