by K. J. Dahlen
“And I suppose the person who gave it to you is long gone huh?” Travis nodded as he shifted his position and stepped to his left.
Eve watched with terrified eyes as the shadows behind Travis moved as well. It was too dark to see who or what was there but definitely, there was movement. Movement in the direction of the pool of light whereby all she saw was the barrel of a gun pointed right at him. She tried to scream but she found she couldn’t make any sound at all.
“Yeah, he’s gone. I sent him somewhere safe until we get this sorted out,” Ian told Travis.
Travis grunted. “Until we get what sorted out? The fact that someone has been telling tales out of school? The fact that you brought the package to me in the first place tells me something more than what you’re actually saying. But then you opened the package as well. In these matters, that’s a bad way to do things. Tell me something, do you open other people’s mail as well? Cuz I gotta tell you that’s against the law and you could go to prison for doing that shit.”
Ian just glared at the man. “I wanted to see for myself what was in there. When Nick told me what you had him doing, I couldn’t believe it. You, of all people.”
“That’s tampering with evidence. How do I know you didn’t put the drugs in the box to try and trap me? How do I know you aren’t an undercover DEA agent making me the target of a sting? How do I know if you’re working alone in the area or if you have help?”
Travis seemed to know quite a bit about him. Almost as much as he knew about Travis. That’s when he saw Travis reaching for the gun on his hip. As if in slow motion, Ian turned to run. Travis fired. Ian stopped suddenly and dropped to his knees, then he dropped face first on the ground.
Travis holstered his weapon. He walked over to where Ian lay. He squatted on his heels, reaching out to turn him over, making sure he was dead. Travis spoke inaudibly.
Another voice replied from the shadows, “We have four days until the shipment comes in. We can’t afford not to get this shipment, it’s the biggest one yet, and all our contacts are waiting for our product. We have to find and tie up all the loose ends before we can move forward. We have to find out if Ian was working with anyone else. We can’t afford any fuckups this late in the game. We need answers and we need them now.”
Travis squinted looking up and into the shadows. “I know what we have to do. We have to find that little bastard Nick to shut his mouth up for good.”
The man in the shadows leaned forward just far enough that she could barely make out his face. “I will not go to prison for your screw up. Fix this! Fix it now, or I’ll kill you myself.” He backed away talking to someone else but she couldn’t hear what he said.
Eve sat up in bed and screamed. She felt strong arms about her. Someone whispered that everything would be all right. She kept crying, sobbing Ian’s name over and over.
Chapter Six
Chase held her until she stopped crying. He’d been asleep on the sofa when her nightmare began. Her restless tossing and turning awakened him. She’d talked through the entire event. She had relived her helpless role as witness to the murder of her friend.
Eve finally calmed down enough to see by the faint light of the fire. She remembered she was on Chase’s ranch hiding from the police. She remembered they’d had to leave his home and come here to escape. Here was the single roomed cabin so far from roads that she knew she was safe. At least she was safe for the moment. Chase’s arms were around her. She pushed herself away a little to be able to see Chase’s face. She saw genuine concern there and something else. “What did you overhear? What did I say?” she finally asked.
“Everything you saw happen the night your friend died. Was Nick the person who gave Ian the package?”
Eve nodded. “Ian was working with him. He’s one of the kids from the center.” She frowned and added, “At least, I think that’s who he is?”
“Do you know where he is now?”
Eve shrugged her shoulders, seeming to release a knot of tension. “I think I might.”
“Who is the man in the shadows?” Chase asked.
Eve dropped her head. “I don’t remember if I ever saw his face clearly. He leaned forward into the light under the streetlamp to talk to Travis but his face was still shadowed and from what I remember, it was distorted too, but I was too far away to see it clearly. He’s the guy who wears the nauseating aftershave.”
She hadn’t been able to add anything to her earlier recollection of last night.
He focused on her face. “Are you all right?”
“So much has happened in the last few days. I haven’t been sleeping the best, as you know. I feel as if I’m running on nothing but adrenalin and I’m due to start crashing at any moment.”
“Ok, I’ll be on the couch if you need anything.”
When he moved to rise and leave the bed, his arms moving to his side, colder air found her as the space between them widened. Eve panicked. “Please can you stay here with me? I don’t know if I can handle being alone right now. I need you right now. Can’t you stay with me?”
~ * ~
Chase hesitated. He didn’t really think staying here with her was such a good idea but he laid down on the bed and pulled her back into his arms. Something stirred inside him and as much as he tried to quash what was happening, he knew the effort was futile. From the moment he undressed her at the ranch, he’d wanted her. The feelings he had were only getting stronger and he knew he couldn’t do anything about it. He hoped she wouldn’t realize what was happening.
Eve nestled her head on his shoulder.
He felt amazed at the heat radiating from her body. He heard the steady beat of her heart as it pounded in her chest. He breathed in her natural scent. He could feel his body harden and prayed she wouldn’t notice.
Chase felt a change come over her. She felt right in his arms and he wondered what it meant. He closed his eyes after a long while and he too, drifted to sleep.
Sometime later, Chase was roused by a noise. At first, it was too faint to detect but the longer he heard it the louder and more annoying the noise became. It grew closer then it faded again and again. Chase propped himself up in bed on one elbow. He listened for the annoying sound. It reminded him of the buzz of a dragonfly in the summer time, but it wasn’t summertime now.
He shook Eve, “Do you hear that? Listen.”
~*~
Eve cocked her head and listened. At first, she didn’t seem hear anything but then glanced at Chase. “That sounds like a snowmobile.”
“Damn!”
“Do you think it’s could be Grayson looking for us?” Eve asked.
“It might be. He knows I’m not at the ranch. He’d figure I couldn’t be very far away. If he checked, he would find my truck in the barn, and he knows I like to ride horses when I’m home.” Chase stood up and walked over to the windows. “Trainer might not know about this cabin, but it won’t take him long to find it. They’ll spot it as soon as the sun comes up.”
Eve sat up in bed. “What can we do?”
Chase glanced over at her from the windows. “We’ll have to keep watch. If they come too close, we’ll have to be able to move at a moment’s notice.”
“How are we going to do that?” Eve asked.
“We’ll have to go on Beau. He’s the only transportation we have at the moment. On a horse, we can go places a snowmobile can’t.”
Eve stood up and joined him at the windows. “What about the fire? Can they see the smoke? What have you got in mind?”
Chase walked over to the cabinet and handed the black pouch to her. “You keep watch while I go saddle Beau. That way, we can get out before they get here if we see them coming. If they don’t find us before dawn, we’ll start out as soon as the sun comes up.”
Eve took her weapon out of the pouch, loading it before Chase walked outside to saddle his horse. She frowned when she realized she knew exactly how to load the weapon. No light shone inside the cabin to give away their position as
the fire Chase had earlier in the evening was now just a mass of glowing embers. She was surrounded by mostly darkness. For once in her lifetime, the darkness around her gave her some comfort instead of hiding the shadows of evil. For some reason that thought popped into her head. Where it came from, she had no idea. How could she be so certain the darkness always hid the worst evil of mankind? Why would she think like that? Staring out into the darkness, she was comforted knowing there were no eyes staring back at her, at least not yet.
~*~
Each time Chase caught the whine of the snowmobiles his heart sped, but the lights he saw in the distance never shown toward the cabin. He could see the zig zag pattern they were running. He’d seen it run a million times in the military and he knew the police force used it as well when they were looking for someone. Chase knew they were searching for them and while they hadn’t found them yet, the sounds kept getting closer and closer and he knew it wouldn’t take them long to finally see the small cabin.
Chase finished saddling Beau and came back to help Eve keep watch.
All too soon, the sun was breaking over the eastern horizon, Chase didn’t want to run, but he had no choice. He’d rather stand his ground and fight but he also knew if the Trainer brothers were the ones on the snowmobiles they would shoot first and ask questions never. He knew they wouldn’t even worry about burying their bodies, they would just leave them where they fell. After all the wolves have to eat too.
He needed to find another place they could be safe for a little while. He wanted to go back in time and dig a little deeper into Eve’s memories of the murder. He knew there was more to her story than what she was telling him and he felt he had the right to know what he might be dying for. Besides, in that brief unguarded moment when he’d held her in his arms and she looked into his eyes he thought he’d seen a flash of desire and something else. He glanced over at Eve.
She stood still while looking back at him, her eyes were guarded now, and so the moment was lost.
Chase could see the storm had completely blown over and the sky was clear for now anyway. In the distance, he could also see more storm clouds on the horizon. He didn’t know what the day would bring, but he knew they couldn’t wait any longer to get away from the cabin. He opened the cupboard that housed the ham radio to call his foreman, Barry. He needed to know what was waiting for them at home. The broadcast was brief, and when he signed off Chase glanced over at Eve. “Everything is quiet at the ranch but Barry doesn’t trust it will stay that way.”
“What does that mean? What exactly doesn’t he trust?”
“He knows the Trainers are close by. He’s found tracks near the cattle pens, but nothing else is out of place. He saw snowmobile tracks all over the fresh snow on his way in this morning. He said he can almost feel their eyes watching his every move, so he knows even if he can’t spot them, they are there watching him.” Chase stood up and grabbed his jacket. “We should get out of here now before the snowmobiles circle back.”
~ * ~
Eve looked around the cabin. She was going to miss it. She didn’t know why, she’d never been one for the outdoors scene, but she knew she would miss the hush as night fell, the warmth of the stove, the physical nearness of Chase. She would always remember this place for what could have been. She could’ve have tasted heaven here in his arms. She needed to stop thinking about that or they would never leave. She walked over to the big window to look at the clear sky and the fresh layer of snow. She was glad the storm was finally past.
Chase caught her eye as he closed the door to the cabinet. He seemed upset.
“What’s bothering you?” Eve asked.
“I told Barry to go home to stay until he hears from me. I don’t want him caught in the crossfire. Damn it.” He swore as he shrugged into his jacket. “They must want you really bad. Grayson wouldn’t be this bold otherwise. He’s acting almost reckless and that’s never a good sign.”
“That’s not good,” Eve thought out loud.
“What else did you see that night?”
Eve pressed her hands to her head, rubbing her temples obviously searching for the smallest item. “I’ve told you everything I can remember.”
“There has to be something else.” Chase began to pace. “Grayson wouldn’t push this hard if there weren’t something more damning.”
Eve shrugged. “I honestly can’t remember anything else. I never saw the face of the man in the shadows clearly and I can’t remember what he told Travis before I ran.”
“There has to be something more.” Chase placed a heavy hand on her left shoulder, giving it a shake. “You have to think. Can you remember anything else from that night?”
“No I can’t.” Eve struggled from his grasp. “Don’t you think I would have told you already if there were? I don’t know why Grayson wants me dead. Or what happened after Travis shot Ian. I just don’t know.”
“I’m sorry.” Chase ran his hand through his hair. “You must know this is hard on me as well as you.”
Rubbing her upper arms, she kept trying to keep the shiver of absolute fear from snaking up her spine. “What’s the nearest town around here? I really need to make a phone call.”
“Who are you going to call? I thought you couldn’t remember anything else? Chase frowned.
Eve felt so frustrated. “I don’t know. All of a sudden, a phone number flashed inside my brain and I had an urgency to call it. Oh god, what am I thinking?”
“Well, there’s a phone at the Four Corners. That’s a bar at the corners where I-90 crosses Interstate 61. It’s not that far from here. You could place the call and see who answers the phone. Maybe if you heard a voice on the other end, you would remember more. It could be the trigger your need to unlock what you’ve forgotten.”
“And if it doesn’t? What if whomever I call is the man in the shadows who wants me dead? Then what? I will have put not only my life on the line but yours as well.” She shook her head. “I’m not sure I want to do that, at least not until I remember more about what happened in that alley. And I know time is running out.”
Chase shrugged. “Then I guess we find another place to hole up in and wait it out.”
Eve nodded. “Do you know of another place we could go? Is there another cabin on the property hidden away somewhere? Somewhere where they can’t find us?”
Chase shook his head and then halted. “There might just be another place.”
“Well let’s go then. They won’t stop until they do find us. They can’t afford to let a witness live.”
Chase made sure the fire from the night before was out and a few minutes later, they were on their way. He steered his horse away from the cabin. They had to go through the trees and when they paused for a moment, they were close to the tree line. They could see the highway and the bar in the distance. While they were so close to civilization they were still hidden from prying eyes.
Chase turned his horse away from the highway and followed the outer line of trees until he came to a deep ravine. He pointed the horse into the ravine and when they reached the bottom, he turned north.
They followed the path until he came to a T and they had a choice to make.
Eve wondered…Would he go left or right? Left would take them back to the ranch, while the right path would take them to a place he knew they would be safe for a day or two.
He took the right passage. That led them, after about twenty minutes to the base of a hill. They’d been battling a raging wind since shortly after they left the cabin but it had been behind them until they began to climb the hill, then the wind blew directly in their faces.
It was cold and blustery and when Eve glanced back over her shoulder, she could see the horse’s tracks filling in with the blowing snow. She shivered in her jacket as the snow found its way down her neck. She huddled closer to Chase as if he could block most of the wind with his very bulk and somehow keep her warm.
When they began climbing the hill, she almost lost her seat. She wasn
’t used to the motions that went with riding and she was sitting too stiff on the back of the horse. The upward motion of the horse pulled her off balance and she had to grab Chase’s waist and just hold on until they got to the top.
Once they reached the rise, Chase again turned his horse and went west. But not for long. A few minutes later, they reached an outcrop of overhanging rocks. Huge stones jutted out from above creating almost a barrier of shelter.
Chase steered Beau close to the formation and then they somehow slipped into the rocks themselves. When they stopped a few minutes later, they were in a cavern of sorts. They rode Beau deeper in the caverns until they reached a larger room. Chase slipped from the Beau’s back he reached up and helped her down.
Eve’s legs were a bit unsteady and she clung to him for a moment, all the while looking around her in awe. “What is this place? Where are we?”
Chase looked around the cavern and grinned. “Do you like it? Isn’t it great? I found this place when I was a kid visiting my grandpa. It’s almost like we’re inside the very rocks themselves.”
“Yeah, ok but where are we?” she asked.
“Well, the way my grandpa explained it to me, years and years ago long before this state even was a state, the Ojibwa Indians lived in this area. They used places like this to hide their families from their enemies when they had to go to war. This cavern goes way back deep into the hills themselves. When I first found this place there were artifacts galore, almost as if they had just left. My grandpa told me then no one else had found this place before I did.” Then Chase gazed around. “I don’t come here very often anymore but I’m betting no one else has either. We should be safe here.”
“Can we build a fire without it being seen?” she asked rubbing her hands up and down her arms. “It’s kind of cold in here.”
He nodded. “I need to take care of Beau first then I’ll get a fire going.”