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There was no pack anywhere near her.
Her lungs tightened.
No pack. No food. No water. No GPS.
Your phone, stupid.
She felt her pockets. No phone.
Her lungs clamped up the rest of the way.
Breathe, Chloe.
She managed to get a breath in, but she had to work for it. But now her hand shook violently against her side.
Her sight narrowed as the wide-open forest closed in on her.
She didn’t know how to stop a panic attack this bad. Last time it was this bad, she’d called Gabe. Or that time in college, her roommate found her. And Poirot always helped her too, but he wasn’t even around. Someone always helped her, but this time she was alone. Lost in the woods. Again.
She curled up in a ball on the ground as all the emotion that had been building for the last thirteen years flooded out. She couldn’t do this. She’d never get out of the woods. Even if she tried, she’d probably slip and fall and be gone forever. Just like Owen.
Chapter Ten
Joshfoughtagainsttheblindfold, gag, and ropes holding his hands. Clueless to what had happened, he’d woken up as someone carried him, feet dragging on the ground.
A large person had dragged him for a bit of a distance before sitting Josh against a tree. The kidnapper had briefly untied his hands just to stretch them back and retie them, but this time around the tree.
Josh had tried to fight, but it was useless. His mind was too foggy to get his body to react in a way that worked. Best he could tell, he’d been drugged. Probably something like midazolam or rohypnol. Depended on if this person had access to legal drugs or illegal.
Either one of those drugs could have knocked him out and made him forget what had happened leading up to the event. Last thing he remembered was going for a walk this morning.
But why on earth had this person even kidnapped Josh just to strap him to a tree?
He or she had left immediately without a word. The sound of an ATV in the distance had quickly disappeared, leaving Josh hopelessly stranded.
But he wasn’t giving up. He tried to push himself to a standing position, but he didn’t have enough strength and his hands were tied too tight. Perhaps if he rubbed the rope against the tree enough it would snap. But it felt like strong climbing rope, so that was unlikely. Maybe the friction would loosen the knots? Except they seemed to just be getting tighter.
Next, he tried to get the blindfold off. He’d like to at least see his surroundings. Based on the ATV and then being dragged, he was pretty sure he was somewhere remote. But how remote?
Josh ran his head against the tree. If there was a knot in the blindfold . . . yes, there was. The knot caught the bark, and with a few more strokes, the blindfold came off.
Woods. Nothing but trees and undergrowth. The terrain told him he was in the mountains, probably in a valley between peaks.
He tried to get the gag off too, but it was much too tight in his mouth to slide off the same way the blindfold had.
God, definitely need Your help.
Josh spotted a thick stick not too far from where his hand was. Perhaps he could make enough noise to alert someone. Of course, that was assuming someone was close enough to hear him. He tried to scootch around to reach it.
His thoughts went to Chloe. What if she was in trouble too? His entire being hurt at the idea. He couldn’t handle the thought of something bad happening to her.
Urgency filled his mind as adrenaline filled his body. He had to get free.
Chloe’s body shook against the ground. She had to get control. She had to breathe. But she couldn’t do it on her own.
“Jesus!” Why wasn’t He the first one she sought in every circumstance? Gabe was right—she needed to trust God with her life, every part.
“I can’t do this on my own.”
