Free Hiking for Danger by Capri Montgomery

position at the University. She had hoped they could be proud.
    “I guess this trip was more for them than for me. Or maybe it was for me too,” she lowered her voice. “Maybe I wanted to prove I could do it. I wanted to have a story to share at the next family dinner that didn’t end with my sister calling me a disgrace to the family spirit.” Sure it had all been done in fun, but it hurt. She laughed it off because the moment she would complain they would call her sensitive in a manner that told her she was being too stiff and then she would feel guilty. It didn’t matter that sometimes she would go home crying when even her mother would say the stork got the addresses mixed up but they decided to keep her anyway. “Fine mess I made of things,” she said.
    “First of all the ankle thing isn’t your fault and second,” he thought for a moment. “Well, it’s more adventurous to fight gravity down a mountain when you’re at deaths door in pain,” he said and they both laughed.
    “Oh, I’m going to need you to help me spin this to my family,” she said. “You have a good imagination.”
    “I’m guessing you do too,” he traced her brow with his index finger. It lingered briefly and then it was gone. It was time to move on and she knew that just as he did. They had a long way to go before reaching the next stop.
    She stood, favoring her good ankle with her weight while she watched as Cody and Parker made the rounds making sure everybody was ready to go. She guessed it was time to hold on to somebody else at this point. Shell had supported her and dragged her quite the distance and she was sure he had to still be tired from all the work he put in yesterday. Although they had all managed to eat a little so maybe a good night of sleep and breakfast would be enough to give him some strength to help her today too.
    Before she could process her thoughts, Riley was slipping his arm around her waist and pulling her close. “I’ve got her,” he said. Cody gave him a glare that hadn’t passed unnoticed. She figured he was still fuming over the fact that the guy had gotten a little too frisky the other day. She hated it too, but any movement on her part hurt, and she couldn’t quite convince her brain to lift her arm to slap his hand away.
    “No funny stuff kid,” Cody said with a voice that surely told Riley he would kick his behind if he touched her wrong. Though with the way Sahara was feeling she would probably attempt to kick his behind herself. She would no doubt fail miserably.
    She was angry at the turn of events, dealing with Stacey’s childish antics, and then Riley feeling her up while she was in too much pain to do anything, had tested her patience. She was good at diplomacy, most of the time anyway. She didn’t think she would be able to keep that anger bottled all day if he tried anything else. On the bright side of things, she did very much enjoy kissing Cody.

    The first arrow shot past them, so close that it had almost pierced Parker’s shoulder before slamming into a tree. The second hit his backpack on the ground and the third came from another angle and pierced the ground just beside Sahara’s leg. Riley had run for cover behind the rock so fast that he had managed to knock her to the ground in the process. The arrow had a note attached. “Stay low,” Cody yelled out before reaching beside Sahara and snatching up the note.
    “Get your injured some place safe, the hunt starts in one hour,” he read.
    “What the hell! Is this some kind of sick joke or some tour humor?” Jack ranted on as if his ravings would help the situation.
    “This isn’t part of the tour.” Cody examined the arrow. “What we have here is some pretty sick people looking for some really twisted game. We need to get down to the lake. We’re going to have to take the alternate route down and it won’t be easy from this position.”
    “You think they’re serious?” Nikki asked. “I mean, couldn’t it be a