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As she darted past, he grabbed the branch from her hand. “I suspected you were wiping out your tracks. No more of that.”
She didn’t answer but ran as fast as she could back to get her sister. He might tell her she couldn’t hide their location, but she wasn’t about to listen.
Thirty-Five
A shout came from the woods, and Joel whirled just before the butt of his gun was about to move away the foliage in front of Jon’s face. Joel trotted toward the sound. “What’s got your Speedos in a wad?” He sounded annoyed.
Jon let out the breath he was holding. This was his only chance to wriggle out of here. He scooted toward the only clear path to his left, and the dog followed him. It seemed a hot, miserable eternity before he hauled himself out from under the underbrush and stood. The dog emerged and stood waiting expectantly for Jon to give him direction on where they were going.
Jon checked which way was west on his phone and decided it was the opposite way the men had gone. He glanced over his shoulder and moved as noiselessly as possible along the deer trail meandering in front of him. The way was rocky, and he prayed his footprints wouldn’t be as visible with so much rock. It would take a miracle to find Annie undetected. There were more than two men—that much he knew—and they were clearly experienced hunters, while he would be hard-pressed to take down a deer.
He made good time hurrying along the narrow path, and he tried to stay away from the shrubs where he feared he’d leaveevidence of his passage in bruised and broken leaves. He guessed he was leaving a trail even an amateur could follow.
The dog gave a small yelp and darted past Jon’s feet. He leaped over several shrubs and plowed through a stand of small pines with his tail in a happy plume. Annie and Sarah? Almost afraid to hope, Jon ran after him. He fought his way through pines so thick he couldn’t breathe until he stood under a tall oak tree whose shadow had smothered out most of the vegetation under it.
His eyes widened at the sight of his Annie. Her blonde hair was bedraggled and full of twigs and leaves, and her blue eyes stood out in sharp contrast to her muddy face. She knelt beside Sarah, who was on her knees with her arms around the dog’s neck. Jon had never seen a sight more wonderful than Annie alive and breathing. He’d been so afraid.
“Annie,” he croaked.
She jerked, and her eyes went wide. She leaped to her feet and hurtled toward him to hit against his chest in a satisfying weight. He hugged her and fought tears of relief. “I thought I’d lost you,” he murmured against her hair.
Her arms about squeezed the life out of him, and he could feel her terror in their grip. He hung on to her and tried to give her as much encouragement with his embrace as he could. Though they were far from safe out here with those men stalking them, at least they were together.
She pulled away and peered up at him, her blue eyes pools of anguish. “Jon,Maxis behind this! I thought he was a good guy, a friend. Someone I’d hoped to be almost part of the family when he married Anu. If for no other reason, I have to get out of here and let Anu know what kind of man he really is.”
He gripped her shoulders. “Listen, I’ve got rifles back at thecar by now. My dad was dropping some off. If we can circle back, we can at least be armed.”
Though he planned to shove them all in the car and hightail it out of here.
He pressed a kiss against her forehead and stepped back. There would be time for more once they were safe. Every second counted right now. “Do you have any idea where we are? Anything seem familiar?”
She shook her head. “I’m all turned around. I lost my makeshift compass and most of the time I can’t tell where the sun is, so I’ve been wandering around lost.”
He thrust his phone into her hand. “I have a compass. I downloaded a topo map of the area before I came in here with no signal. It might help.”
“Oh, it should!”
He told her his password and she punched it in, then studied the compass before she opened the map. Her finger traced a fire road. “We might be near this, but I can’t tell for sure. If we could get to the fire road, we’d have an easier time of finding our way out of here.”
“But Max and his men will also have an easier time finding us,” Sarah said. “I think we need to start laying traps for them. Just making a beeline out of here is going to get us shot. You know it will, Annie. Those men have done this often. It’s a sport to them.”
Annie gave a reluctant nod. “She’s right, Jon. Those guns are enticing, but if we forget who we’re facing, we’ll be dead in no time. They have a lot of firepower. And they’re expert marksmen, well versed in tracking. There are three of them—Max, Joel West, and Eric Bell.”
“So we do something unexpected, whatever that might be.”
“I’d thought about going back to the cells where they held us. There was a building I thought they might be using as an armory. Getting into it might be a problem, but I think they will suspect we’ll try to hike out of the woods. They won’t be expecting us to go deeper in.”
“Let alone going to their stronghold,” Jon said. “How far away is it?”
“Probably a four-hour hike, so the trick will be staying alive long enough to get there.” Annie turned to her sister. “Your idea of traps is great, Sarah. If we could find some string, I could set snares. I’ve got ideas for other booby traps too. Just not many resources.”
Jon reached for his pack. “I just might have something useful.”
***
Annie set Jon to making punji sticks as they walked along. With his knife he sharpened six sticks to a point. They moved as fast as they could, but Annie kept making direction adjustments and leading them through carpets of pine needles that she could brush out with a branch.
Jon showed her the sticks. “I had no idea the woman I loved was such a warrior. I hope you don’t ever use these skills on me.”
