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Luckily she was running full out, breaking branches and leaving a very obvious trail. We should be able to stay close to it. I just hope that psycho didn’t steal the necklace as some sort of sick trophy.
“Can you walk okay?” Cody helps Violet to her feet.
“Yeah.” Her voice is meek and subdued. So different from the confident, gives-no-fucks attitude she usually throws at us.
It tears my chest open, knowing that she’s been hurt like this. I just want to go to her and hold her. After I return her necklace, I’ll never let her out of our sight again. She lets Cody hold her hand as he helps her across the creek.
“Let’s go.” Blake starts walking into the woods, following the trail as meticulously as he does everything else in life. “I’ll take the left side of her trail, you take the right.”
We search in silence side by side. My ribs feel tight and my body aches with each minute that passes. I can’t stop the scene from earlier playing through my mind on an endless loop. I hate that we weren’t there fast enough. I hate that some fucking freak put his hands on our girl.
“You’re giving me a headache with how loud you’re thinking,” Blake interrupts my thoughts. “You brood so loud.”
“Aren’t you pissed?” I clench my fists, wishing I had something to punch. “Don’t you just want to fucking murder that guy?”
“Of course I do, but dwelling on it isn’t going to help us find her necklace. Have you even been looking?”
“Yes.” I move some debris on the ground around with my foot, yet again coming up with nothing.
We fall back into silence until we find her backpack. A black crow is sitting on top of it, looking around. As we draw closer, I’m surprised when it doesn’t fly off.
“Dude.” Blake grips my arm and halts my progress. “The bird has something shiny dangling from its beak.”
When I look closer, I see that he’s right and that it’s Violet’s necklace. “Fuck. Don’t crows like shiny things?”
“Yeah, let’s split up.”
We both start to approach from different sides when the crow flies up into the air and comes straight for me. I duck right as it flies over my shoulder, necklace dangling. It lands just on a branch out of reach and watches us.
Blake is picking up some of the things that must have fallen out when Violet ditched the bag. I bend down to help him and turn back to where the bird is still watching us. Its beady eyes seem to track back and forth between us. Then it flies for me again, causing me to jump out of the way.
“I don’t think it’s trying to attack.” Blake watches it circle back to the branch and then holds his hand out. “Maybe it’ll just land in our hands and give it to us.”
“Doubt it,” I say skeptically. Then I watch, utterly bemused as the crow flies into his open palm.
“Holy shit.” Blake’s eyes grow to twice their usual size as the bird drops the necklace in his palm and flies back to the tree.
I shrug when he looks at me. “Fucking crazy, but let’s get out of here. We have a long walk to the cabin.”
The bird follows us the whole way.
ChapterEleven
The rhythmic stroke of Cody’s calloused thumb over my knuckles is the perfect thing to calm me. My left eye is throbbing and my neck hurts. A sharp pain shoots through my shoulder every time I move my arm but focusing on the physical sensations keeps my mind from spiraling into what might have just happened to me.
“Cake sucks,” Cody says out of nowhere as he continues to lead me through the forest.
“I . . .” my brows furrow as my mind races to catch up. “That’s a controversial take.”
“Think about it. He gestures with his free hand. “It has to have frosting to stay moist.”
“Don’t say moist,” I mumble.
He smirks at me. “It has to have frosting to look good.”
“Naked cakes are a wedding trend right now.”
“Well, congratulations to those idiots for paying hundreds of dollars for a cake a toddler could have decorated.”
