Chapter 27 Capri
Chapter twenty-seven
We hit the floor of the tent in tandem, Josh throwing his body over mine as the sound of the bullet ricochets through the air. The two of us stay frozen in place for what feels like hours before Josh finally shifts his weight off of me and stumbles to his feet.
Stifling a groan, I roll onto my back. I didn’t realize how much I hated the feeling of him on me until he was gone. I know he did it to protect me, but something about it makes me shiver.
“What the hell is happening?” he asks, reaching down to help me to my feet before wrapping me into a firm embrace. “And why on earth is someone running around with a gun?
I half laugh, half cry into his suit. “I wish I knew. I just hope whoever is out there is long gone. And if it was Teagan, then I hope she was smart enough to run and hide.”
Josh brushes a hand through his dark hair, nodding in agreement. “The last thing I remember was coming out of the bathroom. Lex was passed out on the floor of her room. And then, nothing.” Josh releases me, pulling back until his frightened eyes meet mine. “Is she okay? Have you seen her?”
I swallow, shaking my head. “No, I woke up in this tent not long ago. When I came out, there was a man in a ghillie suit. I think he might have hurt the others. What if Lexi is in one of those tents?” I rush out of my tent, and run over to the tent where the woman was screaming and throw the flaps open.
The scent of body odor hits my nostrils fiercely.
I bite back a gag before finally getting a good look at the body on the cot.
“It’s not her,” I sob out. “It’s not Lexi.
Teagan must have run. They’re safe, still. Somewhere. They have to be.”
I don’t know if I’ll survive if something happens to them.
Josh slides to a stop right behind me, his hand resting on my shoulder as we take in the gruesome sight before us.
That feeling of wrongness floods my body at his touch.
I gently shrug him off by stepping further into the tent.
Something about him has always unnerved me.
The way he toys with both Teagan and Lexi irritates me to no end.
But I need his help, so I swallow my discomfort.
The woman is another guest, but I don’t remember her name. She’s wearing a gorgeous gossamer orange dress, and her neck has clearly been broken.
“He did this,” I tell Josh. “That Ghillieman you saw.”
We head back outside as I explain everything I know. Minus telling him about the letter. I want to trust Josh, but the letter said there would be people out there trying to kill me. Another one of Pierce’s mind games, no doubt. I can’t risk my daughter’s life by trusting the wrong person.
“We need to get out of here then.” Josh’s voice hitches with panic as he scans the forest around us. “And we have to find the others.”
I nod, wishing I could share the fact that I need to find my daughter as well. I just can’t risk it, I can’t.
“Let’s gather whatever supplies we can find and get out of here,” I tell him. “We need to get back to Windermere before the sun goes down, so let’s hurry it up. And stay alert, the Ghillieman moves like a ghost in this place.”
Josh grabs the metal bucket and then heads toward the tent with the woman in orange. “I’ll take this side, you start at your tent. We’ll meet in the middle.”
There are six single-person tents in the clearing, so it shouldn’t take us long.
I give him a thumbs up before we both disappear into our respective tents.
My tent doesn’t have much I can use, but I roll the thin black blanket and toss it into the bag where I found my spare clothing before moving on to the next tent.
The tent next to mine smells heavily of a floral perfume.
The aroma lingers in the air, almost as if it were just used by whoever was placed in here.
The blankets are rumpled at the end of the cot.
When I shift them around, I find a golden compact hiding under the pillow.
It’s about the size of my palm, with the letters REG engraved on top.
I wonder who was staying here. I should have looked in all the tents the moment I left mine. Seeing the Ghillieman was so unexpected that I didn’t even think to check.
What if my daughter is in one of these tents?
I shake the thought away. I can’t let the fear of losing her before I’ve found her again overwhelm me. I will find her. There is absolutely no other alternative.
There’s a small clasp on the side of the compact.
Lifting it, I open it carefully, the hinges letting out a soft squeak as I pry it open.
Inside, I find a folded-up note and a black-and-white photo of a young boy glued to the circular wall of the compact.
He’s probably only three or four, and he’s smiling from ear to ear, wearing overalls with a Christmas tree as the backdrop behind him.
I tear my eyes from the photo and unfold the note.
Rebecca,
Do this one last thing for me, and I promise he’ll be all yours again.
— A. M. Pierce
Rebecca must be the person who was in this tent, though I don’t remember meeting anyone by that name at dinner.
I wonder what she thought of the note when she woke up.
Is Pierce holding her child hostage, too?
It seems that I’m not the only pawn in Pierce’s games.
If Rebecca got a letter just like I did, does that mean Josh might have gotten one too?
“Umm, Capri?” Josh calls out. “You need to see this.”
I stuff the compact into my pocket where my own letter hides and hurry out of the tent.
Josh is waiting at the opening to the tent next to me, his face showing an alarmed expression. He doesn’t say anything when I approach him. Instead, he points into the tent.
“What is it?” I ask, my voice quivering in fear. Fear for what I might find once I find the courage to look.
“Just look.” He motions toward the opening with his hand, his eyes wide with an emotion I can’t quite place.
My eyes reluctantly leave him as I slowly step into the tent. My entire body is tense with anxiety at what might be waiting for me on the other side.
Oh.
The inside of the tent doesn’t look anything like the others. The others have had nothing but a dingy cot with paper-thin bedding waiting behind the zippered flaps.
This tent looks like it was put together with love.
The cot in this tent is awash in pastel pink and turquoise bedding. There’s a thick taupe rug with white daisies plastered all over it on the floor. A pair of hot pink Converse is strewn haphazardly onto it, almost as if someone tossed them off before jumping into bed for the night.
It’s the perfect setup for a ten-year-old girl.
I step further into the room, taking it all in.
Could this be where she was? Could my child have been here, so close, and yet ripped away from me again?
There’s a unicorn plush on the bed. I used to have one like this as a child, too.
I pick it up and bring it to my face, inhaling the scent. It smells of lavender and vanilla.
“You okay?” Josh’s voice startles me.
I quickly dab at my face with my sleeve. “Yeah, yep. Fine.”
“Why would Pierce bring a child here? What kind of monster are we dealing with?” The venom in Josh’s voice almost makes me smile. He never seemed very paternal, but here he is, surprising me again.
I turn back toward the tent’s opening and stop in place. There’s a note taped to the wall of the tent just above the opening, a note with my name on it. I quickly avoid eye contact with the wall behind Josh. I don’t want him to turn and see it before I can read it in private.
“Come on, let’s get out of here. There’s nothing we can use,” I say, following Josh out. “Oh, shoot. I should put this back in case the little girl comes looking for it.” I jiggle the unicorn in my hand, inciting a chuckle from Josh.
“I have to take a piss anyway,” he tells me. “I’ll meet you by the firepit in a minute.”
I give him a mock salute, sort of wishing I had hit him harder with that bucket for the bullshit game he’s been playing with both Teagan and Lexi, but he’s my only ally right now.
I wait until he disappears into the tree-line before darting back into the tent. I wrap the unicorn in the blanket and stash it back into my bag, then rip the note off the wall. I’m expecting another sinister note from Pierce, but instead I find a poorly hand-drawn map.
There are six triangles—those must be the tents.
Windermere is labeled, sitting to the east.
It looks like some type of lighthouse just south.
Cliffs lie to the west, and a giant B is written in a circle close to them.
Then there’s a small house nestled right in the middle of all of them with a giant X with small handwriting smudged underneath it.
I bring the map to my face, squinting as I try to read the scribbled note.
You’ll find her here.
Hurry before he finds her first.
-Rebecca
Who is the “he” this note is referring to? And how do I get to this X if I don’t know which way North is? And what does this Rebecca person have to do with any of this? I want to scream in frustration, but I’ll have to settle for pinching the bridge of my nose and squeezing my fist.
I wish Lee were here. He would know what to do. He’s so calm in a crisis, and right now, I’m definitely falling into crisis mode.
“Capri?” Josh’s voice hits me like a shot to the heart. How do I save my child and keep her safe if I don’t know who to trust?
All I know is I can’t let Josh see this map. Not until I know who the “he” is.
I fold the map up and shove it into my pants, my hand skimming against the cool metal of the compact. It feels like all my secrets are seconds away from burning a hole in my pocket, exposing me from the inside out.
Josh is standing by the fire pit when I finally exit the tent. “Which way do you think the castle is?” he asks, shuffling his bucket from one arm to the other. It looks like it’s filled with black bedding, just like my own bag.
I shrug, breathing in the thick scent of the forest surrounding us. “Do you happen to have a compass? Because if not, then I have no idea.”
Josh lets out a frustrated sigh. “Fresh out of compasses, I’m afraid.”
I knew that, but the disappointment I feel is still heavy.
“Let’s just head that way until we run into something, or someone,” Josh suggests, pointing down one of the several paths surrounding the campsite. “I wouldn’t want the Ghillieman to come back and break our necks because we took too long to leave this stupid place.”
We start down the path closest to us. We’ve barely crossed the threshold into the tree-line when a gunshot rings through the air. The bullet hits a tree next to Josh’s head, wood exploding loudly.
“Run!” he yells, grabbing my hand and pulling me back toward a different path.
Another bullet hits the tree next to us before we pivot and take off down a different path.
“We need to get out of here!” I yell, ducking low and running as fast as my short legs can.
“No shit, Sherlock!” Josh snaps back, turning us back toward another path.
Another gunshot, another bullet in another tree high above our heads.
“Wait!” I come to a stop, leaves cascading from the sky in a soft embrace around us from the last shot. We’re both breathing heavily as Josh stares daggers down at me.
“Why are we stopping! Are you trying to get us killed?”
The shooter isn’t trying to hit us. They are shooting near us, but only when we start down a new path. My heart beats in sync with my rapid breathing.
I think the shooter might be trying to show us the way.
“Stay here!” I shout at Josh, then I run back to the first path we took, praying that I’m right and not about to get gunned down for pure idiocy.
The next shot blares through the air, and the bullet hits above me, showering me with pine needles and twigs.
“Capri! What are you doing?”
Something not stupid, I hope.
I’ll test my theory one last time before explaining it to him. I hurl myself down one of the other routes we chose. I nearly shout with glee when the bullet hits high above me again.
I have to be right, I have to be. This is totally the type of mind game I expect Pierce to play.
Racing back to Josh, I grab his arm and pull him along with me. I nearly cheer for joy when we reach the last open path, and run through with no gunshots to be heard.