I catch the guy on the rock outcropping in the shoulder. The bullet hits him and he spins, falling off the rock. There’s half a second of elation and a murmured, “Good lass!” from Ethan and then I see the third man has been joined by yet three more.
“You’ve got to be fuckingkiddingme,” I groan.
“How many,” he grits out.
“Four total.”
“Ya know what to do. Keep hanging onto me, nice and tight.” His biceps are in my face, bulging and flexing as he makes his way down the cliff. I chance a quick glance down at the bridge and it still seems so far away.
A high buzz races past my ear and I realize it’s a bullet. That asshole at the head of the pack is standing above us, legs spread and already firing again. This one strikes the rock, sending chips in all directions and one hits my cheekbone.
I need both hands to shoot up and I tighten my legs, probably cutting off Ethan’s circulation. My legs are strong, I really did run a lot but the muscles are already quivering and I’m praying I don’t flop over backward.
The man above us is so close that I can see his cruel smile as he takes aim.
Sight… point… pull the trigger.
Our bullets must pass each other because Ethan groans as the bastard’s hits his thigh, but mine hit the mark and I spitefully enjoy the gunman’s slow look of shock as the red blooms on his chest and he falls back out of sight.
“Three bullets left,” I whisper.
Ethan’s breath is harsh in my ear, sweat trickling down his forehead but he never deviates from that cold, focused expression. His bad leg slips and I stifle a scream as we dangle for a moment over the gorge, the white water frothing madly in the narrow stone channel as we spin gently at least thirty feet from solid ground until he finds his footing again.
I sight the closest man racing down the trail and grit my teeth. The shot goes wide and I groan inside.Two bullets left, you idiot.
The gunman right behind him is a bit higher up and he pauses for a moment, scanning the rock face for us. He stops just long enough and my bullet hits him in the side. Not close enough to his chest, damn it!
One bullet. Two men left.
And one of them has a semi-automatic rifle and therat-tat-tatof the gun firing echoes in the narrow gorge as it sets off a line of holes in the cliff.
“Almost there,” Ethan says, “almost there.”
I don’t dare look. I’m waiting for the rifle-toting son of a bitch to come around the curve in the trail. He’s got too much ammunition. He doesn’t even have to be a decent aim, he can just spray the cliff face until he gets us.
There. There you are…He’s already got the rifle up to his shoulder and I fire. I’m aiming for the wider target of his chest but the bullet hits his neck. I can see the spray of bright red as he drops the rifle, trying to grip his throat to stop the bleeding but he’s already crumpling.
The rope suddenly tightens under my arms and I realize we’re out of line, still ten feet or more from the bottom. Ethan pulls off his bag and drops it. “Listen now.” He grips my sloppy braid tight. “I’m going to jump. There is a crevice to your right, do ya see it?”
My teeth are chattering, I’m so scared and I feel like I’m wading through molasses. “I s-see it.”
“Good girl. Put the gun back in my holster.” It takes me three tries but I get it. “Put your right foot out. You’ll feel the ledge.”
He’s right, it’s there. Struggling to wedge my foot in there, I grab a bush growing out of the crack.
“You’re gonna tuck yourself into the crevice. Untie the rope, they’ll try to yank ya out of there. I will get you when I’ve killed them. Do ya understand?”
“You’ve got a bullet in yourleg,”I hiss. “You can’t jump! You could-”
He yanks my hair, hard. “Do ya understand!”
“Yes!” I nod furiously. “Got this. Got it.”
To my shock, he kisses me hard, with lots of tongue and presses my lip against my teeth. Pushing me closer to the crevice, he grins that unhinged smile of his again and drops.
A blizzard of ammunition sprays right where he was, and I jam my fist into my mouth, stifling my scream as I tug on the knot, trying to loosen the rope around my arms. There’s a violent yank from above that nearly rips me out of my little shelter.
A bullet hits the rope from below, about midway up the cliff and I realize Ethan used his last bullet to shoot the rope loose so they couldn’t use it to get down to us. Two men left. At least one with a rifle.
