Mackenzie was holdingher jacket cuffs to the heater vent so the warm air would blow up her arms. She looked like a kid, and Gideon suppressed a chuckle. Considering that the tension was still simmering between them, she might take that the wrong way.
Why couldn’t she hear what he was saying? It had to be crystal clear that she was heading for disaster. Out of pride? No, the need for vengeance had obscured everything else.
They finally edged past the glut of traffic and turned onto the only remaining passable road that would take them to the airstrip. Gideon mused as the Jeep’s wheels sluiced along the sodden asphalt. Clearly this was not the preferred route, as it was cracked and marred with submerged potholes. No matter how carefully he drove, he seemed to hit every one, which reminded him his shoulder ached like mad.
Was the airstrip really still open, or had that been a comment dropped by the clerk to encourage Mackenzie to go there? Great place to murder someone, seemed to him.Too many witnesses to complete the job in town. Could the assembled force of enemies be lying in wait at their destination? The thoughts did not help him feel better in any way, but the heater and food were blessings. And the company, even though she was fuming.
The farther away from town they got, the worse the conditions. The route was flooded in some places, and he gritted his teeth as he sailed the Jeep on through, praying the tires wouldn’t lose traction or the engine sputter.
They continued their climb. While he drove, Mackenzie kept watch for Jerry or Al in places that looked suitable for ambush points. What they would do in such a situation, he wasn’t sure. He was armed now with the redhead’s weapon, but a revolver would be a poor defense against a long-range rifle. The seat belt strained to keep him in place as he navigated around mucky holes and spots where the road had begun to slough away at the edges.
“Clerk say anything else that might lead you to believe Lorraine’s boyfriend is still at the airstrip?”
She shook her head.
So they were still working off a very slim lead. Gideon held on to the hope that if the guy wasn’t there, Mackenzie would consent to depart with him. There would be no other reason to stick around unless she came up with another scheme.
“I’m beginning to get real sick of rain,” he said.
“Me too.”
At least on one small point, they agreed. He sensed a thawing in the air between them. If he could just maintain the peace.Step one, keep mouth firmly closed. Step two, avoid driving into an ambush.
The precipitation alternated between drizzle and downpour at any given moment, burdening the already stressed dam. He could practically feel the floodwaters hovering, ready to swallow them up.
The road dropped to one lane as it twisted along. One side was a sheer cliff that had already dumped piles of stone and dirt in spots. The other was a wooded slope. A chunk of rock the size of a bread loaf suddenly broke free and rolled in front of the Jeep. He hit the brakes, and it missed the front fender by inches as it hurtled across and down into the trees.
He slowed to a crawl, trying to examine the trajectory the rock had taken, but it was all a swirl of rain-washed brown. A sound, or maybe it was a vibration, had him rolling down the window.
Mackenzie gripped his arm. “Did you hear something?”
He listened. “I thought I did.”
She craned to see out his window, her damp hair brushing his chin. “Helicopter?”
“Nothing, I guess.” He rolled the window back up.
But he heard her soft breathing, felt the warmth of her shoulder against his chest, and for a slender moment he forgot their perilous situation. Mackenzie Bardine had some sort of hold over him that he’d be hard-pressed to explain in any rational way.
She returned to her position and sighed. “Is it too early for more Fluffernutter crackers?”
He opened his mouth to reply when a rumble shook the car.
The dam.
It must have failed.
She gripped the armrest. He pressed the gas, waiting for the wall of water he knew was coming, and clutched the wheel against the vibrations.
The flood didn’t appear.
His mind was still groping for explanations when the landscape around them shuddered. The cliff to their right was changing.
A giant mass of brown mud and rocks broke away from the face and moved as if it were a single unit.
“Landslide!” he yelled.
Mackenzie paled, mouth pinched in fear.
