Page 14 of Redemption in the Dark (The Righteous 5)
He’d barely gone five hundred meters in from the shoreline when he spotted a black boot lying on the trail. It was almost like she’d tried to get off the trail and collapsed. Dropping Viho’s reins, he ran for the boot. Again, he felt like he wasn’t giving the girl enough credit.
He saw a small movement from the shadow of the large tree beside the boot, and she suddenly landed on his back. The impact of her hitting his body pushed him off balance, and he stumbled forward but managed to keep his feet under him. His neck was then held hostage with a jagged piece of something cold and sharp. She was pressing it against his jugular.
He froze his hands in the air.
“Maeve, you don’t want to do this,” he said softly.
Her body was soaking wet and shivering against his. The dampness of her clothes was pressing into his back, and the cold skin of her arm was shaking around his throat.
“I can’t go back,” she said, pressing the tip of whatever she had, into his skin a little firmer.
“You say you didn’t kill that detective, but if you kill me, then you really will be running for the rest of your life.”
“Why can’t you just go away? Just leave me alone and go home,” she said, but Maeve’s arm loosened just enough that he quickly snatched her wrist and pulled it away as he spun in her hold.
Taking a couple of lunging strides, he pressed Maeve up against the tree she’d been hiding behind and stared into her eyes. The side of her face was bruised, he presumed from the fall, but the fear and sadness in her eyes pulled at him. They filled with tears, and the twin streams ran like the river itself down her cheeks.
“I can’t go back. I’ll die.” Her eyes fluttered, her speech suddenly not making any sense. “Pease noo me beck, tay me hom.” And then she passed out.
“Shit,” he mumbled and held her tighter as her legs fell away from his waist.
She became dead weight in his arms and he scooped her up and cradled her body to his chest as he made his way to Viho. He placed Maeve down on the ground and unclipped the blanket roll on the back of the saddle. The horse nudged at Maeve’s head with his nose and looked over at him like he was asking, ‘what the fuck did you do to her?’
“I didn’t do anything, at least not directly,” he mumbled to the stallion. “Keep your judgy look to yourself.”
Grabbing her shirt, he peeled it up and off her head, his eyes taking in the bruise down her side. With gentle prodding, she groaned in her sleep. He had a feeling she had at least one if not more fractured ribs. As swiftly as he could, he removed her other boot and the jeans clinging to her like a second skin.
The deep gash he found on her left leg explained the blood trail. Standing, he grabbed his extra T-shirt out of the saddle bag, tore a strip of the material off to tie up the bleeding wound, and then used the rest to slip around her torso and wrap up her ribs as best as he could. She needed a doctor, but that didn’t seem like a good call. At least not until he could unravel the mystery surrounding what was going on.
Using the blanket roll, he laid it out, picked up her shivering form to place in the center, and proceeded to wrap her up like he was swaddling a child. Picking Maeve up, he balanced her on the saddle while he mounted and then held her in his arms. Pulling out his phone, he unlocked it. His thumb hovered over Marcus’s name.
“Shit, shit, shit.” He had no idea why he was hesitating.
His thumb hit send, and Marcus’s muffled voice answered the phone. It was obvious he was eating. “Glad you’re getting a good meal in,” Wolf said.
“I’ll buy you a burger when you get back. Did you get her?”
Wolf opened his mouth to answer yes, but his eyes landed on her face, and he just couldn’t bring himself to turn her in yet.
“No, not yet. She’s better trained than I gave her credit for, and Viho has a bit of a stone bruise, so it’s slow going,” he said, his eyes never leaving her face.
“Damn, a runner that’s going to take longer than a day to catch. That’s a new record. The girl may need a trophy.” Wolf smiled at the joke. “Any idea where she’s heading?”
“Not really. She seems to be angling toward Arizona or Mexico, maybe.”
“That makes sense. She probably wants to cross the border into Mexico. I’ll make sure border patrol has her photo.”
“Good thinking. I better go. I don’t want to waste battery.”
“Alright, I’m about to dig into my second burger and chug a beer that had your name on it, but since you’re still playing,Man Tracker, I’ll make sure they don’t go to waste.”
“So very kind of you. I’ll be in touch.” Wolf hung up the phone and pulled up his maps.He found an old ranger station that was a half day’s ride away. That would have to do for now. Her breathing was steady and even, and there was no wheezing which was important. The bruising didn’t seem to be anything that involved internal bleeding, or at least he hoped.
“This is stupid, Viho. I want you to kick me when this comes back to bite me in the ass because there is a damn good chance I’m going to lose my job if they find out I’m harboring a fugitive.” The stallion’s ears twitched back and forth as they walked.
“This was an easy job, just pick up a girl and turn her in. So what the hell am I doing?”
He shook his head as he guided Viho onto the trail and pointed him in the direction of the ranger station. It was pitch black out by the time he rode up to the building. It looked like no one had been there in a long time. He noticed the paddock out back, and he rode into it. Holding Maeve in one arm, he undid the saddle and peeled it off the stallion’s back and dropped it near the fence. Then he pulled the bridle off over his head to join the saddle.
