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Desi hunched over as a chill ran down her spine. “Could they be ours?” she asked, then took a sip from her cup. “It was really dark when we got here last night.”
“I thought that too, but no. Whoever it was, circled around the tent then stood there for a good while before moving on.”
Desi whipped her head at him and raised a brow. “You’re joking, right?”
Lane ran a hand down his face and sighed. “I wish I was...”
She swallowed the sick feeling that settled in the back of her throat. That meant someone was listening to them. “How do you know they stood there?”
“Because the prints were deeper than the rest... and this was laying on top of one of them...” He pulled something out of his pocket and held it in the palm of his hand. It was a bullet, the length of his hand from wrist to middle finger. “There was no impression of this.”
“Good Lord! Why is it so huge?” she asked. “Is it for hunting bears?”
“No.” He chuckled. “It’s a .50 BMG, used for heavy machine guns and long-range rifles. It’s possible they are a sniper or a wanna be one. Definitely not the kind of gun you’d use in the middle of a forest for hunting.”
“Do you think they left it? Or it could have fallen out of their pocket!”
Lane stuffed it back into his jacket and stood. “Yeah, could be. Either way, we should get a move on. I don’t feel like being a target... just in case.”
Desi didn’t have to be told twice, she jumped up and went to the tent, ducking inside, she zipped the sleeping bag and rolled it up. “Here,” she said, holding it out for him to take. “You better pack everything into your bag. I’d never be able to fit it all back in.”
Lane took the water and food out and set it all aside. Stuffing the sleeping bag in, he put the thermos and pot on top of it. He turned and saw Desi tackling the tent.
“What the hell is wrong with this thing?” She looked at in disgust. Every time she thought she had it secured, it would spring back open.
Chuckling, he said, “I’ll give you a hand with that. It can be tricky.”
Together they managed to secure it long enough for Lane to stuff it back into it’s carry bag.
Standing with her hands on her hips, Desi looked at him. “So, now what?”
“We have two options. Go back to Pearl Lake and tell them what we know, or...” Lane held up his phone, “... we follow the signal.”
Desi frowned. As much as she wanted to go back, she knew he didn’t. It was precious time that was wasted if they did. “Why don’t you just call them?”
“Honestly?” He looked at her as he shoved the tent into the backpack and slung it over his shoulder. “I don’t want a hundred people converging here. If mom is there, and someone has her, having that many people milling around would make it worse than better.”
Desi nodded. “I understand. Let’s go than.”
And with that the two of them exited the forest and crossed the road only to re-enter it on the other side...
––––––––
“WHAT THE HELL ARE WEgoing to do with her?”
Dawn was just breaking over the horizon when Abbi jerked from a fitful sleep and glanced around at the two men. Her senses had been on high alert ever since the jerk in black, Anthony, she thought she heard the other say, had found her clutching a cat in a ravine. A ravine she slid down the second she had her hand wrapped around the feline.
She had spied it hanging around the big sugar maple out front of Mack’s store and of course just had to help it. If only she hadn’t followed it into the woods, she wouldn’t be in this predicament now. But she had to help it. No one that she knew of in the village, and that was everyone, had a Snow Bengal. That left the tourists, which Abbi thought Anthony was, seeing how he was looking for the cat too and knew her name, Nala. They had exchanged small talk, and Abbi was convinced he was the owner until she saw the rifle, slung over his back. That’s when the red flags started flying. She started asking questions that he apparently didn’t like because before she knew it, he was pointing the rifle at her chest. She had a fleeting thought of throwing the cat at him and running for it but knew in her heart she couldn’t. Nor could she outrun a bullet.
Now, she was currently sitting on the floor of an old barn. Her arms tied behind her back around a wooden pole and had zero clue how long she had been there or where the cat ended up. What she did have a clue was that she wasn’t far from Pearl Lake, a good thing, which meant if she ever got out of the bindings, she could make her way back home to Ben and Anna under the umbrella of the forest. She almost broke at the thought of Ben. She knew exactly what he was going through because she did the same when he was missing.
Pushing her thoughts to the backburner, she started planning her escape, but then the two men separated. Anthony heading off outside and the other one, coming over to her with a sneer on his face.
He bent down and untied her hands from around the post. “C’mon lady. Time for you to be moved.”
“Where are you taking me?” she demanded, kicking out.
“Sonofabitch,” he yowled when her foot smashed into his kneecap. “You’ll find out,” he snarled, smacking her across the head. Abbi saw stars as he dragged her along by her hair to a short hallway and tossed her into the first doorway on the right.
