Free Broken Angel by Sigmund Brouwer Page A

sir.”
    “All right then.” Carney put a hand on Billy’s shoulder. “Do this right and we’ll forget about your trouble with Mrs. Shelton.”

    “We’ve gone far enough,” Caitlyn told Theo. “You must be ready to drop.”
    “No,” Theo said. “I’m going to make sure you’re safe. Besides, you’re not nearly as heavy as I expected.”
    Caitlyn hadn’t heard a peep from Theo over the last mile as he hiked through the streambed and then a hundred yards across an open grassy area. Caitlyn liked the silence. The skunk smell was still hard to get used to though. She guessed that at that point, she probably smelled like skunk too.
    She was riding him piggyback, to avoid leaving a scent for the bloodhounds. When the hounds crossed Theo’s pungent scent, they’d ignore it.
    Although she weighed very little, she was still impressed with Theo’s strength and ruggedness. He’d carried her on his back. Theo had gamely splashed through water and across rocks and over logs. Anything so that Caitlyn’s body would not brush against anything and leave a scent for the bloodhounds. He had even, at one point, set her down in rapid water and let her hobble forward, because the current would dissipate her scent. Caitlyn could tell he was also thankful for the moment of rest, knowing that he would carry her again. The tricky part came as they had approached the lines of hounds, but they had used Theo’s keen sense of hearing to wait until the hounds had traversed away from the stream before hurrying through the gap.
    Caitlyn had also depended on Theo’s endurance and developed a grudging admiration for him. He hadn’t complained, just stuck with his duty like a mule.
    “Thank you,” Caitlyn said. She said nothing more until they reached the trees at the far edge of the grass. “Here, this big oak is what we need.” She relished the relative coolness of the shade. “Stand close.”
    Chances were extremely remote that the bloodhounds would find this exact tree. Still, to keep her scent from the ground, Caitlyn reached up and pulled herself onto a low limb without letting any of her body brush against the trunk. She straddled the limb and reached downward for Theo’s hands, then helped him up.
    “You’ll need to climb higher,” she said. “Up where no one would think of looking.”
    “I’m afraid,” Theo said. “I can’t see where I’m going.”
    “I’ll stay below you,” Caitlyn answered. She noticed his arm was bleeding through the place where it was wrapped with cloth. Again, her admiration grew. Her legs must have been putting pressure on the wound, but he hadn’t once complained.
    She helped him climb halfway up the tree.
    “Now what?” Theo asked.
    “We wait until tonight.” She’d already learned to trust Theo’s hearing. Because of it, they’d have enough warning to slip down the tree and run if anyone approached. “Sleep as much as we can.”
    “Sleep? I’ll fall!” Her stoic rescuer was suddenly a boy again.
    “Not if we are tied in.”
    She reached for the coil of thin nylon rope in her backpack. She put it through his belt loops and around the tree trunk and made sure he was secure. She did the same for herself with the other half of the rope.
    The bark of the tree was warm and felt almost pleasant in the dappled shade of the leaves. She felt comfortable, except for the distant baying of the hounds, an acute reminder of the fate they could expect if they were captured.
    “What was that?” Theo’s whisper sounded frightened. “I heard something. Not the dogs…more like footsteps.”
    His fear was contagious. Caitlyn craned her head.
    “There it is again.” He pointed. “Can you see anything over there?”
    In the direction of Theo’s gesture, shadows were moving and Caitlyn’s heart hammered, her skin prickling with adrenaline. But as she carefully gazed ahead, she realized the shape was a deer, followed by two fawns.
    “It’s all right,” she said. “Deer.”
    The