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“I can’t claim the credit. Tess is the one who saved you.” Mark gestured behind him.
Having overheard the conversation, she bristled at the hunter’s assumption a man fired the saving shot and limped over to join the men. “The sniper was aiming right at you, so I took my shot at his gun before he could pull the trigger.”
“Well, your shot saved our lives, ma’am. Thank you.” Bob’s eyebrows flew up, and he did a double take. He shook Tess’s hand and squinted. “Good Lord, what kind of trouble are you folks in?”
Tess only could imagine how wrecked she and Mark must appear. Judging from the sting of countless lacerations suffered during her ravine fall, she figured she was literally a bloody mess, and her leg stood at an unnatural angle. Her ripped, stained ivory blouse stuck out from under the barn coat.
Mark hadn’t fared any better. Huge bruises in multiple shades splotched across his skin, and blood stains ruined his blue shirt.
Derek stepped closer and inspected their faces. “Holy crap, you must be those people kidnapped from Cedarcliff. Your photos were on the TV news, and all of British Columbia is searching for you two.”
“Yes, I’m Tess Bennett. We were taken hostage but escaped into the woods. How far is the highway?” Impatient to leave, she wasted no time grilling them.
“I’m Mark Nygaard, and we need a hospital. Do you have a car?”
“Yeah, a kilometer away. We gotta hike there to get cell reception to call 9-1-1.” Bob blinked before taking a last glance at Alexi.
She followed Bob’s gaze to the residual gore on the ground around Alexi’s corpse. His cheeks paled under his reddish beard, and he registered a mix of shock and disgust.
“Thanks for the help. Glad you two weren’t hurt.” Mark coughed, emitting a wheezing sound.
“My brother and me, we know these woods like the back of our hands. We’re not gonna let a damn sniper gun us down in our backyard,” Bob said.
“Let’s leave the sniper here and get you folks to safety. Tess, we’ll help you hike out of here.” Derek extended his arm, gesturing for her to hold on.
“I can manage.” Determined to leave the woods by her own power, she clenched her jaw tight and concentrated on bearing her pain. Defenses on high alert, she feared Yuri and Dmitry could ambush them any second. The open clearing where they stood left their group exposed like sitting ducks. “Let’s go.”
“Damn it, Tess. You’re wounded and bleeding. Let us help you,” Mark said.
She pretended not to see his stern frown or hear the exasperation in his voice. Despite protesting, she ended up sandwiched between Mark and Derek and wound an arm around each of them to support herself while taking small, deliberate steps with her good leg. Traversing the steep incline aggravated the leg wound, and her initial relief of being rescued faded as the pain intensified.
Careful not to slide down the steep sections, the motley crew of four made their way out of the woods in a jumbled mass, and the terrain shifted to a hilly meadow.
“Se, jeg fortalte deg at vi ville overleve. I told you we’d survive,” Mark whispered in her ear and squeezed her shoulder.
His soft breath warmed her cheek, and she managed a faint smile before channeling all her energy into moving forward. The majestic British Columbia mountains sprang up from nowhere, touching the sky, and she hadn’t noticed them since the night she arrived at Cedarcliff. After crossing a small meadow, she spotted a battered, four-seater pickup truck parked alongside an empty dirt road lined with cedar trees.
Clicking the back of his truck open, Bob reached into a box on the flatbed and handed them water bottles.
Derek helped her into the truck’s back seat and wrapped a wooly blanket around her shoulders.
Once seated, she gulped her entire bottle of water and glanced at her leg. A red spot spread in a circle several inches in diameter on the thin bandaging. Whatever the cause, it wasn’t a good sign.
Mark slid into the back seat beside her and elevated her right leg on his lap to inspect the makeshift dressing he had applied at the ravine. “You’ve got resurgent bleeding, and I need to tighten these.” After applying pressure directly to stop the bleeding, he untied the bandages, then retied them tighter.
The strip of shirt cloth above her ankle constricted several notches, and she winced. Instead of increasing her comfort, the leg’s sensation trickled away and became numb. Nerves sparked at random intervals, stinging her like a hundred knife tips puncturing skin. Energy reserves spent, she leaned her head against the dusty vinyl headrest and prayed for cell reception.
Outside her door, Bob stood with his phone in hand and punched in three digits on the keypad. “9-1-1? Yeah, we found the Cedarcliff hostages out here in the hunting preserve. We need an ambulance ASAP.” He raised a thumb and nodded at Tess.
While waiting, she drifted off toward delirium but jerked her head up several times to stay awake. When the sound of tires grinding over gravel grew louder, she felt relief pour through her veins. Never had Tess heard a more welcome noise.
A Royal Canadian Mounted Police SUV screeched to a stop and parked next to Bob’s truck. Two uniformed officers jumped out, and the older-looking man with a gray crew cut waved at the two brothers. The senior officer approached the truck where Mark leaned against the open door, just outside where she sat inside the cab.
“Folks, I’m Sergeant Hal Morrison. You two were damn lucky to survive this.”
“I’m Tess Bennett. Glad to be alive.” She rallied long enough to nod. Too exhausted to say more, she listened to the men’s conversation outside the cab.
“And you must be Dr. Nygaard.” Morrison tipped his hat at Mark.
