Page 56 of WITSEC
Colt didn’t explain until we were pulled out of the parking lot and on the road back toward the cabin. “Your picture was on the news.”
“What?” Keelan asked from the backseat.
“As I was waiting for our order, I watched the TV they had in there. The news was on. I was hoping to hear about the weather forecast and then they started talking about the daughter of an Arizona sheriff and her missing friends. Cassy, Gabe, and Amber’s pictures popped up. And right next to them was your picture, babe. They listed your name, age, height, and what you were last seen wearing. There was also a fifty-thousand-dollar reward to whoever found the four of you.”
Out of all the things he’d told us, I could only focus on one. “Cassy is missing?”
Colt let out a curse as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Before you showed up at Desert Stone to save me, I was in and out of consciousness, but I think I heard the sheriff talking to X or leaving him a message. I think he said X had Cassy and if he didn’t give her back, he would kill you. I think he used me as a trap so he could give you to X in exchange for Cassy.”
“If Mr. X is the reason Cassy is missing, she’s dead. Gabe and Amber are undoubtedly dead, too,” I said.
“Why kill them?” Keelan asked.
“Because he loves me, and they were a threat to me, and he’s crazy.”
That seemed to be a good enough answer, because the conversation moved on.
“So what are we going to do with you being on the news?” Colt asked.
I sighed, at a total loss. “I can’t come back to town.”
Colt reached over to put a comforting hand on my thigh.
Keelan leaned forward between my seat and Colt’s to grab his coffee from the drink carrier Colt was holding in his lap. “Do you think anyone recognized you while we were inside the store?”
“I kept my head down,” I said. That didn’t guarantee anything, though. “I’ll try calling Logan again when we get back.”
After we got home and put away almost everything we had bought, I took what needed to go in my room. I had bought everything to bleach my hair again, among a few other toiletries. I set the bags with my purchases inside on my dresser. I intended to put them away after I made my call to Logan.
Sitting on my bed, I dialed Logan’s number on the burner phone. His phone rang and rang until it went to voicemail. I let out a frustrated growl as I hung up. Logan had told me not to call Ian unless I had no choice, but I couldn’t take it anymore. I clicked on Ian’s contact saved in the phone and put the phone to my ear. It rang and rang until it, too, went to voicemail.
“Ian, it’s me. Call me.” I left a message before hanging up and tossing my phone on the bed.
Chapter Seventeen
I wokeup early the next day after dreaming about going to Logan’s funeral. Mr. X had killed him while I was safe and hidden away at the cabin. Ian was the one who’d invited me to it and even though Mr. X was still searching for me, I risked going. As Logan’s casket was being lowered into the ground, I spotted Mr. X standing with the crowd of mourners, whose faces I could not see. He was watching me with an evil, proud smirk.Dream Me is dumb,I thought as I climbed out of bed and put on some clothes to run in.
After I was dressed, I made my way through the quiet cabin and went down to the basement to run on the treadmill that was among the few pieces of exercise equipment down there. The basement wasn’t much. It had bare concrete walls and concrete flooring. The small personal gym had a treadmill, an exercise bike, and an elliptical. On one wall there were a few shelves of board games and up against another there was a folded-up ping-pong table, but I had no clue where the paddles and balls to it were.
Running felt good. It helped ease some of the stress that was building due to not hearing from both Logan and Ian. I hated notknowing what was going on. I hated not knowing if everyone we knew was all right or not. I constantly felt like I was fighting with myself on what to do. Keep us safe and stay out of what might be happening back in Arizona, or wherever Mr. X was wreaking havoc, or give in and join the fight. A few weeks ago, I would have never considered putting myself at risk to help hunt down Mr. X, but I was getting tired of this type of life. Was it greedy to want more? I was happy. We were safe. That should have been enough, but what kind of life were we living if it was always overshadowed with fear?
Living in fear isn’t living.Knox had taught me that.
Maybe I was just feeling cooped-up and needed to get out.
Hoping that was it, after breakfast I grabbed a box of bullets from the safe and one of my rifles from where I kept it loaded and ready to use by the front door. Now that I knew the guys knew how to shoot, I’d put guns in almost every room of the cabin. There was a pistol in each of the bedrooms, a rifle over the fireplace, and the one I was holding. Knox had his pistol, too, but I didn’t know where he kept it.
“I’m going to go shooting,” I announced to Colt and Creed. Knox and Keelan were working out in the basement again. “Anyone want to come with me?”
“I’ll come,” Colt said.
“You two go. I’m going to go get a workout in with Knox and Keelan,” Creed said.
While Colt went to put on warmer clothes, I found some empty cans to use for target practice. I put the cans and box of bullets in a plastic grocery bag to make them easier to carry. When I was done, Colt was ready and the two of us headed out. We went back to that clearing with the knocked-over tree. It had snowed out and everything was covered with fresh powder. Snow crunched under our boots as we walked until the cabin was long out of sight.
Like we had done before, Colt and I took turns shooting. Colt had really good aim and we quickly started competing to see who could hit the most cans.
“Want to add stakes?” I asked as I stared down the scope on top of the rifle.