by Anna Lewis
This was going to be easier than he thought.
***
Her lips were still dry when she drank the last of the water, then looked around her and groaned. There was wilderness as far as the eye could see, and everything looked the same to Solace. She was no longer able to see the peak that the twins had referenced, and she had the overwhelming feeling that she was all turned around. She was trying not to panic, but she was struggling. The twins seemed at home in the air or in the woods, but Solace was completely out of her element. Hiking with the twins was one thing, but something that seemed so simple to them was more than Solace could handle.
Fighting back tears, she pushed on, even though she’d always been told to hug a tree when she got lost. She laughed at the imagery, knowing that the phrase just meant to stay in one place, but the picture of herself hugging a scratchy, ant covered tree was always in her mind.
She would love to stand in one place, but with a monster on their trail, she didn’t have that luxury. She had to keep going, even if her throat was so dry it felt like it was sticking to itself and her legs felt like lead. She had to keep going. No matter what. She had promised the twins that much, and she wasn’t going to break that promise.
Solace pushed through the branches that ran along the trail, trying to keep the slender saplings from scratching her arms and hitting her in the face. She was tired, and the constant uphill slope was wearing on her already exhausted body. It had been almost an hour since she and the twins had split up, and the more she tried to convince herself that she wasn’t lost, the more she believed that she really was. The peak hadn’t seemed that far away from where they started. Wouldn’t they have told her if it was going to be this far? She didn’t remember any forks in the trail, but she wondered if there had been one and she’d missed the correct path, taking the wrong path instead. She’d been distracted a few times, thinking about waking up in Ethan’s arms shortly before they left the cabin.
From the beginning, Ethan had been the aloof one, and Solace had really struggled to connect with him as easily as she had with Cam. But, where Cam was easy to fall for, Ethan’s protective layers had led her to so much more when she’d peeled them away little by little. Cam was amusing, funny, and spontaneous, but Ethan intrigued her and she wanted time to learn more about him. She’d written him off so quickly that before that—
She didn’t finish the thought, the reality of her situation yanking her out of her thoughts abruptly. She’d done it again. She turned, looking back down the trail, but she had no idea where she’d been and she had been so engrossed in her thoughts that she’d been walking on auto pilot once again. Everything looked different and she had no idea if she had made a turn or how she’d gotten where she was.
She bit her lip, panicked and angry all at once. She needed to focus, and thinking about the twins kept screwing her up. If she got lost in the woods and died from dehydration it would be her own fault for not paying attention to where she was going.
“Maybe I should turn back,” she muttered, but just the thought of having to walk back up this incline later was enough to deter her.
She should have been paying attention, and she was so angry with herself. How could she know if she was on the right path? She could be lost, or she was just taking longer than she thought she should. But, as long as she kept losing herself to flights of fancy, she was never going to figure it out.
Maybe you’re just tired and things are fine, she thought, but that did nothing to lift her spirits. She was lost, and she knew it.
She felt the deep pulsing of the oncoming chopper before her ears registered the sound, and by the time she looked up, Rescue 1 was flying overhead, lowering to the ground as if it were searching for someone or maybe even landing.
Solace pushed faster, hoping the park ranger could direct her to the rendezvous point. She knew what it looked like and had a general idea of what she would find there. Surely the ranger knew the vast wilderness well enough to tell her if she was going the right way.
Maybe he’s looking for you, she thought suddenly, breaking into a run. It was a possibility. Without her cellphone to check the time, her estimation of walking for over an hour was just that; an estimate. It could have been several hours by now. And if the twins couldn’t risk shifting in the daylight hours, they had probably turned to the park ranger for assistance. If it had been longer than she realized, they might think that she’s in trouble.
Or maybe they found the bounty hunter and the danger had passed. She smiled at the thought. Could it be that easy? She didn’t want to let her guard down and believe it, but it seemed like forever since she’d seen them and she was so sure she was lost. A lot could have happened in that time.
She closed her eyes for a second, taking in a deep breath and propelling herself forward with her last burst of energy. The chopper sounded like it was landing, and the sooner she got to it, the sooner she could be on it, heading back to civilization. She didn’t want to walk away from the twins just yet, but she was ready to be out of this wilderness and back in her comfort zone.
She hurried in the direction the chopper had gone, not even paying attention to the tiny ribbon that marked the trail on her left as she turned right. She veered off the path, going down a narrower trail that headed straight for the chopper.
Her feet carried her faster than they had been moving most of her journey, and her pace quickened even more as she got closer. She could feel the wind the propellers generated and though she couldn’t see the chopper, she knew she was so close.
She was running faster now, and she wanted to cry out to let them know she was there, but she was exhausted, and no sound escaped her lips. So, she pressed on, and when she rounded the corner, she saw the chopper setting down in the clearing. Relief flooded through her.
She was saved.
***
Garrett watched the ground beneath the chopper as the ranger circled the park again, working a careful grid pattern from the entrance to the park to the more rugged, harder to access areas. Garrett leaned his head out the open side of the two-seat chopper, holding onto the handle even though he was harnessed into the seat.
“See anything?” the man asked over the headset.
“Nothing,” Garrett said, his impatience growing. “I don’t think you’re going far enough into the park. What about over there?”
The ranger followed his finger, but shook his head.
“You said they arrived this morning? There’s no way they could have gone that far. And where did they put their car? I don’t think the people you’re looking for are here, Buddy. We should go back. The chopper is getting low on fuel.”
“No,” Garrett said. “There’s plenty of fuel. Head north like I asked, toward that peak.”
The ranger shook his head again, but when Garrett produced a long hunting knife, the man stiffened and stopped shaking his head.
“I’m not asking for your opinion. They went that way; I can feel it. I need you to head that way, and if I have to kill you, I will.”
“What do you mean, you can feel it? What’s going on here?”
“You just do what I say and you won’t have to die,” Garrett lied.
“You don’t have to do this,” the ranger said. “I’m being honest when I say that there’s no way they made it that far. Even this far out where we are right now isn’t likely for people on foot.”
“I know these men. They’re here, and they’re further than you think. Head that way.”
When the ranger didn’t immediately comply, he brandished the knife again.
“You’re wasting my time with your foolishness. If you won’t do what I ask, then there’s no reason to keep you around.”
“If you kill me, you die too,” the ranger said.
Garrett laughed.
“I don’t need you to fly this chopper,” he said, still laughing. “I just needed you to show me where the key was.”
The man turned pale, but before he could react, Garr
ett pulled the knife, stabbing the man in the chest between two ribs. The man gasped and tried to scream in pain, but his punctured lung wouldn’t allow any sound to come out. The ranger’s mouth opened silently, the pain so great that the man’s eyes stayed wide and his body shuddered around the blade. Garrett held the knife, using his free hand to unbuckle the ranger’s seatbelt. The ranger tried to protest, but his silence won out. Without another word, shoved the man out the open side of the chopper and slid into the pilot’s seat in one smooth motion. The knife slipped out of the man’s chest as he fell, and without thinking, Garrett wiped the blood off on his jeans and put it back in its holster on his belt loop.
The ranger was dead before he hit the ground, but Garrett was already focused on the horizon, and on the wilderness in the distance. There was no one to hold vigil as the man fell; no one to cringe as his body made its final connection with the earth, quashing any chance the man had of surviving the knife wound. Garrett held no sympathy for the man he’d killed and was already looking toward the future. He had an idea where the three of them were going, but he wasn’t about to try to catch them on foot from here. He would have to get out ahead of them and ambush them if he had any chance of taking the twins and their hapless companion down by himself.
He headed due north, scanning the trees until he saw what he was looking for. Walking through the trees, looking lost and definitely alone was Solace. They’d split up to throw him off the scent, leaving her alone and vulnerable. When he had his hands on her, it would be game over and the twins would have to give him what he wanted. He smiled, inhaling the air and feeling the vibration of their combined energy coursing through him. They were close, he could feel it.
“Checkmate,” he said, then veered east and looked for a place to set the chopper down and wait.
By nightfall, Garrett Thompson was going to be a very rich man, and Cam and Ethan were going to wish they’d never laid eyes on the pretty woman from the Foxwood Hotel.
***
Solace was about to cry out to the man when he turned and her voice died in her throat. She was running, but as quickly as her brain registered the face a hundred yards away, she began backpedaling. She fell down in the sandy dirt, crab walking backward as time slowed.
Their eyes met and the bounty hunter smiled. He didn’t run after her, but instead began calmly walking her way, the grin still spread across his face.
She managed to get her feet under her and turn around, heading for the trees and somewhere to hide.
When a shot rang out and the ground beside her exploded, she froze.
“Smart choice,” the man said behind her. “You’re a hard woman to track down. You would think that you would want me to save your life, but I see that they have you fooled.”
Her back was still turned to him so he couldn’t see the look that passed over her face, but she remained rigid. She wasn’t going to let him see the doubt in her eyes.
“If I were you, I would hear me out,” he continued, then waited.
When she finally nodded, he laughed and she heard him take a step forward, but he was still a few yards away.
“Smart girl. They’re wanted for murder. Multiple murders, actually. They killed their own best friend, or didn’t they tell you. Poor Stirling only wanted to help them, and the instant they were done with him, they killed him and took over his life. When they were caught by Stirling’s sister, they killed her, too and left her body to rot in Stirling’s home in Houston. That’s how they became fugitives. You’re on the run with murderers, and if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”
“I don’t understand,” Solace said, trying to buy some time so she could think.
Could these accusations be true? They had said that their friend had died because of them. Was there more to it than that? Had they simply left out the crucial piece of information that Garrett Thompson was giving her now?
“I can see you’re trying to wrap your head around all this and that’s okay. They’re gorgeous, I get it. Well, I don’t, but they’ve done this to human women before you. They’ve fed them some line about how they’re special, and how they have this higher calling that keeps them from being able to tell you everything you need to know about them. They seduce women, then use them to get away from authorities. It’s how they work. Think about it; would there be a bounty for them if they were good people?”
His words gave her pause. She didn’t want to believe him, but his words range true. Yes, she could believe that a bounty hunter could be a corrupt person, but could the entire system be corrupt? Were Cam and Ethan victims? Or was Garrett right? Did they manipulate her and seduce her into thinking that they were the good guys, and that they were only being hunted to eradicate all of dragon kind?
What if the twins were the bad guys?
She trembled, rooted to the spot where she stood, listening to what he was saying and hearing the logic in his words. It all made sense, as much as she didn’t want it to.
“So, what now?” she said, still with her back to him, eyes squeezed shut against the tears that threatened.
“I knew you were smarter than the others,” he declared. “Now, we need to find them and flush them out. They won’t leave without you.”
“But if they don’t care about me—” she wondered, turning around to face him.
She was still shaking, but she stood straight and tall, trying to appear calm and under control when she felt like curling into a ball and crying. How could she have been so wrong about the twins?
“Don’t try to understand the impossible. They’ll be back for you. Not because they care about you, but because they believe that you belong to them. They don’t care much about your life, but as long as you’re alive, they don’t want anyone else to have you either. And I’m sure they’ve shared their secrets with you.”
She was silent, but her face betrayed her.
“They did tell you, I can see it in your face. It’s alright, don’t feel bad for the children they’re protecting. That was a lie, too. They’re protecting stolen treasure. Gold bars, jewels and all sorts of things that they took and hid away. They’re protecting all of those things, not some non-existent next generation of dragons to champion human kind. There are no more dragons. The twins are the last of their kind.”
“If all this is true, why didn’t you tell me this at the hotel?”
The man shrugged.
“You lied to me and told me they weren’t there. And, let’s be honest, if I had told you in that moment that you had a couple of dragons in your hotel disguised as handsome twins, would you have believed me?”
***
Garrett was still talking when Solace noticed movement in the tree line across the clearing and yards behind the chopper, and one of the twins stepped out of their hiding place just enough to let her know that they were there.
She kept her face passive, not sure whether she was happy to see them or not. If everything the hunter said was true, then she needed to get away from them, too. But if the hunter really was the good guy, why fire a gun at her to gain her compliancy?
A second twin moved, revealing his hiding spot in the same stretch of trees behind the chopper, behind Garrett’s back and several yards from the first twin. Now that she could see them both, she realized the second twin was Ethan. He looked concerned, and she wondered if he’d heard everything the bounty hunter had said.
Would they know that she was saying what he wanted to hear to buy herself time? Would they realize that her fear and doubt it was fueling were the cause of what would happen next?
“Would you have believed me?” Garrett repeated when she didn’t answer.
“Probably not,” she answered truthfully. “I wouldn’t have believed them if they hadn’t showed me, and by then, it was too late to tell them that I didn’t want to go on their little adventure with them. They didn’t give me a choice.” She looked him dead in the eye, ignoring the men that crept up behind him while he was focuse
d on Solace. “I hope you don’t think that going on the run with them was in my plans?”
“Of course, it wasn’t,” Garrett agreed, his smile warm.
He thought she was on his side.
“So, if I help you, what do I get in return? Part of the bounty?”
“Sure,” Garrett said. “That seems fair. Let’s say, one hundred thousand dollars?”
Solace wanted to slap him, but he didn’t know that she knew how much each twin was worth. She let her eyes widen as if she was shocked at the huge number, which earned another smile from Garrett.
He wasn’t the only one who could be sly.
The twins were getting closer, but they were still several yards away and hadn’t yet reached the chopper. A smear of blood on the pilot’s side of the chopper caught her eye and before she could turn her eyes away, she realized that it was blood smeared from the door downward, and that there was blood wiped on Garrett’s jeans, too.
She stared at the blood on his jeans, then noticed the streaks drying on his hands. Her eyes roamed upward and their eyes locked. He sneered almost imperceptibly and suddenly, any doubt she had that Garrett was the bad guy disappeared. She’d been had, and the Devil himself was between her and the twins. Even if they ran as fast as they could, there was no way they would reach her before Garrett did.
“Garrett!” Ethan yelled before Garrett could react.
When he heard Ethan yell, Garrett looked shocked in the instant before he turned around, but once his back was to her, Solace turned and ran for the nearest trees.
There was a terrifying roar, and a sudden gust of wind behind her. She turned then screamed as a giant dragon came barreling toward her. She ran faster, but not before she caught the shocked expressions on the twins’ faces.
Garrett! Solace thought, trying to wrap her head around it and running for her life.
Cold talons encircled her arms and in one swift motion, she was yanked off the ground a few feet from cover. She reached out, grabbing limbs in desperation as she rose into the air, trying to pull herself from Garrett’s grasp. A twig snapped off in her hand and she held onto it as she screamed to the twins for help and the ground rushed away from her at an alarming speed.