by K. K. Allen
Everything has to be perfect. More is at stake than last time. He has more to win if his aim finishes off the woman completely.
This time, the hunter is ready. He won’t let the thrill of the chase distract him. This time, he won’t miss.
Chapter 64
Camila
My heart pounds erratically with every step, and I try to take control of the sudden panic attack that floods my body. Looking back toward the entrance of the mine, I watch the rectangle of light get smaller until it disappears completely. If it weren’t for the lights strung above me, I would be in complete darkness.
My breathing is shallow and slow as I focus on what I can see ahead. The tracks are bending slightly, and I have no concept of distance or time, but I think I’ve been walking for over ten minutes with no end in sight. My phone signal is completely shot in here, too, and I’m starting to consider turning back.
I’ve done stupid shit before, but this might just take the cake. Who knows how long I could be walking, though I keep reminding myself that if this really was a passageway for Dave, then it’s a distance I can handle too. The mine itself is nothing to be afraid of. It’s nothing but ore tracks, red dirt, a basin of water that flows like a river against one of the rock walls, a steel pipe that runs across the corner of the ceiling, and electric wires that are most likely what power the lights. The unknown is what fuels my anxiety.
Other than the drips of water echoing off the tunnel walls, all I can hear are the sounds of my breath, the crunching of rocks, and the buzz of overhead lights. I stop completely, shut my eyes, and pull in another deep breath to try to ease my nerves while filling myself with the courage to continue.
I’m still analyzing my next move when I hear footsteps approaching at a speed that makes my heart rate accelerate. Every ounce of progress I’ve made up until this point vanishes quickly, and my anxiety spikes once again.
I flip around, trying to make out something in the darkness to indicate that I’m just imagining the sound of heavy steps coming toward me. But I can’t see a thing past the last bend in the tracks. I walk backward, away from the approaching steps, then a shadow reflects against the rock before the figure emerges in front of me.
He must be over a hundred feet away, but the moment I see the gray skull mask, the matching hunting clothes, and the bow in the man’s grasp, a scream bursts from my throat.
Shock paralyzes me as the man quickens his steps then raises his bow and slips an arrow from the pack over his shoulder. He’s my worst nightmare, no longer a taunting image from my past but very much in my present. And now that he’s standing in front of me with that same deadly approach as before, I can’t move a muscle.
“You won’t escape me this time, bitch.” The man’s deep roar travels through the mine, blasting me with another dose of fear.
I need to turn around and run. But even if I start running now, I’ll end up with an arrow through me. He’s got a straight shot for God knows how long. I don’t know where this mine tunnel goes.
“What do you want from me?”
He takes another step forward while his chuckle reverberates off the walls. “Nothing, Ms. Bell. I want nothing from you. And I’ll kill you to get it.”
Everything registers in that moment—his voice, the way he called me Ms. Bell, the photos in Thomas’s office, and what Trip said to me about his father being the one to tattle on me.
“What the hell, Thomas?”
He reaches behind his head, rips off his mask, and tosses it to the mine floor. His salt-and-pepper hair is completely disheveled, and his dark eyes intensify as he regains his grip on the bow. “Surprise. Remember that final pawn I had left to play?” He flashes a grin. “This is it. Guess it’s the right time to tell you that our business arrangement isn’t working for me. I’m gonna have to let you go.”
Terror races through me. I have no way out. Thomas’s aim is steady on me, while I’m shaking from the inside out. “You don’t have to do this. If you want the vineyard, it’s yours,” I lie.
Booming laughter echoes through the mine. “I’m afraid you’re too late for that deal, Ms. Bell. Negotiations ended the second you stepped foot on my land.”
Disgust tears through me. “Your land? We’re on public land, Thomas. No one owns it.”
Thomas’s expression distorts into something menacing. “That’s where you’re wrong. This land has always been mine, and every time you stepped foot on it, you came that much closer to getting yourself killed. But I was good. I waited. I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt and hoped that you’d never want that vineyard, and if you did, I hoped you would share it with my son. When I realized that would never happen, after you came home looking like a whore the morning after prom, I knew I’d have to take measures into my own hands.”
I shake my head as confusion snakes its ugly scales around me. My only chance at surviving this is to talk Thomas out of it, as impossible as that seems. “But Dave died that night, not you.”
Thomas smiles. “Dave was obedient. Did whatever I asked without hesitation. We both hunted you that night. After old man Harold killed him and you left town, that left me only one other choice.”
“Get my papa to sell you shares to the vineyard so I’d have nothing when I came home.”
Thomas nods. “You’re smart, Ms. Bell. I’ll give you that. And perhaps you would have done a fine job with that vineyard, but now I guess we’ll never know. You’ll die today, and the vineyard will be mine tomorrow. And when my family and I stomp grapes at the next fall festival, we’ll do it in the Bradshaw name.”
I catch a glimpse of another shadow on the wall behind him just before Ridge emerges and scoops up a large rock. I gasp in surprise, causing Thomas to lower his weapon as confusion transforms his face. But it’s too late.
Ridge already saw Thomas with the arrow aimed at me. He lifts the rock over his head. Just as Thomas turns to face Ridge completely, Ridge smashes the rock against Thomas’s skull with enough force to cause a loud grunt to leave Thomas’s body.
Thomas crashes to the ground, his eyes falling shut. Ridge doesn’t waste a second before scooping up Thomas’s bag of arrows and running toward me.
I’m so relieved to see him. I take off running toward him to meet him halfway and leap into his arms. He squeezes me, blows out a breath of relief into my hair, and curses. “Why would you come here on your own?”
My body shakes with panic that Thomas is still on the ground, less than one hundred feet away. Knowing Ridge took his arrows, my relief expels in doses of intense emotion. “You wouldn’t have let me come, but I had to.” I shake my head. “I can’t explain what compelled me. I just knew I had to come and see what’s on the other side of this mine.” He might not understand the desperation I feel to finally uncover this last clue, but it’s important to me, and maybe now he’ll realize that nothing will stop me from getting the answers I seek, not even my own fear. “Is he dead?”
Ridge nods. “I hit him pretty hard. I think s—”
Before he’s even finished answering, a groan sounds from where Thomas lays.
“Oh my God!” I cry.
Ridge grips my hand, and we take off in the opposite direction.
“Whatever happens, don’t stop running,” he says.
Chapter 65
Camila
Ridge is right on my tail as we haul ass through the mine. It feels like we’ve been running forever, and the end is nowhere in sight. The only comfort I have is that Ridge is with me.
With fear propelling me forward at a speed faster than I’d ever moved before, I try to imagine that I’m running through the cornfields like I used to. Back then, running felt effortless, like I could go forever. I do my best to channel that same energy now, all while trying to hold back gut-wrenching sobs.
“Thomas is trying to kill me,” I say, gasping for breath. “He and Dave were both after me that night.” I have so many more questions but no time to sort through them. Fear and anger continue t
o pump through me. I have no concept of distance or time or even whether Thomas is still behind us, only that it feels like a lifetime until I see another glimmer of light at the other end of the tunnel.
“There.” The word comes out on an exhausted breath. “We’re almost there.”
“I see it. You’re doing well, Camila. Keep going. Let’s hope he’s still out of it.”
Using all the strength I can muster, I push forward and ignore the shooting pains spreading through my legs and lungs.
I crash against the gate just before Ridge runs up behind me. Another padlock has us locked in. A cry bursts from my throat. “We’re trapped!”
He searches the space for something, and when he picks up a rock from the other side of the door, I turn to find nothing but the twisty tunnel of the mine behind us.
“Hurry,” I whisper. Then I listen as hard as I can, trying to sort the dripping water from the sound of footsteps approaching.
“Got it,” Ridge says, relief in his voice.
He pushes open the door. I look behind us again and scream when Thomas rounds a corner. He stops, his gaze falling on us. Blood runs down his head, coating his hair and dripping into his eyes as he stalks forward, a handgun dangling from his grip.
“Shit. Let’s go, Camila.”
Ridge tugs me, causing more adrenaline to burst through me. I turn and run with Ridge. At first, all I see is woodland around us.
“Look,” Ridge says through heavy breaths. He points at something in the distance.
Hope fills my heart when I see a long dirt road. We turn toward it then follow its path while staying cloaked by thick tree trunks.
“Holy shit,” Ridge says.
I look in the direction his eyes are pointed to find a small cabin with a truck parked in the driveway. “What?”
“I know that cabin.”
Furrowing my brow, I ask, “You do? How?”
A gunshot rings through the air, and another burst of energy shoves me forward. I’m afraid my legs won’t be able to hold out anymore. “Ridge, I need to rest.”
“Just a little bit more. You can do it, Wild One. I know where we are.”
Though I want to ask him how he knows where we are again, I push through the pain and follow him, but as soon as we reach a clearing with a mountain backdrop past a line of old wooden fencing that seems oddly familiar, my muscles give out, my feet drag, and I trip, sending me face-first to the ground.
Pain shoots up my arms.
Ridge bends down. “C’mon, Camila. You need to get up.”
The fear in his voice makes me want to sob. I want to move, but I can’t. He lifts me to my feet, wraps his arms tightly around mine, then picks me up and carries me as fast as his legs will allow. I’m just starting to make sense of our surroundings when I look over Ridge’s shoulder and see Thomas dart around a tree and aim right at us.
“He’s right behind you!”
My warning is too late. The shot rings through the air, and Ridge howls from pain. I don’t know where he’s been shot, but the damage is enough to toss us both to the ground. A loud growl comes from deep in the woods, then Thomas charges forward, running and pointing his gun at us.
“We’re going to die,” I say with a sob just as Ridge covers my body completely.
Ridge’s eyes find mine, and pain shines through them. He’s scared, too, but he doesn’t say it. Instead, he presses his lips to mine, and our mouths shake as we kiss for what feels like the very last time. “I love you, Wild One.”
Tears fill my eyes. “I love you, too, Ridge. Forever.”
His face is the last thing I see before another gunshot rings through the air.
Chapter 66
Camila
The gunshot echoes at the same time as a loud howl. Next comes the sound of footsteps approaching. I can see nothing but Ridge, who’s still cloaking me with his entire body. He’s still breathing, even though his eyes are squeezed shut.
When the footsteps run past us and another gunshot sounds, Ridge opens his eyes to see what’s going on.
“Ridge, talk to me.”
He lets out a heavy breath, shock etched into his expression as he starts to peel himself off me. “It’s okay. We’re okay.” He blinks and looks down at me. “We’re going to be okay.”
“You were shot.” Panicked, I look him over, trying to find the wound.
He clutches his waist. “I’m fine. I think it just grazed me.”
Relief tumbles through my body, but I still don’t understand. Ridge helps me to a sitting position, and I look toward where I last saw Thomas standing. All I see are the bottom of his shoes, and just like that awful night over ten years ago, a man is standing over him with a gun.
My jaw drops. “Is that Jason?”
Ridge lets out an unbelieving laugh. “Yes, it is.”
“Wait.” I look around. I recognize the glamping tent against the old wooden ranch fence that faces Jason’s livestock farm. “Are we—no.” I shake my head. “We can’t be in Camp Lachey. Ouray is nearly an hour from home.”
Ridge looks thoroughly amused. “Apparently not through the mine tunnel. If you think about it, you just have to drive around the San Juan Mountains to get here. But these old gold and silver mines created passageways like this long ago.”
“And the cabin? You said you recognized it.”
“That’s Dave’s old cabin. And I’ll give you one guess who owns it now.”
“You think Thomas bought Dave’s cabin?”
“That’s my thought. Trip told me Thomas owns property here now.”
“Trip told you? When?”
“I went looking for you at the vineyard, but you weren’t there. So I went into Thomas’s office because Raven said you might be in there and I saw the hunting photos. There was a photo of Dave and another man wearing the same mask, and I saw a photo of the mine. And then Trip walked in. He told me Thomas was hunting in Ouray, that he owned land here, and that he took his bow and arrow.”
My eyes squeeze shut as I’m reminded of the conversation I had with Thomas in the mine. “I don’t know how you knew where to find me, but I’m so glad you did. Thomas wanted me dead because of the vineyard.”
Ridge shakes his head. “I can’t explain it exactly. But after I saw the photo of the mine and I thought more about what you said last night, I just knew.”
As much as I want to keep talking about this, I’m fully aware of the wounded man in the distance.
Ridge helps me to my feet, and we walk toward Jason who still has his gun aimed at an unmoving Thomas. I walk faster.
“Did you call the cops?” Ridge calls to Jason from behind me.
“Sure did,” Jason says.
My heart crashes against my chest the nearer I get. “Please tell me he’s dead.”
Jason shakes his head. “He’s still breathing. You two okay?”
I look back at Ridge, who’s still clutching his side. “Yeah, we’re okay. Thanks to you.”
Jason glares down at Thomas. “Trust me. It was my pleasure.”
All the anger, fear, and sadness I’ve felt over the years because of Thomas and that awful night come barreling out of me in uncontrollable rage. I kick Thomas’s side so hard that he groans. Ridge puts his arms around me and tries to pull me back.
Thomas’s eyes shoot open, and he glares up at me. With the blood pouring from his shoulder and leg, he’s obviously already in pain.
“You missed again, you son of a bitch.” My words drip like venom from my mouth.
He growls. “I should never have let you get by me that night,” he croaks out and coughs. “You’d be dead, and the vineyard would be mine. I gave you too many chances to live.”
“If you wanted me dead, why wait? We’ve worked in the same building every single day for the past five months.”
His lip curls up at the corner. “I’m a professional, Ms. Bell. Besides, it’s harder to toss your bloody pieces to the coyotes that way. It was only a matter of time until we foun
d ourselves together again in the woods. It felt just like old times, didn’t it?”
“Yeah. You were a shit shooter then too.”
Thomas loses his smile. “Yeah, well, you’re still a whore.”
All of the pieces quickly fall into place. I would never have taken Thomas as a man out for blood, but he’s been the puppet master of everything, from having Trip spy on me when we were younger, to breaking up Ridge and me, to taking over half of the vineyard. He’s an evil man, but it finally ends today.
“I wish my papa were here to see this. He trusted you, and you betrayed him in every way imaginable.”
Thomas chuckles. “Your papa was a clueless fuck. He didn’t know how to run a business.”
Fury swirls through me. “It seems neither do you. I’ve been piecing together your business transactions, and the only thing that seems to be missing is the extra cashflow that magically made its way into your pockets. I think my attorney will have enough after today to turn you in to the authorities for poaching. We’ll find your contacts, Thomas, and they’ll give up your name. Then you’ll lose everything.”
His face turns beet red with anger. “You can’t prove a thing.”
“You’ve already underestimated me enough.” I place my heel at his throat and push down. “Like right now. If you think that I won’t kill you myself, you’re wrong.”
My body shakes as Ridge manages to pull me back. “You’re done!” he yells down to Thomas. “If you don’t die today, then you’ll rot in prison for the rest of your sorry life.”
Thomas chokes up another laugh. “That’s fine. Half of the vineyard still belongs to me. I can easily turn that over to my kids. I’ve set them up to one day take over that property, and that’s exactly what they’ll do.”
“Not when I prove that the way you purchased your half was through illegal means. All I have to do is speak to one of your clients and threaten them with turning them in, and it’s all over for you. Then the vineyard will be mine again. Think about that while you’re rotting in prison.” I spit, aiming for his face, and internally applaud myself when it lands in one of his eyes.
