Page 38 of Disappearance at Angel's Landing
He took aim.
Throwing her arms over Branch, she stared at the end of the gun barrel. It took everything she had left to keep her voice even, leaning on that massive confidence Ranger Barbie had always given her. “Just finish it. If you don’t, I’ll dismember you so completely, the devil won’t know what to do with you when you get to hell.”
“Always with the jokes.” The killer kept the gun steady. This was it. This was where she and Branch ended, just as they’d gotten started. Not how she pictured it in all those late-night fantasies. “You never cease to amaze me, Ranger Jordan, but you’re not laughing now, are you?”
A deep warning penetrated through the small clearing where she and Branch had gone down. A blur of tan fur and fangs broke into her vision.
The killer turned the gun toward the new threat, but it was too late. Claws sank deep into the killer’s chest, and he vaulted backward. His scream jerked Branch back into consciousness.
A second gunshot tore through the adrenaline-induced haze that’d taken over her body, and the mountain lion that had attacked sank to the ground.
Where had he come from? Cougars rarely attacked unless provoked. Her heart clenched at the thought of the animal sacrificing itself to save her and Branch, but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, either.
“Lila, run.” Branch’s pained voice barely reached her over the hard thud of her heart. Rolling onto his back, he clamped a hand against his shoulder. Blood seeped through calloused fingers and spilled over the back of his hand. Fingers that’d held her with such care and acceptance. Now stained with blood.
Biting against the moan of pain in her throat, she slid her hands under his shoulders and pushed him upright. “I’m not going anywhere. You owe me a coffee date, and you’re not getting out of it this time.”
His laugh cut short as another growl broke the silence.
The killer launched himself at them.
Branch brought his knee up in time to neutralize the collision, then kicked out as the killer took aim. At Lila. His heel connected with the killer’s chest and sent him spiraling backward into atree. Then Branch was on his feet, his inhales strained and shallow. “You can’t have her.”
A frustrated scream tore from the killer’s throat as he practically threw himself at Branch. Her partner used the attacker’s momentum against him, stepping aside and planting his elbow into the killer’s back.
The man who’d killed Sarah Lantos—his own sister—turned the gun on Lila, and everything inside of her went cold. “Neither can you.”
He pulled the trigger.
But nothing happened.
The killer tried again. And again.
Branch didn’t give him time to test it a fourth time. He scooped up a rock from the ground and swung it into the killer’s head, knocking their assailant out cold. In the aftermath of adrenaline, Branch’s legs failed to hold his weight, and he dropped to his knees.
But Lila was right there. Holding him upright as he’d held her in the desert last night while she exposed all the broken pieces of herself. She swiped her thumb across his bottom lip. “Hello, Grizzly Bear.”
“Hello, Barbie.” He smiled at her, a genuine, full-blown smile that threatened to unravel her insides. It was the most beautiful sight she’d ever witnessed. And it was all for her. “Do me a favor. Stay with me.”
“Always.” She clutched his hand between both of hers. Just as Risner and the search and rescue team descended.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Branch would not go gentle into that good night.
Okay. It wasn’t that serious. The bullet wound to his shoulder hurt like hell, though. There’d been no exit wound.
Once Risner and the SAR team had found him and Lila—much to the ego inflation of the district ranger—a helicopter had been dispatched to their location. The ride itself had taken no more than a few minutes, a definite improvement over having to ascend Angel’s Landing with a hole in his shoulder. He’d been swept into surgery within minutes short a pint of blood or two. When he’d asked if his day could get any worse, it’d been a rhetorical question. Not a challenge.
And Lila had kept her word after the EMTs had forced her into the trauma surgeon’s hands in the Sprindale ER. Once in recovery, she’d stayed outside his surgical suite until the nurses had threatened to have her handcuffed to the bed. But true to Lila’s nature, she’d promised to return with straitjackets and a referral to a mental institution for each of them if something happened to him. Seemed she was as reluctant to be apart from him and he was from her. Unfortunately, to the detriment of her own health.
Which only made him love her more.
Branch scooped another spoonful of Cherry Garcia into his mouth, taking his time sucking on the hard-as-bricks chocolate chips. His favorite part. Because once he broke through theirhard shell, there was nothing but sweetness and pleasure underneath. Just like Lila. Thank heaven she’d somehow gotten her roommate to smuggle in a couple pints. He was about to throw the next cup of Jell-O he saw against the wall. Though the unending days of lying in a hospital bed were made much better by the blond beauty currently glued to the romantic comedy on TV in the bed beside him.
Bruises darkened the side of her face, a new butterfly bandage interrupted the line of smooth skin along her temple, and she’d sustained a life-threatening injury herself. While the stab wound hadn’t hit anything major, she’d bled for a couple hours between facing off with the killer and the time Branch had found her in the grove of burned trees. The damage to her ribs would heal in a few weeks, but it made sitting up and walking much harder. Which she made sure to complain about as often as possible. Turned out, Lila wasn’t good at staying in one place with nothing to hyperfixate on, but they would both be out of here in a couple days.
For now, he’d revel in the time they had together right here in this room.
