Another spurt of terror coursed through her, and she repented of her wicked thoughts. Please, God, please keep him safe.

Stretching her right leg toward the next boulder, Elise checked it for wobbles before she let the rock take her full weight.

If anything happened to Sammy, she’d never get over it. She loved that glaikit something fierce. But she had changed her mind about introducing him to her brother, Roddy. It would be sheer lunacy if she followed through with that. St. Michael himself, with a legion of angels at his disposal, couldn’t keep the pair of them out of trouble.

A lone rock pinged the granite beside her, and stone fragments scattered into the gorge. Elise craned her neck to find the cause and looked up into Anders Gilmont’s cold eyes. Goosebumps broke out across her flesh.

Gilmont’s rifle was pointed directly at her head.

Her anger drained in an instant, and deathly calm washed over her.

Please, God, please don’t let Gilmont find Sammy. If the lad showed his face, Gilmont would shoot him on the spot.

A thin young man with messy hair and frightened eyes appeared beside Gilmont and dropped a rope down to the ledge where she stood. Gilmont motioned for her to tie it about her waist.

He didn’t intend to kill her immediately? Elise clamped her jaw and repressed a shudder. Gilmont had doubtless something more interesting planned for her. He had gone to too much trouble to find her. Too bad she had no intention of accepting her fate without a fight.

First, she needed to leave the vicinity before Sammy appeared. Elise made a show of staring at the rope until Gilmont shot off another round, chipping the rock near her head. Again the bullet ricocheted, this time across the gorge.

For the barest second, Elise considered jumping into the deep water below. But she stood a good chance of impaling or breaking herself on the trees or rocks before she entered the river’s turbulent depths. Even if she reached the water, Gilmont would likely shoot her before she escaped. Her chances of survival were slim to none.

Taking the rope, she looped it under her arms and hung like a dead weight, forcing Gilmont and his cohort to haul her up every centimeter of the way. She might cooperate, but that didn’t mean she’d help.

Gilmont didn’t play nice. Nor had she expected him to. He dragged her, forcing her into the sharp-edged granite. Pushing away from a particularly nasty boulder, Elise cut her hand.

Like a pendulum, she swung on the end of the rope, banging into a pine tree, its needles pricking her hands and face. She kicked off the trunk, swayed out over the gorge, then slammed into the granite wall. Pain ricocheted up her shoulder.

Slowly, meter by meter, she rose ever closer to the man who had killed Adam, her partner, mentor, and friend.