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“Stop talking!” Zander was getting agitated. “Now walk, we have a distance to cover, and then I need to set my plans in motion.”
“What plans?”
“I’ve told you,” he snarled. “Killing both of you and having your brother there watching. Then it will be his turn.”
Ava shuddered; Piper just got angry. She watched Zander untie Buzz and then motion them to go first.
“H-how could I be so wrong about you?”
He sneered at Ava, and Piper resisted the urge to return the gesture. For now he held all the cards.
“I put up with you for months. Now I don’t have to.”
“It doesn’t seem an ideal situation for you to kidnap us and walk up the mountain, Zander, considering you’ve spent months perfecting your plan,” Piper said, staying where she was. “I mean, what if one of the runners strays off the path and sees you holding that gun.”
Zander looked around him. “The run is finished now. I hadn’t planned it this way, but I watched you, you were suspicious of me, and I knew I had to act. Plus up is best for now. We’ll hide there until the runners have gone. When they realize you’re missing they’ll start searching, but no one will suspect me.”
“You cut Buzz, you bastard!” she snarled.
“I was only going to hurt him some.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “It would have had everyone focusing on him and nothing else. This town loves him more than most of its citizens.”
“You’re sick and twisted,” Ava said, and Piper was pleased to hear a thread of anger now.
“It was a distraction, because if they were focused on the dog, they wouldn’t pay me much attention. I was kidnapping Ava later and using her to lure her brother. As it turns out, I now have two lures. Now no more talking, get moving. We need to get up into the trees and hide until dark.”
“And get lost,” Piper said.
“I know where I’m going,” Zander told her in a cold, clear voice. “Don’t be stupid enough to think you can overpower me or escape. I’ll shoot you without hesitation.”
His words shocked Ava, because even now there was a glimmer of hope that her boyfriend still cared.
“It’s okay, Ava.” She leaned in again, pretending to comfort the girl, and whispered, “Be ready.”
“Move!”
Zander motioned them to take the lead, and as she passed him, Piper pretended to stumble, and knocked into him, sending Zander backward.
“Run, Ava!”
She heard him cursing as she followed Ava to the trees, but the bullet that dug into the trunk beside her head, had Piper dropping to the ground.
“Stop, or I shoot!” She felt something hard digging into her neck, and knew it was the muzzle of the gun. “Ava, come back here now!”
He dragged Piper to her feet.
“She’s gone, Zander. She’ll get to the others, and they’ll know it’s you,” Piper taunted him. Anger twisted his face into an ugly scowl.
“Bitch!”
Piper knew he didn’t want to let her go and chase Ava, because she’d escape.
“Now what, Zander? Maybe you should just let me go and make a run for it. Who knows, you may get out of Ryker before they catch you... or you might not.”
“Adjust,” he said. “I just need to adjust.”
