Free Behind the Lies (A Montgomery Justice Novel) by Robin Perini

She’s hurt.”
    “I’m gonna get your mom, but I need you to do what I tell you. Unbuckle your seat belt and crawl toward me real careful. Can you do that?”
    The boy nodded. He looked at his mother and bit his lip.
    “I’ll get her. I promise.” Zach prayed he could keep that vow. The truck could plummet any minute.
    “You’re the Dark Avenger. You don’t lie, do you?”
    Not about anything except my entire life.
Zach steeled a confident glance at the boy. “I don’t lie to little boys.”
    Until today, that is. Sometimes it paid to be an actor.
    Sam clicked open his seat belt, took one last glance at his mom, and scooted toward Zach.
    The truck inched forward.
    “Stop, Sam,” Zach said, his voice hushed.
    The boy’s eyes widened, but he froze.
    The truck steadied. He was less than a foot away from Zach’s reach.
    “OK, start scooting again. Slow and easy.”
    Time seemed to stand still. Zach held his breath as Sam crawled toward him. Zach leaned in and plucked Sam off the seat.
    The truck teetered. The rear wheels no longer hugged the road at all.
    Zach hugged Sam to him and backed away several feet.
    “Mommy!” Sam leaned away from Zach and reached out toward the truck, his small fists opening and closing as if willing his mother to come with him.
    The truck didn’t obey. It started the evitable slide and shoved into the trees.
    No time to lose. “Heads up, Sam.” Zach tossed the boy toward the safety of the cliff face, hearing him grunt has he hit the road. The bruises would heal, but if Zach didn’t get to the woman, that boy would be motherless. Within seconds he’d scrambled down the incline. Piñon trunks had bent in a U-shape over the roof, keeping the vehicle from going headfirst down a thousand feet.
    No telling how long they’d hold. And snagging an active five-year-old’s fifty-pound body out of a seat was different than an unconscious woman’s hundred-and-twenty-pound deadweight.
    The loud crack of a breaking trunk echoed through the forest. The truck groaned. No time to think. He had to move fast, but easy. Any transfer of weight could break the last of the trees that cushioned the truck. He leaned in as far as he could without touching anything and snapped the seat belt free from its latch.
    Jenna shifted. The truck shuddered. Zach had to pull back.
    He let out a long, slow breath. He’d have one chance at this.
    He had to gain leverage. Throwing any hesitation off the ragged mountainside, Zach stepped on the running board. The trucktilted his way. He reached in and grabbed one of Jenna’s hands. He dragged her toward him and clasped her under her arms. In a single motion he pulled her across the seat and out of the vehicle.
    Just as her weight came free, the piñon trees holding the truck gave way.
    The vehicle sped down the incline then disappeared over the cliff. Metal crunched and squealed. Finally a huge crash echoed from below. Zach lay back on a bed of pine needles, Jenna draped over the lower half of his body. He stared at the blue sky above.
    Too close.
    Jenna’s soft curves pressed against him. He liked the feel of her in his arms, but he shouldn’t. She was a whole different kind of trouble that he couldn’t deal with right now. Even if he offered to help her, she’d only run from him. Again.
    He sat up and shifted her into his arms before he stood, trekking up the twenty feet to the road.
    When his feet hit pavement Sam ran over, his small face streaked with tears, his eyes bright. “You saved her!”
    He beamed up at Zach then stared at his mother. Sam reached up with a tentative hand and touched her bruised face. “She’s hurt.”
    “I’m sorry I had to throw you, kid.”
    Sam looked at his scraped hands and wiped them on his jeans. Zach winced. Tough little guy, though.
    “We’ll get you fixed up.” Zach probed the deep cut just above Jenna Walters’s espresso-colored hair. “We’ll get you both fixed up. It looks worse than it is,” he lied. Head