Run to Me (31 page)

‘That’s just what I mean.’

‘Moving where?’

‘That way.’ She pointed along the ridge.

Frowning, he surveyed the rugged terrain then turned in the direction they’d been driving. ‘Wouldn’t it be better to keep following the trail?’

‘Right now our friends are checking a map to see where that leads. They’ll go out the way they came, swing around and try to cut us off. In the Rover we might’ve beaten them out. On foot we’d simply be walking straight into them.’

Shyler reached through the broken rear window, grabbed the knapsack and started back. When she reached him she stopped, staring in silence into the face of the man who
had nearly killed them.

She could almost have forgiven him for calling the police.
If
she’d been certain he’d done it out of concern for their safety. But this second betrayal, to the monsters who wanted Jesse dead . . . He claimed they’d lied about who they were. Could she believe that?

Chase held her gaze. ‘So who were those people?’

She didn’t answer. If she started to explain she just might
forget how much she still needed him. How much she still . . . For an instant tears stung her eyes. God help her, she’d wanted so much to believe –

‘You know it isn’t only your lives at risk any more,’ he said. ‘They’re after me now, too. Doesn’t that give me the right to know what’s going on?’

She slung the knapsack onto her back. ‘I’ll take this. You carry Jesse.’

At hearing her words, Zack
jumped up. ‘No way! I’m not letting
him
carry me!’

Shyler stepped towards him and touched his face. ‘You’re not strong enough to be walking yet and we have a long way to go.’ When he still seemed reluctant she tousled his hair. ‘Just pretend you’re riding a horse.’

Zack’s mouth twitched as he looked up at Chase. ‘Not a horse, a donkey. A big, dumb ass.’

The ridge top afforded a spectacular view of the stream they’d just crossed, the forests beyond and a range of pine-covered hills rolling into the distance to their left. Most impressive were the rocky escarpments jutting from the mountain directly ahead. With clear autumn sunlight warming their faces, they headed for the woods on the clearing’s far side.

Chase plodded on, unmoved
by the scene. He was too aware of the hostility radiating from the child on his back. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, he spoke over his shoulder, ‘I know you won’t believe this but I’m truly sorry I helped those people.’

The boy didn’t answer. It was no doubt going to take some coaxing to regain even the shaky ground they’d been on before.

‘I guess I just never imagined a woman could
be involved in such a nasty business. That’s sexist, I know. I should’ve suspected. If I’d had more time I probably would have.’

Nothing. Not so much as a snide remark.

He tried one last time. ‘Then again if you and Shyler had told me the truth I might not have listened to them.’

‘You want
us
to tell the truth but it’s okay for you to lie?’

Bingo.

Shyler was no more than four yards in front
of them. Chase slowed his pace, falling back further out of her earshot. ‘You know you’re right, I haven’t been totally honest with you.’

‘No shit!’

‘Okay, how’s this?’ He gulped in some air – the terrain plus the extra weight he was carrying were getting his breathing and heart rate up. ‘You know that call I got back at my place? It wasn’t the police, it was Shyler’s ex-husband. He was returning
my call from two days ago. I wanted to ask him some things about Shyler.’

‘What kind of things?’ The small voice had lost a bit of its venom.

‘About her life, things that might have happened to her. I was worried about her. But my concerns had nothing to do with the people who are after you because this was before what happened at the cabin.’

‘So why were you worried?’

‘Shyler had been to
see me a couple of times and on both occasions I thought she acted . . . Well, to be honest, a little strangely.’

‘You thought she was crazy.’ The belligerence was back in his tone.

‘I thought she might have some problems, yes.’ He was quiet a moment.

‘What did you think could be wrong with her?’

‘I didn’t know. I had a few theories but I needed more information to be sure.’

‘So what’d the
guy say?’

‘The guy? Her ex?’ Chase nearly smiled at the unconscious slip. ‘Don’t you mean your father?’

The boy’s grip tightened on his shoulders. When he failed to
respond, Chase went on. ‘Well, one thing he told me was that Jesse was dead. Naturally that made me wonder who
you
were and why you were pretending to be Shyler’s son.’

Again no response.

‘In fact he didn’t just say that Jesse
was dead, he said Shyler killed him.’

‘What? That’s nuts!
I’m
Jesse and I’m alive!’

‘Then why would your father say you were dead?’

‘He’s the one who’s crazy! He’s making it up!’

‘Actually that was my thought as well, that it all had to be some kind of mistake. I’ve seen how Shyler is with you – loving, gentle, willing to risk her life for you. She wouldn’t be like that with a stranger, now
would she?’

The boy’s hands were claws digging into his shoulders.

‘Unfortunately my instincts aren’t always right. And as the two of you wouldn’t answer my questions I started to have doubts. So when that woman approached me in the general store and told me Shyler had kidnapped you –’

‘Kidnapped!’

‘And that she might hurt you –’

‘What? No way!’

‘That was why I agreed to her plan and stopped
on the road so she could catch up.’

‘Well, she was lying. Shyler’s not crazy. She’d never hurt me!’

Chase let the words fade into silence. ‘Shyler?’ he murmured. ‘Don’t you mean Mom?’

‘You’re sure this is the trail they were on?’ Tragg steered the Jag around a rocky outcrop and up the rise on the other side.

‘Absolutely. It’s right here on the map. There are no other turnoffs they could’ve taken.’

‘You said we’d cut them off before they reached the road.’

‘Well, yes, we have to. According to the map –’

‘Then where the fuck are they?’

Fingers fumbling, Vanessa
smoothed a crease from the paper. What had she missed? She didn’t see anything. They were exactly where they were supposed to be.

After doubling back from the stream, with Tragg once more behind the wheel, they’d reached the main road and headed north to where the logging trail eventually came out again.

There was no way the Land Rover could have reached that turn-off ahead of them. It was three
miles coming from that direction. Three miles of rugged twisting track that even in a four-wheel drive would have taken twenty minutes, whereas the Jag had had to travel less than half that distance over gravel road. They couldn’t have gotten out ahead of them. They couldn’t!

Yet with each passing second she felt less certain. If they were coming this way surely they should have run into them
by now. Were there other smaller tracks that weren’t on the map? If so, Tragg could hardly blame her –

‘There!’ she said as they rounded a bend and the Rover came in sight up ahead.

Tragg put on a burst of speed that snapped her head back. They skidded to a stop beside the four-wheel drive, grabbed their weapons and jumped out.

Wind stirred the treetops. From somewhere below, the sound of water
murmuring over rocks. Otherwise silence.

The Rover was empty.

‘Why’d they leave it?’ Tragg said, scanning their immediate surroundings.

Vanessa stepped closer and surveyed the ground behind the vehicle. ‘They were losing oil. Must’ve cracked the sump.’

She peered in through the broken back window. ‘They’ve taken with them whatever they were carrying. They can’t be more than a half hour ahead
of us. We can still catch them.’

‘If we knew which way they went.’

Vanessa began checking the ground again. She moved out in ever-widening circles, finding what she sought where the forest opened on a narrow clearing – a residual swathe, an all but imperceptible parting in the meadow’s weeds. ‘They went out along this ridge.’

Tragg came over. ‘You can track them?’

‘Three summers of army survival
camp. Lazaro has no use for daughters.’ She winced inwardly. Under this man’s scrutiny she always blurted out more than she wanted.

‘Good. Then from here on there’ll be no excuses.’

The murmur of running water echoed from the shallow steep-sided ravine they’d been following for the last half hour. Afternoon sunlight speared through the narrow breach in forest cover, making Shyler blink. Shifting the pack straps on her aching shoulders, she picked up the pace.

They could not slow down even for an instant. The others couldn’t be far behind. Fish Hook, Puppet. They
were coming, she knew it. Scarecrow. Beret. Like an approaching storm, she could feel it in her bones, sense it in her struggle to take a full breath.

She didn’t understand why they’d chosen Jesse. She would never understand! All she knew was that they wanted him dead. And she was the only one who could stop them.

Oh, she’d tried to tell people, but who had listened? She’d begged for help, but
who had believed? Now she was through with looking to others. It was up to her and no one else. And this time . . . this time . . .

The words echoed around her head.

This time.

How odd. Almost suggesting . . .

She faltered a step, for some reason suddenly a bit off balance.
This
time. Did that mean there had been another? Did that mean all this –

She staggered to a halt. The movement in her
head had started again. Like near objects glimpsed from a speeding train, thoughts and images swept through her mind. So fast. So disorienting. Her stomach churned.

A hand took her arm. ‘You all right?’

She looked up, gasping. Chase was beside her, Jesse peering over his shoulder, concern etched on both their faces.

‘Yeah, fine.’

‘We can stop for a minute if –’

‘No. We keep going.’ She shrugged
him off and continued on.

In ten quick strides she’d pulled out ahead again.
Push their pace. Keep them moving
.

They had stopped only once since leaving the Rover and that just long enough to get food from the knapsack so Jesse could eat and take his medicine. The one bright note in their day of terror was that Chase now felt Jesse’s fever had broken. A joyous turning point they couldn’t take
a single second to celebrate. Even such a short break had no doubt let the others catch up a bit.

At the thought, she quickened her pace yet again, pulling out further in front. They had to move faster, make up the distance. She dipped beneath a low-hanging branch, straightened and stopped at the sight that greeted her.

A large white pine, its top sheered off by a lightning strike, had lost
its tenuous hold on the bank and lay toppled across the ravine. A natural phenomenon, she told herself. Hardly an unusual sight in these forests. Yet all at once she was breathing faster than even her hurried pace could account for.

Confused at the power of her reaction, she stumbled back. By
the sudden dread that gripped her chest it was as though a precipice yawned before her. Turning aside
she hurried on.

Ten feet further, the terrain dipped sharply down a rocky slope offering a view of a wooded valley. Beside her the water began a long cascade over tumbled boulders and ledges of granite. Scanning the vista to confirm her bearings, she prepared to start down the steep descent.

‘Hang on a minute,’ she heard Chase call.

She stopped and turned but didn’t walk back to him.

The log
was as thick as a telephone pole and firmly supported at both ends. Judging from the sound of rushing water, it spanned the ravine at the crest of a waterfall – a clear indication, in Chase’s mind anyway, that the way to go was across, not down.

He pointed over at the other side. ‘Isn’t that the way to town? Wouldn’t it be faster to cross here?’

‘No,’ she said simply and turned away.

‘No what?
Town isn’t that way or that way isn’t faster?’

‘Both.’

He frowned. ‘What are you talking about?’

Joining her where the ground sloped away, he pointed to the distance. ‘Town’s over there. If we cross here we’ll cut off all that.’ He waved a hand at the area in question.

Shyler stood silent.

Incredulous, he stared down the slope. ‘I’m flattered you think my energy reserves are inexhaustible
but this way’s not just longer, it’s steeper and a lot more rugged.’ He dropped his voice. ‘What if I slip?’

Shyler glanced anxiously up at Jesse then towards the makeshift bridge. Chase couldn’t fathom it. Was she worried the log wasn’t strong enough to hold them or was it a simple fear of heights?

‘It’s perfectly safe.’ He turned and started walking back. ‘I’ll help Jesse across first and
then –’

‘Get away from there!’ Her words echoed along the ravine.

Chase spun around. From her tone he’d thought she’d spotted something – a bear, a snake or, worse, the others bursting from the trees to gun them down. But she was simply standing frozen in horror at their proximity to the fallen tree.

Stepping away from it, Chase lowered Jesse to the ground and nudged him towards a rock. ‘Sit
here while I go talk to her.’

Not since their brief initial exchange had the two of them spoken. Yet as Chase started forward the boy reached up and grabbed his hand. ‘What’s the matter with her?’

‘I don’t know. But if you give me a minute I’ll try to find out.’
If we have that long
.

The boy eyed the fallen tree. ‘You really think we should go that way?’

‘Yes. But I don’t know these woods
like she does.’

Zack watched the doctor walk away. He still didn’t trust him but the man was right – they should cross the stream here. The path on the other side looked heaps easier than the way Shyler wanted them to go.

What was she scared of? The log was plenty wide enough. Even if they fell they wouldn’t get hurt. Well, not as bad as if they tumbled down that rocky hill. And if she was worried
about him she could relax. He could run across that thing with his eyes closed!