by Linda Howard
Okay, maybe that was worth going out in the weather for. Lorelei … women like her looked down their noses at him. It would be nice to have someone like her to do what he wanted to, to treat any way he liked. Yeah, that would be fun. Maybe he’d keep her. Maybe he’d get rid of Niki and train Lorelei right. A dose or two of meth and she’d be begging for it, willing to do anything he told her so long as he kept giving the ice to her.
They had found several flashlights in the house and each carried one: a gun in one hand, a flashlight in the other. Carefully they made their way down the steps, and Darwin grabbed the door handle of the Blazer.
“Don’t be stupid, Stupid,” Niki snapped. “If they’re hiding in the woods and we’re driving along in the Blazer, how the hell we gonna see them? Unless they’re dumb enough to be standing in the middle of the road, we won’t. They’re on foot, so we have to be on foot.”
She called him stupid? he thought, the resentment bubbling again. He wasn’t the one who let Lorelei get away in the first place.
He trained the beam of his flashlight down the driveway. The ray of light cut the darkness, but didn’t exactly illuminate the area for them. It was too dark and the flashlights weren’t all that great; they’d be fine for finding his way around a house if the power went out, but they weren’t a whole lot of good for a manhunt. Still, they were better than nothing. Lorelei and her pal had to be down there somewhere, and they weren’t armed. If they had been they would’ve fired back as they’d been making their escape. They were probably hiding, waiting until they thought he and Niki had gone to sleep before they snuck back into the house. Only reason anyone would stay out in this mess was if they had no choice.
He’d shoot the guy on sight, get him out of the way, then there wouldn’t be any way for Lorelei to escape. His imagination took over, and he remembered how pretty and soft she was, how good she felt. Without watching what he was doing, Darwin took a step and his foot shot out from under him. He hit the ground ass first and the flashlight went flying, but he managed to hold on to his gun. The impact rattled his bones, stole his breath. Niki, damn her, bent over laughing.
“Get on the side of the road, you moron,” she said, shining the beam from her flashlight into his face and effectively blinding him. Great. Now he wouldn’t be able to see anything at all for a while.
Darwin slowly rose to his feet, edging off the driveway and onto the grassy shoulder. Once he was there, he retrieved his flashlight and a portion of his dignity. He looked down the slope, imagining the woman he craved to the bone hiding there, somewhere. He’d make her pay for this. He didn’t let Niki know how much his ass hurt, because he knew she’d make fun of him if she knew. Niki had a mean streak in her, and she didn’t care who she turned it on.
Well, fuck her. No, forget that. He’d rather fuck Lorelei. Get rid of Niki, take Lorelei instead.
“Oh, Lorelei,” he called in a singsong voice. “Where are you, Lorelei? Come ’ere, baby, come to daddy.”
Niki laughed again. She was easily amused tonight, flipping from rage to laughter at the slightest reason. They eased down the slope. The icy wind blew the stinging rain into his eyes. His ass hurt. They were chasing after two people who had a head start, in the dark, but at the moment he didn’t much care about any of that. Lorelei was going to pay for running away from them.
He remembered her expression of terror when he’d had her down on the kitchen floor. He’d liked that, liked the feeling of power, of knowing he could make her so scared she’d been about to pass out. Yeah, he’d like having her around for a while. He’d like showing her how ice could make her feel, like having her beg him for it—and for anything else he wanted to give her. “I think I want her high this time,” he said as he took careful steps down the hill. If she was high she’d like what he gave her, whether she wanted to or not.
“You hold her down, I’ll shoot her up,” Niki said, then, like a light switch flipping, went straight into anger again. “The damn bitch!”
“Works for me.” Reckless with anticipation, Darwin tried to hurry. His foot slipped again and his arms windmilled until he got his balance. Cursing, he slowed down. He’d better not fall; he might break something he’d need later. Snickering, he called out again. “Lorelei! Ready or not, here I come.” He laughed at his own pun—and Niki thought he was stupid.
Gabriel reacted immediately at the flat crack of the gunshot, pushing Lolly up the embankment, back into the woods. A quick glance showed the flashlight beams dancing as the druggies came down the hill, not nearly as far away as he’d like. They hadn’t been forced to cut through the woods but had gone straight from the house to the driveway, which had saved them time. They weren’t more than fifty yards away.
Fortunately, they couldn’t move any faster than he and Lolly could. Unfortunately, they could use their flashlights and they were armed. If they shone their lights into the woods at the right place at the right time, and they were halfway decent shots, he and Lolly would be sitting ducks.
In this weather, hunkering down in the woods wasn’t a great idea. They needed to keep moving so they didn’t get too cold, but at the same time movement would give away their location. He just hoped tree limbs didn’t start snapping.
He found a big pine and positioned Lolly behind it, concealing her as best he could between his body and the tree trunk. He bent his head so his mouth was close to her ear. “After they go past, we’re going to backtrack. They won’t expect it, and we can hide in the garage until morning.”
She nodded, her head moving against his shoulder. Gabriel hoped he wasn’t making a mistake. He’d have liked to get to the truck, get some hot coffee, get this frozen knit cap off his head. He was losing so much body heat through his head that he wasn’t certain how much longer he could keep going, but he didn’t want to say anything to Lolly. He didn’t want her feeling guilty because she had his poncho. It wasn’t her fault two brain-fried meth addicts were hunting them down; none of this was her fault.
“If we’re lucky, they’ll break their fool necks long before then.” He wouldn’t mind at all. He’d leave their bodies where they lay, and get himself and Lolly back to the house as fast as they could move.
Again, Lolly nodded.
Of course, they hadn’t had a lot of luck so far tonight; what were the odds they’d get lucky now?
In the wood behind them, he heard the crackle of wood straining to resist the weight of the ice, and the sound sent a shiver down his back that had nothing to do with the cold and everything to do with dread. Lolly heard it, too. Her head lifted, and he felt the stillness in her body as she listened, waiting. It was early in the storm for limbs to start falling, but when he took into account the number of dead trees in these woods and the wind that would make the limbs fall sooner, he knew they didn’t have long. The question was, how soon would limbs start to drop, and how widespread would the fall be?
Dead limbs first; healthy limbs later. Then treetops would be splintering and falling; by morning entire trees would be coming down. If they didn’t get off the mountain soon, they weren’t going anywhere for a while.
“Lorelei! Ready or not, here I come!”
Lolly shuddered in his arms as she heard the lilting, savagely amused voice of the man who’d invaded her home. Gabriel didn’t like the way the man called her name, didn’t like the way Lolly trembled. She hadn’t given him any details about what had happened before he’d arrived—there hadn’t been time—but he knew how violent meth addicts could be. Whatever had happened—and he’d find out later, if they survived—she was handling it.
He’d never thought he would be admiring of Lolly Helton, but damn if he wasn’t. Not only had she showed plenty of spunk and common sense, not once had she complained, though he knew her feet had to be excruciatingly cold in those inadequate sneakers. A lot of people, with perfect justification, would have been ready to sit down and give up, but Lolly just put her head down and kept going. Given that determination, something had to have h
appened to make her react to the meth-head like this.
He tightened his arms around her, offering her both protection and comfort. “I won’t let him hurt you,” he breathed, because the two addicts were closer now and even a low tone would be too loud. That was a promise he intended to keep, come hell or high water, unless he was dead. Grimly he assessed the situation. If the two would pass by, keep going, and get far enough away that he and Lolly could make it back up the hill again without drawing attention to themselves … there had to be something in the garage he could use as a weapon, if it came to a confrontation.
Lolly leaned forward, fell into him. Her arms went around his waist, held him tight. They had on too many clothes to share any body heat, but the contact was nice. Gabriel gently cupped the back of her head, held her to his shoulder. All they had to do now was be very still and very quiet, and pray they weren’t seen. If they could just stay here a while longer, if they could melt into the darkness and be invisible …
Soon the druggies were too close for even an exchange of a whisper. He felt tension coiling in her muscles, but she didn’t move an inch. Even over the wind, he could hear the two talking as they picked their way down the hill, occasionally shining their flashlights into the woods. The flashlights were standard household models, the beams weak compared to what he used, but he and Lolly were just barely inside the tree line and the lights easily penetrated that far. He kept his face tucked down, because the relative paleness of bare skin was almost like a beacon in the dark.
The change from just a couple of hours ago was staggering. When he’d left his parents’ house Gabriel had expected to do battle with the weather and with Lolly, but this … this had never crossed his mind.
A beam of light flashed just a few feet to his right. The tree they stood behind gave them some cover, but not enough, not with light coming in from an angle. If they moved in order to keep the tree between them and the druggies, they’d make too much noise. There were twigs, untended undergrowth, and even dead leaves left to rot from the autumn fall—not to mention the ice—all at their feet. Even with the wind howling, it was more likely that movement would alert the hunters to their hiding place than their intermittent flashlight beams would find them.
Lolly stopped breathing. So did he. And as luck—very bad luck—would have it, a beam of light caught his sleeve. He watched it from the corner of his eye, watched it move away, then suddenly return and settle on his face. A woman’s voice yelled, “I got ’em! Darwin! Over here!”
No point in keeping quiet now. Gabriel shoved Lolly away from the tree, away from the flashlight, and lunged for deeper cover. “Run,” he said, grabbing her arm, and they both ran like hell as a gunshot exploded behind them.
Niki aimed into the woods where she’d seen the man, his face a startling bit of white in the darkness, and fired, but she was too slow. The two disappeared, but she could hear them crashing deeper into the woods. She’d lose them in there, and she didn’t like letting anyone get away from her, especially some hoity-toity rich bitch like Lorelei. She fired again, her aim following the sound they made as they ran. This was like hunting, she thought in pleased excitement as she followed them into the woods. Lorelei Helton and her friend were just like deer, a doe and a buck, running from danger, running from her gun. She liked thinking they were frantic with fear, and completely defenseless.
“Don’t shoot the woman!” Darwin shouted with what seemed to be real concern in his voice.
“Like I can see what I’m shooting at,” Niki screamed. The bastard, all he wanted was the woman. He was really good at just sitting on his ass and letting her do all the work, then telling her how to do it. She’d do better without him, and maybe, just maybe, the day was coming when she’d do something about that. Right now, though, she had to track some deer. She moved forward, her footing sturdier once she was entirely under the trees. She picked up the pace then, continuing in the direction she’d heard her deer take, sweeping her hand from side to side and pulling the trigger until the hammer just made a clicking sound and there were no more bullets left. On her right, Darwin was shooting, too, finally more concerned about not letting the two get away than he was about wounding or killing his prize.
Neither of them were trained shooters. Even on a good day, all they could do was point and pull the trigger; it wasn’t like they usually cared if they hit anything or not. Just the fear of a weapon, the fear of getting shot, was usually enough to make people do what they wanted, and when they did shoot someone it was always up close where there was no question of missing. They’d never before needed more than a bullet or two, maybe three, to get what they wanted.
Within seconds, Darwin was out of ammunition himself. They stopped, unsure what to do now. They flicked their flashlight beams around, but couldn’t see anything other than black tree trunks, underbrush, and ice. Well, wasn’t this great? Here they were, standing in the woods, cold, angry, and effectively disarmed. To top it off, that bitch Lorelei had gotten away again. While there were plenty of sounds in the forest, none seemed to be coming from the human deer.
A tickle of warning crawled up Niki’s spine. Without bullets she didn’t feel nearly as confident as she had just moments ago. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea. Besides, she was coming down from the last hit, and she needed another one pretty soon. She’d feel better then.
“Forget it,” she said angrily. “We’ll go back to the house and get warm, and in the morning when the sun comes up and melts the ice on the road, we can get out of here.”
“But what about Lorelei?” Darwin asked, whining like a kid who’d just dropped his ice-cream cone in the sand.
Niki tamped down her surge of jealousy. “Your bitch Lorelei and her friend are going to freeze to death out there.” With her useless gun, she gestured into the depths of the forest. It was so dark, and shit, now that the hunt had lost its appeal, the cold was starting to really seep through her coat.
“But …”
“You want to keep looking? Fine. Go right ahead. I’m going back to the house and I’m going to enjoy myself.”
“Just five more minutes of looking around and—” There was a faint rustle behind them. Darwin went still. The beam from his flashlight danced across the dark forest floor. “Did you hear that?”
Too late, Niki said, “Turn off that light!” She fumbled with cold gloved hands to press the switch on the one she carried to the off position, but it was too late. In the beam of Darwin’s flashlight, she saw the long, thick tree limb that came swinging from behind, like a baseball bat aimed at the side of his head.
Chapter Eight
Gabriel pulled them to a halt behind yet another big tree. “Stay here, and don’t move a muscle,” he whispered.
He moved away from her and she almost lunged to grab his jacket and hold him back. She didn’t deliberately go toward danger, she ran away from it; that’s what made sense to her. But Gabriel was military, and his training was not only to go to the danger, but to neutralize it. Her heart jumped into her throat and lodged there, knowing he was risking his life. Every instinct in her screamed for her to stop him, beg him not to leave her, to hold him there and keep him as safe as possible.
She bit her lip until the sharp coppery taste of blood touched her tongue. She had to do exactly as he said, or she’d be endangering him even more.
Gabriel stooped slowly and silently, his hands sweeping the ground around him. He picked up an old fallen limb that was about three feet long and hefted it, then silently discarded it and began feeling for another one. Lolly tried to keep an eye on Darwin and Niki for him, so she could warn him if they got closer. They had stopped, and from the sharpness of their voices, appeared to be arguing, though she couldn’t make out any individual words. She glanced back at Gabriel, and he was gone.
In a panic she looked in all directions, but she couldn’t see him. He had disappeared into the rain and darkness.
But if she couldn’t see him, then likely Darwin and Niki
wouldn’t be able to either … except for those damn flashlights. Maybe she could draw their attention her way—No. She discarded the idea as soon as it formed. Gabriel had told her not to move. If she did, not only would he not have any idea where she was, in the darkness he wouldn’t be able to tell her from the bad guys. Gabriel McQueen was hunting, and she didn’t want to get in his way.
The shadows were deep there under the trees, but the icy coating on the trees and bushes seemed to give off a faint glitter, reflecting back the light from the flashlights that Niki and Darwin were waving around. The flashlights pinpointed their positions as exactly as if they were caught on stage by spotlights. There was a glow all around them, as if the air was full of tiny particles of ice. The scene would have been breathtakingly pretty if it wasn’t so breathtakingly cold, and she wasn’t so damn scared.
Then she caught sight of Gabriel, easing up behind Darwin, every step as slow and careful as that of a big cat stalking an antelope. Lolly remained frozen to the spot, afraid to move, afraid she’d make a noise that would distract him.
Gabriel lifted his makeshift club like a baseball bat. He was still well back, out of the circle of light, but if either Darwin or Niki looked around they’d surely see him. The stance he took reminded her of watching him play baseball in high school, all those years ago when he’d been young and skinny and arrogant as all hell. He’d hit more than one home run in the old days; he looked poised to hit one now.
Lolly’s heart pounded. She was tempted to cover her eyes with her hands, to hide from reality like a two-year-old playing hide-and-seek, but she had to watch. She had to know what was happening. If she was a betting woman she’d put everything she had on Gabriel. But nothing in life was certain, not even Gabriel McQueen, and tonight their lives hung in the balance.
Abruptly Niki screamed something and turned off her flashlight. Darwin wasn’t as fast, and Gabriel stepped forward, swinging away, his muscular arms bringing the limb around so fast it made a whistling sound. Darwin dropped his flashlight and ducked. Instead of a solid blow, the limb glanced off his head, and with a growl like an animal, Darwin whirled and leapt on Gabriel.
