Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
RAFE
I grab Grant’s arm and pull him with me. He said he didn’t fucking off Jane, but if he didn’t do it then that means we’ve got a bigger problem than him not being able to control his fucking self. There’s another killer helping themselves to our patch and Kit’s missing. It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together.
“We have to find her. Now .”
There’s activity in the lodge and the door opens to reveal Holly. She’s got a flashlight in her hand and she’s fully kitted out like she’s about to head into the wilderness for a week.
“We have alerted the authorities and the local search and rescue team is on the way but in the name of time, we will be going into the forest to search for Jane,” Holly pauses and swallows hard. “With the amount of blood in Jane’s suite there’s-there’s reason to believe that foul play was involved. As of now, we have not located her on the premises nor have we been able to find her on the CCTVs on the property. Our best place to start searching is south of the cabins where Will saw her last,” she says, gesturing to one of the sound guys. “Will is going to show us the way now. If you’d like to join the search you’re welcome to come along. Aubrey will be passing out whistles and flashlights for anyone that wants to help.” A woman appears at her side with whistles draped over one arm and a reusable shopping bag over the other that I assume has flashlights in it, with the way she holds it out to be people who come forward.
“Didn’t take her long to fill Jane’s spot,” Grant mutters. It’s true but I don’t respond. I just hold out my hand and take a whistle and a flashlight from Aubrey because it’s the right response. The entire time I watch Will.
He looks worried when Holly singles him out and nods, but his body language screams fear. Shoulders rolled forward, head down, chin tucked into his chest and hands in his pockets. He doesn’t want to be here and every step he takes down the path that leads us back to the cabin gives me more proof. He walks faster, glancing out at the dark cabins we pass like someone might jump out at him. When we pass cabin number 4, he stares a little too long.
“Where’s Kit?” Holly asks. She’s walking beside Will and looks back at us with a raised eyebrow.
“Sleeping,” Grant lies easily and flicks on his flashlight to scan the area ahead of us. “We heard the commotion but didn’t want to scare her.”
Holly nods. “I hope we can have you back before she wakes up. This is all…well, it’s a terrifying mess.”
I nod and Grant agrees with a sympathetic hum. He’s playing the part of the concerned hero perfectly. I know my role all too well so I keep my mouth shut and stick close to him. Everyone knows what we are to each other but everyone also knows that I’m not the hero. That I don’t give a fuck about a lot.
I’m here because he’s here, that’s it.
I watch the group we’re with as we walk. Some are walking twos and threes, heads together and whispering as they go. Some of the men call out Jane’s name as we walk but no one leaves the path. Everything seems normal but if the killer isn’t with us, they’re watching us. There’s no way they aren’t right now. This is the ultimate fucking wet dream to a murderer. I consider the faces around us again but there’s no one pulling my attention. No one but Will, who still shuffles forward with quick steps. Every few steps he takes he looks over his shoulder and I see him look at Grant and I.
Yup, Will is setting off my alarm bells like a motherfucker. Why was he watching our cabin so closely? Does he know Kit is gone?
We come to a stop when we hit the trees and almost like they don’t know what else to do, the group turn to look at Grant, because he’s the closest thing they have to a leader. He realizes it the second they do and steps forward with a reassuring smile. He’s wearing a workout tee and a pair of boxer briefs, but it’s as good as his Iron Shield costume right now with the way he starts giving orders.
“We’ll fan out from here. Everyone stand next to each other. Link arms and walk the area in a straight line. We have to make a grid to make sure we don’t miss anything. Nobody goes alone, do you understand me?” When he gets nods and a few murmurs of yes, he goes on, “I want you to blow your whistle if you find Jane or anything that might show us the direction she went. Don’t leave that spot, just stay there blowing your whistle until we get to you.”
Everyone lines up like Grant instructed and loops arms. There’s twenty of us from what I count. I don’t join them. I stay off to the side with Grant and watch.
“Everyone partnered up?” Grant calls out and someone answers him from the dark.
“We’re all good!”
Grant nods and flips his flashlight on. He shines it in the woods and steps forward with me at his side. “Let’s move out. Keep your eyes on the ground, anything that looks wrong, blow your whistle.”
I know why Grant knows exactly what to do. He knows because this is what happens when someone looks for the fuckers we dispose of. We’ve both been there in the mix when the search happens for one of our marks. It’s exhilarating, almost better than the kill. That’s why I know the murderer is here.
A search party is irresistable. It’s the ability to watch the chaos created from the best seats in the house. What Jane did to attract the eye of a killer is beyond me. She was quiet, that’s all I remember about Holly’s assistant. I never noticed her, not really. Kit liked her but Kit likes everyone.
We walk into the woods and I raise my voice to call out Jane’s name, but it’s done on autopilot. I’m looking for Kit. I don’t give two fucks about Jane but if I wasn’t here, there would be bigger questions to answer.
Grant sweeps his flashlight out in front of him and his warm breath puffs up against it. “This isn’t good,” he tells me quietly before he shouts Jane’s name.
“No fucking shit.”
“We have to find her.”
The her he’s talking about isn’t Jane. It’s Kit. I nod and swallow past the lump in my throat. “We will.”
The other’s voices sound off in the dark but there’s no answer. There’s only the sound of our feet snapping twigs and people pushing past tree limbs as they stumble along and look for a dead girl. Because that’s the truth of it. Jane’s dead. There’s no scenario in this story where she’s alive, but they’ll learn that on their own. I work the day backwards, trying to understand where Kit might be, where she might have gone tonight. We walk into a clearing and I almost trip because there in the moonlight is Kit.
Her back is to us but I would know Kit from any angle. Her long dark hair flows in the wind and relief settles into me because she’s standing. She’s not twisted and broken in the dirt the way my gut is telling me Jane is. Then Kit moves. She stumbles back, a scream ripping from her throat and she throws her arms out.
“ No !” That word is shrill and high. Terrified. I drop my flashlight and sprint towards my woman as she falls back onto the ground with a shriek. “No, no, no !” I hear Grant a step behind me and the raised voices of the rest of the search party that see what we see.
When I reach her I see the bottom of her nightgown and feet are covered in blood. The dark stain of it turns the ground and the material of Kit’s nightgown black, because she’s fallen right into it. I scan the area, expecting to see Jane’s broken body but there’s nothing.
“See if Jane’s here,” I bark at Grant and he nods, flashlight already scanning the ground for signs of the missing assistant.
“Oh god, oh no,” Kit sobs and lifts her hands up in front of her. Her palms are stained black with blood and I grab her shoulders.
“Look at me,” I order her and her eyes snap to me. I can smell the champagne on her. The smell of stale alcohol is cloying off of her and when I drop to my knees the ground is damp. Pine needles stick to my knees. I know from the feel that it’s not water, it’s too thick to be water. It’s blood.
“Rafe?” Kit blinks and stares up at me like she’s just waking up. She shakes her head and her hands fall down to her sides. “Where am I?”
I stare at her and brush her hair back from her eyes because I can see it plain as day, she’s just woken up. The familiar unfocused look I recognize from waking up beside her morning after morning is there.
“How did you get out here?” I ask her and Kit’s eyes come into focus.
Her bottom lip trembles and she looks down. “Why is the ground wet? W-what’s on–oh my god,” her voice ends in a whisper and she grabs at her nightgown with both hands. “What am I doing out here? Oh god, Rafe. Rafe, I’m scared.” Her voice cracks and that’s when I reach for her.
I hold her tight and urge her to stand up with me. Flashlight beams bounce and dance across the clearing behind us and the search party is close. There’s not much time to make her understand. Kit trembles and I know if I wasn’t holding her up, she probably wouldn’t be able to stand.
“Say that you went for a walk and tripped. That’s it.” I squeeze her and Kit shakes in my arms. “You went out for some air. Do you understand me?” I whisper to her. “You woke up and Grant and I were gone, so you went out for air because we don’t let you do shit like that. That’s all that happened. Tell me you understand. Now.”
“I understand,” Kit answers me. She’s confused and I know the shouts and people running towards us aren't helping but I know she’s going to follow instructions like my good girl.
“Oh my god, did you find Jane?” Holly’s the first to get to us, and I know she had nothing to do with Jane’s disappearance from the way shock overtakes the relief in her eyes. She’s just as surprised that we’ve found anyone out here, let alone us finding Kit.
“I-what? Rafe what’s going on?” Kit whispers, grabbing onto my arm. I’m not wearing a shirt and the blood on her hands smears across my chest and bicep. It’s only then that the blood registers on her face.
“Oh my god, oh my god !” Holly’s voice rises into a scream because she sees what Kit is now seeing. “The blood–oh-why is there so much blood?!” Holly’s flashlight moves over my chest before it goes back to Kit.
“What are you doing here, Kit?” Holly’s voice is still screaming and I sweep Kit behind me. “What did you do?!”
“Back up,” I snap at Holly and that stops her from coming any closer. But it’s Grant’s shout from the other side of the clearing that has her flashlight dropping away from Kit.
“Hey, get away from her!” Grant is there a second, later looking like a superhero with his hair falling over his eyes as he points a finger at Holly as the rest of the crew crowd around us.
“Nobody fucking talks to Kit.”
“What is she doing here?” Holly asks. Her voice is shaking, the scream gone from it. Thank fuck. I don’t need Holly’s hysterical reaction to Kit pinning everyone’s suspicions on my girl. I don’t know what she’s doing out here but it doesn’t matter. She didn’t hurt Jane–any fucking idiot knows that about Kit.
“It doesn’t matter what she’s doing out here,” Grant says, narrowing his eyes at Holly and then the rest of the crew.
“I went for a walk,” Kit whispers. Her hand is on my back and her touch is ghost-light against my skin. Her fingers are shaking and she has to press her palms into me to make them go still.
“You don’t have to explain anything,” Grant says but Kit looks at Holly from around my arm.
“I went for a walk and I-I don’t know what happened.” She looks around the circle of people that are closing in around us and Grant comes to stand at her other side. “What’s going on?”
“We don’t know,” I tell her but Holly shakes her head.
“We’re looking for Jane. What did you do, Kit? ”