by Bella Jewel
It takes me well over an hour to complete this, and then I have to very carefully come back, stepping as close to the edge of the track as I can, making sure I cover every one of my new footprints so he doesn’t figure out what I’ve done. It takes me a good long while to get back to Noah, and when I get there, I find him slumped against a tree, head dropped, eyes closed.
I run forward. Fear clogging my throat.
“Noah!” I scream, dropping to my knees in front of him.
I take his shoulders and shake, panic gripping my chest. No.
His eyes flutter open. I make a strangled, relieved noise.
“I was just resting, Lara,” he croaks.
Tears burst forth; I have zero control over them. They tumble down my cheeks in rivers. “I thought … for a second I thought…”
He reaches up, gripping my chin. “I’m okay. I’ll be okay.”
I nod, sniffling, trying to suck back my sobs. Noah’s fingers move to my jaw and then glide up until he’s cupping my face. “Hey, where’s that brave girl who just told me we’d get through this if we keep fighting?”
I nod fiercely, wiping away my tears. “You just scared me for a minute, that’s all. The thought of losing you—”
“You won’t. Do you hear me?”
* * *
I glance down at his bloody leg.
No.
Not yet.
“We should go,” I say, standing. Feeling his hand drop away from my face hurts, but we don’t have time to do this. Not right now.
“Yeah,” he mutters, standing with a wince.
We step into the stream.
“Where did this end up?” he asks, as we slowly start following it down.
“It ended up in a big dam-like thing, but the forest around it was really thick and dense. He has tracks running alongside it, but if we’re in the water he’ll be forced to get off his bike and come in. I think if we go farther than I went, it’ll get even denser. It’s hard to track someone through water, and soon it’ll be deep enough that we can take the pressure off our legs and swim as best we can.”
“Anyone ever tell you that you’re an incredibly strong, brave, and fucking beautiful woman?”
I flush and look to him. “Yeah.”
“When?” he frowns.
“Just now.”
A grin.
He’s going to be okay.
We’re okay.
For now.
Not a real hunter.
How dare he.
I’m a real hunter. I’m better than anyone. It took me ten years to create every track, to clear every clearing, to plant trees, to keep the stream clear enough to flow. I thought about every scenario, every escape.
Not a real hunter.
He has no idea who he’s challenging. I’ll find him without those cameras and those damned chips.
I’ll make him wish he never challenged me.
I know every inch of this forest.
Every. Single. Inch.
They won’t escape me.
Tomorrow, I hunt.
And this time I shoot to kill.
NINETEEN
Agony.
It comes in so many forms. Physical. Mental. Emotional.
I’m feeling all three.
I don’t know how many hours we’ve waded through the water, but my mind, my body, my soul are shutting down. Everything hurts, inside and out. My tired body just doesn’t want to take anymore. Noah is the same, I’m sure of it. Nothing takes the pressure away. We’ve floated, we’ve swum, we’ve just stopped and lain down. Nothing is taking the pain away.
It’s the afternoon now, that much I know. The sun has changed directions in the sky. Isn’t it funny how we notice these things? You can go through your entire life not noticing the simplicity of the earth, yet when it’s all you’ve got, suddenly it’s black and white. The sun. The trees. The weather. The way the animals move. The way the days pass by. It’s all so clear, creating its own pattern. We as humans choose not to see these things, but when you stop and look, it truly is beautiful.
“Lara?”
I turn toward Noah, who is staring straight ahead.
“Yeah?” I croak, voice tired.
“Look ahead.”
I glance ahead and stop dragging my legs through the water. Directly ahead is a waterfall. It’s not big, but it’s a decent size. Rocks climb either side of it, stretching up and then continuing on toward what I assume is more forest.
“It’s a waterfall,” I mumble.
“Most waterfalls have little nooks behind them.”
“Where do you get that logic?”
He shrugs. “It’s always in the movies.”
“And everyone knows the movies are based on fact.”
He gives me a look.
I give him a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I’m starving and I’m tired.”
“Let me go ahead and check it out.”
“No,” I say quickly. “Your leg is numb from the cold water, but I can tell you now that it’s going to hurt like hell when you get out of here. Let me check it out.”
He glares at me. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”
“Noah.”
“Lara.”
I sigh.
“Stay here,” he mutters and uses his arms to swim his body across the deep dam leading up to the waterfall.
He reaches it and I watch as he uses his powerful body to haul himself up. I can see the pain on his face, even from here, but he doesn’t make a single sound. He just climbs in, shoving through the water. I float, and I wait. Five minutes later, he comes back out. He’s got a relieved smile on his face. That must be a good sign, right?
“What do you know, the movies are right,” he yells.
Thank God. I swim over, using the last of my energy. I reach the waterfall, and the soft mist created from the water crashing down over the rocks soaks my face. I close my eyes and reach for the hand Noah extends. He hauls me up as if I weigh nothing and I have to hold my breath as we shove through the waterfall.
We get blasted with water from every angle. It pounds down over our heads, nearly taking my feet out from beneath me. I keep holding my breath and hanging on to Noah’s hand as he pulls. Step by step we go. My lungs feel like they’re going to explode. Finally, the water stops. I open my eyes and blink a few times, clearing the water from them.
“Wow,” I breathe.
“Yeah,” Noah mumbles, walking in and running a hand through his hair, flicking water everywhere.
“This is … magical.”
I take in the small but cozy space in front of me. It’s cave-like in its creation, with high moss-covered rock walls. The only difference is that the area to the left has a small opening in the rocks, perhaps from damage, and a little natural light is flowing in, lighting up the space enough to see where you’re going. Water is trickling down the walls in tiny streams and I can hear the water roaring overhead. I can also hear it in the cave, but where it’s coming from I don’t know.
Noah hobbles around, examining the space inch by inch. “Check this out,” he says, encouraging me over with a hand.
I limp over and peer in. He’s pointing into a deeper part of the cave, which to be honest looks like it might continue for a good long while. “How far do you think this thing goes?” I ask, squinting into the darkness.
“Could go for miles. No way to tell. It might be tiny, it might be never ending.”
“Do you think he knows about it?”
“Well, we’ve gone off his track, which makes me wonder. The only way we’ll know is if he shows up. But to be honest, this cave looks untouched. Getting in here was a big effort and it wasn’t easily visible from the outside.”
“Do you think he’s even ventured this far into the stream?”
“No way to tell, but given how far off the track we are, my guess is that we’re in one of his blind spots. We just might have found a safe place.”
Hope explodes in my chest, but I do my very
best not to cling to it. Knowing we had a safe space … that would mean everything.
“Should we go deeper?”
He looks into the darkness for a few minutes, then turns back to me. “At this stage, no. There isn’t light in there, and it could be dangerous. We didn’t come this far to fall and die.”
“Well,” I say. “I’m happy to have a safe place for now.”
“Don’t know that it is one yet, but I’m hangin’ on to hope.”
“Me too,” I admit.
“We need to get dry and we need to air out our wounds. Do you have any objection to getting naked so I can dry out these clothes?”
I blink. “Was that a pickup line or…”
He grins. “Jesus, woman. No. It’s survival.”
“Sure it is,” I mutter.
“Okay, well, sit in wet clothes.”
“I have underwear,” I point out. “I’ll sit in that.”
He shakes his head and removes everything he’s still wearing, down to his boxers. He unwraps his leg and I can clearly see the wound now. It’s so clean from the water. It’s just a big, gaping hole. The gash on his chest is so clean I can hardly see it, but it’s there, skin peeling on either side of it. I turn away, finding it painful to look at. I unwrap my own leg, strip down to my underwear, and hand Noah my clothes.
“I’m going to see if I can find a way to get out and put these in the sun without going through the water.”
I nod, pressing my back against a cool rock. My eyes are heavy and my body is exhausted. Hunger growls low in my belly and I’m thirsty, even though I just spent hours in water. I shuffle forward, moving toward the natural light shining in. The sun is blaring through and I sit directly beneath it, feeling its warmth against my skin and sighing with bliss.
“Sorry to burst your bubble,” Noah says, stopping in front of me. “That’s the only sunlight.”
I want to scream and rip my own eyes out, but instead I shuffle back and let him lay out the clothes. “Do you think we’ll have enough daylight left to dry those?”
He shrugs. “Don’t know, but I hope so. How’s your leg?”
I stretch it out in front of me, and it throbs. “Killing me,” I admit. “Yours?”
“Same,” he mutters, sitting down beside me. It’s warmer here, so even though I’m not directly in the sun, I decide to stay as close to it as I can get.
I sigh and drop my head into my hands. My hair falls down over them; it’s a tangled mess, strands matted together to form dreadlock-type creations. Noah reaches over, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and pulling me closer. “You hungry?”
I nod.
“I saw some wild plums growing near the waterfall,” he says. “I can go get some.”
“In a minute,” I murmur, turning and pressing my face into his chest. He’s warm, and he smells familiar, which I need right now more than anything. A familiar comfort.
He hangs on to me, fingers combing through my hair as best they can. We don’t move, we just sit like that for what seems like ages, in each other’s arms, taking the only comfort we have right now.
“Let’s eat, drink, and get some rest while we can. We’ll take it in turns. You sleep, I’ll keep a watch, then vice versa.”
“Okay,” I say, voice weak and tired.
“Okay, baby.”
He lets me go and I immediately miss his warmth. He goes back outside and soon returns with his hands filled with wild plums. He’s beside me again, handing one to me. I take it and eat it, then finish another. Then we drink from the stream.
“Sleep, honey,” he murmurs, looking down at me. “I’ve got us covered.”
I don’t argue.
I don’t believe I have the strength.
I just lie down on the warm rock and let my eyes flutter closed.
For a few hours, I pray I’ll find peace.
TWENTY
I wake to hands running over my cheeks and Noah’s quiet voice. “Lara?”
I shift, back aching from lying on the rock. It takes me a few minutes to open my eyes, and when I do it’s still fairly light in the cave. I’m guessing it’s late afternoon. I mustn’t have slept long.
“What is it?” I whisper, groaning as I shift.
“He’s out there.”
My entire body freezes. Three words. Isn’t it funny how they can have that effect on you? In a split second I go from relaxed to utterly terrified. I’m tired of fear. Tired of living with it constantly weighing down on my chest.
“What?” I whisper, throat tight.
“I heard the bike about five minutes ago. It’s stopped.”
“Do you think he knows we’re in here? Oh God, Noah. We can’t get out. This was a stupid, stupid idea and—”
“Hey,” Noah growls low as he kneels down. “We don’t know anything. Just be quiet. Don’t move. Don’t make a sound.”
I look toward the waterfall that pounds over the opening to our little cave. I can hear the distinct sounds of someone moving near the water, possibly even in the water. My entire body goes stiff as the sudden onslaught of a flashlight moves across the waterfall, seeming to hang there for too long. I close my eyes, hold my breath, and for a few torturous seconds I honestly cannot feel anything but pure, raw terror.
From the top of my head right down to my toes, everything tingles. Every part of my body feels as though it’s going to explode, and I want it to. I never want to feel so utterly petrified again in my life. I can’t manage a breath, even as I try. I just sit there in Noah’s arms, eyes clamped shut, praying, just praying that someone up there can hear me. Please don’t let him find us in here.
What seems like hours pass, but in reality it’s only a couple of minutes. The sound of the bike starting up has my body jerking in Noah’s arms. My eyes dart open and I listen as it zips away. Just like that. Gone. Noah and I don’t move for a solid five minutes, just sit there, tense, waiting to see if it’s some sort of trick.
But he doesn’t come back.
“He doesn’t know we’re in here,” Noah says, voice thick.
I cry silently.
It seems fitting. Relief unlike any I’ve ever felt in my entire life washes through me and I slump into Noah’s arms, wrapping myself around him, pressing my cheek to his chest.
“We have a safe place,” I whisper against his skin.
“For now we do.”
“For now?” I ask, lifting my head and looking up at him.
“If he doesn’t find us in a few days, he’s going to get desperate. Probably turn the cameras back on. And I’m not sure we have that kind of time anyway. We can’t go that much longer without medical attention.”
There goes that relief.
It slides out of my body as if it were never there.
“So what do we do?”
“We stay in here as long as we can, make weapons, come up with a plan. We have to end him. It’s the only way we’ll get out of here.”
“So ultimately, we’re going to play his game.”
Noah looks at me, his face hard. “He’ll find us, eventually. We can’t hide here forever. To end this, we have to face him.”
“We tried that before, Noah,” I say softly. “We’re no match for him without real weapons.”
“You don’t need weapons to take someone down, you just need the right plan. He’s one person. We’re two.”
“One person with a plan and weapons.”
“Are you saying we should just give up then?” he says with frustration.
“No, not at all. Just that we need to be careful. If we go rushing in, all this has been for nothing.”
“I know,” he says softly.
* * *
“I don’t want to die,” I whimper.
His hands go to either side of my head and he leans in close. “You’re not going to.”
“I want to live.”
“You will.”
“I want,” My voice cracks. “To love. To kiss. To make love. I don’t want all those things
to be taken from me. I want them. I need them. I want them all just once more.”
He leans down, breath fanning over my face. “You’ll have them more than once more. You’ll have them for the rest of your life. We’re going to get out of here, Lara.”
“You can’t promise that.”
His eyes scan my face. “I’m not going to give up.”
A tear runs down my cheek. He captures it with his thumb.
“But if there is a chance we don’t make it out,” he says, voice husky, “then I’m going to give you all your once-mores.”
My heart pounds.
“Starting with love.”
I swallow the thick lump in my throat.
“I love you, Lara. Loved you from the second I laid eyes on you in that bar. I’ve loved you every minute since.”
More tears.
He leans in closer, kissing them away. Then his lips find mine and he kisses me softly at first, moving his lips over mine, coaxing me. A few seconds of gentle, loving kisses continue until I finally part my lips and let him in. His tongue finds mine in a gentle caress that I feel right down to my toes. I reach up, curling my fingers into his hair, pulling him closer, molding our bodies together.
The kiss blows my mind.
“A once-more kiss,” he murmurs against my mouth before pulling back.
My stomach does a tumble and my heart flutters.
“Now, for the last one. What was it?” he rasps.
His finger trails over my bare shoulder, causing my skin to prickle. He runs a hand down my arm, capturing my elbow and bringing me so close I can feel every hard inch of him pressing against me. I tremble in his arms and look up at him. “I want you,” I breathe. “I need you.”
He reaches up and captures my jaw, tilting my head back. “Who am I to say no to your needs?”
I smile.
He grins.
Then his lips find mine again. This kiss is rougher, more passionate. This is the way I remember him. Wild, feral, so damned masculine. His hand slides down and captures my ass, using it to grind my body against his. I don’t feel the pain in my leg, or my tired body; all I sense is him. All around me. Taking away everything else for just a minute. Our tongues dance as his hands move over my body, stroking, kneading, giving me what I so desperately need.
