But maybe there didn’t have to be arguments. Maybe she could forgive herself the lost lives finally.

  She pulled the Jeep back up onto the road and headed south. She had a party to make.

  And some past mistakes to forgive along the way.

  Deadly Breaks

  1

  Connor adjusted his pen light, shining it more fully onto the stubborn bar lock pinned across the thick metal door. Around him night bugs chirped, a pine-scented breeze blew across his overheated cheeks, the deep shadows swayed as clouds churned past overhead. The fresh, clean air carried just a hint of salt water from the ocean, not more than a half mile away.

  Quiet, peaceful, serene.

  It was fucking awful.

  A mosquito buzzed his cheek. He slapped the bastard away. He hated nature. Nature sucked.

  He was going to kill Howards.

  He glanced behind him, checking the line of pines across the length of the tarmacked parking lot. Outside of his rented SUV parked in the darker shadows next to the square brick building holding the toilets, there were no other cars or trucks in the lot. The rest stop was deep enough into the National Park, he couldn’t even hear traffic from the distant highway.

  No one bearing down on him. Yet.

  At least he hoped no one was hiding in the trees. Fuck if he’d know. Give him a city alley. A concrete jungle. The back alleys of Prague. The sewers beneath the London Underground. Skyscrapers in Hong Kong.

  He could tell you which window some bastard was looking out staring down at him from eight stories up.

  But set him into the middle of a National Park along the Washington coast…

  He snarled and put the pen light between his teeth to hold it on the lock, freeing up both hands. Who the fuck put a bar lock across a rest stop toilet door anyway? And not just any bar lock. No. This one had to be the hardest fucking lock to pick in the history of locks.

  His heartbeat pounded as something hooted overhead. Could be a bird. Could be messages sent between the assholes trying to stop him.

  More hooting.

  If that was a fucking owl, he was going to shoot it.

  “Two days tops, Howards says,” he muttered around the pen light as he adjusted the picks in the lock, trying to hit the little catch inside. “Easy work, he says.”

  Easy work, his ass. Who the hell hides anything of value in a public toilet at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere?

  Connor glanced at the large blue Porta Potties. Three of them in a row right next to the brick toilet building.

  He supposed the hiding place could have been worse.

  Thankfully the breeze was blowing away from the Porta Potties. Pine trees were bad enough. He could do without the extra ambiance of unemptied temp toilets.

  Rubbing a hand across his face, trying to swipe away sweat, he let out a slow breath. Steady hands. He needed steady hands or this wouldn’t work.

  He took hold of the two thin metal picks and twisted, turned.

  Crunch.

  Steps on the rough gravel between the parking lot and the building.

  Connor stilled, hoping he blended into the shadows in his black clothing. The hood on his hoodie was up over his head hiding his hair and hopefully masking the light from his mini flashlight. His black gloves kept his hands hidden.

  Crunch.

  Closer now.

  The hairs on his neck stood up. Someone standing right behind him.

  He turned slowly, knowing he was going to see a gun pointed at his head.

  “Horrrrnk.”

  Conor blinked as hot air, spit, and animal musk blasted him in the face.

  Not a gun.

  A moose. A moose the size of a fucking bus.

  The animal snorted puffs of hot, musty air into his face again.

  Connor had to look a long way up from his crouched position to see the big, thick antlers on that moose’s head.

  “Never seen a moose in person before,” he murmured, slowly taking the penlight from his mouth and flicking the light off. Could moose see in the dark?

  Must or the stupid giant thing wouldn’t be standing there staring at him.

  “Good moose,” he said. “Good moose. I’m just going to stand up now.”

  He rose slowly, holding his hands out, letting the moose see he wasn’t holding any weapons. Because a moose would care about that shit? He had no idea. He wasn’t an animal guy.

  The moose snorted and released another, “Horrrnk.”

  Connor winced. Ouch. This guy could silence Times Square with that noise.

  “Okay,” he said to the moose. “I got to get into this john. And I need to do it soon. There’s some bad guys out in those woods somewhere. And if they get here before I break into that door, there’s gonna be a whole mess of trouble. Right? So if you wouldn’t mind just…” He made a shooing motion with his hands.

  Moose stomped a foot and huffed in his face again.

  “You could do with some toothpaste, big guy,” he muttered.

  He took a single step backward, away from Moose. Moose took a step toward him.

  Yeah, that wasn’t going to be good.

  He let out a sigh and reached for his gun, tucked up under his hoodie in his shoulder harness. He kept his movements slow. Getting trampled in the middle of nowhere by a prehistoric animal while reaching for his gun was not what he wanted written into his obituary.

  As slowly as he’d reached into his heavy hoodie, he moved the gun out, his gaze steady on Moose.

  His gun had barely cleared the zipper, when he heard a very feminine throat clearing.

  “I hope you don’t intend on shooting that animal. It’s protected.”

  He turned to face the woman while mentally cursing Howards into the fourth circle of Hell.

  She stood a few feet away, near the building like she’d just walked around it. Dressed in green khaki pants and a loose dark jacket with a circular patch on the chest. She had a green, felt park ranger’s hat covering what looked like dark hair, and a very prominent weapon in a side holster on her hip.

  So he probably shouldn’t antagonize her or mention she was really pretty even with the ugly hat.

  Good to know. Good to know.

  “Wasn’t gonna shoot him,” he said, speaking as slowly and calmly to the ranger as he’d spoken to Moose. “Was just going to fire a shot at the trees and scare him away.”

  “That’s a good way to get trampled,” she said. Her gaze moved between Moose and Connor, her hand near her belt. “I’d suggest walking very slowly toward me and we’ll get into my truck until he leaves.”

  She had a truck? How the hell had he missed a truck rolling into the rest stop?

  “That’d be a good plan, but Moose here seems to want to follow where I go.”

  “You carrying moose snacks?”

  He frowned at her. “What the hell are moose snacks?”

  “A joke, city boy.” She jerked her chin. “This way. And maybe put that gun away.”

  He looked back at Moose. Moose snorted more fetid air in his face. He didn’t put his gun away.

  “You heard the lady,” he said. “Just gonna go right over there. No reason to get upset, right?”

  Once Moose was gone, he’d figure out a way to get the ranger to leave the area. Then he could go back to lock picking. But he was running out of time, and the ticking clock in his head was starting to speed up. He hadn’t been all that far ahead of Schmidt.

  The minute he edged toward the ranger, Moose stomped his huge foot and horrrnked again.

  “Told you,” Connor said. “Seems to want me to stay right here.”

  “Right there you’re a sitting duck.”

  “Yup. Aware of that. Not sure how to get out of it.”

  She looked behind him, then cursed under her breath. “Forgot about that stupid lock.”

  “Yeah, it’s not budging either.” He winced. Moose had him off is game. Well Moose and all those damned trees. Telling a law-abiding ranger he’d been trying to pick the bathroom lock was a mistake.

  “The other side is open,” she said. “If we can get around the corner, we can at least wait him out somewhere strong enough he can’t knock it over.”

  The other side was open.

  Connor edged closer to the ranger again. Moose huffed and took a shuffling step forward, crowding Connor against the wall.

  “You sure I can’t shoot him?” he asked the ranger.

  “You can, but you’ll just piss him off. Also, I’ll have to charge your dead body with shooting a protected species inside the park.”

  “Fair enough.” He was still tempted. Not that he wanted to piss Moose off. But he really needed to get both Moose and Ranger out of here.

  Another hooting noise echoed across the rest stop parking lot.

  He closed his eyes briefly. That was definitely not an owl.

  The first bullet hit a cement block on the bathroom right next to Connor’s cheek.

  2

  Connor dove for cover, wrapping an arm around the ranger and taking her with him as he charged around the corner of the rest stop bathroom. Another chunk of cement zinged off a building block, catching him across the ear.

  Moose bellowed, loud enough to make Connor wince. But he didn’t have time to see if the beast had taken a hit or was just mad.

  “Inside,” the ranger shouted.

  “We’ll be trapped, we go in there.”

  “Better than standing out here and getting shot.”

  True. But the bathroom was a solid square of cement blocks with only tiny windows up high and a metal door that, while solid, wouldn’t keep Schmitt and his crew out long.

  “You have a truck?” he said. “How far?”

  “Too far.” She nodded.

  A dark green four-by-four sat two hundred yards across wide open ground, at the opposite side of another chunk of parking lot.

  “How’d you think we’d reach that before Moose charged?” he asked, shaking his head.

  “Didn’t think the moose would charge us.” More gun shots. Ranger winced. “Who the hell is shooting at us? Those aren’t rifles they’re using. Not illegal hunting.”

  Illegal maybe, but not the kind of hunting she was thinking about. “The bad guys,” he said. “And they’re very motivated to keep me from getting something inside the locked portion of this bathroom.”

  “What and why and who are you?”

  “Lot to explain. No time to do it.”

  No intention of explaining fully. They could argue about that later.

  More gun fire. Both he and Ranger ducked as one of the bullets shattered glass on the other side of the building. One of the high windows.

  “How many?” she asked.

  He glanced at her long enough to see she’d pulled the handgun from her holster. He might be starting to like Ranger. “What’s your name?”

  “Joy.”

  “A park ranger named Joy?”

  “You make fun of my name right now, I’m gonna let Moose have you.”

  “If the guns haven’t got him.” Poor Moose. “My guess would be there are five of them. But that’s a guess based on hours old information. Could be more by now.”

  “If I’m last-standing with someone, I should know his name, too.”

  “Connor. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Joy.”

  He risked a look around the building. Two men were walking across the open lot toward the bathroom. Too dark to see who they were. But since neither of them was over six foot seven, he knew Schmitt was still somewhere in the trees.

  He leaned back against the concrete. “You gonna shoot me if I kill some bad guys?”

  “No. But I’m gonna have questions after.”

  “Fair enough.” He swung around the building again, taking aim, and fired four shots.

  He missed one of the men completely when he dove to the ground, but he caught the second. The man dropped backward, landing with a clatter on the tarmac.

  Some shouting from the trees and another volley of bullets rained down on the bathroom.

  They were going to figure out they could circle around soon. If they weren’t doing that already.

  Connor scanned the lot. Outside of a few tiny trees planted in spots of grass that served as dividers between sections of the lot, there was no cover close enough to help them out of this.

  Moose bellowed again. So not dead. Connor’s relief surprised him a little.

  More shouting from the trees.

  He risked a glance around the corner. He couldn’t see Moose, but the guy he’d missed was scrambling back to the trees, fast. The guy he’d shot was still sprawled on the ground.

  A few more rounds from the trees. And then silence descended.

  Yeah. He didn’t trust that silence at all.

  “They’re going to circle around,” Ranger Joy said.

  “Yup.”

  “Your vehicle?”

  His rental SUV was parked on the other side of the building, closer to the trees. They might be able to make it and make a run for it. That would get Joy out of here. But it would leave behind his entire reason for being out in these fucking woods.

  He hadn’t trekked out into the wilderness to lose to Schmitt.

  Pulling the SUV keys from his pocket, he handed them to Joy. “I’ll cover you. Get in and get out of here. You got a radio? Call in backup.”

  “There’s no backup. I’m the only ranger on duty for this entire section of park.”

  “One ranger? One fucking ranger?”

  “Budget cuts,” she said with a shrug.

  “Fucking budget cuts.” He shook his head. “Okay, just get out of here. Somewhere safe. Call the cops.”

  Not that the cops would get here fast enough to do anything. Part of the reason Howards claimed he used this particular rest stop. No law enforcement around for miles to complicate things.

  “You said there were at least five people out there. They all have guns. I’m not leaving you behind on your own.”

  He had to admire her bravery. But he could do without the witness.

  Another round of gunshots. Closer now. On the side of the building where his SUV was parked.

  “Too late now.” Damn it.

  There was nowhere to run that wasn’t right out in the open. And Schmitt and his people were closing in.

  Another few shots, these from the opposite direction. The woods in that direction were farther away, too far to reach them at the bathroom, but it meant running in that direction would be running right into range.

  “They’re encircling us,” Joy said.

  “Yup.” No time left to make a run for it.

  A loud bang from behind the building made Joy jump. “What the hell was that?”

  He had no idea. “Maybe they blew out a tire on the SUV?”

  Moose hollered again. How the big guy hadn’t been shot by now…

  Another few shots, these from closer, and angled to hit the side of the building beside Connor.

  Joy grabbed his collar. “Come on.”

  He stumbled after her as she dove into the women’s bathroom and slammed the solid metal door shut.

  3

  “Don’t suppose you’ve got a key to that lock?” Connor hunted the stalls, looking for something to block the door with.

  “Won’t hold for long,” Ranger Joy said.

  But it was something. The longer they could stall, the better chance he had of finding a way out of this mess. He also needed to get into the bathroom behind this one. He looked up over the stalls.

  Blinked. Cursed.

  There was a narrow gap in the bricks near the roof, a gap that meant the two bathrooms connected.

  He pointed to the gap. “Bad for privacy,” he said.

  “Good for air circulation and keeping the smell down.”

  He supposed that was true. Still.

  Would have been nice to know that was there before he wasted so much time trying to pick the world’s worst fucking lock.

  “We need to get into that side of the building.”

  “No way out,” she warned.

  “No way out no matter where we are in this brick box.” First, he had to collect what he was here for. Then he could figure out how to get them out of this mess.

  He stepped up onto one of the toilet seats. The gap between the roof and the wall was gonna be a tight squeeze, but there was enough room to slide through sideways.

  He jumped down from the toilet seat and held his hand out. “Here, I’ll boost you up.”

  Joy took his outstretched hand and jumped onto the toilet.

  He looked at her hat. “That ain’t gonna fit.”

  She took it off, squashed it flat, and slipped it through the gap. Then grabbing the edges, she pulled herself halfway up the wall in a show of upper body strength he had to admire. He got behind her, grabbed her legs and gave her an extra lift.

  When the top of her body was through the gap, she swung her legs up and around, straddling the gap, her stomach on the narrow span of wall between the two bathrooms.

  She looked back at him. “Can you do this without help?”

  “Get down before the bullets start flying,” he snapped. Questioning his upper body strength. Now that was just insulting.

  She dropped into the other bathroom, her hands catching the wall. He heard a few curses and then she hissed, “Hurry!”

  Yeah, he heard it too. Coming closer to the building. Voices.

  Shit.

  He stood on the toilet, grabbed the edge of the wall and pulled himself up, using the wall for foot purchase as he scrambled to get his leg through the gap. The whole thing was a lot more awkward and gangly than he would have liked, but he slipped through to the other bathroom minutes before a round of bullets hit the metal door on the side they’d just occupied.

  Lifting his head enough to see the door over the ledge. No holes. Door still closed. Good. They had a few minutes maybe.

  He dropped to the toilet beneath him, then stepped down.

  This side of the building was so dark he could barely see and his night vision was pretty decent. The high windows—one of which was shot out thanks to Schmitt’s people—let in a little ambient light from outside. But the other side of the building had been brighter. Light from the half moon hitting the windows there. No light leaked into this side, except past the gap they’d just dropped through.

 

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