her jaw with his fist. Biting back the pain, she lunged forward. His arms were still handcuffed, but he’d managed to get out of his leg shackles. She rammed her elbow into his throat, then without giving him time to recover, swung her knee hard into his groin. He let out a groan, then came at her quickly, knocking her weapon out of her hand.
Panic ensued. She watched the snake slither off, but where was her weapon? Frantic, she shoved Barrick into a thick tree trunk, then searched the ground around her. Barrick stumbled away from her, but her own head still felt fuzzy. She might be able to beat him in hand-to-hand combat, but if he got ahold of the gun, it was over.
A glint of metal on the ground to her left caught her eye. She fumbled for the weapon but was a fraction of a second too late. Barrick grabbed it, faltered for a moment, then aimed it at her.
“Don’t scream, don’t move, or I will shoot you.” Barrick took a step forward. “Give me your backpack.”
“Whatever your plan is, it won’t work. They’ll trace the plane. Trace our phones. Already they will have ensured that access out of the forest is blocked off. There’s nowhere for you to run. Every law enforcement officer in the surrounding states will have your photo in front of them. Not to mention that your face will be on every television across the neighboring counties. If you kill a government official, you’ll get the death penalty.”
“Not if they don’t find me. They’ll have to search thousands upon thousands of acres, and I could be anywhere. A needle in a haystack.”
She gripped the pack between her fingers, still not willing to give him what he wanted. Still trying to figure out a way to get her gun back.
“That might be true, but do you know how many people get lost in this wilderness and never make it out?” She wiped a drop of rain from her cheek, needing to find a way to create doubt. To regain the upper hand until Jonas came back. “You didn’t know the flight plan. You have no idea where we are. Choose the wrong direction, and you’ll be dead before you ever find a way out of here.”
“Shut up and just give it to me. Now, or I will shoot you.”
“And if I give it to you? How does this end?”
If she did what he was demanding, he wouldn’t need her anymore. On the upside, if he fired her weapon again, there was a good chance Jonas would hear it and might be able to find her, but she’d probably already be dead by then. So what choice did she have?
She forced her mind to focus. The river was below them, currents that might allow her to escape. She was a strong swimmer. She also didn’t want him getting the bag, which meant her only real option was to run.
Madison took her chances and slid down the embankment beside her, hoping her sudden move took him off guard. It was steeper than it looked, forcing her to grab for a tree limb as she tumbled down the sharp slope, trying to slow her descent. Her pack got stuck on something, so she dug her feet into the ground to stop and grab for it, but she fell another ten feet before she could reach it. The river rushed toward her and a moment later, she plunged into the water.
The icy river pressed in around her as she struggled to find her way back to the surface. Tumbling forward, she grabbed on to a large rock and managed to find her footing. An eerie quietness surrounded her as she came up for air. She hovered behind the rock—still in the water—looking up at the ridge where she’d come from. Had he followed her?
A bullet slammed into the water nearby, answering her question.
She slid farther into the water. She was shaking from the cold, but she couldn’t think about that right now. Couldn’t go back for her pack. Not with him shooting at her. She glanced behind her, keeping her head out of the water just enough to see. The other side of the river’s shoreline was a good twenty yards away. From there, she could quickly slip into the woods, but if she swam across the water, Barrick would see her and she’d be fair game.
Unless she stayed under the water.
A plan slowly formed. There was a