Code Name: Aries by Janie Crouch

5

Wavy

Ian grunted before he grabbed my head once more, pushing me down this time. Then he reached past me and yanked the handle for my door.

“Shit. They found us. We’ve got to go right now. Get out, stay low. Head for the trees.”

Another shot rang out. The headrest of my seat exploded where my head had been a second ago. If Ian hadn’t pushed me down, I’d be dead right now.

“Go!” he yelled, and I crawled out the door, struggling not to panic. Someone was shooting at us.

Ian crawled out right behind me. “Low and fast. Trees. Now.”

He grabbed my hand, and we both ran. Despite my terror, I realized that Ian was keeping himself between me and the direction the bullets were coming from. He jerked me to the left and then the right as we dove for the trees, trying not to make ourselves easy targets.

As soon as we hit the tree line, we straightened, and he pushed me in front of him. “We have to keep running. They’re going to come after us.”

I didn’t argue with him. I had pieces of the headrest all over my clothes, and it should’ve been my brains. Another shot rang out a few seconds later, confirming they were still in pursuit. Worse? They were gaining on us.

Damn it, I spent too much time in my studio and not enough time doing cardio. I was slowing him down. “You need to go without me. They’re going to catch us.” I had to stop for a second to get enough air to continue.

“I’m not leaving you.” But he was looking around for an Option B since running wasn’t going to work. “I don’t have any weapons, so I can’t eliminate them from a distance. I can probably take each of them one-on-one in close combat, but it will be risky.”

“What’s the primary objective here?” I’d been around my brother, the Special Forces soldier, and the Linear guys long enough to know the lingo.

“Getting you out. Survival, always survival.”

“I can’t outrun these guys but I’ve been hanging out in these woods my entire life, so I can out hide them, if you’ll trust me.”

I didn’t pose the statement lightly because I knew he wouldn’t take it lightly. Somebody like Ian DeRose did not trust people easily.

But he just said, “Lead the way.”

Okay. I needed to treat this as the most important game of capture the flag ever. And the key was letting the bad guys get in front of us while thinking that we were still ahead of them. And then finding somewhere to hide. Most of the trees weren’t big enough to provide cover. I started back the way we’d come.

Ian probably didn’t like the fact that we were doubling back toward danger, but he didn’t slow down or resist. He stayed with me. More importantly, the bad guys wouldn’t think we’d head back in their direction.

I could tell when Ian’s instincts told him we were getting too close to danger, and he was right. But I knew where I was going. We had passed a fallen oak a few minutes ago, and I wanted to get back to it. It was as good a place as we were going to find to hide and let them pass. But getting there before they did was going to be close. I pushed myself for more speed, knowing Ian would keep up.

Ian saw the big fallen tree and knew my plan. He took the lead, pulling me along with him. We’d barely gotten behind it, pulling shrubbery around us, when Ian pushed me up against the tree. People were talking.

“We’re gaining on them. The woman is slowing him down,” one of the bad guys said.

“Remember, bring in the man alive,” another replied. “The woman is dispensable.”

Ian pulled me closer, his big body engulfing mine. He was pressed up against me, literally from head to toe. But he was stiff against me, and not in a good way.

“All we have to do is wait for them to tire and then take them. Let’s go.”

Ian and I stayed where we were as the men took off. There was nothing in front of them but thinner trees—nowhere for us to hide. We stayed silent for another couple of minutes before Ian stepped away from me.

As soon as we’d disentangled ourselves from all the branches, he relaxed a little. “It’s not going to take them long to figure out we doubled back.”

I nodded. “We need to get down to the river. It runs parallel to the road we were on. There will be a lot more places to hide. A lot more mature trees.”

We moved silently in that direction, putting as much distance as possible between us and them.

But after a few minutes, I couldn’t help asking, “Is there a reason people are trying to kill you, or is this a normal day for you?”

“I broke into one of their buildings. Got some data I’m sure they don’t want me to have.” He shrugged. “Not to mention Mosaic doesn’t hesitate to kill people whether they have a good reason or not.”

“Where’s my handy tray when I need it?”

He grimaced. “I’d take that weapon or any other right about now.”

“You don’t strike me as someone who’s without a weapon very often. My brothers are like that too.”

“Normally that would be true, but there was a metal detector in the Hemingway building, so Landon and I had to go in unarmed.”

I increased my speed to keep up with him, ignoring the ache starting in my feet. “Does Landon have someone chasing him too?”

“He didn’t when we last spoke. We were separated. But our comm system is short-range, so I can’t reach him now.”

That was why he’d made that strange statement about riding back to Oak Creek with me using my full name. He’d been letting Landon know what was going on.

We both checked our phones, but there was no signal. There wouldn’t be until we were a couple miles from Oak Creek, which was probably fifteen miles north of here.

“Following the river will take us to Oak Creek, but if you want to circle back to the car, we should probably head in the other direction.”

He shook his head. “No, the car is a known location. We can’t go back there. Can you make it?”

It wouldn’t be pretty, but I could. “We’re going to need to move quickly because not only are your killer friends going to circle back around once they realize we’re not ahead of them, but there’s a storm coming this afternoon.”

He looked up. There were clouds in the sky, but they weren’t bad yet. “How can you tell?”

“I’ve lived here all my life. I can taste it when rain is coming.”

He slowed down to look at me. “Really?”

I rolled my eyes. “No, not really. I had a hair appointment scheduled for this afternoon but cancelled it this morning when the weather channel reported a storm system was coming in. Storms and blowouts don’t mix.”

“I’m not going to pretend to understand what that means.”

We picked up the pace. “But storms will work in our favor because I’m not lying when I say I have experience out in these woods. Even in weather that would make other people cry.”

“Then lead the way,” he said. “Let’s make use of your expertise. And your missed blowout.”

* * *

Two hours later, the rain started.

But long before that, I was cursing my choice of shoes. When I’d tricked Finn into telling me where Ian was, I’d decided to put on new, cute little flats with my jeans.

I would give anything right now for my hiking boots or a pair of tennis shoes. Hiking through the wilderness in flats was not fun. Doing it in the rain was downright miserable. I knew I had blisters. I didn’t bother to look.

We moved steadily along the river bank toward home. Normally fifteen miles wouldn’t be daunting. I could cover it in a day’s hike if I wasn’t wearing cute little flats.

But I’d rather have blisters than a bullet in the head, so I kept walking. I kept walking when the pain should have made me stop. I kept walking when I was pretty sure that some of the liquid I could feel was blood, not rain. I kept walking.

I kept going until Ian reached out and grabbed my hand. I spun, startled. “What, do you see them? Are they here?”

I’d been so focused on putting one step in front of the other as quickly as possible that I had no idea if the bad guys had caught up to us or not.

“We need to stop. You’re hurt.”

“I’m okay. It’s just some blisters.”

“Fine, then we need to stop. I’m hurt.”

“You are?”

He nodded. “That first bullet grazed my shoulder.”

I’d had no idea. He hadn’t made a single complaint in the hours we’d been walking. I looked at him more carefully, my aching feet forgotten. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine. It’s a burn from that first bullet that shattered the windshield. But I think it would do us both some good to get out of this weather.”

That sounded like heaven, but I wasn’t sure if it was the best plan. Better to be uncomfortable than dead. “I think the rain is supposed to last all night. We’re still another seven or eight miles from Oak Creek.”

“Yeah, I keep trying my phone, but there’s no signal.”

I rubbed the wet hair away from my face. This was my fault. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taken us this way. If I had gone on the highway—”

“Hey.” He reached out and grabbed both of my arms. “You’ve gotten us this far. You got us away from the people who were chasing us. You’ve been in pain for at least the past two hours, and you haven’t said a word.”

“You knew?” I whispered.

He leaned his forehead against mine, a show of camaraderie. “I expected you to call a halt long before now.”

I nodded. “It’s going to be dark soon, and this isn’t going to get any easier after dark.”

He stepped back, and I wished he were close again. “Then let’s stop and find shelter, at least until the storm passes. Maybe until the morning. I haven’t seen any sign of the Mosaic guys after us. I’m pretty sure they turned back toward their vehicles when the storm started. They’re probably waiting for us to do the same.”

“We should be able to find shelter. I can make something if I have to, but there are all sorts of crannies and caves along the river.”

We trudged along for another twenty minutes. Every step was agony now that I was aware of the blisters. When I saw a break in the river causing a small waterfall, I led us toward it. There was a slight overhang near some boulders. It wasn’t great, but it would at least allow us to get out of the rain.

I shined the light from my phone inside, and when I didn’t see any scary-looking critters, I didn’t hesitate to crawl in and lie down. There wasn’t much room, barely enough to sit up, but it was dry. Ian wasn’t so quick to follow me inside.

“Is this okay? Did you decide we should keep going?” Oh God, I hoped not. I really didn’t think my feet could take it. It felt so good to sit down.

“No.” He finally scooted in next to me. “No, this is fine.”

I turned my phone light back on so he could see. He wasn’t from Wyoming, so he probably didn’t like crawling into dark caves that might have all sorts of creatures inside.

Or maybe he was hurt worse than I’d thought. He was unnaturally stiff. No sigh of relief to be off his feet and out of the rain. No quips about being attacked by bears.

“Do I need to look at your arm?” Not that there was much that I could do about it.

“No.” His voice was tight. “I’m okay.”

He didn’t sound okay at all. Maybe he thought we should keep going. I didn’t know how I’d do it, but I would if I had to. “I’m pretty sure my feet resemble ground beef. It’s not pretty. But I can keep going if you think we should.”

He sucked in a breath, then let it out. “No. You need to rest. Staying here is the smartest move. If one of us turned an ankle, it would be worse.”

Thank goodness.

He sat up as much as the cave would allow. “Let me look at your feet. We should treat those. Otherwise, you’re not going to be able to walk on them tomorrow. And like you said, we still have quite a few miles to go.”

“I have no clue how to treat blisters like this.”

“Puncturing each one is the best thing for them. Normally, I would have a knife. You don’t happen to have a safety pin, do you?”

I did. Oh Lord. Every time I was with him, I thought I couldn’t say or do something more mortifying than the time before, yet here I was about to top it again.

“I do have a safety pin. It’s holding the back part of my bra together.” I’d changed into cute flats at the possibility of seeing Ian, but that he might get up close and personal with my bra had never occurred to me.

For the first time since we’d entered the little cave, he relaxed the slightest bit. “That will work fine if you’re willing to sacrifice it.”

I peeled my gross, wet blouse away from me as best I could and reached around to try to unhook my bra, but it was stuck in the fabric. I couldn’t do it.

He chuckled. “Can I help?”

Despite my mortification, I liked the sound of that soft laugh. “I think you might have to.”

I don’t know how his hands could be warm in all this, but they were as they moved against the skin of my back and found the safety pin holding the bra together. Damn it, I had meant to get a new one for the past three months but had never gotten around to it.

“Got it,” he said.

Was it my imagination or did his fingers trail along the skin of my back as he pulled them away?

He slid down to my feet and eased my shoes off. He switched on his phone light. “Those look pretty rough.”

“I probably shouldn’t look at them. It’s better if I can’t visualize it.”

“I understand. Hang on. I’ll puncture the worst ones and drain the fluid. It would be best if we had some sort of bandage, but this is better than nothing. Better than them rupturing.”

“How do you know all this?” I wanted to keep him talking. Anything to take my mind off fluid oozing from my feet.

“I’ve had plenty of blisters during my Navy SEAL years.”

I shouldn’t be surprised. Finn had been Special Forces in the army. A lot of the Linear Tactical guys had served with him. It was no surprise Ian had that same sort of training.

He had punctured the first blister as he spoke. I couldn’t feel any pain since the skin was dead, but I could feel the pressure.

His hands were gentle on my feet. “You’re pretty tough to keep moving on these. I’ve seen full-fledged soldiers roll over and cry with less.”

“That might still happen. I’m such a visual learner that not seeing them is probably the best possible thing for me. If I saw them, I’d be convinced I was about to die.”

The pin lanced the second blister. But again, his hands were so gentle, I couldn’t say that it hurt.

“One more,” he said softly. His thumb trailed over the arch of my foot, and I shivered a little.

When I’d taken off for Reddington City a few hours ago on my ill-planned attempt to spend time with him, this was not what I’d had in mind.

But it was sort of nice. He was gentle. Soothing.

“Okay, done. You get an A plus as a patient.”

“Well, you get an A minus as a doctor since you didn’t wash your hands. But that’s not bad.”

He chuckled again. I loved that sound. It was so rusty and disused. I liked drawing those little laughs out of him. He pinned my bra back in place, and I could swear his fingers trailed over my skin again.

But when he lay down beside me, he was tense again. I almost asked him what was wrong, but I’d have to be an idiot not to know the answer.

We were spending the night in the wilderness with armed thugs after us. Both of us were injured and we had no food or water. Any normal person would be tense.

So yeah, I was an idiot for enjoying myself a little. I should be as tense as him.