Under Threat by B.J. Daniels (reading the story of the .TXT) 📕

“Let’s eat something, and then one of us can try to sleep.”

He kept staring at her for a few humming seconds of silence. Then slowly, oh so painfully slowly, he crossed to her. He touched her face, his blunt fingertips tracing the lines of her cheekbones and then her jaw, then her neck. His eyes bore into hers, and her heart hammered against her chest.

She wanted to say silly things like I love you, and she knew she couldn’t. She absolutely couldn’t.

“For the record, I’ll never regret it, either.”

When he kissed her, it was gentle, and it was sweet. And Vaughn Cooper gave her something that no one else had for a very long time.

Hope.

Chapter 14

Vaughn managed a few hours of sleep, after he watched Natalie sleep for far too long. It had been tempting to lie next to her, to wake her with a kiss. So, he’d done neither. He’d stood guard the entire time she’d slept, and then he’d woken her by nudging her with his foot.

Because he was a bit of a coward, all in all.

Though his brain and body were nothing but a swirling mass of confusion he didn’t have time for, exhaustion won out and he slept quick and hard.

Natalie woke him at the first sign of dawn, just as he’d instructed, and then he began to pack everything.

“Are we going back to the cabin?” she asked him, trepidation coloring her every movement.

“No. We’re hiking farther.”

“Until what?”

“I know the area well enough to lead us toward civilization. Somewhere our phones work and we can call for help. It’s too dangerous to go back to the cabin.”

“But what about your truck?”

“They slashed the tires,” he returned. He hadn’t wanted to tell her all the things he’d noticed as they’d escaped from the cabin. That they took care to not shoot anyone, that they’d snuck their way into a position to take not murder.

He supposed murder would be scarier, but the idea of Natalie being held by those men... He wasn’t going to let that happen.

“When did you notice that?” she asked incredulously.

“When I kicked Worthless Number Two over, I saw the tires were flat.” And that the man had been carrying handcuffs and rope. Duct tape. Vaughn swallowed at the uncomfortable ball of rage and fear in his gut.

Natalie blew out a breath. “How long will it take to get us back to civilization?”

Vaughn pulled out the map of the Guadalupe Mountains that he kept in his emergency pack. He’d studied it last night while Natalie was sleeping, but he was worried and thorough enough to look at it again.

He inclined the map so she could see too. “This is the path we’re going to follow.” He showed her with his finger the mountains they would have to cross to get inside the national park and finally find service or a ranger station to assist them. “I don’t know exactly where we’ll get cell service, so we just have to keep going until we get it. Or find someone who can help us. My hope is that they don’t expect us to keep moving forward this way, and it’ll give us enough of a head start that by the time they realize it, we’ll be close enough to call for help.”

Natalie chewed her bottom lip and studied the map. “Do you have enough supplies to get us through all of this?”

“It’ll be tight and we’ll be hungry, but we’ll survive.”

“You don’t know the meaning of sugarcoating, do you?”

“Do you want me to sugarcoat it?” Because he would, if that’s what she wanted. He wasn’t sure who else he’d afford that to.

She sighed again, pulling her hair back in a ponytail. It stretched the tight T-shirt across her breasts, and he had to stop himself from wondering how much he’d be able to see if they indulged in each other right now. In the pearly light of dawn easing its way into the cave. Her skin would glow, she would—

They didn’t have time for that, and even if he’d lost his mind once, he couldn’t do it again. At least not if it meant wasting daylight. Maybe tonight...

He shook his head and told himself to focus. “First things first, we’re going to start moving toward higher ground. Hopefully that gives us a tactical advantage, and we can see if anyone’s following us before they catch up.”

“What do we do if they are?”

“Well, that depends on how close they are. We’ll either book it, or we’ll pick them off. But that’s a lot of what-if, Natalie.”

“You shot those other men. Do you think...” She swallowed, and he didn’t know if it was her conscience or something else bothering her, but either way that was something that she was going to have to work out on her own.

Every officer who vowed to protect the innocent and took up a weapon had to come to terms with what that meant and the power it offered. They had to come to grips with what they were willing to do. He couldn’t convince her of his morality or his lack of guilt, and, in the next few days should she have to use her weapon, only she could deal with the aftermath of that. He couldn’t do it for her, no matter how much he’d like to.

Because if he had the choice, he would save her from every hard decision. Which was another thing in a long line of things he didn’t have the time or energy to think about right now.

“It was my intention to give them non-life-threatening wounds, but without medical attention, it’s hard to know if they survived, and quite frankly I can’t concern myself with it. The only thing I can concern myself with right now is keeping you and me safe.”

She didn’t say anything for a long while, and he let her be quiet as they walked out of the cave. They would need to make it to another shelter