Shabina stubbornly shook her head. “I’m going with you. I might not be able to boulder like you, Vienna, but I can shoot a gun. In fact, I’m very good with one.” She lifted the corner of her vest and showed Vienna a small gun with a cherrywood grip. It appeared to be a work of art, a masterpiece, not a lowly firearm that would barely penetrate skin. Shabina dropped her vest into place and gestured toward the narrow trail.
“Let’s go if you’re willing to die, because this man is really good in the woods. I shot him and he not only treated his own wound but was as calm as heck when he told me he was going to kill me, my mother and all of you.”
“He isn’t better than you out here, Vienna. This is your backyard. He might be trained by all kinds of specialists, but you know this terrain. You’ve been organizing searches for missing campers for the last few years. I’m putting my money on you.”
Vienna tested her weight on her ankle. Yeah, that wasn’t going to feel any better now than it had a few minutes ago. She took several tentative steps toward the bend and then took a cautious look. She knew he was gone. She felt it. She’d heard him leaving. Rounding the bend, she took lead. She didn’t have time to argue with Shabina, so maybe that absolved her of responsibility, and Shabina was an adult, able to make up her own mind about the danger.
“You’re a nutcase for making that foolish bet, but I love you all the same.” She knew there was a note of relief in her voice. Not just relief, but happiness. She had good friends. She shouldn’t want Shabina with her because it was dangerous going after Larsen. On the other hand, she was elated she didn’t have to go by herself. “I hope you really are good with that gun.”
“I am.” Shabina kept her voice low. “I spent hundreds of hours practicing self-defense and learning to shoot. I didn’t want to become paranoid after what happened to me, but I am.”
Vienna glanced over her shoulder to take in Shabina’s determined expression. “Why didn’t you insist on all of us getting an Airbnb that allowed dogs?”
She turned back toward the trail, placing her feet cautiously. At the next bend she was going to check the app on Zahra’s phone to see when it would next send out a location. If Larsen kept the mini Garmin inside the pack where Stella had it, he wouldn’t see the screen light up with an alert that the location had been sent and he wouldn’t toss the Garmin.
Shabina remained silent for several steps, keeping pace behind Vienna, but staying far enough away to allow for sudden retreat. They were nearing the middle of the trail between the two switchbacks. That left them very exposed on the rock, and Vienna picked up the speed in order to make it to the next bend faster.
“When I’m with all of you, I do feel safer,” Shabina admitted with reluctance. “And I try to be as normal as possible. I want to feel normal. I keep waiting for that to happen. Maybe it never will, but I keep hoping I’ll have moments where I’ll forget.”
Vienna knew that wasn’t going to happen easily. “You do go to a counselor, don’t you?” It wasn’t like she saw or heard that Shabina had a counselor there in Knightly.
“I’ve been seeing one for a long time. Mostly I talk to her online.”
Was there a note of despair in Shabina’s voice?
“It takes time, maybe a lifetime, to get over what you went through.”
“It wasn’t just my life affected, Vienna. My parents will never be the same, and neither will Rainier. I think I cost him his career, and I know I cost him the woman he loved.”
Vienna once again stopped to look at her friend. There had been so much guilt and regret in Shabina’s voice. “How do you know that?”
“I heard him talking once a few years ago. He said his actions cost him the one woman he loved. His friend told him there were plenty of women in the world and he just said no, not for him. He only loved once, and she was lost to him. I know that’s why he stays in the field. A part of me thinks he has a death wish. I’m responsible for that.”
“No, you’re not. He had choices, just as those who kidnapped you had choices. You were the only one who didn’t have a choice,” Vienna whispered decisively. “You can’t take on that responsibility.” But she knew if she survived and Raine didn’t, or Raine lost her leg, she would always feel guilt. How could she pontificate to Shabina when she would feel exactly the same? Just because one knew something intellectually didn’t mean their emotions agreed.
Shabina sent her a faint smile. “Rainier feels responsible for me, like I’m his child or something. Maybe because he thinks he’ll never have any. That’s another reason I try so hard to stand on my own two feet, so he’ll realize I’m okay and he doesn’t have to keep checking on me.” She shrugged. “Not that I think he’ll ever view me any other way but that terrified sixteen-year-old he rescued.”
“That’s on him, Shabina, not you.” Vienna turned back toward their destination and began the approach to the blind bend in the trail warily, holding up one hand to caution Shabina.
Shabina froze in place, but her pistol was rock-steady. Vienna moved as silently as she could, placing each foot carefully so as not to disturb any loose rocks. Half expecting to get shot, she forced her body to keep going, rounding the sweep of trail, frantically searching for signs of Larsen. There was blood on the rocks in several places, but there was no Larsen.
She studied the drag marks where he had scooted to safety, using the backpack to keep her from getting a clear target. Along one side of the trail was a small steady stream of blood. She crouched down to examine it. The bullet hit the rock right above her, showering her with granite splinters. The sound of the gun being fired reverberated against the towering rock.
Shabina returned fire instantly, the first bullet hitting the barrel of Larsen’s gun and the second two bouncing off the granite to spray rock all over his face and arm. Shabina’s cover fire gave Vienna the time to scramble on hands and knees to the safety of the other side of the rock face. She threw herself forward onto her belly once she was behind the rock wall, just lying there, hugging the rock trail, her heart pounding loudly.
There was silence when Shabina stepped back behind the rock. She’d been careful, only using three bullets to spare their short supply of ammunition. She didn’t say anything to Vienna, but she touched the back of her calf gently in camaraderie. She knew that fear could be tasted, could roll and churn in the stomach until bile built up and wanted to come out. Vienna sat up slowly, her heart still pounding.
“Never saw anyone with your kind of luck, Vienna,” Larsen said. “Just like Lady Luck favored you in the cards, she does here as well. I should have bagged you several times by now, but you just keep slipping out from under my kill shot.”
“Bagged me?” Vienna forced a laugh. Maybe if she pretended to laugh, she’d actually find humor in the situation. She doubted it. She might be closer to hysteria than humor. “Is that how you regard your human victims? Like you would an animal you hunt for food?”
“No, I have little regard for humans, but I like animals. I don’t hunt animals for food. I wouldn’t eat one unless I was starving and it was a last resort.”
His declaration was unexpected. Vienna and Shabina exchanged a look of surprise.
“Which of your friends handles a gun like that? She nearly took off my arm. You said Raine’s the one shot. I can’t imagine the senator’s daughter knowing how to shoot like that.”
Vienna put her finger to her lips to caution Shabina. “He’s fishing,” she mouthed. She didn’t want Larsen to know who was with her. Maybe, in the end, if he managed to kill Vienna, he’d let the others go free.
Shabina nodded her understanding. She stayed alert, her attention on the trail.
“Might be that dinky one from Russia.”
Zahra would have exploded if she had heard him. She wasn’t Russian. She was from Azerbaijan but had been raised in Uzbekistan. Vienna didn’t respond.
“Could be the little gorgeous one, daddy’s little darling, mommy from Saudi Arabia, although I can’t imagine her doing anything more than ordering her maid to help her dress.”
Shabina lifted an eyebrow and then covered her mouth, her eyes dancing with laughter. That allowed Vienna to remember her sense of humor. If Shabina could find amusement in the disastrous situation after all she’d been through, Vienna certainly could.