Hannah refused to stop running to listen for pursuers. If anyone had seen her, they would surely sound the alarm, and she would know right away that they had spotted her. There was no reason to hide at the forest’s edge and wait for them to realize that she was gone. They would find out soon enough, and the more distance that she could put between herself and that moment, the better.
If she was miles away when they realized that she was gone, they would have more ground to cover than would be possible with the number of men she had seen when the Sheriff first pulled up to the barn. Maybe there were more men, but Hannah doubted it. Whatever was going on, she knew that it was highly illegal, and she didn’t think that the Sheriff would be bringing droves of people into the fold. The more people that knew about his activities, the less likely they would remain a secret.
Hannah stumbled and tripped along the trail as her muscles protested so much use after being Tasered and drugged just a few hours before. She could finally feel her fingers, and as she flexed them, she found that their dexterity was returning little by little.
She was focused on her hand when she realized that she hadn’t even checked to see if her phone was still in her pocket, and she quickly reached around and felt the back of her jeans. She groaned when she came up empty, but she wasn’t surprised that the Sheriff had removed the phone from her pocket. He would have been a fool not to.
Her skin crawled at the thought of him going through her clothes like that while she lay helpless on the floor of the horse stall. Even though she couldn’t remember it happening, she felt completely violated. What else had he done?
She shook her head. No, she wouldn’t think about questions that had no answer. She had to focus, and she had to think about things that helped her push through the pain that still lingered from the Taser and being tied up and helped her keep going.
She thought about her dad and wondered how much of what she’d been told was a lie. Was he still alive? Did he know where she was? Did he even know that she was gone? She doubted he knew that she was missing, and that was a blessing in disguise. As she put one foot in front of the other, she considered that her father’s memory problems had made Hannah an easy target. She was alone aside from him, and since he wouldn’t remember forgetting her visit, there was no way he was going to report her missing. And the man at the rehab facility her father lived in was probably in on it. That left no one to notice her missing.
Her foot caught on an exposed root, and she tripped, hands coming out to break her fall automatically. When her palms hit the ground, she grunted in pain, but she managed to keep her mouth closed just in case one of the Sheriff’s men was nearby. Her hands were instantly in pain, the pins and needles sensation spreading fast over the entire surface of her palm. Fresh tears sprang to her eyes, and she swiped them away with the back of her arm.
You have to concentrate, she thought as she angrily pushed herself up and back onto her feet. Her brain was addled, scrambled from the electric shock and the drugs. She couldn’t afford to lose herself to thought while she walked in the darkness like she normally would. She could only focus on one thought at a time, and she was going to have to be mindful of that. She couldn’t risk injury, and she couldn’t risk walking on autopilot and accidentally heading the wrong direction and ending up back at the barn.
The last thought terrified her. She took a moment to get her bearings, wondering if this trail had curved or if it had continued in the same general direction like she thought it did. A quick glance down the trail behind her showed her a little more than the first curve of the long trail. Without her phone and a watch, she had no way of knowing how long she’d been hobbling through the darkness. Even if she did know, she had no idea which way she was going. She was headed away from the barn, and that was her only objective. She would figure things out when she found a house or a road. Until then, she was just moving forward.
Her body hurt worse than it had before, now that she had fallen hard onto the ground. The tendons in her ankle were tight where the root had caught it, but she couldn’t let herself get wrapped up in the pain. She had to keep moving.
The trail angled upward a few yards beyond where she’d fallen, and that gave her hope. She knew that her mad dash from the barn hadn’t been downhill, so there was no way that this trail had circled around and ended up back by the barn. She leaned forward, renewed by this latest development and feeling a little better now that some of the drugs had worn off just a little more. She had no way of knowing, but she was almost certain that it had been at least an hour since she’d first escaped. She hadn’t heard a sound behind her. Maybe the Sheriff had gone to sleep, leaving one of his henchmen to guard a barn that no longer contained their prisoner.
The man would surely check the barn at some point, and he would find her gone. But with her tied up and asleep at midnight, the guard might wait as long as two or three in the morning before checking on her right before the Sheriff returned to take her product video for the early morning showing.
She shuddered at the thought, and her empty stomach lurched. She gagged, but there was nothing to come up, and she kept pushing forward as she wretched.
“Get it together,” she muttered to herself. “You can’t let this get to you. Stay focused.”
She continued chanting to herself; stay focused, stay calm, keep going.
Her mantra worked, and pretty soon, she was over the hill and heading downward on a gentle slope.
A sudden shot rang out, and she almost screamed as it echoed off the rock formations that surrounded the area. The shot hadn’t been close to her, but it had been close enough, and she was certain it had come from behind.
She didn’t know how she knew it, but she was sure that the Sheriff had discovered that she was missing.
Run! the little voice in her head screamed, and Hannah took off as fast as her tired legs could carry her. She watched the ground as she did so she didn’t trip, and her going was so much slower than she should have been able to go. But her limbs still convulsed every few minutes with the after effects of the Taser, and she couldn’t quite lift her feet as high as she needed to. The final result was a frustrating pace that felt more like running through thick mud than on soft but firm ground.
Still listening behind her, she dashed down the trail as fast as she could even though she didn’t hear any sign that they were on her trail. There were so many directions she could have gone once she escaped from the barn, she hoped that they wouldn’t have any idea which way to start looking.
Her side ached, and her legs were getting harder to move when she finally slowed down. She still had no idea what time it was, but she felt like she’d been in the woods for hours, and the sky was starting to look lighter. She was tired, and her mouth was bone dry. Her stomach burned with hunger, but her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth was distracting her from the hunger. She had to find water and soon. Once the sun came up and the temperature climbed into the hundreds again, she wouldn’t last long without water.
After water, she would have to find shelter. Then, she would figure out her next move.
***
Dale was sound asleep, dreaming of the auction coming later in the day, when someone burst into the one room cabin that he was sleeping in, throwing the door open so hard that it bounced off the wall with a loud crack.
“What in the hell?” he said angrily. “What’s going on?”
“She’s gone,” the man said.
“What do you mean she’s gone?” he yelled, rolling over in bed and looking at the clock. “It’s two in the morning. How in the world did she get away when just two hours ago she was passed out and tied up in a locked horse stall?!”
The man paled, and Dale got out of his bed, not even caring that he was wearing only his boxers. He slipped on his boots and stormed out of the cabin with the man right behind him.
“I didn’t leave my post, Boss, and I checked on her at two like you requested. When I went to the stall, she was gone.”
“How did she get out?” Dale roared as he threw the barn doors open and turned on the overhead light. “How in the hell did she get out of the stall and then get out of the barn without you seeing her?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is that all you have to say, you worthless fool?” Dale said, turning on the man.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry isn’t going to save my life when the clients want to know where their treasure is. Sorry isn’t going to fix this.”
Dale huffed his way down the aisle and up to the stall.
“It’s still locked, Sir. I don’t know how she got out.”
“Are you sure she’s out?”
“I looked everywhere.”
“Look again,” Dale said, kicking the wall in front of him in anger.
The wood bent beneath his foot and then sprung back, revealing a door.
“What is this?” Dale shrieked, his eyes growing wide. “Why haven’t I seen this before?”
“The metal is rusted the same color as the wood,” the man offered.
“Obviously, Hannah saw it, and she was able to get it open. She could be anywhere by now.”
“Or she could be stuck in the barn.”
“Did you station someone on the door while you came and got me?” The man’s face went blank. “That’s what I thought. She could have left when you left the barn unattended like an imbecile.”
The man sputtered and tried to make excuses, but Dale was beyond angry. He stepped forward, and before the man knew what was happening, Dale took the gun off his hip and shot him under the chin. He stopped talking abruptly, stood rigid for a split second, and then fell in a crumpled heap on the ground.
Dale walked away, leaving the man where he’d fallen.
Keith appeared in the doorway, looking pale.
“What happened?” he said, looking at the man on the floor.
“I don’t have time for idiots,” Dale said. “Get rid of him.”
“Get rid of him?” Keith stuttered.
“Yes. He’s dead; move his body out of the way so I don’t have to look at him anymore.”
“I can’t move him by myself. He’s huge.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” Dale said, walking out of the barn to the men that were gathered a short distance away. “We have missing product,” Dale said, addressing the men. “We have no idea how long she’s been on the run or which way she went.” He looked down at his watch and grimaced. “You have two hours to find her or we’re going to have big problems.”
The men looked at each other, but no one moved.
“Well, get on with it now,” Dale said, and the men scattered.
Dale heard Keith behind him, but he didn’t bother turning around.
“I don’t want to see your face until that man is gone,” he said, and without another word, he walked away and left Keith standing there in the dark.
He heard the man curse to himself, then the muffled sound of a boot connecting with lifeless flesh as Keith gave the guard’s body a hard kick in frustration. When Keith started retching, it was all Dale could do to keep from turning around and adding to the body count. He shook his head and walked away. He would eliminate Keith later, but for now, he had bigger problems.
He went back to the cabin and dressed hastily. The entire day, the men had been dropping the ball, and it was time that Dale took matters into his own hands. Hannah was much too valuable, and it was obvious that she was smarter than the men that Dale employed to do his dirty work. How one tiny little slip of a thing like Hannah got away with that many guards surrounding the area was beyond him. He had to admire her moxie, even if he did intend to rough her up a bit when he finally caught her.
His eyes went to the barn when he stepped back out into the night, and a shadow along the wall caught his eye. Curious enough to spend precious time investigating, he grabbed his flashlight off his hip and clicked it on. When the light caught the hole going under the barn’s wall, he shook his head. Upon closer inspection, the outer layer of dirt was completely dry, which meant she had dug this hole more than an hour before.
She hadn’t been unconscious when he’d checked on her, and he’d be willing to bet that she’d worked her way out of that stall before he’d even settled in to sleep.
He looked at his watch and sucked in a quick breath. It was nearly three. She’d been on the run for three hours and she could be anywhere. But when Dale followed the line of sight from the hole north, he was sure that he knew which way she went.
He smiled. She’d chosen the roughest path, and if she had just gone south, she could have made it to the highway and hitch-hiked out of Glen Rose in thirty minutes. Instead, she’d headed into the wildlife area of the massive start part, dozens of miles from civilization. If she didn’t get eaten by a mountain lion first, she would end up falling off a cliff or something worse. He may not get his merchandise back, but she wouldn’t be ratting him out either. If she survived the night, she’d be dead from exposure and the soaring temperatures by mid-afternoon.
He would have to find another girl like Hannah to add to the auction site, but he still had an hour to find Hannah and get her in the system. And since he knew where she was going, he had the advantage.
There was a four-wheeler parked by the cabin. A newer, narrower model with a higher top speed, it would get him through the woods in record time. She might have almost three hours lead time, but this vehicle would close that gap quick, and Hannah would find herself right back where she started. Except this time, Dale would shackle her around the neck and make sure that she couldn’t possibly get away. Besides, the clients like their merchandise feisty, and it didn’t get much feistier than Hannah. If he caught her, her price would quadruple, and that would make his client very happy.
He amended the thought. Not if but when he caught her. He wasn’t about to let the biggest payday of his life walk away on his watch. Dale valued his life and his bank account too much to ever let that happen.
The engine roared to life, and he raced down the trail, grin so wide that he looked like an insane clown from a horror movie. He wondered if she had heard the gun go off when he’d shot the guard, and he hoped she had. She would be scared and frantic, and that’s when she would be careless. And hunting a careless teen running scared in the woods was Dale’s specialty.