Chapter Fourteen
Rowe
He was instantly on edge as he saw the happiness fade from her face.
“Where?” was the only thing he said as she hung up the phone.
“The northern edge. Step on it.”
The ATV was already revving as he waited impatiently for Cheryl to seat herself. He wanted to take off at a frenzied pace, but if he did that and lost her off the back, it would just undo everything. So he waited the extra seconds for her to be secure before launching them across the trail faster than ever.
“What’s going on?” he shouted.
“Someone went missing.”
Rowe’s blood ran cold.
“What do you mean? Could they just be lost?” It was a futile hope, but he needed to try.
“They went into the forest at break time.” Cheryl had to lean forward and shout into his ear to be heard through the muffle of her helmet and the rushing wind as he took them at the fastest possible safe speed to the forest edge. “They never came back. Except they left all their stuff.”
“They could have decided they were just done.”
He felt Cheryl shake her head. “Workers like that don’t abandon thousands of dollars’ worth of tools. Plus you heard what the guy said yesterday. The money being offered for this job is way better than anywhere else. No, something happened, Rowe, I can feel it.”
She could feel it, but he knew it. Things had just escalated, and if he didn’t get there soon, they were going to end up in a bad way. Only his presence could stop it. He just hoped they wouldn’t be too late.
“Hang on tight,” he shouted, waiting until her arms clung to him even harder.
Then he opened the throttle entirely. The green ATV practically flew over the ground.
“Rowe, do we need to go this fast?”
He didn’t answer, focusing on the ground ahead of them as they neared their destination. All Rowe needed was for her to hang on a little longer and then they would be there. The trees were starting to grow, and as the four-wheeler climbed the gentle slope toward the tree line he saw a few heads appear over the top of the ridge. So close.
“Rowe, why the rush?!” she shouted again.
He bit down on his tongue hard until he tasted blood. The only answer he could give right now that she would understand would be a lie, and that wasn’t something he was prepared to do. It would be better to just not answer at all.
The ATV came barreling over the top of the ridge, and two people scattered as he hit the brakes and turned it sideways, skidding to an abrupt halt. The tires dug deep and mud sprayed up, thankfully missing any of the waiting workers.
“Where?” It was all he said, but the cool hardness of his features brooked no argument, and made it clear he wanted no extraneous information.
One of the men just pointed into a specific spot in the forest. Rowe was off like a lightning bolt, leaving the frantically shouting Cheryl behind. It bothered him immensely to treat her like that, but time was of the essence, and he simply couldn’t spare any. If what he suspected was actually happening, they had a very, very limited amount of time indeed.
His booted feet crashed through the forest, making plenty of noise, but he no longer cared if anyone heard him coming. Nothing could stop him. Perhaps a hundred feet into the forest he came to a halt, a lone man in a white long-sleeve shirt sticking out like a sore thumb.
“This his stuff?” he asked, pointing at a backpack and jacket on the forest floor.
The man spun, somehow not having heard Rowe approach. One look at the dragon shifter’s face and he just nodded. “Yeah, that’s his.”
Rowe knelt, grabbed the jacket, and took a deep whiff of the scent. Yuck, somebody needed to shower more often. Wrinkling his nose in distaste he rose, sniffing at the air. Immediately he picked up half a dozen scents.
There were only four workers assigned to this area.
Most of them led back to the forest edge. Three, however, went deeper into the forest. Behind him Cheryl came into the small clearing. He whirled on her.
“Stay here,” he ordered, letting his dragon slip into his voice, layering steel over and under his command, so that she would understand the urgency of his order and not be tempted to rebel and follow him.
Cheryl reared back, looking scared, but she nodded.
Rowe was off, darting through the underbrush, ducking around trees. The path was tough to spot, but three people couldn’t travel together without leaving any signs for someone as experienced as he. The scent became stronger as he ran, until he knew he had to be right on top of them.
The undergrowth thickened abruptly, presenting a near-impenetrable wall. Rowe didn’t even slow down, he just lowered his head and let his dragon do the rest. Malachite scales layered themselves upon his head, rippling down until they covered his neck as he barged through, preventing him from earning any scratches.
Three people were on the other side. Two men, tall, lanky, and with shaggy hair down to their ears stood with their backs to him. Between them was the worker, sitting with his hands behind his back, facedown on the ground, but still breathing.
Thanking his stars that he was in time, Rowe came to a halt, the scales disappearing as fast as they came. The two men turned, swift and sure on their feet. Matching black hair waved with their movement. Twins then, he judged. They both had the same long face, thin lips, and bushy eyebrows.
“Well well, what do we have here?” one of them taunted.
As one they took two steps to the side, trying to flank him. Rowe smiled. They had been so intent on their prisoner it seemed, that they hadn’t paid any attention to his arrival. They weren’t aware he was different. He stayed perfectly still, letting them come to him. The longer they operated under the idea he was a terrified friend coming to help his coworker, the better. Not that they’d have a chance to realize they were up against something decidedly stronger than a human. If the thought ever occurred to them.
“Just let him go.” It pained him to try and make his voice quaver, but despite a distinct lack of acting skills, the two overconfident idiots bought it.
“No, I don’t think so.” The non-taunting twin spoke up. This was the brains of the outfit then, Rowe decided. Calmer, more thoughtful than his violent brother.
On the ground the worker rolled over. His eyes opened wide when he saw Rowe, and he started trying to speak, but they’d duct-taped his mouth shut.
“It’s going to be okay,” he assured the scared laborer, wishing he knew his name. “Trust me.”
“I wouldn’t,” the wilder twin cackled. “Everything is most decidedly not going to be okay. In fact, it’s going to get worse now that there’s two of you.”
They started to tighten their pincer on Rowe, closing from both sides. He stayed put, watching them out of the corners of his eyes. When they started to exit his peripheral vision, he took two quick steps backward, putting the thick wall of undergrowth to his back. That way they wouldn’t be able to get behind him.
The more unhinged of the twins snarled, taking a step closer on his right. Rowe’s immediate thought was to focus his attention on him because of his eagerness to attack, but he realized that it was a ruse. An act. The other one, the quieter twin, he would be the one to strike first. These two had played this out many times before, to the point they had it down to a system.
Too bad Rowe didn’t play by their rules.
“Let’s get on with this, shall we?”
They both paused at his sudden disdain for them, and he saw a sliver of uncertainty cross the face of the man on his left. What had been a meek, scared “friend to the rescue” wasn’t acting the way they’d expected.
“Ugh, fine. If you won’t lead, I will.” Rowe stepped out with this foot, nudging his toe under a fallen piece of tree. With a swift kick he sent the two-foo- long section flying at the man on his right.
Without waiting to see if it landed he sprang into action, ducking low and delivering a hit to the leader-twin’s knee. At the last second he remembered to hold back, since the worker he’d come to rescue was watching the fight. If Rowe did what he wanted and covered his fist in ridged scales to obliterate his foe’s knee, that would be an issue.
Instead he just hit hard enough to snap something, sending up a shriek of pain. He rose, expecting to drive his shoulder into the man’s head as he bent over his wound, but the man was more skilled than he’d thought. Rowe got to his feet without encountering resistance, only to see a jab headed for his throat.
His hands got there just in time, deflecting the blow aside. He hated having to act human, but now was not the time for his secret to come out. These two had to go down in a very normal fashion. Assuming they decided to keep it that way. He desperately hoped they would.
There was a roar from behind him and Rowe dove out of the way as the other brother reentered the fray, holding the log he’d kicked at him in both hands. As he went down he reached out, grabbed the one with the hurt knee, and whipped him around.
The log descended, breaking across his brother’s back with a loud snap. Rowe almost felt bad, because the blow flung him forward just as Rowe hit the ground, and brought his knees to his chest. The hapless twin took both knees to the stomach and rolled aside, gasping for the air that had just been driven from his lungs.
Row kicked out, depositing the still-standing shifter on his back. He crawled atop him like a monkey and the pair rolled around, trading blows for a few seconds, each trying to get the upper hand. His hand finally snaked under the man’s neck, and he tightened down immediately.
Fists and nails dug at his arm trying to dislodge it, but Rowe had a good hold. It was locked in now.
“Come closer and I break his neck,” he snarled as the first attacker hobbled to his feet, looking quite the worse for wear.
The fight paused, but he didn’t let up on the pressure.
“What do you want?” the leader, probably the elder, asked calmly, finally regaining his breath.
“I let him go, you two leave. That’s it. Try anything, and I kill you both, no hesitation.”
“Do we have your word?”
Rowe pursed his lips at the choice of wording. Although the fight may have seemed mostly normal to the worker, it hadn’t been for all parties involved.
“Yes. If you don’t return. If you come back, I make no promises of what may or may not happen.”
“Fine.”
Rowe released his hold and pushed the near-limp body off of him. It rolled near facedown into the leaves and branches on the forest floor. He picked himself up, watching as the two brothers leaned on each other and then disappeared into the forest. He watched them go, noticing that the direction they were headed was deeper into the forest, away from the edge. That was worth noting.
Once he was confident they weren’t going to try and circle back and catch him unawares, he went to the worker, ripping the tape from his mouth and undoing the rope around his wrists and ankles.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Now came the tricky part. What had the man all seen?
“I’m fine, yes. They didn’t hurt me.”
“That’s good. Tell me, what happened?”
The worker shook his head. “It was break time. I had to take a whiz, you know? So I walked into the forest, plopped my stuff down. I was gonna take a leak and then just relax, have a sandwich. I’m fucking starving.”
“Yes, yes, what happened next?” He needed to get the important parts from him, not all his life’s details.
“Then these two men came at me. They hit me a few times to stun me, tied me up and put the duct tape on, and then hauled me back here.”
“That’s it?” Rowe needed to be absolutely sure that’s all that had happened.
“Yeah. Wait, no!”
His blood froze. Shit.
“They said they had some sort of message for me or something. They were kinda arguing about it between themselves when you showed up. They never said what.”
Rowe relaxed. “That’s it? They hit you a few times, carried you here, and then started arguing?”
The worker nodded, finally feeling well enough to stand on his own feet. “Yeah. Man, I owe you big. I don’t know who they were, but I was a goner without you.”
“You’re fine now,” he assured him.
“Maybe,” the worker said, looking warily into the forest. “But what if they come back? You can’t be everywhere. Why the hell did they do this, anyway?” He shook his head. “I bet you it’s the same people that tagged the silo.”
Rowe didn’t say anything. He grabbed the tape and rope, not wanting to leave it in the forest, and pointed the man out of the clearing. “Come on, let’s get you back to the others. They’ll be worrying about us both by this point I’m sure.”
“Yeah. That’s a good idea.”
They walked back in silence, neither speaking. The worker was probably reliving what had happened to him, preparing his story for the million questions he would receive from the others.
Rowe was just trying to figure out what message it might have been that they were going to try and deliver. Just another more pointed way of telling them all to leave? He wasn’t sure, but whatever it was, he doubted the next time was going to be as peaceful.
He needed to be ready.