Chapter Twenty-Two
In, out, in, out, in, out. Hannah tried to count each breath as it came, doing everything she could to keep the panic from getting the better of her.
But as she sat in the back seat of the black Ford she had been bundled into, her hands bound behind her, she didn’t know how much longer she could hold out.
Jed had forced her out the back door of the lodge and into his truck—the same one that had driven them off the road that night, she was sure of it. Wrapping her wrists in a plastic cuff, he had shoved her in the back and told her to keep her mouth shut.
She had done as she was told. She knew better than to fight him on this, when she was so clearly at a disadvantage. She didn’t know where he’d taken her, some secluded wooded area, but she knew she just needed to stay alive, and then…
And then what? Then hopefully Lawson and Xavier would find her. She didn’t know how, though. They might not even know she was gone yet. Shoving down her panic once more, she peered out through the windshield of the truck where Jed was talking with another man.
Suddenly, Jed stalked over to the vehicle and threw the door opposite her open, grabbed her arm and yanked her out. “You’re coming with me,” he snarled.
She stumbled, trying to catch herself as he pulled her toward the side door of a white van sitting just a few feet off the road.
She glanced around as she was pulled along but didn’t recognize the area.
He had taken a road away from the sanctuary she hadn’t noticed before.
They were parked close to the tree line where they couldn’t be immediately seen.
She could only guess this other man was his partner in some way.
If that was true, then Xavier was in even more danger since she had only mentioned her concerns to him about Jed. He wasn’t aware anyone else was involved and she had no way to warn him.
She took a chance and glanced at the other man as Jed dragged her along.
He didn’t even pay attention to her, his eyes only glanced up briefly from the phone he held in front of him, but the sight of him sent a shiver down her spine nonetheless.
His hair was shaved close to his head, his eyes dark, almost black.
Even from the brief moment he looked at her, she could tell they seemed blank, like those of a shark cutting through the water toward their prey.
He wore large combat boots and a flak jacket—dressed, she noted to herself, like someone who was going to complete a messy job.
Was she that job?
Hannah hardly had time to think about it before Jed thrust her into the open door of the van, standing guard just next to her so she didn’t think about trying to escape.
That wouldn’t stop her though. She had to think of something.
She eyed the gun on his belt, wondering if he would turn it back on her soon.
Her eyes darted to the window on the other side of the vehicle, noticing how close the van was to the tree line, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to make a run for it with her hands behind her back and Jed standing right there.
He’d snatch her back or shoot her before she took a step.
No, she realized there was nothing she could do.
She just had to sit tight, and…and hope for the best. Even if it killed her to be so passive right now.
She peered out of the van as the other man made a call. He lifted the phone to his ear, a grin spreading over his face but not reaching his eyes.
“Dutch,” the man greeted whoever was on the other end of the line. “Long time, no talk. How’s your head?”
Hannah strained to try to hear more, but he’d turned his back to the van and he was too far away.
She tucked her legs up underneath her, scooting across the floor to lean against the wall of the van.
Jed shot her a look, as though warning her not to push her luck, and she met his gaze with a defiance she mustered up from somewhere inside of her.
“Watch it,” he hissed at her.
She glowered back at him. From somewhere, she could smell the metallic scent of blood—not hers.
She glanced around the van and noticed a large box in the back.
Unease rolled through her at the sight of it.
She prayed that didn’t have something to do with her.
Hannah was about to ask what it was when the mystery man turned back around facing her and started talking again.
She tuned in to the conversation once more.
“You bring me that drive, or we kill the girl, it’s that simple,” he explained. “And come alone, Dutch. I don’t want to see any of your lodge friends with you. Just you and me, like the old days, right?”
Dutch? Who was Dutch? Hannah racked her brain, trying to remember if she had ever run into someone by that name or anything close to it at Warrior Peak, but she couldn’t come up with anything. But she knew one thing for sure—she was the girl he was threatening.
She started to feel lightheaded, the shock of all of this settling in. They were threatening to kill her if this Dutch person—whoever they were—didn’t give them what they wanted. She was completely and utterly helpless, at the mercy of these evil men, and it scared the hell out of her.
She wasn’t used to things being out of her control like this. She was the one who was supposed to decide how her life turned out. But not this time. She was relying on someone she had never even heard of before to give these men what they wanted.
Why would this Dutch person care whether they killed her or not? What if they killed her anyway? From the lengths they’d already gone to in order to find this drive, who was to say they wouldn’t destroy the entire lodge and all the guests to not have witnesses when they got what they wanted.
Oh God…
Spots started to dance in front of her eyes.
She was starting to let the panic consume her, and she was hyperventilating.
Deep breaths. Slow and easy breaths. She couldn’t pass out, not now.
But she needed to get farther away, put more space between her and the open door.
Make it harder for Jed to get his hands on her again, should he try to yank her out.
The box…
As quietly as possible, Hannah shifted herself around and slowly inched her way to the back of the van where the box sat, taunting her.
She needed to know what was in there. Maybe there was something she could use to help her escape.
She kept shooting glances at Jed’s back to make sure he wasn’t aware of her movements.
He truly scared her, and she didn’t want his full wrath turned against her.
The look of hatred in his eyes…cold, hard, soulless.
She didn’t want to give him a reason to act on that.
But, as soon as she made it to the box, she wished she hadn’t. She wished she had stayed where she was. Hannah drew in a sharp, shocked breath, and wished he hadn’t. The smell coming from the box had bile rushing up her throat. Her face paled at what she saw.
There, inside the box, was the crumpled body of a deer. Beneath it, a pool of dried, congealed blood had formed, and its eyes, once alive with energy and life, were glassy and empty.
She let out a groan of disgust and started gagging, wondering how long it had been in there. By the looks of it, it was starting to decay already.
“Get back here,” Jed warned her, reaching in to the van and grabbing her ankle roughly, yanking her back toward the door.
She put her head down between her legs, feeling the bile twisting and burning in her throat.
Why did they have that here? Were they going to do the same to her?
She couldn’t believe this was happening.
She had ignored her instincts about Jed too long.
She would never let that happen again, not as long as she lived.
If she lived. If there was someone who came into the lodge in the future who gave off a weird vibe, she would pay attention and tell one of the others immediately.
She hated how easy it had been for him to get close to her, to the other women, and it made her sick to think of how much danger they had been in without even knowing it.
At least she had been the one he’d chosen.
If it had been River, Hannah wasn’t sure she would have been able to handle it, after everything else she had been through.
But could Hannah handle it? She had no idea.
There was a part of her that wanted to take a chance and try to run to the woods and disappear.
She wanted as far away from these vile men as she could get.
But she knew she wouldn’t get far, if any length at all, with her hands still bound and with the gun Jed now had pressed against her hip.
Her brain told her to wait it out, bide her time and see how things went down. It was really the only smart option in her current situation.
The man finished up his call, and then turned back to Jed. “Dutch’ll be here soon. Get ready.”
“Who’s Dutch?” Hannah blurted before she could stop herself.
Finally, the other man turned in her direction, locking eyes with hers. The feel of his weighted gaze made her insides twist with dread, and she wished that she had kept her mouth shut.
The man reached out for her, and she tried to shrink away at once, but he grabbed her chin, forcing her to turn and face him.
“He’s the man you can blame for you being here in the first place,” he replied.
“He’s the one who put you in this position.
Wrong place, wrong time… Just bad luck, sweetheart. ”
“Don’t call me that,” she retorted defiantly.
But the man just smiled. “Oh, a bit of attitude, huh? I can see why Dutchy likes you. But it’s not going to be enough to save you.”
“Don’t worry, not long now until you and Xavier will be together again,” Jed told her, his voice mocking.
Xavier? That was who they were waiting for? Dutch was Xavier? Hannah was totally confused. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from asking any more questions. She didn’t want this man’s attention on her any longer than necessary.
“You’ll be all cozy like that deer in the back of the van,” the other man added, stroking a hand down her hair. “Wrapped up in a tarp together. How about we bury you with one another? You’d like that, huh?”
Hannah’s eyes shifted around to the box again and noticed a heavy blue tarp rolled up behind it against the back doors of the van.
Her vision turned hazy, and she felt like she couldn’t get enough oxygen.
Xavier was walking into this thinking he was going to save her, but these evil men had always planned to kill them both no matter what.
The nausea was starting to rise again. No… she couldn’t lose him…
She was torn. She wanted him here with her, wanted him to be the last person she saw before she died, but not at the expense of himself. Not after he’d been working so hard to reclaim his life and his happiness. He didn’t deserve that.
But at the same time, she wondered if he knew he was walking in to a trap.
He’d have to know, though, right? The man was using her as bait to draw Xavier here, and he had to know that.
She also knew that’d he’d come anyway; he’d try his damnedest to rescue her from these men.
To end this nightmare for them once and for all.
He’d do whatever it took to keep her safe.
Regret rolled through Hannah at the thought of losing Xavier before she’d had a chance to tell him how she felt.
That she loved him. A sudden image popped into her head of Xavier in the same position as the deer, eyes glassy and blank and still as a board.
She couldn’t stop the bile from rising up her throat again.
She leaned over the edge of the van and threw up between her feet.
Jed jumped back in disgust, muttering a curse at her.
Her whole body shook violently and she was covered in sweat, but she was still frozen to the core at the thought of what these men were planning to do to them.
It felt like such a sick, cruel joke. The two of them had come so far and finally had a chance at true happiness.
For it to suddenly end like this, it just wasn’t fair.
“Disgusting,” the man tsked. “Keep an eye on her. I’m going to watch the road for Dutch.”
Jed shot her a foul look. “You better not cause any more trouble, or I’ll end you now,” he snarled at her.
There was such hatred in his voice, she wondered for a moment how he could have hidden it behind a friendly facade for so many days.
He was obviously a great actor to have been able to trick them all.
Even if something felt off about him to the women, he hadn’t raised any red flags around the men.
It was clear from the way he looked at her that he had nothing but total and utter contempt for her.
Her mind was racing with questions—there were so many things she wanted to ask. But she knew to keep her mouth shut. She’d have a better chance of surviving this if she sat quietly and stayed alert to anything that might give her an advantage to escape.
Xavier was coming for her. She knew that now.
He would never leave her out here alone with no help.
Probably her brother, too. Lawson had always been overprotective of his baby sister, probably even more so now if she survived this.
And he ran that tactical team out of the lodge, so the rest of the guys would be with them, too.
These two men would be outnumbered and outmatched. They’d all show up to take them down.
As hard as it was for Hannah, she just had to be patient and wait.
They’d already be on the way to find her.
According to the other man, Xavier was en route.
She just prayed they’d be safe, that no harm would come to any of her friends coming to rescue her.
She couldn’t bear the thought of them getting hurt because of her or having to face her girlfriends knowing she was the cause of their men being injured.
She didn’t want another mark of guilt on her conscience.
It would take a while for the one for Jed to go away.
If she’d just mentioned him earlier to Xavier or her brother…
She closed her eyes, drawing her knees up to her chest protectively. She didn’t have any answers, only more questions that made her heart hurt. She supposed she was going to find out the answers soon enough, when Xavier and the others arrived.
They’d have a plan. They’d rescue her and take out the bad guys and everything would be good again. She couldn’t let her mind go to darker places; she had to stay positive. They’d all make it out in one piece.
But as she sat there in the van in the middle of nowhere, she really didn’t know for sure. And that scared her more than anything in the world.