Chapter 28 Capri
Chapter twenty-eight
“The shooter was trying to lead us to the correct path!” I shout, my legs turning to jelly beneath me as I struggle to keep up with Josh’s long strides.
We’ve probably run at least two or three miles by now, jogging the last mile or so at a snail’s pace through this never-ending forest. Neither of us wanted to risk stopping until we put some significant distance between ourselves and the shooter.
Josh finally skids to a halt a few paces ahead of me. I scream as he throws his arm out, catching me before I hit the deep slope ahead of us and fall into a creek.
“Thanks,” I gasp, gripping him hard with my sweat-slicked skin before falling to my knees.
He plops down next to me, panting heavily as he runs his hands over his face. The dry blood flakes like confetti onto his suit jacket. “Explain that again.”
I groan, exhaustion seeping into my soul, and lie my body on top of the damp earth. Staring up at the forest foliage, I tell him my theory again.
Josh lies next to me, his breathing rapid like my own. “I mean, I guess I could see why you’d think that,” he says after a beat. “But what if the shooter wanted us to run this way so the Ghillieman could hunt us down?”
My eyes widen, and I shoot to my feet. “I didn’t think of that,” I say in a hushed whisper, my eyes searching the forest surrounding us.
Before I can tell Josh to get up and start running again, we hear a loud shout from somewhere.
“COME AND GET ME YOU AXE-SLINGING DOUCHECANOE! You wanted me, you got me!”
Josh and I look at each other in both shock and awe—because we'd recognize that voice anywhere.
“Lexi!” We shout at the same time before running in the direction of her voice.
“Wait!” Josh grinds to a halt when we reach a fork in the forest. “You go that way, I’ll go this way! Eventually, we have to meet back up.”
I gnaw on my lip. “I don’t think we should split up. It could be another one of Pierce’s ploys.”
Josh’s hands cup my face roughly, forcing me to look up at him. I flinch before meeting his bright eyes. “Trust me, please?” he pleads. “We can’t let them get away, Capri.”
I shake my head, slipping out of his grasp. “Okay. But if you die out there, I’m going to be so pissed.”
“Same goes to you,” he says, grinning, swinging his metal bucket back and forth. “See you on the other side!”
I take the opposite path, jogging at a quick pace. My lungs are on fire. My body has hit its breaking point. But I can’t stop. Every so often, I pause and wait for Lexi to yell again. She’s not as close as I initially thought, but whoever she’s yelling at must have really pissed her off.
Lexi’s taunting voice rings through the air again, “COME OUT, COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE!”
It sounds like it’s coming from behind me, while also above me. I’m at the bottom of some type of hillside.
“Echoes,” I mumble to myself. “Her voice is echoing off the hills.” I start running deeper into the forest, hoping to find an opening so I can find a way to climb up. Being up high is always an advantage, right?
Another voice shouts from ahead. Only this time it’s definitely a man’s voice. “HELP! LEE! LEX!”
I stop short, my heart thumping in time with my frantic breathing. Did he just say, Lee?
“LEE!” My voice comes out like a strangled whisper as fear and relief engulf my senses. Choking sobs escape my throat as I propel myself forward.
I can’t give up now. Not when I’m so close. I make a silent promise to tell Lee everything about my past the moment we’re reunited. I’m not leaving this place without him and my daughter both safely in my arms.
My body gets a second wind as I race around the hill, searching in earnest for a spot to climb.
It’s useless. There are no paths that lead up, and the hillside is flat and barren, almost as if it’s been made to be unclimbable just to torture us.
Every time I think I have a handhold, the dirt crumbles beneath my fingers.
There’s no way to climb it. It’s only ten feet or so, which makes my failure cut even deeper.
My people are right up there.
“I’m coming, Lee! Lexi! I’m coming!” I try to shout, my voice hoarse and dry.
I’m exhausted. Dehydrated. Nearly dead on my feet. But I can’t stop. I have to find a way up. I have to help them.
There’s a guttural, terrifying, and definitely female wail from somewhere above. I look to the sky and watch a person dressed in black fall from the ledge just a few yards away from where I’m standing. I can do nothing but stare and wait in horror as the person falls to their death.
Except the body doesn’t hit the ground the way I expect it to. They don’t hit the ground with a sickening thump. Instead, their body hits the ground, then bounces several times before coming to a complete stop, almost as if there’s a trampoline hidden under the debris of the forest floor.
What is happening?
The person has an axe in their hands, making their body look abnormally twisted. They shift their head towards me, and I see that their face is covered in some sort of ski mask.
The person moves again, a strangled groan escaping their lips. The mask slips askew so that I can make out masculine features.
I can’t move.
Can’t breathe.
Black spots plague my vision.
No, no, no. Please don’t be Lee. Please don’t be Lee.
My knees buckle, and the last thing I see before my world goes dark is the axe. Why is it taped to their hand?.
There’s a strange pounding in my head. It’s as though someone is taking a hammer to my skull.
Thump, thump, thump.
“Wake up, lass. Please wake up.”
Thump, thump, thump.
I drift in and out of consciousness, the thumping lulling me to sleep, then pulling me back to reality.
“It’s official. I’m going to die out here. I didn’t even get to plant a kiss on my favorite, sassy, blonde. Even after all that work I had to do with my tongue to get this tape off my mouth.”
Thump, thump, thump.
Someone’s voice floats through my ears, a voice with a thick Scottish accent.
“Lexi definitely would’ve woken up and saved me by now.”
Thump, thump, thump.
“If that rat bastard had tossed Lee off the cliff, I bet you’d be awake by now.”
Lee.
I open my eyes, squinting into the brightness. I’m on the forest floor. Twigs dig into my ribcage as damp leaves coat my face. The smell of pine and mud coats my nostrils.
“About bloody time! Capri, isn’t it? I’m your husband’s newest best friend, and I’m sure he’d be quite sad to know that you left me to wither away and die while you napped away so peacefully.”
My head pounds painfully, and my throat feels like sandpaper when I try to swallow. I finally pull myself to a seated position to take in my surroundings. The man with the weird shoes is sitting next to me.
“Lochlan?” I rasp out, getting shakily to my feet.
The axe taped to his hands thumps against the ground again. Well, that explains the strange hammering noise in my head.
I kneel beside him and carefully pull the mask off his face. “What happened to you?” I ask, removing the duct tape from his hands as gently as I possibly can. He winces as it tears the skin on his hands, but grins up at me once the axe falls from his grip.
He rubs his wrists. “Thanks for that. It’s hard to wake someone when you have an axe taped to your hands.
I was too scared to yell and bring the Axeman down to you,” he explains in a rush.
“That crazy Axeman thought it’d be a real fun joke to dress me up as him and have Lex throw me off the ledge.
She probably thinks she killed me.” His voice cracks with emotion, and I can’t help but be grateful that Lexi had him on her team during this.
“What about Lee? What happened to him? I ask, my own voice heavy with fear.
Lochlan sighs. “The last I saw of him, he was alive. Injured, but alive. The Axeman ambushed me and grabbed me from behind. I tried to fight him, but he told me that if I wanted to save Lex and Lee, I had to play dead. Some twisted bugger, that one.”
Lochlan looks up at me, surprising me with a fiendish grin. “But I guess we’ll show them, won’t we, lass. Now help me up so we can take this axe and finish the job. I call dibs on the fancy author.”
He tries to stand and groans in pain.
“Wait!” I order. “Now I don’t know what the hell happened to you guys, but I have people I need to protect, too.
Before we can do any of that, I need to make sure you’re okay.
” My voice rises with hysterics as I look him over.
“In case you didn’t realize, you just fell from a freaking cliff, Lochlan!
You could have internal injuries. You could be paralyzed! ”
Lochlan scoffs, getting to his feet. “Not paralyzed, obviously. My ribs hurt a bit, but that bouncy mat thing broke my fall.” He points to the spot where he fell, and I see the black nylon trampoline buried in the earth.
Another one of Pierce’s mind games. I can’t imagine what Lexi must be feeling right now. She may act all hardcore, but that girl loves fiercely. I know she’d never be able to live with killing someone she cared about.
Lochlan faces me, placing his hands on his hips in such a Lexi way. “I’m going after them with or without you, but Lee would kill me, for real this time, if I left you behind.” His smile is adorably magnetic.
I gaze up at this man, who is basically a stranger, and find myself smiling back.
Can I trust him? What would Lee do?
There’s something about Lochlan that calls to me, begging me to let my guard down. I may not know this guy, but something tugs at me, urging me to trust him.
“Okay, I’m in. But there’s something else I need to do first,” I agree, before pulling out the map I found in my daughter’s tent. “Do you know what any of this means?”
Lochlan takes the map from me and gently opens it. Analyzing it in full. “That’s gotta be the bunker,” he says, pointing to the circle with the B written in it.
Bunker? What bunker?
It’s as if Lochlan reads my mind because seconds later, he explains how they found a bunker in the woods filled with clothing, food, water, and most importantly, weapons.
“Well, that’s convenient,” I spit out harsher than I mean to. “Sorry, I’m just a little annoyed that you guys got food and weapons and all I got was Josh and this drab outfit.” I gesture to the black ensemble and laugh when I notice Lochlan is wearing the exact same thing.
“Josh? Lexi’s Josh?”
I grimace. “Eww, don’t call him that,” I say in disgust. “Crap, I should probably find him. We were supposed to meet up here after we separated to find Lexi.”
Lochlan goes eerily quiet, refusing to meet my eyes.
“What is it?” My lungs struggle with each breath as I wait for whatever hammer to drop.
“He uh. He did come back,” Lochlan mumbles.
My brows furrow in confusion before he continues.
“I thought it was the Axeman coming back to finish the job after Lex pushed me, so I pretended to stay dead a little longer.” He stretches his arms above his head and winces.
“But it was Josh. I was going to shout out to him, but something about his demeanor stopped me. He walked over to you, rummaged through your bag, then took off again.”
What? What was he looking for?
The map.
“He must be the one Rebecca warned me about,” I gasp, pointing to the note written on the map. Josh must have woken up with his own little note from Pierce, too. “We have to get there before he does.”
Lochlan smirks before turning his attention back to the map.
“He’ll have a joy of a time catching up.
He’s going in the wrong direction. Plus,” he says, his fingers tap the small house in the center of everything.
“I know where this is. It’s not far from here, I don’t think.
We woke up there before being chased by an axe-wielding lunatic.
We can hit the bunker first since it’s on the way. Grab weapons and supplies.”
Hope ignites inside me.
That’s where I’ll find my daughter.
“Okay,” I finally say. “Let’s get to the bunker and arm up. After that, we have to find that cabin.”
We make our way through the forest in silence for a while before Lochlan speaks. “What’s so important about the cabin?”
I look over at Lochlan’s kind face again as we walk side by side. I don’t know what I’m searching for, but again, something inside urges me to trust him. It’s nothing like the feeling I got when I thought about trusting Josh with this information. Now I know why.
Josh is the person hunting for her. She must be his ticket out of here.
“My daughter,” I confess. “She’s what’s waiting in that cabin. And I’ll kill whoever I have to with my bare hands to get her back.”
Lochlan lets out a low whistle. “And I thought Lexi was cut-throat. She’s got nothing on you, mama bear.” He bumps my shoulder with his own, earning a small smile. “Now let’s go get our girls back. All of them.”