22
Robyn had her nose in the air when suddenly her ears went back and she growled. “Did you hear that, girl?” Ahmed asked.
“Hear what?” Cy asked as they came to a stop.
“Rifle shot,” Ahmed said simply.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Will said. They’d just started moving when Ahmed had stopped them.
“It’s too hard to judge where it came from. It could be miles away. But we heard it, didn’t we, Spawn?”
Robyn growled in response and looked off somewhere in the woods before putting her nose in the air and sniffing again. Her short tail went rigid as she found what she was looking for.
“Search,” Ahmed ordered and the rust-colored dog took off down the bank of the stream.
“Give me a gun,” Gemma ordered. “I left mine in the helicopter.”
“Ma’am, I can’t give you a police-issued weapon,” Deputy Tanner said again with his hands on his hips.
“I may have some locked in the ladies’ club across the street. Let me check,” Agnes called out cheerfully before hurrying out the door. Gemma rolled her eyes. It was six-thirty and Gemma wanted to get to the woods before daylight. She looked out the window of the police station into the twilight and saw Agnes using a key to unlock a door across the street. A second later she straightened with a rifle in her hands.
Right now she didn’t care that a granny had a gun. In Keeneston, it was commonplace and apparently it was in Moonshine as well. The Rose sisters looked hung over but surprisingly spry for so early in the morning.
“Here you go, dear,” Agnes called out as she entered the police station with the rifle.
“Thank you,” Gemma said with a sign of relief. The weapon looked brand-new.
“Here you go, ma’am,” Dale said, handing her a box of ammo. “Do you know how to use this?”
Gemma leveled a glare at him, and Dale quickly stepped back. Members of the Mountaineers club were on hand along with some older men and women of town. The men were going to help in the search while the women were providing food, water, and communications.
“We will break into three groups. Each group will be headed up by either FBI Agent Ryan Parker, Kentucky State Trooper DeAndre Drews, or me. This is the man, and he’s armed and dangerous,” Luke called out as he held up a picture of Mick. “Stay away from him and let law enforcement engage him if it comes to that. Our main objective is to find Reagan Davies and Carter Ashton.” Luke held up their pictures next and passed all three pictures around.
“Agnes and Vilma have the map, and you’ll report back to them with your locations every ten minutes,” Luke stated as he pointed to the path Carter and Reagan had taken. “There’s a group following with a dog here. And we believe Mick was last tracked here. As you see, they’re all coming toward us. Let’s give them a warm welcome. Let’s go,” Luke called out.
Gemma was out the door and hopping into the back of Dale’s pickup before Luke called out. “Gemma!’
“We’ll meet you there,” Gemma called out as she leaned over and offered her hand to Kenna. “Let’s go, Dale!”
The truck roared to life, filled with people from Dale’s club, and took off down the road. Soon. She’d have her baby in her arms soon.
Reagan’s chest burned. Her ankle felt as if it were on fire. But she didn’t stop running. She couldn’t stop running. Behind her, Carter followed and Miss Mambo trotted along. She didn’t know how long they’d been running, but she couldn’t take it anymore. Her ankle buckled, and she went down hard. Her knees hit first and then her palms scraped against the dirt path.
“Rea!” Carter called out as he and Miss Mambo slid to a stop behind her. “Are you okay?”
Reagan rolled onto her back and breathed in deeply. She couldn’t let her ankle stop her. She had to keep going. “I’m fine. Just tripped is all.”
Carter stooped down to the ground and felt her ankle. “Does this hurt?” he asked as he pressed on it. It hurt like hell, but Reagan shook her head.
“No, it’s fine. We need to go downstream some. Then we’ll cross back and forth weaving in and out of the deeper forest. But first, see that kudzu over there? We need to get as much of it as possible.”
Reagan followed Carter over to the tree covered in the leafy vine and began pulling. As large strips of vines fell, Reagan gathered them up and brought them over to Miss Mambo. Slowly she worked the vines down the mare’s neck and around her belly. By the time she was through, the horse looked like a walking bush.
Carter followed her to the stream next. Reagan bent down and scooped up mud from the shallow water’s edge and smeared it on her face, arms, and shirt. “You do it too. We need to blend in as much as possible. It’ll make us a harder target.”
Carter nodded, grabbed the mud and covered himself as Reagan attempted to cross the stream. The water seemed calm. Reagan could hear the waterfall they had passed and hoped the worse of the quick-flowing water was past them. Making her way slowly across, she breathed a sigh of relief. “Come on, it’s clear.”
Carter and Miss Mambo made their way across until it was time to run again. Reagan quickly took in the landscape, noting the best positions for hiding, the best locations for sniper fire, and the best paths to take down the mountain. There was no hiding it now. Mick would know they were headed to the valley. If he wasn’t right behind them, he would be trying to get ahead of them. It was up to Reagan to make sure she didn’t lead them into an ambush.
“Rea . . . Reagan!” Carter hissed after another long spell of jogging. “What if Mick is waiting for us?”
She’d been thinking the same thing, but she didn’t think Carter would figure out what she was doing as she constantly looked for ambushes. “I’ve thought about that.”
“I’ve been thinking about that too. He knows we’re following the stream, so why don’t we use that against him. He may know where we are going, but he doesn’t know how we are going to get there.”
“Unless he’s tracking us from behind,” Reagan pointed out. Which brought her back to the problem at hand. They didn’t know where Mick was.
“Let’s go into the woods, get a weapon or two, and head downhill through the deeper woods. We’d blend in more, and hopefully if he’s moved ahead of us, we won’t meet him downstream.”
“Unless he’s tracking us from behind. Which he has been doing the whole time. But the weapons are a good idea,” Reagan told him as they continued down the deer path at a slower pace.
“We can’t take the time to stop. We need to keep moving. I’ll go into the woods and see what I can find. You and Miss Mambo keep walking. I’ll arc around and meet you down the path in fifteen minutes. Okay?” Carter began looking around.
Reagan hated to admit it, but she didn’t like the idea of being separated from Carter. She liked being unarmed even less. “Sounds good. Whistle like a bird before you come out so I know it’s you.”
Carter handed her the vine attached to Miss Mambo and leaned forward to press a quick kiss to Reagan’s lips. “I love you. I will be back. And I will marry you before the day is out.”
Reagan’s lips tilted up into a smile as Carter took off into the woods. “Come on, girl,” she said to Miss Mambo. “We have a wedding to plan.”
Reagan continued to walk as she kept her ears open for unnatural sounds. She knew Carter wasn’t far, but she couldn’t hear him moving around anymore. In fact, it felt as if she were all alone. That was until she heard the crack of a branch behind her.
Reagan spun around, Miss Mambo whinnied, and Reagan came face to face with a baby deer and its mother on the way to the stream. Reagan’s breathing was heavy. Her body was shaking with adrenaline as the two deer moved on. Just as fast as they’d appeared, they disappeared into the dense forest. Miss Mambo nudged her arm and Reagan scratched the mare’s nose. “Sorry about that. I thought it was someone else.”
“You mean me?”
Reagan’s heart stopped at the sound of Mick’s voice. She slowly turned around and found him standing not more than five feet away. If she hadn’t stopped to see the deer, she would have run right into him on the path.
“Do you know how many times I had to cross that damn stream to find you?” he asked as he held a rifle casually in his hands. “I’ve been all through this damn forest looking for you. And here you are. Where’s Carter? And don’t you dare scream to warn him.” Mick’s eyes were cold as he raised the gun and pointed it right at her head. A kill shot. There would be no living, but Carter could live.
Reagan opened her mouth to scream and Mick moved fast. He spun the rifle around, slamming the butt of the gun into Reagan’s face. Pain exploded, sending her to her knees as she gripped her throbbing face. Pressing her fingers to the blooming pain, she struggled to breathe. Reagan and her sister had sparred growing up. Reagan had worked out with Ahmed’s daughter, Abby, in the boxing ring, but none of their hits compared to the pain she felt now.
“Where’s your fiancé? Tell me or I’ll break Miss Mambo’s leg.” Miss Mambo was dancing around nervously as Mick loomed closer.
“He’s right here,” Carter ground out between clenched teeth.
Carter had found what he was looking for. A two-inch javelin like branch with a pointed tip would be perfect for Reagan to use while walking and to protect herself. As he headed back toward the trail, he found a thick, knotted tree branch that would require two hands to swing like a bat. It was perfect for him.
Carter hefted the club branch on one hand and carried the javelin in the other as he made his way toward the path. He whistled out the blue jay’s song and waited. Reagan usually whistled back so he’d know she was expecting him. He paused and waited but heard nothing until he heard the sickening sound of someone getting hit.
He instantly knew Mick had found them. There would be no one else to encounter on the path. Carter crept slowly toward the path, making sure he was well behind Mick before he came out and snuck up behind him.
Reagan was on her knees, tears streaming down her face. Carter didn’t think she noticed him. She was cupping one side of her face, but redness was already spreading out from behind her hand. Anger had Carter silently bending over and placing the sharpened stick on the ground. When he rose he had the club in both hands and was already pulling it back as if it were a baseball bat.
“He’s right here.”
Carter smirked when Mick turned at his voice. He didn’t wait. He swung right at Mick’s head. The branch hit hard and Carter felt the reverberation up his arms as the club took Mick down. Carter looked at him lying unmoving on the ground for a split second before he was on the ground in front of Reagan.
“Are you okay? What did he do to you?” Carter asked as he gently pulled Reagan’s hand from her face and cringed. It was red and angry. He hoped Mick hadn’t broken her cheekbone.
“I’m okay,” Reagan said after throwing her arms around his neck. Carter wrapped his arms around her and hauled her against him. When he stood, he brought her with him.
“We need to go. We can’t be far from that town now, and we need to get you to a doctor.”
Reagan didn’t want to bend over, but she did. Blood rushed to her head as she grabbed Mick’s rifle off the ground, forcing more tears from her eyes, but it was worth it. “Take off your belt and see if you can tie him to the tree, or at least tie his hands. We’ll send the police after him.”
Reagan stood wobbling against the rifle as Carter went to work. Carter reached down and grabbed Mick by the arms before dragging him on his back to a large tree. He used some of the vine attached to Miss Mambo to tie him to the tree trunk. “Come on. If we hurry, we can have the police here before he wakes up.”
Carter felt impatient. He needed to get Reagan out of there. He had to keep her safe. He promised Cy he would protect her with his life, and to do that, he needed her in a hospital and away from these woods and that man. Carter reached out and took her hand in his. He felt the diamond he’d given her twenty-four hours ago press against his palm, and the urgency increased as Reagan swayed slightly.
He looked at the sky and noted it was midmorning. They had to have already run at least three miles, which meant they had around seven to ten more to go. Maybe less. Hopefully less. With that facial injury, running wouldn’t be high on Reagan’s list of things she would want to do.
Carter squeezed Reagan’s hand as they began to quickly walk down the trail. He tried to stay focused on the path in front of them, but it was hard to keep from looking over his shoulder. The last thing he wanted to do was to make Reagan worry. But there was no denying his own worry.