by Mary Stone
Kylie looked in her rearview mirror at Storm as she drove her bright yellow Jeep like a bat out of hell down the rural streets of Georgia, heading for Linc.
“Okay, yes,” she said in response to Storm’s reproachful glare. “I know this is ignoring a direct order from an army officer. But…I am not in the army, so it’s fine.”
Storm whimpered at her.
“Oh, who are you kidding?” she said to the dog. “You want to go help your man too. What? You want me to go faster? Good.”
She pushed on the gas, and the powerful vehicle surged ahead.
Making light of it and joking with her pups was the only way that Kylie could stop her teeth from chattering. She kept thinking of the way Linc had sounded. He had been remarkably calm, like he’d already been resigned to his fate.
Hell no. She refused to lose him now.
She was not going to just sit at home and sob and wonder what was going on. This was their case, together. She was in it as much as he was. And she refused to let him down.
She checked her GPS on the way, discovering he actually had a shorter drive from Lake Sucession than she had from Asheville, but she hoped that by putting the pedal to the metal, she could get there around the same time. When she reached the welcome sign for Tallulah Gorge State Park, she saw that the gate, which had a sign that said Park Closes at Sunset, was open.
She’d parked at a couple of lots in the place, but wasn’t sure exactly which one Linc had gone to. The first one she came to was the South Rim parking lot, and because that was the easy trail they’d done that first time when they’d been looking for Beez, she decided to take that one.
She grabbed her flashlight and backpack from the floor of the car, and as she was sitting up, her lights illuminated the NO DOGS sign.
That made sense. The park had an awful lot of steps and steep inclines, too difficult for an ordinary dog to manage. Storm would have no problem, but…
She looked back at Vader. Oh, he would howl. And moan. And complain. And she probably could kiss her headrests goodbye.
But it’d be for her own safety. She couldn’t manage two dogs on the trail, that was for sure. “I’m sorry, boy,” she said, giving him a quick hug.
She clipped the leash onto Storm’s collar, led her out of the car, and closed the door, trying to ignore the mournful howl and bark that Vader let out as she led his best friend toward the trailhead.
“Come on, Storm,” she said to the dog, giving her Linc’s hat to sniff. “Find. Let’s go find your master.”
28
Linc Coulter thought he was something special, didn’t he, Jill?
Just like Dina Avery, Mr. Lincoln Coulter lived a façade of a life too.
On the surface, he was strong and brave, but I knew—and you knew most of all—that he was a coward underneath.
He’d been given all kinds of awards, been asked to talk and teach at all kinds of seminars. One of the dumbass newspapers actually called him the best rescue guy in the business, or some shit like that. The way he strutted about with his dirty mutt clearly meant he thought a lot of himself.
And I was here to bring him down a peg or two.
I couldn’t wait. Jill, you’d be proud of me.
All the others had been fine. Too easy, actually. Except Kevin. Well, he was a blip. He should’ve died, but my arrow missed his heart by a millimeter at most. With any luck, he’d die of sepsis one day. But the others? They weren’t even a challenge. Almost too easy.
Sure, the first one had gotten my heart rate pumping. For a moment I had wondered if I could actually do it. Could I fulfill my promise of making them pay? Could I actually step up to the plate and end another person’s life like they did yours?
I still feel a little bad for pushing that lovesick suicide jumper. The bastard had chickened out and was backing away from the cliff’s edge when I gave him a little nudge. In the long run, I think I saved him a lot of pain, though. He was probably grateful that I could do what he could not.
Beez was totally different. When I shoved her, the pure adrenaline and joy that surged through me was unlike anything I’d ever felt before.
And then you know how I felt, Jill?
I felt like God.
Like I could do nothing wrong.
Over the hours and days that followed, I waited for that feeling to wear off. To feel something like guilt take its place.
I should have, I know. I took away a life. I ended that little granny’s life and took away everything she had on this earth. I should’ve felt something. But you know what I felt?
I felt glad. Happy. Like I’d done this world a favor.
And after that? It got easier.
Amy? What was she? A sad girl searching for a purpose. What she really needed was to stop being a little slut and sleeping with her professor to get her grades up. Okay, I didn’t know about that at the time. Hell, I didn’t even know of her existence until she showed up at my station that morning, bright and early, before anyone else had come out.
The shy little thing wanted a permit for the Sliding Rock Trail. I’d flirted with her, told her that she could get hurt on a trail like that, but she’d told me she could handle herself. She told me how she needed to prove to herself that she could do it. She told me everything.
Sleeping with her professor? That was when I knew for sure that she needed to be put out of her misery.
She’d been so easy to follow. So easy to sneak up on. One hit and she was down. Rock meets head, easy as cracking an egg. She didn’t even see it coming, which was probably the only thing I regretted.
I wished I could have told her why she had to die and let her know her death wasn’t in vain. That she was bait being used to take out the cowards of the world.
Kevin? His little snot-nosed kids would probably be better off without him. Maybe it’d help them grow a set of balls. When I’d gone to the hospital to see if I could end him, the way they cried and clung to their mother made me sick, especially the one who looked like he was your age.
Bet you hadn’t cried.
Bet you would have been brave.
I closed my eyes, trying to force the image of your face away. Not the smiling, happy face, but the face that had been devoured by little fish.
Anger replaced sadness as I refocused on my mission.
I wished I could have seen Will’s face as he plunged down that ravine. Even if he hadn’t been part of the failed search party, a man like him needed to be wiped off the face of this earth. He thought he was something special. Treated women like commodities. He was over.
Everything was almost over now.
Leaning against the tree above the South Rim Trail, I cocked my rifle, embracing the sound of metal on metal.
I didn’t believe in god, but I felt like, if one existed, he’d be nodding at me. He’d be saying, Right on, man. Remove those errors from my world. They were my mistake. Thanks for cleaning up for me.
Wasn’t that what Dad always said? Try to make your mark on the world. So here it was, my mark. A big X right over the face of the search and rescue team that’d destroyed my family.
Jesus, I had to piss.
That was the one negative about this place. The sound of constantly rushing water left me with a consistent need to relieve myself. I’d been here three hours already, waiting for prick boy. Prick boy who was such a damn saint, who had to go and pay his last respects to the man-whore over in South Carolina.
Setting the rifle on a branch, I unzipped my cargo pants and did my thing, pissing between the branches, letting it hit the leaves below. I wished my stream was long enough to splatter Dina in the face.
As I palmed my cock, images of Linc Coulter’s hot girlfriend flashed through my mind. She’d probably be devastated by her loss. She’d probably need someone to step in and comfort her. Kiss her. Stroke her. Make love to her.
A scream rent the air, and adrenaline flooded into my system before I realized what it was. A bobcat made a number of sounds, one
of which sounded like a crying child.
Was that you?
Warning me? Scolding me?
I dropped my cock and zipped up, immediately ashamed. You’re right. Not the time for that. I needed to focus.
Taking a deep breath to calm my racing heart, I lifted the rifle again and looked through the scope. Drew a bead on that long, winding staircase cut into the side of the gorge. From here, I’d have a good vantage point for anyone coming down the North Trail. I adjusted the lens, focusing on Dina.
Oh, yeah. I had the last two team members right where I wanted them.
Dina whimpered again. Poor little butch went all girly the second I started to drag her across the suspension bridge. She must have been thinking I was going to toss her off.
What fun would that have been?
I was way more imaginative than that. I had class. Style. It’d probably be totally underappreciated by most assholes, how much work I’d put into this little gig.
But it was a work of art. My magnum opus.
And god, it looked good. I couldn’t stop staring at it. I had her tied up like a Thanksgiving Day turkey, right in the center of the suspension bridge. She couldn’t move a muscle, Jill, because you know I’m a knot expert. Did a couple constrictor knots and double fisherman’s, so she wasn’t ever going to get out of there. In fact, all that moving and sobbing she was doing was only making the knots tighter, making the bridge sway more.
You knew knots too, Jill. I’m sure you would’ve been proud.
Mom and Dad would have been proud too. Dad taught me everything I knew. He was a good guy to have around in a pinch. Well…before you…
He took it hard when you died. Thought he hadn’t taught us enough, which was wrong. Damn wrong. I would’ve told him that if I’d known he was going to put that gun barrel in his mouth. Mom too. But she was too interested in her booze by then.
Well, now it was just me.
And why?
Because there were assholes like these guys. Called themselves rescuers. Knew shit about tackling the wild. Not a damn thing. They had blood all over their hands.
And I knew you’d agree with me, Jill. They deserved to die for what they did.
I leaned back, thinking of my little sister, thinking of how we used to laze inside, tying knots while watching old television shows on TV Land. I felt kind of like I was at the end of my run. You know, when everything’s been done in a show, and there’s nothing else left to do? The only thing that’s left, after that, was cancellation. The end. Goodbye.
What would happen after today, after I finished?
Would I feel something? Or would I go back to feeling how I’d felt since the moment you left?
Empty.
Just…nothing.
That would suck.
I couldn’t think about that right now. I had a job to do.
My hands tightened around the rifle, a gift from my dad on my ninth birthday. He was going to get you one, Jill, when you turned ten, because you were quite a shot too. Did you know that? Of course you didn’t. I hope you know that now.
Across the gorge from here, I saw the first glimpse of a flashlight and smiled.
It was almost over now.
After I was finished with these two, I’d run. Or not. Maybe I’d just take a dive and say goodbye world.
Cancel myself.
See you in the reruns.
29
Linc slowly wound his way down the trail, using the meager flashlight and holding his gun in his hand. Despite the cool breeze, sweat streamed from his temples, and his chest tightened more with every step he took deeper into the gorge.
When he reached the stairs, he stopped. He could hear the falls in the distance. Overhead, an owl hooted.
He scanned the darkness around him, looking for unnatural shapes and shadows among the trees. Quietly, he listened, trying to pick out sounds from the rushing water and the breeze rustling the leaves. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Still, he had the distinct sensation that he was being watched, and under the circumstances, he knew the instinct was correct.
At that moment, he thought of Kylie and how she’d climbed down those steps so carefully. That’d been broad daylight. If she were out here on this night, she’d never make it down to the gorge. There was no way. He pictured her, lying in bed, thinking of him, and hoped that was where she was.
God, he wanted to be there too. In her arms. He loved the outdoors. Lived for it.
But he’d come to live for her more.
That fact had never been clearer to him than at that very moment. As it occurred to him, a chill snaked its way up his spine. He stiffened his back and shook it loose.
From here, the moonlight was nearly enough, so he cut the flashlight and shoved it into the pocket of his pants. Then he began to pick down the steps, one by one, clutching the handle of his pistol in both hands.
As he stepped down farther, he began to hear a different sound.
A human sound. The sound of someone sobbing.
Dina.
He cleared the tree branches, and the suspension bridge came into view. There, in the center of the long bridge, he saw Dina’s shape, and the moonlight illuminating her spiked platinum hair. She let out a muffled cry, and he made out a dark line cutting into her mouth. It had to be a gag.
Squinting, he saw the ties binding her to the ropes of the narrow bridge, like a sacrificial offering. Peck had spread out her arms and legs, leaving her vulnerable to attack.
Beyond her form was nothing but darkness. Everywhere else he looked, he saw no signs of life. Like all of it was hiding away from him.
Tanner Peck, where are you? Show yourself.
He took a deep breath, and another step.
And another.
There was no other choice.
He needed to get down to her to free her, and she was in the middle of the bridge, exposed. Easily picked off by anyone with a gun. That meant if he went to try to free her, he would be exposed too.
But there was nothing else he could do.
Listening hard, he gazed into every shadow, searching for anything that didn’t belong. He narrowed his focus, moving his eyes from one tree to the next as the moon slid behind a cloud.
Dammit.
Step by agonizing step, he made it down, holding his gun cocked and ready. When he reached the last step, even with the suspension bridge, he made up his mind to give up his position.
“Tanner Peck,” he called, as Dina swung her head to him. She shrieked his name, then hung her head, sobbing, as it echoed around the gorge. “I know you’re out here. Show yourself.”
He held out a hand to calm her and waited for a response, scanning the area.
Only the wind answered back.
He took a step forward and called louder, “Tanner Peck. I know you’re listening.”
Just when he thought he’d get no response, a voice said, “So you know who I am. Good for you. I wasn’t hiding it. I was waiting for you to figure it out. Took you forever.”
Linc scanned the area, trying to get an idea of where it had come from. It sounded like it’d come from across the gorge, but he couldn’t be sure with the way sounds always echoed around the place, bouncing off the rocks.
“Look. I know why you’re doing this,” he called out. “And I’m sorry about Jill. We all are. We went to the funeral. We took it really hard too.”
He stopped, listened. Nothing.
“You have to believe that not a day goes by that I don’t think of your sister. If it was that bad for me, for all of us, I can’t even imagine how rough it has been for you. And I’m sorry. But killing other people won’t bring her back. Listen to me.”
Nothing, this time. Nothing except Dina, who was still sobbing loudly.
He took a step closer.
“Think about this. Come on out and let’s talk this over,” he called, lifting his foot to take another step.
As he did, he felt the force of a rifle shot hitting th
e ground just inches from him, and stopped where he was. “Don’t move,” came the reply. “Or the next one will be right between your eyes.”
So, it turned out, Linc realized, that Tanner Peck, the bumbling kid from the ranger’s station, wasn’t without his talents.
He was actually a pretty damn good shot with a rifle.
30
How do I get myself into these things?
Kylie kept repeating that to herself as she made it down the trail, feeling about as graceful as a cow with a gun. She’d thought walking these trails before was a nightmare. She’d obviously had no idea what a nightmare was.
She couldn’t see a damn thing and was terrified to use a flashlight, afraid of giving herself away and taking away the only advantage she had—the element of surprise. She’d flick it on for just seconds at a time, giving her enough visibility to traverse the worst parts of the trail.
Everything beyond the little orb of light was so dark—edge-of-the-known-universe dark. She felt like a sitting duck and like her fear was a beacon, guiding every bear and cougar in the area right to her.
“Um, Storm,” she asked, her voice trembling, “are their bears and cougars in these woods?”
The dog ignored her and took another sure-footed step in front of her, pulling the leash taut, urging her to go faster. Kylie’s teeth chattered. Of course there were bears and cougars and other wild animals here. That’s why they called it the wilderness. This was not fit for civilized people.
As she imagined herself being shredded to death by predators or falling hundreds of feet to her death, an animal screeched overhead.
Kylie almost shrieked along with it but managed to clap a hand over her mouth.
Some giant, weird winged insect flew in front of her face, flittering in her eyelashes.
She squeezed her eyes closed, willing herself to be still.
A frog or some other close-to-the-ground creature that seemed entirely too near let out a noise that sounded like, YOU DIE.
She nearly dropped the leash, turned tail, and ran back to the car, screaming bloody murder.