Bam! A rock slammed into the drone, knocking it sideways. The propellers made a grinding noise. Another rock flew by my head but missed the drone this time. It sputtered and shot skyward, tilting to the side, but managed to stay airborne.
I swung around. “Hit it again!”
Dalton threw another rock, but the drone was too far away.
“You damaged it,” I said with a whoop.
“C’mon,” Dalton said. “Let’s get out of sight anyway. It’ll be dark soon.”
I limped after him, into the cover of the pines.
Dalton found a dry patch of moss under a rocky overhang. “Right here,” he said and gestured for me to lie down.
“But we’re barely a hundred yards from where he saw us.”
“It’s all right. He’ll assume we ran.”
I eyed Dalton, skeptical.
“Trust me.”
I nodded and dropped to my knees to crawl into the mossy bed.
“What do we do now?” I asked once he sat down.
“We give him what he wants.” He frowned and looked me in the eye. “At least make him think it.”
“What he wants? You mean use me as bait.” I closed my eyes. I didn’t know if I had the energy to hear his plan, let alone enact it.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Like I said, he doesn’t find me so…intriguing.”
My head was in some kind of fog. “I don’t understand.”
“I need some things from the plane.”
“The plane? You’re going out there? To the plane? But you said—”
He gave me the I’m-doing-this-no-matter-what look. “We wait for darkness. Then I’m going to the plane. There were some things in the back. I’ll check the radio too, but you and I both know he’s disabled it.”
“What do you mean, things? What are you planning to do?”
“You stay here. Keep warm and try to get some sleep.”
“What? You can’t be serious.”
“Listen to me. You need to rest. That’s the best way. I know you. I know you’ll fight until you collapse. But right now, you need to trust me. We’re a team. Partners. Do you understand?”
I crossed my arms. “You’re planning something and keeping me out of it.”
“It’s not that. We need to know what resources we have. The plane might give us some options. It’s worth the risk. I need to see what is there, then we’ll work out the details. For that, I’m going to need you at your best. That means rest now.” His eyes pleaded for me to consent. “Tell me you will.”
He was right about needing to rest. My leg throbbed. My head throbbed. My neck burned. I was cold and wet. And I was pissed. Was I even thinking clearly? But for him to swim out to the plane? Alone? In the dark? What did he think he’d find that was that valuable? Was he not telling me something or were we that desperate?
I held my hand to my head. I wasn’t sure. Somehow I couldn’t concentrate. “Okay,” I said. “If you think it’s our best option, but…Dalton?” Man, I was tired. “Do you really think we’ll get out of this alive?”
His eyes shifted to his hands. “We’re smart. We’re well trained.”
“But?” I could feel it. There was definitely a but.
“There’s something about this guy. This doesn’t feel right. This whole thing. It’s not about him being a poacher.”
I nodded. “In Costa Rica, we knew what we were up against. In Norway too. This feels…” I shook my head.
“Yeah.”
“In Costa Rica, when Chris—” I sighed. Oh Chris. All the feelings of guilt rushed in. “He risked his life for me, my job. And now I don’t know if I’ll ever…”
“Don’t say it.”
“I put his job on the line. He could get fired for what I did. That was stupid.”
“You were sticking up for him.”
“Yeah, but he was right. You were right. I wasn’t thinking. And now…this.”
“You’ve been friends all these years. He knows who you are. I’m sure he’s already forgiven you.”
“You’re probably right. Because he’s Chris. That doesn’t mean it’s forgivable.”
Dalton squeezed my hand. “When we get back, you’ll call him, tell him how you feel.”
I nodded. “If we get back.”
“We’ll get through this. You got me?”
My stomach ached, my leg hurt like hell, and we were stranded in the center of the wilderness with nothing. Nothing but each other. I nodded.
“You should get some rest,” he said.
“Yeah, right. There’s no way I’m going to be able to sleep.”
Dalton nodded in understanding. “Tell me about Chris. How’d you two meet anyway?”
“Well, the first time was in sixth grade. My mom was stationed in the Philippines. Up to that point, I’d been homeschooled by my dad, since we moved around so much, but she’d decided I was old enough to go to school with the other kids at that age, I guess.
“For several months, I endured it, bored. Then Chris showed up in class one day, sat down beside me, and the first words out of his mouth were, ‘Hey, wanna be best friends?’ Kids were always coming and going. The nature of being a Navy brat. If you wanted a friend, you connected quickly. I said sure and that was that.
“I think at the time, what I liked so much about him was that he seemed exotic. It was his skin, his hair. All the other kids were so plain. And boring.”
I chewed on my lower lip. “I know it sounds awful, but I always had a hard time getting along with other girls. All they ever wanted to talk about was boys. How they should wear their hair, for the boys. What clothes to wear, to attract the boys. Which girls were dating which boys. With Chris, it was different. I didn’t have to deal with all that stuff because he was a boy. We worried about world politics, about the environment, about national debt. We’d stay up all night talking about religion.
“Then one day, at lunch time, a couple of boys cornered us. Bullies. They started in calling me Pippity-poppity-poo and—”
“What?” Dalton grinned. “They called you Pippity—“
“Don’t even,” I said. “Do you want to hear the story or not?”
“I do.”
“So these boys, who I wasn’t exactly fond of, get us in this corner and start in, calling Chris names. Well, I wasn’t having it. I realized, in that moment, that I’d started thinking of Chris as my boyfriend.” I smiled at the memory. “And they were calling him names like…well, you know.
“One boy, Tommy was his name, I’ll never forget, he got right in Chris’s face. I grabbed him by the shoulder, spun him around, and punched him right in the nose. Blood everywhere. ‘You don’t talk to my boyfriend like that,’ I shouted.
“The boys ran away. I thought I’d really done something, all proud of myself for sticking up for him. But Chris stood there, shaking his head, tears in his eyes. He was angry. With me. ‘I’m not your boyfriend,’ he said and stomped away, leaving me there with bloody knuckles.”
“Wow,” Dalton said. “Then what happened?”
I stared at him, into those eyes. Is that what was happening now? Did I completely misread Dalton’s intentions? Was he just trying to be a kind partner and then I went and kissed him? I turned away. What had I been thinking?
“What happened next?” he nudged.
“My dad lectured me on why he’d gotten me all those Kuntaw lessons in the first place. You know, the Filipino martial art I used to knock you on your ass that day we first met.”
“Yeah, I remember,” he said with a frown.
“He said I was supposed to learn discipline. Not beat up the boys.”
Dalton laughed. “Right. Guess you haven’t mastered that one yet.”
I grinned.
“I meant, what happened with Chris.”
“He wouldn’t talk to me. Two months later, my mom got transferred. I thought I’d never see him again. Then, several years later, he walked into my high school classroom in California
. By then he’d come out and everything was clear, as if it had sorted itself out. We’ve been best friends ever since.
“Oh Dalton, what if I never see him—”
“You will.” He squeezed my hand again. “You will. Trust me.”
Dusk had descended on the forest, taking all color, leaving nothing but darkness.
He took off his coat, pulled me tight to him, then wrapped the coat around me like blanket. “You need to stay warm. Right now, the most important thing is that you get a good night’s sleep.”
I melted into his chest. I might have misread that kiss, but I could trust Dalton. With my life.
I awoke with a start. Someone was near.
“It’s me,” Dalton whispered. “It’s all right. It’s just me.”
I glanced around. Daylight had filled the forest once again. “What happened? I must have—”
“Slept, yes. You needed it.”
“But I, you—” Dalton stood next to a pile of things—things he’d gotten from the plane. “You’ve already gone?” I shook my head in disbelief.
“Did you know you snore?”
My mouth dropped open.
“I’m just kidding.” He winked at me. “I made sure you were safe. You needed the rest. And I got some things.”
There were parts of the airplane seat, straps and cords, a duffle bag, and an old iron bear trap lying in a pile.
“You swam to the plane? You must be freezing.” He’d left his coat wrapped around me. I got to my feet and held it out to him. “Get your coat on.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re naked.” From the waist up, which was enough to distract me. “We don’t need you getting hypothermic too. Now put it on.”
He took it from me, but first held his hand to my forehead and checked my pupils, giving me a nod of approval.
“So what’s your plan? What are you going to do with all this?” I pointed to the trap. “Do you think he’ll just step into that?”
“No. You’re going to have to lure him into it.”
“Lure him? I’m going to lure him? And what about you?”
“Oh, I’ll be dead.”
My head felt a little better, but did he just say—“Come again?”
“There’s only one way he’s coming out of that fortress he’s built. If I’m dead.” He held a seat cushion he’d pulled from the plane up to his chest and knocked on the metal backing. “This ought to do it.”
“You can’t be serious. Your plan is to use a seat cushion for a bullet-proof vest? Are you nuts? He has a high-powered rifle. You can’t be sure that will stop the bullet.”
“You’re right. I can’t be sure. But it’s the best we’ve got.”
“No, no.” I sliced at the air with my hands. “No! We’ll talk to him again. We’ll find another way.”
Dalton put his hands on my shoulders. “Poppy, there is no other way.” His eyes held mine. “You know it.”
“The radio?”
“Disabled. Just as we thought.” He looked at me with those eyes. “He planned this. From the beginning.”
“But you can’t—”
“Listen to me. We have one shot at this. One. Do you understand?”
I spun around and sat down. This couldn’t be happening. Dalton was going to put himself in the line of fire, with a seat cushion for protection. This wasn’t happening. I shook my head. “It’s too risky.”
“I know. Just like in Norway and Costa Rica. Only this time I’m taking the lead.” He gave me a gentle shrug. “It’s my turn, right?”
I shook my head.
“It’s our only chance. We’ve got to take him by surprise. A full-on, frontal attack would be suicide.”
I nodded. I knew he was right. But, what if—?
“We’re going to set the trap. Then go down by the log that crosses the river. It’s the only place to cross and he can see us from the camp. He’ll think we’ve gotten desperate. That’s where he’ll shoot me.”
I was shaking my head again. “No. No.”
“As soon as he sees me fall, he’ll come out. He’ll want to verify the kill.”
“What if you really get shot? What if he shoots you in the head?”
“He won’t. SEALs are trained to take a chest shot.”
“But you said he wasn’t really a SEAL. What if—?”
“You don’t worry about me. Think only of taking care of yourself. Do you understand? And stick to the plan. Like the SEALs, live and die by the plan.”
“Exactly!” I shook my head. “I can’t believe this is our plan.”
“When you get to the trap, don’t hesitate, don’t look at it, run over it, as fast as you can. Go way beyond it. If you hesitate, if you check, you’ll give me away.”
“What do you mean?” He’d lost me.
He picked up the trap. “It’s broken. I’m going to have to trip it. That means you’ve got to keep him busy until I can circle back around and get into position.”
“Are you kidding?”
His stare was heavy.
“What if he doesn’t step into it? How will—?”
“We are going to put it in a place where he’ll have to step in it. You’ll step in it. He’ll follow.”
“How do you know he’s not going to just shoot me?”
Dalton’s eyes turned dark. He looked away. “I don’t.”
My stomach dropped. “This is crazy.”
“It’s a good plan.” A beat. “Considering the circumstances.”
I ran my fingers through my hair, tried to make my brain settle down and think.
Dalton stared at his hands. “He wants to hunt you. I feel it. In my bones. He’s going to track you.”
“What if you’re right and he shoots? What if you actually get shot? What if he kills you? Then what happens?”
Dalton stood, picked up the trap. “Then let’s hope I’m wrong about him.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Dalton chose a muddy spot in a tiny stream to hide the trap. He tied a cord to the broken lever that tripped it and ran it into the tall grass on the edge, then crawled on his belly into the weeds. “Can you see me?”
“No. Not really.”
“Is that a no or a not really?”
“It’s good. He’ll be running right? It’s good.”
Dalton crawled back out. “All right, then. It’s showtime.” He held the seat cushion to his chest and had me help him strap it tight, then the other on his back. He’d stuffed a pair of pants he’d found in the plane with pine needles. “This is going to work,” he said. “He’ll think I’m floating face down. You’ll keep him busy for at least an hour. Time for me to get out of the water without being seen, then back here and hidden. You can do that, right?”
“I don’t know.” I shook my head again. I couldn’t let him go out there with only a seat cushion for protection. This was crazy.
“We’ve been over this.” His eyes locked on me. “Promise me.”
I couldn’t.
“Listen to me. This will only work if we’re both all in, one hundred percent. And it will work. You just have to trust me.”
What could I say? What could I do? He was right. We were out of options. I nodded. “I promise.”
He gave me a smile. “It will be all be over soon.”
“I know, I—” That’s what I was afraid of. “Dalton, I…this whole thing…and you and me…I can’t go without knowing…” I looked into his eyes and the words fell away.
With a gentle smile, he said, “Knowing what?”
“I need to know…” Damn. My cheeks were on fire. You kissed me and then— He was staring, waiting. “Your first name.” Oh geez. I’m a total dope.
“That’s what you want?” he said with a hint of disappointment. He shook his head to blow it off.
“I just thought, you know, since we’ve been working together, and then all this, that we’d, well, you know, you’re my partner and I don’t even know your name, so I thought that, you kno
w, in case everything—”
He grinned. “You’re babbling.”
“What?” I drew back, thrown off. “I don’t babble.”
His eyebrows went up.
“It’s just that I don’t understand. You don’t want me to know because you’re embarrassed?”
“No, that’s not it. I just—” He gave me a resigned grin. “It’s Garrett.”
I smiled. “Garrett. That’s a fine name.”
He rolled his eyes and turned away.
“What? I mean it. Really. What’s wrong with Garrett?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. Except when you were named after your mom’s favorite movie character and your mom was—well, how lame is that?”
Obviously there was a lot more to it, but now wasn’t the time. “I’m still going to call you Dalton because—”
“Yes,”—he nodded—“yes, you are.”
Our eyes locked in an uncomfortable moment. “That is, if I still have a job,” I managed. “And, you know.”
“Don’t worry about that now,” he finally said. “Focus on our mission here. On the plan. Okay?”
I nodded. Staying alive. I could focus on that.
He smiled. “Okay, let’s get going.”
“Hold on,” I said. “I need one more moment.” I drew in a deep breath.
He took hold of my hand, pulled me closer to him, and looked into my eyes. “It’s all right,” he whispered. “It will be all right.”
I wrapped my arms around him and didn’t want to let go.
“It’s a good plan,” he murmured in my ear.
Ak-ak-ak rattled behind me.
I pushed away from him with a start. Spun around. A raven. It was a raven.
My chest heaved, trying to get my breath to return. I came back around to Dalton. Our eyes met for a brief moment then he continued scanning. His muscles pulled tight, on full alert.
“It was just a bird,” I said.
He nodded. “Still,” he said. “We should get moving.”
I drew in a breath, then another, trying to get my racing heart to settle. “Yeah.”
We moved along the ridge, keeping at a low crouch, until we came within about a hundred yards of the log bridge. From there, we let ourselves be seen, a head up here, a push through the branches there, as though we were trying our best to stay hidden. Dalton stayed clear. Mainly I was the one exposing myself, betting that Dalton was right and Rocky wouldn’t shoot me. Shoot to kill anyway.
Poppy McVie Mysteries: Books 1-3 (The Poppy McVie Box Set Series) Page 49