Chapter 16 #3
Math. She needed math to stay calm. Twenty-three times seventeen. Three hundred ninety-one. Her feet pounded the dirt in rhythm with the numbers that scrolled through her mind as she put some distance between her and the voices.
Then her boot caught on an exposed root, and she stumbled forward, catching herself against a tree trunk. The gloves protected her hands, but she needed to pay attention.
She pushed off and stood still for a moment, listening. She thought she heard the voices again. Faint, but there. Somehow the city slickers were staying on her trail. A beam of light cut behind her and she stifled a yelp. They were coming.
“Ollie!”
She froze. That was the agent’s voice. The new guy. Agent . . . what’s his face. Gowen. He’d somehow picked up her trail and followed. Then she’d gotten into the truck with Charlie and then they’d wrecked and she’d run. How had he gotten so close to her?
“Ollie! Come on, please. I just want to protect you.”
Right. No way.
She slipped behind a tree and heard his feet crunching through the undergrowth.
“Ollie . . .” His voice was closer now.
Another flash of light swept over the area. The goons were closing in.
“Hey! Hey, you!”
Rhino. And he was yelling at Gowen.
Agent Gowen spun and reached for his weapon.
Rhino fired and the agent went down. Ollie gasped and slapped a hand over her mouth. No! No, no, no! What could she do? How could she help him?
“Run, Ollie!” Agent Gowen shouted the words and then rolled.
Another shot cracked and she swiped the tears racing down her cheeks. She should have trusted him. He needed help. The only way to make that happen was to go.
She ran.
The ranch couldn’t be more than a mile away now. The creek would be coming up soon. When she crossed it, she’d be close to ranch property, practically at the front door of the main house. Okay. A little farther than that, but safety was waiting for her. And Sully and Elena.
And then she could warn them.
Faint moonlight filtered through the shifting clouds.
A fallen log appeared in her peripheral vision—large and hollow on one side.
Without hesitation, she ducked behind it and pressed her back against the rotting wood.
She pulled her knees to her chest and made herself as small as possible while she whispered prayers of protection.
Two sets of footsteps approached, slowing as they reached the area. Ollie held her breath.
“Where’d she go?” The first voice was deep, annoyed. “I’m freezing and no telling who might have heard those shots.”
“I don’t know where she went. The little brat can’t have gotten far. If you’d held on to her, we wouldn’t be in this mess.” The second man sounded winded.
“And if you’d been a little faster to grab her when she got away from me, we wouldn’t be here.”
“Shut up and just keep looking.”
“If I get frostbite, I’m going to take my time killing her. These shoes weren’t made for this. I already can’t feel my toes.”
“You think?” the first man snapped. “Piper should have taken care of this already. Why are we out here doing her dirty work?”
“I’m not bothering to answer that. You know as well as I do the boss is convinced she’s not going to do it.”
“He’ll kill her kid.”
“Of course he will, but that’s not my problem. Olivia Callahan is.”
“She stole her meds, right?”
“Yeah, but they got more, so that was kind of a half-hearted effort if you ask me.”
“If the kid testifies . . .”
“I know, I know. We find her, we make her suffer, then we make her disappear. Permanently.”
Ollie pressed a hand over her mouth to stifle her ragged breaths and stuff the fear back down before it came screaming out.
So, what she’d heard in the jail had been right.
It had been Piper all along. She’d stolen the medication.
She was working with these men—with Rhino.
Because they had Hannah? They were using Hannah to get Piper to do what they wanted.
Which was to make sure Ollie wound up dead, right?
So why hadn’t Piper just killed her? She’d had plenty of chances. The men didn’t seem like they thought she’d do it. And Piper had thrown her own body over Ollie’s when the drones had attacked. Ollie was so confused.
The footsteps moved closer to her hiding spot. A beam of light swept across the ground inches from her feet.
“Check over there,” the first man said. “She can’t have vanished.”
Ollie squeezed her eyes shut. Forty-seven times thirty-two. One thousand five hundred four.
The light moved away. “Let’s try that way. Maybe she doubled back toward the road.” The footsteps receded.
She waited until their voices faded before daring to move. Her legs trembled as she stood. She had to warn Sully and Elena about Piper. They trusted her. They didn’t know she was working with the enemy.
The creek had to be close. Ollie took a deep breath, pictured which way she’d go according to the stars, then forced herself to move from her safe spot. Sully and Elena needed to know the truth. Piper was the traitor. And she was still out there, pretending to help.
She took one step and a heavy hand pushed her to the forest floor. “Got you, you little brat.”