Backwoods (14 page)

“You sing like an angel,” Leo said when she was finished.

“Shut up,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“I mean it. You should try out for
American Idol.
Wasn’t she great, Dad?”

Nathan couldn’t come up with a polite answer. Brooke elbowed Leo in the ribs, but she was smiling. His joke had lightened the mood.

Before they went to bed, Brooke exacted her revenge. She pointed at Leo’s shoulder, claiming she saw a huge, hairy spider crawling on him. When he jumped up and took off his shirt, throwing it on the ground, she laughed so hard she fell over the log.

Nathan laughed along with her, enjoying the moment. It was the best day he’d had in a long time. He was making progress with Leo and getting to know Abby. They were all healthy and happy. Coming on this trip had changed his life.

He crawled into the tent, exhausted but hopeful, wondering what tomorrow held.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A
BBY
WOKE
WITH
a start, her pulse racing.

She’d been dreaming about Nathan, not earthquakes. Well, maybe little earthquakes. Sexual earthquakes. They’d been naked in the hot springs at night, mouths melded together, skin slick with moisture.

Whew.

Suppressing a moan, she stretched her arms over her head. Need throbbed between her legs and every muscle in her body ached. The light outside the tent indicated that the sun was already up, but the sky was overcast and it smelled like rain. Once again, Brooke wasn’t in the sleeping bag beside her.

Abby slid her hand down her stomach. She remembered the feel of Nathan’s hard body against hers, his strong arms and seeking tongue. His erection, straining the fabric of his swim trunks. God.

She cupped one breast, mimicking his firm grip. Her implants were on the small side, but she could feel them. She’d only been with a few men since the surgery. It wasn’t a secret. She assumed they’d noticed, though no one had complained.

She wasn’t sure why she’d blurted it out to Nathan. He’d probably seen more fake breasts than real ones. She felt silly for bringing it up.

Brooke had grilled her mercilessly about Nathan after they’d gone to bed. Abby had been tempted to confess to the ruse. Had it been a ruse, or runaway hormones? She didn’t know what had possessed her to make out with him, but she couldn’t do it again. He had heartbreaker written all over him. Which was a shame, because he also had an irresistible personality and great hands. He kissed like a champ. Although he’d joked about not measuring up to Jakov, she didn’t think size was an issue for him. He’d felt big and deliciously stiff against her.

Groaning, she crawled out of the sleeping bag. She put on her fleece pullover and hiking shoes at the front of the tent. Nathan and Leo were standing by the fire pit. There was no outhouse at this site, so she ducked into the woods and found a bush to squat behind. Before she joined the others for breakfast, she rinsed her hands, brushed her teeth and washed her face. Abby didn’t want to share her morning breath with Nathan. She considered taking a quick glance in a mirror, but she was afraid the sight would kill her confidence. Brooke had promised they could wash their hair today, so she left it down.

Tugging on her hat, she approached the guys. Nathan was wearing dark trousers with a gray T-shirt and checkered flannel. His stubble was thick, his hair disheveled. Leo was teenage-dream scruffy in a hooded sweatshirt and skinny jeans.

“Morning,” Nathan said, giving her a crooked smile. “How did you sleep?”

She flushed at the memory of their kiss. “Fine. You?”

“Good. Better than the night before.”

He looked relaxed, well-rested and ready to satisfy her womanly desires. Tension sizzled between them. Abby had to remind herself that last night hadn’t meant anything. She couldn’t seriously consider dating him. He was too dangerous to her peace of mind. The only place they’d be having sex was in her dreams.

Leo had fired up the propane stove. He was reading the directions on a packet of oatmeal, as if unsure how to prepare it.

Abby glanced around. “Where’s Brooke?”

Nathan’s brows rose at the question. “She’s not in the tent?”

“No.”

“We haven’t seen her,” Leo said.

“How long have you been up?”

“Thirty minutes.”

She wondered if Brooke had ducked into the woods to use the bathroom. Abby strolled around the perimeter of the campsite, but she didn’t see Brooke. She wasn’t at the hot springs. She wasn’t within yelling distance.

Abby took deep breaths, trying not to panic. Where was her daughter? She hadn’t heard Brooke leave the tent this morning.

When Abby came back from the search empty-handed, Nathan and Leo abandoned the attempt to make breakfast to help her look. “She did this yesterday,” Leo said. “She was playing around and hiding in the woods. I called out and she didn’t answer.”

That sounded like Brooke. “Where was this?”

“Upriver a few hundred feet. I’ll take you there.”

A horrible idea occurred to Abby, chilling her blood. “What if she fell in?”

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Nathan said, but he started walking faster.

They were all worried.

Leo guided them to a fishing hole not far from camp. It was quiet and serene, with water rushing under a fallen log.

“Brooke,” Nathan yelled, cupping his hands around his face. “Brooke!”

Only the chirping birds and rustling leaves answered.

The articles Abby had read about drowning victims and missing girls swam in her mind. She was about to jump in the water and start dredging its depths when Leo walked across the fallen log. There was a muddy bank on the other side of the river. As he inspected the ground, his forehead crumpled. Abby hurried toward him, with Nathan’s help.

“Brooke and I were barefoot yesterday,” Leo said, crouching down by the mud.

The surface area showed signs of a wrestling match, as well as something far more disturbing: fresh footprints. It appeared that two sets of boots had trampled through here as recently as early this morning.

“Oh my God,” Abby said. Her empty stomach pitched with nausea.

Nathan measured his foot against the prints. “These are about my size. One is bigger, maybe a thirteen.”

Her eyes filled with tears. Brooke wore a ten in women’s. The only other people they’d seen in the area were Petra and Jakov—and the thieves. “It was those hunters,” Abby choked. “They’ve been following us, waiting for an opportunity to grab her.”

Leo straightened and glanced toward the woods. “We don’t know that. Someone came through here, maybe them. That doesn’t mean they...they
took
her.”

“Then where is she?”

“Brooke is a fighter,” Nathan said. “We would have heard her scream.”

Abby strode into the forest, searching for her daughter. She couldn’t hear above the thundering of her heartbeat, couldn’t see through the blur of tears. Nathan and Leo accompanied her, hollering for Brooke.

They hadn’t gone far when Abby stumbled over one of Brooke’s hiking boots. She picked it up with shaking hands. Her heart twisted as she imagined Brooke trying to kick free from her captors. Less than ten feet away, Nathan found a dingy white cloth on the ground. It resembled a folded dish towel.

He brought the fabric to his nose and grimaced. “Smells like starter fluid.”

Abby touched the damp cloth and sniffed her fingertips. She recognized the substance immediately. “It’s ether,” she said, feeling faint.

“What’s that?” Leo asked.

“An anesthetic. Rarely used, but easier to get than chloroform.”

This was why no one heard Brooke scream. She’d probably gone outside to pee during the night and not bothered to lace up her hiking boots. The men had attacked, smothering her with the ether rag and dragging her away from camp. Once they reached this area, she was unconscious. The boot had slipped from her slack foot.

Abby inspected every inch of the sturdy leather hiking boot as if it might offer a hint of Brooke’s whereabouts. No blood dotted the tawny brown surface. The inside of the boot was worn smooth from Brooke’s slender foot. One of the red laces was knotted at the end, its tip frayed from overuse.

Abby clutched the boot to the center of her chest, smothering a sob. She’d felt this way during the earthquake. It had been total chaos. She remembered the spectacular crash on the freeway, the lifted sections of concrete and pileup of cars. Fire. Exploding gas tanks and shattered glass. Her door had been smashed shut, her left arm pinned at her side. Even before the ground stopped shaking, all of her thoughts had centered on Brooke.

Brooke, alone at the house.

She’d considered calling in to work that morning. Brooke didn’t have school, and Ray had brought her home a day early. Abby didn’t usually leave Brooke unattended, but she was a little too old for a babysitter. Brooke had made plans to spend the afternoon with a friend. Abby had assumed she’d be fine for a few hours.

A man with a pickup truck, also demolished, had saved Abby’s life. He’d used a crowbar to rip the door open. She’d climbed out on unsteady legs, her teeth clacking from anxiety. The view of the collapsed freeway just behind them had floored her. Brooke had been on the other side of that rubble, in a neighborhood ten miles away.

The man had nudged her toward a group of survivors, who were already walking the opposite direction.

“My daughter,” she’d cried, pointing south. “I have to go home.”

“Someone else will help her,” the man had said. “You can’t go that way.”

Even with a broken arm at her side and an insurmountable obstacle in front of her, Abby had wanted to go after Brooke. Then a powerful aftershock had struck, causing huge slabs of concrete to fall. When it was over, Abby had joined the other survivors and fled. Abandoning her daughter to the care of strangers was the hardest thing she’d ever done. For the next three days, she’d agonized over the decision.

Never again.

“We have to look for her,” Abby said, blinking away those awful memories. “We have to find her!”

Nathan shook his head. He had another idea. “I’ll run down the trail until I reach Jakov and Petra. I can get to them today, maybe this afternoon. I’ll use their phone. They are our best chance to rescue Brooke.”

Abby knew he meant well, like the man with the crowbar. But she couldn’t be dissuaded. “Go ahead.”

He seemed relieved. “You’ll stay here with Leo?”

“No. I’m tracking those men down right now.” She headed back toward camp, planning to get water and some kind of weapon. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for Brooke. No mountain she wouldn’t climb, no fire she wouldn’t walk through. No one could take her daughter away from her.

“You can’t,” Nathan said, chasing after her.

“Why not?”

“They have a huge head start. Even if you caught up with them, which I doubt, what could you do? How would you fight them, a woman against two men? You’ll only get hurt and put Brooke in more danger.”

“They might kill her. Those other girls disappeared—”

“Do you want to end up like them?” he asked in a gravelly voice, gripping her upper arm. “Maybe that college kid tried to save his girlfriend instead of going to the authorities. He got an arrow in his chest!”

Abby jerked her arm from his grasp. “We’re days from civilization. I can’t wait that long for help to arrive.”

“I’ll get the authorities back here tonight,” he promised. “I’ll run all the way to Monarch if I have to.”

“I can’t wait until tonight. They might only keep her alive long enough to—” She broke off with a strangled sound, too upset to finish that sentence. But she didn’t have to. He knew very well what happened to female victims.

“If you go looking for her, Leo will follow you,” he said.

Leo didn’t argue this point.

“I won’t let you put my son at risk,” Nathan said. “You’re not thinking clearly, Abby.”

“Fuck you,” she said, pushing by him. She scrambled across the fallen log and sprinted back to camp. When she arrived, she removed every unnecessary item from her backpack. She tossed in some snacks, water and a jacket.

“Goddamn it,” Nathan shouted. He yanked the backpack away from her and threw it. “I’ll tie you to a tree if I have to.”

Leo moved in front of him. “Don’t touch her.”

“Or what?” he said, getting in Leo’s face.

Abby stepped between them. She braced her palm on Nathan’s chest to hold him back. His heartbeat hammered against her hand, furious and fast. “Where’s that spear you made?” she asked Leo, swallowing hard.

“Hold on a second,” Leo said. “Let’s vote on this as a family.”

More tears stung Abby’s eyes at this request. Brooke would have wanted them to work together, but Abby wasn’t backing down. She didn’t care what they decided. “I’m going after my daughter no matter what.” Walking away from both of them, she picked up her backpack. “You two do whatever you feel is right.”

Nathan pointed at Leo. “You’re staying with me.”

“Hear me out,” Leo said.

“No!”

“We can all go.”

“And all die?”

“We might be able to catch up with them,” Leo said. “It’s not easy to carry someone, and she’s heavier than she looks.”

“She only weighs a hundred pounds,” Nathan said.

“A hundred and twenty-five,” Abby corrected.

“They’ll share the weight,” Nathan said. “Any fit man can handle sixty pounds.”

“We’re only a few miles from the old forest service road and off-highway vehicle area,” Leo said. “It’s in the same direction they took Brooke. If we don’t find her, we can continue on that route. We could run into someone with a phone or transportation faster that way, and we don’t have to split up.”

Swearing, Nathan raked a hand through his hair.

“That sounds reasonable,” Abby said.

Nathan must have known he didn’t really have a choice, unless he wanted to fight Leo. He couldn’t stop Abby. Leo wouldn’t let him. “Fine,” he said. “Fuck!”

They gathered enough food and water for one day. Leo kept his spear and Nathan had a utility knife. The only weapon Abby could find on short notice was a fist-sized rock. On impulse, she put it in an athletic sock.

Leo nodded his approval. He bumped his knuckles against hers, like they were bros, before they set off.

The trail wasn’t difficult to pick up, once they found it, but staying on track required close attention to detail. The ground wasn’t damp enough to show muddy footprints, and they weren’t experienced trackers. Abby didn’t know how to read broken leaves or bent twigs for clues. They were in luck, however, because Brooke’s alpaca wool hat seemed to be shedding. Every quarter mile or so, they found a bundle of colorful threads.

Nathan got suspicious after the third bundle. “I don’t like it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think we’re walking into a trap.”

“Why?”

“They left footprints and an ether rag at the river crossing. Now these threads. It’s like a trail of bread crumbs. No one is this sloppy.”

“So they’re luring us out here?”