Page 37 of Risk Everything

“Not to mention pretty damn lost.”

He gave her a half smile that didn’t hold much humor. “And as if that’s not enough excitement, that storm is rolling in faster than we figured. It’s going to hit in the next twenty-four hours.”

She squeezed his hand. “Okay, that’s a lot of variables to consider. So we try to backtrack our way around them?”

Tanner began packing the water bottle and trash into the backpack. “If we can. I have no idea how skilled they are at tracking. But we’ll have to leave as small a trail for them to follow as possible.” He shook his head. “It’s going to be hard on the kids—scary and stressful. I don’t think there’s any way around that.”

“I told them we were playing a game of hide-and-seek.”

He smiled. “From here on out it will have to be as quiet a game of hide-and-seek as we can manage.”

They both hated to traumatize these kids any further, but survival trumped everything else. Staying alive was the most important thing.

They woke the kids up and Tanner explained that they were going to do some serious wilderness training. Both kids looked a little skeptical, but Tanner got Sam on board by telling him it was similar to the training Noah had done in the army.

“I don’t want to be in the army,” Eva whispered to Bree. “I want to play soccer or work on the computer games you gave me. I’m not a soldier.”

Bree buttoned up the little girl’s jacket; now that it was late afternoon it was getting cooler. “I’m not a soldier either, sweetheart. So we’ll just use our brains to help out as much as possible, okay? We’ll just keep very quiet and use our eyes and ears to look out for what Tanner is talking about. I know you can do that. You’re so good with computers, like your mom.”

Eva nodded solemnly.

They moved out in a single-file line.

“Okay, here’s the wilderness training game,” Tanner said. “We’re trying to make it so that nobody can follow us.”

“Like hide-and-seek?” Eva asked.

“Yes. A little like hide-and-seek. But also wilderness hide-and-seek. That means we try not to break any branches or step in any soft soil.”

“Because soft soil would leave a footprint?” Sam asked.

“For exactly that reason.” Tanner beamed at him and the boy was obviously thrilled.

“We walk on rocks, if we can, and stay in a single-file line as much as possible.”

Bree’s heart swelled in her chest. This man was going to make such a wonderful father. To be so in tune with the danger around them, but calm and mindful of the children’s needs also.

The kids were both smiling as they set off in a single-file line, Tanner leading the way and Bree bringing up the rear. Tanner held branches out of the way so that everyone could more easily proceed without them breaking. As he passed by plants that contained something edible, he pointed to it and he and Sam grabbed what they could and put it in the backpack.

The kids held tough for a long time. Longer than most kids their age would have, testament of what they’d survived earlier in their life. But when both of them began tripping, Sam falling and cutting his elbow, Bree knew they were in trouble. There was no way they were going to be able to double back as far as Tanner wanted. The kids weren’t going to last that long.

The sun was beginning to set, making it even more difficult to see in the thick woods.

Tanner called them to a halt, and they began drinking from the canteen they’d refilled at the stream they’d crossed a mile or two back.

All the miles were beginning to blend together for Bree; she couldn’t imagine what it was like for the kids. And yet they didn’t complain.

She looked up from sipping her water and found Tanner studying her.

“Circling back is not going to work tonight. It’s too far.”

She nodded. At this point she wasn’t even sure she could make it, much less the kids.

“Do we have a plan B?”

He grimaced and nodded. “We get deeper in and find somewhere to hide until they pass.”

The kids were listening intently, but there was no way to hide this from them, not anymore.