Triple Threat (24 page)

In a few minutes, they entered the south edge of Forks. Katie looked at the clock on the dash. 8:30 AM. “How fast were you driving while I slept? You gained a half-hour, Josh.”

“But I kept you safe, Kate. Night before last, I endangered you enough for a lifetime.”

“Let's forget about night before last. Now, what can we get to eat that won't go bad in our packs in three hours?”

“Junk food.”

“Josh, I won't let you do that. You have to stay in shape and stay healthy.”

“And why are you concerned about what I might look like a few years from now?”

The implication of her words was obvious. She didn't answer.

“Kate?” He would keep pushing until he got an answer.

“After what we've been through together, I'll always be concerned about you.” Maybe that would keep Josh at bay for a while.

“You're getting soft, Kate. A lot softer than when we made that trip to Whistler.”

Josh pulled into a parking space at the big supermarket.

Katie jumped out. “Come on, let's get lunch.”

At 9:10 AM, they pulled up to the Beach 2 trailhead.

Katie surveyed the parking area. “Good. There aren't many cars here yet. Let's go claim our private section of beach.”

Josh parked and slipped out of the car. He opened the back door to get his pack. “Would you mind telling me why privacy is so high on your priority list today?”

“Yes, I
would
mind.” She slid out and turned toward Josh. Beyond him, on La Push Road, a large, dark sedan flew around the turn toward them, and then braked hard.

Katie gasped. “Josh! It's them!”

He saw the arriving vehicle.

A gun jutted out the nearest window of the sedan.

Josh dove onto the trunk and slid across it. He landed on the ground beside Kate. When he pulled her to the ground, the window above them exploded.

The spray of bullets came wrapped in a staccato of popping sounds. An automatic rifle.

Josh's big hand clamped on her shoulder. “We jump down the bank, keep the car between us and them, and run down the trail.” He hooked her arm. “Now, Kate.” He yanked her to her feet and pushed her ahead of him, shielding her body.

Katie leaped over the guard rail and landed on her feet on the trail, eight feet below.

Josh landed beside her as the popping sound resumed.

Dirt exploded into the air underneath the guard rail two feet above their heads.

Katie sprinted down the trail. It cut back sharply to the left.

Josh was right behind her.

She rounded the turn, giving them temporary shelter. Katie slowed as they climbed a steep hill. She looked up the trail. The trees at the top would provide more shelter from bullets. She yanked on Josh's arm. “Hurry.” She sprinted all out up the hill as Josh's feet pounded on the trail behind her.

In the distance the crunching of gravel came from the parking area. A dark-haired man and woman ran toward the trailhead, each carrying a rifle.

Katie stumbled.

Josh's strong hands grabbed and steadied her. “Let's get over the top of the hill. We'll be out of sight. We can lose them.”

Ten yards from the hilltop, the trail widened and Josh pulled alongside of her. “How far to the—”

Bullets chewed up the spruce tree beside them, filling the air with the pungent odor of evergreen tree sap.

Josh clamped two powerful hands on Katie's hips. He lifted her off the trail and sprinted to the top of the hill at an incredible speed. At the top, he set her down and nudged her forward.

Despite the danger, she noted Josh's incredible hand and arm strength.

More bullets tore up the ground as the line of exploding dirt raced toward them.

Josh tackled her from behind and rolled her to the ground.

Bullets decapitated a small tree, six inches above Kate's head. They pruned the bushes beside the tree.

The shooting stopped.

“Go, Kate! I think they're reloading.”

They sprinted through the forest at a breakneck pace, jumping patches of mud and protruding tree roots.

“To the beach or through the woods?” she yelled at Josh.

“We can outrun them if we stay on the trail. Build up a lead. Then lose them near the beach.”

“But, Josh, there are big steps, maybe 200 of them, descending the hill to the beach.”

“Let's run them, too, and then run the beach until we run completely away from the shooters.”

“OK. But I don't know where the beach leads.”

“Kate, it leads to safety. Just run!”

They sprinted side-by-side on the trail until it narrowed, passing through a thicker stand of trees.

Josh moved behind her again. He was shielding her. Every move he had made over the last five minutes he had made to protect her.

She wanted to stop. To tell him that she loved him. But they couldn't stop. And now she might never get that chance, unless they got away from their pursuers. “Josh, let's leave them in the dust.” Katie kicked in her afterburners and sprinted at top speed, concentrating on her stride and her breathing. Had she run away from Josh? She listened as she ran.

His feet pounded the trail a step or two behind her.

The trail suddenly plunged downward.

Katie could smell salt water.

The big stairway lay only a few yards ahead. They needed to slow down, or they would fall on the steps. A sprained ankle would be a fatal injury at this juncture.

“Concentrate on the steps, Josh. I'm slowing so we won't fall.”

The trail angled downward and Katie hit the first step. The steps varied in length and height, making traversing them a matter of intense concentration.

She slowed further to take the steps two or three at a time. But her legs were still weak from the sprint. She lost her balance and pitched forward.

A powerful force caught her belt and yanked her upward.

She caught her balance and slowed once more to control her body as she bounded two steps at a time. In another ten seconds she rounded a sharp switchback, and saw the base of the steps thirty yards ahead. “Almost down, Josh,” she managed between deep breaths.

Another obstacle loomed ahead of them. Where the trail flattened at the base of the steep hill, a tangle of driftwood logs of all sizes lay between them and the smooth sand on the beach.

“Watch out for the driftwood, Josh. Some of the logs might roll.” Kate hit the bottom of the hill and leaped onto a log, then picked a path across the driftwood, jumping from log to log. Only one more leap and then sand. Pain screamed through her right ankle as a log rolled out from under her foot. She groaned as the muscles in her lower leg began to spasm. She had sprained her ankle. Kate fell forward onto the sand, clamping her hands onto her injured leg stretched out in front of her.

“How bad, Kate?” Josh panted the words.

She groaned again. “Doggone it! Blast it!” She pounded the sand with her fists as incapacitating pain shot up and down her leg, which had gone stiff as a board. “Bad, Josh. You should leave me—”

Josh's strong arms scooped her from the sand and pulled her body against his.

She circled his neck with her arms and put her head beside his so Josh could see. He slowly accelerated down the beach, headed for the packed sand near the water.

The tide looked to be halfway in or out, Kate couldn't tell which.

Either way, it didn't leave much packed sand for Josh to run on. Somehow, he managed to reach a near sprinting speed.

A quarter mile ahead, the beach turned to the left.

Katie glanced over Josh's shoulder. Still no sign of the two gunmen. She would check again before they rounded the bend.

Her ankle pain was subsiding somewhat. Maybe the sprain wasn't as bad as it initially felt.

She put her mouth next to Josh's ear. “Slow down. Save your strength. I don't see them behind us. If we don't see them at the bend, let me test my ankle. The cold seawater might help. It will stop any swelling.”

“Tell me when, Kate. You know, you're heavier than you look.”

“Thanks.”

“It's all that muscle. You're
all
muscle. I can feel it.”

“You're not supposed to be noticing how I feel.”

“It's OK. Necessary, right now.”

“Ten yards to the bend, Josh. Then set me down by the water.”

“But you'll get sand in your—”

“It's OK. Just do it.”

“Setting you down now, Kate.” He veered toward the surf and lowered her to the sand.

Katie pulled off her shoe and hopped on her good foot into the fifty-degree water. When she plunged her injured foot into the water, a movement caught her eye.

Far down the beach, at the trailhead, two figures emerged, both carrying guns.

 

 

 

 

34

 

Watching Kate grimace as she hopped into the water tied Josh's stomach in knots. Both her pain and the increased danger it presented drove him to her side.

When he approached her, she gasped.

“Even if it hurts, the water will help, Kate.”

“It's not the water. They're at the trailhead, Josh.”

He looked down the beach. Recognition sent adrenaline rushing through his body. Josh pulled Kate off balance until she fell into his arms.

She tried to slide free. “No. Let me try to run.”

“No time for experiments.” He lifted her up, cradled her against his chest, and slowly accelerated toward the far end of the beach.

“You can't do this, Josh. It's too much…too far. At least let me try to run.”

He didn't reply.

In less than ten seconds, he cleared the bend enough to see what lay ahead. It didn't look good. “Do you know anything about this beach, Kate?”

She looked ahead. “Only that it looks like that point, about six hundred yards ahead, will cut us off.”

“Yeah. And the steep bank, like a cliff, keeps us from going up into the forest.”

“You just run, Josh. I'll think.”

He kicked his legs into high gear. But six hundred yards with Kate in his arms would thoroughly exhaust him.

As Josh ran, the warm sun and exertion sent streams of perspiration down his arms, saturating his tank top, dampening him and Kate. Though they were in danger, he cringed at the thought of how gross this would be for Kate if she realized he was sweating all over her.

But she didn't notice. Her head alternated positions between facing their pursuers and looking at the point, where a tall rock seemed to block their path. “We have to go around the point. There's no other option.”

“How deep's the water?” He managed between heavy breaths.

She stared at the point for two or three wave intervals.

“Kate…”

“At least three feet deep. But the waves seem to be getting bigger. The tide's coming in. Maybe we…”

He knew what she was thinking. The point could actually protect them. “That's a big maybe, Kate.”

“Maybe is all we've got.”

“Then let's go for it.” He tried to speed up, but his legs had turned to rubber. Josh stumbled and almost fell. He slowed enough to catch his balance.

Kate looked behind them. “They haven't gained on us. It's only a hundred yards to the point, and they're still at least four hundred yards behind us. That gives us about thirty seconds to get around the point before they get close enough to…” She stopped.

“Yeah. Before the firecrackers go off.”

As Josh ran the final hundred yards, he tried to picture them rounding the point. If he carried Kate, the crashing waves would knock him down, smash them on the big rock.

Big rock…he looked at it as a powerful wave crashed against it, splashing water up to the twenty-foot level. “God, help us.”

“That better have been a prayer, Josh.”

“It was. And, Kate…” His heavy breathing squeezed his words into short phrases, “… it gave me...an idea.”

“An answer to your first prayer? Impeccable timing.” She tried to smile at him, but he stumbled, smashing their mouths together.

“I'm sorry, Kate.”

“If that was a kiss, you'd better be sorry for it. Here's the rock. What now?”

He ran out knee-deep into the water. “Do you mind getting wet?”

“Not if it saves our lives.”

“Good.” Josh plunged ahead until the cold water was nearly four feet deep between waves. A couple of big waves and they could be cut off. He extended his arms, with Kate's body parallel to the water, and lowered her in.

She yelped when her body sank into the icy brine.

Josh's legs churned in slow motion as he pulled Kate through the water, trailing behind him like a person on a wake board.

The next wave approached, sucking him seaward as it rose to its full height.

Josh bobbed with the big wave as it passed.

It shoved them closer to the rock, and then broke in a roaring explosion of water and foam.

He ran hard, trying to round the huge monolith while they were between waves.

The approaching wave sprang up to its full height, much higher than the previous wave.

Josh's legs churned in the water. Sand filled his shoes. Progress was slow, but he turned for the beach, pulling Kate.

The big wave broke on top of them.

Kate's hands slipped from his.

The wave rolled Josh's body, flung him onto a sandy beach, and then drained back into the sea. His eyes stung from salt water and sand. His clothes were filled with sand.

Where was Kate? Josh turned around.

Kate sat on her rear facing the water. “Help me, Josh. Before the next wave—”

He scooped her up, stumbled onto the beach, lowered her onto the sand, and then fell down beside her, unable to do anything but stare up at the blue sky and breathe.

Kate sat up and hovered over him. “Are you OK?”

He nodded, still trying to catch his breath.