Flames Of Deceit

by Carol Hutchens

  Lying in the cold wet culvert, sweat beads pop out on her forehead. Her childhood panic flared to new life. As a child, she hadn’t been able to wiggle backward, or go forward. After her father cut her free, Mia learned Phil had been riding the tube like a horse. His weight collapsed the tube in front of her face. To this day, closed dark spaces instilled terror in her.

  And this culvert was dark. On the verge of hyperventilating, she forced her thoughts to Jake and the danger he had chosen to save her. Forcing deep breaths into her lungs to keep from passing out, Mia focused on the current threat to their safety.

  The sound of crunching gravel sent new fears exploding in her head. Catching her throat, she didn’t breath until dots danced in front of her eyes. She inhaled, expecting the culvert to collapse on her as the cardboard tunnel had...and listened to sound of crunching as it got closer, louder.

  With her heart almost jumping out of her chest, sanity returned. The noise of bicycle wheels the small gravel layering the tobacco trail reminded her of their remote location. Jake had asked her to stay hidden to keep her safe, but what about him.

  Air filled her starved lungs.

  New fears entered her head.

  What if the madman saw her bike in the bushes and stopped? She dug her fingers into the wet cold surface of the culvert underneath her hands and fought the urge to crawl out.

  Would the slasher find her?

  If he stopped, there was no way she could escape.

  She couldn’t go further back in the wet sludge...then Jake’s words, asking her to stay out of sight, echoed in her head. And kept her in place. Jake was risking his life to protect her. Again. She had to do as he’d asked.

  The crunching sounded over her head and echoed in the culvert. Then, fast as it came, the sound faded away, disappearing in the direction Jake had gone.

  Inhaling deep breaths of cold, smelly air in the culvert, new thoughts exploded in her head. What if the madman caught up with Jake, and she wasn’t there to help him. What if Jake couldn’t return to tell her it was safe? What if she waited and...

  Adeline sent her slithering out of the culvert into the cold moonlit night. She was alive. Wet. Cold. Stinky, but she was alive. And she intended to stay that way, shivering limbs and all. It was time to make sure Jake stayed safe as well.

  Staring in the direction Jake and the madman had ridden, flashes of white sent fear slamming against her ribs.

  Those white blurs weren’t coming from the headlamp on the bike. These flashes were low to the ground and moving up and down. Instantly, she realized she was watching the stark white of new shoes in the moonlight as the madman peddled after Jake.

  Terror clogged her throat. She had faced fears of the dark by climbing in that culvert and survived. She wanted Jake to know that. He wouldn’t have a chance if the man following him got his way. She recalled the man’s strength and willingness to inflict pain.

  Anger overshadowed her fright. In a split second, she ran for her bike and spent precious seconds steering out of the bushes, back to the trail. With an urgency fueled by the pumping of her heart, she raced to assist Jake.

  Never mind that he had told her to wait for his return. She knew this madman’s intentions. She could feel the pain on her head from his rough grip when he tried to abduct her outside Grover’s.

  She couldn’t let Jake face the danger alone.

  ***

  Jake saw the light behind him. He had lost time trying to comfort Mia, but he had determination on his side. He would not give this pursuer a chance to hurt her. If he had to ride the twenty miles to Durham to lead the man away, he would.

  Then a thought exploded in his head, almost causing his legs to stop moving. Had the man chasing him spotted Mia’s bicycle behind the bushes? Had he found Mia’s hiding place?

  Looking back over his shoulder, Jake lost precious time trying to judge the location of the pursuer’s headlight. He could ride with the best cyclists around, but keeping one eye on the pursuer, to make sure he was following and not stopping for Mia, cut his lead.

  He shouldn’t have left her. He should have hidden the bikes in the bushes and waited for the attacker to ride past. He wanted this to end. He was tired of trying to stay one-step ahead of a killer. If he and Mia had let the bad guy ride past, they would need to watch over their shoulders for who knows how long.

  This way, he had hoped to lead the killer into a trap. He was convinced the man behind him was the murderer. What kind of trap could he set? The tobacco trail closed to the public at night. There wouldn’t be other riders to offer assistance and no park employees checking for safety. He was in this on his own.

  He had to protect Mia.

  He wanted a chance for more than just protecting Mia. He wanted to spend his future with her. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and keep her safe.

  Memories of failing his wife flashed through his head. What was he thinking? He’d left Mia in the dark, alone. The killer could find her, murder her and rob Jake of the second woman he loved.

  He couldn’t face that loss, that sense of failure, again. Give him a battle, and he would fight, but losing Mia after finding hope, would kill him.

  Without stopping to reconsider his decision, Jake wheeled the bicycle around and rode at top speed back the way he had come.

  He had to check on Mia. If anything happened to her...

  The shadowy figure came at him like a bat out of the sky. One second Jake was pedaling fast to reach Mia. The next second he landed flat of his back, winded and shaken by the collision of the two bikes.

  He heard gravel scattering and the grinding noise of metal scrapping as the bicycles fell to the ground. He tried to catch his breath, but a huge dark shadow swooped down and landed on his chest.

  Jake felt the blow to his chin the same instant he realized the shadowy figure seemed so large because the attacker was wearing a hood over his head.

  Was this the same man who tried to abduct Mia? Another blow landed on his face and sent pain vibrating though his head. Spots danced in front of his eyes. He swung at the covered head, and connected with a blow. He heard a grunt from the man on top of him. Jake swung again, and rolled to the side.

  But his assailant stayed on top of him like a bronco rider. Jake bucked and twisted to get free, but the man clung to his back. The attacker’s legs squeezed against his ribs. His weight pushed Jake’s body into the gravel. A hand grabbed the hair on the back of his head and slammed his face to the ground.

  Jake tried to reach behind him for a grip on the man’s clothing and grasped thin air. Another blow slammed his face into the gravel, again. New worries exploded in his head with the pain.

  If he couldn’t fight off this assailant, how could Mia? He had to protect her. The need to guard Mia gave him strength. He gave another twist and rolled away from the man clinging to his back, but his few seconds of freedom ended when another blow struck his chin.

  Jake fell into nothingness. His last thought was the realization that he had lost Mia, too.

  ***

  Mia heard the grunts before her eyes picked out the figures tangled in deep shadows beside the trail. Stumbling off the bike, she ran. Her wet jeans stuck to her legs, making it hard to move. But she had to help Jake.

  Skittered to a halt, she saw the hooded figure take powerful swing at Jake’s head as the two men scuffled on the ground.

  Oh, Jake.

  Jake was trapped under the slasher’s weight. She heard the crunching noise as Jake’s head hit the ground. Fury built inside her with the speed of a tornado. Frantic to help Jake, she searched the ground for some object to give her an advantage over the attacker.

  A long shadow at the edge of the trail looked like a broken limb. Mia stared for a second, praying it wasn’t a snake. By the time her common sense told her it was too cold for snakes, she had a grip on the rough bark of the limb.

  Even then, she paused, unaccustomed to inflicting bodily harm on another person, but the hooded figure on top of Jake
had no qualms. His next blow to Jake’s face sounded like a crack of thunder.

  Her fury returned. Fueled by her need to save Jake, she drew the limb back over her shoulder and swung the limb like a baseball bat as hard as she could. Like a slow motion movie, she saw her arm extend and move forward as the man’s fist landed another thudding blow to Jake’s face.

  In the last instant before the limb hit, she saw Jake’s head fall back. His body wilted into the gravel. Then she noticed the stark white athletic shoe resting at Jake’s side and fear took over.

  At the last second, she stumbled. The limb struck the slasher a glancing blow across the shoulders. He let out a yelp and slumped over. In a blink, Mia landed on his back.

  The slasher twisted around and grabbed a handful of her hair. Pain sliced through her scalp as he jerked her up and wrapped a hand around her neck.

  Mia twisted, kicked and punched out at him, but she couldn’t loosen his grip on her throat. Air left her lungs. Staring in the gargoyle features of the slasher’s shadowy face, Mia knew she might never see Jake again.

  Her last thoughts were of never feeling his kisses again, or having a chance to tell him she really meant it when she’d said she loved him. Then darkness swallowed her.

  Chapter 17

  Fire. A coffin. She was trapped alive and moving steadily toward the fire that would turn her body to ashes. She tried to fight, to get out, to move, but she couldn’t escape. She tried to see, but everything was black. She was trapped in a coffin. She was going to die. Who put her in this box, alive? Why? Who had she harmed?

  The stench of smoke filled her nostrils as she pulled herself out of the nightmare and sucked air in her lungs. With each breath, she became more conscious.

  The movement she’d felt was her head sagging on her chest.

  She smelled smoke and coughed, winching at the pain in her head. Chills shook her body, but she couldn’t move. Squinting, she saw her arms were pulled behind the tree at her back, her hands tied. Blinking against the sickening pain, she forced her head up and stared through smoke surrounding her. Was she back in the courthouse again?

  No. Where was she? Where was Jake?

  Then, through the wispy plumes of smoke, she saw him. He was about four feet away, and tied against a tree. His head rested on his chest. The rope around his feet and hands held him upright, but she couldn’t tell if he was breathing.

  Was he alive?

  “Jake!” The hoarse whisper scraped her throat. Looking again, she realized she was tied in the same position as Jake, and a roaring blaze burned close in the brush behind them.

  She struggled against the rope, trying to loosen her hands, but nothing happened.

  She couldn’t move.

  Smoke filled her nostrils and lungs.

  Her old nightmare flashed through her head like a horror movie, but this was not a dream.

  This was real. She wasn’t in a coffin, but still at risk of burning alive.

  This new danger was worse than any dream.

  If she and Jake couldn’t escape, no one would know who had burned them alive.

  Twisting and tugging, she pulled against the rope. And twisted. Turned. Pulled. But she couldn’t free her hands.

  Coughing against the clogged air, she stared at Jake through the smoke. He looked so helpless, hanging against the tree, with his head drooping. Pain squeezed her chest. How could their future end like this? Jake was all she had ever dreamed of finding in a man to love. And the slasher was stealing her dreams.

  Anger and pain twisted inside her. Love for Jake surged through her. Teeth gritted, she tugged at the rope on her hands with new strength.

  Wiggling pulled the rope tighter. She tried to bend her knees to move her body down the tree, but the way her feet were tied, she couldn’t move.

  The wind blew smoke in her face and plastered her wet jeans against her legs. The chill felt good after hearing the blaze burning behind her.

  “Jake!” She couldn’t see behind her to check how close the fire was, but she felt the heat. Heard the snapping and crackling, and smelled the smoke. Panic grew inside her.

  “Jake?” She had to wake him, needed his help, needed to warn him of the danger. “Jake!”

  She heard the pain and fear in her voice, and fought for control.

  Control. The one thing she had never achieved. Her parents, then her mother’s ambitions for Phil had taken charge of Mia’s existence. She loved her family, but it was time for her to take charge.

  She had survived the culvert...her jeans were soggy and she smelled worse than wet tennis shoes, but she’d crawled out of that culvert in one piece.

  She had fought her fear of the dark and won. She would fight her fear of fire and save Jake. She was his only hope.

  The fire crackled closer.

  She tried to think of a plan. Flames burned brush littering the ground and danced around her feet. The blaze was close enough to make her jeans steam, but she didn’t feel pain.

  Then…watching the steam, a solution popped in her head.

  Was she brave enough? Desperate enough?

  Jake moaned.

  She was more than desperate. She was in love with Jake. She had to save him.

  “Jake.” She stared through the smoke. His body sagged from the tree, but he didn’t respond. “Jake? Can you hear me? We have to get free from this rope or we will burn alive.”

  Rope!

  Now she remembered. She’d seen the rope coiled over the slasher’s shoulder when she hit him with the limb. He had come prepared.

  She started shaking. The slasher had planned the way he wanted them to die. Why? She still didn’t know who he was.

  Images of that encounter came back in a flash. She’d swung the limb at his head. At the last second, he’d raised an arm and the limb landed a glancing blow to the coiled rope. The shadowy figure had whirled on her.

  So, now she knew how they ended up tied to trees.

  But she had to figure a way to get them free. The years she spent in fear of burning alive, became a reality as the sound of the blaze came closer. “Jake!”

  It was no use. She had witnessed his beating. She’d been too late to help him fight off the slasher. She had to help him now. There was no other choice, if she wanted to get out of this alive.

  Looking through the smoke at Jake’s sagging form, she remembered how he had protected her since the day they met. Now, he was unconscious and she had to save him.

  One of them had to survive to tell police what they’d learned.

  Fighting back panic, she focused on the heat at her feet. Her socks and jeans were wet from the culvert, but the rope wasn’t. If she could ignore the warmth on her skin, maybe the rope would burn.

  She focused on questions. Tried to reason out the slasher’s plan, instead of thinking about the fire burning so close to her body.

  Why had the slasher taken time to tie them up? To avoid any chance one of them might regain consciousness and get the other to safety. Seemed reasonable.

  Why here? Why on the tobacco trail? Because they had dashed this way to escape, making it easy to dispose of them. They were in a deep wooded section of the trail. The twenty-mile trail provided a close glimpse of nature.

  Too, close, this time.

  Was the slasher still out there? If he returned, he could end her attempts to escape. If he knocked her out again, she and Jake would both die in the flames.

  Then she felt it.

  The pressure holding her feet against the tree, eased.

  She wiggled and realized her feet were free. The rope had burned through...but she wasn’t free. Her hands were tied behind her.

  Wet jeans had protected her legs, but nothing would protect her hands while flames destroyed the rope. She had to try…had to face her fear of burning if she wanted to escape. Jake’s life depended on her actions.

  It was now or never.

  If she passed out from pain, maybe she would fall forward enough to keep from burning...but c
ommonsense told her delaying wouldn’t make the situation any better. No white knight was going to ride up and cut her loose. She had to risk being burned to make her escape and save Jake.

  Squeezing her eyes tight, teeth sinking in her lip, she slithered down the tree.

  Heat flared around her hands. The instinct to jerk away was so strong she could barely resist, but she pulled her wrists as far apart as she could and waited.

  Images from her nightmares flared through her head. Memory of burning her hand as a kid flashed in her mind. What if...

  Then, miraculously, her hands fell free. She tumbled forward, landing on her face and knees in the leaves and twigs on the ground. Jerking upright, she slapped at the smoke coming from the sleeves of her sweat jacket. Thank heavens polyester melted instead of burning.

  Her hands ached. In the dim light from the flames, she couldn’t see the burns but that wasn’t her main problem. Flames were two feet from Jake’s tree. She had to get him untied.

  “Jake? Can you hear me? Please wake up. I need to get you away from this fire.”

  “Don’t move,” Jake whispered. “He might still be out there.”

  “Oh, Jake.” She bit back a sob. “I thought we were going to burn alive.”

  “We aren’t out of the woods, yet.” Jake winched. “If he’s watching, we’re still in danger. I’ll keep an eye out in front, you watch behind me.”

  She attacked the knot in the ropes at his feet, but the pain in her fingers made her feel faint. “I can’t untie you. My hands are burned.”

  “Burn them off like you did yours.”

  “You were awake? Why didn’t you say something?”

  “Don’t look at me.” He cautioned. “I couldn’t help, so I kept watch.”

  Picking up a burning limb, she smothered a gasp of pain, and held the flame to the rope at his feet. “The next part is tricky. I have to get your hand free.”