Joel’s expression stayed blank as he glanced at her. “For what?”
“In case we can’t take off and need to set up in the open field.”
“I can’t believe this.” Jeff turned around in a huff. He faced the shadowed forest, then started pacing.
“Again, you’re welcome to stay here.” Joel caught Jeff’s arm and stopped the march. “But we’re leaving.”
“Fine,” Jeff said through clenched teeth.
Hope didn’t realize she was holding her breath until Jeff finally said the word. Relief and fear and a few emotions she couldn’t name swept over her. She vowed to sleep for a week after this was over...if it ever ended.
But first they had to survive it. “Let’s get ready to move out.”
* * *
THE SUN HADN’T risen, but Joel was already out of patience. The lighter sky made it possible to dodge upturned branches and other potential hazards on the forest floor. He took the lead with his weapon ready. Cam brought up the rear. The responsibility fell to Jeff and Charlie to carry the sleeping bag with Perry inside.
Hope guided their new path. Using her GPS, she veered off the rough trail campers used to lead them to the open space where the helicopter sat. They knew from experience there were weapons rigged and ready to shoot that way. Worries about those riggings being everywhere had Joel constantly looking into the trees and tripping over whatever he missed on the ground.
“Why don’t we go the way we know?” Charlie asked through labored pants.
“Because the shooter might also know that way.” Joel didn’t even want to share that much. He kept his tone clipped and angry, hoping to end the discussion.
“But we could end up anywhere.”
“We’re fine.” Hope kept her gaze on the GPS as she shifted them through overgrown branches and around felled trees.
“Doesn’t feel like it,” Jeff mumbled as he shuffled his feet and grumbled about the weight of the sleeping bag.
“We could probably do without the whining.” Joel decided he could go a lifetime without that.
“You’re not the one carrying a dead body for miles.”
“A mile.” Hope made a tsk-tsking sound. “Don’t exaggerate.”
Joel felt safe smiling because no one could see him but Hope and she was looking off to her left, deep into the forest. “Would you rather no one check for snipers?”
Next time anyone asked him to head out and help babysit a bunch of weekend warriors, he’d find something else to do. Unless it meant being with Hope. He’d always choose the option that led to her.
It would shred him into pieces to leave her again. Sleeping with her guaranteed that, but he had been a dead man before that anyway. He saw her and he lost his mind. He spent time with her and he started thinking impossible things. For about the billionth time since he’d met her, he wished he was a different man from a different background.
“I can help.” Lance slid his pack off his good shoulder and held it out to Hope. “Can you take this?”
“Sure.” She grabbed it with her free hand. Never mind the fact that she already had one strapped to her back.
Joel tried to do the calculation. He stopped when the number got too high. At this rate she could be dragging more than she weighed.
He reached over and took Lance’s pack from her. “I’ll take it.”
“I’m a big girl, Joel. I can carry a second bag.”
Not that he let that stop him. If one of them was going to carry two bags, it would be him, not her. “Unlike Jeff, I totally believe in your skills.”
“Uh-huh.” She was squinting and didn’t seem to be listening. Not her style at all.
He crowded in closer and leaned down to whisper in her ear. “You okay?”
“Not really.”
He tried to keep one eye on her and the other on the area ahead. A second of lost concentration could cost them all. Still, he needed her on her game. “Do you need to stop for a—”
“We left Mark behind.”
There it was. The blame he knew she was shouldering. Her eyes were big and sad when they stared up at him. The pain he saw there nearly broke him. “Don’t take that on.”
Confusion mixed with the rest. “What?”
“The guilt.”
She visibly swallowed as she looked away. The ground thumped beneath them as they continued to walk. “He’s my job. I guaranteed his safety and promised to bring him home.”
“And I’m an expert at this sort of thing. Trust me, if there’s blame to be had here, other than to Mark for wandering off in the first place, it goes on my shoulders.”
“Why?”