Deceived (Free Indeed Book 2), page 12
It would be good for him. To get away from the sanctimonious, religious crap that currently surrounded him as well as the big city headaches that he put up with prior to this case. A small sigh escaped his lips. Maybe he just needed a vacation.
The kitchen door swung outward as Annie bustled through with four to-go containers. She carried them over to the counter where he sat and plopped them down. Grabbing a bag from under the counter, she loaded everything up and then cut a generous slice of the chocolate pie and boxed that up as well before adding it to the top of the pile.
Jake snagged his wallet from his back pocket and swiftly paid for the food. As he grabbed the overflowing bundle in front of him, he grinned back at the neighborly woman, “Thanks so much, ma’am, I really appreciate it.”
“My pleasure, darlin’,” Annie beamed back at him. “You and your lady have a good night now.”
Jake walked out of the diner, food in hand, and placed the bag on the passenger seat of his car. He climbed back into the driver’s seat and drove back onto Main Street.
Damn, the smells wafting from the food next to him were making his mouth water. Pointing the SUV in the direction of the cabin, he hit the gas. No point in letting that food get cold. May as well get back to base as soon as possible. He smiled to himself as he let out a low chuckle. Besides, he had “his woman” at home, who was in desperate need of her chocolate pie.
Chapter 11
Cara darted through the woods, the low hanging branches whipping at her face as she flew past. Paul was right behind her in fast pursuit, and she could hear him crashing through the underbrush. Afraid of how close he was to gaining on her, she forced herself to keep her gaze facing forward as she tried to navigate the trees and everything else around her.
Sheer terror kept her going when her lungs felt like they wanted to burst. He was going to kill her. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. If she faltered or slowed down, he would catch her, rape her, and then kill her. She’d be left here in the woods to rot, probably never to be found.
Her only family was her mom, and she was gone. No one else would care enough to wonder what happened to her other than Lily. But even her best friend would have no idea that she’d be in Oregon. Who would ever expect her to be on the entire other side of the country? She’d be dead and one of those unsolved missing persons cases.
Well, that was unacceptable. Cara clenched her fists and ran even harder if that was possible. She was determined not to let that bastard catch her.
Spotting a fallen tree, she jumped clearing it and landing still running on the opposite side. Cara slid down a small embankment, still somehow managing to keep her feet under her. The sun had set now, and darkness was quickly filling the sky. Maybe if she could get some distance between them, she’d be able to find a place to hide and wait Paul out until he stopped searching. He wouldn’t keep searching for her forever. He couldn’t. They already had Allie to find, so they wouldn’t waste too much time on her. All she had to do was get out of his line of sight and find a place to hide out.
A sharp crack broke through the night air followed by a searing pain stabbing through her lower right side. What the hell, she thought. The sharp pain made her stumble, but she managed to throw out both hands, using a nearby tree to righten herself and keep from falling.
With a grunt, she pushed off of the tree and stumbled for a few steps before once again taking off at a fast clip. Her right hand darted down to clutch the right side of her chest. She pulled her hand away and held it up to her face. Blood covered her entire hand and dripped to the ground below. That bastard had shot her.
Based off of the pain in both her front and back along with the blood seeping through the front of her chest, she knew the bullet had passed all the way through. That was a small consolation though considering Paul was still behind her and most likely gaining.
She wouldn’t be able to keep up this pace, especially now that she was wounded. Something was going to have to give and fast. The ground tilted down in front of her, and she fumbled down the incline till the ground leveled out again, then she froze just in the nick of time.
Less than three feet in front of her was a cliff, and she had almost run right over the edge. Much more cautiously, she crept the remaining distance forward and peered over the edge. It was a straight shot down about seventy-five feet or so to a lake or river that flowed through the woods below. Or maybe it was more like a hundred feet or so...it was kind of hard to judge staring straight down at it.
Oh boy, she muttered to herself.
Piece of cake, right? This was like what her friends had tried to talk her into doing last summer when they went cliff diving. Of course, that was supervised, and the depth of the water was guaranteed to be deep enough that it wouldn’t kill them on impact, but yeah, more or less the same thing. Not that she had actually participated in the madness. But she’d watched her friends make the jump, and they’d all survived it without any broken bones. Yeah, piece of cake.
A crash sounded behind her, and her head swung around to look over her shoulder. Paul broke through the trees and was at the top of the embankment above her.
Screw it. If she died in the jump at least she wouldn’t get raped by the terminator from hell first.
Without another thought, Cara stepped back a few steps and darted forward launching herself off the edge of the cliff. The air whipped around her as she fell towards the quickly approaching water below. Gunshots rang out from above as Paul tried to finish her off before he lost sight of her in the water.
The water rushed up at her faster than she had expected. Cara took a deep breath and kept her body as straight as she could hitting the water feet first. As soon as the cold water enveloped her, she spread her arms and legs outward to try and slow her body from sinking any further than necessary. As soon as she felt her decent start to slow, she began swimming as fast as she could toward the surface, kicking her legs to propel her upward.
Just when her lungs were about to burst, her head broke the surface of the water. A gasp filled the night as she drew in deep lungfuls of air. She forced herself to take smaller, shorter breaths and to remain as silent as possible. Fortunately, night had completely fallen, and it was now so dark that she couldn’t see to the top of the cliff. Which meant Paul wouldn’t be able to see her either in the inky blackness of the water.
Cara tried to swim as quietly as she could manage in the direction of the shore. If Paul was still listening for her, she didn’t want to give him anything to shoot his gun at again. Her side where the bullet had penetrated burned with pain every time her arm moved to take another stroke. With a grimace, she forced herself to keep her mouth clenched tight to keep from crying out.
Finally managing to make it to shore, she dragged her waterlogged body out of the river and onto the rocks. Unsure if Paul would find a way down from the cliff to keep searching for her, she stumbled into the woods so she’d be out of sight.
Cara thumped to the ground next to a tree to block her from the sight of anyone who may be passing by. She reached down and pulled her shirt unstuck from her wound and lifted it up to take a look at the damage. A hiss escaped her lips as the soggy shirt separated from her bloody skin.
Yep, the good news was the bullet definitely passed all the way through. The bad news was she was bleeding excessively from both her front and back, and she wasn’t sure how she was going to be able to stop it. God, it hurt so bad, but she couldn’t stay here.
She pushed herself back to her feet and held her right arm against the wound on her front. At least she’d be able to stop some of the bleeding on one side. Maybe. All the running she had done definitely didn’t help matters.
With a heavy sigh, she started trudging through the woods keeping close to the river but staying behind the tree line to keep out of sight. It could be worse. She could have been brutally violated and dead by now, so that was a plus. After being abducted and held captive on a cross-country road trip, being attacked twice, and almost killed at least she was alive. At this point, she’d take what she could get.
Chapter 12
The gravel crunched under the SUV’s tires as Jake drove up to the cabin. The smells wafting through the car from the food secured on the passenger seat were making his mouth water. He hadn’t even realized how hungry he was until he had walked into the diner.
The end of this mission was finally in sight. Just a few more days, even less if they found Allie right away, and all of this would be over. Being undercover was part of his job and something he had always expected. Hell, sometimes it was something he even looked forward to. But this job, seeing a whole community of people taken advantage of and abused in the name of God and religion, it was wearing him down. Maybe it was time for a change. Maybe it was time to step back from the undercover work and settle into a normal job where he could actually tell people what he did for a living. A job where he could make actual friends and not have to worry about disappearing for months or years on end so they’d worry about what happened to him. A job where he could have enough down time so he could really truly date someone. Not just a hookup with no strings attached to scratch an itch. But to actually start a real relationship with someone with the intent of possibly something more. He wanted that. God, he wanted that. And if the woman he dated had hair the color of deep mahogany and eyes that reminded him of the deepest, darkest chocolate in existence, well, that would just be a bonus.
A soft smile crossed his face. How had one woman invaded his thoughts so completely in such a short amount of time? Even after being glued to her side constantly since this whole mess started, he still wanted to spend one more moment, learn one more new thing about her. She was very quickly worming her way into his life, and dammit, but he liked it. He liked her tenacity and her bravery. He admired her spunk and boldness in standing up to her stepdad even though she feared him. And he loved her nerdiness and every single time she geeked out on him about one of her favorite computer games or binge-worthy tv shows. She kept him on his toes and was nothing like what he expected that first day he saw her sneaking around taking pictures.
Jake parked the car and climbed out of the vehicle. He walked around to the passenger side to grab the food and then made his way to the front door of the cabin. With a twist, he turned the handle to push the door open and then used his foot to kick it open further. After bustling inside, he let the door swing shut behind him.
Silence greeted him. Too much silence. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as a cold feeling washing over his body. Something wasn’t right, he could feel it. Jake looked around the large open floor plan for any indication of what was throwing off his senses, but it was empty.
He set the bag of food on the dining room table as he called out, “Hello? Food’s here.”
The floorboards above him creaked in reply. Maybe everyone was just upstairs. Footsteps sounded on the wooden floors above as they made their way to the stairs. Jake turned to see Gideon sauntering down the steps toward him.
“You’re back. Good.” Gideon simply stated as he approached the table and started to unpack the containers of food.
Jake watched him silently for a moment before saying, “I’ll go get Cara, let her know the food’s here.”
“Don’t bother,” Gideon replied as he sat in the chair at the head of the table with his overflowing burger in his meaty fists. “Paul’s already taken care of her.”
Jake froze. His entire body locked as his spine stiffened and his head turned to look at the man stuffing his face with a burger larger than his hand. “What do you mean?” he asked. He better not mean what Jake thought he meant. He couldn’t. Jake had only been gone for an hour tops.
Gideon took a bite and slowly chewed, staring up into Jake’s piercing gaze. “You’ve been getting too attached to the girl after spending so much time with her. I figured it’d be easier this way, to have it taken care of while you were out.”
“Have what taken care of?” Jake squeezed through his tightly clenched jaw. He had to hear it. Gideon had to say it, or it wouldn’t be true.
Gideon sighed as if this whole conversation was boring him and distracting from his meal. “She’s been disposed of. I had Paul take care of it as soon as you left.” He said the words in such a casual, flippant tone like he was selecting the hymn order for the upcoming Sunday services.
No. God, please no. Jake’s heart cracked as pain spread throughout his entire body. Jake clenched his hands into fists, digging his nails into the skin of his palms to keep from screaming out at this monster in front of him. It took every ounce of control he had to keep his fists at his side and not reach across the table and strangle the last breath from this man’s throat.
He’d kill him. If it was the last thing he ever did, he’d kill this man. Then he’d beat Paul within an inch of his life until he was begging for mercy, and then he’d kill him too. Jake held Gideon’s gaze, keeping his emotions locked down and his face a cold, impassive stare. He wouldn’t let this man break him. Gideon knew Jake wouldn’t let Cara die without a fight. That’s why he eliminated him from the equation.
The door to the back deck slid open, and Paul sauntered inside. His eyes met Jake’s in an indifferent, sterile stare. The scratch marks down one side of his face confirmed Gideon’s words like nothing else could. The visual confirmation that Cara had died fighting shot a lance of pain straight down to his soul.
Damn, that man was a frigid bastard. Without a shred of emotion, Paul walked up to where Gideon sat like he had just finished taking out the trash instead of ending the life of a beautiful woman full of passion and excitement for the world around her.
Paul stopped next to Gideon who didn’t even look up from the food he was eating. “It’s done.”
Paul’s cold words made that crack in his heart tear even further as it split straight down the middle.
“Good,” Gideon replied as he rummaged through the bag of food until he pulled out a second container. He shoved it in Paul’s direction and ordered, “Go do reconnaissance on the town and keep an eye out for Allie. The place isn’t that big, so it shouldn’t be too hard.” Paul nodded his agreement as he took the container and turned to face Jake.
“Keys,” Paul stated as he made eye contact.
Jake reached into his pocket and grabbed the keys to the SUV. He pulled them out wanting to ram them in Paul’s smug face. Instead, he forced himself to throw them to the man. Paul snagged them out of the air, gave Gideon one last head nod, and then turned to walk out the front door.
Jake was about to explode. And he knew if he did, Gideon would eliminate him the same way he had Cara. Maybe that was what the patriarch had wanted all along. It’s not like Gideon needed him. He made life a hell of a lot easier for Gideon and made his operation run more smoothly. But he was expendable, and Jake knew it. He needed to get out of this cabin before he blew this whole operation and everything went to shit.
“I need some air,” he muttered as he walked around the table to the back door.
“Jake,” Gideon’s voice stopped him just as he slid the back door open, “get this out of your system quickly. I need you focused on what’s important.”
Jake clenched the doorframe so tightly he was surprised it didn’t snap. Yeah, he was going to kill this fucker if it was the last thing he did. Without a reply, he stepped out into the cold night air and closed the door behind him just in time to see Gideon open the container that held Cara’s slice of pie and stuff a bite into his mouth.
Before he charged back into the house and took care of the man now, Jake spun and ran into the woods. He ran as fast and as far as he could until he thought his lungs were going to burst. When he knew he was far enough from the cabin, he spun toward the nearest tree and slammed his fist into the trunk. Wood splinters flew out from the impact, and without pause, he did it again. Over and over again he slammed one fist after the other into the tree until the knuckles on both hands were dripping in blood.
When he was unable to throw another blow, he collapsed to his knees on the grassy forest floor. His head fell back as he stared up into the sky above, and with every last emotion in his body, he screamed. He screamed in agony of the injustice that had been done. He screamed in pain of losing someone who had become so important to him in such a short amount of time. He screamed in anger at the monsters who lived when Cara would never take another breath. He screamed until he couldn’t scream anymore.
Chapter 13
Cara sluggishly trudged through the woods, her strength fading fast. If she didn’t get somewhere where she could get the bleeding stopped, then she wasn’t sure how much longer she could make it. All she could focus on right now was getting one step in front of the other. If she could just keep convincing herself to take one more step maybe she’d somehow survive this.
She’d been walking for what felt like hours. Due to her injury, it was painstakingly slow going, and because all of the trees looked alike to her, she wasn’t sure how much progress she was actually making if any.
Cara stopped, unsure if what she saw up ahead was real or a hallucination brought on by her blood loss. She blinked her eyes to clear the fuzziness away and looked again. It was a road. Just another fifty feet or so in front of her. And not just any road, it looked like the I5. If she could make it to the interstate, she could keep to the road to flag down a car for assistance while still staying close enough to the woods to escape into them if needed.
Granted, driving here she had noticed the stretch of interstate around Serenity was pretty deserted, but still, someone would have to come along eventually. At least she hoped so. She’d just have to hang in there until someone did. Holding her right forearm tight against the bullet wound, Cara started her trek down the interstate.
