After a final look at where the man and woman and dog made their way across treacherously thin ice toward the other side of the lake, followed by a deep breath, he set off again, rounding the lake to the other side. It might take him longer than Deegan’s team, but at least he’d get there with his life. He couldn’t say the same for them. Then again, if the lake took those fools, that would be one less problem to solve.
Spurred on by the excitement of the chase, he started off again, slow and sure and steady, the way he’d always stalked his prey—human or otherwise.
***
Elias jogged through a frosted mist, so thin it was more cloud than rain. Beneath his feet, the lake was a soggy ice rink, wet and frozen and melting all at once. One misstep and they’d go down. Except smashing to the ground at this point could be a whole lot worse than a broken coccyx or a twisted ankle. It could shoot the three of them straight through the quickly weakening crust into the treacherous water beneath.
A death sentence.
“They’ve stopped shooting,” Leo called, her head hanging at waist level. “I’ll walk.” When he didn’t respond, she smacked him on the ass. “Elias! Put me down. Please.”
“I’ve got you,” he huffed out, tightening his hold, adjusting her weight. “I got you.”
“Come on, Elias, we’ve outrun them. Put me down.”
He wanted to set her down—he meant to. He just couldn’t.
“Too dangerous,” he muttered.
Driven by something stronger than him, he humped on, listening for more shots, voices, and below it all, like the rumbling of a volcano about to blow, the telltale crackle of ice pulling apart. A glance at Bo showed her scraggly wet fur tufted along the spine. “Away,” he whispered to his dog, hoping that dispersing their weight would lessen the chances of falling in. Because breakup was coming. And if this rain continued, it could happen today.
“Put. Me. Down.” She smacked his hip with each word. “I swear I’ll vomit on you.”
The threat didn’t bother him, but he slowed anyway. She was right. He couldn’t keep going for long like this. He squatted, let her slide to her feet, and studied her from below, ready to intervene if she passed out or anything. “You gonna throw up?” He kept his hands wrapped around her legs at the knee. To help her, not because he needed steadying.
“I should. Just to get back at you for ignoring me.” She glared at him before turning to Bo. “He do this to you too?” Bo cocked her head, ears pricked, listening. “Or is it just females of the human persuasion?”
Bo yapped a reply and a grin pulled at Elias’s mouth. Which would have been strange under normal circumstances. Out here, in pain and running for his life, stranded in the middle of a body of water as dangerous as a minefield, it was completely bizarre.
Dropping the smile, he rose. “Come on.”
“Wait. I didn’t clock them. Where were they? On the ice? They gonna shoot at us again?”
He turned to scan the horizon. “Doubtful.”
“Why?”
With a nod, he pointed out a rock shelf high above the lake. “See the dark point, straight over that way?”
“Dark point? You mean at the top of the cliff I almost crashed into?”
He grunted.
“I see it.”
Moving in close, he lowered his head to line up with hers and indicated a high, tree-covered rise. “The rifle shots came from that direction. Just down from my cabin.”
“Okay.”
“Only way off the cliff is through the woods. It’ll take ’em a while.” Unless the helicopter managed to get here. Then all bets were off.
She squinted. “Don’t see any movement.”
“I’d imagine they’re heading down now.” Something jittery ran through him. “To the lake.”
“Those shots came awfully close. They can’t be that far behind.”
“They’ll hit the ice soon. We need to go.”
