Witness Protection (The Witness Series) (23 page)

“Well good morning my pets.”

I peer up at BTK. He is exactly as the picture showed,
except his hair is much
longer now
. He isn’t covered today and is dressed in a khaki uniform. His eyes travel over me, then up at Amy in the tree.

“Cats can climb my little pet.”

“What do you want?” I snarl.

“You know what I
want,
you have always known what I want.” He says, stepping forward. His boot stomps on my foot and I cry out.

“Killing me won’t do you any good, you are going down!”

“Maybe I am, but you are coming with me. You should have stayed in your car Maya, I would have never look
ed
at a pathetic piece of fluff like you, no curves, horrible
colored
hair but you went ahead and
interfered
.”

“So get it over with!”

“No, we are going to play some first, I thought about killing Amy first but she is just too pathetic and it won’t be so much fun. So I picked Sandy.”

He turns and grins at Sandy, then walks over, I stand and grip the rock behind my back. I only get one shot, one clean throw. I was a good tennis player in school, and I can throw a ball but this…this has to be just right. He grips Sandy’s shirt and yanks it
down, revealing a deep gash on her stomach
. I begin panting.

“You piece of shit, you will die for this!” I cry.

He turns and storms over, gripping my throat and clenching it until I can’t breathe.

“You will die first.”

He lets me go and slams me back into the tree. Then, he looks around.

“Now, where is my big baby, oh there…breakfast time
angel.
”

I
hear the purr of a cat and turn
to see a huge lioness prowling around in the bushes behind the trees. My heart quickens and I swallow rapidly. Oh no, please no.

“She will sniff that blood out and you can watch as she tears your sister up like a scrap of meat, then, I am going to let you watch Amy die while I slowly, slash your body and hang you up for the group of lions I have waiting.
Happy days.”

“This will backfire on you.” I growl.

He lashes out and hits my eye, splitting it open. “Your mouth is too big for your own
good,
I am going to enjoy every little second watching you die.”

He walks over to his truck and I keep my eye on the lioness. She is scenting the air, her big head bobbing up and down and her nose sniffling about.
She begins her decent towards Sandy and I panic, fast m
ovement, distract her. I look over
at BTK who is shuffling through his back and comes out with a gun. As he is standing, I throw the rock, hard and fast. It hits him in the side of the head and blood pours from his temple. He yells loudly enough to catch the
lions
attention and
she
turns.

“STAY STILL!” I order Sandy and Amy, “DON’T MOVE.”

“You stupid fucking girl, you will die for this.”

“No, you will. I said I would kill you, you son of a bitch and I will!” I snarl.

He shoots the gun, hitting me in the leg. I stifle a
scream,
I can’t scream and catch her attention. He aims to shoot again when the cat roars, he turns and she is slowly prowling towards him. He aims his gun and shoots, missing her but it is enough to piss her off. She leaps at him, going straight for his throat. He screams and blood spurts out in ways blood shouldn’t. I have minutes, minutes before she turns and heads towards us. Ignoring the bloody screams and crunching of bones, I run to the tree.

“Amy, come down, hurry.”

I get a good look at Amy as she flops down the branches. She is beautiful, with long blonde hair and honey brown eyes. She is covered in blood and bruises, and the shirt I put between her legs is soaked in blood.
Sweet
Jesus
.

“Come on honey, come on.” I put her arm around me and drag her limp body towards Sandy.

I lay Amy on the ground and fiddle furiously with Sandy’s ropes, keeping an eye on the lioness
who
is tearing the killer apart in ways that will burn into my mind forever. We don’t have
long,
I can’t g
et back to the truck because the lion
is too close. I lower Sandy and take her into my arms, kissing her hair and face.

“Can you walk?”

“I…yes.”
She croaks.

I stand and lift Amy again, her legs are dragging and she has no strength left.

“Amy, on my back.”

She doesn’t argue, she lets her body fall onto my back and I grip her arms, keeping her there. She isn’t heavy but I am only tiny and the pain radiating through my leg is incredible. Sandy ties my gunshot wound as b
est she can, and presses a scrap of t-shirt
to her deep gash.

“We need to get to the
boundaries,
we can’t go near the truck because the lioness will see. Slowly, very slowly walk towards that gate.”

We do so, taking small quiet steps. When we reach the gate, we follow the dirt path down a few miles, I am in intense pain, more pain than I have ever felt in my entire life but I have to get these girls to safety, I have to. When we make it to a main road, I lay Amy down and drag myself up to my feet and wave down a car, an old woman pulls over and rushes out, her eyes wide.

“My sweet lord, sweet lord.”

“Please, I am Maya and this is Sandy and Amy. We were with the Blonde Teen Killer and escaped, please, we need help.”

“Oh sweet lord, poor poor children.
Come on, come on.”

She helps me put Amy and Sandy into the car and I fall into the front seat, she hands me a towel and I press it to my bloody head.

“Where do you need to go?”

“Hospital.”

“Can I call anyone?”

“Do you have a phone?” I whisper.

“Yes, of course.”

She hands me a phone and I shakily dial Ryder’s number.

“Hello? James?”

“R-R-Ryder.”

“Baby,
Jesus
, baby.
Where are you?”

“I…
we are going to the h-
hospital
.”

“Where are you, where is he?”

“W-w-wild life reserve.
He was going to l-let the cats kill us. I…got him first and the c-c-at got him. Walked…to the road. Amy, Sandy alive, bad way.
Going to hospital.”

“Jesus Christ, are you hurt, baby are you hurt?”

“Y-y-yes.”

“Which hospital, which one?”

I turn to the old woman. “Where is the c-closest hospital?”

She gives me a hospital and I tell Ryder.

“I am coming, I will be there,
I
swear I will be there.”

I click the phone off and my head slumps and darkness finally takes me.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Jesus.”

I hear the voice and feel my body being pulled from the car.

“Maya, baby, wake up.”

“She is in a bad way bud, get in now.”

“Pull the other t
wo from the car James, Nate
call the doctors out.”

“Maya, baby…”

I flutter my eyes open to look up into a set of aqua ones. Ryder looks awful, tears stream down his face and onto my cheeks.

“Oh
Jesus
.”

“R-R-R
yder?”

“It’s me, I got you,
I
won’t let you go again.
Never again.”

I black back out, and into a state of ease, where I so desperately need to be.

CHAPTER
10

“The
track,
is six miles. She walked six miles with that girl on her back.”

I hear a voice, I am not sure who’s. I can’t
open my eyes.

“She is tiny, she is so damned tiny and she was so badly injured, she is a miracle.”

That is Ryder’s voice.

“I don’t know how she did it either but by
God
, you are right about her being a miracle. She saved those girls.”

“Has the mess been cleaned?”

“Local rangers cleared off the cat, there wasn’t much left of him from what I hear, got his own he did.”

“Yeah, good riddance.”

I drift back out, and next time I come to, my eyes flutter open. I look up at the lights on the roof and know I am in hospital. I go to move but groan
,
I am connected to wires and tubes. My legs are bandaged and so
is my ribs
.

“Baby, hey, hey.”

I blink and see Ryder approach the bed, his hand reaches out to stroke my cheek.

“Hey there.”

“Ryder?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“S-S-S
andy?”

“She is doing real well.”

“Amy.”

“In ICU but stable, thanks to you.”

“And…and…”

“He is dead.”

I feel tears tumble down my
cheeks,
Ryder climbs gently in the bed and holds me close.

“Hey,
shhh
, you saved their lives you brave, brave girl.”

“It was awful.” I croak.

“I know.”

“I am sorry.”

He strokes my hair.

“I am not going to get up you now, but if you ever do something so stupid again…”

“I know, you will spank me.”
I croak.

He laughs. “No, but I will throttle you.”

“I will let you, it was horrible.”

“I know baby, how are you feeling?”

“I…am not in pain.”

“Good, good.”

“It’s all over?”

“All over, he is gone and will never hurt another person again.”

“So I have to go home now?”

He holds me closer. “You know, there is an apartment up for sale just down from ours?”

“Oh?” I croak.

“I am thinking of buying it and renting it out.”

“Are you now?” I whisper.

“
Hmmmm
, what do you think?”

“I couldn’t afford rent in a place like that if I tried.”

“It wouldn’t be much.”

“Ryder, you would be losing money.”

“Maybe, but if it means you are close…”

“I will think about it, right now I can’t think about anything.”

“D
o you need something?”

“Just you.”
I whisper, nestling further into his chest.

“Now don’t go making a softie out of me.”

I give a hoarse laugh.
“Too late.”

“You scared the life out of me, honestly, I got that message…”

“I had to go, I had to.”

“You could have told me and I could have taken him down before he even got out of that car.”

“She is my sister Ryder, I had to risk it.”

“You scare
d
me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I have never been so fucking scared in my life.”

I don’t say anything, I just hold him close.

“You need to get some more rest.”

“Please don’t go Ryder, please.”

“I will be here as long as you need baby, as long as you need.”

“I love you,
” I whisper. “I didn’t say it the other night, and I am sorry. I want you to know that, I love you.”

He hugs me close.
“Yeah well right back at you.”

“Well look who’s up.”

I look up and see Nate walking in, I smile weakly and a tear slides down my cheek.

“Aw, now stop that crying.”

He slides into the other side of the bed and pulls me close, pressing my cheek to his chest now.

“
How are you feeling?”

“Confused, hurt…”

“You did a real fine job out there Maya, real fine.”

“I am going to grab a coffee.” Ryder says, pressing a kiss to my hair.

“I will be here bud.”

Ryder slips out and Nate continues to hold onto me.

“Nate?”

“Hmmm?”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Being with me through all this, being my friend.
I haven’t had a family in a long time and you…well you gave me one in your family and in you.”