Gideon looked over the top of his coffee cup at her. “And why would he do that?”
“He owes me.”
“How?”
Cordelia shook her head. “Do you ever run out of questions?”
“I’m just getting warmed up.” He had a ton more. Facts he’d like confirmed. Motives he didn’t understand. And there was still something niggling deep in the recesses of his brain that he couldn’t put his finger on. Getting answers from her was akin to extracting teeth.
Cordelia heaved out a breath. “Jake and his wife, Willa, live on the ranch next to my stables. A couple months ago, Willa was out riding and her horse got spooked. It took off like a thunderbolt. I was setting out on a trail ride, so I intervened before she got carried into a real treacherous area or thrown. Jake says I saved her life, and he’s old-school about loyalty. Once he flies us out, his debt is settled.”
“A man who loves his wife,” Gideon said.
Cordelia sighed. “He adores her.”
There was a wistfulness in her tone that spoke of the love she’d lost. This part, at least, he believed was the truth. She’d loved Aaron and she mourned him. On that point, they could all three relate. They’d lost a best friend, a brother, a fiancé.
They took turns in the minuscule bathroom, and the mirror confirmed he looked as bad as he felt. The scruffon his chin was not his style, and he longed for a shave. Cuts and scrapes dotted his face, neck, and hands. He suspected the wound from the bullet might need stitches, and that was only the beginning of a long list of damage. A splash of frigid water infused some energy back into him but didn’t stop the myriad aches.
Get yourself together. Head on a swivel.These last few miles might be the most dangerous of all. The threat hadn’t diminished, and they were now depending on yet more strangers to enact their escape—strangers who could be bought for a price.
Cordelia provided them each a handful of cookies. “Sorry, I don’t have anything else right now.”
“This is just fine.” Oatmeal raisin wasn’t his favorite, but it tasted so amazing he might have to change his opinion. He and Mackenzie gobbled their cookies and washed them down with coffee.
Mackenzie zipped up her jacket. “Ready?”
Were they? Ready to sneak onto an airstrip under cover of darkness, avoiding a team of people bent on killing them, with a woman he believed was not completely forthcoming? He made sure the gun was loaded and easily accessible.
“Let’s do it,” he said.
Outside, the horses were already saddled, and he needed every atom of reserved strength to once again haul himself up behind Mackenzie. He held her around the waist as they started off through the freezing, pre-dawn air.
A novice horseman, he never would have chosen to ride in darkness with another wave of storm coming, butCordelia led the way across some sort of trail he hadn’t even noticed. The horses seemed to know it well enough.
“I used to wait at the airstrip with the horses when Aaron would fly in. We’d sneak off to the cabin this way so no one could follow,” Cordelia said over her shoulder.
He noticed the way Mackenzie studied Cordelia. Odd, he imagined, for her to suddenly be introduced to the woman who would have been her sister-in-law. Had Cordelia’s presence returned Aaron to Mackenzie in some way? After they fled, perhaps the two could somehow stay connected. He suspected they’d find comfort in sharing stories about the man they’d both loved in different ways.
She leaned her head against his shoulder. “You okay back there?”
“Yes.” He snuggled in a little. It might be the last occasion he’d be able to hold her close. It surprised him how much he craved the connection that had only grown when they’d kissed the previous night.
Don’t get ahead of yourself, Gid.When they returned to the real world, God willing, he had a feeling she’d keep him at a distance while she again took up her mission to destroy Bullseye. But she’d changed, hadn’t she? Begun to feel again. He craved the chance to watch her heal. His cheek brushed her damp hair. He’d try, he decided, to stay close to her, if she’d allow it.
His inner pessimism told him his rosy vision wasn’t going to come true. A proud woman, she wouldn’t want a witness to the messy process of healing. And she wasn’t going to want him around reminding her of what she’d lost. Four days ago they were enemies. Now the thought of parting with her made him ache inside.
What is wrong with you,Gideon?His brothers would tell him he’d lost his mind, and they’d be right. Survival should be his chief and only concern at the moment.
The ride became a tedious rhythm of clopping hooves and pattering rain that continued until Cordelia finally slowed her horse. Mackenzie followed suit.
In the distance, headlights revealed a truck hitched to a horse trailer. A figure was silhouetted in the window, the tip of a cigarette glowing.
“That’s Willa,” Cordelia said. “You two stay back here out of sight. I don’t want her to have to lie if she’s ever asked about you. Jake’s kept her in the dark about transporting us. It’s better she doesn’t know.”
They watched from a distance while Cordelia and Willa loaded the horses into the trailer. After a quick hug, Willa drove away.
Cordelia called them over and they set off on foot. The ground was muddy, but Gideon was so relieved to be off the horse, he paid it no mind. The movement helped warm him too, and an hour later they descended along a pitched trail. At the edge of the woods, across a stretch of flat ground, was a small hangar with metal doors thrown wide and a narrow runway lit by small red blinkers. Behind the hangar he could make out the rotors of a helicopter inside a fenced area.
