Operation: Normal (20 page)

We didn't slow down when we reached the trees, but crashed straight through them. Low
limbs and tangled underbrush made running difficult at times. We never stopped until I fell hard
into a bramble bush. Thorns snagged my skin and clothes when Zach yanked me back to my feet.
I don't know how long we ran before I stumbled again and resisted all his attempts to get me
going.

"I...can't...breathe!" I pressed my hand to the sharp pain in my side and hugged a pine
tree with the other arm to stay on my feet.

Zach pulled me down to the ground with him. Catching my face in his hands, he planted
kisses on my cheeks, chin and forehead.

"¿
Esta bien, querida?
" he whispered against my flushed skin, the very first time
I'd heard him speak the language of his mother's side of the family.

I honestly don't think he realized he'd done it. And though I didn't really know what he
asked, I guessed. "I'm okay."

"
Pero hay sangre--
"

I touched my finger to his lips. "English, please."

Zach blinked at me as if suddenly remembering who he held so tightly. He inhaled a
ragged breath. "Sorry." He took a second, maybe to calm himself down, then pointed to my arm
and neck. "There's blood--"

"Most of it's not mine. Are you alone?"

"Yeah." By now we huddled together in the dark. He held me until my heart rate slowed
and air finally filled my lungs again.

"How'd you find me?"

"Adele."

"You mean you asked her where I was?"

"Yes."

"Tell me everything."

"Not here, Ally. They'll be looking for us soon, if they aren't already. This is the only
place we could possibly be hiding."

I recognized the truth of that. "How'd you get here?"

"My bike. It's hidden a couple of miles that way." He pointed in the direction from
which we'd just come.

"Bike as in motorcycle?"

He nodded.

Minka was going to love this, I thought, relaxing a little for the first time in hours.
"Where's the road from here?"

Zach pulled something just a little bigger than an iPod out of his hoodie pocket and
pushed a button on it. A sort of map appeared on the screen. "I think we've been running parallel
to it." He looked down at me. "Feeling better?"

"Uh-huh."

Zach gave me one last kiss, this one square on the mouth, before getting to his feet.

I got up, too, and followed him as he led us ever deeper into the woods. After a couple
hundred yards, the ground began to slope sharply upward and felt rocky beneath my sneakers. I
heard night sounds--crickets, tree frogs, an occasional owl. I even thought I heard the gurgle of a
brook. Zach never let go of my hand, which was good, because I lost all sense of direction.

Looking up through the trees, I saw no stars or moon to guide me. Only then did I
register how sultry the night had become. I wasn't surprised a few minutes later when a drop of
rain found its way through the thinning trees and splashed on the top of my head. Other drops
followed, and in minutes I added hard rain to my mental list of discomforts we now endured.
Cursing softly, Zach stopped short.

"I'm not sure what we should do now," he admitted. I could just make out his frown in
the dark.

"I won't melt."

"That's not what I meant. Those guys are probably watching the road, hoping we'll
eventually step onto it."

"Want to hide somewhere and wait them out?"

Zach thought about that. "Actually the sitting duck scenario doesn't work for me,
either."

Lightning flashed, making us both jump. A couple of seconds later, a rumble of thunder
shook the ground beneath our feet.

"Perfect," Zach muttered, glancing skyward.

Another flash of lightning revealed something large, looming in the distance.

"What's that?" I shouted, trying to be heard above the immediate crack of thunder. I
pointed.

Zach turned just as lightning flashed again.

"Let's check it out." He let go of my hand so we could climb the slippery slope. Moving
slowly, thanks to the pebbles and rocks that skittered beneath our feet, we came upon a boulder,
slanting just enough to provide a cover of sorts. We crawled under it. And though our legs stayed
in the rain, our heads, at least, got some relief from the chilly downpour.

"T-tell m-me everything," I demanded through chattering teeth.

Zach slipped off his sodden hoodie and handed it to me. I tugged it over my head. He
put his arm across my shoulders and pulled me close, his chin resting on my wet head. "Around
two-thirty this morning, your mom started banging on my door, looking for you. She wasn't sure
when you'd left your place, but believed you were with me. She thought I'd waited for you
outside or something, I guess. I don't really know. I probably don't have to tell you that she was
pissed."

"I can imagine."

"After I got her calmed down, she told me about the argument. I asked if she'd called
Minka or Heath. She hadn't. She said she'd lost her phone, but had used Esme's when she took
Kayly to her apartment. She borrowed my cell and tried again, thinking you might answer if you
thought it was me calling. But all she got was your voice mail."

"There was no signal in the barn." I dug into my pocket and retrieved my cell, intending
to check it for a signal.

"They didn't take your phone?" Clearly he couldn't believe it.

I explained about grabbing Mom's by mistake. I also double checked that I hadn't ruined
it trying to smash that stupid light bulb. The phone seemed to be working okay, but we still had
no bars so I stashed it in the hoodie.

"What happened next?" I asked, snuggling close again.

"She called your friends..." His voice trailed off.

"Go on," I prompted.

"But they hadn't heard from you." I heard his hard swallow and knew he relived that
memory.

"So what did you do then?"

"Well, after she got me calmed down--"

I smiled into his soaked T-shirt.

"We both drove to the police station."

"And when did you decide to go to Adele?"

"Once we talked to Officer Cranford." He heard my soft gasp. "Yeah. He was the cop on
duty. Told us that since you were now eighteen we'd have to wait twenty-four hours before they
could take action. What an idiot, huh? I mean, they had the threat letters. What else did they
need? I told your mom to try Adele, but she blew me off." He tucked a finger under my chin and
lifted it so I'd look at him. "It's not that she wasn't frantic. I mean, we were both half nuts by
then."

"I know," I said. "She really doesn't believe in a sixth sense."

"Exactly. So I told her about how Sergeant Pitt had worked with your dad and seemed to
understand the situation better. While she was busy demanding that someone call him at home, I
split."

"How'd you get into the ICU?"

"Just like they do in the movies. I acted like I knew what I was doing. Your aunt was
awake. I asked if she knew where you were. She gave me some numbers."

"You mean you could understand her?"

He nodded. "Yeah, though at the time I wasn't so sure since I didn't know what the
numbers meant. Then she wrote them down, and I recognized what they were." He dug into his
pocket and pulled out a piece of paper towel with two rows of numbers on it, each one starting
with a letter.

"I don't understand."

"They're coordinates."

I gasped and sat up to see him better. "Coordinates? Like for a GPS?"

"Exactly."

"Adele gave you coordinates." I couldn't believe it. I mean, what were the chances?

"Incredible, huh?"

"Amazing is the word that comes to my mind. It's incredible that you knew what they
were."

"I wouldn't have if my mom's Lexus didn't have a navigation system."

"So you figured out where I was and came after me alone, armed only with a
flashlight?"

"What else could I do? It's not like the cops or your mom would believe me if I told
them what I found out. And I speak from experience when I say Wal-Mart doesn't sell firearms
to crazed college students at 4:00 a.m., though they did let me buy the GPS."

Neither of us said anything for a minute, which is why I noticed the rain had let up
some. "Maybe we should keep moving," said Zach.

"Maybe."

"We'll go to the road and stay undercover until we're sure it's safe."

I nodded. "Okay."

Zach stood and reached down to pull me up, too. "Um...Ally?"

"Yes?" I was dusting wet leaves and mud off my soaked jeans.

"I'm sorry I don't have a better plan."

I stopped and grinned at him. "You came after me, Zach. How much better could a plan
be?"

We made our way down the other side of the hill, slipping on loose rocks and mud. Rain
trickled down my neck, and an earthy smell filled my senses, a heady blend of honeysuckle, pine
and damp moss.

Sometime later, Zach stopped so abruptly, I almost crashed into him.

"What?"

His upraised hand told me to hush. "Do you hear that?"

I went very still and listened for something out of the ordinary, before finally
whispering, "No."

Zach took a couple more steps, then halted again.

This time I heard it--the bay of hunting dogs. That was dogs, plural, as in more than one
vicious animal with sharp teeth. Zach and I exchanged panicky glances.

"But wouldn't the rain wash away our trail?" I said, shivering. This time it wasn't from
the cold.

"You'd think." I could see his expression clearly now that the clouds had passed over
and the sky better reflected the impending dawn. He looked worried. No, scared, actually. I
shivered again. He looked at me. "I don't know what to do, Ally. If those dogs--"

"Ask Dad."

"What?"

"Ask my dad. He's never talked to me directly, but he has to you. Maybe he'll do it
again."

"But I don't know how."

"Neither do I." I thought for a second. "But when I tried this once before, Adele told me
to think about him really hard. Maybe if you do that... I'll do it, too." I took Zach's hands in mine,
hoping that might help. "Close your eyes and focus."

"God, I feel like an idiot," muttered Zach, but he did as requested. Knowing my
boyfriend didn't have any more knowledge of my dad to build on than I did made the whole
situation that more unreal and impossible.

Then Zach jerked as if he'd been electrocuted.

I opened my eyes just in time for him to release one of my hands, tighten his grip on the
other, and take off through the woods at a dead run. "Run, Ally!"

I followed, trying to keep up with his longer stride. "Did Dad--"
pant,
pant
"--actually say something to you?" Talk about a shot in the dark... In total denial,
I ducked low-lying pine limbs that slapped me across the face anyway.

Throwing an arm up to protect my eyes, I did my best to keep up as we hurled ourselves
through the trees. We burst from the woods just as three cars zipped by, black blurs in the early
morning light. Zach immediately yanked me to the ground.

A fourth car skidded to a fishtailing stop on the gravel, about ten yards past us, then
reversed to where we stood. The passenger door flew open. Someone got out.

Zach crouched slightly as if ready to attack.

"Ally! It's me. Clint."

My jaw dropped. I popped up to see better. "Dad?"

"Yes."

I launched myself at him. He sort of fell against the car like he might be off balance, but
managed to catch me up in his arms and hug me like we'd been apart forever, which, I guess, we
had.

"I'm so sorry you got caught up in this, baby," he said, his voice gruff with emotion. My
gaze drank in every detail of him from head to toe when he finally set me on my feet. I saw a
handsome man with wide shoulders, long legs, and my eyes. I saw tousled brown hair. I saw a
snowy-white cast, just visible on his right foot under boot cut jeans.

Before I could sputter a word, Dad took a careful step over to my boyfriend. "You must
be Zach."

"Yes, sir." Zach stuck out his right hand.

Ignoring it, my dad engulfed him in a bear hug instead. Affectionately tousling Zach's
wet hair, Dad finally released him. "How in the hell did you find Ally, son?"

"Adele."

Grinning, Dad motioned for us to follow. "Climb aboard, you two. We're getting out of
here."

"But what about those guys that snatched me?" I said, hoping I'd witness their capture.
"Aren't you going to arrest them or something?"

"Believe me, we're on top of the situation." My dad opened the back door so we could
get into the car. That's when I registered the fact that his biceps were as big as grapefruits and he
wore a shoulder holster with a gun in it. My mouth went bone dry. Clearly, the whole
Double-0-Seven thing was going to take some getting used to.

So was having my dad close enough to touch.

I crawled into the back seat. "Do you have any water?"

Dad, now manipulating his right foot inside the car, tossed me an almost-full bottle of
Dasani.

I took a sip to wet my cotton-coated mouth, then handed it to Zach, who seemed more
than a little intimidated by my father and actually kept his distance from me once he got in. He
even went so far as to shake his head when I tried to scoot closer to him.

"If you're trying to fool Dad, forget it," I whispered into his ear as he drank. "He's
probably already read your mind."

Zach spewed his water.

The driver, a man named Bryce Edward, asked Zach where he'd left his "mode of
transportation." Zach told him. On the way there, we passed the turn-off to the barn where I'd
been taken. Zach pointed it out to me.

"It's a known holding area for human traffickers," explained Dad, looking out the
window.

"Is that your current assignment?" I eagerly asked.

He glanced back. "I can't talk about what I do, Ally."