Storm (Linear Tactical #10) - Janie Crouch Page 0,48

to the bridge when Noah caught up with them. Marilyn knew right away that something was wrong by how fast he was running.

“What?” She rushed toward him as soon as he came into view. “Is everything okay?”

“I think there’s trouble. It looks like the rafts were tampered with. That’s why Tanner’s collapsed.” He encouraged them all to keep moving forward. He wasn’t running now, but the walking pace he was setting was pretty damn fast.

“Jared?” She couldn’t keep the catch out of her throat. Jared was the only one Noah could think of who would tamper with the rafts.

“Or someone working in his proxy. Probably trying to get to you.”

She shook her head. “You think they sabotaged the wrong raft? We didn’t even know who was going in which one until just a few minutes before we got in them.”

Noah reached back and grabbed her hand but continued walking at a rate that almost had her jogging next to him. “I think they planned to knock out both rafts to herd us to the other side of the river. But something happened and ours malfunctioned, so we’re over here.”

It had to be Jared, or Noah was right—Jared’s friends who would do anything for him. She knew firsthand they were as bad as Jared.

She needed to get across this river and to her children right fucking now.

They’d been traveling at an incline for a while and the distance to the other side of the river was much closer now. The path rounded a curve and Noah stopped, his curse blistering the air around them.

It didn’t take Marilyn long to figure out the problem. The bridge was out.

“Did it collapse?” she asked.

He lowered himself to the ground so he could grab the length of the bridge and start hoisting it up until he could see the ends that should’ve been attached to the other side.

“This catenary rope bridge has been here for as long as I remember. Thing is scary as hell to cross the first time, but it has always been secure. Lasted through blizzards, monsoons, all sorts of crazy weather.” He held up the edge of the rope. “See how even this burn is at the end of each piece? Someone took a blowtorch to it.”

“So definitely didn’t collapse on its own.”

His jaw got tighter. “The next bridge is about a mile down. Let’s keep going.”

Marilyn looked over at the other two women. They nodded but she could see they were exhausted. It was mid-afternoon and they’d been walking at a rapid pace all day. They’d only stopped for a couple of minutes to eat the very little food they had left at lunch—which hadn’t been enough to provide much energy. Marilyn was tired and hungry, and she was twenty years younger than them.

But they were worried about the kids too, even if they didn’t know about the problems with the rafts, so they’d walked without complaint all day.

One thing about surviving abusive situations, it taught you how to gut-up and push on, even when uncomfortable.

Marilyn kept looking at the other side of the ravine as they briskly walked toward the next bridge, hoping she’d catch sight of the kids. That despite the evidence suggesting there was deliberate trouble, they’d be there waiting for her to find a way to get over to them. She could hear their little voices yelling for her as she crossed, waiting to tell her about all their adventures.

Noah was looking across the ravine too, but farther in the distance. Whatever he saw didn’t make him happy.

They made it to the second bridge twenty minutes later. Panic began to crawl all over her body.

This bridge was out, too.

Noah didn’t curse this time, which made her even more nervous, and she realized that he’d been expecting the bridge to be out.

Noah began taking heavier items out of his backpack. “We’re going to have to change plans. You all need to go back upriver a couple of miles, then turn at the fork. There’s a well-marked path that will lead you to old man Henrikson’s house.”

“No,” Marilyn said. She wasn’t letting him go without her.

Noah continued without stopping, “Tell him about the rafting accident and that I said there’s trouble out here and he needs to get help.”

“We can keep going with you,” Barb said. “We’ll try not to slow you down.”

He gave the older woman a gentle smile. “You three have been absolute troupers, but it’s time for me to move on my own. There’s a