No, idiot. Not hugging herself—holding her wounded arm.He turned to her. Saw the dark streaks down her sleeve. It took everything in him to speak with a civil tongue. “Your arm …”
She glanced down, sheepish. “A graze.”
That was a lot of blood for a graze. “Let me see.” Tucking aside his anger, he moved toward her. Saw her kurta was bloodied too. “You eat two?”
“Eat two what?” Lifting her hand from the wound, she wobbled.
“Easy.” Range caught her by the shoulders. “In the back. Lie down.” He guided her to the back of the SUV. Once she lay down, he hiked in next to her and grabbed his field kit. “Entry and exit wounds—that’s good. Soft part of your arm, so it’ll be tender, but at least it missed the main artery.” He made quick work of cleaning and packing the wound, then bandaged it. Gave her some ibuprofen. “If you want something stronger—”
“No.” She gulped the pills down and grimaced.
He slumped down and stared into the distance. That was a complete cluster … Pike hadn’t come. Which meant communications with Omen were compromised. Might as well consider all communications compromised.
So, no support. No freaking way out of this mess or this country.
Feeling her gaze, the pressure of her presence, he hopped out of the truck. Wandered to the berm of the bridge and sat. Put his back to the dirt.
Who had been waiting at the airstrip to take them out? What was going on? What was he supposed to do now?
Okay, he didn’t have those answers. And they couldn’t stay here. He had no money or ID. ALP was looking for them. Likely knew the make and model of this SUV. They’d have to ditch it. Hoof it for a while. Would she be okay with that wound?
She was still in the back of the truck, lying down. Had she fallen asleep? He had no idea how long he’d been sitting here going through options, but they should get out of here. Drive for a while in the dark, then ditch the SUV. At least he’d been smart enough to kill the GPS before boosting it.
Range stood and dusted his pants as he moved to the SUV. Palmed the bumper, and only then did he noticed her eyes shift to him. “You’re awake.”
“Hard to sleep right now …” She shifted upright and propped herself against the interior hull. “Is there a plan, a new one?”
Staring at nothing in particular, he realized as much he couldn’t stand her, they were in this together. God had asicksense of humor. “We need to drive a while farther—not on open roads. We’ll have to ditch the truck eventually and hoof it until I can secure another vehicle.”
“And where are we going?” Her voice was quiet, but her fear wasn’t.
He shifted around and leaned back against the SUV. Huffed. “I have no idea. I tossed my phone so they can’t track us.”
The 4Runner shifted as she moved to perch on the bumper next to him. “If those weren’t your friends with the plane, then how did they know you would come?”
“I don’t know. Those men had one mission: kill us. I don’t know why or who they were. The chief told me to come here, and either he’s compromised—which I refuse to believe—or they were monitoring the phone. Which is why I got rid of it.” He scratched the side of his face. “Have no idea where to go or how to get to safe ground with everything compromised.”
If he weren’t stuck with her, if he could get to an embassy or consulate, he could get out of country. But her … With Hellqvist hunting them, Omen compromised …
“I … I have a friend who lives on the southern border. I think it is only a few hours from here. He would help us.”
A few hours by car. A day on foot, since they’d have to travel at night to stay hidden.
“Anywhere we go could put others in danger.”
Silence hung in the thick night air.
“Is it that bad?” she asked. “Why are they trying to kill us?”
Her, she was the reason someone had sent a team after them. But blaming her didn’t do them any good. And it’d only make him angrier.
“Rage?”
He sniffed. “That’s not my name.”
More silence.
“It’s Range. Like gun range.” Though his mom had teased him that it was all about “home on the range.”
