Chapter Thirty
“We have to get her!” Olivia rushed onto the deck to stand next to Lincoln.
“I know.” He fished a flashlight out of his pocket and shone it downward, illuminating the driving rain and not much else.
Olivia spotted a broken tree branch. “There! She must have fallen that way.”
“Or Tim Brown did.” Lincoln switched off the light. “I’ll go down and see if I can track her.”
“Tim is also down there.”
“I know.” He hurried through the house.
She stayed right behind him. “He had a knife.”
“Yes, and I have a gun.”
Olivia pulled her multi-tool from her pocket. “I’m not unarmed.”
The blade wasn’t long, but it was sharp.
“Did you hit him with that shot?” Olivia asked.
“I don’t know,” Lincoln said as they crossed the room. “I thought so, but it didn’t seem to slow him down.”
Retracing their steps, they jogged down the stairs to the lower level and exited through the back door.
Lincoln touched her arm and spoke in a low voice. “Stay close.”
She nodded. Unfolding the knife blade, she held it at her side, pointy end down in case she fell. They crept through the woods. The downward slope made the descent treacherous. Olivia hoped the raging of the storm covered the sounds of their footsteps.
Tim had to be injured, right? Even if Lincoln’s shot had missed him, he’d jumped off a two-story deck and tumbled down a steep slope.
Zoe was likely also hurt.
Olivia banished her grim thoughts and focused on the trail.
Between the darkness and the rain, visibility was limited.
She could barely see her own feet. She wanted to turn on her flashlight, but that wasn’t possible.
The light would make them a target. She pushed forward, tripped on a rock, and fell to one knee.
Lincoln paused, turned, and helped her up. She pulled the knife from the mud, where it had landed tip-down. He leaned toward her ear. “I know you want to move faster, but one of us taking a tumble won’t help Zoe. We could be all that stands between Zoe and death—either from Tim or exposure.”
Olivia nodded. She rubbed her bruised kneecap and followed in his footsteps. They rounded the house and skirted the driveway. A grunt in the shadows of the trees stopped them. Lightning flashed.
There was nothing there. Olivia blinked hard to clear her eyes. Still nothing.
Lincoln headed toward the trees. He stopped at a skinny, broken evergreen branch.
Olivia touched the break. The foliage dripped with rainwater. “It’s fresh. They fell through here.” She peered over the edge but couldn’t see much. “I don’t see how we climb down there without a flashlight.”
“We don’t.” Lincoln traded his handgun for the flashlight in his pocket, then switched it on. “If we break our necks, we’re no good to Zoe.”
Even with the flashlight, the visibility was dismal. Lincoln kept the beam on the ground, looking for broken underbrush and branches. The slope was about forty-five degrees, and they needed handholds as they worked their way down.
But were they following Zoe?
Or Tim?
They couldn’t be that far apart. They had both fallen from approximately the same location.
Olivia was fit, but the dampness aggravated her asthma.
She was out of breath three-quarters of the way down the slope.
Lincoln stopped to wait for her as she pulled her inhaler out of her jacket pocket and used it.
She’d barely zippered it back into her jacket when something snapped.
Lincoln whirled, the beam of his light arcing across the darkness.
Olivia held her breath, prepared to see Tim Brown geared up like Rambo.
But nothing emerged. They waited, straining their ears to listen for sounds of movement over the storm. Maybe the wind had broken a branch.
“Help,” someone called out.
Olivia froze. She knew that voice. “Zoe?”
“I’m here.”
Olivia followed the sound. Lincoln pulled aside the bough of a square pine. Zoe lay curled in the mud at the base of the tree. Her eyes were closed.
Olivia dropped to her knees beside her friend. She yanked off her gloves and pressed two fingers to Zoe’s throat. A weak pulse thrummed against her fingertips. Olivia exhaled hard in relief.
Zoe opened her eyes. Fear widened them, then recognition dawned. “You found me.”
“We’ve got you.” Olivia took her hands. Zoe’s fingers were ice cold.
Lincoln crouched, scanning Zoe. “What hurts?”
“Pretty sure my ankle is broken.” Zoe moaned. “I was crawling away, but I heard something and decided to hide. I’m not outrunning anyone like this.”
Lincoln shone the beam of light on her leg. “I don’t see any blood, but ankles aren’t supposed to bend that way. Our vehicle is parked on the road. Let’s get to it, and then we can assess you better.”
“OK,” Zoe said in a weak voice.
Olivia took the flashlight. “Can you sit up?”
Zoe pushed to a sitting position, stretching one leg in front of her. “I can’t put any weight on this leg.”
“Then don’t.” Lincoln stooped and took her arm. Zoe helped as best as she could, pushing with her good leg as Lincoln dragged her to her feet.
Her face went white, and she sagged against him for a minute, breathing in short pants. In a few seconds, she lifted her head. “Let’s get out of here.”
Before Tim finds us was implied.
Olivia went in front, holding the flashlight, finding the flattest places to step.
They took the final twenty-five feet one step at a time.
They emerged from the trees and stepped down onto the gravel road.
Olivia wanted to kiss the flat earth. The SUV sat at the end of the driveway, less than thirty feet away.
Lincoln turned toward it.
A shadow stepped out from behind a tree and swung a large branch. Lincoln must have sensed or seen the attack in his peripheral vision because he dropped Zoe, turned his upper body, and took the impact on the back of his shoulder instead of across his head. The force sent him to his knees.
Zoe screamed, “No!”
Tim stood over Lincoln and raised the branch again, preparing to deliver a fatal blow.
No! Olivia looked around. She had to protect Lincoln.
She had a four-inch knife blade in her pocket.
In order to incapacitate Tim with it, she’d have to be precise, which wouldn’t be easy.
A shoulder blade or rib could deflect a stab.
He was a large, strong man who’d spent the last thirty years in prison. He knew how to fight.
Desperate, she searched for an alternative weapon.
She picked up a rock the size of a bowling ball.
If she hit him hard enough, she could knock him unconscious or at least stun him.
Surprise was her best bet. This would only work once.
She raised the rock over her head and brought it down on the back of Tim’s head.
His legs folded like a cheap snack tray.
He dropped the branch and went down on both knees, groaning.
His hands went to his head and cupped it as if that would contain the pain.
Olivia front-kicked him away from Lincoln.
Standing between Tim and Lincoln, she pulled her knife from her pocket, opened the blade, and faced Tim.
She held the blade close to her thigh and angled her body to keep it out of sight.
If he saw it, he would take it from her.
She would not let him kill Lincoln or Zoe while they were down.
Zoe lay still, curled in a fetal position, moaning softly.
Lincoln was trying to pull himself to his feet using a tree, but he seemed stunned.
Tim rose to his feet but looked wobbly. “I’m going to kill you for that.”
“Like you hadn’t intended to do that anyway.” Olivia tested the weight of the knife. She was small, and Tim was huge. She could never overpower him or even fight him on equal terms. No, she had to be sneaky.
She had to fight dirty.
Tim pulled his own knife from his pocket. A flash of lightning glittered on the blade, which was twice the size of Olivia’s. Sweat and rainwater soaked her back, and her hands shook from the surge of adrenaline. Her knife handle felt slippery and small in her grip.
He waggled his knife in the air. “I don’t even need this.
I could kill you with my bare hands and enjoy doing it.
” He took two steps forward, then lunged, flicking out with the knife point.
Olivia evaded the attack by ducking under his arm.
Still crouching, she slashed at the back of his ankle and sliced his Achilles tendon.
“Fuck.” He went down, instinctively covering the wound with one hand.
“Now I’m going to make you pay before I kill you.
You’ll be sorry.” He straightened, brandishing his big blade again.
“I’m going to cut off your ears first, then work my way down your body.
You’ll die in pieces. By the time I’m done, they’ll need a bucket for your remains. ”
Fear gripped Olivia’s insides for a few seconds.
Her entire being trembled as she held her ground.
Then she deliberately backed a few feet down the road, leading him away from Lincoln and Zoe, giving them whatever time she could.
If she lured Tim away, maybe they could get to the SUV.
Tim wouldn’t be able to move at full speed, not with his tendon cut.
She hoped.
“Come here, bitch.” Tim staggered after her, half dragging his wounded leg. Had she not cut the tendon completely? It wasn’t like she’d had practice. Even wounded, he managed to keep pace with her, maintaining the same distance between them. “Get what’s coming to you.”