So, I told him what clued me in on his operation, starting from the first track, detailing the rotted carcasses and how what was left made me suspicious we were dealing with more than an average hunter. While I talked, I surreptitiously scanned the living room, looking for anything I could use as a weapon.
There was my rifle, of course, just out of reach. But there was also the coffee press on the counter, still half full, along with one of my hunting knives on an end table just beyond Deke.
As I neared the end of my tale, telling him how Lana found their previous camp and not-long-dead fire, my eyes clocked movement outside.
I tried not to stare, glancing around the cabin, then returning to the same point at the tree line. It was quick. Just a flash of color that didn’t belong to the woods. A burgundy color the exact shade of the Overlook hoodie Lana owned.
My heart stuttered, then went into overdrive. I said a silent prayer she wasn’t alone, but I had my doubts. The woman did not let things go, nor did she wait for someone to do something she deemed herself perfectly capable of handling. That was one of the maddening things about her that drew me straight to her, like a moth to a flame.
And now, because of her stubbornness and tenacity, she was out there at the edge of my clearing, fifty feet from a man who killed loose ends because he wanted to. Her only saving grace was the fact that Deke faced away from her.
I willed her to stay put.
Deke’s brow furrowed slightly. “You stopped talking.”
I dragged my eyes back to him before I could give her away and forced my mind back onto the conversation.
“Just trying to remember the order of things,” I said. “She brought that rope back to our shelter and we used it to make some of the warning systems.”
He nodded, satisfied, and I kept talking, doing my damnedest to keep one eye on her and the other decidedlynoton her. Making Deke suspicious would be disastrous.
I glanced out the window again. She still hadn’t moved.
That gave me a sliver of hope. Maybe shehadcalled in reinforcements.
Whatever the case, I needed to keep Deke distracted until she made a move.
Then, it was go time.
Chapter 32
Lana
The text I sent to Ozzie whooshed off into the ether, and I had no idea if it made it. The little “Sent” confirmation appeared under it, but out here that didn’t mean much. The message could be sitting in a queue somewhere, waiting on a signal that might not come for an hour.
Some days, I really hated living up here.
Shoving my phone into my pocket, I glanced toward the house again. I couldn’t count on it reaching Ozzie. Which meant I couldn’t count on anyone but me to get Toren out of there and hopefully, detain Deke.
If it really was Deke inside.
But who else would it be? If Toren had a legitimate visitor, they’d have pulled up into the clearing and parked, not tried to stay hidden behind the bend in the driveway.
And that shout I heard earlier wasn’t one of surprise or happiness. There had been an edge to the man’s voice. It had to be Deke.
I pressed my forehead against the rough bark of the pine tree and made myself breathe and think instead of bolting toward the cabin like every cell in my body demanded. Charging in blind was how we both died, and Deke got away again. I knew that.I could hear my brother’s voice in my head—even Toren’s and Ozzie’s—telling me to play it smart.
So, smart was what I’d do.
Although, my definition of smart was not theirs. They’d want me to wait for help, but that wasn’t happening.
First, I needed more information.
I eased along the tree line, staying out of the open, my boots finding the soft carpet of needles where they wouldn’t crunch. I kept low and kept moving, circling toward the side of the clearing, trying to get an angle—on a window, a door, anything that would tell me more than I had, which was a brutally short list.
No weapon. I’d left my car without so much as a tire iron. I could run back and get something, I supposed.
I filed that thought away as “Possible,” and moved on to what else I knew.
