She could see the tension in his body as he spat at her, “You’re lying. I’m strong. I’ll never be weak.”

“Then how could Tanner just take me away from you? I’m sure all your men were laughing at you when they found out. Weak. So very weak.”

“Lies. I’ll hunt you down. I’ll shut you up so that you can’t lie about me.”

“Hunt me down?” This could be the moment. She could see that his rage was searing and growing white-hot. “What a fool you are.” She was opening the passenger door as she spoke. “Do you think we’d be afraid of a weakling like you? I just dropped in for a chat before we got on the road again.”

She heard Tanner mutter a curse, but she was already out of the car walking toward the edge of the ridge overlooking the canyon. “Look up, Volkov. Wave goodbye. Because this is the final Trial and I’ve won it big time.”

He stared up at her in rage and disbelief, and then he made a sound that was like a cross between pain and madness. The next moment he was frantically climbing up the boulders of the canyon wall to get at her.

“Enough.” Tanner was beside her and jerking her toward the car. “If you hadn’t taken them by surprise, his men might have started taking potshots at you.” Then he was pushing her into the car and jumping into the driver’s seat.

“But I did take them by surprise,” she said as he pressed the accelerator and the car leaped forward. “And I think I took him to the edge. I knew there wasn’t any chance of him climbing up that entire cliff to get to me. But I bet he’ll be frustrated enough now to jump into that helicopter.”

“We’ll see. We should know soon enough. In the meantime I’ve got to put distance between us and that canyon.” He called Rennell. “Action?”

“Action,” Rennell confirmed. “Ever since Lara appeared on that cliff like an angel from heaven. But that’s not what Volkov is calling her. And he’s cursing a blue streak at everyone else on the helicopter team. I think they’re going to take off any minute.” He paused. “Look, I have an idea. Let me try to distract them away from you once they’re airborne. I’m heading up toward the ridge now. Kill your headlights. If they mistake me for you, I might be able to lead them back down to the box canyon. I’ve been trying to think of a way to do that.”

“Any particular reason?” Tanner asked.

“Only a little problem, nothing to worry about. Just kill those headlights as soon as you see me, then get off the high road and go down and around to the other side of the box canyon. I’ll stall a little to give you time to make it. And then I’ll lead the copter to your location…”

Chapter
17

Thirty Minutes Later

Yes.” Rennell grinned as he looked in the rearview mirror at the night sky. “They’re doing it. They’re following in the helicopter.”