Page 64 of Behind These Four Walls
Roger said ruefully, “She was my first love.”
“Cops ever find it?” Danny asked, laughing.
“Hell no,” Roger replied, sounding wistful. “She was a magnet for the girls too. This is supposed to be safe, small-town Virginia, and look what happens. Someone steals her right from our driveway. Damn, I loved that ride.”
Isla fell behind, slipping from the middle of the group to the back, as each step exhausted her. She considered plopping herself on the trunk of an uprooted tree and telling them to pick her up on their way back down, but she wouldn’t give Bennett that satisfaction either. Whatever initial interest and intrigue he’d had with her had dissipated, and in their place were contempt and plain annoyance since he’d realized she had wormed her way into his father’s good graces and wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Myles, who’d been relatively close by, had disappeared upon hearing someone had spotted a deer, the thrill of the hunt drawing him away.
They moved farther up and into the woods, the terrain growing more uneven and treacherous to Isla’s pavement-conditioned feet. Thorny brambles clawed at her jeans, and the thick undergrowth of vines caught her toes, and she stumbled forward, catching herself on a tree, its rough bark scratching her palms. Up ahead, Victor called forthem to stop, and the group fanned out to check their surroundings and look for the markings that showed where they were permitted to hunt.
As she battled with a patch of muddied ground for one of her boots and fought the beginnings of panic at feeling enclosed with no way out, Myles materialized beside her. “Don’t wander off,” he warned softly, his gaze serious.
Isla nodded but felt suffocated by everyone’s closeness and being able to see nothing but trees as far as she could tell. She stepped a few paces away to catch her breath, bringing her anxiety down to a manageable level by closing her eyes and imagining what Rey and Nat were doing at the moment. She calculated. They were three hours behind, which meant 9 a.m. their time. Nat was still asleep, and Rey was running security scans or whatever he was supposed to be doing for his clients.
There was a faint rustle, and though she knew better, curiosity got the better of her, and Isla started toward it, debating whether to call out that she’d found something someone could shoot or shoo the thing away to hopeful freedom. She took a step, and her ankle turned horribly when she stepped on a hidden rock or root, and the world tilted before she realized she was falling.
She’d fallen down an incline, and when the shock and pain subsided, she looked around, trying to get her bearings. Nothing looked familiar, and everything looked the same. Woods, trees, leaves, green. She couldn’t tell where she’d been or where she should go.
“Hey,” she called out, first shakily, but louder the second time. The only response she got back was bubbling water from a nearby creek or stream, and birds. And ... something else. There was no one around.
Isla’s breath came out in hitches as she tried to still her rapidly beating heart. She tried to stand, then cried out when bolts of electric pain radiated from her twisted ankle. She sucked in a long, painful breath to steady herself against a pine tree, trying to listen for sounds of human life. The woods, once alive with crunching leaves and the distant voices of the people she’d trudged up with, had now swallowedall noise, leaving nothing but her ragged breathing, which sounded way too loud and terrified as panic clawed at her chest and she thought her heart would explode through her orange-and-neon-green vest.
“Hello?” she called out again, her voice thin and reedy, sounding like someone else.
She limped forward, grimacing against the pain. Tried retracing her steps as she thought about what had happened. She’d fallen, rolled down an incline that was hidden somewhere in the dense foliage.
A loud crack behind sent her heart to her throat. She spun around, bracing herself to see a bear or bobcat or hopefully a person, but there was nothing—just more trees and bushes and shadows. Even in the bright of day, the woods looked darker and more foreboding, especially when one was alone.
“Get it together, girl,” Isla chastised. “Find them, or you won’t hear the end of it.”
She gritted her teeth with each agonizing step, wishing she had a compass—not that she’d know which way to go. She had nothing of substance except her bottle of water hanging from her wrist and a couple ofKindbars in her jacket pockets. She hadn’t planned to actually hunt, so more gear than that wasn’t needed ... until it was.
“Bennett?” she called out, her head on a swivel. “Myles? Anyone?”
Nothing.
Every tree looked the same, and time seemed to stretch endlessly. Confusion and fear scratched at the edges of her. She hadn’t fallen far, or long, she thought. So where had everyone gone so quickly? Why couldn’t she hear them or they her? The sameness of her surroundings and having no actual path to follow made it impossible to discern the way she’d come. She thought about stuff she’d heard on the news back home. How first responders suggested that hikers in the forests in the California hills and on trails in the canyons should stay where they were and not venture any farther, making it harder for search teams to find them.
Isla was about to do just that. Sit her ass down and go nowhere until someone found her. She’d decided to hell with finding them—she was Miss LA, right? They knew this place better than she did. The rustling started again. Closer this time. It was heavy, deliberate. Not a skittering squirrel, a bird taking flight, or the soft tread of deer. It didn’t sound like what a bear would sound like either, not that she’d know. But she imagined bears would sound bigger and would make more sound, even if they were stalking prey. No, this noise sounded much more deliberate.
It stopped when she paused to listen and started back up again when she took a few steps backward. A twig snapped beneath heavy feet, sending Isla’s senses into overdrive. Whatever—whoever—it was was after her! Isla’s pulse thundered in her ears as blood rushed through and she stumbled forward, using her hands to push away the reaching branches that whapped her in her face and upper body. She ignored the shooting pains in her ankle, though she still limped hard as she pushed through to put space between her and the noise behind her.
Another snap—a branch breaking.
Isla turned sharply, catching fleeting movement out of the corner of her eye. A shadow darting between the trees, not low like an animal would be. Higher. Like a person. Someone was near her, someone who hadn’t replied when she’d called for help. Someone who wasn’t a friendly, but a foe.
Chapter Fifty-One
Fear surged as Isla broke into a hobbled run. The underbrush clawed at her legs, snagging her jeans, pulling at the laces on her boots, untying one. Sharp branches slashed at her arms as she ran with no idea where she was going and only one thought.Get away.
A crack sounded through the air, and a piece of tree trunk just ahead of her exploded into sharp splinters. She ducked, covering her head, a yelp coming from her.
Was it Bennett, playing a cruel game, trying to do his mother’s bidding and scare Isla off? Or was there someone else she’d inadvertently offended, something she was very good at—another ping whizzed by—and who wanted her gone by any means necessary? Had it come to that, all to keep her from uncovering what had happened to Eden?
The toe of her boot caught on a root and sent her sprawling into a thicket. She landed hard. More pain gripped her, but she scrambled to her feet, hearing crushed leaves and underbrush behind her. They were chasing her now, and getting close.
She refused to give up as a new emotion flooded in. Anger. Could she have wandered into a hunting zone, and someone was mistaking her for game? Or maybe not mistaking her but hunting something else, and she was getting in the way? But couldn’t they see the bright vest shewas wearing, the kind they were all supposed to wear so others could tell them apart from the wildlife and foliage? What if it was Jackson?
She heard the unmistakable click of a rifle chambering. The sound reverberated through the woods and directly into her ears. She ducked instinctively before the shot rang out, her breath huffing out in shallow gasps. This shot was different from the other two.