Page 126 of The Unlikely Pair

I slip back from the ravine, heading in the direction Toby would have come from after he lit the last fire. The forest seems to hold its breath as I creep through the undergrowth, my heart pounding so loudly I’m sure it will give me away.

I’ve never moved so silently, so carefully. The night is alive with terror, the dreadful certainty rising inside me that something has gone wrong.

Then I hear it—a muffled grunt, the unmistakable sound of a struggle.

I creep to the next tree and stare into a moonlit clearing.

I recognize one of the dark figures even though the last time I saw him, he was in a pilot’s uniform.

Kade.

Holding a knife to Toby’s throat.

I can’t breathe.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Toby

Fuck. The knife presses into my throat, the sharp edge biting my skin. A warm trickle of blood runs down my neck, a stark contrast to the cold fear flooding my veins.

A noise breaks through the thudding of my heartbeat in my ears.

A warbled, mutated whistle no dignified bird would ever make.

Despite the fact I have a knife pressed to my throat, the relief that flows through me is so overwhelming it almost buckles my knees.

Harry is here.

The knowledge settles the panic inside me.

It’s the two of us together. A team. And I trust Harry. Harry, with his cool, calculating brain. Harry, who always keeps his head in a crisis. He’ll figure out a way to get me out of this.

My eyes frantically scan the forest surrounding the clearing where Kade ambushed me, trying to spot where Harry is hiding.

The key is keeping Kade distracted so he doesn’t do the same.

“All right, all right, let’s not get too stab happy,” I say. Kade’s response is to grab me tighter. Pain flashes in my shoulder, and Ilook down to see his monstrosity of a watch, with a large orange dial, digging into me.

“You need to get my team out of that hole,” Kade snarls.

“Sure, I’ll do that. But we need to steer clear of the wolves. Trust me, you don’t want to meet them when they’re hungry. They’ll go after anything that moves. The scary thing is you don’t always hear them coming. They can move through the forest like ghosts. One minute you think you’re alone, the next…”

As I babble, I scan the shadows of the forest, desperately trying to spot any sign of Harry.

My eyes catch on a small movement at the base of one of the trees. A pinecone rolls out from behind the tree. Then another. And another.

Three pinecones. Our signal for the snares.

My mind races. Harry is trying to tell me something.

He’s reminding me his trap line is still set up. I just need to navigate Kade in that direction.

“If we’re going to do this, we need to be smart about it,” I say, keeping my voice steady despite the knife at my throat and the watch stabbing into my shoulder. “I know a route that should keep us clear of the wolves. It’s a bit of a detour, but it’s our best bet.”

I lead Kade down a narrow path, my eyes darting from tree to tree, searching for the telltale signs of Harry’s handiwork.

Is he following us?