Bracing herself, she stepped from her cover and took a quick look around. There was no one in sight other than Nathanial, not that she could see very far. It was a risk she would have to take.
Though fear made her want to bolt, she’d been trained better than that. Holding the image of her brother in her mind, she crept up behind Nathanial until she was standing just outside the circle of light the oil lantern was throwing off. She was certain she hadn’t made any noise in her approach, but he somehow picked that moment to turn around.
Surprise registered in his eyes as he spied not only her but the shotgun she was pointing his way. He threw a quick glance down at his own gun, an old rifle hanging from his right hand.
“Don’t try it,” she warned.
“Hello, Sarah.” He grinned, revealing blackened teeth. “What are you doing out here at night? It isn’t safe.”
“You assholes have a strange idea of safe. Now drop that gun and step aside and maybe I’ll let you live.”
“I can’t do that, girl. It would be a sin to let you walk out on your God-given husband.”
“God didn’t give me a husband, you bastards did. And you’re not going to get a second warning.” She’d loaded the gun before leaving and had a slug already in the chamber.
“Women should not touch their husband’s belongings without permission,” he said, continuing to smile. “A little lady like you is liable to hurt herself with a big, nasty old gun like that. Why don’t you hand it over?”
She ignored him, focusing on his hands and eyes – the former in case he tried to raise his weapon, the latter as it would tell her if reinforcements were coming up behind her.
“I knew Adam should have made you my wife. Ezekiel is too soft from living in that town. Me, I’d learn you some manners real quick.” The grin widened.
Danni realized he was stalling for time. Every second he stole from her was another in which those inside might realize their leader was lying dead in his room. She tightened her finger on the trigger.
“Ain’t gonna work, dear Sarah.”
“And why’s that?”
“You left the safety on.”
You’ve gotta be kidding me. That was his trump card? Did he actually expect her to fall for such a pathetic ruse?
When she didn’t blink, the smile fell off his face, replaced with an ugly snarl. He quickly raised his gun in the hopes of calling what he no doubt thought was a bluff.
It wasn’t.
Danni let out a breath and squeezed the trigger, the thunderous report shattering the silence of the compound. Nathanial’s chest blew apart in a shower of blood and grizzle.
There was no time for regret that she’d just gunned down a man in cold blood. That would have to wait for later. There was absolutely no chance that blast hadn’t been heard by the others.
Steeling herself, Danni strode forward to where Nathanial lay in the grass. He wasn’t dead yet, but his respiration came in broken, choked wheezes and his eyes were already glazing over. There was nothing that could be done for him. It was only a matter of time.
She quickly checked him for a sidearm. Then, not finding one, she picked up his discarded weapon. It was a battered single-shot rifle. Not the best she could have hoped for, but she grabbed it anyway.
It was one less gun to use against her.
Danni briefly considered taking the lantern, but as much comfort as its light would give, it would also serve to let her enemies pinpoint her all that quicker.
She grabbed it off the hook, stepped through the gate, and then threw it onto the ground, where it shattered and ignited the grass beneath.
It wouldn’t slow them down for long, if at all, but every second counted, and she’d already wasted enough of those.
The pitch black forest of the Pine Barrens lay in front of her. After a moment, she strode forward into it, praying that luck remained on her side for a little bit longer.
CHAPTER 32
“We should have brought the ATVs.”
“There wasn’t time,” Derek said, already breathing hard. “Besides ... it’s a nice night for a walk.”
“Ow!”
Derek turned back to find that Arthur had stumbled over something. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” he replied, looking more embarrassed than hurt.
Derek had been tempted to order him to stay behind and guard the SUV, but he didn’t like the idea of leaving the kid alone, even at the edge of these woods. That, and he wouldn’t have put it past him to follow anyway and end up hopelessly lost or worse.
“Any chance we can turn these things to, y’know, normal light?” Arthur asked, pointing to the red beam of his head lamp. “I can’t see shit.”
“Sorry,” Mitchell replied. “The red won’t screw up our night vision, which, trust me, we’re going to need if the shit hits the fan. Also, anything brighter is going to make us way too easy to spot out here.” He turned to Derek. “Is it safe to say we don’t want that?”
“Been there once. It didn’t work out too well.”
Julia stepped up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll find them.”
He nodded. “I thought I was the one who was supposed to be offering you comfort.”
“I think we could all use some. How are you holding up?”
“I’ll make do. Mitch has some pretty powerful voodoo in that pack of his.”
“Just don’t go putting the lime in the coconut,” the medic replied with a huff. “Mixing cocktails might not be a great idea in your condition.”
“Noted.”
Derek checked his GPS. They still had a ways to go before they reached where he guessed the Lesterfields’ territory to be, but there was no point in being sloppy. They were up against a foe who knew these woods much better than they did and who didn’t have any moral compunctions against defending it. That alone made them dangerous.
Fortunately, that door swung both ways. Due to the nature of their work, they had access to high-powered weaponry designed to take down nearly any terrestrial foe they encountered. “All the party favors one needs for a rainy day,” Francis had once declared.
It sure is pouring now, buddy, Derek thought. When we find you, I owe you far more than just a drink.
Well-armed didn’t mean much if they were stupid about it, though. Case in point: the Mossberg 12 gauge they’d handed to Arthur. Mitch was walking with the kid, making sure he didn’t open fire at any shadows. Even though they’d double-checked that the chamber was empty prior to setting out, Derek didn’t allow himself to relax. Panic could easily lead to friendly fire.
The real problem was the Jersey Devil and the men who’d come to its rescue. He’d tried his best to prepare Julia and Arthur for what lay ahead, but telling and seeing were two different things. That knowledge frightened him almost as much as what they were hunting.
♦ ♦ ♦
“They’re not here.”
“I can see that,” Eric said from the passenger seat. “Park anyway.”
“But...”
“These guys aren’t idiots. I didn’t expect them to come back to the exact same spot. They’re probably out there somewhere, parked on the side of the road just far enough back to not be seen.”
“So what do we do?”
“You two get your shit in gear while I see how close Hopper and the others are with those ATVs.”
Eric stepped out of the car and slammed the door. Chris Hopper owned a pickup with a trailer hitch. Though it wasn’t an official vehicle, Eric had instructed him to stop by the campus and pick up Jenner’s ATVs. He figured they might as well use them to their advantage since they’d been left behind. There were only two, but it would give them a chance to cover more ground faster.
He checked the GPS on his phone. Eric knew where Jenner’s base camp had been and had a general idea of the direction he’d gone when whatever fuckery had befallen his people.
That story about mutated inbreds living deep in the Pine Barrens still struck him as
nothing more than bullshit, but he had to admit Jenner’s actions didn’t fit Yarlberg’s theory about friendly fire. If the guy knew his friends were dead, why bother with this charade? For that matter, why drag two civilians – one of whom was a loud-mouthed reporter – into it?
Was it possible they were both in league, trying to discredit his boss out of petty spite? But then what about that college kid? He’d come across as merely a nerd, not some hippie on a quest for eco-justice.
Maybe Jenner and that reporter are planning for him to have an accident, too.
The thing was, he didn’t buy that either.
Eric shook his head and looked down at his cell phone. Ultimately it wasn’t his concern. For all he knew, they’d simply gone out into the woods to fuck beneath the stars. All that mattered was making sure his boss stayed happy. Anything else was of secondary importance.
He glanced at the dark street around him, noting lights coming on in the few houses in sight. No doubt the occupants were curious as to who was parking in their shit-water town after dark.
Take a picture, assholes. It lasts longer.
He dialed Hopper’s number without a second thought on the subject.
“Hey, it’s Eric. How far out are you guys?”
♦ ♦ ♦
Danni liked neither the pace she kept nor the noise she made as she walked, sweeping the barrel of Nathanial’s rifle ahead of her as if she were blind and it was a walking cane. But it was better than stumbling into any hidden traps.
She was making frighteningly slow progress, but it was almost pitch-black, the stars only visible whenever the trees would allow it, which wasn’t often. It was just barely enough for her to get her bearings and avoid walking in a circle.
Truth be told, she was terrified. She wanted to cry out at every cricket that chirped or branch she stepped on. Danni had to keep actively reminding herself that she wasn’t helpless. Even before joining Derek’s team, the woods had nearly been a second home to her. Since then, she’d learned a lot more about following trails, tracking prey, and survival.
She latched onto that training like a life preserver. Panic was the enemy. It wouldn’t do anything except get her caught or worse. Forcing the fear down, she focused on her other senses. Her eyes were mostly useless out in the dark woods, but she could still hear, smell, and touch.
At the moment, all she smelled was the brackish water that seemed to be pooling everywhere. She hadn’t seen any dogs during her imprisonment, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any. To be on the safe side, she crossed through several of those pools to obscure her scent trail, using the rifle’s barrel to gauge depth and make sure she didn’t accidentally step into any sinkholes.
That would be a hell of a shitty way for me to end up...
Just as she was stepping onto drier ground, the rifle caught on the edge of something. Danni stopped dead in her tracks. It was probably nothing more than a vine, but she bent down and felt ahead with her hands to make sure.
She touched the rough contours of a braided rope. Definitely not a vine.
Her hands explored further. It was a snare. No doubt about it. She’d reached the section of forest that the Lesterfields had booby-trapped to either keep unwelcome visitors out or entrap potential victims.
She had no way of knowing how close she was from where she and the others had been ambushed or how far this minefield stretched, but knowing she’d entered it was enough for now.
Danni lay down, placed her ear onto the ground, and listened. It was fairly well known that sound carried far in the woods at night. Less common was the knowledge that so, too, did vibrations. It wasn’t entirely unlike putting one’s ear to a railroad track to hear how far off an incoming train was. She covered her other ear so as to blot out the sounds of the forest. At first, all was still, a small relief to her, but then she heard a distant thump. She focused her attention and it came again, then another.
Danni didn’t consider herself paranoid, but either a herd of deer were trampling through the woods somewhere close by or she was being pursued. Her money was on the latter.
She was tempted to get back to her feet and bolt, much like the aforementioned deer, but that would be a stupid move. Their knowledge of the surrounding forest as well as their greater numbers gave the Lesterfields the edge. Her only advantage was they didn’t know where she was yet, something she’d certainly give away if she went tearing through the woods like a scared rabbit.
No. She needed to familiarize herself with the immediate area, make note of other traps to avoid, and then find a spot she could hide or, if it came down to it, defend.
Danni started to rise, but then remembered the snare again. The Lesterfields would almost certainly know where they’d placed their own traps. But what if some of those traps were moved, even if just slightly?
It was a long shot – resituating a snare without tripping it and then properly resetting its pin in the dark – but it gave her something to focus on rather than the fear.
If, in doing so, she managed to take even one of those bastards out of the equation, all the better.
CHAPTER 33
Things could not have gone better for Ezekiel Lesterfield had he planned them himself.
He’d been the one to snap his kin out of their wailing grief once they’d discovered not just Adam’s body, but Nathanial’s as well. He’d done so under the pretense of being strong, of wanting to see justice done before they could be allowed to properly mourn.
But the truth was, he felt no remorse. With his half-brother dead, that left him in prime position to take over as clan patriarch. Adam had been both strong and crafty, a combination that ensured he’d be calling the shots until such time as he keeled over dead, something none of them had expected to happen anytime soon.
Not crafty enough, you old buzzard.
How the girl had managed to do it, he didn’t know. It must have been stupid luck on her part. Perhaps the old man’s lust had gotten the better of him and he’d simply tripped and killed his own fool self. That was the likeliest explanation.
It was the gunshot outside which had alerted them that something was amiss. They’d found Nathanial just as he drew his last breath. Where Ezekiel had been somewhat neutral regarding their former patriarch, it had been an effort to not smile at Nathanial’s corpse. The boy had been a bully and a fool – a useless one, too. Wasn’t fit for anything but guard duty, and he’d managed to screw that up, too.
That was the only part that worried Ezekiel slightly. Adam’s death was easy to write off as a freak accident, but Nathanial’s had been deliberate. Though his rational mind insisted the girl would be easily found and subdued, he found himself wondering.
She was a part of that stupid show, true – nothing more than whorish eye-candy waiting to be made into an honest woman. But when they’d found her and her companions, they hadn’t been sporting cameras and microphones. They’d been outfitted for a hunt, with good, well-cared for equipment. That in itself was strange, but at the time it was easily dismissed in light of the new guns and fine wife they’d captured.
Now he was forced to consider whether the girl herself was more than meets the eye. If there was even the remote possibility that she could be dangerous, then it wouldn’t do for him to take her as his bride. Ezekiel wasn’t a stupid man. His relatively benign appearance allowed him to be accepted in the outside world, giving him experience far beyond his less conventional-looking family members.
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