Page 26 of Training Rain
Chapter 5
Rain had dozed off immediately, but a couple of hours later she found herself wide awake and in the arms of Jess McMean. Even in his sleep, his left arm banded around her ribs tightly. Part of her wanted to slip out of his embrace and sneak out of the cabin. She could be back in Nevada in just over twelve hours. She could go back to her life as if she’d never stepped away.
She snuggled in tighter and let his warmth create a cocoon within the covers. Going back was not an option, it was a last resort. She could live with it, but it was not where her destiny lay. Adianca had tried to tell her that, but until the stampede, she hadn’t understood. She had skills that would be wasted on the reservation. There were other people who could train to take over for the medicine woman and spiritual guide for the people. What Rain could do could not be taught. It was a gift to be used for good.
Piercing alarms shot through the silence and her thoughts. Yas barked a half a second before the proximity alert sounded. She was up and running for the bedroom in an instant. She pulled on jeans, a shirt and her boots before grabbing a handgun and her shotgun. She tucked the handgun into a holster with a strap that she slung over her head and shoulder. The strap carried an extra magazine. Shoving a handful of shells in her pocket, she ran back out into the living room.
Yas continued to bark at the loud noise. Jess was up, dressed and holding a rifle while peering out the window.
Rain moved to the panel near the door and disengaged the alarm with a quick four digit code.
“Could be a deer or a raccoon,” Jess said.
Rain stretched her senses and searched the area. “No. I never got a feeling that anything was near and I don’t sense a panicked animal now.”
“Do you have the fail-safe codes?”
Her heart pounded. “You want to blow the place up?”
“We may need to if we’re going to create enough of a distraction. Who knows, we may kill our pursuers in the process.”
“We don’t even know if anyone’s out there.”
A bullet crashed through the window to the left of Jess’s head. He ducked below the sill.
Rain got low and pulled Yas down under her as she crawled toward the other front window.
Dawn was a few minutes away. “Did you get the direction?” she asked.
“Behind the shed.”
The earth glowed blue-gray with the first touches of daylight. Rain leaned the shotgun against the wall and pulled out her handgun. Movement in the trees to the left of the shed caught her eye. “I’ve got one in the forest.”
“I see at least two behind the shed.”
“What do they want with us?”
Jess moved toward his bag and stuffed a few scattered items inside. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and say they want us dead. If they wanted information, they’d be trying to get inside, not shooting us through the window.
“I’m going to lay down some cover fire. Take the detonator and go out through the bedroom window. Keep your eyes open. I’ll be right behind you. Give me two minutes. Count it out. One, one hundred, two, one hundred and keep on running. By the time you get to one twenty we should be far enough away.” He crawled to her and held her face between his hands. “Don’t hesitate. Blow this place to kingdom come. Understand?”
“Yes. I got it.”
He kissed her hard. “Go.”
Jess started firing from the broken window. Rain looked back once as she ran through the cabin, grabbed her bag and pulled her coat on. She had the detonator inside the bag. Joshua had told her to keep it close, but he doubted she’d have a use for it. She opened the window, shotgun ready in case they were surrounding the house. A shot hit the frame near her hand. She didn’t think, she shot at the movement to the right. A man screamed and fell to the snow. Hoping that Jess’s continued shooting was enough to drown out his shouts, she lifted Yas out the window and then climbed out into the freezing early morning.
Silently commanding Yas to follow, she counted and ran as fast as she could. She cleared the ridge. She sensed the buffalo moving away from the gunfire but not in a panic. There was no stampede. Her lungs ached from the cold and she pumped her arms and legs as hard as she could, all the while counting it out.Sixty-two one hundred, sixty-three one hundred.
Had Jess really followed? She couldn’t hear the gunfire but the trees were thick and could be blocking the sound. No, she would hear it. She ran over the next ridge.One hundred ten one hundred.Sliding to a stop in the snow, she tore at the pocket of her bag and pulled out the cell phone given to her by the head of the Psi Alliance. She dialed the number she’d been ordered to memorize.One hundred twenty one hundred. Great Spirit, let him be out of the cabin.She hit call.
Several beeps sounded inside the cell phone. Rain pulled Yas in close and covered his ears. The ground rumbled as an enormous explosion rocked the trees. If she had not already been on her knees, she would have fallen from the reverberation even at that distance. A plume of smoke pushed up high enough that she saw it over the ridge.
Yas quaked, but he didn’t bark. She’d not given the dog a command to stay silent, but he seemed to know how to behave.
Tucking the detonation phone away, she grabbed the bag and continued to move away in the same direction, Yas tight at her heels.
The heavy sound of footfall behind her made her dodge behind a large oak. She didn’t know if it was Jess or one of the people hunting them. She tucked the shotgun tight against her shoulder. She knew her buckshot would probably only wound a man at any distance. Still, it might buy her enough time to get away. A low whistle made her heart slow. It was Jess’s signal that it was him and to stay in place. She waited, and two seconds later he ran into view.
