Truth Avenged (Green Division Series Book 1) Read Free

pressed the air horn a few times along with flashing the blue lights and yelled her name again.  Absolute silence followed.  He sighed.  She’d either twisted her ankle, or gotten lost.  Given the rough, barely there trail, either, or both were probable.  But, she had a phone and there was half decent cell coverage considering the remote terrain.  Why wouldn’t she call, or answer her phone?   And why the hell would anyone strike it off into these woods alone on this rough trail?  Both annoyance and confusion clouded his mind.   
    What sounded like a muffled voice came from the woods.  He walked up the trail using his flashlight to scan the ground ahead of him. 
    “ Hello!” he yelled ahead.  This time he knew he’d heard a feminine voice, still unsure of what it said. 
    “ Chance!”  He got a clear response—well, it was clearly a voice, though the words were not clear at all.  He continued to follow the source.
    “ Keep talking to me!” he shouted. 
    “ Here…”  This time the voice was tangible.  She was a distance up the trail in front of him. The lost theory was out of the equation since she was sitting on the trail.  Her back was propped against a tree, her legs folded into her chest.  One of her hands was in front of her face blocking the light he shone on her.  From his position, he saw no visible injuries, yet his stomach began to sink and he had a feeling that something was very wrong.
    “ Are you hurt?” 
    “ Yes…I’ve been…”  She winced and put her hand on top of the other covering her side.  He jogged up the trail to her with more urgency.
    Shit .  Did this woman have any blood left in her body?  It looked like a scene from a horror movie.  The right side of her face was gashed beside her temple.  Her abdomen and below was covered in deep red.  Blood covered her khaki shorts and her bare thigh. 
    “ Are you Chance?”  He knelt down to her. 
    “ Yes.”  She brought her head from her knees and leaned it against the tree.
    Her appearance contradicted that of every newspape r columnist he’d ever seen.  She had chestnut brown hair that fell above her shoulders with a bright pink streak an inch in width standing out in stark contrast.  Her body was athletic and toned, suited for hiking. 
    “ What happened to your side?”
    “ A poacher…he was a…good shot.” 
    “ A poacher?”  He was taken aback.  “When did this happen?”
    “ I don’t know…sometime before dark…”  That gave him a timeframe of at least seven hours prior.
    “ Where did he go?”  It was wrong to assume it was a man, but it was more likely than not.
    “ I don’t know.”
    “ How far up the trail were you?”  He fired his questions in rapid succession trying to get the answers as quickly as he could.
    “ Was off the trail…I got lost…a long way away from here, that’s all I…know.”  The pain was obvious and her pale color wasn’t comforting. 
    “ Could you describe him?”
    “ There were two men, wearing all camo and…both had beards…skinny one shot me.  Fat one didn’t do anything…”
    “ Did you see any vehicles when you drove up here in the morning?”
    “ No.” 
    He pulled out his cell phone.  He wanted to establish the facts quickly before he called to request additional help.
    “ Department of Public Safety,” Kevin greeted.
    “ I found the girl.”  Tuck hopped down the trail a few steps trying to get out of earshot.  He kept his voice low.
    “ She has a gunshot wound to the abdomen with serious bleeding and a head injury.  I don’t know how she’s still alive Kevin.  We’re not far away from the trailhead, so I’ll work on getting her down and bring her out in my truck.”
    “ Where do you want the ambulance to meet you?  They can’t go direct to the scene, can they?”  Kevin predicted Tuck’s next thought.
    “ The old gatehouse.  Check and see if LifeFlight is available.  The gatehouse is a good LZ