Читать книгу Big Sky Showdown - Sharon Dunn - Страница 14

FIVE

Zane jumped down from his hiding place and pounced on the man, knocking the wind out of him. Zane grabbed the flashlight where it had rolled away from the temporarily disabled man. By then, Heather was halfway down the tree. She ran the remaining ten feet to rush to his side.

Between the two other searchers on foot and the ATVs coming back this way, there was only one direction to go. Both of them took off running. Zane led them in an erratic path around the trees, hoping to make them harder to follow.

He caught glimpses of bobbing lights in the forest. They needed to shake these guys before they had any chance of getting back to the river.

He pushed deeper into the forest where the undergrowth was thick. The roar of the ATVs never let up. They skirted around some brush, coming face-to-face with a kid on foot who didn’t look to be more than twelve years old. When he saw them, the kid’s eyes grew wide with fear. He showed no sign of pulling any kind of a weapon on them.

“I won’t tell if you don’t,” said Zane as he darted off in a different direction with Heather close on his heels.

They sprinted through the darkness of the forest, dodging lights and sounds that seemed to come at them from every direction, feet pounding the ground, breath filling their lungs and coming out in cloudy puffs as the night grew colder.

He dismissed any thought of returning to the river just yet. The river was probably patrolled anyway.

They ran until twenty minutes passed without seeing a light or hearing a human noise. Both of them pressed against tree trunks in an aspen grove, the sounds of their heavy inhales and exhales the only noise around.

They couldn’t keep dodging these guys forever. Granted, it looked like Willis had sent the B team, younger men and boys with less high-tech equipment and experience, to track them down, but if Willis was serious about kidnapping Zane and Heather, he’d send the A team or come out himself sooner or later.

Heather pushed off the tree and moved toward him as if to talk to him.

In his peripheral vision, he saw the vapor cloud of someone exhaling by a tree. His heart skipped a beat as he held up his hand, indicating to Heather she needed to stand still.

He watched as the person behind the tree let out another breath from maybe twenty feet away.

Seconds ticked by.

Though her face was covered in shadows, he picked up on the fear in Heather’s posture. Both of them stood as still as rocks. His heartbeat drummed in his ears. Whoever was behind the tree took a single step, feet crunching on snow.

Heather turned her head ever so slightly as if to indicate that she thought they should run. He shook his head. He didn’t think they’d been spotted yet, but any noise at all would alert the stranger to their whereabouts.

The stranger took another step. Through the prism of the narrow white and black aspen trunks, Zane discerned the silhouette of a man, standing still for a long time as though he were taking in his surroundings. Probably listening for any noise that might be out of place.

Zane swallowed as his heart raged in his chest and sweat trickled down his back. His mouth was dry.

With the next footstep, the stranger moved away from where he and Heather stood. The footsteps came one after the other before finally fading into the distance.

When the man got far enough away that they could no longer hear him, Heather let out a breath, and her shoulders slumped, but she didn’t move until Zane took a step toward her.

She closed the distance between them so she could talk in a whisper. “Who was that?”

“I’m not sure,” he said.

Another hunter? Maybe. More likely it was someone in Willis’s crew who was out in the woods for some reason other than capturing them. Or someone who was supposed to catch them but who didn’t want to get into a wrestling match.

Zane ran his hand over the pistol he’d gotten off the teenager, grateful that he hadn’t needed to use it.

“Follow me,” he said.

They walked for a distance through the darkness. It was too much of a risk to turn on the flashlight, and the moonlight provided enough light to see the ground. He stopped at the top of a knoll and stared down at the cluster of trees below. He turned the flashlight on and off just to get a glimpse. Something about the arrangement of the underbrush looked unnatural.

Heather followed him down the hill and into the evergreens. Hidden from view from the outside, he saw piles of pine boughs covering some sort of structure. He pulled several of the branches off until he found a small door. The structure was made of heavy duty plastic stretched across PVC pipe and it was not more than four feet high.

“It’s like a hobbit house,” said Heather.

He poked his head in. A gust of warmth surrounded him. “Actually, it’s a little more sinister than that.” He pulled out the flashlight and turned it on. As he’d suspected, they’d stumbled on someone’s pot farm. “Might as well come in, it’s warm inside.”

The plants were spaced to allow a single person to get around to tend them. Heather slipped in after him. “Someone has a serious need to support a habit.”

“This kind of operation isn’t about personal use. Someone is growing this stuff to sell.”

And from the look of the empty shelves, much of it already had been sold. He’d received letters from law enforcement telling him to be on the lookout for the pot farms in the high country because it was such a good place to hide an operation. As much time as he spent up here, he was bound to stumble across one sooner or later. He wondered, too, if the stranger they’d encountered in the woods had just left the little hidden farm. Maybe he was part of Willis’s group but spent most of his time away from the main base and had no idea about Zane and Heather being hunted by the others. An operation like this required daily attention. From the size of the plants, they’d been up here for a while. With the limited number of people who came up here outside of hunting season, Willis might have been here through the spring and summer.

“I guess they’re not likely to get caught this far away from everyone.” Heather scooted in behind him and closed the tiny door.

“Right.” The more he thought about it, the more certain Zane was that no one besides Willis and his little army would be this far up. The little farm had to be Willis’s. Willis had always been against the consumption of drugs and alcohol, but he wasn’t above selling it to others to make money. This was a larger crop than Zane would have expected, though. What exactly was Willis up to anyway? What was he trying to finance?

Once hunting season started in a few weeks, Willis ran the risk of being spotted, so it must be something that would happen soon.

Zane shone his flashlight around, spotting a pamphlet that was authored by Willis. Any doubt that this operation was his fell away. Zane noticed a water container. He lifted it and handed it first to Heather. She took several gulps of water as he skirted around the dirt floor to see what else he could find. He came up with a blanket neatly folded and a heavy-duty sleeping bag on a mat.

“There’s a little stove here and some canned goods.” He heard Heather’s voice but couldn’t see her through the foliage.

When he studied the roof, it looked like there was some sort of solar panel set up to keep the place warm. Whoever tended the plants must stay here for extended periods. No doubt he would be back. But hopefully not before Zane and Heather had a chance to take refuge for a little while.

He worked his way over to where Heather had already fired up the little propane stove and was opening a can of beans.

He patted the protein bars in his pocket, grateful he could save them for later. “Let’s eat and get out of here. I’m sure someone checks these on a regular basis. The ‘farmer’ might be the guy we saw a few minutes ago, just out for a brief walk.”

Heather poured the beans into the metal tin and placed it on the gas flame.

He felt a sense of urgency. “Maybe we should eat the beans cold.”

She cut the flame. “There’s only one spoon.”

“You first,” he said.

She took four quick bites and then handed him the can. He’d finished his third bite when he heard the roar of the ATVs raging down the hill toward them. So much for rest and food. They’d been found again. Time to run.

* * *

Bright lights glaring through the clear plastic nearly paralyzed Heather. Zane clicked off the flashlight. She heard him scrambling toward the door. It took her a moment before her brain kicked into gear, and she followed behind him, slipping through the tiny opening and out into the dark night.

The ATVs loomed down the hill toward them, the engine noises sounding like hungry monsters gnashing their teeth. Her limbs felt heavy and muscles cried out with fatigue from having run so much.

Zane grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the shelter of the trees. The ATV noise fell away by half, indicating some of their pursuers must have stopped to examine the greenhouse. She kept her eyes on the back of Zane’s head as they fled. They ran until the noise died down to a single ATV and then fell away altogether.

When the silence of the forest surrounded them once again, they ran and rested and ran some more until the sun peeked up over the mountains. Early-morning light washed everything with a warm glow, and she felt her strength returning.

They stopped only briefly to eat the protein bars Zane had gotten from Clarence’s saddlebag.

It seemed to her that they’d been running in circles, but she knew Zane was smarter than that, and knew the area well enough to be choosing their direction carefully. He must be trying to figure out a safe way to get down off the mountain, back to the river and back to Fort Madison.

The landscape opened up to flat meadow that was partially covered in snow. She shaded her eyes from the glare. In the distance, she spotted a red and blue object that looked out of place.

She ran toward it. As she drew closer, more colors became evident. It was a backpack. She knelt down.

The backpack was empty. Another hiker who had been robbed maybe?

Zane knelt beside her. He bolted to his feet and glanced around.

Heather stood up, too, studying the partially snowy landscape. She spotted a yellow object attached to the branch of a tree and ran toward it. She pulled the fabric free of the branches, her chest tightening. The fabric was from a man’s bandanna.

She glanced up just as Zane disappeared into another part of the forest. Her feet pounded the earth as she followed after him, stepping through patches of crunchy snow and into the trees. The canopy of evergreens cut the light by half as she stepped deeper into the forest. Her breath caught when she glanced down at the ground. Dribbles and several huge circles of dried blood spotted the snow.

Her chest felt like it was in a vice. She tried to tell herself that the blood could be from an animal—but there had been no sign of teeth or claw marks on the belongings they’d spotted. The backpack and bandanna looked like they’d been discarded by human hands.

Zane burst through the trees. His expression was like none she’d ever witnessed before. Eyebrows knit in anguish, his skin the color of rice. Eyes filled with fear. He glanced over his shoulder and then back at her.

“What is it?” She stepped toward where he’d looked.

He grabbed her arm at the elbow. “You don’t need to see this.”

She pulled away, not able to let go of the idea that she had to know what was going on in these mountains. She darted toward where Zane had come from.

She found the man’s body propped up against the tree. The body had not started to decompose, so he must have been here a short time. The bloodstain on his chest revealed that he had been stabbed.

Light-headed, she whirled away, slamming into Zane’s chest. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her away from the gruesome sight.

Her mind reeled. Murderers. She’d been so focused on running for her life that reality hadn’t sunk in until she saw the dead man. They were trapped on this mountain with bloodthirsty killers.

She rested for a moment in the security of Zane’s arms, trying to calm herself. But her mind raced at a thousand miles an hour. She fought to get a deep breath.

She could barely get the words out. “What happened...there? Did they kill him so they could get his stuff?” She pulled away from him, then paced back and forth gripping her somersaulting stomach. “Do they have so little regard for life?”

He stepped toward her. “Calm down.”

“Calm down?” Her words splintered as they spilled from her lips. Her legs felt like were made of rubber. She’d only come up here to spread her father’s ashes. How had things gotten to this point where she was fighting to get away from men who acted worse than animals?

He reached out for her.

She darted away, shaking her head. “What is going on here?”

“Heather, please.” He stepped toward her.

“You knew these men. You were one of them.” Really, if Zane hadn’t told her that he used to be under the influence of someone like Willis, she never would have guessed it. Was it really possible a man could change so radically?

“I am nothing like them.” Zane’s voice was tinged with anger. “Not anymore. And this is way over the top. We never did anything like that when I was with Willis.”

“It looks like they are getting more desperate or bloodthirsty, then. What is driving them?” Her voice was barely above a whisper. Her mind clouded as a fear she had never felt before invaded her awareness. She turned nearly a full circle. The killers were out there waiting to attack again, looking for the chance to take her and Zane. But after they used them for whatever they had in mind, would she and Zane die, too?

“Heather, please don’t give up.” He stepped toward her and cupped his hands on her shoulders. “We need to get back to town so the authorities can come up here and deal with these men.”

She nodded slowly. He was right. They could not stop fighting or give in to fear.