Chapter 41
Chapter Forty-One
Peyton
The morning dawned cold and misty, but fortunately the rain had let up, leaving a damp chill behind.
Peyton stared out a peephole in the cover over the cave’s entrance and realized how clever Jake had been setting up his hideaway.
While the forested land around them didn’t give him the best long-range vantage, at least they had some elevation to survey the immediate area.
In the light of day, and with his head not hurting as much, Peyton realized Jake had rigged a makeshift stovepipe to funnel smoke out of the cave through a natural crevice in the ceiling.
Peyton pointed. “That’s cool.”
Jake looked to where Peyton pointed and shrugged.
“Hit and miss for several weeks until I figured it out. I don’t normally use fires during the day.
” He stood next to the fire, where he was heating water for washing as well as a battered coffeepot.
“Only if it’s wet, like today, or foggy, or if there’s enough of a breeze to help mask it, or if it’s so cold I have to warm it up in here.
I also have a small alcohol stove I can use if I need it, but it’s a pain hauling fuel for it. ”
He pointed to where it sat in the back of the cave, neatly stacked with his other supplies. “Sometimes I can get charcoal for cooking in the summer when I don’t need to worry about heating.”
“It’s going to be a whole new world for you,” Peyton said. “Lots has changed. Even in just the last five years.”
“Yeah.” Jake chuckled. “We got flying cars yet?”
“Unfortunately, no. Electric cars, but they’re not the majority of vehicles. Including self-driving cars.”
“No shit? Huh. That’s cool as hell.” Breakfast was heavily processed, canned meat Peyton suspected was once beef, except he couldn’t read the Cyrillic writing on the label. Into that Jake added diced potatoes, onions, and mushrooms. He cooked in a cast-iron skillet on a grate over the fire.
“Sorry I don’t have fancy china or cutlery,” he said to Peyton when it was done, setting the skillet between them on a smooth-worn stump that apparently functioned as a table. “Not used to having guests.”
“I’m just glad to have it,” Peyton said.
Jake held up a spoon and a fork. “We’ll have to share the skillet.” He faked a snooty English butler voice. “Which eating implement do you prefer, sir?”
Peyton snorted and took the spoon. “I appreciate this, really. This is quite the setup you have.”
“Yeah, well, this time of year I usually eat a lot of fish. There’s a lake not far from here that I visit about once a week.
Sometimes I salt or dry fish to keep it longer.
The canned meat I save for when it’s too miserable to get out.
I start stocking up late in the summer before it’s too damned cold and dumps snow.
I miss junk food, though. A couple of years ago, I managed to snag a bottle of pancake syrup.
I’d take a bowlful of snow and dump some on it and try to convince myself it was ice cream. ”
They ate in silence for a few minutes. Peyton admitted the food wasn’t bad at all. By regular standards, not even by starvation and ate-a-dead-carcass and sock-scented-berries-that-gave-him-the-trots standards.
“Do you think we’ll have trouble reaching the border?” Peyton asked.
“There are a few small farms dotted around. I want to avoid those while on two legs. If your captors are still looking for you and made it as far as around here, they’ve probably stopped and passed the word, shown your picture, and offered a bounty.
I also wouldn’t put it past the farmers to shoot first and ask questions later.
We’ll try to avoid contact with people until we’re safely across the border.
We won’t automatically be home-free, but I like our chances a lot better over there. ”
When they finished eating and cleaned up, Jake pulled out his two largest backpacks while Peyton evaluated their supplies.
“We don’t want to travel too heavy,” Peyton said. “But we also don’t want to end up like I was when you found me.”
“As long as we don’t do something stupid like get caught again,” Jake said, “hopefully that won’t be a worry. By this time tomorrow, with luck on our side, we might even be in the air and heading to friendly territory.”
Jake had only one rain poncho, but he also had a sheet of plastic and a mylar blanket that could be used to stay dry.
The tarps he had were too large and heavy to transport while they were traveling light.
They took several plastic bottles of water, an extra blanket each, and several cans of food.
Jake handed Peyton an old hunting knife while keeping a folding one for himself.
Jake also had an extra sweatshirt Peyton could wear.
Then Jake changed into a pair of jeans and old tactical boots, topping it with a battered military-green jacket.
The spear he’d had last night was also a walking stick, and he had another for Peyton’s use.
Once they were ready, Jake stood and surveyed his cave. “As stupid as this sounds, I’m kind of going to miss this place. It’s kept me safe and warm and dry all these years.”
“Not stupid—it was your refuge,” Peyton said. “I get it. You missed Carl, but your only focus was on the basics of survival. You didn’t have to pay taxes or get your oil changed.”
Jake shook his head. “Jesus, it’s been forever since I drove a car. Hope I remember how.”
“Well, most of them don’t have keys anymore and start by pressing a button.”
Jake laughed. “Now I know you’re bullshitting me.”
Peyton grinned. “Actually, that’s the truth. They have these little key fobs for the locks, and sensors so you can’t start the car without them.”
“No shit? Huh. That’s cool.”
“Until you accidentally lock them in the car for the umpteenth time.”
Jake snorted. “Your wife do that?”
Peyton sighed. “No, me. And if you tell my little sister or my wife that, I’ll kill you.
They’d never let me hear the end of it. That’s why I prefer my old truck.
It’s got keys. My wife’s SUV is new, though.
Fortunately, there’s an app on my phone I can use to remotely unlock the door when I do that. ”
“There’s a what on your phone?”
“Never mind,” Peyton said. “You’ll find out soon enough.”
Jake led the way, carefully picking his path down what to Peyton looked like a treacherous slope, but was in fact fairly secure.
Over the years, Jake had made himself a well-concealed path by moving loose rocks and identifying the most secure footing.
It wasn’t exactly smooth going, but it was far less taxing than Peyton had imagined when looking down at it from the doorway of Jake’s cave.
In fact, in the light of day, it boggled Peyton’s mind that Jake had managed to carry him up this path, while tied up, at night, in the fog, and not fall or drop him.
They headed downhill into a valley, and Jake turned, pointing. “See? From here, you can’t even tell where my cave is.”
Peyton looked. Had he not emerged from there he wouldn’t have believed it. Even with his keen wolf eyes, he couldn’t pick it out.
The overcast skies didn’t provide them with helpful shadows for guidance, but Jake didn’t need them.
“Not to say you don’t know how to handle yourself,” Jake started, “but if I motion to get down, flatten yourself without asking questions and stay silent, okay?”
“No problem. The smartest leaders know when to follow an expert.”
“I wouldn’t call myself that.”
“You’ve survived out here all these years. I say that qualifies you as one.”
They had to bypass stream crossings where the water ran higher than Jake felt was safe, which took them further out of their way than he’d anticipated.
“This’ll add a few hours to our hike,” Jake said.
“I’d prefer not to camp out tonight. If we’re not across the border by dark, I’d rather keep going, if it’s safe.”
“Don’t worry, we will.”
They made good time despite their detours, and the weather held. It was during that time that Peyton heard the full story from the other man about how he came to live there in the first place.
“How much of my story do you know?” Jake asked.
“Carl told us Maya died in a car accident when he was six, and Ray Dorland, her brother, threatened to turn everyone against you. You returned to Hawaii and raised Carl there. When Carl returned for a visit after he finished basic training, you freaked out over seeing Ray’s brother-in-law.
Carl left on deployment, you sent him an email, he responded, but you disappeared.
And he’s been looking for you ever since. ”
“That succinctly covers the basics.”
“Doesn’t answer any questions, though,” Peyton said.
“Harold—Ray’s brother-in-law—did see us that night. He was hunting for us. It was a coincidence we ended up in the same restaurant, but he told me he’d been looking for me.”
“He was?”
Jake nodded. “To warn me that Ray wanted me dead.”
“Wanted you dead?” Peyton asked. “Why?”
“Why’s that crazy fucker do anything? Inferiority complex? I don’t know. I heard a rumor Ray had made a deal with some shifter in Europe to marry Maya to him when she was of age, but she left Australia before Ray realized she was even gone, and that’s when we met.”
“Any idea who that was?” Peyton asked. “The shifter Ray made the deal with?”
“No. No proof of it, either.”
“In Europe, huh?”
“Let’s say I heard the rumor from enough people that makes me believe there’s weight behind it.”
From there, Peyton learned the full story of Jake and Maya’s meeting and mating and their happy life together, even living in Ray Dorland’s shadow, until her tragic and untimely death.
Peyton didn’t rush him, understanding he was the first person Jake had ever been able to unburden himself to in this way.
Besides, it wasn’t like there was anything else to do while they hiked.
“I did send Carl that email,” Jake said when he finally reached that portion of his tale an hour or so later.
“I’d planned to contact him when I re-established myself somewhere else.
I flew to Singapore and from there made my way to Europe.
I planned to head to New York via Canada.
At that point, I figured my trail would be disguised well enough that Carl would be safe.
There was supposed to be a guy in Sweden who shifters could go to for a new identity. I had the money to do it, too.
“I don’t know how Ray did it, if he had me tailed or what.
I hadn’t even contacted the guy in Sweden yet.
When I reached Amsterdam, I stopped to eat that first night at a cafe near the hostel where I was staying.
The next thing I know, I’m waking up in a garage.
They tranqued me again, and then…” He stopped, turning, holding out his hands. “Here we are.”
“How do you know it was Ray, though?”
“Because before the fuckers doped me in the garage, one of them said, ‘Ray says hello and fuck you, and that you’re lucky he has no interest in taking Carl out.’”
“Ah. That sounds conclusive.”
“Right? But I don’t have any proof. I don’t even know who the fuck the guys were.
They had accents that sounded Dutch, but more like from South Africa than Amsterdam.
They were humans. And I honestly don’t think they knew anything about shifters.
Like maybe they were human mercs.” They continued their trek.
“Why’d you move back to Australia?” Peyton asked. “After you and Maya mated? If Ray Dorland was a dick even then, sounds like you would’ve been better off in the US.”
“Because Maya always saw the best in people. To her, family was everything. When her other brother and parents died, Ray was the only ‘family’ she felt she had left.” He used finger quotes.
“Besides me and Carl, obviously. She didn’t want to see the ugly, the bad.
As far as I know, she had no idea he was going to pimp her out.
But she got pregnant not long after we mated.
She wanted us to raise Carl in Australia so he’d know her family, and I couldn’t tell her no to save my life.
I kept my mouth shut and my head down and tried not to give Ray any additional reasons to hate me. ”
Even though Peyton walked behind Jake, he knew the man was crying from his soft sniffles.
After a moment, Jake continued. “The guy hated me on sight, but we showed up at a Muster, so there were plenty of people around when she introduced me to the pack. And yes, I planned it that way. I wanted witnesses. I’m just glad Carl was a boy and not a girl.”
“You worried Ray would have abducted a baby girl?”
“Yeah. More rumors I have no proof of.”
“Why hasn’t someone taken that fucker out before now?”
“Because he consolidated power through the years. Back then, he had a few organized crime types working for him. And I’m almost certain he’s behind the deaths of his brother and his parents.”
“Why’s that?”
Jake stopped and turned again. “Because his younger brother was a Prime Alpha, and that’s who his father was grooming to take over the pack, even though Jake was the oldest. And let me tell you something, Jake was not happy about that plan. At all.”