Page 22

Chapter 21

Colin could feel the tension inside him kicking up as it got darker and darker beyond the waterfall. They’d been inside the cave all day, sleeping for most of it so they were at least rested. But they had no water and no food left. If they got desperate, he could capture some water and filter it through sand and charcoal, but he hoped it didn’t come to that.

And Mari’s phone was useless. He had a little juice in his, but there wasn’t much left so they had to conserve it.

“I hate waiting like this.” Sitting with her legs crossed and her backpack already on, Mari was as ready as he was to get out of here.

But he wanted to leave at twilight. There wouldn’t be any drones out then—or there shouldn’t be. Though there was a chance their pursuers would have night vision drones, something he couldn’t do anything about.

Once they left the cave, they’d still have some light to get out of the waterfall and pool area. From there, he had a good idea of exactly how to get to the road that led in and out of the national park. “I know.” He slid his own backpack on, but it was still too soon to leave. Might as well make conversation to pass the time, and there was one thing that had been on his mind. “So you held on to a grudge for pretty long with me. ”

She shot him a surprised look. “You deserved it.”

They hadn’t talked about earlier when they’d both brought each other to climax, and since she wasn’t bringing it up, he’d opted not to either. But things weren’t over between them, not by a long shot. Now that he’d had a taste of her, he just wanted more. Like, say, forever . “I know. And I wasn’t chastising you or whatever. I’m impressed. So…is this like a thing with you?”

“A thing?” She cocked an eyebrow at him.

And god, he really did love everything about the feisty woman. “Yeah, holding grudges. Evan said something about it, and I remember you being pissed at one of your cousins for years. Jessica, I think?”

“She stole my Charizard card. Of course I was mad. Then she traded it for a really crappy one which made her thievery even worse.”

“Weren’t you in fourth grade?”

“Yep. But we’re good now. Though I did steal an entire lunchbox of her Pokémon cards as payment.”

He blinked.

She shrugged. “I considered it karma. I traded those cards to get my Charizard back—which I still have to this day.”

He snorted lightly. “So I know never to mess with you.”

“That’s right, or you’ll face Kim justice.”

“Kim justice?”

“How has my brother never told you about Kim justice?” she asked, rocking back slightly as she laughed with her whole body.

He loved seeing her like this, and knew for this stolen moment she wasn’t thinking about being hunted, but was just in this moment with him.

The waterfall was even louder now, so it was hard to hear and he found himself watching her lips move. Just reading her lips, he told himself. Not imagining kissing them. Or watching them close around his —

“If someone messes with one of us, they get Kim justice. My mom started it when some racist bitch tried to keep my brothers out of a play group.”

“Your sweet mom?”

She blinked, then snort-laughed. “My mom is a freaking tiger. If you mess with her kids, she’ll claw your face off. She got this woman’s husband blackballed from a couple events until she got an apology. She still never liked the woman, and eventually the woman’s oldest got kicked out of school for bad behavior and they ended up moving. Anyway, that’s how ‘Kim justice’ started. Evan’s the one who gave it a nickname and it sort of snowballed from there…” She shrugged, grinning in a way she never did when she talked about her mom.

“How are you and your mom doing?”

She let out a sigh. “Okay, I guess. She still gives me grief about not being married, but it’s not as bad as it used to be. She’s finally retiring—ish, and ready for her ‘Halmi era’ as she likes to call it. Being a grandmother has really mellowed her out in a way I never could have imagined just a decade ago.”

“I get grief for not being married too,” he said dryly. “From your mom as well as mine,” he added.

Which made her snicker. “Yeah, I’ve heard them talk about you. ‘Why can’t he find a nice girl and settle down? Maybe it’s a pilot thing? Look at Mari. She’s still single too. Tsk, tsk.’” She shook her head. “I swear she just wants to blame anything and everything on me being a pilot.” Her tone was light, but he hated the underlying pain in her voice.

Why did families have to be so complicated? So he changed the subject. “What other forms of vengeance have you enacted over the years?”

“Well…I did tell the girls’ JV lacrosse team that I overheard you telling Evan about some issues you had…” She pointed between her legs. “I might have used the word s ‘super gonorrhea.’ I figured they’d pass it on to the varsity team.”

His mouth fell open.

“Hey, it’s only after you told that jerk that I had an STI. Fair’s fair. Kim justice, baby.”

He grinned. “That actually explains a few weird conversations I’ve had over the years. Damn, Mari, you are brutal.”

“My junior year, this girl Lynda—‘Lynda with a y’,” she said, rolling her eyes. “She put dark red paint on my chair to make it look like I’d started my period. I had no idea until Magnolia saw it and told me. Later I found out it had been intentional and all because some guy she liked, liked me instead. Freaking high school,” she said, shaking her head.

“What did you do to her?”

“I let the air out of one of her tires. I kept doing it until she ended up getting a new tire. I actually felt bad about that one.”

“You’re smiling.”

“Okay, as an adult I now kinda sorta feel bad about that one. It was driving her so crazy that she ended up putting an air pump in her trunk.”

“So the lesson is to never mess with Mari.” Or apparently her entire family.

“Yep.” She looked out at the waterfall, her expression pensive. “Are we ready yet?”

“Yeah. I’m going to go first. I’ll duck down and swim out, assess the situation. If it looks clear, I’ll come back for you.” He slid his backpack off even though he’d just put it back on. It wouldn’t make sense to bring it for this visual recon.

“I don’t like you doing all the scouting.”

“Too bad.” He slid into the small pool of water, which was chillier than it had been only an hour ago, glad he’d at least remembered to leave his shoes off. Getting out of here really was going to suck.

After ducking down, he swam under the water, going deeper as he made his way toward where he knew a shelf of rocks overhung the pool. Slowly, he surfaced, his eyes not taking long to adjust to the twilight as he scanned the water around him, the small shore area and the trees beyond.

At least the forest wasn’t thick here, though it was getting dark. He eased a little more out of the water, listening and watching.

No buzzing overhead, though to be fair he mostly heard the pounding waterfall. But he couldn’t see any movements along the shoreline or in the trees.

It was time to go. They had to risk it.

By the time he got Mari and his backpack, and they’d quietly made their way to the trees—as quietly as possible while dripping wet—the sun had completely set. They were both now dripping wet, cold, and the temperature would drop through the night. They had to get moving.

“We stick together,” he whispered. “And if I say run, you run. One of us needs to make it out of here.” He would rather it be her, but he kept that to himself. But there was no way he was letting her get hurt on his watch. Or ever.

She hesitated, but nodded. And he just hoped that if the time came, she actually would run and not stay and fight.

***

“Now what are y’all doing out here after dark?” the older man with a dusty Chevy asked as he eyed Mari and Colin on the side of the two-lane highway. “It’s not safe to be on the side of the road once the sun goes down.”

Ever since finally making it to the main road, they’d been walking for the last hour and she’d been about to give up hope that anyone would ever drive by. It was so damn dark out here at night. She didn’t even want to think about what it would have been like to be alone. At least their clothes were mostly dry, but her feet ached and she wanted a shower. And food. And to punch Ackerman in the throat.

“We were hiking and got lost,” Mari said in her sweetest voice as she took Colin’s hand in hers. She was just acting, she told herself, but she liked his strength and warmth. She’d never been the kind of person to hold hands with a significant other but she loved holding on to his, feeling as if they were a real unit. “We were trying to see the falls and got turned around. And then I’m pretty sure I saw a bear and we just got lost.”

The man looked unimpressed, but at least he’d pulled over for them. “Well, it’s not far to town, but you’re gonna get hit by a car if you keep walking along this road. It’s too dark out here.”

“Would you mind giving us a ride?” she asked.

Colin was a strong, silent sentinel behind her.

“Yeah, but you’re both riding in the bed.” He jerked a thumb at the back of this truck. Two bales of hay were in it and she didn’t even care.

He had two golden retrievers in his truck, so she figured he probably wasn’t a serial killer. She waved at the dogs. “You’re the most beautiful babies I’ve ever seen.”

She saw the man’s face thaw just a little before they jumped into the back.

The two dogs stuck their head through the open window, so she got to pet them as she leaned up against Colin. He had his arms tight around her, holding her close, and she couldn’t decide if she loved or hated how damn solid and wonderful he was.

For so many years she’d hung on to anger, and yeah, she knew it was healthy to let it go. But now he was in this new category and she wasn’t sure how to handle it. He was in her head, and if she was stupid, he’d end up in her heart.

And that way lay madness.

She didn’t have time for a relationship—not that he was offering one—and especially with her brother’s best friend. Seriously, it would screw up the dynamics. She wasn’t interested in changing herself or her lifestyle to suit a man. Not after everything she’d done to build her life. But…she really, really liked being with him. Even during all this madness, she was so damn glad to be with him.

“What are their names?” she called through the open window as the man pulled up to a four way stop.

“Sunshine and Marshmallow… My wife named them.”

He sounded almost embarrassed, so she smothered the laugh that wanted to bubble up. “I bet I know who is who,” she said to the dogs, including the one who she swore was smiling at her. She had to be Sunshine. She buried her hands in their fur and fought the sudden urge to cry.

All day she and Colin had been in this state of tense waiting.

Waiting to be discovered.

To be killed.

And she was still scared, but almost in an abstract way. She didn’t know for sure who was after them, or why.

“You can drop us at the motel,” Colin said through the window, his grip around her tightening slightly.

The dogs tucked their heads back into the truck as their owner made a turn toward The Red Apple motel. Though with a few lights out, so it said ed ppl . At least the apple itself was lit up, but this was the kind of place that rented by the hour, she was sure.

After the man—who’d never given them his name, she realized—dropped them off, she fell in step with Colin. “Is your phone working? ”

He nodded as he looked down at it.

“Okay, good. I’ll call Berlin, see if she’s nearby.” They weren’t in St. Francisville, but a neighboring town. And from the looks of it, this place was a little rougher around the edges.

He nodded, glancing around the parking lot. “I’ll grab us a room so we’re not standing out here for everyone to see.”

As he went inside, she ducked into the shadows of an out of order vending machine and called Berlin.

“Hello?”

Relief hit her. “It’s me, Mari. I’m on Colin’s phone.”

“Are you guys okay? Where are you?”

“Ah, at The Red Apple Motel. Just got dropped off by some farmer. And yes, we’re okay, for now. But there are definitely people after us,” she whispered as a big rig truck rumbled past on the road, the noise cutting through the relative quiet.

Colin stepped out then, an old-fashioned key in hand. He nodded at her as she talked to Berlin, so she fell in step with him.

“We’re only half an hour from you guys,” Berlin said, and Mari could hear movement in the background. “Our SUV is already loaded up so we’re heading out now. Do you have a room?”

She nodded as they stopped in front of the last one. “109, right on the end.” She desperately wanted a hot shower and dry clothes.

“Sit tight, we’re coming to get you.”

“Should we call the cops?”

“Hell no. I don’t know if they’re being monitored or not. We’ll see you soon.”

“Okay. Bye.” For the first time all day, Mari could see a light at the end of the tunnel. She also wondered where they went from here…and what happened between her and Colin once they got back to their real lives.