Free Mountain Wilds Bundle by Hazel Hunter Page A

was going to kill him.
    He lurched to the truck.  
    Whatever the doctor had injected him with, it wasn’t wearing off fast enough. His mouth felt cottony dry, his head felt like he had a hangover, and he was getting more and more angry by the second. He crashed into the side of the truck and yanked open the lid of the aluminum storage box.
    He pulled out the shotgun. Six bright, red shells were clipped to its side.
    Plenty .
    It’d only take one to cut that bitch in half.

    • • • • •

    Logan’s pursuer was close–so close he could hear him breathing. He was huffing and puffing with each lumbering step. Though Logan couldn’t see him, the location of the trap was clearly in view. The sunglasses glinted on the ground just to the right of it.  
    Are they too obvious?
    Maybe the man with the pistol had finally figured out that Logan had been leaving clues. Logan would know soon enough. He pressed his back into the tree and got ready. Even if the man’s foot was impaled on the axe, he’d still be able to aim and fire a gun. Logan would only have seconds to capitalize on the shock and pain. As he peered at the pitfall, he heard the footsteps get louder.  
    Almost here.
    He could hear the man gulping air.
    Finally, there he was.
    But as Logan watched the pitfall in disbelief, the man’s stride went completely over it.  
    Dammit.
    The choke point had been narrow enough. The trap was perfectly concealed. But the man’s stride was huge and random luck had worked against Logan.  
    Suddenly the man stopped and bent over.  
    The glasses.  
    This might be Logan’s only chance. One more try with the pitfall. His eyes darted over the ground in his vicinity. He crouched, snatched up a rock, and hurled it backhand, upslope, where the man had just come from. It landed with a plop and rustled the leaves. Logan heard the heavy breathing stop. Then a loud cracking of the branches over the pitfall was followed by a bellow of pain.  
    As Logan emerged from the cover of the trees at a run, he had a clear view of the results. The man’s left foot had landed in the pit. Whether or not he’d hit the axe, Logan couldn’t tell but it didn’t matter. He rushed the man. Though his pursuer had lumbered like a moose, his hand wasn’t slow. He immediately raised the pistol and fired.

    • • • • •

    It wasn’t the kind of cane Jules would recommend to patients but it worked. Holding the heavy rifle in both hands, off to her right, she jammed the end of the barrel into the ground as her right foot came down. Although there was less pain now that she’d wrapped the ankle, it was still sprained.
    But she didn’t stop moving. The sedative wouldn’t last forever, especially on a man Frank’s size. She’d run in the direction she thought Logan would be, into the forest. As blood pounded in her aching head and she gasped for every breath, she heard his voice.
    Never say die.
    Where is he now? Is he okay? He has to be somewhere on this side of the airstrip. Somewhere between it and that canyon. But where?
    Nothing looked familiar. They must have come this way but she couldn’t remember. The dense foliage was identical in every direction. But the airstrip was behind her. That she knew. Though her lungs burned, she kept moving. She was so tired and every muscle ached.  
    An enormous fallen tree trunk blocked her path, as tall as her and stretching off left and right into thick bushes.
    “Oh god,” she muttered and leaned heavily on it.
    Standing on one leg, breathing hard, she looked down at the rifle under her right hand. At least she knew how to use it. Her father had taught her how to shoot when she was a kid and he’d had a gun with the same kind of bolt action.
    Her good leg began to shake. It was doing all the work. If she could only lay down, just for a few minutes, give it a rest and get off her ankle. But she knew what Logan would say. He’d say to keep going.
    There was a sound behind