He took her left arm and placed it around his shoulder. He curved his right arm around her slender waist. She’s in great shape physically, he thought. That was obvious from the episode at the hospital. Maybe she can make it—if we don’t get lost. “Are you ready?” he asked.

She looked at him and nodded.

They slid down one side of a ditch and crawled up the other. A barbed-wire fence blocked entry into the woods. Ben released his grip on Abby and let her stand. He pushed down on the chest-high top wire of the fence. Abby placed her left leg over the fence and toppled over it, falling onto the ground. “Ugh. Ohhh.” She reached for her ankle.

Ben stepped over the wire. “Are you all right?”

She nodded and climbed to her feet. He slipped his hand around her waist again and held her tight. They shuffled through the trees.

Four hours later they emerged into a small clearing. In the middle was a cabin. Abby raised her head and wearily looked at Ben. “I hope this is the place. My ankle—”

“It’s an old FBI safe house. We can spend the night here.”

She sighed, clearly relieved. They hobbled to some steps leading to a covered porch. Ben was virtually carrying Abby now. He lowered her onto the steps, straightened up, and took several deep breaths. The cabin looked deserted, just as it had been the only other time he had been here. The place hadn’t changed much, though the woods had encroached a bit. The deck needed replacing. The exterior could use a paint job.

He walked around to the side of the porch, bent down, and reached under a plank. “Ugghhh.” His right shoulder was killing him. So was his right hand, which he’d used to punch the guard. He’d survive. He found an old-fashioned metal key under the plank, just where it had been years earlier. He walked to the front, opened the door, and stepped inside. The cabin was simple: a living area to the right, a small open kitchen with a breakfast table to the left, a single bedroom in the back with a bathroom on the side.

The place smelled musty. He opened several windows and stepped back onto the porch. He climbed down the steps and helped Abby to her feet. They hobbled into the cabin and over to a couch. Abby lay down and propped up her ankle.

“I’m going to take a look at it, Abby.”

Ben removed her sock and rolled up her pants leg. The ankle was purple and badly swollen. He ran his hands gently over it. Abby grimaced in pain.

“Nothing’s broken. Just a sprain. Let’s see what we can do for it.”

He walked to the refrigerator and found two frosted ice packs in the freezer. He wrapped them in dishtowels and walked back to the couch. “Here. This will help.”