Author Debbie Gould

MOUNTAIN’S ECHO

     In the darkened office of the compound, deep in the hills of New Mexico, Jake clenched the small flashlight with his teeth as he quickly searched through the overflowing files in the cabinet, photographing the ones pertinent to his reason for being here.  Time was of the essence; he and Scott had to find the evidence they needed to take General McIntyre down and get back out before his guards did their next walk through. 

     Jake pulled a critical piece of paper out of the file when he heard the sound of the outer door opening down the hall.  Shit!  “You hear that?”  He whispered to Scott, who paused in his search through another cabinet in the room.

“Sure did. Let’s bug out.”

     They gathered what they found, shoved it in their packs and headed to the open window at the other side of the room.  They were halfway across the compound when the alarm sounded and the flood lights came on, inundating the grounds with light.  Well, so much for a quick and quiet exit, Jake thought wryly.

     Sounds of men yelling cracked through the darkness. Harsh curses and orders being shouted broke through the night and then the inevitable gunfire. They were almost to the edge of the woods that would work as a cover, when Jake saw Scott stumble next to him and go down.  Never missing a stride, Jake scooped him up and half dragged, half-carried him into the woods and the next half-mile to where they left the horses tied. 

     Jake helped Scott mount his horse.  “You okay to ride?” he asked, concerned about the growing stain of blood on Scott’s pant leg.

“Yeah, since when is a little bullet wound going stop me?  Let’s get the hell out of here.”

     No sooner had the words left his mouth, when he heard the unmistakable sound of ATV engines coming through the woods heading right at them.  “Well hell, they’re wasting no time.  We’ll never outrun them.”

     Jake agreed, “Let’s split up.  I’ll circle back around to the left and come at them from behind.  You go the other way and maybe we can surprise them. It doesn’t sound like more than three or four of them.”  He hoped.  Scott nodded and took off in the opposite direction.  Jake mounted his horse and rode off to the left, giving the ATV’s a wide birth and then coming in behind them. 

     He spotted the first one at the same time that the driver spotted him.  They both raised and fired their weapons, Jake’s bullet hitting its target dead on.  The driver fell backwards off his wheeler.  At the same time Jake felt a burning in his arm.  He knew he’d been hit, but pushed the pain away.  He could hear more gunfire and took off to help Scott.  By the time he found them Scott had taken out the two other men, but was lying on the ground next to his horse.

     Jake rode over to him and dismounted.  Taking a quick assessment of Scott’s wounds, he could see blood seeping from a head wound and gunshot wound to his left chest.  “God dammit!”

 Making fast work of a half-assed bandage torn from his long john shirt, he wrapped Scott’s head and attempted to stop the flow of blood coming from his chest.

     Scott groaned as Jake applied pressure to the chest wound.  “This s-sucks.”

“No shit, buddy.  How ya feeling?”

“Not too good right at the moment.”

Jake finished securing the pressure bandage to Scott’s chest, helped him to a sitting position and hauled him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, careful not to put pressure on the left side of his chest where the wound was.  “Christ you’re heavy.  Think you can stay with me enough to ride double?”

     Scott didn’t answer right away, then managed to grunt his reply. “Yeah.”

“Okay, here we go.”  Jake threw Scott up on the horse and then climbed up in front of him.  Scott leaned his full weight against Jake’s back as they started the two plus hour ride back to the cabin with Scott’s horse following behind them.

     “We need Maggie,” Scott managed to say.  “No hospitals...promise.” 

Jake took a deep breath.  This was not an argument he wanted to be having. Yes, Maggie was a Physicians Assistant but she didn’t belong in this mess with them. “It will take her too long to get here.  You need medical attention now.”

Scott stiffened against his back.  “No!” he said as forcefully as the pain and loss of blood would allow.  “You do preliminaries...get Maggie here.”

“You’re being stubborn Scott.  Let me get help now.”

“You owe me, damn it, Jake.  You owe me.”

“Fine!  You want to wait ten years to call in your freakin IOU?  Whatever!  You want to bleed to death waiting for her? Your choice.  See if I care.  Stubborn ass.”

“Love you too...thanks”

    Jake grunted in response and shook his head.  Calling Maggie was the last thing he wanted to do. It would have taken this exact situation for him to make the call. He would have rather taken those bullets for Scott himself than to call her.  But Scott was right.  Ten years ago when Jake had needed him, Scott had come through.  He did owe him.  God damn it!  Ten fucking years and it still crushed his insides to think of her.  Still hurt as much as it had then. It was a wound he didn’t think would ever heal.  But when he made a promise, he kept it.  So he pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number he had programmed into it but had never in a million years intended to use.

                    **********

Maggie unlocked the door to her apartment and swung it open as she juggled two bags of groceries. After spending ten long hours at the family health clinic, all she wanted to do was relax in a warm tub and sip a glass of wine while she lost herself in the latest book she was reading.

She walked by the answering machine, hit the play button and in two seconds the floor shifted beneath her feat.

Jake Donnegan.  Even though ten years had passed since she last heard his voice, but some things one never forgets.

     The grocery bags slipped from her arms, eggs breaking on the floor of the foyer.  She had to put her hand up against the wall to keep from toppling over in shock. He was the last person she ever expected to here from again.

     She hadn’t heard a word he’d said; her head swam just listening to the husky sound of his voice and she felt as if she’d been pole axed.  Jesus Christ, Maggie, get a grip.  This man is nothing to you.  Not anymore.

     The last time she’d seen Jake, the culmination of his lies had torn her life apart.  But that was then.  She had recovered and gotten on with her life.  And it was a great life, she told herself.  She had a terrific job, friends she loved.  She didn’t have a man in her life, but she didn’t need a man to make her happy.  Man and happy in the same sentence just didn’t compute.

     She took a deep breath, went back to the answering machine and pressed rewind.  Not really wanting to hear anything Jake had to say, but she found she couldn’t dismiss it either.  Jake and her brother Scott had a business together in Texas.  The message could have something to do with Scott.  She pressed play again.

     “Maggie, its Jake. I know I’m the last person you want to hear from, but this is about Scott.  There’s been some trouble and He’s been hurt.  He needs you Maggie, ASAP.  I can’t get into the details on the phone so I’ll call you back every fifteen minutes till you pick up.  It’s important Maggie.”

     She lowered herself to the floor with her back against the wall, her heart in her throat she was going to be sick.  Scott was hurt, but how badly?  What the hell had happened?

     She replayed the message three times.  Why couldn’t Jake have told her more, dammit?  She‘d last talked to Scott two weeks ago.  Usually they talked at least once a week, but he had been excited about a new job he and Jake had coming up and told her he might be out of touch for a while.

     After spending eight years in the ARMY, where they were in Special Ops., they had spent the last two years building their own business. They were now basically doing the same things they had done in Special Ops., just getting paid a hell of a lot more doing it.

     They were independent contractors for the government and anyone else who needed their services, doing the jobs that the military either couldn’t or wouldn’t. 

     She had never asked for any details about Jake in her conversations with Scott.  And Scott would only mention him casually, never any kind of personal information.  And she hadn’t wanted any either.

     Still, it had always seemed weird to her that after the accident he had never come around. Never came to see if she was okay, or maybe, God forbid, apologize for being the huge jackass that he was.  Nothing. It broke her heart that he could be so cold.  If nothing else, they had been friends.  Which just goes to show you how much better off she was without him in her life.

     Her parents had never mentioned him either. Which seemed a bit odd, even if she hadn’t asked about him, or for him.  She was fairly sure no one knew what happened between them, yet they still never talked about him to her.

     Jake had been a part of their family since he and Scott had started kindergarten together.  They had been best friends ever since, practically inseparable. They were on the same sports team, had the same interests, and double dated.  They were a package deal. Not that the girls seemed to mind.

     That had always caused a painful ache in her heart.  For as long as she could remember, she had been in love with Jake.  Not that he had ever known.  To him, she was always Scott’s little sister.

     Damn.  She didn’t want to think about the past.  It was over, and now she had to wait for his phone call. “Damn you Jake, why couldn’t you have just told me what was going on?”

     Despite her best intentions, she couldn’t help thinking about the last time she had spoken to Jake.  She’d had no idea of what was going on then either. But she found out the hard way.  A way she would never forget, or forgive.