Thirty-One and a Half Regrets (29 page)

“The storm’s moving in quickly. That doesn’t bode well for us, although the wind will make it more difficult for them to track us by sound.”

We ran to the edge of the forest, clomping over the dried leaves that covered the forest floor. The brush was thick at the edge, so we would have to force our way through it.

Mason turned back to look at me. “This is going to seem counterintuitive, but I want to head south for a while before we veer into the woods. If we charge in now, they’ll be able to figure out where we went in from the broken brush.”

“Okay.”

“The huge risk is that they’ll see us from the house, but we’re both wearing dark colors, so we won’t jump out at them unless they know where to look.”

He turned to the right and skirted the tree line while Muffy and I followed close behind. After glancing at the house, Mason picked up the pace.

Shouting broke out behind us and Mason stopped and pulled me into the shadows of the trees and down to a crouch. Muffy followed, lying on the ground next to me. I reached down and rubbed her head.

Three men burst out of the back door of the house. One of them pointed to the barn and then the field, and the others took off in the indicated directions. But my attention was squarely on the man who’d given them their orders and was standing in the middle of the yard, his hands on his hips.

“It’s Daniel Crocker.”

Mason’s grip on my arm tightened. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” I tried to calm my rising panic. Of course he was here. He’d been in my vision, after all.

We heard more shouting and Crocker moved to the edge of the field, Deputy Gyer going with him.

“Come on.” Mason tugged on my arm. “They’re following my tracks from when I checked out the field yesterday. It won’t buy us much time, though. I didn’t get very far.”

About ten men spilled from the front of the house and headed toward the field as Mason, Muffy and I began edging down the tree line away from Crocker. We had gone about fifty feet when Mason slowed and turned toward the trees.

“There’s a natural break in the brush. If we’re careful, we can slip in here and conceal our tracks.” He moved first, picking his way carefully and trying to step on bare spots of ground. When he made it through the narrow gap, he motioned for me to follow.

I looked back down at the house and fields. There was more shouting and I heard my name on the wind, the sound sending a shiver down my back. I was terrified, but I couldn’t think about that now. We had to get away. Mason waited, his hand extended. Taking a deep breath, I picked my way across the six-foot expanse, easing myself through the narrow opening. But we were in more thick brush, and the only way for us to continue was to break the branches of the bushes around us.

“There’s no helping it, Rose,” Mason said, pushing deeper. “We’ll just have to hope they won’t realize we snuck in here.” After about fifty feet, the brush gave way to partial growth. “Let’s go farther east before changing direction.”

“How far are we from Columbia County?” I asked. “If we keep going east we’ll end up there, right?”

“It’s a good thirty miles.”

My shoulders sank. “And how far is Moore County?”

“Ten miles, give or take.”

“So Moore it is.”

“We might stumble upon a farmhouse on the way. Then we can call Jeff and the state police. If we don’t, we’ll keep going until we’re out of the county.”

“How will we know?”

He gave me a crooked smile. “That’s a good question. Not too far east of here, the county line juts north. We might think we’re in Moore County while we’re still in Fenton. And the farther north we go, the denser the forest will become.”

“How do you know so much about the county terrain?”

“It’s my jurisdiction. I know the layout of the land, the towns, and the demographics of specific regions.”

“And this area?”

“Mostly farmers on the outskirts of the forest, but there are some meth labs here and there in the more rural parts.”

“I take it that’s bad.”

“The meth cooks might not like it if we trespass on their land. Especially if they figure out who I
am.”

“What are the chances we’ll run into them?”

“If we were purposely setting out to find them, probably not likely, but since we’re trying to avoid them, who knows? We haven’t had the greatest luck lately. From the reports I’ve heard, a couple of them are holed up northeast of here, which of course is where we’re heading. The problem is that they sometimes booby trap the borders, so the first sign that we’re trespassing might be if we get caught.”

“Let’s try really hard to avoid them.”

“I agree.”

We continued east for another ten minutes before Mason stopped and held up a hand.

I halted, forcing my lungs to draw in a breath. Muffy bumped into my leg and pressed her body into me, looking up into my face.

“I think I hear something,” he whispered.

I joined him at his side, my ears straining. After a few seconds, I heard shouting.

“They’re in the woods,” he said, looking behind us.

I forced myself to calm down. “What should we do?”

He spun around, taking in the landscape. “We’ve been traveling northeast, but we haven’t been careful. If any of them have tracking experience, they’ll be able to find us once they pick up our path.”

“So now we know what they’re gonna do. What are
we
gonna do?”

He shook his head with a slight grin. “That’s my girl.”

I returned his smile, amazed by my own gumption.

“Do you hear water?”

I strained to listen and beneath the men’s voices, I could hear the tell-tale gurgle of a creek. “Yeah.”

“It’s coming from ahead. Let’s turn slightly south and then intersect the creek to make it look like we’re going the opposite direction. But we’ll turn north, walking in the creek so we don’t leave tracks.”

“Mason, it’s not even forty degrees outside. You want to walk in water?”

“Rose, I’m open to other ideas if you have them.”

I closed my eyes and exhaled. I didn’t. And I knew that I could not, under any circumstances, allow Daniel Crocker to catch me. “None. Let’s go.”

But I was worried about Muffy. She wouldn’t willingly walk in water and she’d give us away if she walked alongside the creek.

We pushed through a new growth of brush that surrounded the two-foot-wide creek. Mason deliberately tromped down the vegetation on the bank and then stepped into the water, his body stiffening with cold. After he took a moment to recover, he turned to me. “Wait here.” He went several feet down the creek, then got out and stomped on a gathering of bushes before getting back in and turning to trudge toward me. His jeans were wet up to his ankles. “I have no idea if that will work, but it was worth a try.”

He reached a hand toward me and I grabbed it, trying to prepare myself for the shock of stepping into the water, but nothing could make me ready for the icy jolt that shot up my legs.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I nodded and turned to Muffy. “Come on, girl.”

She approached the creek, sniffed the water, then backed up several paces.

“Will she come in?” Mason asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so.” My voice broke.

He squatted and reached out to her. “Come here, Muffy.”

She slowly inched toward him, her body barely off the ground.

“That’s it,” he said softly, as though he were talking to a small child. “Come here, girl.”

Muffy sniffed his hand and moved closer. Mason scooped her up, opened his coat, and tucked her inside, then zipped his jacket until just her head poked out. Muffy reached up to lick Mason’s chin. He rubbed her snout. “That’s a good girl.”

My chest burned at the sight and I found it difficult to speak past the lump in my throat. “Thank you.”

Mason grabbed my hand. “Well, we couldn’t leave her behind.”

We started to move through the twelve-inch-deep water. Mason took the lead and I followed behind, carefully picking my way along the slippery footing as the water began to get deeper. My legs turned numb as we continued to move through the water, and a couple of times Mason grabbed my arm to right me when I started to slip. Still, the voices were getting louder.

“Mason.”

“I know, I’m looking for somewhere to hide on the other side of the creek, but there’s not as many pine trees here and the others have lost too many leaves to provide cover.”

The land began to climb, making our path through the water more precarious. Mason climbed a short incline and then turned to grab my hand once he found a level spot. He pulled me up next to him with little effort and started to climb the next section once I was secure. I didn’t say anything, but it worried me how cold his hand was. Him reaching out to me in the cold water felt a little too similar to the key scene in Titanic to suit me. At least I didn’t have to worry about sharing space on a piece of wood. There were plenty of downed tree trunks here.

The voices were closer and I could make out a few words.

“…picked up a trail…”

“…heading south…”

Muffy let out a low growl and Mason turned back to face me, fear in his eyes.

I leaned over and stroked her head, whispering, “Shh…” but she continued to make agitated noises.

I unbuttoned my jacket as quickly as my frozen fingers would allow. Realizing what I was doing, Mason had already unzipped his jacket and was stuffing her inside my coat. Once she was secure, he started to fasten the buttons.

Rubbing her head, I cooed in her ear, “Muffy, you have to be quiet.” She was going to give us away.

But her low rumble continued and Mason shot me a worried look before turning to continue his climb.

Muffy jolted against me, scrambling until she was over halfway out of my jacket. Realizing something was wrong, Mason climbed back down as I wrestled to keep my little dog from escaping. She jumped out of my arms, onto the creek bank on the opposite side of Crocker’s men.

Without thinking, I started to call out to her, but Mason clamped a hand over my mouth, pulling me back against his chest. His other hand wrapped around my waist.

Tears stung my eyes as I watched Muffy bolt south, following the creek.

“Rose, I’m sorry,” he whispered in my ear. “But we have to go.”

I nodded and he released my mouth and spun me around.

“I promise you that we’ll find her when this is over.”

I nodded again, not trusting myself to speak. My vision gave me some comfort. I knew she’d be found, even though I wished her rescuer could be someone besides Deputy Miller. Still, she trusted him and he seemed to care about her. I had to believe that while he might turn me over to Crocker, he’d be good to my little dog. In the meantime, I needed to focus on surviving this mess so I could see her again.

Returning his attention to the climb, Mason found another foothold and reached for me, grabbing my wrist to pull me up. “I think we’ll be safe if we make it to the top of this.”

I glanced at the ten-foot rise ahead of us, feeling a lot less confident than he sounded. “We’re going too slow.” I dropped his hand and started to climb up, grabbing hold of larger rocks under the water to pull myself up. The sleeves of my coat quickly became drenched.

“Rose, you’re going to freeze to death if you do it that way.”

“I’d rather freeze than let Daniel Crocker catch me.” My way moved us up faster and I climbed over the rise, falling into a deeper pool that soaked me from the thighs down. Thankfully, I managed to keep the gun out of the water.

Mason fell in behind me. “Dammit,” he grunted. “I wasn’t prepared for that.” He climbed onto the bank and dragged me out. The only dry parts of my body were my back and my head. I was shivering violently and Mason wrapped his arm around my shoulders, his own body shaking from cold.

He slipped his bag off his shoulders and pulled out one of the blankets, which were blessedly dry, wrapping it around my back. “I’m going over to the edge of the rise to check out where they are.”

I nodded. I would have gone with him, but I was too cold to move.

He left the bag and adjusted the rifle over his arm before walking farther upstream. Keeping low, he sloshed through the shallower section of the creek and then squatted as he neared the edge of the hill. We were only about twenty feet higher than the grove below, but it was enough to give him an advantage.

My teeth rattled, but not loudly enough to drone out the voices from below.

“Rose!” Daniel called out. “Where are you, my sweet Rose?”

I wrapped my arms around myself, tugging the blanket tighter. Mason stayed perfectly still, but I noticed that he’d lifted the tip of his rifle.

“Rose, I know you’re out here. Why would you run off with that assistant DA instead of waiting for me, baby? You knew I was coming.”

His voice was getting louder and terror bubbled up inside me. I reached for the rifle, laying it across my lap. I wasn’t sure I could actually use it, but knowing it was there made me feel a tiny bit more in control.

“I’m gonna find you, Rose, don’t doubt that for a minute. But the longer it takes, the angrier I’ll get, so make it easy on yourself and come out now.”

Did Crocker know we were up here? His voice told me he was practically upon us. I glanced over at Mason, who was crouching, completely still, the tension in his shoulders the only sign that Crocker was getting to him.

“How much do you like that pretty lawyer, Rose? Maybe he won’t be so pretty when I’m through with him.”

I set the gun down and climbed to my knees, letting the blanket fall to the ground. If I gave myself up, would it save Mason? I doubted that Crocker would let him go, but how could I take that chance?

Mason glanced over his shoulder at me. “No!” he mouthed, his eyes flashing with anger.

I crawled toward the spot where Mason had crossed the creek.

“Rose! I
will
find you. And when I do, I will make you pay, baby. I’ll make you pay for everything you’ve done.” His voice rose along with his anger.

Mason spun at the waist and held his hand up. “Don’t move!” he mouthed.