Page 22 of Shared By the Mountain Men Triplets

Then it moves on.

I keep climbing as my pulse pounds so hard in my ears I have to concentrate to hear the terrain under my feet.

The trees begin to thin, and moonlight shines brighter over granite. I scramble over the first shelf and drop behind the boulder Cade had marked as a shielded spot when we planned for this. I hadn’t expected to need the escape.

With shaking fingers, I key theradio Rhett gave me. “I’m compromised.”

His response comes immediately. “Location.”

“Rock outcrop above the secondary extraction route. Two men coming upslope. Two others down at the bend. There’s another cache site, and the men aren’t poachers, Rhett.”

“Stay concealed. Cade’s moving toward you. Boone and I are on our way.”

CHAPTER 11

WREN

A low voice comes out of the darkness less than a minute later. “It’s me.”

A shadow moves between the rocks to my right, then Cade emerges with a rifle held low and safe, his face shadowed beneath his cap. I sag an inch, and hate that I do.

Everything about him looks controlled except for his eyes, which are feral. “Are you hurt?”

“No.” My knee throbs in disagreement.

“I was too far back.”

I stare back at him, not sure how to respond to a man apologizing for giving me too much space.

Meanwhile, a flashlight beam cuts across the slope below.

“They split,” I whisper. “Two kept moving with the packs.”

“I know.”

“Whatever they’re carryingmatters more than finding me.”

He puts his body between me and the lower slope. “We need to stay put. They’re not close enough to rush this position, but they’re too close to move you yet.”

We stay low in the rocks while the two men search below us. Five minutes pass, then ten. Despite my fear, I’m almost as aware of the nearness of Cade’s body as I am of the danger below us.

A sound rises from farther down the slope, and another sound answers from the west.

“They’re pulling back,” I whisper.

“Maybe.”

We keep still and wait until eventually the beams move into the distance and disappear completely. Even after that, we don’t move.

Rhett and Boone arrive without making a sound. One minute they’re not there, then they are.

Boone reaches me first, and his face changes as he scans my body. There’s a flash in his eyes that makes me wonder if he’s really as harmless as he’s led me to believe. “Wren.”

“I’m okay.”

Rhett crouches beside us, his fury so cold and contained, I swear I feel the temperature around us change.

“You’re angry,” I say.