She cried out as she hit the wood flooring, hard. She stared at her soaked pant leg. Blood continued to spread. She looked at her sock feet, the left one now red from the blood sliding down her leg.
She looked up and saw Monty’s gleeful eyes. Her stomach pitched with the realization she’d likely soon be facing her own death.
Blood and sweat mingled on his face as he turned and looked at her with a maniacal expression. “Write down your passwords. I need them in case I get logged out.”
She blinked at him as he handed her a pen and a sticky note. He was an idiot for not having her do this to begin with. She could write anything down and he wouldn’t know any better.
“I watched you put in the password,” he said in a deadly tone. “I will know if you write down the wrong one.
Her hand shook as she placed the sticky note on the floor and scribbled the screensaver password, and the one for her bank on the paper, only she switched two of the numbers. Three drops of blood fell on its surface before she handed it to him. She hadn’t noticed her head was bleeding from him punching her, but now felt the sticky fluid rolling down the side of her face. He’d probably cut her with his ring.
Monty ignored the blood and set the note on the laptop. “Get up.” He stood and kicked her when she didn’t move.
His shoe connected with her calf and she screamed and wrapped her arms around her knee and rocked. Tears flooded her cheeks.
“Get up,” he screeched as he raised his foot again.
Celine forced herself to scramble to her feet the best she could. Her head spun as she grasped the chair with one hand to balance herself. She almost crumpled again when she put the slightest weight on her wounded leg.
He looked at the blood on the floor. “Shit.” He swung his gaze on her. “You weren’t supposed to bleed. I had other plans.” He clenched his fists. “Now I have to hurry and get you out of here.”
Monty strode to her side. Her skin crawled as he wrapped his arm around her waist and pointed the gun at her side with his opposite hand.
“I’m going to help you,” he said with deadly calm. “But I will shoot you if you try anything.”
He would kill her anyway, she knew, but she was in too much pain to know what to do. She needed her survival instinct to kick in, but right now she could barely think straight.
Celine stumbled and bit her lip to keep from screaming.
Monty assisted her through the house, prodding her with threats.
Blood slid down her leg, her sock soaked with it.
“Now I’m going to have to clean up this damned mess,” he snarled. “Blood everywhere. If I didn’t have things to do, I’d make you clean it up.”
She wondered if she should just drop to the floor and let him kill her. But she held onto a thread of hope. Maybe, just maybe Jayson would be out on his property and see them.
Monty urged her out of the house with him assisting her. He wouldn’t even let her put on her boots. Tears continued to roll down her cheeks as they progressed to the foot of the trail that led to his property from the forest.
Rocks bit into her sock feet as she went up the trail with him. Monty threatened her if she made too much noise. As if the sound of a gunshot wouldn’t. Still, she bit the inside of her cheek to keep from crying out.
“Now I have to cover the blood on the trail.” He breathed hard from his weight and being so out of shape. He continually whined about one thing or another as they went. He jabbed the gun into her side. “All I need is a little more time to empty your bank accounts and transfer to MERF. I’ll be free to do whatever I please.”
“You’re crazy if you think that will work.” She held back whimpers and cries that tried to come out with every step she made. “They will figure out it was you.”
He waved away her words. “I’ll be long gone. I have a place in Belize I’m buying. Beautiful there,” he went on. “This time of year the weather is perfect. I’ll have people to care for me and do whatever I want them to do. I’ll have solitude, and all the luxuries I desire.”
“You’re dreaming,” she said then cried out when he jabbed the gun barrel into her ribs.
“Shut up,” he ground out. “I swear I’ll shoot you in the head if you don’t shut up and move faster.”
Celine’s thoughts whirred, caught in the middle of pain, fear, and struggling to come up with something that could save her life.
They reached the fork at the trailhead, where she had met up with Monty. Could that have just been an hour ago? Two at most. She really didn’t know, and it didn’t matter. Did it?
Monty forced her to take the other trail at the fork. This one went up, higher onto the mountain.
Her breathing came faster. She felt lightheaded, and cold. So cold.
Not more than ten minutes passed as they went uphill, and Celine said, “I can’t do this.” She barely got out the words. “I-I’m so tired. I think I’m losing too much blood.”
He stopped. “This is high up enough anyway.”
Her limbs had turned to mush and he kept her propped up. Shivers wracked her body so hard her entire body shook with it. She couldn’t save herself. Celine knew that now. She barely had the strength to stand. Even speaking was too difficult.
He pressed her away from the trail and they reached a rocky outcropping.
Monty push her to the edge, so that her heels rested on the very edge. He sounded almost amused when he said, “Goodbye, Celine.”
He shoved her chest hard. She flailed as she tried to grab him.
Her hands caught only air as she tumbled over the edge.
Jayson glanced at the clock and frowned before looking out the kitchen window once again. The sun poised just over the treetops to the west. Soon it would sink in the sky and darkness would settle over the mountain.
He’d missed her like hell today and had come home a little earlier just to be near her. But she hadn’t been here when he arrived, and she still hadn’t shown up.
Celine had said she would be back in the afternoon, early enough to fix one of her favorite dinners. She’d planned on having it ready by the time he got home from working up at the northern end of the property.
He sure as hell didn’t care about dinner, but he did care about her. Evening wasn’t that far away, and he didn’t want her walking home alone in the dark and stumbling down the trail. She could fall and hurt herself. Maybe she already had.
He shook his head. Worrying wouldn’t accomplish anything, and likely she was running late. She might have had more to accomplish with Monty than she’d realized.
The thought of Monty made Jayson’s frown deepen. He’d never felt right about the man, and the misgivings seemed sharper now and not so vague.
Was Monty bad news? He was a hard man to read, but Jayson had felt like something was off with Monty after the night Jayson had lost the bet. He was usually a good judge of character, but in this case… Jayson had a feeling he’d been wrong to trust the man at all.
Could Monty have anything to do with the missing bag with Celine’s laptop in it?
His brows narrowed. When she’d told him about the disparity in the business bank accounts and the company ledgers, he’d wondered, but Celine had insisted Monty was the last person who would do something like steal from her. If someone had embezzled from her, it had to be another employee.
Jayson shook his head as he mulled it over. Could Celine be wrong? Could it be that Monty was the one stealing from her company?
Could she be in danger from him?
She’d said Monty had sounded put out when she’d told him she was waiting a day to go to his place because another storm was due to come in. Yesterday’s monsoon storm had been on the radar maps as it traveled in from the southern part of the state, sweeping up from Mexico, so it hadn’t been a sudden storm that they were unprepared for. And it had been a hell of a storm.
Thor nosed Jayson’s leg and he looked down. The dog trotted to the door and glanced back.
“Y
ou thinking what I’m thinking?” Jayson studied Thor. “We should meet her at the trailhead to make sure she gets home all right.”
Thor barked twice.
“Then that’s what we’ll do.” Jayson shook his head and grabbed his hat off the rack before opening the back door and screen. He stood on the doorstep and checked the sky.
He stared up. The sky had darkened from both an oncoming storm and the sun lowering in the sky. Wouldn’t be long before they wouldn’t be able to see well. He stepped back into the house and grabbed a flashlight that could damn near illuminate a stadium to use later if he needed it. He closed the door behind him.
He wanted to cover ground quickly, before it grew too dark. He headed to the barn and made quick work of saddling Starlight. He grabbed his shotgun and sheathed the gun in its leather scabbard that he’d attached on the side of the saddle. Then he rode her to the foot of the trail that let out onto his property.
Thor bounded ahead on the trail. Starlight’s hooves sank into the soft, damp earth. The air smelled of oncoming rain.
Lightning illuminated the sky, and a short time later the roll of thunder followed. As they continued on, lightning flashed again, a rumble following much closer than the last one.
Jayson’s lips settled into a grim line. He didn’t like the idea of Celine being out here in the dark in the middle of a thunder storm.
They reached the trailhead. Thor checked out the ground and let out a low growl. He sniffed the ground toward Monty’s ranch then kept his nose to the ground and headed in the trail in the opposite direction.
Thor cast a glance over his shoulder at Jayson, and seemed to say, “follow me.” He took off and ran along the branch leading away from the trailhead, in the opposite direction of Monty’s place. He bounded up the mountain and vanished around a bush and pine tree close together.
“Where the hell are you going?” Jayson whistled for Thor to come back as he guided Starlight to the trail to Monty’s.
Thor barked and came back into view. He ran to Jayson, barked, then bolted back up the trail again.
Jayson glanced in the direction they should be going and cut his gaze back to Thor, who gave a sharp bark.
Could Thor know something Jayson didn’t? He was a damned intelligent dog and he adored Celine. Jayson had never seen Thor take to anyone like he had taken to her.
Why would she go up that trail instead of the one leading to Jayson’s ranch? Had she forgotten which way to go and took the wrong trail? It seemed unlikely, but she wasn’t a ranch girl and wasn’t familiar with this territory.
Jayson hesitated only a moment before he tugged slightly at the reins so that he and Starlight faced the direction Thor had headed. Jayson clicked his tongue and encouraged the horse to follow the Border Collie.
This trail was even less traveled than the other. Starlight picked her way through rubble and over downed branches.
Jayson watched Thor sniff the ground before he continued uphill.
What was Thor seeing that Jayson wasn’t? He frowned and brought Starlight to a halt before he dismounted. He tracked the ground with his gaze and stopped when he saw a dark smear on a large leaf, and a splatter on another.
He touched the sticky fluid. He grabbed his flashlight from Starlight’s saddlebag, then knelt and shone the light on the drop and the smear.
Black. He studied it on his fingers and saw it was actually dark red.
Blood.
His stomach knotted. Was he imagining it?
He looked closer at the smear that wasn’t just on the one leaf. It went across three leaves, not just one. The leaves were smashed onto the ground, the smear in the shape of a partial footprint.
Was it Celine’s?
In his gut, he knew it was.
Jayson’s heart threatened to explode. He swung onto Starlight’s back and called to Thor. “Take me to her, boy.”
Thor darted up the path. Jayson and Starlight followed.
The sky had grown darker, but he could see far enough ahead to follow Thor.
Lightning flashed, brightening the way a moment at a time. The crash of thunder followed. Closer and closer yet.
Thor veered off the path. In moments, he started barking, the sound sharp in the forest stillness.
Heart thudding harder, Jayson dismounted and hurried after Thor. He flipped on the flashlight again and pointed it ahead so it illuminated the ground as he made his way through brush, grass, and pine trees.
Jayson came up behind the dog, who stood at the edge of an outcropping of rock. Thor stared over the edge of the outcropping, then at Jayson, and barked again.
His throat grew dry and his mind raced. Was she down there? Had she fallen to her death? Could she still be alive?
“Celine?” he called out. “Celine.”
Nothing.
The forest remained silent.
Thor barked again. The dog bounded from one side of the outcropping to the other. He looked focused, intent on finding Celine.
Jayson lay on the rocks on his belly and peered over the edge, as far as he could go without falling over.
He caught a glimpse of a white object.
Thor’s bark changed into one of menace and he snarled.
A fist of pain and fear slammed into his chest.
The white object wasn’t an object at all.
It was a woman’s arm…
The arm shifted and moved out of sight.
Chapter 13
Celine moved her hand to her throbbing head. She blinked, trying to place where she was and what she was doing. Her head buzzed as she took inventory of her surroundings and the aches and pains in her body. Even her ears rang and she couldn’t hear sounds other than the vibrations in her head.
Monty had shoved her off the side of the mountain.
For an instant she felt the same terror she’d experience when he’d pushed her, and her body trembled. She’d landed on a ledge maybe six feet down, rolled into a depression in the rock wall, and was mostly out of the rain that continued to fall.
Lightning lit up the forest like a strobe light, and thunder came only a second later.
She took inventory of her body and realized the leg she’d been shot in was numb. What did that mean?
The shelf she’d fallen on was strewn with rubble, and the gravel and rock bit into her body. To the right was a massive drop off. To the left was a trail that looked like something animals might use.
It was getting late, and it would be getting darker than it already was.
She needed to get to that trail and make her way back before it got dark. She didn’t want to die out here. Bears and mountain lions likely called this terrain home.
More than anything, she wanted to be in Jayson’s arms. She needed to move.
Celine bit back a cry when she rolled onto her belly, half-in and half-out of the rain. The leg she’d been shot in was numb, but the rest of her screamed with pain. She tried to crawl along the ledge, but her body wouldn’t work properly and she had to drag herself across the wet rock with her forearms.
The trail lay just feet away now. She took deep breaths. With her leg shot, could she do more than haul herself from the shelf to the small trail? She’d sure as hell try.
Rain poured from the heavens, soaked her clothes, covered her skin. Her feet were bare—she’d lost Jayson’s large socks she’d been wearing.
When she reached the trail, her stomach twisted. To one side, the trail dropped off, so sheer she couldn’t see anything but treetops below. She forced herself to keep moving.
Celine gritted her teeth and worked her way up the muddy trail. She hadn’t fallen far, but the fall had knocked her cold. She’d hurt like hell when she came back into consciousness.
A sound came to her ears now, muffled by the storm.
Is that a dog barking?
A shot rang out. Loud enough she heard it through the cotton in her head.
The dog let out a yelp and went quiet.
Thor? Did someone s
hoot Thor?
No!
“Guess I’ll have to get rid of you now, McBride.” Monty’s shouted words came to her in between flashes of lightning and the boom of thunder. “Before that, you’ll help me find out if Celine is still alive. When I looked, she’d landed on a rock shelf instead of going all the way down. I figured she might have survived, but it was a nasty fall.”
“First, I’m going to kill you if Celine is dead.” Jayson’s raised voice was dangerously hard. “I’ll kill you again for shooting my dog.”
Monty laughed, sending a chill through Celine. She couldn’t hear his next words.
Her thoughts spun, rapid-fire as she struggled to find the strength to move faster. Jayson was in danger and she needed to get to him. But how could she help him when she could barely crawl?
I won’t give up.
This was Jayson. The man she had fallen in love with.
The revelation made her lightheaded.
Love at first sight? Maybe. Yes. She was a believer now.
She wouldn’t go down without trying. If it was the last thing she did, she’d help him.
I don’t have much time.
Celine got to her knees so she could crawl faster. Somehow, she managed not to scream with every movement she made. The men’s voices carried down to her, but her head still throbbed and her hearing was off, so she couldn’t understand them as she moved.
Maybe two minutes had passed since she’d heard Monty shoot Thor.
Too long.
Her head throbbed. Her body screamed. Higher, closer to the surface.
Monty shouted, his voice a loud snarl, “Figure out a way to get to her and bring her back up here.”
Celine reached the surface and peeked over the edge. Starlight was three feet away.
Monty was a good ten feet from her and pointing a gun. She peered through the rain and followed the direction with her gaze. Her body went cold when she saw he aimed it at Jayson, who stood in front of him.
She recognized the moment Jayson spotted her. He continued to look at Monty, but with a slight movement of his fingers, Jayson told her to get down.
“There’s no way to get down to the ledge,” Jayson said, no doubt not wanting Monty to see Celine behind him.
Amazed by You (Riding Tall Book 11) Page 14
