“I’m going back down,” he whispered. “This ladder is half rotten, and it won’t hold both of us at the same time.” He wasn’t certain it would stay together long enough for him to get down, but if it didn’t, they’d go back to plan A and the tied-together sheets. “There are two broken rungs. One is halfway down, the other is three below it. Put your feet on the outside of the rungs, not in the middle.”
Lolly nodded, and began pulling on the poncho over her layers of clothing. Gabriel carefully backed down the ladder, not taking a deep breath until his boots were safely on the icy ground again. He turned up the collar of his jacket to protect his neck from the wind, and positioned himself so he could brace the ladder. She stuck her head out to make certain he was on the ground, then quickly drew it back in and stuck one leg out the window, feeling with her foot for the top rung. She couldn’t reach it, of course, because the ladder wasn’t tall enough. Finally she sat on the windowsill, put both legs out, and turned until she was on her stomach. She found the ladder, set both feet on it, and cautiously moved down the creaking wood. She was favoring her right side, he noticed, and wondered how she’d hold up for the long hike off the mountain.
The walk, which would be treacherous because of the ice, would take hours. In normal circumstances he wouldn’t even attempt it, but the circumstances weren’t normal and the only other choice they had was to simply hide and wait … but wait for what? The meth addicts in the living room were stuck, too; they weren’t going anywhere, and at least they were in a warm house. He and Lolly couldn’t wait for the ice to melt, because that could take a week or more. Their best bet, and it wasn’t a good one, but it was better than their other options, was to get off the mountain as fast as they could, before the weight of the ice started snapping tree limbs like toothpicks. They’d be warmer if they were moving, too.
“Watch for that missing rung,” he warned in an urgent whisper just before she reached it, and her step faltered. She hesitated, then changed her rhythm and instead used her right foot to step past the missing rung, so she could bear most of her weight with her left shoulder instead of the bruised right one.
A splintering sound was the only warning he had, before the next rung gave way, too, and she came tumbling down.
It wasn’t a long drop, but in these conditions and with the hike they had ahead of them, a sprained ankle was as good as a broken leg. Instinctively Gabriel let go of the ladder and grabbed Lolly in a bear hug before she could hit the ground. The ladder clattered and banged against the side of the house.
“Shit!” he said, setting Lolly on her feet and grabbing her wrist. There was almost no chance the two inside hadn’t heard the ladder slamming against the house. They needed to move—now.
“Let’s go,” he said, and started across the icy yard at a fast clip, towing her behind him. She didn’t make a sound of protest, just put her head down and did her best to keep up. They slipped and slid, but he kept his feet; once Lolly started sliding, but she regained her balance, aided by his grip on her wrist. If they could just make the tree line …
There was a shout behind them, and a shot rang out.
Double shit.
Chapter Six
Lolly went down with a cry of pain, and for one stark split-second time froze as Gabriel thought she’d been shot. Then she was scrambling to her feet, muttering “Damn it!” with muffled fury before grabbing his hand and taking off again. She fell again, almost immediately; the thick treads on his boots didn’t afford him a lot of traction, but her sneakers had almost none.
Gabriel hauled her to her feet once more; she stifled another cry of pain, and too late he realized he’d pulled on her right arm, and her injured right shoulder. To keep her upright, he wrapped his arm around her and held her, his grip so hard he expected her to protest, but she didn’t make a peep. Running in that locked-together position was impossible, unless they wanted to end up facedown on the ground while the two meth-heads took potshots at them. Their best bet was to keep moving, no matter how agonizingly slow their progress seemed to be.
At least it was dark up here, away from the lights of town and other houses; hiding would be easier. Of course, that meant they had to be extra cautious themselves, because he couldn’t turn on the flashlight without pinning a bull’s-eye on their backs. All he could do was keep moving, get them into the trees, and hope for the best.
Even though she’d spent the last hour—two hours? She had no idea how much time had passed—in terror, expecting to be killed, somehow the first explosive crack of a gunshot still caught Lolly by surprise; her entire body lurched, and her heart jumped so hard it felt as if it would come out of her chest. She stumbled, lost her balance on the icy grass, and went down. Cold immediately seared her legs. The poncho somewhat protected her, but from mid-thigh down her pants were wet. After all the effort she’d made to stay dry, what did she do but fall on the wet ground the very first thing? Furious with herself, she scrambled up, grabbed Gabriel’s hand, and took off running again.
And immediately fell again.
This time Gabriel jerked her to her feet, and the pressure on her bruised shoulder and side wrenched a cry from her before she stubbornly shut her mouth. What was a little pain in her shoulder compared to maybe getting shot? Gabriel clamped his arm around her waist and set off again, all but dragging her along with him.
Behind them, the porch light flared on, and the front door opened with a pop and a slam; the first shot must have been through the dining room window if they were just now making it out on the porch. Niki and Darwin began firing from the porch; their aim was off, but every cell in her spinal cord seemed to shrivel as she waited for a lucky shot to find her. Again, time seemed to have lost its meaning; logically only ten or fifteen seconds could have passed, because how long could it have taken them to get to the porch? It felt as if she and Gabriel had been running for the woods for a lifetime, but they were still several yards away. Lolly was afraid to turn and look at the porch, afraid to do anything except try to keep her feet under her and make as much progress as she could.