she didn’t need protecting. Didn’t she understand it was second nature to him as an officer of the law? Make that an ex-officer, ex-detective with the Portland Police Department.
He rolled away. “Stay down.”
Zach crept over to hide behind the snowmobiles, trying to get a look at who had fired the shot. Olivia crawled over to him and another bullet pinged against the snowmobile closest to her. Another hit the tree behind him.
To let the assailant know Zach had come armed and prepared, he reached for the weapon in his shoulder holster, chambered a round and fired toward the shooter to hold him off. Even though he was no longer a detective, he still carried a weapon, his concealed weapon permit legal anywhere in the state of Oregon. This incident confirmed the necessity.
He hoped the rounds he fired would hold off the shooter while he and Olivia made a quick plan.
“I said to stay down.” He turned to look at her, softening his expression. She didn’t seem to notice he’d snapped at her, but under the circumstances, that hardly mattered.
She glared at him. “I’m not a child.”
Take that back. She had noticed his harsh tone. “Someone is shooting at us. At you. What’s going on, Olivia?”
“I don’t know.” She crouched behind her snowmobile, a few feet from him.
Entirely too far away for him to adequately shield her if needed.
“We can’t stay here.” He searched the woods around them to make sure they were not being ambushed from behind.
“But we’re safe behind the snowmobiles for now, aren’t we?” she asked.
“If there’s more than one shooter, we’re going to get pinned down if we sit here.”
Zach listened for movement, but all he heard was the gentle sound of snow falling through the trees. Unfortunately, the soft white stuff created a cushioned ground and would likely mute the shooter’s approach if he decided to move in.
“What do you suggest?” Olivia inched close enough for him to see the flecks of gold in her warm cinnamon eyes.
Zach used to vacation here with his best friend Rich—Olivia’s brother—and his family. A lot had happened since the last time he’d been here. But he’d never forget that special summer fourteen years ago when he was seventeen and Olivia had turned fifteen—it had been the first time he’d thought of her as more than Rich’s kid sister. Four years later he was on the cusp of entering the police academy and proposing marriage to Olivia when it all fell apart. Not now! Not now... Terror filled her eyes, yanking him back. Gripping his heart and squeezing. He shoved the memories away. “I’m thinking.” He peered around the bow of the vehicle. Nothing. He saw nothing but wilderness.
“Well, think faster.” Olivia slid away from him.
“I don’t know the area like you do,” he said. “So you’re going to have to lead us out of here.”
“You mean on foot?”
He nodded. “We’re not getting out of here on the snowmobiles, at least not yet. We’d be too exposed if we got on them now. We can’t risk it.”
He eyed the area on this side of the vehicles. Through the white-frosted evergreens he spotted a slope.
Zach gestured toward it. “Where does that lead?”
“There’s a dip down to a small brook.”
“Where will it take us?”
Olivia shrugged. “Away from here.”
A spray of bullets splintered the trees near them. A semiautomatic. Once again, Zach’s protective nature reared up and he reached for Olivia, wrapping his arms and body around her like a shield to cover her.
The shooters—and now he was certain there was more than one who carried rapid-firing deadly weapons—weren’t backing down.
If Rich had only given him more information he could have prepared.
He couldn’t have imagined he’d be following a trail of blood and snowmobile tracks to find Olivia out here in the wilderness searching for her brother. And now as he looked at her, he saw the girl he’d once loved had grown into a beautiful, capable woman. Her reddish-brown locks spilled from beneath the helmet, curling around the collar of her black-and-pink snowmobile suit, and the eyes that stared at him now could hurt him all over again if he let her.
But that wasn’t important.
What mattered most was that he had to keep her safe and track down her brother before the shooters killed them all. And find out why someone was shooting at them. Olivia and Rich’s life depended on Zach now. The irony! He’d relinquished the job he loved and was no longer a police officer or a detective.
Maybe he was no longer officially sworn to protect, but the motto remained in his bones.
If only he hadn’t failed to protect when it mattered most.
Olivia screamed as bark splintered from the trees next to them. Why was someone shooting at them?
Zach’s solid form shielded her, protected her. As much as she didn’t like his proximity, she couldn’t think what else to do.
He grabbed her shoulders, his face near hers. “Stick close to me, we’re getting out of here, but keep low. Once we slide down far enough that the hill can protect us, we have to run for it.”
Dazed, she stared at him.
“Are you listening?” He shook her shoulders.
She nodded but still struggled to comprehend what was happening.
“Think, Olivia, where are we going to run to? Where can we hide? You have to take us there.”
“Okay, I got it.”
Would anyone hear all the rapid gunfire? If they did, she doubted they would think much about it. People often took to the woods to practice shooting.
God, please let someone come to investigate and help us!
She pressed herself deep into the snow like Zach had done and slid down the slope. Except they left a big fat trail that anyone could follow.
Now she wished the snowfall would break completely through the canopy and cover their path. If they could make it to a clearing, or where the trees weren’t so thick, maybe they could lose the shooters. But then they’d be easy targets. No good solution presented itself.
“Hurry,” Zach whispered.
He’d already dropped to the brook. Olivia’s pounding heart leaped to her throat.
Shoving, pushing hard, she slid until she was far enough down the hill that she could crouch without getting hit by a bullet. Then she
