Page 27 of Creed (Rock Hard Mountain Men #3)

I stuck to the wall, sneaking around in an over-exaggerated fashion that made me feel like a cartoon.

It took longer than I thought it would, but eventually, they noticed me.

I kept my body angled toward them that would show off the package that I held under my arm, hoping that from a distance it would be mistaken for a journal.

My rouse seemed to work, because the cult members started shouting to each other to catch me. Once I was certain that they had abandoned their plan to search the trucks, I took off running back into the cover of the forest.

It felt like I’d stepped back in time, before my retirement from the military, when carrying out dangerous missions was part of my everyday life.

Running through the wilderness on my own, enemies in hot pursuit, and nothing but the clothes on my back for supplies.

It wasn’t fun, but it was comfortable in its familiarity.

I could do this.

I could keep our enemies occupied long enough for Kayden and the kids to get to safety.

Too bad it was the middle of the day. This would have been much easier at night, but I couldn’t make the earth turn any faster.

My feet still remembered their agility as I darted between the trees, stepping over twisted roots and vaulting over large rocks. Branches whipped at my face and arms, threatening to slow me down.

Behind me, just far enough to be out of sight, I could hear the sounds of people chasing me. They crashed through the underbrush like bulldozers, not even bothering to find the easiest path as they carved their own route through the forest.

I could also hear the howling of dogs. It was as I’d feared before, they’d brought scent hounds with them. It was expected for a remote cult that probably did a lot of its own hunting, but also annoying.

Escaping them would be a lot harder with trained beasts on my heels.

My thoughts cast back to Kayden.

“Please be safe,” I whispered as I slowed down. I kept running, but now it was more of a light jog than a sprint.

If I got too far away, they might give up on me and go back for Kayden. It was a delicate balance. I couldn’t let them actually catch me, but I had to stay close enough to give them a reason to keep chasing.

At least until we were deeper into the mountains.

After about an hour, and covering several miles of distance, I decided it was enough. We were far enough away from town that my pursuers wouldn’t be able to easily turn back.

Time to turn the tables on them.

Thanks to the maps that I’d memorized, and Lisianthus’s journal, I knew that there was a rocky area coming up. Ancient rivers had carved deep channels into the earth, eventually drying up and leaving chasms with tall stone walls that snaked through this part of the mountain like creeping vines.

I ran down one of the old riverbeds, going just far enough to round a bend and disappear out of my pursuers’ sight.

Then I climbed up the chasm wall, digging my fingers into cracks in the rock and pulling myself upward until I reached the top.

From there, I jumped down into another riverbed, and returned to my pursuers to once again get their attention.

Those who hadn’t already gone down the first riverbed quickly chased me down the second, effectively dividing their numbers in half.

In this way, I was able to scatter my pursuers among the natural maze of the ancient riverbeds. It gave me enough breathing room to start making an actual plan.

First, I needed a weapon. A gun or knife would have been preferable, but I wasn’t going to just find either of those lying around the forest. Instead, I found an adequately sized stick and scrapped its end against a jagged edge of stone until I managed to make a rudimentary spear.

Second, I needed to start playing defense. They had an advantage of superior numbers. No matter how well I avoided them, I could only run for so long before they wore me down.

Sitting hunched down on a rocky ledge as I watched my pursuers in the riverbed below, I checked the watch on my wrist. It had been about two hours since I left Kayden.

Assuming he was able to immediately get to a phone and call for help, then Magnus and Brody should only be a couple more hours away.

I could last that long.

One of my pursuers passed right below my hiding spot. In the past, I would have used this opportunity to take out one of my opponents while I could, but that was not the point of my mission right now. I didn’t need to fight. I needed to survive.

The cult member continued down the dry riverbed, their back exposed to me. It would have been a perfect opportunity, if killing them was my objective, but the large hunting dog walking by the man’s side kept me from acting.

Just before they disappeared from sight, their phone rang, and they stopped right in the middle of the riverbed to answer it.

“Hey! Oh really. You found them. The other one and the kids. I mean, I guess it’ll have to do. Maybe we can get something out of them.”

I clenched my hand around my makeshift spear, and had to remind myself to keep breathing even as my mind kept screaming one word.

Kayden!

Absolutely not. I did not go through all of this just for Kayden to get caught anyway.

Jumping down from my hiding place, I tackled the man into the dirt. He didn’t even have time to scream before I jammed the end of my sharpened stick into his shoulder.

Then he screamed, loud enough to startle the birds from the nearby trees.

“Where are they?” I practically spit in his face, kneeling over him to pin him down as I dug the stick harder into his shoulder.

The man squirmed and cursed as he clutched at the stick, trying to keep it from piercing any deeper. I watched in satisfaction as blood oozed from the wound and dripped onto the forest floor.

But then, terrifyingly, the man smiled up at me.

My instincts flashed a warning at me, begging me to run away, but before I could move, I felt a prick in the side of my neck. Reaching up, I pulled a familiar dart out of my flesh.

Fuck.

It was a trap.

They’d pretended to find Kayden to lure me out, and I’d walked right into it.

Dizziness immediately swarmed me, making the world around me seem to spin.

I tried to run, but I didn’t get more than two steps before my legs went numb and I fell.

I didn’t even feel it when my face slammed into the loose stones and dirt lining the riverbed.

My consciousness fled and darkness consumed my vision, and last thing I noticed was the sound of approaching footsteps.

I awoke to a pounding headache and the feeling of cold metal around my wrist.

Not again, I groaned in my head while on the outside I didn’t utter a sound.

“Awake?” the familiar voice of Chester Grieve asked.

Even though I hadn’t reacted in any way, not even opening my eyes, he somehow knew the moment I returned to consciousness.

I still didn’t bother to open my eyes, not wanting to give him the satisfaction, and simply said “Fuck off.”

The other man merely chuckled. “Oh, I will, shortly. I can assure you that.”

Now that I was more awake, I realized I felt strange. My mouth was dry, and my nerves buzzed under my skin. This wasn’t just the after effects of being knocked unconscious. Something was wrong.

Finally opening my eyes, I wasn’t surprised to find myself in a completely nondescript room. It wasn’t the same room where Kayden and I had been locked up, but other than that, I had no idea where I was.

When I tried to sit up, I found my wrists handcuffed above my head, stretched out to either side. Based on the softness under me, I assumed I was lying on a bed, so my wrists must be attached to the headboard.

I glared at Chester Grieve with all the strength I could muster. “What did you do to me? Where’s Kayden?”

Both questions practically spilled out of me at the same time, each equally important. I wasn’t sure which I wanted him to answer first, but I was certain that I would hate anything he had to say.

The other man rocked back a bit in his wheelchair, almost looking like he was thinking. “I have no idea where your friend is, but he’s of no concern. I’m more interested in you.”

Rolling over to a side table just at the edge of my line of sight, he pulled out of folder from the drawer. I recognized the folder and wasn’t surprised when he returned and held up photos of Lisianthus’s journal for me to see.

“You took the journal with you, so I assume you’ve managed to crack the code and have some idea of what it said. Find anything interesting?”

I would have spit in the man’s face if he was close enough, but I settled for a mocking smile. “Yes. I know what you’re looking for. What the Milford sisters stole from you.”

As expected, Chester Grieve’s expression twitched with annoyance when he heard the name “Milford,” but he didn’t get angry like I’d hoped.

“Oh? So, the journal mentioned that?”

The chains on my wrists rattled as I tested their strength. “Yeah. Although, I gotta say. It’s kinda misleading to say they stole from you. They just left. I’m sure, if they could have chosen not to be pregnant at the time, they would have.”

I’d been shocked when I came to that part of the journal, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense.

All three sisters had been married off to the cult founder.

It was no surprise that pregnancy would soon follow.

The only shocking thing, aside from the girls’ young age, was the fact that they’d all ended up pregnant around the same time.

No wonder they’d chosen to escape when they did. They were staring down the barrel of their future as a trio of baby factories for the cult, and they decided enough was enough.

As a man, I couldn’t fully empathize with the difficulties of pregnancy, but it must have been difficult. Based on stories Brody and Magnus had told me about the Mothers of the Mountain , the three sisters hadn’t been pregnant when they arrived in Emberwood.