Chapter Fifteen #2
It seemed abundantly clear they thought little about her gender in regard to the job.
She was simply a fisherman, just like them.
And most captains and deckhands were simply doing what they could to make a living.
Were too invested in their own schedules, their own lobstering, to care what someone else did.
Zach had a feeling none of them had shared their thoughts with Marit herself. So it wasn’t too hard to believe how one person—maybe two, if he counted Deaton from Portland—could color her entire perception of a situation.
When he found Marit, Zach would make damn sure she understood that she was a welcome addition to the community. That she wasn’t the pariah she thought she was. Maybe then she’d finally feel completely secure in Rockville.
As the small boat flew over the waves, clouds began to roll in. It was supposed to be a sunny day, but the weather was known to be unpredictable here on the coast of Maine. It was as if even the weather was weeping because Marit was missing.
The thought of checking out all the spots Rogers had in mind and still not finding Marit wasn’t something Zach could stomach.
It was looking more and more unlikely that they’d be able to track either of them down—but Zach wouldn’t admit defeat.
He’d stay out here for as long as it took to find her.
Even if he had to steal a boat to come back out after Rogers gave up.
He wasn’t giving up on Marit. Ever.
The second Marit jumped overboard, she wondered if she’d made a mistake.
She landed on her feet, but she immediately slipped on the rocks and went down hard on her ass.
Thankful for her waterproof overalls, she jumped up and, as quickly as possible, made her way toward the bank. But Lucas was right behind her.
As soon as she was on shore, she turned toward him, not wanting him to tackle her from behind.
She made the turn just in time to see him lunge for her, so Marit sidestepped, bringing her forearm down as hard as she could onto his arm.
He yelped in pain, stopping in his tracks.
Thrilled the move worked, Marit stepped backward, putting more space between them.
The best-case scenario here would be that he’d decide she was too much trouble and get back on his boat and leave.
It wouldn’t be ideal, that was for sure, but she’d rather take her chances with nature than with the volatile Lucas Pearson.
She could make a fire and signal any passing boats to pick her up.
There was no telling what awaited her if Lucas stayed.
Well, she could guess. He wanted to see her dead. It was how he was planning on making that happen, exactly, that worried her.
“Now what are you going to do?” he asked with a smirk as he continued to stalk her.
For every step backward Marit took, Lucas took one forward. He wasn’t closing the distance between them, but he wasn’t letting it grow either.
“I’m going to make you regret putting your hands on me,” Marit told him with all the sincerity she felt in her heart.
Lucas laughed. Actually stopped and threw his head back to cackle like a lunatic.
Marit took the opportunity he’d given her. Making a move when he wasn’t paying attention. She rushed forward, hugging him around the waist and taking him to the ground. Hard.
He grunted loudly as he fell, and his head bounced off the hard-packed dirt. Since he hadn’t been expecting to be tackled, he didn’t do anything to keep himself from smacking the sand as hard as he did.
Keeping the words of her past self-defense instructors in mind, she didn’t stick around to see if she could disable him further. Escape was the only thing she had in mind. Springing upward before he could wrap his arms around her and trap her on the ground, Marit turned and ran into the trees.
The island they were on was fairly large, with a ton of trees.
This late in the season, all the birches had lost their colorful leaves, but there were even more spruces and firs to fight through, and Marit did her best to protect her face from all the branches that slapped her willy-nilly.
She heard Lucas swearing as he pursued her through the densely packed trees and thick vegetation.
Surprisingly, the island also had a large hill basically in the very middle. It was difficult to climb, but at this point, she had no choice. Lucas was right on her heels.
She scrambled up the hill, hoping to lose him . . . with no luck.
Suddenly, she saw a small clearing ahead, at the very top of the hill, and even though she wasn’t sure it was the right decision, she ran toward it. Desperate for a clear space to hopefully put some distance between her and Lucas.
At the last moment, she realized that she’d walked right into whatever Lucas had planned for her. And that he’d obviously thought this through a lot more carefully than she ever would’ve guessed.
She ran right into a booby trap.
Her brain had a millisecond to register big piles of dirt nearby. Then, running through a massive bed of fallen leaves in the middle of the clearing, she heard a loud crack before sticks under her feet gave way.
Marit screeched as she fell into a pit Lucas had obviously dug sometime in the previous days . . . weeks? She landed with a thud and felt a twinge in one of her ankles.
Looking up, she saw she was in a hole roughly ten feet deep and just wide enough for her to touch both sides if she spread her arms out. And there was water in the bottom. Shit. Fuck. Damn!
It had to have taken him ages to dig this thing. He’d obviously been planning this for weeks. Maybe even months.
Lucas laughed again, a triumphant one this time.
“Got you!” he crowed. “Stupid bitch ran right where I wanted you to go! Stay right there, honey. I’ll be back.
Gotta get the boards I stashed near the shore to put over that hole.
” Then he laughed again, before leaning over the hole she was in and spitting.
Marit managed to dodge the loogie he’d hocked at her.
She heard him hiking back down the hill toward where he’d tied his boat. His words registered, and she shuddered. He was planning on leaving her here. After covering up the hole with boards.
And burying her alive.
There was no way anyone would find her if that happened. She wouldn’t be able to signal anyone from the shore, and she was pretty sure Lucas would never, ever admit where he’d left her, even if anyone could prove he was involved in her disappearance.
Desperation swam through her veins. She had to get out of this hole before Lucas returned. Before he had a chance to follow through with his horrific plans.
Looking around, she saw the hole was muddy at the bottom but the sides were relatively dry. Thankful that it had been a fairly dry autumn, she reached up and tugged on one of the roots sticking out from the side of the hole. Marit was relieved when it didn’t break off in her hand.
One of the good things about being so short was that she also wasn’t very heavy.
The gear she had on made her heavier than she was normally, but she really didn’t want to leave any of it behind.
If she had to evade Lucas on this damn island for any period of time, she’d need the clothes and gear for warmth.
Taking a deep breath, and ignoring the slight twinge in her ankle, she took hold of the root and tried to use it to climb up the side of the hole.
She immediately fell back down to the bottom with a small splash.
Adrenaline coursed through her body, giving her more strength than she might have had otherwise. She had to get out of here. Lucas thought he was so smart, but she wasn’t about to roll over and give up. Thoughts of Zach filled her mind, giving her all the motivation she needed.
Using the root as leverage once more, Marit jammed the toe of her boot into the dirt wall of the hole, giving her just enough leverage to rise up enough to reach the next root she spied sticking out.
It was slow going, and her muscles were still recovering from being tased, but determination filled her the higher she climbed.
She reached the top after what felt like hours—but she knew was only minutes—and threw her hand over the edge of the hole with a grunt. She paused a second to make sure Lucas wasn’t waiting at the top, laughing at her struggles, before wiggling and shoving herself up and over the lip of the hole.
She didn’t pause to rest, she immediately scrambled to her hands and knees and then to her feet. She needed to get as far away from this hole as possible.
Marit had nothing in mind except to run. Escape. Hide.
She still had her knife on her, but she had a feeling if she tried to use it, Lucas would overpower her and take it away.
She wasn’t confident enough to gamble she’d get so lucky a second time with her self-defense moves.
And she had no idea if he had a weapon of his own—he probably did—but she wasn’t going to give him anything that he could use against her if she could help it.
So Marit ran. Away from the hole, away from Lucas.
There weren’t too many places she could go on an island, but she could do everything in her power to evade Lucas for as long as possible.
Maybe until he gave up, deciding to leave her alone on the island in the hopes she’d die of exposure and hunger before anyone found her.
But there was an equal chance he wouldn’t want to risk someone finding her alive, ensuring he went to jail for kidnapping and attempted murder.
Lucas had everything to lose here, but Marit was just as determined he wasn’t going to succeed in his insane plan to get rid of her.
On the lookout for more booby traps, Marit made her way quickly and carefully down the other side of the hill, to the far side of the island.
She heard Lucas scream in frustration when he got back to the hole and found her missing. The sound echoed through the trees.
She grinned.
Served the asshole right.
But his next shouted words wiped the smile right off her face.
“You can run, but there’s nowhere to hide!”
Marit took a moment to rest. She crouched down behind a large rock and tried to catch her breath.
Tried to think. She needed to outsmart the asshole.
He thought she was a dumb broad, but Marit was made of sterner stuff than Lucas ever dreamed.
She was more stubborn, more determined to win this sick game he was playing.
No, not a game. He was playing for real. To get rid of her once and for all. To get revenge for her turning in his dad. It was so stupid! Larry had probably paid his fine and that was that.
Except, it obviously wasn’t. Lucas viewed what she’d done as a betrayal .
. . probably because his dad had taught him that it was all right to cheat the system.
To skimp. To cut corners. It was no wonder deckhands didn’t stay long on the Men At Work.
Not if he was doing the same shit his father had done.
She wished she would’ve known about the connection between Lucas and Larry before now.
The harassment would’ve made more sense, and she could’ve tackled the issue head-on.
Or at least gone to the police with a reason why Lucas was behaving so irrationally.
But none of that mattered right now. She needed to stay alive long enough for someone to find her, so she could tell the cops all about what happened and get Lucas arrested once and for all.
And Zach was looking for her. Of that she had no doubt.
When she wasn’t at the boat when Eliot got there, he’d have called, thinking she’d overslept, even though she’d never overslept a single day since she’d started working for him.
And when Zach heard that she wasn’t at the Wave Rider, he’d have raised the alarm.
Yeah, she was being looked for.
But suddenly Marit wasn’t content to sit there and hide while waiting to be found. She had no idea where they were or how long it would take for anyone to find this little island. The longer she tried to stay hidden, the more chance there was of Lucas finding her.
And he wouldn’t underestimate her a second time. He’d do something to knock her out again, maybe use that same drug he’d used the first time, then put her back in the hole while unconscious before sealing her in.
No, she needed to turn the tables on Lucas. Give him a taste of his own medicine. And the only way she could think to do that was to use herself as bait.
Thinking back to that hole, she realized how much dirt she’d displaced as she’d crawled up the sides. Even though Lucas was taller than she was, there was no way he’d be able to climb out like she had. He was too heavy.
Now she just had to figure out how to lure him back to the top of that hill . . . and get him into the hole he’d dug for her.
A small smile crossed Marit’s face once more. She much preferred to be the cat than the mouse. And if Lucas wanted to play, she was more than willing.