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“Agreed.”
Carter’s face took on that determined look that Becky swore meant, “Everyone, get out of my face and let me do the thing.”
The rest of his team joined Carter in his single-minded determination as they continued in the signal's direction. It had since stopped moving and sat on an unmapped road or area. Something was happening, and that had Carter driving as quickly as he could, given the area and terrain. Mark followed.
“What the fuck happened here?” asked Monroe as they approached an area that was now billowing smoke. His tone left no one to guess how desperate he was becoming. His anguish made each man cringe. “That’s Mallory’s car!” he yelled as the vehicle slowed down and the flames shot from the now blackened hunk of metal that was once a car. “No, no, no!”
Before his teammates could stop him, the door flung open, and Monroe leaped from the still rolling SUV, followed by all those not driving from both vehicles. Swarming around the heated metal, the back door was still open, allowing Garrett to look inside.
“Back seat—clear.”
Within seconds came the second confirmation. “Front—clear.”
What they had left was the trunk. Carter brought over his fire extinguisher and handed it off to Mark, who doused the flames at the back of the vehicle as much as he could. The tank would blow any moment as the flames crept back.
Carter pulled out his tool that was a mini jaws-of-life only, not hydraulic powered. It was Carter-powered. After a few seconds of set-up, he pulled the trunk hood back from the frame, and the trunk was accessible and pushed open. Smoke and heat greeted the men as they peered inside. One quick shifting of the blanket and melting plastic emergency kit showed no person.
“Thank God,” said Garrett.
Monroe slammed his fist on the roof of the charred car. “Fuck. Now what? Kaden, where is the signal now?”
Jac brought his hand up to move everyone away from the fire. “Throw more chemicals on it, and before we leave, I’ll call the fire department. No need to add to the drama by having a forest fire. At the distance we are from the town, we’ll be gone by the time they arrive.”
“We hope,” said Levi.
The men gathered info and made their plan. Kaden and Mark moved the vehicles off and out of the way. They would watch the scene and the cars and monitor the communications from Sharlee in case Jac’s headset lost signal.
The rest took off toward the last communicated signal.
***
Mallory woke up in fear without immediately understanding why. As her brain unconsciously looked for the danger, her thoughts become cohesive, and she took in her surroundings, causing her breath to pick up and her autonomic response system to take over her breathing. She lost her bearings in the woods with a madwoman who held her responsible for taking away her security. As erroneous as that unstable perception was, it was a dangerous way of thinking. One that placed Mallory in fear for her life.
Taking a deep breath and holding it, using the box-breathing method Monroe had taught her in the early days when he taught her to control her reactions to the touches of pain he gave her when they played. It had enhanced her enjoyment. Later, when her nightmares merged with her daytime realities, he made her use the same method, giving her some semblance of control.
Now Mallory felt better just doing something that she and Monroe had done. And it did what it was meant to do, give her a sense of control. She would find a way out of here herself because it was obvious her phone didn’t do the job or Monroe would be here already.
Mallory didn't know why the woman didn’t shoot her when she had the chance, but what Mallory figured out was this was not the time to allow her fear to cripple her. Mallory started back in the direction she thought was the right one. Her phone display showed the time to be coming up on eight, and the darkness of evening had fallen in the woods, with true dark soon to follow. She needed to pick her way out of here and fast.
Try to locate landmarks you passed, she told herself, even though she knew there were few that she’d actually passed that had registered in her terrorized brain. She still worried that she would unwittingly run into the reason for her predicament today. The gunshot off to her right froze her in her fright.Run!
Scrambling over rocks and underbrush, enduring the brambles and bushes scraping across her skin, she barely acknowledged the blood running from her arms and face. She kept running until stopping to catch her breath. She heard something or someone tearing through the forest in her direction. It must have been something large because it didn’t seem to worry about being heard or discovered.Hide!
Crawling under the overhang of rock with brush surrounding her, Mallory ignored the insects and other critters likely living in her makeshift hiding spot. She pulled the surrounding vegetation in after her. All the while, she prayed the team wouldn’t find her stung by a hive of bees or the branches surrounding her containing poison oak or ivy.
Then it suddenly went silent. Willing herself to return to the 4x4 pattern, Mallory had barely gotten to the last step when the noise was upon her. She knew the object hadn’t passed her, but it was as though it were floating over her or around her, but no longer stomping through the woods toward her.
There was a rustle of the branches in front of her as they slowly disappeared from the front of Mallory’s hiding spot. When the covering was gone, Mallory tried to back into the solid rock behind her. When she saw a hand, she screamed with all her might.
“Mallory! Mallory, baby, it’s me. It’s Monroe.”
Chapter 23
“She exhibits behaviors such as has been identified as Stockholm Syndrome on Steroids,” said the criminal psychiatrist after interviewing Jeanne Saginaw.
Mallory wasn’t sure she could ever forget that look of pure hatred and rampant violence that Ms. Saginaw, the first kidnapped victim of Craig Romaine, showed her when she saw Mallory on the other side of the vehicle.
“The patient’s inability, at this time, to separate her daily life and indeed her own desires from her kidnapper’s is evident in many of her mannerisms. She speaks to her Master, yet she condemns him because he chose the last victim, the one he wanted most, and it was the end of their life together. It was by this victim, Ms. Sasse’s, actions that Ms. Saginaw has lost all of her stability, including the source of her ongoing misery.”
