Chapter 16
Freya
Ihuddled in my shallow cave, shivering and watching the snowflakes swirling in the air outside. I was acting like prey. Expecting to be eaten.
Well, duh. That was because I was prey. Get real.
It was freezing in my little aerie. There was very little real shelter, and wind rushed down the canyon, whistling in the rocks above.
A bleak, miserable sound, like the howling of the damned.
The wind managed to sweep in the biggest, clammiest, coldest snowflakes and smack them against my exposed neck and face.
I wished I had my own coat. This one was a lot warmer, of course, but my own had my Freya phone, and I was aching for the options it gave me. Like calling Ethan, in a worst-case scenario. Wow, what a memorable conversation that one would be. Hoo, boy.
At least I had the blanket, the hot tea, the snacks, the gun. Thanks to Jed.
The contradiction between my data sets about Jed Clearwater was confusing the living bejesus out of me.
My mind hurt, trying to reason it out. What was I supposed to think?
Who was I supposed to believe, or root for?
I didn’t want to meet anyone like the guys from last night in the Dew Drop parking lot.
God knows, they were no friends of mine.
So who did I trust, if I wanted to survive?
Oh, crap. Probably no one, when it came right down to it. How depressing.
Truth was, I didn’t want Jed to be the one who had betrayed Shane, and I never had. I wanted him to be the man Ethan and Shane trusted without question during their Army Rangers days. The man Shane started his security company with. One of the Unredeemables. Brave and honest and incorruptible.
After what Jed had done for me, saving me in the parking lot, hiding me from whoever was driving up that hill, giving me a gun…
I was tempted to think he wasn’t my villain at all, and never had been.
He’d compromised his own safety to keep dippy, useless, irrelevant Sandee safe. Bad guys just didn’t behave like that.
Boom.
I jumped with a muffled squeak. What the hell? That was so close. So loud.
Something big had just happened. Something definitive. I wondered how long I would have to wait to find out who’d won that round.
I imagined last night’s monsters prowling around above me, and no Jed to leap out of nowhere and defend me. It didn’t feel good.
Part of me was convinced Jed was my hero.
Selfless, noble, brave. Unfortunately, it was not a part I particularly trusted.
That part was too frightened, too compromised, too hormonal.
Primordial cavewoman brain. Jed had protected me from predators, and then he’d fucked me, expertly, thoroughly.
Of course my inner cavewoman had glommed on to him.
Of course. She wanted to stay alive…and to get some more of that excellent dick, too, while she was at it.
Please, please. Just don’t be dead. I repeated it under my breath like a mantra. As if it made any difference. What had happened, had happened. It was done.
But whatever was going on out there, Jed had given me a fighting chance to survive. Even if they took him down. I was grateful for that, no matter what.
I crept forward in the cave, craning my neck out, so I could see the other side of the cave, where Jed said I could climb up to the top of the cliff without having to drag myself up a rope, which would be very hard on my own.
I’m pretty strong, and I work out in the gym and use a climbing wall, but try as I might, I still suck at pull-ups.
I see and hear nothing. No one talking, no one moving. Just the wind howling.
Maybe Jed had miraculously taken them all out. A girl could hope, but hope was not a plan of action, and I needed one of those before my head exploded. How long was I supposed to wait before I sneaked up and peered over the cliff to investigate?
It made sense to wait, as Jed had directed, until he came back and gave me the all clear.
But if he didn’t, then clearly, the worst had happened.
The unthinkable. And I had to sit tight, alone, in misery, and wait the invaders out.
That was his reasoning, and it was solid.
It was cold and wet in here, but with what he’d given me, I would survive.
What I might not survive were the what-ifs running through my mind.
What if Jed was wounded out there, and I was just letting him bleed out in the snow while I cowered in my mouse-hole?
What if there was information I could glean about the situation outside from just a swift peek over the cliff?
I wouldn’t even disturb the virgin snow that was my cover.
They would have to be looking right at me to notice my head pop up like a prairie dog.
What were the odds someone would look right then?
I had to do it. Just in case I could help. It wasn’t in my nature to be passive.
I crawled out onto the ledge, and studied the snow-dusted rocks to the right of me that Jed had said were a way straight up the cliff face. I carefully clambered upward, my fingers burning as I scrabbled for purchase in the snowy, jagged rocks. Almost there—
I shrieked as someone grabbed the back of my coat, jerking me up off my feet.
I stared at the upside-down face hanging over me. It was straight out of a nightmare. A blank plastic mask, slits at nostril and mouth level for breathing. Bloodshot eyes, surrounded by puffy, purplish flesh, visible through the small eyeholes.
“Freya Masters, eh?” The ghoul spoke in a nasal, gravelly voice that scraped on my nerves like steel wool. “You should have stayed home and eaten birthday cake with Holly. Now you’re deep in the shit, you dumb cunt.”
Holly? Holy fuck, the guy knew everything about me. And he was so freaking strong. He dragged me up with one hand. I could have slid out of the coat, but the thought came to me too late, and I would have almost certainly tumbled to my death.
He dragged me over the sloped, rocky top of the cliff, bumping and bashing me over the boulders, and tossed me onto the stony ground, knocking out my air.
I rolled up into a ball to protect my belly as he kicked me in the thigh, hard, and oh, fuck that hurt, hurt, hurt…
Rough hands on my body, as he swiftly relieved me of the Walther PPK that Jed had given me. Which made me instantly hate myself for not being quick enough to pull it out and kill him with it first.
He pointed it at me. “Don’t move, or I’ll shoot you right in the face, bitch. Can you still talk, or did he fuck all of your brains out?”
I nodded. “Y-y-yes,” I stammered, teeth chattering.
The masked guy grabbed the front of my coat and hauled me upright, sticking the gun under my chin. I struggled to get my feet beneath me as he jerked me around.
So…hard…to breath. The pressure crushed my throat, as if he was strangling me. I stared up at the sky, because I can’t do anything else. Snowflakes burned on my face, caught on my lashes. They danced in my vision, eerily detailed and clear.
“Jed Clearwater!” His sudden bellow made me gasp. “I’ve got your fuck-toy here, with her own gun up under her chin. Do you want her? Or do you give a shit?”
No answer. Just the wind rushing, howling in the rocks.
“I guess that’s my answer. I guess I can indulge myself, then, hmm?
I can start with your face. Those pretty lips.
Pretty little pink ears. Like a shell. Isn’t that what they say about ears?
That they’re like shells? We’ll see if it looks like a shell when I shoot it off.
More like a bloody shred of raw pork. But we’ll wait to carve up the big stuff until your shithead brother is watching it on streaming. I want him to see every detail.”
He grabbed my ear, yanking it hard enough to make me scream.
“Shut up, bitch,” he snarled. “Hold still.”
“Stop.”
Jed’s voice. Low and clear in the hushed stillness.
The man holding me spun around toward the direction of his voice, keeping me in front of him as a human shield.
There was Jed at the edge of clearing. He held what looked like an AR-15.
“Jed Clearwater.” The masked guy’s voice was an oily hiss. “Brought low by a dumb little cunt.”
“Don’t hurt her.” Jed’s gaze was locked with the guy’s.
“Drop the gun,” the man said. He dug the gun barrel into my cheek again. “I could just shoot off the bottom of her jaw. It wouldn’t kill her.”
Jed tossed the AR-15 into the snow.
The masked man studied him, suspicious. “Let’s see the other guns,” he said. “If you don’t show me two more, I shoot her face.”
Jed reached back, pulled a pistol from the back of his jeans. He tossed it into the snow. The masked guy jerked his chin. “The others.”
Jed bent down, unfastening a snubbie from his boot holster and then tossing it with the others. “I’m not carrying any other guns.”
“Lift your shirt,” the man said. “Turn around. Show me.”
Jed lifted his coat, spinning around to show he had no hidden guns holstered underneath or stuck into his pants.
“That’s all.” His voice was astonishingly detached.
“Back away from the guns. Hands up, dickhead.”
Jed did as he was told, walking slowly backward, arms up, fingers spread. I kept my eyes on him, as if he were my salvation.
“So, what did that little whining fucker Mickey tell you, anyhow?” the masked guy said.
“Nothing,” Jed said. “He was making me wait until I got him out before he gave me anything. You got there first. So I got nothing.”
The masked guy was silent for a moment. “Who else did he tell?”
“Not her,” Jed said, gesturing with his chin at me. “She doesn’t know anything.”
“That explosion,” the guy said. “I assume that was my team?”
“Yes,” Jed replied.
“You’ll pay for that, asshole.”
“Yeah, I guess. But she shouldn’t.” Jed jerked his chin again in my direction “She’s got nothing to do with this. She’s never seen your face. Let her run and hide until you’re done with whatever you’re going to do. She’ll never say a word. Right, Sandee?”
I open my mouth to agree, and whack. The guy smacked the side of my head with the pistol. I yelped at the bright starburst of sickening pain.
“…dee? What Sandee? Is that the name she told you?” The man let out an evil chuckle. “This fuckbunny isn’t Sandee, Jed. She’s Freya-fucking-Masters. Surprise!”
Jed couldn’t hide the startled flash in his eyes.
The other man saw it, too. “Oh, my fucking God,” he crowed. “You actually didn’t know! You were just fucking her for the fun of it! What an idiot.”
Jed looked at me, asking with his eyes if it were true.
I couldn’t speak. The guy’s arm pressed too hard against my throat for more than a dry, soundless croak. But he saw from my face that I wasn’t denying it.
“So this sneaky bitch has been trying to fuck intelligence out of you? Tough job, with someone like you, eh? The cupboard is bare.” The masked guy slid the gun down my chest. “Nice titties. I could shoot those off, too.”
Something inside was touched off by the guy’s taunting threat.
Fuck this guy. If I had to die, it wouldn’t be by having my body parts shot off.
I twisted, jerking my head around. Sank my teeth into his thick, sinewy wrist, and dropped. Dead weight.
Boom, the gun went off. Jed made some swift gesture I barely saw, but my captor jerked sharply, let out a high-pitched, grunt, and stumbled down the slope, dragging me toward the edge…
“No!” Jed ran toward us, reaching for me. Our eyes met, in that strange, suspended moment. Gravity had already won, but my body hadn’t gotten the memo yet.
That moment ended, time started back up. We pitched over the edge, headlong.
But not where Jed had stashed me. Here, the slope was extremely steep, but not completely sheer. I just bounced rolled helplessly down, unable to stop.
I hit the first tree. Slim, flexible branches ripped swiftly through my hands, shredding them. Gone too fast. I hit another, hung on harder, but the masked man was grabbing my leg, and I lost that one, too. Tried for the next. Snagged it. Hung on…
But the clutching guy’s weight, plus my weight was too much. This tree’s wide, shallow root system was ripping loose. My shoulder joints screamed with the strain.
That grotesque white mask glared up at me, and I saw it.
That knife, sticking out of his shoulder. Jed had thrown a knife at him. That was what made the guy scream and stumble.
I howled with effort as I jerked my leg free of his grip, then lifted my boot and stomped down hard on the knife handle. He screamed, bloodshot eyes rolling madly in their sockets…and released his grip, sliding and bumping farther down the slope.
Bam. Bam. There had been shooting before, but I’d been too busy to notice.
I looked up, saw muzzle flashes. Jed’s intent face. He was returning fire. The rock next to my head exploded in splinters, peppering my cheek.
Jed disappeared, ducking behind a rock. Bam, bam, bam, bam.
It seemed to go on forever. Then, suddenly, it stopped.
I peered up, hoping desperately to see Jed.
I glanced down at the masked man, and caught sight of him as he disappeared into the tree canopy far below.
It was like having a venomous spider run behind the couch.
Worse, when you couldn’t see where it went.
The tree root came loose, and I was sliding again, helplessly…and then I hit a narrow, stony ledge with my shoulder—
And everything went black.