Next steps. He surveyed the submerged terrain. “Water’s only a couple feet deep now. We can drop down and veer to the east. It’s drier there, more stable.”
“Ugh. More water.”
“Unavoidable.”
“I was hoping you had an inflatable raft stowed in your gear.”
“Sadly, no.”
She finished her protein bar and shot a wary glance at the clouds. “Do you think they’ve moved on to search a different area? Or decided we got swept away in the water release?”
“That’d be great but honestly unlikely. They’re pretty committed to the cause.”
“The cause of killing us.”
“Bullseye made that pretty clear. I think he’s the type to require visual proof that we’ve been eliminated. Until then ...” He let the sentence remain unfinished as he cinched his pack and pointed to the ground. “On three?”
She scooched to the edge of the limb with a shiver. “And I just started to dry out.”
“The clothes in our packs should be drier, and if we packaged them well, they’ll be okay to switch out as soon as we get out of this valley. The phones are bagged again too.”
“Are you always so cheerful when slogging through the wilderness?”
Only with you.He stopped himself a split second before that fell out of his mouth. Bad enough he’d already told her he thought she was beautiful.Remember forty-eight hours ago when she drove away your client and took your wallet?
He settled for a shrug. “Doesn’t hurt to keep up morale. It’s a key factor in survival.” That sounded pretentious enough. Before he could add anything else, he jumped off the limb and landed waist deep in water so cold he almost screeched.
“Chilly?” she teased.
“Balmy. For a polar bear.”
She splashed down next to him with a squeal. He trudged off and she followed. The watery slog lasted about a half hour until they climbed high enough to leave it behind. On the positive side, the rain had diminished to occasional drizzles as they dropped down onto the other side of the valley.
“The main road would get us to the bridge in two hours, but ...”
“I know,” Mackenzie said. “We have to take the less obvious path.”
“Stealth for health.”
“I’m beginning to dislike these witty slogans,” she grumped.
They stopped to change out their sodden clothes for the almost dry ones in their packs. It was a chilly process, even with the trees for a windbreak. When she emerged from her turn, she shook her phone disconsolately.
“No signal for me either,” he confirmed. The journey was taking far too long as the cold sapped their strength.
Their trek felt endless, his limbs wooden. Twice theyfeared they heard the helicopter returning, but it didn’t come close enough for them to spot it. The trees were working in their favor.
Their rest periods grew longer and longer, and their pace slowed to a creep until they neared the winding road that would take them to the bridge.
Mackenzie brightened. “Almost to the Jeep.”
“There’s a hiking trail between us and it. One more set of switchbacks and we’ll be at the bridge. Probably another two hours.”
She huffed out a breath. “Two hours is not ‘almost there.’”
“Sorry. Trying to stay positive.”
She chewed her bottom lip. “What if they moved your Jeep? Towed it away?”
