Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense March 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 Dana Mentink (e books free to read TXT) 📖

and turned, pulling a rifle from his side. “Nora, get down!” The bullets hit the water mere feet from the bow of the kayak. Nowhere to hide. They were on the river without any cover, too easy a target. He struggled to duck and pull his weapon while sitting at an awkward angle in the cramped seat. A bullet hit the bow. Too close.

Henry succeeded at releasing his gun and lifted his arm to take aim. Nora twisted, taking her paddle with her. She placed her paddle to the right side of the boat as the gunman fired again, this time grazing the bow. “Tandem roll,” she yelled as she sucked in a breath and drove her head and body toward the water.

The side of his face hit the water and he dragged in a sharp breath a heartbeat before her momentum pulled him underneath the frigid surface. A tandem roll usually required both people to maneuver their paddles with enough force to flip back upright, but his paddle was still secured to the side of the boat. He clamped his mouth shut as the kayak floated upside down with no indication he’d get another breath any time soon.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Nora felt the rush of the current hard against her face but forced her eyes open. She could see maybe a few feet ahead, but that was all. The outside of her legs braced against the hull, and she fought the instinct to flip back up. The only way to hide from the gunman was to stay under water, but she didn’t know how fast the current was moving them, and she probably couldn’t hold her breath for much longer. Hopefully, it was true that men had ten percent more lung volume. She scanned their surroundings as best as possible, searching, hunting for boulders to avoid.

A dark shape at two o’clock. Long, thin… A tree branch underwater! She closed her eyes so her mind wouldn’t play games and confuse her sense of direction. She rotated her paddle instinctively to twist in that direction. Her lungs burned. If she didn’t flip them now, it would be too late. She turned her head and utilized the downward pressure with the front blade. Her knee pressed against the boat, and she snapped her hips in the same direction. The boat responded, rolling, but not with the speed she normally had with a single kayak. They weren’t going to make it to the surface.

She snapped her hips again and rotated the blade for extra momentum. Her face broke the water and she inhaled greedily.

Henry gasped behind her. Nora twisted the paddle and maneuvered the kayak farther around the branch. Water rushed over top of the bow, but the log held them upright, the other branches providing only a measly bit of protection. A bullet pierced the air and Nora hunched over, bracing, until she realized the bullet had come from Henry’s gun. She twisted to see they had passed the fisherman. The man was running away from the bank, likely taking cover from Henry’s shot.

“Can you get us off this bundle of branches?” Henry asked, panting.

“Yes.” She focused on the work of twisting and grabbing the next current that shoved them up and over the log. She ramped onto a thin bank. There was a portion of wooded area in front of the northern canyon wall. The spot had barely any room to stand unencumbered, certainly not big enough for a group of rafters, which is why it could never be a take-out spot for the company. But it would work for one boat in need of an emergency stop.

The next couple of minutes, her entire body shivered and shook, not from the cold but the adrenaline. She knew Henry was keeping an eye out for danger, yet she couldn’t stop looking to either side of the river, too. He shivered alongside her, especially since he wasn’t wearing a wet suit like she was. He kept his eyes on their surroundings even while he addressed her. “I think he’s gone. Are you okay?”

“All things considered, yes. You?”

“That tandem roll…”

“You told me to duck. That was the only way I could think of to take cover.” Her insides vibrated with more intensity as she reflected on all the many things that could’ve gone wrong. But at least they hadn’t been shot and they hadn’t drowned. “Did you see him? The gunman?”

Henry paled. “When we flipped back up, I got a closer look. He had on a camouflage face m—”

“It’s him, then, isn’t it? That’s the same thing the murderer wore.”

“I remember you said that.”

She clenched her jaw in response to his nonchalance. Why couldn’t he just admit that the gunman had to be Dexter’s murderer? “What if he also killed Tommy?” She turned and pulled out the two red guide bags from the secured portion of the hull. They dripped with water. She opened both to check the contents. One of the drug packages seemed to have allowed a little water to leak inside but the others were sealed tight enough that they were untouched. “Did Tommy ever hint at doing drugs or selling drugs?”

Henry’s frown deepened. “I…I don’t—” He pulled in a breath and took out his satellite radio. “I’m going to call Zach and let him know we got held up.” He turned around in a circle. “There’s no way he could pick us up from here that I know of. Is there?”

“No. But we’re not too far from Sangster Creek now. If you think it’s safe to get back on the river…”

He continued his slow spin, scanning the trees and canyon walls, until his eyes finally met hers. “Nora, I want you to take cover while I make some calls. I need people out searching the opposite side of the bank for the gunman. If we’re dealing with a mobile meth ring, there might be more gunmen out there. Once I know it’s safe, we’ll get back on the river.” He held