Chapter 4
FOUR
He’s qualified to professionally kiss all of your boo-boos better.
BAILEY
Well, he’d seen me now. It wasn’t as if I had the option to flee without him noticing me now. And really, he was in the process of destroying a hut that was already mostly broken, but that didn’t mean his actions were okay. Some people probably loved this spot, and here he was, desecrating it.
Drawing in a deep breath, I stepped forward. “What are you doing?”
The man swore and glanced sideways. “You were supposed to be acting as a lookout, fuckface.”
Yikes. He wasn’t alone. Perhaps I ought to get out of here.
“Vandalism isn’t okay,” I said sternly because my mouth was moving more quickly than my brain this afternoon.
These people might not mean me any harm, but I doubted that vandals were generally nice guys, and I was all alone out here.
“Shut up,” the guy snapped, then swiped his hair back off his forehead. “Fuck. Any bright ideas?”
Was he talking to me?
I couldn’t tell for sure, since the other person was out of view. I didn’t even know if they were a man or a woman.
“She’s seen us now,” he continued, glancing sideways. “We can’t let anyone stop us from finding it. If we’re arrested…”
“I’ll be on my way.” I checked that I’d picked up everything I’d dropped and slowly backed away. I had an awful feeling about this. “You guys keep doing your thing. No need for anyone to be arrested.”
“Stop!” the man cried, and, to my horror, my feet obeyed him, and I halted in my tracks. “Why don’t you come over here?”
I jabbed my thumb over my shoulder. “Uh, no thank you. I’m going to head off now.”
“Grab her,” the guy ordered whoever he was with.
I jolted into motion, my anxiety spiking. Unfortunately, I hadn’t made it more than a meter when the guy with the shovel cursed his companion for a coward and charged at me.
Oh fuck.
I was in trouble.
This man was easily several inches taller than me and fifty pounds heavier. I couldn’t gauge his age, but he was clearly young enough to move quickly and whether intentional or not, he was wielding the shovel like a weapon.
I spun and sprinted down the track. My selfie stick bumped into a tree, and I instinctively released it, more concerned with getting away from him than I was reluctant to leave my phone behind.
Adrenaline pumped through me, powering my heart, making my pulse race faster as I shoved myself between the trees, ignoring the stings up my arms as branches caught at my skin.
Footsteps thumped behind me, and I glanced over my shoulder.
“Hold on!” he shouted. “I just want to talk.”
Yeah, I didn’t believe that. Men who “only wanted to talk” didn’t chase people with shovels.
I launched myself sideways off the trail and squeezed between two trees, hoping he’d be too big to follow. My backpack got stuck between trunks, and I yanked roughly, but it wouldn’t dislodge.
My heart in my throat, I struggled to shrug it off, letting it drop as I broke free and bolted into the forest.
My feet were moving so quickly that I didn’t have time to check the ground before I put them down, and if I tried to stop, I’d probably tumble over myself and roll down the hill.
I ducked around a huge tree, but the top of my foot hit something, and I flew forward, skidding across the earth and throwing my hands up to protect my head as I barreled toward another tree.
The bark bit into my palms, and my head smashed into my fingers, sandwiching them between me and the tree. I cried out, a sting indicating that the skin had broken—if not the bones themselves.
A firm grip encircled my ankles and dragged me backward. My shirt caught on the ground and rucked up, exposing my sensitive belly to the leaf litter.
“What do you want?” I shouted.
This seemed like an overreaction. Yes, I’d caught them vandalizing an old hut, but the charges for assault were much, much worse. They’d have been better just to let me go. It wasn’t as if I knew their names or anything.
“Just fucking listen to me for a minute,” he panted, his grip on me painfully tight. “Come back up to the hut and we’ll work it out.”
Fear roiled in my gut and turned my blood cold. Every instinct I possessed warned me not to believe him. If I went with him willingly, would I end up like one of those idiots in horror movies who wanders straight into a psychopath’s den?
I grabbed at a tree trunk, trying to wrap my arms around it and hold on so he couldn’t continue to drag me. My palms burned like hell, and tears filled my eyes, but I clung as hard as I possibly could.
The man grunted and let go of my ankles. I kicked at him, driving the sole of my shoe into his kneecap.
He stumbled but quickly righted himself. “You little bitch!”
I started to scramble forward, but then something smacked the back of my head. My forehead whacked into the tree, and pinpricks of light appeared in my vision. The world shook dizzyingly in front of my eyes, and when he kicked my head a second time, my stomach seized, and I gagged.
“Fuck.” Rough hands rolled me over. “This is your fault. All we want to do is talk.”
“Just leave me alone!”
I hauled in a lungful of air and screamed.
“Shut up!”
I had to get away. There was no way I could outrun him. Not when everything was spinning wildly around me. And going with him was a terrible idea.
That meant I had to fight.
I tried to grab his hands, to claw at him and stick my fingers in his eyes, but he swatted me away. I lashed out with my feet but didn’t manage to hit anything.
For a few seconds, he didn’t fight back, but then he spat out a string of swear words and the strikes came so quickly and viciously that it was all I could do to weather them.
Darkness crept into the edge of my vision.
Everything hurt, my body a mass of pain.
My limbs were becoming heavy, and I curled into myself and tried to shield my head with my arms, but my muscles grew wearier with every passing second.
“What the hell are you doing?” someone cried. “You’ve made it ten times worse.”
The blows stopped raining down on me, and I tried to concentrate as a buzzing started in my ears.
“I had to stop her, and she wouldn’t listen.”
“You should have let her go! Worse we’d have got was…”
The buzzing intensified.
“...busted my fucking knee.”
“… wasn’t supposed…”
I faded out for a moment, then jerked back into consciousness in time to hear: “We can’t just leave.”
Mumbling.
“...not much choice. If we try to…”
More mumbling.
“It’s best if she…”
I lay still and tried to slow my breathing. If I looked dead, perhaps they’d leave me alone.
I passed out again.
When I opened my eyes, I was on my own.
My entire body throbbed, and the darkness continued to beckon, tempting me to go back to sleep, where nothing would hurt and all would be well.
Instead, I planted my hands on the forest floor and pushed myself upright, a wave of nausea rolling over me as pain like none I’d ever experienced lit up every fiber of my being.
I blinked, my eyes struggling to adjust to the light, and tried to make sense of my surroundings. I was still facing the direction in which I’d tried to flee.
Slowly, I turned on my hands and knees and started crawling back the way I’d come. There was no way I could make it to the trailhead, but if I could just find my backpack, I could use the personal locator beacon to summon help.
My thighs trembled and my arms were on fire, but inch by inch I followed the disturbed earth until I reached my backpack.
My arms gave out, and I flopped hard onto my side, pulling the backpack with me. I concentrated on pinching the zip of the front pocket between two fingers and working it open.
Reaching inside, I felt around until my fingers closed over the beacon. Blindly, I searched for the emergency rescue button and, with the last of my energy, I pushed it.
Then I lay back and let the darkness return.