on the update.

Ryder stops for a second and puts his hands on his knees, taking deep breaths. "Shit," He mutters as he stares at Quinn's back as she continues on through the forest. "How the hell can she keep going?"

I stop next to him and stare at his side pointedly. "She hasn't been shot," I state. "And hasn't refused to have said gunshot wound treated until we get somewhere safe."

Of course, I'm currently beyond exhausted myself just trying to keep up with her as well. Quinn may be small and fragile looking but that girl was having no trouble moving through this forest at a near sprint for the first ten minutes or so when we were originally trying to get away.

And she isn't even winded in the least.

Ryder glares at me and pushes up so he's standing tall. He winces in pain and presses his hand to his side all the while demonstrating his creatively colorful vocabulary.

"Tell me," He starts as we both continue on after Quinn. "Do you think it's a good idea to stop in the middle of," He spins around with his arms spread out wide to gesture at the surrounding area. "nowhere? Where we can't see anyone coming for us? Yes, brilliant idea, genius. Let's sit down here, take unnecessary time to patch up a wound that doesn't need immediate attention and you know, get shot some more while we're at it."

I feel my face flush and I glare right back at him. "Kind of like your brilliant idea to split up, huh?"

Ryder's face flashes in anger. "If you had listened to me. If you had stayed away. If you hadn't started walking across the clearing when I specifically told you not to-"

"You'd likely be dead by now."

Ryder groans and throws his hands up in the air. "Maybe," He says. I feel my heart stop at the thought and refuse to give it another thought. "But-" He cuts off abruptly and runs a hand through his hair.

"But what?" I press.

He shakes his head.

"What?" I continue to press him. "Out with it."

He looks up at the sky and closes his eyes as he mutters to himself. Then he addresses me. "You'd be safe."

I stare at him blankly, not completely processing. "What?" I question.

He rolls his eyes in annoyance. "You. Would. Be. Safe," He takes great care in annunciating each word like I'm stupid. He shakes his head. "Yes, I might have ended up dead, but it would have been worth it if you had been safe."

I stare at him for a long moment, not entirely sure what to say. "Wow," I say finally. "That makes me feel so warm and fuzzy toward you. But wait, I wouldn't have been able to express that to you because you would have been what? Dead. DRT. Dead Right There. Dead," I reply flatly.

Ryder glares at me. "And you almost got yourself killed coming after me!"

"You shoved me down a hill. I was coming after you to shove into the depths of hell."

"I'm surprised you didn't get yourself shot on the way over since you tramp through the forest like a thousand-ton elephant. Do you even know how to be quiet?"

My anger with him and maybe a tad bit of fear-just a little mind you-of the possibility of watching him bleed out or get shot again, is making me a little irrational. And I'm feeling like this is an argument that I need to win. Not want to win. Need to win.

"Would you like me to tell ya just how quiet the two of you are currently being?" Quinn's voice cuts off the insult about to leave my mouth.

She adjusts the rifle strapped over her shoulder as she looks between the two of us. "Cause anyone within . . ." She trails off and turns away as if listening for something we can't hear. She swings the rifle off her shoulder and holds it steady in her hands.

"Quinn?" Ryder asks questioningly as he pulls his gun from his waistband.

"Shh," She whispers. She suddenly straightens up abruptly and throws the rifle back over her shoulder. "We need to move. Now."

"What do you hear?" Ryder questions as Quinn begins moving at a much quicker pace.

She jumps effortlessly over fallen logs and large rocks, somehow managing to keep her footing throughout the rocky terrain.

We follow at a slightly slower pace. We're not used to the forest like she is.

"They brought in dogs," She says simply. "And I refuse to shoot a dog. Doesn't matter if it's trying to kill me or not."

Ryder stops for a second and scans the surrounding area. "How do you . . ." He trails off as the sounds of dogs barking becomes audible. He curses.

Quinn doesn't bother stopping. She just keeps going, following a path only she can see. "Hurry," She says. "We've got five minutes at the most."

We follow quickly as fast as we can with Quinn picking up the pace yet again. She only stops when we break through the trees to come up against a mountain. A literal mountain of nothing but solid rock.

"Dead end," Ryder grumbles. We whirl around when we hear the barking once again. Ryder grabs my hand. "We need to get out of here . . ." Ryder lets go of my hand as he looks over his shoulder and then spins around looking in every direction for Quinn, who's completely disappeared.

Ryder starts to swear. "She led us right to a dead end and left us," He growls.

I shake my head as I look around frantically for her. "She wouldn't do that," I reply firmly.

Ryder seems to ignore me. "When I get my hands on her-" He cuts off with a sharp exhale.

And then the end of a rope comes crashing down onto his head.

"Nice to know you have such little faith in me," Quinn calls down . . . from her place about thirty feet from the ground on a rocky ledge in the side of the mountain.

Ryder stares up at her for a long moment, completely dumbstruck. "How the hell did you get up there?"

"I climbed." She shakes the rope. "Your turn."

Ryder makes a sweeping gesture . . . for me to go first.

I raise an eyebrow. "What so you can watch me land on my ass if I fall? No thank you. You can have the honors."

Ryder rolls his eyes and that mischievous glint is back. "Rusty, you're going first so that if you fall, I can catch you and keep you from busting your head open."

"Who's going to keep you from busting your head open?" I ask him.

"I've got nine lives."

I glare at him. "That's not a thing. That's just . . . no."

He gestures to the rope. I continue to glare as I hold on and start climbing up the rocky wall. My shoulder throbs and I have to bite my lip to keep from screaming out as it burns the entire time I'm climbing up. Likely I'll end up ripping through the stitches, but at least Quinn wrapped it really good. Which means I won't end up bleeding out.

"Besides," Ryder calls out as I get about seven feet up. "The view from down here is fantastic."

I pause in my climbing, wishing there was something nearby I could throw at him. I hear Quinn disguise a laugh as a cough and I glare up at her. She smiles.

When I'm finally within her reach she reaches her hand out to me and hauls me up the rest of the way. I take a moment to steady myself and then look down to Ryder.

He starts climbing and it's only then that I realize the rope is tied to some kind of hook that's been drilled into the rock. But I know she didn't just put this in right now. It's been here for a while. How long, I don't know for sure.

When Ryder makes it high enough up, Quinn holds out her hand to him. He shakes his head. "I'm fine."

I see Quinn roll her eyes. "I wasn't asking," She says as she grabs his hand and hauls him up. He stares at her in surprise as she starts coiling up the rope.

"You're a lot stronger than you look," He tells her.

She shrugs, finishes coiling the rope and gestures for us to follow. "We're not that far," She says. "The dogs won't be able to follow this way which means they won't lead them to us. Besides, there's a shortcut to get around the mountain from up here. Otherwise, you have to walk around the base which can take a day all by itself."

Ryder stops in his tracks and I nearly crash into him on the narrow ledge. I glare at his back.

"Wait a second," He says, oblivious to the hole I'm trying to burn into his back. "Are you telling me you actually know where you're going?"

Quinn shrugs and continues walking. "Why wouldn't I?" She asks. "I own all the surrounding acres. We're still on my property."

This time when Ryder stops, I do crash into his back. I grumble a string of curses all directed at him.

"You own all of this?" Ryder gestures with the sweep of his hand.

Quinn nods. "And I made a point to memorize every inch of it. Now can we keep moving before I get accused of stalling and getting you both caught?"

I turn my laugh into a cough when Ryder turns around to glare at me. I don't bother to try and hide my smile though.

"Darn," Quinn suddenly says. "I guess I should have just cut your rope when you were climbing up." She shrugs innocently. "Guess I missed my chance."

This time I don't bother to hide my laughter. Ryder continues to glare at me.

He finally turns to Quinn who's watching him with a pointed look on her face and her arms crossed over her chest. He blows out a sigh. "Would you like to me apologize?"

Quinn raises an eyebrow and smiles in amusement. "Nah. Not if you think it'll kill ya."

I snicker. "Oh, it'll kill him."

Ryder makes a move like he's going to shove me off the ledge. I scream and grab hold of him like a monkey, wrapping myself completely around him and holding on tight.

"As much as I'm enjoying this position," He starts and I feel my face flush. "you're going to make me pass out if you don't loosen your grip gingersnap."

"Would that be so bad?" I hear Quinn mutter under her breath as I let go. I smile widely as she continues to lead us along the ledge.

***

I'm not sure how long it takes before Quinn's stopping and pulling at several vines that hang from the rocky mountainside. She pulls them aside and then gets down on her hands and knees, crawling into a fairly large hole in the rocky mountainside previously hidden by the vines.

Ryder stares down at the hole and then waves his hand at it, gesturing for me to go first yet again. "Snakes always bite the second person," He says.

I glare at him before getting down on my hands and knees and crawling into the hole. I don't know how long the tunnel is exactly, but finally, I make it to a hollowed out room that's a fairly good size, but still not that big for three people. There's a lantern in the middle that Quinn's obviously turned on, she's dropped her bag into a corner of the room with several crates set up along the side, and a couple of sleeping bags on top.

Ryder lets out a whistle and then a curse as he stumbles to feet, holding his side. "You're prepared," He says to Quinn.

She looks around and nods. "I have several places similar to this spread throughout my property in case . . . well, in case I ever need them."

Quinn digs through her bag as I put my backpack down and she comes up with a first aid kit. She walks up to Ryder and lifts his shirt before pressing rather roughly against the wound.

Ryder hisses in pain and steps away from her. "What the hell?"

"Calm down," She says. "I was just making sure there wasn't still a bullet in there."

"I could have told you there wasn't."

She shrugs and begins wiping at his wound. "I know."

Ryder glares down at her.

She ignores him.

It's quiet for a long time and I do nothing but watch her and then feel tremendous guilt for what I've dragged her into.

"I'm so sorry Quinn," I whisper.

She turns away from Ryder and looks at me briefly. "None of this is your fault," She says simply.

"Agree to disagree," I tell her.

I can't see her face as she turns back to Ryder, but I know she's rolling her eyes. "Did you set fire to my cabin? Were you the one shooting at me? Did you not warn me about a million times what could happen if I was helping you?"

I stare at her knowing there's no way she's going to blame me for any of this even though she should. "Your cabin . . ." I trail off.

She shrugs as she starts stitching up Ryder's wound. He flinches the entire time and I can't help but think she's stabbing him with the needle harder than she needs to. I almost smile.

"The cabin can be rebuilt," She says simply. "I didn't have anything of great importance kept there anyway."

"Your paintings-"

"I can paint them again," She cuts me off. "It's not a big deal. I'll get people out to rebuild the cabin-I've always wanted to make it bigger anyway-and heck, I'll probably hire some security until it's finished. And until then I will go live in the castle." She smiles at me over her shoulder. "I'm perfectly fine."

"The castle?" Ryder asks. "What are you two talking about?"

Quinn and I share a look before she answers, "It's the house I own in Scotland."

I let out a snort. "House doesn't cover what that monstrosity is," I mutter under my breath.

Quinn hears me and shoots me a glare.

She finishes stitching Ryder's wound and then begins wrapping it. "There's a road not too far from here," She says. "But we won't make it there before nightfall. I have a truck parked there. We'll leave in the morning, make it to the truck, and take the road out of here." She points to my shoulder. "As soon as I'm finished with him I'm going to take a look at your shoulder again."

She then points over her shoulder to the crates and sleeping bags. "Crates have things like granola bars and sealed bags of jerky and trail mix. You can help yourselves." She finishes wrapping Ryder's wound and turns to me. "I only have two sleeping bags. They're both fairly big though." Her lips twitch as she struggles to hide a smile. "Though I'm sure the two of you are willing to share one."

I narrow my eyes at her while Ryder rocks back on his heels, a highly amused smile on his face. "Why can't you share?" I ask her.

She smiles. "I have a highly contagious and incurable disease that spreads through touch. You don't want to share with me."

I look pointedly at her fingers that are peeling away the badge on my shoulder and probing at the stitches I've ripped. "You're touching me now."

"This doesn't count. The disease is only active at night."

"I hate you."

"You'll thank me later."

Ryder speaks up. "I'll thank her later."

I glare at him and he just smiles widely back at me and I can't help but roll my eyes and smile back.