Forever Hunted

by Kathleen Brooks

  Cy looked at the two bodies and frowned; the others crammed around him doing the same. Matt pushed forward and crouched down in front of the man strapped to the chair Cy knew to be Diego. He moved his head this way and that to get a better look at Diego’s body before standing up.

  “Diego was murdered,” Matt said. Marshall examined the body as well and nodded his agreement. “Blunt force trauma to the head,” Matt told them.

  “That’s what I thought too,” Deputy Tanner said as he shook his head. “Being strapped in during the crash, there wasn’t any way to hit that part of his head.”

  “There you go,” Cy said after combing the area. “There’s a crowbar up against the wall.”

  Deputy Tanner pulled out his gloves and went to look at it. “But I didn’t see any corresponding marks on the woman. I agree it looks as if Diego was murdered, but I couldn’t figure her out.”

  “How did she get out of her seat?” Ryan wondered out loud. “Paul said everyone knew the crash was coming. There’s no reason for her to be unbuckled.”

  “See, that’s what I found strange,” Deputy Tanner said when he stood up. “There’s blood on the crowbar. That’s the murder weapon.”

  “But it’s not Mrs. Bristol’s murder weapon,” Ryan said, after examining her body. He stood up and put his hands on his hips. “It doesn’t make sense. I looked into Mick Connors, and he doesn’t have a record. He seems exactly as he is—a horse owner. Spent some time on Wall Street making money and retired early to follow his love of horse racing. Now, his business partner, Sam, is a different story. He has a long history of animal abuse charges and some smaller financial issues like bouncing checks and bankruptcy.”

  “Whoever they are, we know Mick is dangerous, and he’s after Reagan and Carter. We need to find them before he does,” Cy stated as he pushed through his brothers to get back outside.

  “What is it?” Gemma asked as soon as he emerged from the plane.

  “Murder,” Cy responded as he turned to find Ahmed. “You need to get moving. Now.”

  Ahmed slung the backpack he was wearing off his shoulder and opened it up. Inside were two blaze orange tracking leashes. One was close to fifty feet, but Ahmed pulled out the twenty-foot leash. Robyn instantly stopped wiggling when she saw the tracking leash. This was her job; she was on alert and ready to go.

  Ahmed strapped a blaze orange vest on her so she’d be easy to spot in the woods and no hunters would confuse her with a small deer. Then he attached a GPS tracker to her pink glitter collar. He pulled the bag containing Reagan’s fleece out and opened it. “Search,” Ahmed ordered. Robyn’s short tail stood at attention as she sniffed the fleece. Instantly, her nose was in the air as she drew in deep breaths. With a sure trot, she headed straight for the steps of the plane.

  “Here,” Ahmed said, showing her the wing of the plane instead of going inside. Robyn trotted toward the wing and sniffed as she trotted. Cy watched as she headed straight into the woods.

  “Marshall and Cade will try to recover Miss Mambo or put her down if she’s in pain. Ryan and DeAndre will stay here to coordinate search-and-rescue,” Cy told his wife and Kenna. “The rest of us will comb through the woods. We’re going to break off and search for Carter and Reagan, but also for Mick. I’ll call with updates.”

  Cy leaned forward, kissed his wife, and took off with his friends and family. He would find his daughter if it were the last thing he ever did. And the second to last thing he’d do is make sure Mick Connors paid for what he did. Fanning out fifty yards behind Ahmed and Robyn, Cy and the others entered the woods.

  19

  “Let’s take a break,” Carter called out as he noticed the stream picking up speed ahead. Even with the water temperature being somewhat warm, being in the stream for the past couple hours was chilling him. And he could see Reagan shiver every once in a while too. “Do you think you can pull yourself up and onto that tree ahead of us?”

  Reagan searched out the tree that had fallen across the stream and nodded. Up ahead the water began to ripple over larger stones, and Carter worried they might have to get out of the stream. He wanted to warm up in the midafternoon sun and see what it looked like downstream.

  Reagan floated toward the tree and at the last second lunged upward, wrapping her arms around the trunk and pulling herself halfway out of the water. Carter wasn’t far behind and did the same, only he hoisted his soaked body upward and threw his leg over the fallen tree as if mounting a horse. Then he reached down and grabbed Reagan’s hand.

  “Let me help,” he told her. As he pulled, she used her good leg to push off the bottom of the stream. It wasn’t pretty, but he got her onto the downed tree. She closed her eyes and lifted her head to the sun as she took deep breaths.

  “I’m so cold. I thought the water was warm at first.”

  “I know. I’m cold too. It’s getting deeper now. Around four feet is my guess,” Carter said, looking downstream where small rapids could be seen. “How is your ankle feeling?”

  Reagan raised her foot and rested it on the log. She winced as Carter pushed up her pants to get a good look at it. Carter gently ran his fingers over the swollen and angry-looking ankle. The skin was already showing the deep colors of bruising. “Doesn’t appear broken,” Carter said.

  “I think the stream is getting to be too much for me, though. My ankle does feel better. I think we need to walk for a bit.”

  Carter pulled out his socks from inside his shoes and tied them together before wrapping her ankle. “How does this feel?”

  “It’s throbbing, but the compression actually feels good. I’m good to go,” Reagan said with determination.

  The thing was, Reagan would say that even if she weren’t good to go. It was one of the things Carter admired about her. She had grit and would never quit. In this case, he wanted to make sure she didn’t injure herself further by pushing through the pain. “Okay, but you have to promise me you’ll tell me if the pain gets worse.”

  “Promise,” Reagan said with a smile.

  “Liar,” Carter teased, and Reagan let out a soft laugh.

  “You know me too well.” Reagan looked up at the sky. “Four o’clock?”

  Carter looked up and nodded. “Seems like a good guess.”

  “Then we’d better get moving. I don’t want to stop until it’s dark, and with this bad leg, I won’t be able to cover the ground as fast.” Reagan got onto her hands and knees and began to crawl off the log. Carter followed close behind in case she needed help.

  “Maybe we should have a woods-themed wedding,” Reagan joked as she bent to pick up a dead branch. Carter watched as she pulled off some of the dead twigs before using it as a cane.

  “No way. I’m not waiting long enough for us to settle on a theme. We’ll get married in the courthouse of whatever town is down there the second Mick Connors is arrested.” Reagan laughed, thinking he was joking, but he wasn’t. After almost losing the love of his life, there was no way he was going to spend one more second apart from her.

  * * *

  Aniyah slid to a stop behind the news vans. They couldn’t get any closer. There had been a gate leading to the airstrip, and it was now closed as the feds stood stone-faced guarding it.

  “Aniyah! Miss Lily, Miss Daisy, Miss Violet! Over here!” Aniyah turned at the deep voices calling out to them. Reagan’s twin younger brothers, Porter and Parker, were racing toward them. “What the hell is going on?” Porter asked.

  “Oh, you dear boys,” Miss Violet grabbed Parker and yanked him to her bosom. Parker bent at the waist and gently tapped Miss Violet’s arm to remind her to let him breathe.

  “Vi, this is not the time to get your kicks by motorboating some young fella,” Miss Daisy groaned as Porter had to cough to cover up his laugh.

  “See, you don’t even know it’s the man who motorboats. But fine, I’ll stop saying hi.” Violet rolled her eyes but released Parker from her grasp.

  “We just got here,” Aniyah told them as sh
e tried to spot DeAndre to let them in. “Where did you two come from?”

  “Atlanta,” Parker answered. He and his brother stood way taller than Aniyah as they surveyed the scene. “Mom said she was working on getting us in.”

  Both twins had brown hair with their mother’s red highlights. They weren’t identical, but it was obvious they were twins. Their eyes were the best way to tell them apart. Porter’s hazel eyes were more brown and Parker’s were more green.

  “And I told you I don’t give a damn who you are! Those are my boys, and I’m letting them in.”

  Porter and Parker grinned. “There’s Mom now.”

  Aniyah looked up to see Gemma stalking toward the gate with a government suit chasing after her. The Rose sisters had already pushed their way to the gate and waved to Gemma.

  “Yoo-hoo!”

  Gemma actually looked like she relaxed a bit as she stopped at the gate and put her hands through to hold the Rose sisters’ hands before promptly bursting into tears.

  “Mom!” Porter yelled in horror as the news crews beat down on them demanding answers to their questions.

  “Get out of our way,” Parker yelled, shoving reporters aside as he struggled to get to his mother.

  Aniyah reached into her purse and pulled out her gun. Humph. Normally people hit the ground or went running when she pulled a gun. These reporters shoved a microphone in her face. She aimed the gun up and away from people and pulled the trigger. Screaming panic ensued and she smiled. There. Now they could get inside.

  Aniyah turned to smile at Gemma for triumphantly getting rid of the reporters when she was hit hard from behind. She shrieked as she went down hard. Her boobs hit the ground first as she wrestled with the person attacking her.

  “Don’t make me shoot you!” Aniyah yelled as she wriggled from his grip. She turned to see a Tennessee state trooper lying on the ground with what looked to be a gun drawn and aimed at her. “Oh! I don’t need to shoot you, hon.”

  The gun fired and two prongs shot into her boobs and tingled. Aniyah felt her body shake before dropping back to the ground.

  A fierce roar broke through Aniyah’s tasered haze. “Sugarbear?”

  Aniyah batted her eyelashes as she opened her eyes in time to see DeAndre grab the Tennessee state trooper by the shoulder, spin him around, and lay him flat with a punch.

  “Baby!” DeAndre called out to her, leaning over and gently cupping her cheek with his hand. “Are you okay?” DeAndre yanked the prongs from her breasts as Gemma chewed out the guards.

  “You saved me,” Aniyah cried as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed her sugarbear with all she had. Some members of the press came out of hiding and began to clap as they filmed. DeAndre reached down and scooped her up into his arms. Aniyah felt her heart soar, and she was pretty sure it wasn’t because of the ten thousand volts from the stun gun.

  “Let us in,” DeAndre ordered as Porter and Parker helped the Rose sisters through the gate before hugging their mother.

  “You’re my hero,” Aniyah said as she kissed him. His lips were normally soft and plump, but under the stress of the situation they were hard and firm.

  “Babe, where did you get that gun?”

  Aniyah hid the gun behind his back as he carried her up the hill toward the airstrip. She blinked innocently at the love of her life. “What gun, Sugarbear?”

  DeAndre rolled his eyes as the group began to walk together.

  “Has Reagan been found?” Porter asked as they walked up the steep drive.

  Gemma shook her head. “Not yet. Your father called to say Robyn found a scent. They’ve been running all over the forest and haven’t found your sister, the horse, or Mick Connors yet.”

  Parker and Porter surrounded their mother, putting their arms around her and walking to the crime scene. Aniyah hated to hear it called that, but that’s what it was. Tents were set up, people with NTSB and FBI written on jackets stood around, and finally the plane came into view. Aniyah gasped. “Are they sure Reagan and Carter are alive?”

  DeAndre set her down. “The last reports are they ran into the woods to escape Mick Connors. We have every reason to believe they are still alive.”

  Aniyah bit back her tears. She had to be strong for Gemma and her friends, but the sight of the wrecked plane was so violent she had to turn away. Silently she made the sign of the cross and offered up a prayer of safety for her friends.

  * * *

  Reagan knew as the sun began to set that they needed to find someplace to hide for the night. While her ankle was stable, she wasn’t about to try to walk through a forest at night. And they certainly couldn’t use a flashlight or fire for fear of Mick spotting them.

  Reagan looked around them. The forest was dense in that spot. The shadows were long as the trees took on a menacing appearance. They were about ten yards from the bank of the stream. They couldn’t see it, but they could hear the rushing water. That was good and bad. It was good because it hid the sounds of their movements, but it was bad because they wouldn’t be able to hear if Mick approached either.

  “I think we should go deeper into the woods for the night,” Reagan told Carter who was walking slowly next to her, ready to help her if she needed it. “That way we can hear if someone is coming.”

  “That’s a good idea.” He stopped walking and Reagan happily did too. They both looked around until Carter pulled her hand. “Over here. Can you see the large bald cypress trees? If they’re that tall, it’ll be possible to sleep under the lower branches. They’ll provide a roof for us and maybe some warmth if we can find a young one to crawl under.”

  Reagan agreed but let out a sigh as she saw the rough terrain to get to the trees. She didn’t need to worry about it, though, because Carter wrapped his arm around her waist and helped take the weight off her bad ankle. He’d been doing it all day, finding little ways to help her when he knew she would be too stubborn to ask for help.

  It took them a while, but they finally reached the trees they’d seen in the distance. Carter pulled up the branches of the bald cypress that were about four feet off the ground so that Reagan could slip underneath. Instantly the light was cut in half, and while it was a little sappy, there was enough room to sit up against the trunk and it was far enough away from the stream that they’d hear if someone was coming.

  Carter ducked under the branches and sat, resting his back against the tree trunk. He pulled her to him and Reagan leaned her back against his chest and sighed. It felt good to sit, and with Carter’s arms around her, she could almost forget someone was hunting them.

  “You know, I envisioned tonight going a little differently,” Carter said as he tried to lighten the mood. He ran his hand gently up and down her arm as he talked. “For our first night as an engaged couple, I had reserved this beautiful room at a bed-and-breakfast in Paris, Kentucky, so we could have one night together without our families descending on us.”

  “You did?” Reagan asked with surprise as she turned to look at him. Normally clean-shaven, Carter had a five-o’clock shadow after the long day. “You were so sure I’d say yes?” Reagan poked him in the ribs to let him know she was teasing him.

  Carter winked at her. When he smiled, she saw his dimples in the shadows of the setting sun. “I would have loved that,” she said, leaning up to kiss him. His lips met hers softly as his hand tightened on her arm, pulling her closer. She rested her hand on his chest and sighed into the kiss, her whole body relaxing at his touch.

  Carter had always had the power to relax her. She hadn’t noticed it until they had been dating for a month. Reagan could admit it: she was normally high-strung. She was an on-the-go person who never relaxed. She would sleep some but not well. She would wake up with her mind racing about what she needed to do or what she should be doing instead of sleeping. She’d never thought twice about it until she realized the nights she slept with Carter were nights she actually slept well. Like now, his touch melted the tension from her muscles. Her body relaxe
d into his. Her mind stopped racing. Instead she was focused on his kiss, on his touch, and on the way his breathing hitched when she deepened the kiss.

  “Let me rub your legs. Your muscles must be tired from compensating for your ankle all day,” Carter said as he moved to shift her from his embrace.

  Reagan lay down, feeling the cool earth on her back as Carter’s hands went to work on her leg muscles. She grimaced as he rubbed the knots from her legs. They didn’t talk as he worked. Instead, Reagan found her mind drifting to the last time she talked to her father. Tears pressed against the back of her eyes. She’d said so many hurtful things. She had to survive. She had to tell him she loved him. He must have accepted Carter if he gave him permission to ask her to marry him. Now she only hoped she would see the day that he walked her down the aisle.

  20

  “We need to stop for the night,” Ahmed called out. They’d been following the stream for miles but now the forest was cast in complete darkness. They could barely see five feet in front of them.

  Cy wanted to say no. He wanted to move on, but Robyn needed a rest and there was a greater chance of being ambushed if they traveled at night. At least he knew Carter and Reagan had made it this far.

  “I don’t like that we haven’t seen or heard from Mick,” Cy said, voicing his fear as they all closed in around Ahmed and Robyn. They’d been spread out over the forest looking for clues. So far what they found they didn’t like. It appeared Reagan and Carter had left a decoy trail for Mick. Matt and Annie had followed the decoy trail and the resulting trail Mick had left. When they last checked in, they had lost the trail in the darkness and would follow up with them the next day when they had the light to search for the trail.