by Linda Howard
Gabriel looked toward the house, took Lolly’s hand again, and together they eased away from their protected position behind the tree to move deeper into the woods. His step was quick but sure, and she had to struggle a little to keep pace. Her legs weren’t as long as his, and hiking through the woods wasn’t exactly her thing. She didn’t have many “things,” she realized. She was excruciatingly normal, lived a normal life, worked at a normal job. She liked books and movies, forced herself to exercise, but despite growing up in Maine, she didn’t care for roughing it or any winter sports at all, so she was definitely out of her element right now.
The trees had sheltered the ground beneath them, so there was less ice here, though their feet still made crunching sounds. That meant ice was building on the limbs and branches overhead, and she knew how dangerous that could be; working for an insurance company had given her insight into all sorts of situations, because she’d seen the claims.
Gabriel led her at an angle that generally followed the long driveway toward the narrow secondary road, stepping over fallen dead branches, maneuvering around clumps of wild growth. A couple of times he looked back at her. She felt like a tethered balloon, being tugged along in his wake. Her breath huffed out in rapid gasps. He must have realized that she was struggling to keep up with him because he shortened his stride, but not by much. “It’ll be a bit easier when we can leave the woods,” he said once, as he helped her around an overgrown, brambly bush. “I have soup and coffee in my truck.”
“Dangling a carrot, eh?”
That might’ve been a smile, but it was so dark she couldn’t be sure. “Whatever works.”
“Um … exactly where is your truck?” The shock had worn off enough now that she could think a little. Obviously Gabriel hadn’t flown there, so he had to have wheels somewhere.
“About half a mile farther. The ice was so bad I had to stop.”
Questions tumbled in her mind, questions like: why was he here? It wasn’t as if she and Gabriel McQueen were close friends—or even friends, come to that. Of all the people in the world, what was he doing at her house? None of this felt real, and somehow his presence was the most unreal part of it all. Being knocked around, terrorized, almost raped, and held captive were all shocking enough in their own right, but the fact that he, of all people, had appeared out of the night to help her escape was simply dumbfounding—either that, she thought wryly, or this was her brain’s way of helping her cope by shoving all that other stuff to the side until she could cope.
If concentrating on Gabriel McQueen was a coping mechanism, then she’d go along with the game plan; that was much better than thinking of the violence, of everything that could go wrong, of how dangerous walking for miles in weather like this could be. The odds were so heavy against them surviving the night that only sheer desperation made her willing to try.
The darkness in the woods was almost complete; they both stumbled over obstacles, feeling their way along. Her eyes had adjusted somewhat, and still she could barely see. If Gabriel had a flashlight he didn’t produce it, and she didn’t ask; much as she wanted to see where she was going, she seriously didn’t want the equivalent of a spotlight pinpointing their position for Niki and Darwin.
In spite of the poncho Gabriel had given her, before long the cold cut through all the layers of clothing she wore. Her jeans and sweatpants were wet from falling on the ice, and the wind went right through to her skin. She would have liked nothing better than to stop and hunker down so the poncho draped around her and blocked the wind, but if she stopped moving she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to start up again. Knowing what waited behind her, in the warmth of her own home, spurred her to keep up. She’d walk all the way to Portland if that was what it took to get away from those two.
She’d even put her life in the hands of Gabriel McQueen, who had been the bane of her teenage years. He’d been everything she wasn’t: popular, outgoing, self-assured. And she’d had the most horribly painful crush on him all through junior high and high school. The flip side of that was she’d hated him, too, for all the times he’d made fun of her, all the times he’d taunted her and laughed at her, and she’d never passed up an opportunity to slip a verbal knife between his ribs. When he’d graduated two years ahead of her, she’d been relieved, yet she’d still caught herself watching the hallways for that proudly held dark head.
She should probably count herself lucky he’d bothered rescuing her. The teenage Gabriel wouldn’t have bothered—though, to be fair, if she’d still been a teenager she’d probably have slammed the window on his hands anyway.
Thinking about the past could occupy her mind only so long before her physical misery began to push its way to the forefront. The rain was coming down harder now, coating the trees, the underbrush, even them. She couldn’t see it, but she could feel the weight of it crusting her wet pants and shoes. At least her feet didn’t seem to be quite as wet as her legs, thanks to the Vaseline … either that, or they were so cold she couldn’t feel the moisture. The wind soughed through the tree limbs, making them rattle like bones in their ice-coffins. The sound was eerie, ghostly, and she was glad for the big, hard hand that gripped hers.
Then Gabriel pushed through some particularly heavy undergrowth and halted so abruptly she plowed into his back. “Finally,” he said, reaching back to steady her. “Here’s the road. There’s about a three-foot drop down to it, so be careful.”
He bent down, gripped a sapling, and used it to steady himself as he jumped down the low embankment. His feet skidded on the ice, but with the aid of the sapling he stayed upright. Gingerly he turned, reached up, and grasped Lolly around the waist, then lowered her to the road with easy strength. “Watch your step,” he warned. “There’s a shallow ditch here. Walk on the weedy strip between the ditch and the pavement; it’s better footing.”
Head down, Lolly concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. Surely they had gone more than a half mile; shouldn’t they have reached his truck by now? She had grown up on this mountain, knew it like the back of her hand, most of the time, but the darkness, the cold, the unrelenting series of shocks, had all left her disoriented and she had no real idea where they were. Her hands and feet hurt so much from the cold she felt as if she could barely shuffle forward. She couldn’t do anything about her feet, and Gabriel gripped one of her hands so she couldn’t do anything about it, either, but her other hand she wormed under the poncho and several other layers of clothing to reach the bare skin of her warm belly. She could barely feel the warmth on her fingers, but her belly could definitely feel the cold of her hand. There, that was a little better.
Now and then she darted a glance at the man who was leading her, though in the darkness she couldn’t make out much more than his height and the width of his shoulders—that, and the determination with which he faced the storm head-on. She remembered the way he’d looked when he’d popped up in her window, though. He was older, obviously; so was she. A lot of years had passed since he’d graduated—fifteen of them!—and they’d both changed.
He was no longer a cocky teenager with the world at his feet; he was a grown man, a widower with a son, as she’d heard during one of her trips to Wilson Creek. Becoming a father and losing his wife were life-changing events; no way could he be the same person he was when they were in school. She wasn’t, and she hadn’t been through anything as traumatic as losing a spouse. There was nothing traumatic in her life at all. Instead she’d quietly made her way, made a settled life for herself, shed a lot of her insecurities and shyness.
She had butted heads with him for as long as she could remember, and right now … she wasn’t sure why. Was it because she’d always had such a ferocious crush on him, and never expected him to like her in any way, so she’d protected herself by developing a shield of hostility? Teenagers were such tangled pits of angst and emotion, anything was possible. Looking back, she felt slightly bemused by their teenage selves.
If there would ever be any tim
e for putting the past behind them, that time was now. She leaned slightly toward him and said, “Thank you,” her voice raised so he could hear her over the rain and the wind.
“Thank me if those psychos don’t come after us and we get off the mountain before the trees start to fall,” he said without looking at her.
Okay, that sounded a little abrupt, but she did something that, fifteen years ago, she could never have done: she mentally shrugged and let it go. Under the circumstances, he was allowed to feel testy.
They were walking right into the wind now, which gave her some bearings. Lolly glanced up, but not for long; the rain stung her face like icy pellets, the wind stole her breath with its chill. The wind was from the north, so if it was in her face then they were walking north, which meant they were on the long slope before a very sharp curve that would take them southeast.
They weren’t that far from the house at all.
They had some time before the ice that coated everything was so heavy these old trees started to come down … she hoped. How long would the dead trees hold up with this wind and ice? she wondered. Their fragile limbs would come down first. The side of the road was littered with limbs that had fallen in one storm or another and been left to lie, giving her a hint as to the length and breadth of what might come crashing down.
The wind picked up a bit just then and the trees creaked, literally, as if their very fabric was groaning. Lolly shuddered. They had one option, and it wasn’t a good one. Darwin and Niki were behind them, ice-covered limbs hovered above their heads and could come crashing down at any time, and the ground was increasingly slick beneath her feet. There was no place to go except forward, toward the safety and warmth that seemed so very far away.
She slipped, her sneakers giving her no purchase at all. The Vaseline definitely helped, but some moisture had seeped into her shoes and socks and her feet were painfully numb. She’d grown up in Maine; she knew the dangers of frostbite. She knew what the outcome of the night was likely to be, and a sense of fatalism seized her. Better to lose her toes than let herself get caught by Darwin again.
She adjusted the sleeves of the flannel shirt tied over her head, pulling them over her nose and mouth, but the sleeves were wet and icy and she didn’t know if that would do much good. Thank goodness Gabriel was there, steady as a rock, plowing forward with the determination of a pit bull. His grip was solid, a comfort in a decidedly uncomfortable world. He was that kind of man, she supposed, the kind who would go out in an ice storm to make sure a neighbor was all right, a man who would throw himself between danger and a woman even if she was nothing to him, even if she was a girl he’d once known and hadn’t liked.
She hadn’t had a chance to tell him everything that had happened back at the house and after a moment of reflection she decided she wouldn’t. Not only did she not want to talk about Darwin’s attempted rape, she wasn’t sure how Gabriel would react to the news. Would he feel as if he had to turn back? Would he care at all? She suspected he would care, just because of who he was, and she didn’t want to go back to the house. She didn’t want Gabriel going back there either, and for now she was sticking by his side. Her sights were set firmly away from the house and the nightmare there. No matter what the conditions, she was moving forward.
There was silence behind them—at least human silence. Mother Nature was making a racket, with the patter of falling rain, the wind, the ghostly rustling and creaking of the trees. Maybe they’d given up. Maybe they hadn’t given chase at all. Maybe Niki and Darwin were unwilling to leave a nice warm house in this weather, just to chase her and Gabriel.
She glanced up once more, at the tall man towing her along. “So … how’ve you been?” she asked.
Gabriel snorted. “You want to chitchat now?”
“Maybe talking will keep my face from freezing.”
He nodded once. “I’ve been okay. You?”
So much for dragging him into conversation. “Fine.” What else could she say? Still single. Job’s good, if unexciting. Mom and Dad are in good health, but they lost a good bit of their retirement money in the latest financial disaster, so keeping a house they no longer use is ridiculous. I didn’t want to sell it, but I can’t afford to buy it from them, and now I don’t want to. I loved that house, and now I don’t care if I never see it again. The sense of loss was surprisingly sharp; she took it in, accepted that she would never again feel the same about the house, then she resolutely put the house in the past where it belonged and mentally faced forward.
She should have been paying attention to what she was doing, rather than wool-gathering. She slipped again, and once more Gabriel caught her.
“We need to get you out of this ice,” he said, his tone concerned. She had to admit, getting out of the weather was a good idea. The best, in fact. But there wasn’t a neighbor for miles, and town was even farther.
“My truck isn’t far,” he added encouragingly.
Lolly knew very well that these roads were now impassible. Nasty as it was, dangerous as it was, she’d rather walk down the steep road than get in a vehicle and take the chance of slipping and sliding over the side of the mountain. There were some wicked curves and steep drop-offs between here and Wilson Creek. But they could stop at Gabriel’s truck, get inside and get warm, maybe break out the soup and coffee. With that thought in mind, she had a reasonable destination in mind and that kept her moving forward, putting one foot in front of the other. If she had to think of walking all the way down the mountain she’d probably drop here and now, certain she couldn’t make it.
None of this was real. It couldn’t be. Her life was unexciting, boring, ordinary. To fight off an attack, escape through a second-story window, get shot at and fight against a storm as dangerous as what she’d left behind—these were things she’d never thought to do. Lolly decided she liked unexciting. At the moment, she craved it. She’d never again complain about being bored. This … this was all like a bad dream.
Every step now was a struggle. The cold cut through her clothes, slowing her down. Her instincts screamed at her to stop, rest, give in, but she knew if she stopped here, she’d die. Freezing to death couldn’t be a pleasant way to go, and even if it was, she wasn’t ready to go.
“Soup,” Lolly said with all-but-frozen lips, throwing the word out like a talisman, something to keep her going. Suddenly she realized she was starving. The thought of the soup warming her from the inside out encouraged her to keep moving, even when the ground beneath her turned sharply down and each step became even more precarious.
“Yes, there’s soup.” His arm was tighter around her now; he was all but carrying her. Lolly gathered her strength, focused on what she was doing.
If she could just get some soup—and coffee! He’d said he had coffee!—she’d be able to make it. They could rest for a few minutes, turn the truck heater on full blast and thaw out a little, have some soup and coffee, and be on their way. With a little fortification, she’d be good to go.
Then there was an enraged shout from above, followed by a gunshot, and terror blasted its way through every fiber of her body. Darwin was coming for her after all.
Chapter Seven
Darwin followed Niki out onto the porch, reluctant to leave the comfort of the house. The wind was brutal out here, and … hell, was that ice? The shit covered everything, even the Blazer. He hadn’t noticed any ice when they’d been out here just a little while ago, after the Lorelei bitch went out the second-story window and escaped. He blamed Niki for that. If she’d just left them alone, everything would have been okay. He’d have had some fun, and Lorelei wouldn’t have been in any shape to go out the window. Now that strange dude who’d showed up out of nowhere would be the one having the fun.
Man, that ice was unreal. He thought it might have been sleeting before, but to come outside and find everything coated with ice was fucking weird.
He scratched at his face, and thought he needed another hit of meth. They still had plenty inside, unless t
hat bitch Niki had used it all. She was using more than her fair share, he thought resentfully. She was always doing that, and he was tired of it. Yeah, she was good about coming up with ideas for getting more money, but then she used up the shit so it was her fault they had to have more money, anyway.
“It’s your fault,” he said, because he was tired of her bitching and complaining and the way she wanted to make all the decisions. He stared at the icicles hanging from the eaves of the porch. This was her fault, too, because she’d come up with the bright idea of following Lorelei home, when they could have taken her money in town and wouldn’t be stuck on this fucking mountain now. “If you hadn’t left her alone upstairs, she wouldn’t have got away.”
Niki erupted in rage. “That bitch!” she screamed, and fired a shot at Lorelei’s Mercedes, which might have made her feel better but was a waste of a bullet, as far as Darwin was concerned. Was the stupid car going to feel anything? They didn’t have many bullets left, he figured, after all the shooting they’d done earlier. They’d gone back inside and Niki had spent the time working herself into a fit, but neither of them had checked how many rounds were left in the guns. Then Niki decided they had to go look for Lorelei and insisted they come outside, made him put on his coat and get a flashlight, but Darwin had lost all his enthusiasm for that. Niki could go out in this shit if she wanted to; he was going back inside.
“You’ll pay for this!” Niki screeched into the night, as if Lorelei was standing around out there listening to her. She turned to face Darwin, her face twisted and distorted, her sunken eyes glaring at him. “When we find Lorelei and kill the bastard with her, I’m going to let you have her. That’ll teach the bitch to play games with me!”
Now, that sounded interesting. Darwin’s spirits lifted as he regained his enthusiasm. “Really?”
“As long as you let me watch and you make it hurt, why not? Teach her to fuck with me,” Niki added beneath her breath.