Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

T he top inch of snow had melted in the sunshine earlier in the day. Now, with the sun going down, it had frozen again into a thin layer of ice on top of the other two feet of snow and crunched beneath Connor's feet. Crouching as he moved, he hid his bulk as much as possible with the evergreens, working his way up the tree line in the direction of where he'd rescued Zoe.

If he were hunting an animal, he'd have welcomed Duke's help stalking it. The hound was turning into a good tracker and would be a great search and rescue dog. But given Duke's fierce growl, he suspected he was hunting humans. Probably whoever'd shot Zoe, coming to finish the job.

It wasn't happening on his watch.

Stealth and silence were the key. So, he couldn't risk Duke's howl warning the enemy they were being hunted. He had to assume whoever was out there was armed with a gun or rifle. He only had his ax, but if he got close enough it would be deadly enough.

He glanced at the night sky. The gathering clouds blocked the moonlight, limiting his vision, but also masking his movement to his prey. He also had the element of surprise on his side. Grandpa Mac taught him the importance of stealth when hunting. He'd honed those skills when on patrol with the Army. Now he'd use them to protect the vulnerable woman whose company he was growing to enjoy. Of course, if she knew he thought of her as vulnerable, she'd narrow those eyes at him, and now that she was armed, probably shoot him. He lifted one corner of his mouth in amusement at the idea. Then he shook his head and grew serious again.

Whether she liked it or not, Zoe was vulnerable. Physically, she could barely make it to the bathroom and that shoulder was just above functionable. And mentally? Her memory was slowly repairing itself, but still trying to figure out who had tried to kill her and why.

Careful to pick his footsteps as precisely as possible, he moved another two feet to his right, then slipped in behind the low hanging branches of one of the evergreens he remembered helping Grandpa Mac plant when he was a child. He'd been concerned with preventing erosion after they'd chopped down some deadwood. Who knew it would also provide him with cover from an unwanted intruder?

He was a little more than a hundred yards from the cabin. The scent of smoke from the wood-burning stove, although faded, would still lead whoever was in these woods to his cabin. And to Zoe.

Breathing in, holding it, then slowly letting the air back out, he stilled his heartrate and opened his senses to the sounds around him.

The rustle of the evergreen boughs above him.

The faint hoot of an owl in the distance.

He narrowed his focus.

The soft thump of a clump of snow from a tree branch hitting the mound of snow below. Crunch of icy snow, then a snap of a tree branch. A softer step.

Two people? One smaller than the other.

Patience, boyo'. Weigh your options. If you rush your shot, the buck can bolt. Granpa Mac's words on his first deer hunting trip.

If he got close enough to the smaller one, he could take him out before the other knew it, then he'd be able to go after the bigger guy. The key was to let them pass by first. It would put them closer to their target, but it was the only choice he had.

?

Dave slowed the SUV as he made yet another winding turn in the snow. The road had widened as he descended the mountain, but it still curved back and forth following the natural terrain of the Appalachians. He was pretty sure he was near the base of this particular mountain. As he drove, he kept watch for any turn off to his left, the direction his brothers and Katie should've been coming from.

The moon now sat behind clouds, decreasing his visibility, so he slowed even more. Still no tire tracks disturbed the snow and he wondered how far he was from the nearest town.

Hell, Zoe couldn't have picked a more remote place to get lost in the Eastern part of America if she'd tried. Well maybe Okefenokee Swamp down in Georgia. He much preferred two feet of snow and bears, to heat, mosquitoes and gators. Honestly, he preferred sitting in front of his fireplace drinking a whisky and snuggling up with Judy. Ever since she'd been held hostage by a crazed bomber in the hospital surgical suite where she worked, he cherished every moment of their lives together. Also, having walked in her shoes during that terrifying episode where he'd almost lost her, he tried in every way possible to keep in contact with her when out on a mission and promise to not take unnecessary risks.

Another bend in the road came, and just as he made it, his headlights flashed on a space between two large evergreens. If he wasn't watching and his pace slowed due to the snow, he'd have driven right by it. Carefully, he turned left into the space and paused, letting the headlight beam illuminate the area. It was a narrow road, with evergreens and other trees lining it on one side, and what looked like a creek on the other side. In the snow before him, the path had been disturbed. Not tire tracks of any kind of vehicle. No, someone or something had walked through here to the road, then back again. Two sets. One looked like human—and from the distance between them, whoever it was had long strides even in the weighty snow—and the other set of tracks meandered and appeared to be an animal. A dog perhaps?

He drove a little further, then paused and considered the situation.

There'd been no other turn off from the main road since he'd driven from the spot where his family had found Zoe's car. So, somewhere between these tracks and that spot, Matt, Katie and Luke were searching for Zoe and headed this way. They were sure someone had taken Zoe off that mountain. They had no idea what they were walking into, neither the trio of his team members nor himself. He also didn't know how deep the snow was going to get the further he went into this valley, so the last thing he needed was to get their only source of transportation stuck in it.

"Time to go on foot," he muttered, turning off the engine and zipping his coat up to the collar.

He fished out his night scope and attached it to the top of his Glock before climbing out of the SUV. Grabbing his backpack, he slung it over his shoulders and closed the door. No point in locking it this far out in the boonies, especially not in this weather.

Holding the weapon out in front of him, he shone the light on the deep tracks he'd found and headed into the night, praying the only ones out there to greet him was his family.

?

"Can't you speed it up?" Styx whined from beside him. "I really need to take a piss."

Dodger slowly pressed on the brakes, bringing the car to a stop. "Go do it."

"Out here in the cold?" the younger guy stared at him.

"I'm not speeding down this mountain road on ice and snow just so you can go take a wiz."

He turned to stare out the driver's side window. "The only ones out here is us and I'm not planning on watching you. You gotta go? Get out and go."

The passenger side door opened, a gust of cold air filling the car before the idiot got it shut again.

Dodger focused on the trees lining the road, ignoring Styx's muffled cursing on the other side of the car. Only one set of car tracks had been on the road ahead of them as the drove down the mountain. He assumed it was whoever had been down the side of the mountain to search the car the boss sent them to find, and whatever was on that phone, they had it now. So, if he was correct, they needed to find the driver of that car and retrieve that phone.

What was on that phone that was so damn important? Why was someone else looking for it? Who were they? Did the boss know?

Maybe he needed to see what was so important on that phone. If this many people wanted it, the information on it must be valuable. Yeah, but double-crossing the boss would get him killed. The man was ruthless and had ties deep in the dark underworld. With the snap of his fingers he could make a person disappear.

The passenger door opened again, and Styx climbed back in. "Shit, nearly froze my dick off."

Refraining from mentioning how better off the world would be if he had, Dodger put the car in gear and started following the tire tracks in front of him. He glanced at the gas gauge to see it just under half full. "We better find this guy soon. I don't want to run out of gas out here."

Just as he said that the road turned to his left. And the tire tracks stopped.

Hitting the brakes harder than he'd meant to sent the backend of the car fishtailing to the left. "Shit," he said as he turned the wheel and eased up on the brake a little, the car slowly coming to a stop nearly straddling the road, facing into the trees and away from the creek bed.

"What the hell?" Styx said, catching his breath as he held onto the door.

"The tracks stopped here and headed into the trees."

Styx shook his head. "I don't like that. Feels all spooky. Maybe we should just tell the boss we couldn't find the car or the phone."

"And what do you think will happen to us if whoever was down that mountain in the car found the phone and uses it to cause the boss a problem? What do you think he'll do to us then?"

Styx slumped into the seat. "Yeah, we gotta go into the creepy, woods."

Dodger agreed and slowly maneuvered the car into the woods, following the tire tracks until they came upon a stopped SUV.

"Are they in there?" Styx asked.

Dodger shook his head. "Looks like it's empty. Grab the flashlights out of the glove compartment," he said as he reached under his seat for his gun.

Each armed with a weapon and a light, they climbed out of the car. Dodger motioned for Styx to go up the right side of the vehicle while he took the driver's side. Carefully they approached until they were even with the back doors and shone their lights inside.

"No one in it," Styx announced.

Dodger tried the driver's side door. Just like their car, the SUV was unlocked. "He's planning on coming back," he whispered, hoping his partner would get the hint.

"Where's he going?" Styx whispered back.

Dodger pulled the latch for the hood.

"What are you doing?" Styx asked.

Without answering him, Dodger found the spark plugs and pulled them out, connectors and all, holding them up to his partner who grinned. Tossing them aside, he pulled out his knife and held it up for Styx to do the same, then motioned at the tires, indicating they should slash them.

Finished incapacitating the vehicle, Dodger motioned for Styx to follow him. He shone his flashlight in front of them and studied the tracks in the snow. Looked like two humans and some sort of animal. Holding his gun and light out in front, he started forward, hoping no one or nothing was out there in the dark ready to jump them.

?

The radio on Matt's hip buzzed. He pulled it off and pushed the talk button. "What's up?"

"I think I found the road to you guys," Dave's voice cracked over the radio.

"Got a creek on one side? Smoke from a fire in the air?"

"Yeah. The smoke smell is faint, but growing stronger."

Matt exchanged looks with Katie and Luke. "Same here."

"I'm heading your way on foot. Snow is too deep for the SUV and I don't want us stranded."

"Good idea."

"Keep your eyes open. We're not alone out here. I'm following some tracks."

"Human or animal?"

"Pretty big stride. Could be Sasquatch."

Katie giggled and Matt grinned.

"Get a picture if you find him," Luke said. "We'll get rich."

A deep chuckle came over the radio. "I'll try. You got any tracks up that way?"

"Only some animal tracks. Maybe a dog or wolf. Nothing big."

"Maybe whoever moved Zoe brought her down before the snow started?" Katie asked.

"Makes sense," Dave said. "Let's hope she's wherever that smoke is coming from."

"We'll head towards the scent of burning wood," Matt said.

"I'll head that way, too," Dave said and the radio went silent.

"Think there's wolves out here?" Luke asked as they continued walking west.

Matt hooked the radio back on his belt. "I don't know. Not a pack. I think we would've at least heard them by now."

"Or seen more than one set of prints," Katie said.

"How do you know we haven't?"

Matt and Katie both looked at Luke who gave a shrug. "Yeah, if anyone would know it would be you."

In the years Katie spent living in a survivalist-type cult in the wilds of Pennsylvania, she'd learned to scale a mountain, use many types of weapons and track animals for food. Of the four of them out in these woods, she was definitely the most experienced. If she said there was only one set of animal tracks, there was only one.

"Let's find Zoe," Matt said, taking point, with his wife right behind him. "Hopefully, she's in some place nice and warm."

"That would be just like her," Luke muttered from the rear. "Making us tramp through the cold and a couple of feet of snow to find her ass while she's sitting in front of a fire sipping hot chocolate."

"I doubt she's doing that," Katie said, as they moved forward. "Not with the amount of blood she lost up on that ledge."

"Ignore him, sweetheart," Matt said, lowering his voice. "He's just grumpy because he's out in the cold snowy night. He never liked it as a kid."

"Probably because you and Dave use to pelt me with snowballs when we were supposed to be fighting the Millers on the other side of the street."

Matt chuckled. "You were such an easy target."

"Shh," Katie whispered hard, getting their attention.

They froze and listened.

"Someone's out here with us."

Snow crunched behind them.

All three of the turned to see a giant holding an ax.