RUNNING OUT OF TIME...

After two months of protective custody, bodyguard Arianna Jackson is days away from testifying at a murder trial when the unthinkable happens. Her Alaska safe house is attacked, and Arianna is forced to go on the run with U.S. Marshal Brody Callahan. Arianna is used to issuing orders, not taking them, but now, out in the wild, with a bounty on her head and a killer on her heels, she has only one hope of making it to testify—the handsome protector at her side.

“You’re still bleeding.”

Arianna moved under a group of mountain alders. “Sit while I clean your cuts.”

“There’s no time,” Brody said. “The farther away from the cabin we are, the safer we’ll be.”

Still, she wiped the cuts on his cheek and he stayed still, his gaze fixed on her. Though she tried to ignore it, her stomach twisted. His eyes seemed to bore deep into her—as though trying to discover her innermost secrets. She had no intention of sharing those with him or anyone else.

“Close your eyes.” She dabbed at the cut above his eye, and slowly the knots unraveled in her gut. With his eyes closed, she got a chance to scrutinize him. There was a strength and ruggedness to him that told her he knew how to take care of himself. That appealed to her. Too much.

She needed to squash that feeling. Caring about the person protecting you wasn’t wise.

Now, if only her heart would listen....

MARGARET DALEY

feels she has been blessed. She has been married more than thirty years to her husband, Mike, whom she met in college. He is a terrific support and her best friend. They have one son, Shaun. Margaret has been writing for many years and loves to tell a story. When she was a little girl, she would play with her dolls and make up stories about their lives. Now she writes these stories down. She especially enjoys weaving stories about families and how faith in God can sustain a person when things get tough. When she isn’t writing, she is fortunate to be a teacher for students with special needs. Margaret has taught for more than twenty years and loves working with her students. She has also been a Special Olympics coach and has participated in many sports with her students.

Guarding the Witness

Margaret Daley

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.

—Proverbs 3:5,6

To all my readers—

I appreciate you for reading my books. Thank you.

Contents

PROLOGUE

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

Dear Reader

Questions for Discussion

PROLOGUE

Bodyguard Arianna Jackson flexed her fingers over her holstered Glock at her side, ready to draw at a second’s notice if she sensed her client, Esther Perkins, was in danger. She cased the garage as she and Esther moved toward the door to the utility room of her client’s house.

“Every time we come back from my lawyer’s office, all I want to do is sleep for the next week,” Esther said with a deep sigh. “At least we didn’t stay long this time. I’m glad to be home early. If my husband had bothered to show up, I’d still be there.”

Esther’s lawyer had refused to conduct the meeting without Thomas Perkins present to finalize the details of the divorce. Therefore the meeting was cut short, actually never started. That was fine with Arianna. Whenever they left the house, the chances went up that her client would be hurt by her husband, whom Esther had found out was part of a huge crime syndicate in Alaska. “Hang back until I check each room.”

“As soon as this divorce is over with, I’m getting as far away from my soon-to-be ex as I can.” The forty-five-year-old hugged her arms to her chest and stopped right behind Arianna. “I won’t live in this kind of fear. He’s a violent, horrible man.”

Arianna unlocked the door into the house and eased it open, listening for any abnormal sounds. Silence greeted her, and the urge to relax her vigilance tempted her for only a second. She’d learned the hard way never to do that while working as a bodyguard. She had her old injury to her shoulder—a bullet that went all the way through—to remind her.

When she was satisfied it was safe for Esther to enter, she motioned to the woman then trekked toward the kitchen, making a visual sweep of the room before moving into it.

A sound, like a muffled thud, penetrated the quiet. Arianna immediately pulled her gun from its holster and chambered a round, then swung around and put her finger to her mouth to indicate no talking. Waving her hand toward the pantry, she herded her client toward it. At the door she whispered into Esther’s ear. “Stay in here. I’m locking the door. Stay back away from it. I’m checking the sound out. You know the drill.”

With a shaky hand, Esther dug into her purse for her cell to call 911 if she thought it was needed.

And because her client didn’t always do what she was supposed to unless Arianna spelled it out—and because there was a way to unlock the pantry from the inside—she added, “Don’t leave the pantry until I tell you to.”

Her blue eyes huge, Esther nodded, all color draining from her face.

With her client secured—at least as much as she could be with a possible intruder in the house—Arianna crept forward. She scanned each room as she made her way through the lower level. Another dull thump echoed through the air. She knew that sound—a silencer. Coming from the library. A muted scream followed almost immediately. Every sense heightened to a razor-sharp alertness.

The couple who lived here with Esther was gone for a few days to a funeral. No one should have been in the place. Increasing her pace, she covered the length of the hallway in a few seconds and flattened herself against the wall to one side of the door that was ajar.

Peering through the slice of space into the library, she spied a large man about six and a half feet tall standing over Thomas Perkins, who was bound to a chair with his hands tied behind his back and a gag in his mouth. He bled from the shoulder and thigh—a lot. Esther’s husband tried to scooch back from the towering man, moaning through the cloth stuffed in his mouth, his eyes dilated with fear.

The assailant leaned down and removed the gag. “No whining. Just tell me where the ledger is or the next shot will be in your heart.”

“There isn’t one,” Thomas Perkins said between coughs, still trying to move away from the man.

“Yeah, right. I know you have one in case you needed to use it against me. Your mistake was talking about it to the wrong person.”

She wasn’t paid to protect her client’s soon-to-be ex-husband, but she couldn’t stand by and watch an assailant murder him. Fortifying herself with a steadying breath, Arianna nudged the door open, pointed the gun at the attacker’s heart and said, “Drop the weapon or I’ll shoot.”

The large man’s hand inched upward.

“I don’t play around. I’ll only have to shoot you once to kill you instantly.”

The man’s fiery gaze bored through Arianna. “You’ve just made the biggest mistake of your life.”

ONE

Two months later, a helicopter banked to the left and descended toward the clearing where Deputy U.S. Marshal Brody Callahan’s new assignment, Arianna Jackson, was being guarded by three marshals. His team would relieve them, so he used his vantage point above the forest to check out the area. Knowing the terrain that surrounded the safe house had saved his life several times. The cabin backed up against a medium-size mountain range on the north and west while the other two sides were made up of a wall of spruces, pines, hemlocks and other varieties of trees that stretched out for miles. A rugged land—manageable only as long as the weather cooperated. It was the end of July, but it had been known to snow at that time in Alaska near the Artic Circle. He had to be prepared for all contingencies.

As they dropped toward the clearing, Deputy U.S. Marshal Ted Banks came out of the cabin, staying back by the door, his hand hovering near his gun in his holster. Alert. Ted was a good marshal Brody had worked with before.

The helicopter’s landing skids connected with the ground, jolting Brody slightly. Over the whirring noise of the rotors, he yelled to the pilot, “This shouldn’t take long.”

With duffel bags in hand, Brody jumped to the rocky earth closest to the cabin while his two partners exited from the other side. Brody ran toward Ted, who held out his hand and said in a booming voice, “Glad to see you.”

“Ready to see your wife, are you?”

“Yep. I hope you’ve honed your Scrabble skills. This one is ruthless when it comes to the game. I’m going to brush up on my vocabulary with a dictionary before I play her again.”

“I’ve read her file.” Arianna Jackson was the star witness for the trial of Joseph Rainwater, the head of a large crime syndicate in Alaska, because she’d witnessed Rainwater killing Thomas Perkins. The man had bled out before the EMTs arrived.

“Doesn’t do her justice. I don’t have anything to add to my earlier phone report this morning. C’mon. I’ll introduce you two.” Ted peered over Brody’s shoulder at his partners, Kevin Laird and Mark Baylor, approaching them while carrying a bag and three boxes of provisions. Ted nodded to them before turning to open the door.

As Brody entered, he panned the rustic interior with a high ceiling, noting where the few windows were located, the large fireplace against the back wall, the hallway that led to the two bedrooms and the kitchen area off the living room. Three duffel bags sat by the door. Then his gaze connected with the witness he was to protect.

Arianna Jackson.

Tall, with white-blond hair and cool gray eyes, she resembled a Nordic princess. Still, he could tell she was very capable of taking care of herself from the way she carried herself, right down to the sharp perusal she gave him. From what he’d read, Ms. Jackson had been a good bodyguard caught in a bad situation. Her life would never be the same after this.

She tossed the dish towel she held onto the kitchen counter, never taking her gaze off him. She assessed and catalogued him, not one emotion on her face to indicate what she had decided about him. That piqued his interest.

“These three are our replacements—Brody Callahan, Kevin Laird and Mark Baylor. This is Arianna Jackson,” Ted said. Then he headed toward the door, the tension from his body fading with each step. “It’s been quiet this past week except for a pesky mama bear and her cubs.” He shoved into Brody’s hand a sheet of paper with instructions on how to avoid a bear encounter.

“Good. Have you seen anyone in the area?”

“Nope, just the wildlife. We are, even for Alaska, out in the boonies,” Ted said, giving him a salute. “Hope the next time I see you is in Anchorage. Goodbye, Arianna.”

Brody looked from Ted, almost fleeing, to Carla Matthews not far behind him, to Dan Mitchell, the third Deputy U.S. Marshal on team number one, who would be on vacation on a beach in Hawaii. Brody clenched his jaw, curling his fingers around the handle of his bag so tightly his skin stretched taut over his knuckles. Carla shot him a piercing glance before disappearing outside. Slowly, Brody released his grip on his duffel bag, and it dropped to the floor with a thud.

Good thing Ted and Dan worked with Carla. He had once and wouldn’t again. He’d learned the hard way to never get involved with a colleague. In fact, she’d been one of the reasons he’d transferred to Alaska from Los Angeles. It had been a hard shock to find out she’d been recruited to be on the detail protecting Arianna Jackson. At least she would return to L.A. when this trial was over.

Brody swung his attention to his witness, who watched team one leave. These assignments were never easy on anyone involved. The pressure was intense. Never able to let down your guard. And with Ms. Jackson the stakes were even higher because Joseph Rainwater was determined his crime syndicate would find her and take her out, along with anyone else in their way. And the man had the resources and money to carry out that threat.

Her gaze linked with his. “The bedroom on the right is where you all can bunk,” Ms. Jackson said in a no-nonsense voice as she rotated back to finish drying the few dishes in the drain board.

Patience, Lord. I’m pretty sure I’m going to need every ounce of it this next week. He was guarding a woman who was used to guarding others. He doubted she would like to follow orders when she was used to giving them.

Brody nodded to Kevin and Mark to go ahead and take their duffel bags into the room assigned to them by their witness. Then Brody covered the distance between him and Ms. Jackson. “We need to talk.”

She turned her head and tilted it. One eyebrow rose. “We do? Am I going to get the lecture about not going outside, to follow all your ord—directions?”

“No, because you guard people for a living and you know what to do. But I do have some news I thought you deserved to know.”

Her body stiffening, she faced him fully, her shoulders thrust back as though she were at attention. “What?”

“Esther Perkins is missing.”

* * *

Arianna clenched her hands. “No one would tell me anything about Esther other than she was being taken care of. She didn’t witness the murder. She couldn’t testify about it. What happened?”

“Rainwater thought she might know something concerning the ledger and went after her. Or rather he sent a couple of his men since Rainwater is sitting in jail. We moved her out of state while she tried to help us find that ledger even from long distance.”

“So the police never could locate it?”

“No. They figure it has to be important since Rainwater personally killed a man over it. Usually others do his dirty work. The ledger probably details his contacts and operation. Thomas Perkins was in a position to know that information.”

“So how did Esther go missing? Maybe she just left the program.” She knew that was wishful thinking. When she’d stressed the importance of staying put, the woman always did. She’d been scared of her husband and now knowing who he’d worked for she was even more afraid.

“No, the Deputy U.S. Marshal running the case said it didn’t look like she had. It had been obvious there had been a fight. There was blood found on the carpet. It was her type.”

Her fingernails dug into her palms. Anger tangled with sadness and won. “She didn’t have a detail on her?”

“She was relocated with a new identity thousands of miles away.”

“Then maybe you have a leak somewhere.” She pivoted back to the sink, her stomach roiling with rage that a good woman was probably dead. This all wouldn’t have happened if they had stayed at Esther lawyer’s office for another hour or so. Why, God? It had tested her faith; and now with the Rainwater situation her doubts concerning the Lord had multiplied. As had her doubts about herself.

For the past four years she’d worked for Guardians, Inc., a group of female bodyguards run by Kyra Hunt. In that time, she had seen some vile people who would hurt others without hesitation. She’d thought she had been tough enough for the job, especially with all she’d seen in the military in the Middle East during several tours. Now she was wondering if this was a good time to change jobs.

The continual silence from Brody after her accusation made her slant a look over her shoulder. A frown slashed across his face, the first sign of emotion from him.

His gaze roped hers. “It’s more likely Esther contacted someone when she shouldn’t. Let slip where she was. We’ve never lost a witness if they followed the rules.”

“Take it from me—this isn’t easy to do. Walk away from everyone you know and start a new life. I can’t even call my mother or anyone else from my past.” Arianna had always called her mom at least once a week, even when she was on a job, to make sure everything was going all right, wishfully hoping one of those times her father would talk with her. He never had, which broke her heart each time. Not being able to at least talk with her mom, except that one time right after the incident in the Perkinses’ library, added family heartache on top of everything else.

“All I can tell you is that the U.S. Marshals Service is doing everything they can to locate Mrs. Perkins.”

Left unsaid was “dead or alive.” She closed her eyes, weariness attacking her from all sides. Since coming to the cabin, she hadn’t slept more than a few hours here and there. The marshals had moved her from Anchorage because they’d worried the safe house had been compromised. If that place had been, why not this one?

That question plagued her every waking moment. It was hard to rest when she didn’t know the people involved in her protection. When she did lie down, she’d managed to catch some sleep because she had her gun with her. She’d brought extra money, a switchblade and her gun without the marshals’ knowledge. In case something went down, she wanted to be prepared. That was the only way she would agree to all of this. She would see to her own protection. She didn’t trust anyone but herself to keep her alive.

Not even God anymore. That thought crept into her mind and prodded her memories. She wouldn’t think about the reason she’d left the army, much to her brothers’ and father’s dismay. But how could she trust again when one of her team had sold her out? In the end it wasn’t the Lord who had saved her. She’d saved herself.

That was when she’d vowed to protect others. She never wanted another to live in fear the way she had—scared she would go to prison for a crime she hadn’t committed.

She turned toward the marshal, appreciating what her clients must have felt when she’d guarded them and told them what to do. “Promise me you’ll let me know if you all find Esther. She was my client. I feel responsible for her.”

“You did everything you could. If you hadn’t been there, she would have been dead next to her husband.”

“And now she may be dead, her body somewhere no one has found yet. May never find.”

“Yes,” Deputy U.S. Marshal Brody Callahan said over the sound of the helicopter taking off.

The blunt reality of what might have happened to Esther, and still could happen, hung in the air between Arianna and the marshal. She went back to drying the lunch dishes. Anything to keep her occupied. If this inactivity didn’t end soon, she might go running through the woods screaming.

Mark Baylor, the oldest of the three marshals, with a touch of gray at his temples, strode to the door. “I’m gonna take a stroll around the perimeter.”

Usually one marshal stayed outside while two were inside—often one of them taking his turn sleeping. That was the way it had been set up with Ted and his team.

“Do you need any help?” The deep, husky voice of Brody Callahan, the marshal who seemed to be in charge, broke into her thoughts.

“With cleaning up?” she asked, surprised by the question.

“Yes.”

She glanced back at him. Six inches taller than her five-feet-eleven frame, Brody carried himself with confidence, which in its own way did ease her anxiety about her situation. His figure, with not an ounce of fat on him and a broad, muscular chest, spoke of a man that kept himself in shape. “I’ve got it under control.” About the only thing in my life that is.

“We equally share the duties while we’re here.”

“That’s good to know. I don’t cook.”

“You don’t?”

She finished drying the last plate. “Never had a reason to learn. I went from living at home with my family to the army. Then when I started working for Guardians, Inc., I found myself on assignment most of the time with wealthy clients who had cooks.” She shrugged. “The short amount of time I was in Dallas I ate out or ate frozen dinners.”

“That’s okay. I love to cook,” Kevin Laird, the youngest of the marshals, announced as he came into the living room.

Brody chuckled. “That’s why I like to team up with Kevin when I can. He can make the most boring food taste decent.”

“Good. I’m not averse to edible food.” Arianna moved out of the kitchen area, trying to decide what she should do next. Let’s see...maybe a crossword puzzle. Or better yet, solitaire. She still had at least fifty varieties to work her way through. The thought of more days like the past week heightened her boredom level to critical.

She began to pace from one of the few windows, drapes pulled, to the hearth. It was empty and cold. They couldn’t have a fire even at night when it did get chilly since it indicated someone was at the place. She counted her steps, mentally mapping out an escape route if she needed it. Her thoughts were interrupted when Kevin spoke up from the kitchen.

“This is a park ranger’s cabin. Where’s the guy that usually stays here?”

“On an extended vacation.” Brody prowled the living room in a different direction from her.

“Does he know we’re using it?” Arianna asked as she peeked out the window. The previous set of marshals had told her about the cabin, but only now had she started to wonder what the tenant had been told.

“No, the cabin belongs to the park service. No one knows you’re here or that the U.S. Marshals Service is using it to protect a witness. A bogus agency has rented it while the park ranger is gone. They think we’re here on vacation.” Brody parted the drapes and looked out the only other window in the room.

“When’s he due back?” Arianna spied a bull moose in the thick of the trees. Seeing the beautiful animals was the one thrill she got being where she was. She loved animals, but because of her job, she hadn’t been able to have any—not even a goldfish.

“Not for two more weeks. Do you see it?” Brody’s gaze captured hers, nodding in the direction of the moose.

“He’s beautiful. I wish I could go outside and take a picture. I took the Perkins assignment because it was in Alaska. After I finished guarding her, I was going to take a long overdue vacation and do some touring of the countryside up here. The most exciting thing that’s happened to me this week was the helicopter ride to this cabin. Breathtaking scenery.”

“Don’t even think about going outside to snap a picture.”

She held up her hands, palms outward. “I thought you said I knew the drill and didn’t need to hear your spiel.”

“I’ve changed my mind. You sound like a bored witness. That kind can do things to get themselves killed.”

“I am bored. I don’t even have the luxury of a television set. Most of the time I don’t watch it, but I’m desperate. How in the world do you do this job after job?”

“I’m on an assignment to keep you safe. I can’t let down my guard ever or allow for any distractions. You should know what that means.”

His intense, dark brown eyes drilling into her exemplified strong will and fierce determination—traits she shared. He was a person she should be able to identify with if she stopped feeling sorry for herself—something she rarely did. But she hated change, and the changing of the guard not half an hour ago bothered her more than she’d realized. She now had to get to know her three new guards, and she still couldn’t shake the thought that her safe house in Anchorage might have been compromised. She’d feel better if two of the female bodyguards from Guardians, Inc. were here with her instead. She knew where they were coming from.

“How about chess?” Kevin asked from the kitchen area, gesturing to the chess set perched on a shelf, while Brody crossed to the door.

“I don’t play it. Where are you going?” she asked Brody as he opened the door.

“Outside. I’m relieving Mark.”

“But he just left.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Can I come with you?” the imp in her asked.

He frowned and left, the door slamming shut.

“Ms. Jackson, I can teach you to play chess. It’ll take your mind off what’s going on.” Kevin moved into the main part of the room.

“Nothing is going on. That’s the problem.” She strode toward the table and took a chair. “Sure. I might as well learn.” She checked her watch. Noon. It was going to be another long day.

* * *

Finishing his last trip around the perimeter of the cabin, Brody took a deep breath of the fresh air, laced with the scent of earth and trees, then mounted the steps to the porch. When he reached the door to the ranger’s cabin, he panned the small clearing. Nearing midnight, it was still light outside. The temperature began to drop as the sun finally started its descent. When moving to Alaska, the only thing he really had to adjust to was the long daylight hours in summer and equally long nighttime ones in winter. At least in Anchorage where he was living it was farther south and the days and nights didn’t get as skewed as they did up here nearer the Arctic Circle.

Inside the cabin, he left the shotgun by the door for Kevin, who was relieving him on patrol. He turned to find Arianna sitting on the couch, staring at him. Her gray eyes with a hint of blue reminded him of the lake he’d flown over this morning.

“Did you see the mama bear that’s been hanging around the cabin lately?” she asked and went back to playing solitaire.

“No. Where’s Kevin?”

“Right here. Sorry. I figured I needed a jacket since the sun was going down.” Kevin picked up the shotgun and exited the cabin.

“So it’s just you and me since Mark is taking his turn sleeping.”

For a second he thought he saw a teasing gleam in her eyes before she averted her gaze to study the spread of cards on the coffee table in front of her. He sat in a chair across from her. “Have you won any games?”

“Two probably out of fifty.” She raised her head. “Wanna play Scrabble?”

“I’ve been warned about you and Scrabble.”

“I took you for a man who likes a good challenge.” A full-fledged smile encompassed her whole face.

“And baiting me guarantees you’ll have an opponent.”

“Yep, kinda hard playing Scrabble with yourself. No challenge really.”

“You’re on. Where’s the game?”

Arianna gestured toward the bookcase behind him. “I think I’ll leave the ranger who lives here a thank-you note. I don’t know what I would have done without some of his games. I brought a deck of cards and some books, but I went through the books in the first four days and I’m sick of playing solitaire. Do you have any idea when I’ll get to testify and can move back to civilization?”

“No. Rainwater’s attorney gets big bucks to delay the trial as long as he can.”

“Because he’s got people out there looking for me.”

“Yes, you know the score. If you testify, he’ll most likely go down for murder. Without finding the ledger Rainwater killed Perkins over, you’re the main witness in his trial. Without you, he’d probably get acquitted, if they even went ahead with the trial.”

“Something very incriminating must be in the ledger Rainwater was looking for.”

“Perkins kept the books for Rainwater. The public set has been sanitized not to include anything incriminating. We think Perkins kept a second ledger with all the dirt on the man. As you know, risky for Perkins to do, but it could be invaluable to us. Rainwater has gone to great lengths to find it.”

“We can’t afford for people like him to win. I’m even more determined to testify.”

“And he’s as determined to stop you.” Brody rose and retrieved the box with the Scrabble game in it, then laid the board and tiles out on the coffee table. When he sat again, he pulled his chair closer. “Ready to get trounced?”

“Is that any way to speak to a poor defenseless witness?” Arianna said as she laid down seven tiles for a score of seventy-six points.

He looked down at his letters and could only come up with a twelve-point word. Now he was beginning to understand what Ted meant. Forty minutes later it was confirmed. She was very good at Scrabble.

“What do you do? Study the dictionary like Ted threatened?”

“No. Don’t have to. I have a photographic memory, and I enjoy reading a lot. Once I see something, I remember it.”

“So that’s how you could give such a detailed description of what went down the day Thomas Perkins was murdered.”

“The gift has helped me in my job. When I go on a new assignment, I case the house or wherever I’m staying with the client so I can pull up the layout in a hurry in my mind. It has helped me on more than one occasion, especially in the dark.” She gathered up the tiles and began putting them into the box.

“I do something similar although I don’t have a photographic memory.”

One corner of her mouth lifted. “I consider it one of the weapons in my arsenal.”

He laughed, folding the game board and laying it on top of the tiles. “That’s an interesting way to put it.”

Arianna yawned. “I’d better call it a night and try to sleep.”

“Are you having problems sleeping?”

“Yes. Wouldn’t you if you were in my position, with all that’s been going on?”

“We’re guarding you. You don’t have to be alert and on the job.”

“Actually the quiet is too quiet. I’m glad to hear an occasional animal call in the night.”

“I grew up in New York City. The first few years after I left I had the hardest time with the silence at nighttime. Until I was assigned to L.A., I was located in smaller cities. Now when I get it, I love it. My house is outside Anchorage where it’s—”

A blast from a shotgun exploded in the air.

As Arianna dove over the back of the sofa with a wall of the cabin behind her, Brody moved toward the door. Another gunshot sound reverberated through the quiet.

Mark rushed down the hallway, weapon drawn. “What’s going on?”

“Stay with Ms. Jackson. I’ll go check.”

Suddenly there was a rattling on the window on the left side of the room as if someone or something was tearing at the screen. Brody moved toward it. A roar split the air as he opened the blinds to find a grizzly bear attacking the window. The screen hung in metal shreds from its frame. The huge animal batted it away, only a pane of glass now between him and the bear.

“Stay put, Arianna.” Brody signaled for Mark to keep an eye on the window where the bear was.

Where is Kevin? His heart pounding, Brody charged toward the exit, knowing his Glock might not be enough to stop a bear coming at him or Kevin. In the gray light of an Alaskan night this far north, he saw his partner backing around the corner of the cabin while squeezing off another shot into the air.

“I’m behind you, Kevin,” Brody said as he approached him.

The tense set to his partner’s body relaxed. “She’s leaving. Finally. When I was making my rounds, two cubs came out of the woods close to where I was. Mama bear followed not five seconds later. I tried not to show any fear and backed away. She came toward me—not charging, but making sure she was between her cubs and me. When I fired my first warning shot in the air, both of the cubs ran into the woods. She didn’t.”

Kevin kept his gaze fixed on the departing bear while Brody watched the front of the cabin. When the threat disappeared into the woods, they both headed for the porch.

“Good thing she doesn’t know how to open doors or windows. It took three shots to scare her off,” Kevin said, then positioned himself by the steps.

“She’s establishing her territory. Next time stay closer to the cabin and don’t play around with a grizzly sow and her cubs. They are very protective of their babies.”

“Believe me I’ll stay glued to this place. I don’t want to tangle with one of them.”

“I’ll be turning in soon. Mark will be on duty in the cabin. I’ll relieve you in five hours.” When Brody reentered the cabin, Arianna stood behind the couch. “What part of get down do you not understand?”

“The last order you gave me was stay put.” She pointed to the floor. “I stayed put. Besides, Mark was here.”

Brody shook his head. “I guess I’ll have to spell it out for you next time.”

“There’s gonna be a next time with that bear?”

“If she’s hungry enough or we threaten her cubs. Obviously she didn’t like Kevin near her cubs or shooting his gun—even in the air.”

“Oh, good. If she comes back to us, I’ll get to take a photo.”

“Photo? Of a bear charging you?”

“No. Don’t you remember you’ve ordered me to stay in the cabin? I’ll be watching from the window. No charging bear will be coming at me. Now that’s not to say she won’t come after you or your partners...”

He chuckled. “I’ll make sure I’m not your model for that picture.”

Mark laughed, too. “I’m going back to bed for the little time I have left. I’ll leave you two to hash things out.”

As Mark left, Arianna said, “When I finished a job in Africa, I went on a photo safari. One of the rare vacations I gave myself. After this job I was going to take a second vacation and see some of the wildlife. I don’t think that’s going to work out unless I can get the wildlife to come to me.”

“Give me the camera. I’ll take a picture for you.”

“Not the same thing. Besides, the bear is long gone by now. At least I hope so.” Another yawn escaped Arianna. “That’s my cue to say good-night.”

“Good night. Mark will be back in here—” he checked his watch “—in an hour.”

“Sleep tight then.”

“Don’t you mean sleep light? After all, I am guarding you.”

“Every bodyguard has to grab some good sleep if he or she is going to do a good job. And believe me, I want you to do a good job protecting me.”

He studied her body language as she said those words. “I think you believe what you said, but you also believe you can take care of yourself.”

She smirked. “I’m gonna have to work on fooling you better.”

“No one, not even myself, is invincible. We all need help from time to time.”

“And who do you turn to?”

“God and my partner on the job. In that order.”

Her eyes widened for a second before she rotated toward the hallway and headed toward her bedroom.

Brody watched her leave, flashes of his own experience questioning God’s intention going through his mind. He’d been the lead marshal on an assignment in Los Angeles. The witness he’d been guarding ended up being gunned down on the way to the courthouse because the cell phone in his pocket was used to track his movements.

Brody shook the memory from his mind. That was the past. He couldn’t change it, but he could learn from it. Now Brody needed to be the sharpest marshal he could be. He wasn’t going to lose another witness on his team.

When Mark relieved him later, Brody strode toward his bedroom. His glance strayed toward Arianna’s closed door. She was an interesting woman whose life would never be the same. How would he deal with giving up all he knew and starting over?

* * *

Her earlier adrenaline rush finally subsiding, Arianna removed her Glock from under the mattress and put it on the bedside table within easy reach. That was the only way she would be able to get any kind of sleep. When she lay down and closed her eyes, the image of Brody Callahan, laughing at some of the words she came up with, popped onto the screen of her mind. Though she’d won the Scrabble match, he hadn’t gone down without a fight, challenging a few of the words she’d used that he didn’t know. But mostly she remembered his good nature at losing to her.

Sleep faded the picture of her and Brody facing each other over the Scrabble board and whisked her into a dream world that evolved into a nightmare she hadn’t had in a year—one where she was shoved into a prison cell. As she swept around to rush out, the bars slammed shut, the sound clanging through her mind.

The noise jerked her awake. Her eyelids flew open. Silence greeted her and calmed her racing heart.

Until she heard a muffled thud—as though a silencer had been fired.

TWO

The distinctive sound of a gun with a silencer discharging nearby yanked Brody from sleep. As he rolled out of bed, he grabbed his Glock from his bedside table. Kevin and Mark didn’t have silencers on their weapons, which meant someone had made it inside. Had there been more than one shot? Since he hadn’t heard his partners’ guns going off, he had to assume something happened to them. What had he slept through?

Hurrying toward his door, he shoved deep down the thought of the worst occurring. He couldn’t afford to be sidetracked. He had to be as detached and professional as possible. There would be time later for emotion.

He eased open the door a crack and listened. Silence ruled. For a second he wondered if he’d dreamed hearing the sound. Hoped he had. Then a whisper of a noise alerted him to Arianna easing her door open slightly. His gaze seized hers, and he knew she’d heard the same thing. It wasn’t a dream.

The cabin had been compromised. Fortifying himself with a deep breath, he swung the door open wide and stepped out into the hallway with his Glock pointed toward the living room. To his side he noticed Arianna stepping into the corridor. He shook his head. She ignored him and continued out into the hall with a gun in her hand.

He shouldn’t be surprised she’d brought her own gun to the cabin. He would have in her place. But still he frowned and tried to convey silently that she get back into her room.

A low moan coming from the living room refocused his full attention on the threat in the cabin. Short of handcuffing her to her bed, she would be backing him up. Waving her behind him, he crept down the hallway. At least this way he could shield her.

Toward the entrance into the living room, he slowed and flattened himself against the wall then inched forward. Much to his dismay Arianna copied him but on the other side of the corridor. She brought her Glock up, both hands clasping it. She ignored the displeasure he knew showed on his face, her gaze trained on the living area.

At the moment, survival was the most important objective. He gave up trying to have Arianna hang back. He knew from all the reports she was very capable of handling herself so he indicated she cover the left side of the room while he took the right. They entered in unison.

One large man was dragging Mark’s body out of sight while Brody glimpsed another intruder by the front door.

“Drop your weapons,” Brody said, preparing for them not to obey.

The guy moving Mark ducked down behind the kitchen counter while the one at the door raised his gun and fired. Arianna squeezed off a round at the shooter then stepped back behind the wall into the hallway for cover. While that intruder went down with a wound to the chest, Brody dived behind the couch and crawled forward to get a better angle on the attacker in the kitchen. He popped up at the same time Brody aimed his Glock and took the man out. The thud resounded through the cabin when he crashed to the floor.

Brody rose, swinging around in a full circle to make sure there were no more assailants in the cabin. Arianna had disappeared down the hallway, and the sound he heard now of doors opening and closing as she checked each room raised his admiration for the lady’s skills.

When Arianna came back, he said, “I’m checking outside. There may be more. I need to see where Kevin is. You’ll have to see if Mark is alive. From his injury, I don’t think he is.” But he prayed his partner was. And Kevin.

“Be careful. Sending two men to kill four doesn’t make sense.”

“I know. That’s what concerns me.” As he approached the intruder by the door, he leaned over and felt for a pulse. “This one is dead.”

Arianna arrived in the kitchen. “So is this guy.”

He opened the door. “What about Mark?”

Ducking down behind the counter, Arianna answered in a heavy voice, “Dead.”

That was what he’d thought. With a head wound Mark hadn’t had a chance to get a shot off. And to get into the cabin they had to go through Kevin. A young marshal with only a year’s experience. Again he reminded himself to tamp down his emotions. Later he could mourn the dead. His only goal was to protect Arianna.

“Lock this after I leave.” Dread at what he would find blanketed him as he slipped through the front door out onto the porch. Already the night sky started growing light as sunrise neared at four-thirty.

No one was on the porch. Alert, every muscle taut with tension, Brody descended the steps and slinked toward the left side of the cabin. When he rounded the corner, a man plowed into him, sending him flying back. Brody managed to keep a grip on his gun even while his arms flung out. The impact with the ground caused the air to swoosh from him. The bulky assailant crushed him into the dirt, sitting on him, knees pinning down his arms and fists pounding into Brody’s upper body and face. Stars swam before Brody’s eyes. From deep inside him he drew on his reserve, fueled by a spurt of adrenaline. He was the only thing standing between Arianna and death.

Between punches Brody sucked in a shallow breath, laced with the scent of sweat, then poured what strength he had into freeing one of his pinned arms. When he did, Brody cuffed the brute on the side of the head with his Glock. The man’s drive slowed. Brody struck him again with the butt of the weapon.

His assailant growled and swiveled his upper body, grasping the hand that held the weapon. His attacker wrestled Brody for the gun, trying to twist his arm—possibly to break it. The Glock hovered between them. Brody focused all his will on an effort to regain control of the weapon. His chest burned with the lack of oxygen. The gun wavered inches from Brody, the barrel slowly turning toward him. A dark haze edged into his mind. Brody sent up a silent plea to God, and with a last burst of strength, he halted the Glock’s momentum, then he began turning the end toward his assailant’s torso.

Brody pulled his finger around the trigger with the man’s hand still covering his. Brody stared into his attacker’s dark eyes as the bullet exploded from the weapon, striking his assailant’s chest. He jerked then slumped over, pinning Brody to the ground.

His ears ringing, the scent of gunpowder filling his nostrils, he shoved the man off him and scrambled away, never taking his eyes off his attacker. In the dim light of predawn he felt for a pulse. Gone. He checked the man’s pockets for ID. There was none, but he found a switchblade with blood on it. Brody searched the area.

What happened here? Where is Kevin?

Tension stretched every nerve to beyond its limit. Rising, Brody kept scanning the terrain as he circled the cabin, using the shadows to cover his presence as much as possible. By the time he reached the porch again, he was even more confused by what had happened. Kevin was nowhere he could see, and he hadn’t encountered anyone or anything else suspicious.

When he knocked on the door, he said, “It’s Brody.” He noticed the drapes over the window move, then a few seconds later the click on the lock sounded in the quiet. Too quiet. No birds tweeted. No howls of the wolves he’d heard earlier. The hairs on his nape stood up.

How did the assailants arrive? Not by helicopter. He would have heard that. By four-wheel drive? By foot?

The door swung open. Arianna took one look at him and dragged him inside. “I hope the other guy looks worse.”

“He’s dead. I can’t find Kevin. At least he’s not near the cabin or in the open area.”

“I almost came out when I heard the gunshot to check on you.”

“What stopped you?”

“Whether you believe it or not, I can follow orders. I figured if someone killed you, my best chance was in here, and if you got the jump on one of them, you’d be back. I was going to give you another five minutes before reassessing what I needed to do. In the meantime, I checked the pockets of these two. No identification on them. All they brought with them was their Wilson Combat revolvers and this.” She held her palm flat with a piece of paper on it. “A detailed map to this cabin.”

“Great. They didn’t just stumble upon us.”

“You thought they did?”

“No, but I could dream they had and no one else knew about the cabin yet. At least until I could get you safely away from here.”

Arianna’s mouth pinched into a frown as she stared at the nearest dead assailant. “As you know, we have to assume the worse. Did the guy outside have anything on him?”

“He had a switchblade with blood on it and no ID.”

Her gaze returned to his face. “No gun?”

“In a holster at the small of his back under his jacket. Not the best place to draw quickly. I surprised him coming around the corner. We’re getting out of here.”

“You’re not calling this in?”

“No. Something isn’t right. How did these guys find us? Where’s Kevin?”

“Do you think he’s dead, too, or that he let someone know I was here?”

“Don’t know, and since I don’t, I can’t trust anyone until I know more. My job is to keep you alive to testify. I intend to do my job. Even more now. Rainwater has made this personal.” Brody strode into the kitchen and washed the blood off his hands and face. “Get one of the marshals’ duffel bags. Stuff what you think we can use in it. We don’t have transport out of here, so we’ll have to go on foot and find a place to camp. Bring food that is easy to carry. We won’t use a fire to cook.”

“Yeah, too risky.”

He gestured at his bloody clothes. “I’m changing and gathering what I can from the bedrooms. I imagine the ranger has a lot of what we may need for camping.”

Arianna snapped her fingers. “Be right back.” She rushed down the hallway and returned a half minute later with her camera.

“I don’t think this is a good time to take pictures of the wilderness.”

She smiled. “Not the wilderness but these two animals. When we get back to Anchorage, I want to make sure we find out who they are and who they work for.”

“That’s easy. Rainwater.”

“But who they are might help us get Rainwater for a murder of a federal agent.”

He covered the distance to the hall. “Are you sure you weren’t a cop before this?”

“No, but when you protect others you learn things. Change and take care of those cuts or I will. There’s a first aid kit in the bathroom.”

“Don’t have the time. I’ll do it later. I want to leave in ten minutes. We don’t know who else is out there and how long it will take them to realize these guys didn’t succeed. When they figure that out, they’ll come looking for us.”

The thought there could be more than three sent to kill them spurred him to move as fast as his throbbing body allowed. Now that the adrenaline had faded, the pain came to the foreground. But he wouldn’t allow it to interfere with what had to be done.

* * *

After snapping pictures of both of the intruders, Arianna found a backpack in the storage closet off the kitchen and decided to use that instead of one of the marshals’ duffel bags. Easier to carry and since it was large it would hold about the same amount of items. As she stuffed what food she could into the bag, she glimpsed Mark on the floor nearby and steeled her resolve to bring to justice the person responsible for his death.

As a soldier she’d seen death, sometimes on a large scale. As a bodyguard she hadn’t been exposed to it much in the past four years. She’d worked hard to keep it that way by protecting her clients the best she could. But now there were three dead bodies in the cabin and at least one outside, possibly Kevin’s, too. She’d wanted to help and protect people without the death. But it had found her that evening when she’d witnessed Thomas Perkins’s murder and wouldn’t let go.

After scouring the kitchen and living room for anything they could use, she hurried to her bedroom and grabbed what she might need from her own possessions. The last things she put into her backpack were the camera and flashlight. Although the night was only about four hours long, they might need the light, especially if they had to find shelter in a cave.

“Ready?” A rifle with a scope clutched in one hand and his duffel bag in the other, Brody stood in the entrance to her bedroom, dressed in clean jeans and T-shirt with hiking boots, a light parka and his Glock strapped in his holster at his waist. His face still looked as though the man had used him as a punching bag. When they were safely away from the cabin, she intended to treat those cuts.

She slung the pack onto her back. “Yes. Do we have all the ammunition?”

“Yes, what there is. I wish we had more rounds for the rifle, but for the handguns we should be fine. I found a map and a compass in the ranger’s bedroom closet.” He swung around and started for the front door.

Arianna followed. “I hate leaving Mark like this.”

Brody stepped out onto the porch. “I can’t call this in. I don’t want anyone to know the assassins didn’t succeed in killing us all. I don’t know how they found us. I can’t trust anyone.”

“And we can’t even take the satellite phone with us,” she murmured, thinking about the GPS in cell phones. Great way to track someone.

“Not if we don’t want more assassins finding us. We’re on our own and I don’t intend to make it easy for anyone to track us.” Brody used the pair of binoculars hanging around his neck to scan the terrain stretching out before them.

“What happens when we reach Anchorage?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll have to stash you someplace safe until you can testify because I intend to get you to that trial. Rainwater isn’t going to win this one. One of my men, possibly two, are dead because of that man.” He checked the compass then descended the steps. “Let’s go.”

“If they come after us, they’ll know we’re heading for Anchorage. There aren’t too many ways in.”

“I know. That’s why we aren’t going straight there. We’re heading east toward Fairbanks, not southwest. They’ll be watching all the direct routes to Anchorage.”

“But we have to still get to Anchorage.”

“Once I find some transportation, I’ll figure out a way. I can’t see us walking the whole way to Anchorage anyway. Time is against us. If they can’t kill us, they’ll still succeed in freeing Rainwater if you don’t show up to testify.”

“That isn’t going to happen.” She’d already waited so long for the chance to testify, spending almost two months in Kentucky until the U.S. Marshals Service had moved her back to Alaska. Two months separated from her family and friends. Her employer at Guardians, Inc. only knew that she had gone into the Witness Protection Program, and after that, she had to cut all ties. “I didn’t go through the last two months for nothing.” She ground her teeth, wishing she could grind her fists into the face of the person responsible for giving the cabin’s location away.

“Even if you didn’t get to testify, I doubt Rainwater would want you alive.”

Arianna slanted a look at the harsh planes of Brody’s face. Determination molded his features and steeled the hard look in his brown eyes. “That’s my thinking, too. If I have to give up my life, I want it to be for something.”

After Arianna took a picture of the third assailant, she and Brody headed toward the trees. The sun hung low on the horizon as it started its ascent. A dense stand of spruce, willow and birch up ahead offered them shelter from being in the open. Brody increased his pace the lighter the day became. When the thick wooded area swallowed them into a sea of green, he slowed his gait.

“If you need to rest, let me know. I tend to push.”

“That’s fine by me. But I do think we need to stop and take care of your cuts. Did the guy have a ring on?”

“You know at the time I didn’t think about that. I was just trying to stop him.”

“The cut over your eye is oozing blood. So is the one on your right cheek. Doesn’t the scent of blood attract predators?”

“I guess it could. I didn’t think about that, either. Too busy trying to figure out the best way to proceed. We’ll stop for a brief rest after we’ve gone a little deeper into this forest.”

“Maybe the U.S. Marshals Service will discover we’re missing before the bad guys realize their assassin team didn’t succeed.”

A frown descended on Brody’s beat-up face. “But who do we trust? I still can’t figure out how they knew where we were. Few did. And the map that guy had was very precise.”

“And another burning question is Kevin’s whereabouts.” Arianna pictured the young marshal with the ready smile. Did he betray them? What happened to him? Money lured a lot of people to do evil things. “I don’t want them to find him dead, but what if he gave the cabin’s location away? That was the first time he was on duty outside, and the assassins just happened to get inside the cabin without anyone knowing. They surprised Mark or we would have heard a commotion.”

“That’s what I’m wrestling with. I don’t want to think it’s one of us, but I have to consider that. Or—” Brody paused for a long moment “—it was someone from the first team at the cabin, especially because of the detailed map. Until we were flown in, I couldn’t have drawn the kind of map they had. If it was Kevin, how could he have gotten the map to them ahead of time?”

“It has to have been an inside job, especially in light of the safe house being compromised in Anchorage. I don’t believe in coincidences. Two places compromised in a case? Doesn’t happen without inside information.”

“And Rainwater has deep pockets. He’s a crook but money can be influential.”

As they went through a thicker area of trees, branches slapped against Arianna’s arms while she threaded her way through the woods right behind Brody. “In a perfect world, money and power wouldn’t count.”

“It does in this world, and Rainwater has a lot of both. But somewhere along the line, we’re going to have to trust someone, especially if we want to figure out who’s behind this.”

“I have to. My life will depend on that. I can’t go into the Witness Protection Program with the thought that some marshal might have betrayed me and could do it again. Rainwater, even if he gets off, won’t stop until I’m dead.”

“Agreed.” He halted and faced her, intensity vibrating off him. “We have to discover who is behind this and get you to Anchorage to testify.”

Blood trickled down his cheek. The urge to touch him and wipe it away assailed her. “This looks safe enough to stop for a few minutes. I need to take care of your cuts. You’re still bleeding.”

“A limb hit me in the face. Probably opened a few cuts that had clotted.” Brody glanced around. “How about over there?”

“Fine.” Arianna trekked to a less dense patch under a group of mountain alders. Dropping her pack on the ground, she relished the weight being off her shoulders for a few minutes. “Sit while I clean your cuts and bandage a couple of them.” She retrieved the first aid kit and opened it.

“Did I tell you I’m not a good patient?”

“No, but too bad. I can’t afford for you to get an infection.”

“I doubt—” At that moment, she wiped the deepest cut on his cheek with a pad doused in alcohol, and he yanked back. “It’s obvious you’re no Florence Nightingale.”

She grinned, winking at him. “Never claimed to be. I’m sure we shouldn’t stay here long so speed is important.” She moved on to the next wound.

“Yeah, the farther away we are from the cabin the safer we’ll be.”

He stayed perfectly still, his gaze fixed on her. She tried to ignore it, but it was hard. Her stomach clenched into a tight ball. His eyes seemed to penetrate deep into her—as though trying to discover her innermost secrets. She had no intention of sharing those with him or anyone.

“Close your eyes. I want to take care of the one near your left one. I wouldn’t want to get alcohol in your eye.”

His gaze narrowed for a few seconds before he shut it completely. She dabbed the pad on the cut, relieved for the short break from his intense look. Slowly the knots unraveled in her gut. With his eyes closed, she got a chance to scrutinize him without him seeing. His features weren’t handsome, but there was a strength and ruggedness to them that gave a person the impression he knew how to take care of himself. That appealed to her. Probably too much.

Caring about a person who was protecting you wasn’t wise. Just as caring about a person you were protecting wasn’t wise. Her hand quivered as she pressed a small bandage over the cut near his eye, then proceeded to put two more on the other ones that kept bleeding.

“What made you go into the private sector as a bodyguard?”

His question surprised her, and yet it shouldn’t have. He no doubt was assessing her and deciding if he could trust her to protect his back. Whether he liked it or not, they were in this as a team. “Instead of law enforcement?”

“Yes.”

“Money and the freedom my job allows me. When I left the service, I knew I wanted to use my skills to protect people. In my different tours in the army, I saw a lot of defenseless people who were victims of their circumstances. Guardians, Inc. is a business but Kyra Hunt, my boss, also helps people who can’t usually afford to have a paid bodyguard.”

“When I knew I would be protecting you, I did some checking into Guardians, Inc. It’s a top-notch company with a good reputation.”

“Kyra only employs the best.”

“And she hired you?”

She laughed. “I’ll try not to be offended by that remark.”

“Don’t be. I’ve read about your assignments. You’re very good at your job.”

Ignoring his remark, she taped the last bandage into place. “I’m finished. You’re not as good as new, but it will have to do.” She put the packaging from the items she’d used back into the first aid kit, not wanting to leave any evidence they had been there behind for someone to find.

His eyes remained closed.

“You didn’t fall asleep on me, did you?”

“No, I was running through my mind what went down at the cabin, trying to figure out what happened, how they might have known where we were. How did they get there? Who would have talked with them?”

“Any clues?”

His eyelids slowly rose, and his look snared hers. “No, and now we don’t have the time to dally and try to figure it out. Let’s go.” He pushed to his feet.

Arianna stood, stretching to ease the tightness in her shoulders and back. “I’m ready.” She reached for her pack when a roar echoed through the stand of trees. A familiar roar.

She shot up and whirled around. Through the woods a large grizzly bear standing on its hind legs stared right at them.

THREE

Forty yards separated Arianna from the grizzly, still perched on its hind legs. Watching. “Is this the same one that was at the cabin?”

“Don’t know. I don’t see any cubs around.”

“Oh, good. Another bear. What do we do? Run? Climb the tree behind us?”

Brody turned his head slightly but still kept tabs on the brown bear by slanting a glance toward it. “Don’t look directly at it.”

“But—”

Before she could finish her sentence Brody straightened as tall as he could, raised his arms and waved them. “Bears are curious. I’m challenging it. Follow suit.” Then in a shout he said, “Leave us alone,” over and over.

Arianna mimicked what Brody was doing, hoping he knew what he was doing. She was all for spinning around and running as fast as her legs could carry her.

The grizzly dropped to all four legs. It charged them but stopped about twenty-five yards away.

“This isn’t working.” Arianna’s heartbeat sped, her mouth dry. She might not have to worry about Rainwater’s men.

“Back away slowly, still waving your arms and shouting.”

“Isn’t this calling attention to us?”

“Yep, but a gunshot would make more noise. Carry farther.”

One step back. Then another. Arianna looked sideways at the bear. It stood on its hind legs again, pointing its nose up in the air as though the grizzly was sniffing it. She kept moving, going between two trees.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t climb a tree?”

“Grizzly bears can climb a tree.”

“What else can they do?” Arianna asked, watching the animal lower itself onto all fours again.

“Swim and run fast.”

The bear roared.

Arianna gasped while Brody brought the rifle up.

The grizzly gave one last vocal protest then loped off toward the east, disappearing in the thickness of a stand of pines.

Brody rotated around. “Let’s get out of here before it changes its mind and returns for us.”

“Now you’re talking.” But as she hurried away, she glanced back every few steps to make sure the bear wasn’t behind them. The pounding of her pulse echoed through her mind.

“We need to keep moving. It’s been several hours since we were attacked. If I was running that mission, I’d be wondering why my men hadn’t come back and go investigate.”

“The Marshals Service will investigate when you don’t call in this morning.”

“Yes, so the best thing for us is to put as much distance between us and the cabin. We don’t want anyone to know where we are, not even the marshals. When we get to Fairbanks, we can check the news to see what, if anything, is being said.”

Arianna slowed her pace and twisted around once more to make sure the bear wasn’t following them. She’d heard stories about a bear tracking a person, appearing every once in a while then attacking. She didn’t want to be one of those stories. All she saw was a thick, green forest around her—a perfect place for someone—or some animal—to hide and wait for the right time to strike.

* * *

After a couple of hours of walking as fast as they could through dense woods and rugged terrain, Brody spied a place that probably had been used as a campsite in the past. Thankfully it showed no signs of recent use. “Let’s stop and eat something.” He pointed at a crop of rocks. “I’m going up there to scout out our surroundings.” He took out his compass. “And make sure we’re going in the right direction.”

“Did I tell you I don’t cook?” Arianna said with a laugh. “So all you’ll get is something easy. Like peanut butter sandwiches without the jelly, and I’m afraid the bread has been squashed.”

After finding his first foothold, Brody peered at Arianna already digging into her backpack. “Right now anything sounds good. I’m starving.”

“So am I.”

Her gaze linked with his, and he glimpsed the toll the past hours had taken on Arianna. There were many people he guarded in the Witness Protection Program, but some were criminals. The ones like Arianna always got to him. The ones who weren’t trying to cut a deal or avoid the consequences of their actions, but were simply testifying because it was the right thing to do, no matter what the cost. He couldn’t imagine giving up his life and having to start a new one. But she would have to once the trial was over.

He climbed the outcropping of rocks until he reached a perch where he could lie down and scope out the area without being seen. He was most concerned with the terrain between them and the cabin.

The wind whipped against his face, carrying the scent of burning wood. A campfire nearby? Frowning, he focused the binoculars in the direction they’d come. A roiling mushroom of dark smoke billowed into the sky.

Was the cabin burning? The forest around it?

He trained his binoculars on the area, trying to see anything that would give him an idea of what they were up against. He couldn’t tell. After checking all the surroundings, he scrambled down the rocks and hurried to Arianna.

“We need to keep moving.”

She handed him a sandwich. “Take a few minutes to eat.” Studying his face, she pushed to her feet. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s a fire behind us and the wind is blowing this way. I’m guessing it’s four miles back, but it has been dry in this part of Alaska, so there’s a lot of dry timber between us and the forest fire.” He took a bite of the sandwich, hefted his duffel bag and then slung his rifle over his shoulder. “Let’s go. We’ll eat and walk.”

“You think Rainwater’s men started a fire at the cabin? Why would they do that?”

“Maybe to cover up any evidence. To cause confusion. They had to know the U.S. Marshals Service would know when something happened at the cabin.”

“The fire means a lot of firefighters will be in this area.”

“Making it harder for us. Rainwater’s men can infiltrate the firefighters, using that as a cover for being here.”

Arianna nodded as she finished the last of her sandwich. “Which way?”

“There’s a river up ahead of us.” He checked the compass then pointed northeast. “We’ll have to cross it. It should be low because of no rainfall in the past month, but we’ll still have to swim.”

Arianna slowed her gait. “Is there a way around the river?”

“It stands between us and Fairbanks. Why?”

“I can’t swim well. Just enough to get by.”

“You can’t?” He’d never considered that. “Why not?”

“I almost drowned as a child. I was caught in a flood. Rushing water scares me. Is this river like that?”

“Yes. At least when it’s low you can see the rocks.” He wished there was another way to get across other than swimming. Arianna had already gone through enough.

She stopped and swept around toward him. The pallor on her face highlighted her fear. “I can do a lot of things. Climb up tall structures. Parachute out of a plane. Snakes, rats, spiders don’t bother me, but rushing water does. I’m only okay in a pool—still water.”

He hated to see the fear in her eyes, but there was nothing he could say to make it better. “We don’t have the time to find a way around the river. We have to cross it and there isn’t a bridge for miles. Besides, those will be watched.”

Closing her eyes, she drew in a deep breath. “Okay.”

She rotated back around and started forward, her strides long. But Brody had glimpsed how scared she was and wasn’t sure how they would get across the river that was a favorite of those who liked to ride the rapids.

* * *

Brody came down from climbing a tree to check the progress of the fire. His grim expression spoke of their dire situation even before he said, “It’s moving fast. Faster than us. Animals are fleeing the area—an elk herd is off to the right of us. But what is even more alarming is that I saw three dogs with several handlers—all armed. No uniforms on so we need to assume unfriendly.”

Dogs. Tracking dogs were hard to evade. Determined and relentless described the ones she’d worked with in the past in the service. “We’re boxed in then with the river on one side and the fire and dogs on the other.”

“Yes, and they are about two miles ahead of the fire so let’s getting moving.”

Arianna thrust a bottle of water into his hand. “Drink, and eat this protein bar. We’re gonna need to keep our energy up.”

After taking a swig of water, he started out at a fast clip, making his own path through the forest. “We’ve got to eat on the run. No other way.”

As she set into a jog, Arianna wolfed down her food. Her muscles burned from exhaustion and only her strong determination kept her putting one foot in front of the other. She refused to dwell on what she would face at the river. The scent of the fire intensified even as they moved away from it. When she inhaled deep breaths as she ran, she couldn’t fill her lungs with enough oxygen. Pain in her side stabbed her, her breathing grew more labored with each stride she took.

She periodically looked over her shoulder, checking the area behind her. At any second she had to be prepared to encounter people. Whether friend or foe didn’t matter because they couldn’t take a chance on being seen.

Brody came to an abrupt halt, his arm going up to indicate he heard something ahead of them. Arianna nearly collided with him but managed to stop in time.

He pointed to the left then whispered into her ear, “Someone’s coming.”

Arianna glimpsed something orange where he’d indicated. She scanned the forest, saw a place they could hide and tugged on Brody. She just hoped it wasn’t a tracker with a dog or their hiding would be in vain.

As quiet as possible, she crept through the underbrush with Brody at her side. Lying down on the forest floor beneath some dense foliage, she pulled her gun, praying she didn’t have to use it. Brody brought the rifle around and aimed it in the direction where he saw the orange.

Two men dressed as hunters, rifles in their hands, trekked toward the fire. While in Kentucky, Arianna had familiarized herself with every person known to be associated with Joseph Rainwater. She had planned on going back to Alaska as prepared as she could be. The larger of the two that passed within ten yards of their location was Boris Mankiller, an appropriate name for him because he was believed to be one of Rainwater’s most valuable guns for hire.

Mankiller and his comrade halted about twenty feet away. Mankiller made a slow circle, his rifle raised as though he sensed them nearby. Her heartbeat hammered so fast and loud she wondered if he heard it.

Brody signaled he had his rifle pointed at Mankiller. She lifted her Glock and targeted the man’s comrade, her breath bottled in her lungs.

One minute passed. Mankiller pointed at the sky in the direction of the fire. Arianna glimpsed the growing smoke, obscuring the sun and leaving a dimness in the forest as if it were dusk instead of the middle of the day.

The two parted—one went to the left while the other moved to the right and slightly toward the fire, fanning out. She saw through the foliage another pair of guys a hundred yards away. She leaned toward Brody and whispered, “They’re trying to close in on us.”

“They may be part of an inner ring around the cabin. We need to watch for any people forming an outer circle. Let’s go. It’s even more important to get to the river.”

When he said the word river, a ripple of fear snaked down her spine but her fear of the water was far outweighed by fear of the men after her. In this small part of the forest she knew that Rainwater had four men looking for them. Multiply that over the large area of this wilderness and he must have hired a small army to look for her and anyone left to protect her.

Sneaking out from under the brush, she ran while crouched right behind Brody, swinging her attention back every once in a while to make sure no one had spotted them. Her back hurt from being hunched over and her thighs screamed in protest at the punishing pace Brody set but she didn’t dare voice a complaint.

Forty-five minutes later, Arianna stared down at the raging river, its water churning like a boiling pot of liquid. She froze at the sight.

Brody came up beside her. “You okay?”

She opened her mouth to answer him, but no words formed in her mind, her full attention glued to river. Reminders of when she had been young and swept away from her parents in something similar inundated her. Her younger sister had died in the flood. Arianna had tried to save her, but her grip on Lily had slipped away. The last thing she remembered was her sister’s scream reverberating through her head against the backdrop of the gushing sound of the water—a raging turmoil.

Brody grasped her arm and swung her around. He waited until her gaze latched on to his before saying, “All you have to do is get yourself across the river. I’ll take care of everything else. Okay?”

She nodded, her mouth so dry she should be happy to immerse herself in water. She wasn’t. Fear held her immobile, unable to take a step toward the bank.

She hadn’t known how hard controlling her fear had been until her army unit had been forced to cross a swollen river. Watching one of her comrades swept away by the power of the water brought her childhood trauma to the forefront after years buried deep in her subconscious.

“We don’t have much time to get across the river and hide before the dogs track us to here.”

Her attention drifted away from the water to focus on Brody. “What do you need me to do?”

“We need to wade in the water along the edge as far upstream as we can go, then go straight across. They’ll assume the current will take us downstream.”

“Or they might assume the opposite. Either way we’ll be taking a chance. Actually with all the men I have a feeling are out here, they probably can cover both areas.”

“Don’t forget they can’t be openly looking for you. By now the U.S. Marshals Service is all over here, too.”

“If only we knew who to trust.”

“Can’t take the chance. You don’t know how much that pains me to say.”

She stared into his brown eyes, full of sadness. “I was betrayed by a team member, so yes, I do know how you feel.”

“When we have time, you’ll have to tell me about that.” He took her hand and started down the incline to the river.

Scaring off a bear was nothing to Arianna, but this was a big deal. She stepped into the water until it was swirling about her ankles. Still grasping her hand, Brody led her a few more feet out to where the river came up to her knees, then he trudged upstream. The feel of his fingers around her fortified her with the knowledge she wasn’t alone to face her worst fear.

After about a hundred feet up the river, Brody rounded a corner and came face to face with the water racing over a mound of rocks. Blocked from going any farther in the shallow part of the river, he stopped and took her backpack. He opened it and gave it to Arianna to hold.

“You can’t swim holding the rifle and a duffel bag,” she said.

After removing some rope from his duffel bag, he piled it into the backpack then began adding other items. “I know. I’m putting what I think we need the most in the backpack. The rest I’ll sink in the middle of these rocks. It’ll be hard to find.”

He left food or items that would be ruined from being dunked in the river in the duffel bag, then scrambled up the rocks. When he slipped and fell back into the river, Arianna rushed to help him. Suddenly she realized she stood in thigh-deep water with a strong current tugging at her. Panic seized her. She shoved it down. She had no time to be afraid. The alternative was to stay on this side of the river and try to evade tracking dogs and men with rifles.

She waded to Brody and helped him up, taking the backpack from his hand. “I’ll toss you it when you get up on top of the rocks.”

This time he succeeded without the burden of carrying the pack. She threw it to him. He caught it and disappeared from view. Arianna hastened back closer to shore and waited. Two minutes passed and worry nipped at her composure. She thought about shouting his name over the rushing sound of the water, but that might only lead the dogs and men to their location.

Opening and closing her hands, she gritted her teeth. She’d never been good at waiting. Lord, I know I haven’t been talking with You lately, but please help Brody and me get to Anchorage safely. Rainwater needs to go to prison for what he did. I need You.

The last sentence had been the hardest to say because she’d come to depend on herself so much in the past four years. I don’t know if I can make it across this river without Your help.

As she stared at the rushing river, the earlier tension eased. Suddenly Brody popped up over the rocks then lowered himself down into the water.

He sloshed to her and took the rope and backpack. He slung the backpack over his shoulders, then lifted the rope. “I’m tying this around your chest. This’ll be your line to use. As long as you’re attached, I should be able to help you. Don’t go in until I reach the other side.”

He moved farther out into the rapids, water hitting the rocks and spraying up into the air. With long, even strokes, he headed for the opposite bank at an angle. He didn’t stop until he was over on the other shore. Waving to her, he held up the rope and signaled for her to start.

Sucking in a steadying breath that did nothing to fill her lungs, she waded as far as she could, fighting to keep herself upright with the strong current. Even though Brody had swam at an angle upstream, he’d ended up about ten feet downstream. Was that far enough away from where they first went into the river? But even more importantly, could she keep herself from being swept up in the current?

Two seconds later she plunged into the river, using all the strength she had to dog-paddle toward the other side. Water splashed over her head, and she went under, swallowing some of the river water. Panic threatened to take over. Again she fought to squash it as she struggled to the surface. Her head came up out of the water, and she gasped for air at the same time the current slammed her against some rocks. Black swirled before her eyes.

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