Cass stared at him in horror, her mouth opening and closing. Finally she managed to blurt out a few words.
“There’s no fucking way I’m leaving this cabin! I’d be taking my life in my hands the minute I set foot outside the door.”
He grinned. “Okay, maybe I did lay it on a little thick. But all those creatures are out there—along with the most incredible beauty you’ve ever seen. And you can’t enjoy that if you’re getting bitten and scratched. Besides, I found a scorpion in the bathroom this morning. So you’re no safer in here than you are out there. Now button up and let’s go.”
“Scorpion?”
“Just a baby. Their sting is no worse than a bee’s.”
“Great! Now I’m afraid to pee indoors too.”
Laughing, he led her out the door and across the yard. He went first, tromping down the thick undergrowth at the edge of the woods. Cass was surprised to discover that the tangle of weeds and saplings and briars disappeared once they were under the canopy of trees. Except for the steep incline, walking was easy. The leaves overhead hadn’t unfurled yet and sunlight streamed down, awakening patches of wildflowers on the forest floor.
Nico bent to show her a cluster of delicate white flowering stalks. “This is the only time of year that you’ll see flowers deep in the woods. In the summer, the leaves cast so much shade that nothing blooms except in the clearings. All you’ll find springing up on the forest floor are pine seedlings and ferns and patches of moss. This plant is black cohosh. The Cherokee Indians who lived around here used the roots to treat a whole host of female problems.”
“If you grew up in the inner city, how did you learn so much about the woods?”
“Granny taught us when we spent summers with her. She’d fix a huge batch of her biscuits in the morning, split some, put a slab of ham in between, and pack them for lunch. We’d head out into the woods all day. She harvested roots and berries, made all sorts of old-fashioned remedies from them.”
He pointed to another plant. “See that? It’s wild ginseng. The roots sell for as much as $500 a pound.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope. There’s a whole black market trade that’s sprung up in the mountains. It’s illegal to harvest ginseng in the national forests without a special permit, so poachers wear camouflage and sneak around in the woods at night, both in the national forests and on private land, digging up the plants to sell. I ran into a few of them back when we were hunting Rudolph out here.”
He spread his arms wide. “Welcome to nature’s pharmacy. The Indians had uses for just about every plant and tree you see. Scientists are finding that some of their cures are just as effective as prescription drugs, without the nasty side effects.”
They walked on, heading steadily uphill. Cass had to stop every now and then, bent over at the waist, hands on her knees. “If I did this… every day…” she gasped. “I’d never need to go to the gym. This is a much better workout than a Stairmaster.”
Nico backtracked and took her by the hand. “I’ll slow down. I forget you’re not used to the altitude.”
“Or the exercise,” she huffed. “All I do is sit in front of my laptop for ten or twelve hours a day.”
“Just a little farther. There’s something I want to show you.”
He alternated between coaxing her and bullying her to the top of the ridge. Leg muscles screaming, she stumbled the last few steps, straightened up, and looked around.
The view here was even more spectacular than from the cabin. The land dropped off sharply in front of them, offering a panoramic view. Far in the distance, a small town lay along the banks of a narrow river winding through a valley dotted with different colored squares of green. All around it, the mountains rose and fell. She counted seven different layers receding into the distance, the closest a deep blue-green from the pines and hemlocks. Then grayish blue, the next almost purple, fading to a misty mauve. The farthest peaks merged with the clouds on the horizon until it became impossible to tell where mountains ended and sky began.
She turned to Nico, eyes dancing with excitement. But before she could say a word, he put his finger to his lips and pointed. Thirty yards away, twin fawns stepped into a patch of sunlight. They had soft reddish-brown fur dotted with white spots on their backs. Barely taller than her knee, they moved delicately, lifting their spindly legs clear of the ground cover with each careful step. Nico leaned in to whisper in her ear.
“Twins are fairly common among white-tailed deer. These two are practically newborn. They’ll keep those spots for another three or four months. You can bet mama is hiding nearby, keeping an eye on them.”
Cass watched, transfixed. They stopped at the same moment and bent their heads to nibble on a clump of tender green shoots. One deer suddenly froze. Its ears perked up and it began darting wild-eyed looks all around. Cass held her breath as the fawn stared straight at her. Apparently she posed no threat, because the deer bent its head again and resumed eating.
A squirrel chattered in the branches overhead and the fawns bolted, disappearing into the woods.
“That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen! I’ve never been so close to animals out in the wild. They looked like something straight out of a Disney movie.”
Nico smiled. “I’m glad you got to see that. We’d better be heading back. Rod will be here soon to pick you up.”
“I never thought I’d say this, but I hate to leave,” Cass admitted as they headed back down the mountain. “It’s so quiet here. I haven’t heard a honking horn or a blaring radio or the neighbor’s yapping dog in two days. Just birds. I never knew there were so many different bird songs.”
He nodded. “It grows on you, doesn’t it? At first, when I was a kid, I thought I’d go stir-crazy when we came to the mountains. Nowhere to go, nothing to do. Then I found out how much fun it was to be alone in the woods. I’d pretend I was Daniel Boone exploring a new territory or an Indian brave sent out to prove his manhood hunting bears and wolves with nothing but a bow and arrow. I’d see how close I could sneak up to a deer before it took off. No one made fun of me, no one picked on me or threatened to beat me up.”
He waved a hand around. “Now I treasure the fleeting blocks of time I get to spend in the wilderness. It centers me, makes me remember what’s really important.”
Cass looked up. All around her, massive tree trunks stood like pillars in a cathedral, soaring fifty feet or more before spreading out into a canopy overhead. Rays of sunlight broken by the interlocking branches far above cast a stained-glass pattern on the forest floor.
Cass gave in to an impulse, took a deep breath, and reached for Nico’s hand. For the first time in her life, she bowed her head, let go of all her lists, her worries, her obsessive Type-A tendency to be in control and plan every minute and gave herself permission just to be. She had no idea what the future might hold for either of them. For now, it was enough to share this moment together.
He lifted their clasped hands to his mouth, grazing her knuckles with his lips. The simple gesture touched her heart.
The trip back was much easier, downhill all the way. Cass kept stopping to snatch up a pretty rock or a scrap of bark or an oddly shaped seed pod that had survived the winter intact. She’d arrange them on her desk back home as talismans. Survivors of the hardships life dealt—just like her.
Nico pointed through the trees. “There’s the cabin. I’m going to head out back and split some more wood. I want to replace what we’ve used so Dave doesn’t get up here and have nothing to start a fire with. You’re okay from here, right?”
“I’m fine. Go on. I’ll be there in a minute.” She’d spied some brilliant orange blossoms on a bush about fifty yards away. Nico said they were wild azaleas. Flame azaleas, he called them. He’d given her his knife and said it was okay to take a few stems as long as she didn’t harm the main branches.
She crouched down to cut a low branch heavy with blooms and caught a glim
pse of another flash of color in the thicket at the edge of the clearing. How odd that she hadn’t noticed it when they headed up the mountain. It was pink. Not the soft pastel of springtime. This was a shocking, bright pink. Neon pink.
Chapter Eight
Those crazy shoelaces saved his life.
“Look out!” Cass’s voice, frantic.
He ducked down and rolled behind the woodpile, drawing his gun from where he’d tucked it in the back of his waistband. Two shots rang out, blasting the log he’d been cutting into pieces and scattering him with wood chips.
“There’s nowhere to go, Zander. You might as well turn yourself in. I’ll do my best to get you reinstated into the witness protection program. It’s your only hope. Even if you manage to get away again, Big Tony will hunt you down. He can’t let an informer stay alive. Not if he wants to maintain control of his organization.”
Nico risked a peek over the pile of logs.
Katherine Jacobs stepped out from behind a tree at the edge of the woods. In front of her, like a shield, Cass stumbled forward, Katherine’s gun to her head. She clutched a handful of small branches ablaze with bright orange wild azalea blossoms. She must have been picking them when she spied Katherine’s pink shoelaces and managed to shout out a warning.
“I don’t know if this woman means anything to you or not, Zander. But I have to believe if you didn’t care about her at all, she’d be dead by now. So I suggest you toss your weapon out, then step forward with your hands on your head. Otherwise I’ll have to shoot her.”
“Sorry, Katherine. Don’t have my weapon on me. I can’t hold a gun and chop wood at the same time.”
“Fine. Then take off all your clothes and come out stark naked with your hands up. That way I can be sure you don’t have the gun hidden on you somewhere.”
Nico’s laugh boomed out. “Katherine, you little slut. I always thought you had the hots for me. But you didn’t have to go to this extreme. I’ll be happy to get naked—if you do the same.”
“Shut up, Coleman. I’m running out of patience. I’ve been driving around this godforsaken wilderness for hours trying to find this place.”
“You’ve got a problem, don’t you, Katherine? Big Tony must be furious with you for letting me escape in the first place. But even if you manage to kill me, you really don’t expect to walk away from this, do you? You fucked up. And Tony doesn’t tolerate mistakes. He’ll send someone after you as soon as you notify him that the job is done.”
“I said shut up!” Katherine’s voice was ragged. She shifted and slammed the butt of the gun against Cass’s head. Nico heard the low moan, saw Cass’s knees buckle.
“Get out here. Now. Or I swear I’ll kill her.”
“Okay, okay. You don’t have to hurt her. I’m taking off my clothes. See? Here’s my shirt.”
The navy blue t-shirt he’d been wearing sailed into the clearing.
“Now my pants.” A pair of wadded-up jeans followed. “I’m going commando today, Katherine. So unless you want my shoes and socks too, that’s all you get.”
He stepped out from behind the woodpile, hands behind his head, stark naked except for a heavy pair of hunting boots with thick white socks sticking out the tops.
“Looking fine, Zander.” Cass gave him a little smile, despite a trail of blood trickling from the bruise on the side of her head. Thank heaven she’d had the presence of mind to use the name Katherine knew him by. He didn’t want to blow his cover yet.
He smiled back. “I’m thinking of trying out for the next Magic Mike installment. Maybe as a hot lumberjack. What do you think, Katherine?” He swiveled his hips, did a couple of pelvic thrusts.
Cass winked at him, then let out another moan and collapsed, knocking Katherine off balance as she fell. The gun went flying. Nico pulled the Glock he’d taken from Katherine in Atlanta out of the back of his boot and ran forward.
“Grab her gun, Cass, and then get the hell away from there.”
Before the words had left his mouth, Katherine was already on her knees scrabbling through the briars for the gun. She and Cass both reached for it at the same time. Katherine won but before she could pick it up to aim it, Nico’s boot slammed down, pinning both the gun and Katherine’s wrist under his foot.
She let out a scream.
“I’ve got a pair of handcuffs in the cabin. They’re upstairs, under the pile of clothes I wore that first day. Can you run up and get them for me?” Nico bent down to pull Katherine’s other wrist behind her back, cursing when a thorn-filled branch whipped across his bare thighs. “I swear I’m gonna buy Dave a five-gallon can of Round-Up for this damn yard of his.”
By the time Cass came back, Nico was crouched over Katherine’s body as she lay on her stomach, both hands trapped behind her back. She cussed and threatened him as she struggled on the ground.
“You dog! I’m not gone five minutes and you’re already playing dom with some other woman.”
He looked down at his naked body, cock poised right over Katherine’s wiggling ass, and gave Cass a wicked grin. Despite all she’d been through, she was doing her best to act brave. “This is one of those times when you have to believe what I say, babe, not what’s right in front of your eyes. Besides, she isn’t my type. A true submissive doesn’t try to shoot her dom as foreplay.”
He took the cuffs and locked them tight around Katherine’s wrists before hauling her to her feet and shoving her ahead of him. “Let’s get inside so I can put some clothes on. I’m getting a little tired of being ripped to shreds out here. I like being an exhibitionist as well as the next guy but it’s time to protect my boys from Mother Nature.”
Cass’s laughter was drowned out by a shot from the woods behind her car. Nico’s grin faded and he sank to his knees, blood welling up from a hole in his chest. She screamed and rushed toward him.
“Stop right there.” Agent Smith stepped out from behind the rear bumper of her car. “I’m afraid Mr. Coleman won’t be available to play house with you any longer. He’s late for a previous appointment—in hell. Katherine, are you all right?”
She turned and delivered a swift kick to Nico’s groin. He groaned and toppled over sideways.
“I am now,” she announced. “But I think the son of a bitch broke my wrist when he stomped on it. It hurts like hell and it’s swelling up with these tight cuffs on.”
Smith waved his gun at Cass. “Where’s the key?”
“I don’t know.”
Katherine’s foot shot out and she kicked Nico again, this time aiming at his gunshot wound. He grunted and curled into a fetal position, both hand crossed over his chest.
“Stop it! I’m telling you, I don’t know where he keeps the key.”
Smith came over and grabbed Cass by her ponytail, yanking her toward the cabin. “We’re going inside to find it,” he announced. “Katherine, can you keep an eye on our friend here?”
“With pleasure,” she replied, delivering another of those powerful soccer kicks, this time to Nico’s stomach. His groan was drowned out by Katherine’s nasty laugh.
* * *
Smith dragged her toward the door by her hair, his gun firmly planted in her ribs. Cass fought down a rising tide of panic. She didn’t know how badly Nico had been injured. He looked barely conscious. The bullet had penetrated his back and gone clear through his body, leaving a small exit hole in his upper chest. In her line of work, she’d seen autopsy photos of victims with wounds that looked less serious than that, but she was no medical expert.
Her mind raced, coming up with scenarios and rejecting them just as fast. Fortunately Smith never bothered to pat her down. He’d have found the knife Nico gave her to cut flowers, tucked into her back pocket. Maybe she’d get a chance to use it, put him out of commission somehow, at least long enough to summon help.
She stalled for time, falling back on what she did best. She decided to treat Smith as though he was about to star in her latest true crime
book. She’d become skilled at her craft over the years, learning how to put her subjects at ease and get them talking. One thing they all seemed to have in common was the need to explain to her just how smart they were. She started talking. Her gut told her that he’d have to jump in and correct her as soon as she got something wrong.
“So you’re both on Big Tony’s payroll, huh? Katherine is obviously the inside man. She finds out where the marshal’s service is stashing the witnesses. I’m guessing you go out and get rid of them. Smart. They’ve been looking at U.S. Marshals. I’ll bet Katherine has had an iron-clad alibi every time. And as part of the FBI task force, you can show up afterwards, wave your badge around, and make sure if you’ve screwed up and left any trace evidence behind, it will be explained by the fact that you were there at the crime scene.”
“Miss big shot true-crime writer. I read your last one. It made me sick the way you got people to feel sorry for that serial killer. You know, you could have gotten a great book out of this one. Too bad someone else will have to write it.”
Cass forced a laugh. “Yeah, but I’ll get to be the heroine for a change. Killed by a couple of rogue government agents who sold out.”
“You don’t know anything about us.” Smith poked her with the barrel of the gun. “We’re doing our country a service. Over the years the program has changed from being a safe haven for innocent people who witnessed brutal crimes to a corrupt system where thieves and killers can bargain their way to freedom by ratting on someone who is no worse than they are.”
Taken and Tamed Page 9
