Houdini unbinds me before he turns to leave, using a key to open the sliding door. I hold my breath as he jumps down and rolls the door closed again.
For the second merciful time, he doesn’t notice that the lock fails to fully engage.
I have to wonder why he’s changed things up so drastically. Serial killers usually keep the same MO. I’ve watched my share of true crime shows.
Though, would Houdini be considered a serial killer?
Maybe he ran out of escapes? Somehow, I don’t think that’s it either.
Shit. I probably led him right to me by leaving the compound. If it’s one thing he’s not, it’s stupid. He used that back road to access the Lords’ property. Of course he’d keep eyes on it. What had I been thinking?
God, my head had been so messed up. I messed everything up.
My back burns and the stinging is almost unbearable. I lay on my belly and twist my neck to look over my shoulder. Every place my pulse pounds in my back there’s a welt or laceration or lash mark.
Nothing open or oozing; he wouldn’t want to inflict enough damage to kill me until he’s ready for me to die.
It’ll take a while for me to be able to move. Which is fine. I need to wait a while to make sure he’s good and gone before I attempt to open that door. Time to compartmentalize the pain. Shove it back to a place where I can feel it, but let it go. So I lay here with thoughts of sunshine and fresh air and coffee filtering through my mind. And Gage. It always comes back to Gage. I feel his love surrounding me, even with him off somewhere else. His love is always with me. As it always has been.
When I feel like I can move unhindered enough to make a legitimate escape and enough time has passed that Houdini won’t be outside the door waiting for me, I suck in a breath, let it out slowly, and inch the door open a crack. Waiting, just to be safe. Then I inch it open another crack. And another. And another, until I open it wide enough to slip through by sitting down and scooching my bottom to the edge of the railcar and dropping feet first down to the pebbly dirt next to the track. Before sliding the door shut, I remove the rivet and push the door so the lock engages.
Maybe I’m stupid, but I feel like it gives me that extra bit of escape time.
He likes to come for his visits at twilight, though I can’t be sure if it’s morning or evening twilight. Only that it’s that space of time between day and night. What I do know is that I’ve waited enough time that it’s daylight out. I haven’t seen the sun in so many days. It shines warm against my clammy skin.
Houdini honestly dumped me in a railroad car in the middle of nowhere. Facing away from the car, the canyon to my right would be impossible to walk down. With the treacherous flat drop-off, repelling seems the only feasible way to get to the bottom. There is a bridge, but it shows signs of severe burning with more than half fallen away.
Out here, so far in the sticks, my guess would be lightning strike? There’s a sign blocking the track to the front of the car. No wonder no one has come upon me. This far out in the middle of nowhere, and the bridge gone, the tracks must have been rerouted well far back. With my bearings so messed up, telling north from south or east from west feels hopeless. But my gut tells me the canyon faces west. Which doesn’t matter current, as there’s only one possible way out, anyway.
Thus I begin the long trek east keeping to the tracks. The wooden planks feel rickety beneath my bare feet and it’s a bit awkward to find a good pace with each one separated maybe a foot apart from the next. I don’t know; measurements have never been my strongest suit. But with all the thick brush and mountain drops, it’s also the fastest way back to civilization that I can think of.
Fast? Ha!
What had I been thinking? Because it feels like I’ve been going for hours.
My body, protesting. Not another step, it shouts at me. To which I’ve taken to verbally reminding myself, “You don’t want to die.”
And it’s true, I don’t want to die, but after being exposed to the elements for so long, the once warm caresses from the sun now beat down on me, hitting dangerously stifling levels, causing perspiration to drip down my nose and brow, blurring my vision. As I wipe at my eyes, I see I’ve got pit stains and I never get pit stains.
I’m a hot mess. Hot as in temperature. Still, I’m alive and free for the time being. So I continue to walk and walk, listening for animals along the way. The last thing I need is to have a run in with a hungry wolf or bobcat. Well, that would be the second to the last. The last, last thing would be running into Houdini again.
With only one clear route to get to me, I know I have to move faster and get off the track. No kidding, if I survive this, I’m dropping down to one knee and asking Gage to marry me. Then should he accept, we’re eloping. No more wasting time. He and I have a future to live and it’s time to start living it.
My eyes prickle with tears. Stupid emotions. I’ve picked up several slivers in the pads of my feet, which sting like a mother. Thankfully, the landscape changes from stones and boulders scattered about between plunging, craggy cliffsides, to an abundance of trees blocking the heat and providing shade. Moss grows predominately on the north side of trees, I think. If that’s true, with the thick, brightly green vegetation coating the bark on most of the surrounding trunks, then I must be traveling east.
Unfortunately, with the denseness of the forest, along the dirt mounding around the tracks, there’re trails of scat. From what kind of animal, I don’t know. I’m not an animal poo expert. Just… I know it can’t be safe. Big animals eat little animals. So even if it comes from little animals, there have to be the big clawed, bigger-toothed ones waiting to feast.
I’m so tired and ache all over. My blood sugar begins to drop along with my adrenaline surge from escaping. Nary a bite of food to eat since he kidnapped me and no water to drink—it’s no wonder I begin to feel light-headed. And even though the sun can’t penetrate the thick canopy of cover the trees provide, I continue to sweat.
No. People push through this kind of thing all the time. You can compartmentalize this too, Liv. Perseverance. I’m sure I’ve already traveled miles, it’s just, I have no idea how many more I have to go to find people. A town preferably. Wouldn’t it be my luck to escape Houdini only to find myself in some sort of Deliverance situation? That movie made me glad I lived in a city the first time I saw it on TV as a little kid.
Right. Leaning with a hand against a tree to prop me up, I close my eyes and breathe. In through my nose and out through my mouth to clear my head. Make me less woozy. In and out. In and out.
Mid-inhale, I stop altogether when I hear a sound I will never the rest of my life forget. In the city it could be mistaken for a car backfiring. But not out here. Out here, that’s the defining pop of not-too-distant gunfire.
I think I might be screwed.
16.
Gage
Before I get too far, a hand wraps around my shoulder to slow me. At first I think it’s to stop me, and I struggle, slapping it, ready to punch out the brother it belongs to. Even if it’s Duke.
“Whoa.” Hero’s voice hits my ears. “Not trying to stop you. Just hold up.”
He’s been a huge help thus far, so I stop and wait to hear what he’s got to say, though he better make it fast.
“Normally, Blood would be right, going east would make the most sense. But the way he’s hurting her, he’d need privacy. My gut says we go west.”
The other brothers reach us. Before any one of them can speak, I go first. “I’m not going back tonight. Go if you have to.”
“Normally, I wouldn’t do this,” Duke says, peak authority. So no argument. “Boss and Hero, go west with Chaos. The rest, head east with me. We’re finding her.”
Since we can’t afford to waste daylight, I don’t take too much time with goodbyes.
She’s out here, I feel it. We’re getting Liv back.
The phone signal here at the clearing is pretty strong and stays strong even as we hit the tracks.
Dammit, I almost wish it wasn’t. Boss’s phone pings with another text and I know, just know, it’s gonna be another fucking video.
My gut churns while we wait for him to open it. Nothing, nothing prepares me for what I see. Him, that sick fuck Houdini, rubbing her ass. The fucking cattle prod. Her blood-curdling cries. Then holy goddamn, he whips her. My Liv. I feel so useless. Traipsing around the wilderness while she’s getting the shit beat out of her. I want to hit something. Hard and repeatedly. But that won’t do her any good. No. What I got to do is find her. Rescue her.
The video keeps playing and he keeps right on brutalizing my woman, switching between the two, never giving her a break. Her screams turn to shrieks, until they stop altogether. Her tears continue to fall but when she opens her mouth, there’s no sound. He literally beat the voice out of Liv. I can’t take it. “For God’s sake, turn it off.”
On a nod of his head, Boss does as I ask.
“Fuuuck,” I scream at the sky, wiping my hands over my face and take off at a full run, not looking back at my brothers. I feel them at my back. And they don’t bother to talk to me either, though I hear them whispering between each other.
The heel of my boot gets caught on the wooden slats of the rail several times. This is bullshit.
Rocks and woods spread out ahead as far as the eye can see. Thick tree trunks line the edge; they look like a line of security guards holding back the cacophony of wildlife trying to push forward. As with every protest rally or rock concert, someone breaks through the line. This fucking line breaker snarls at us, crouched low, baring and gnashing his teeth. His thick muddy-brown fur bristles, especially around his neck and shoulders, making him appear twice as large.
The three of us stop short about twenty feet back. I scan the area for others, and I suppose they could be hiding in the tree line waiting to pounce. By all appearances, he’s alone.
A lone wolf.
There’s a crazed hunger in the beast’s eyes. He’s ready to eat. I hate the thought of killing it. He’s just following natural instinct.
But another beast roams these woods, an abomination who goes against the laws of the natural world. And he’s got my Liv. My woman.
The first shot’s my warning. Go now, wolfie—get the fuck out. Instead of taking the opening, he lunges, ready to rip us apart. The second shot, the one from Boss’s gun, hits below the ear. There’s a split-second whimper and the thing drops dead. Blood leaking from the head, dripping over the tracks to stain the gray pebbles below it in red.
It’s risky for us to discharge our weapons. We can only hope hunters pass through the area enough that a couple rogue shots won’t tip anyone off to our presence.
Now we have to move faster. The danger level increased. We’re at DEFCON 2.
“Keep your eyes open,” I order. Though it’s more for something to distract myself. These men know their shit.
God knows how many hours we follow the tracks. The woods get thicker, denser. Blocking out the light from above, putting us at even greater risk of meeting something we don’t want to meet.
The railroad finally opens into another patch of grassland. We’d been without cell service for far too long, hours. Anything could’ve happened in that time. And shit—I prepare for the worst when Boss’s phone pings with more texts. Can’t be Houdini; it’s too soon.
My body goes tight, I grit my teeth. Waiting. Thank fuck he understands me and shakes his head once, then swipes to read them.
“Motherfucker,” Boss grumbles.
“What?” I ask. Hero steps closer to wrangle him if need be. Brave kid. Most men don’t want to deal with Boss when he’s lost his shit.
Boss punches the contact and puts the phone to ear. Sneak’s voice come out loud enough to hear clearly. “Boss, brother. Where are you?”
“In the middle of fuckin’ nowhere. Where’s my wife?”
“She was here, man, when I opened the video he sent. Sorry, I had no idea. She had to have been in the kitchen.”
“I’ll repeat, where is my fuckin’ wife?” We can all hear his panic rising.
“They left the kids with Hannah.”
“They?” A vein bulges in my friend’s neck and I’m afraid he’s on the verge of having an aneurism.
“Caity.” Sneak finishes. “She and Caity. I guess they left a note. Elise said she wasn’t gonna let Liv die for her.”
“What the fuck is that woman thinkin’?”
I know what she was thinking. Liv’s her friend, and these women are Brimstone through and through. Even if they don’t always make the smartest decisions, they sure as hell show their bravery and loyalty at every turn.
“Go,” I tell him.
Boss hangs up on Sneak, then glares at me. “What?”
“Go. You gotta get back. Make sure she doesn’t get herself caught again.”
“He’s right,” Hero says, but then adds, “I hate saying this—you know what Elise means to me. She’s my friend, but, brother, maybe we can use her to lure him out. It sucks, but this might be our chance to take him out.”
Boss looks torn.
I make the executive decision. “Both of you—go. Plan. I’m getting Liv. You get Houdini.”
Nothing more to say, I don’t bother to stick around and take off in a fast walk along the tracks, sidestepping the large animal blocking the rails.
For a moment, there’s no movement behind me, then the sound of boots clapping against wood moving away.
It shits me, those stupid women leaving the safety of the compound, but if we can use them to draw out the sick fuck, at least that’s something in this mess.
My ears as well as my eyes stay alert, looking for movement, listening for animals.
A twig snap.
I whip my head around and squint, searching the spray of dense trees. I’m sure there’d been a twig snap.
Then I hear it, the soft sound of breathing. Something’s stalking me. From behind one of those trees.
Gun still at the ready—since the wolf I’d decided not to take any chances—I leave the track, cautiously stepping onto the stones. A couple tumble against each other. Shit. Alert the beast that you’re hunting it, why don’t you?
Another twig snap, then a quiet, “Crap.” That’s no animal.
Bingo. I zero in on the tree in question and step closer, rounding the trunk, gun aimed. “Stop,” I order. She gasps and jumps.
Jesus, I’d know that hair anywhere. Know that woman’s body, know her heart and soul.
Slowly, she turns around. “Gage, ohmygod, Gage. You came for me.” Tears stream down her beautiful face, streaking over her cheeks and lips. Fucking gorgeous lips I need to kiss right now, to prove she’s here, alive.”
“Liv, fuck, Liv.” I pull her to me, crushing my mouth to hers, tasting her salty tears, feeling their wetness against my skin. My Liv.
She forces my hands to roam her body, wanting me to touch her everywhere, probably to prove I’m real, too. But damn, she feels like she’s dropped weight. Weight she didn’t have to lose.
Still, it’s Liv… in my arms.
Liv in my fucking arms.
God, I love her.
“What’re you doing stopped here?” I ask. “Not that I’m complaining, baby.”
“I got dizzy. Blood sugar drop, I think.”
“Right. Climb on my back. We’ll go piggyback style until I find you food.”
“No. It’ll be too hard for you to walk with me on your back.”
We’re in the woods; somehow she escaped her capture and throughout all that, we found each other. The chances of that happening are astronomical and she wants to fight with me about helping her?
Christ. I sigh, not willing to argue. “Please, Liv, get on my back.”
She relents. Her hold shifts around to the back of my neck, her hands rest on my collarbone. After taking a moment to really breathe her in, to feel her body alive and next to mine, I gently grab one of her thighs as she hefts herself up and locks her legs a
round my waist to rest her ankles against my dick.
My thoughts switch from loving to carnal just that quick. I blow out a long, strangled breath because what are my choices? I didn’t think this one through. Liv’s body pressed against mine, rubbing on me. Give me strength.
If she’s already sick, she won’t last the trek down the mountain. Next order of business, we need to find her some water and something to eat. I look around, adjusting Liv a little more securely on my back. Her hold tightens. I know we have to get off this wooded crest. But I don’t know what to do. Stick to the tracks knowing that he might be able to find us, or go off into the woods to face animals and god knows what.
To get to her, he’ll have to follow the tracks like we did unless there’s a trail closer to where he’d stashed her.
Decision made, we leave the easy path of the tracks. It might take us longer, but I have to think it’s the safest route. Before we leave the rails, I shoot off a text to Blood.
Got her.
Don’t know if it’ll reach him or not. I’ll try again the next signal area.
As the day wears on, the temp drops from the thickness of the forest and the light dipping toward blackness. She’d sweated so much that even my body heat isn’t enough to keep her warm. Liv shivers uncontrollably. If we don’t find some food and shelter soon, I’m going to lose her. For good. I can’t lose her.
“Hang on, baby. Please hang on,” I whisper and turn my head to peck her cheek resting on my shoulder.
I grit my teeth and push on faster, pissed off at the universe for putting us in this situation. It gets harder to see. The thoughts in my head, I keep those to myself not wanting to scare Liv. But dammit.
And then, a boon from the universe, an apology for all the shit we’ve gone through, we stumble on an abandoned lookout, probably for baiting deer. A fucking abandoned lookout.
Hunters usually keep supplies in lookouts. “Hold tight, Liv. We’re climbing.” I turn my head to peck her cheek again.
She turns to me, tilts her head up, then turns her head back to me. “No, Gage, it’s too high. You’ll hurt yourself. I’m too heavy.”
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (Brimstone Lords MC 3) Page 14