by Hunt, Jack
Panic speared her heart.
He raised the gun and fired two rounds through the windshield, sending shards of glass over her. She gasped in shock, her eyes widened as she jammed the gear stick in reverse and smashed the accelerator to the ground. The SUV shot backward, then spun out almost going into the tree line. She stabbed the brake and it slid out of control before stopping.
Travis managed to reach her before she could hit the accelerator and tear out of there. He used the butt end of the gun to smash the window beside her. He lunged forward, grabbing her by the hair as she crushed the accelerator. The SUV lurched forward, the wheels biting snow and the engine roaring loudly as it peeled away.
He was holding on to her, and the vehicle. Kelly twisted the steering wheel trying to shake him loose. A clump of hair came out and he disappeared out of view.
Yes!
She glanced in the rearview mirror just as he fired three more rounds, shattering the windshield behind her and causing her to jerk the wheel erratically. A lack of traction and a sudden change in motion sent the SUV sliding off the road and crashing into the closest tree. Her head smacked against the side of the vehicle and she groaned in agony as the airbag exploded open, forcing her head back against the seat until it deflated.
Dust settled.
The horn rang out, one continual blare.
With blood running down the side of her face, Kelly immediately opened the driver’s door and slumped into the snow. The vehicle had come to an abrupt stop at an angle, with the passenger side facing Travis who was now slowly making his way over, slipping and sliding like someone trying to cross an ice rink.
She wanted to throw up, and lay there forever, but she couldn’t.
Kelly thought she’d heard her brother’s voice. You’re not dying here, get up!
Groaning, lost in the dark, she scrambled away, limping now even more than before. “Kelly!” Another round erupted. Travis cried out but she didn’t stop to look back. Keep moving. Keep moving, she told herself.
Move it! One foot in front of the other, Kelly ignored the pain in her thighs. Her lungs were burning as she fled through the forest, stumbling over hidden tree roots and boulders. Wheezing, she leaned against a tree, desperate to steal a breath. Her heart hammered in her chest as she heard him calling her name.
“Kelly, come back here. I don’t want to hurt you.”
Oh no, just firing the gun on a whim? She thought.
He wouldn’t give up, and if he managed to capture her she was as good as dead. She pressed on, forging through snow; low-hanging branches raked her cold face, slicing her razor thin. A crack of a gun and tree bark exploded nearby.
She threaded around trees, stumbling and then scrambling to her feet. The pain in her shoulder was excruciating, and her knee felt like it was twice the size. It was hard to tell if she was heading further away from the lookout or circling around. Everything looked the same in those dismal woods. Her thighs screamed in protest — stop, rest, catch a breath, but she couldn’t. She struggled to control the panic. Hunted. Was this what it was like to be hunted?
Another round tore up the nearest tree.
Her thoughts muddled, stress taking over.
For someone who didn’t want to hurt her, he sure as hell was trying his best to stop her. She didn’t want to die out in these dark and gloomy woods. She didn’t want to join Erin, Hank, her brother and Hurst, just a victim of a maniac. She had so much to live for. It couldn’t end here; she wouldn’t let it.
So preoccupied with avoiding the barrage of gunfire, she didn’t look at what was up ahead. Her foot hit a log covered by snow and she toppled over, landed hard, her knees driving into the earth, into rocks beneath before rolling down a steep slope.
With nothing to slow her, she went head over heels, twisting and turning, plowing through powdery snow and getting it stuck in every crevice of her body before slamming into a tree. She let out a groan and wiped the wet snow from her face.
Travis’ voice echoed off the trees. “There’s nowhere to go, Kelly. Come back here.”
She grasped at the frozen underbrush sticking up through the snow like raised fingers and pulled herself upright. As she limped away, blood seeped into her eye from her forehead and droplets stained the snow behind her. She tried to cover her trail to prevent him from following but it was no use. Agonizing pain coursed through her, from head to toe. Now her ribs ached.
Overwhelmed and struggling for breath, she scanned the terrain. I just need to find a place to hide… somewhere I can catch my breath… somewhere I can get my bearings. Kelly pushed on, stumbling every few feet, her clothes torn, boots soaked from the wet. From behind her she could hear him raging, getting closer.
A beam of dull yellow cut into the forest, bouncing off the trees.
“I will find you!”
In the enclosure of the forest, his voice seemed louder, almost echoing. She sealed her mouth closed to prevent snow from rushing in as she hurried forward, frozen and exhausted. Kelly knew the odds of survival were against her. One moment she thought he was gone, and the next he was closer. She scrambled up an embankment, the snow crunching and sloshing beneath her boots.
Slipping, stumbling, her knees drove into the ground causing her pain and frustration. As Kelly came over a rise, she squinted, pawing at snow stuck to her brow.
What is that? There in the distance was a white dome structure. It stood out from the rest of the boulders and terrain but could have easily been mistaken from a distance as a mound of boulders covered by snow, but it wasn’t. Her eyes bounced from it to the lookout looming over the trees. Cautiously Kelly approached. She brushed snow from what appeared to be a huge white camouflage tent, that’s when she realized what she was gazing at. It was a ground blind used by hunters in the winter. Had one of the hunters who’d stayed at her lookout left it behind?
No.
Kelly looked back before peering inside. It was dark, too dark for her to see anything. Tearing back the opening, she took out Hank’s phone and shone the flashlight inward. The moment the bright light illuminated the contents, her heart sank. It washed over a furry mound in the corner.
Boomer.
Instinctively she rushed in, shining the light on the dog’s body.
He’d died from a knife wound.
“No,” she muttered dropping to her knees and placing her hands on the dead dog. As she shone the flashlight around the abode, she scrambled back, startled at the sight of a face. It didn’t move. Someone was sitting there, frozen, his head slumped to one side, his body covered in… dry blood.
Narrowing her gaze and shining the flashlight over the man’s face, she suddenly realized who it was — Ray Harding, one of the forest rangers. He was stripped down to just his underwear — his uniform was missing.
Quickly the pieces fell into place.
17
Frozen by shock, Kelly stared at Ray until her eyes shifted with the flashlight toward an area of the blind that had been set up with a long lens camera on a tripod. She scrambled over and put her eye up to the viewfinder.
It was pointing directly at her lookout.
No. Her jaw dropped.
She pressed the button on the camera and a light flashed as it powered on. Kelly switched to the gallery, and a collection of photos that had been recently taken. There were a myriad of images. Many had occurred in the period of time that Erin and Bryce had been there, the rest were of her, alone in the lookout, and then out running with Boomer.
Kelly stepped back, unable to grasp the weight of the situation. He’d been watching, stalking, but only over the past week. Her foot bumped into something, knocking it over. She looked down and found a foldable chair on its side, there beside it was a box full of copies of her book. She picked one up and opened it. There in the front was her signature and a short message signed to Jarod Davis, with a date. She reached for another that had a different message and date but it was made out to the same person. Quickly, she rummaged through the bo
x, opening each cover, one book after the next. All of them were her book, all of the dates corresponded with her book signing tours in different cities. He’d purchased the same book, and got it signed every time.
She looked at the name again. Jarod Davis.
Like a light switch turning on, it was beginning to make sense.
“I tried to get your attention,” he said from behind her. Kelly whirled around to see Travis in the doorway of the blind. “I was there in the audience at your very first book signing. Don’t you remember?” He stepped inside, a strained smile forming. “Of course you do. You smiled at me and kept eye contact throughout your talk. That’s when I knew we had a connection, Kelly, something far deeper than the others.”
Kelly took a few steps back, her heart racing.
“I hadn’t bought your book until that day. In fact if it wasn’t for my ex I would haven’t even been in that bookstore that afternoon. She wanted me to sign the divorce papers. I was having the worst day, month — hell, year you might say.” He smiled, looking away as if recalling. “But you changed that. I was about to leave and find a quiet motel and end it all but then I saw you and that long line of readers waiting to get their copy signed.” His smile faded. “There you were in all your glory, smiling and greeting strangers like friends.” He paused. “That was the first time I picked up a copy of A Call to War. I thumbed through and read the first few pages and I was immediately hooked. It was like you were talking directly to me.” He smiled again. “Anyway, I bought a copy that day. The first of many.” He chuckled. “It’s in the box down there. Do you want to see it?” He took a few steps and she shook her head, backing up.
“It’s okay. Kelly. I’m not going to hurt you. I could never hurt you. You’re the only one that understood my pain, the only one that really got me.” He thumbed over his shoulder. “That back there, I was just trying to get you to stop running. I wouldn’t have hurt you…” She clutched her bloody shoulder showing him that she didn’t believe a word he said. “I… I…” he stumbled over his words, a look of despair sinking in, maybe at the thought of losing control. “All I want is for you to listen to me, sit with me, read to me, be with me. We’ll be happy together. I know it.”
She glanced down at the dog and his gaze followed. “I’m sorry but he would have got in the way. All of them would. I… I couldn’t have that. Not again.”
“Again?”
He met her gaze. “You really don’t remember, do you?” His brow furrowed, a pained expression. “I was at all the signings. I even reached out to you, complimented you on what you were wearing.”
She thought back to the flood of emails she’d received. Within the first year there were hundreds, too many to keep track of, too many to have one stand out… but one did. It was always signed with two letters: JD. At first she was flattered. At least initially, the attention from readers was new and unexpected, and it wasn’t one or two emails that bothered her. That was normal for anyone chatting with an author but it was the frequency, and then the length. These weren’t short, off-the-cuff remarks, like “I’m a fan of your book and I like your writing” emails, no… these weren’t the kind that were commonly found in an author’s inbox. They were two thousand words long, several times a day, and the expectation to answer persisted.
When she didn’t, he would respond asking if she was okay.
As for keeping track of who attended events. Fans were fans, some would travel to multiple events. It was common to see the same face, except his didn’t stand out.
“Look, I can understand you not remembering me from the signings.” He gave a nervous laugh. “That’s because I changed the color of my hair, right? Blond, black, brown, I wore hats, glasses, showed up clean shaven, with a full beard, a mustache… you know… so you wouldn’t be freaked out but… even then you looked at me. That’s why I thought you knew. I thought we had this inside joke, that you didn’t want to tell anyone else. That only you and I were privy to.”
She stared back at him with a look of complete astonishment.
“Didn’t you get the photos? You must have… the photos of all the books I’d purchased, my library dedicated to you.” He glanced down at the box. “Oh, that’s just a few. I’ve got many more at home.” His chest rose and fell fast, excited to finally tell her. “I have this beautiful photo of you. From the very first print run. It was taken up near here, right?” He waited for a response but got none. “I just remember the lookout in the background. Not too many like yours.” He smiled. “I even sent you photos of me.”
He could tell she was bothered by his admission. It was getting worse by the second. Stalkers were common but her agent had protected her from that, sifted through letters, at least she thought so. She couldn’t recall getting photos or any letters from JD. That would have definitely been a red flag.
Kelly’s eyes bounced to the doorway.
“It bothers me that you don’t remember. You should remember. Why don’t you remember? I’m not like the others. Those flakes that say they like your work but move on to other books and spend their time going to other signings. I was loyal to you. There was no one else but you.”
She nodded, trying to keep him calm as he was still holding Hurst’s gun at his side. His finger twitched over the trigger. She could see his breathing had become labored.
“Do you think I can see that first book?” she asked.
He frowned, then gave a look of surprise, maybe joy. “You want to see it?”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “Maybe I can read you a chapter from it.”
His jaw dropped. “You would do that?”
“Of course. Who else would buy this many books except a true fan?”
He nodded in agreement, flashing his pearly whites. “Oh this, this is fantastic. I promise, Kelly. I will make it up to you. I… I… will clean up this mess and…” He hurried over to the box and fished through it.
Right then Kelly saw her opportunity.
She darted for the door but he must have expected it as he shot toward her, tackling her waist and bringing her down hard. All the air in her lungs expelled as he clawed his way on top of her. “No. No. Stop fighting me.”
His hand lashed out and he backhanded her across the face. “Now look what you made me do.”
In a flash she was back there, three weeks ago with Cole above her.
It was his face she saw, his words, his angry look of disapproval.
His empty reasons for hurting her. “You’re just like all the rest. You really don’t care. You want to throw me aside like I’m nothing. Well I won’t let you. I won’t let you. You hear me!” His voice rose.
Had Travis done this to other authors? It sure as hell seemed like it. He straddled her, forcing his weight down, holding her wrists. “Stop fighting.” He slapped her again and she knew if he did it any harder she would go unconscious. Right then, Kelly did the only thing she could and kneed him as hard as she could in the crotch. His eyes bulged and he cried out. She had to do it twice before he released his grip and rolled off. Instantly, she scrambled to her feet, kicking snow out from beneath her as she burst out of the hunter’s blind and raced away.
Travis, Jarod, if they were even his names, screamed at her as he unloaded another round.
Kelly ran through the porridge-like snow, following an almost hidden path that would lead her into the national park, toward a ranger station. It was far off but closer than attempting to head toward town. She tried to forget the pain in her knee that was causing her to limp, or the agonizing bloody shoulder wound, but it was excruciating.
The snow bombarded her from every side, attempting to suffocate and slow her down, but she wouldn’t let it. She kept moving, trying to outrun the paralyzing drop in temperature. The lake wasn’t far, once she had it in sight she would get her bearings and then she could make it to the ranger station.
Wind howled, bringing with it a solid wall of snow.
It was so loud that Kelly didn’t hear him until Travis w
as nearly upon her. When she burst out of the tree line, and made it to the cliff’s edge, she knew she’d veered off course. Snow went over, along with several rocks, to the frozen lake below. She glanced back, ready to head into the tree line again and work her way down when Travis appeared, out of breath, holding the gun up at her, preventing escape. “Stop. Just stop. I don’t want to hurt you.”
She glanced down, her feet inching back toward the ice-covered lake far below. “Stay back. Leave me alone.”
“I can’t do that.”
“I’ll jump. I will.”
He thrust out a cautious hand. “No, I told you. I don’t want to hurt you.”
A crack of a gun erupted, then another and Travis’ eyes widened and he dropped to his knees, curling. “But I do,” a familiar voice said loudly. A hooded figure emerged from the frosted tree line with a rifle. With one hand, he slipped the hood back to reveal his face.
“Cole?” Kelly said.
“Huh! I have to give it to that crazy fucker; he really did outdo himself. What a mess.” He smiled taking his eyes off Travis and looking at Kelly, holding the barrel of the rifle low. “And yet it’s perfect.”
“You put him up to this?” she asked.
He cocked his head. “Not exactly. More like pointed him in your direction. No, this…” He chuckled. “This was all him. You see, I figured he would just screw with your world, freak you out, and make your life a living hell, but this… well… it couldn’t be any better if I had planned it out myself.” He chuckled again in amusement.
“Why?” she asked.
“Why?” He frowned back at her. Cole unzipped his coat to reveal his full police uniform. “This…” he said pointing to it. “This is all I have and you wanted to take that away from me.” He shook his head. “That’s not happening.”
Kelly put out a hand trying to de-escalate. “Cole. Please.”
“No,” he bellowed stabbing a finger at her. “You don’t get to speak. You’ve had your say… and it was all lies.”