Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Ashley

A shley couldn’t sleep, although she’d been trying for hours. Carter wasn’t sleeping either—she could hear him moving around in the other room.

He was nervous, and it was rubbing off on her. She didn’t want to wait and had twice almost gotten out of bed to tell him she wanted to go right now. Of course, she’d talked herself out of it, but she was on the verge again.

She rolled over and faced the window instead of the bedroom door. The timing was perfect. Had she not moved when she did, she never would have caught the small flash of light that quickly disappeared behind a tree.

She froze for entirely too long, until she slid from the bed and went to the living room, keeping low, unsure how well someone could see inside.

“What’s wrong?” Carter was on the sofa, sitting straight up.

“Don’t move,” she whispered. “I saw a light outside.”

“What the fuck?” he snapped in a rough whisper. “Get down, right where you are.”

“I can’t go through the floor,” she quipped, unable to bite back the snark.

Carter growled at her, clearly annoyed by her remark.

She whimpered a little as she took a seat on the floor, feeling around for her shoes that she knew weren’t far away. Finding them, she slid them on, not caring about anything else she was wearing. Sweats and a baggy T-shirt were better than nothing.

Carter was by her side in no time. “I’m checking the cameras but not seeing anything.”

“I didn’t make it up,” she promised him.

“I don’t think you did. I’m worried that he wasn’t caught on anything. Even if your mind was playing tricks on you because of everything going on, I’d still believe you.”

She rested her head on his shoulder while he went through the camera feeds on his phone, covered in his hands by a blanket to block most of the light of the screen. Seeing nothing, he sent off a text.

Carter: Someone is outside. Get up and tell me what you see.

Matt: Wasn’t sleeping, checking.

He never got to send another message before whoever it was got close enough to the cabin to hear them.

Ashley was shaking with fear. Carter drew his weapon from somewhere and pointed it at the door.

“Stay right here,” he told Ashley.

Carter stood and quietly went to the window in the living room, barely moving the curtain to take a look outside.

“Fuck,” he hissed and crouched back down. “Definitely someone.”

Making his way back over to Ashley, he handed her his phone.

“What?” she asked, her hands shaking so bad, she could barely take it from him.

“Ashley, look at me.” His voice was calm, and it helped her a little. His hand squeezing her shoulder did more to calm her. “Go in the closet and close the door. Keep the phone on you and call Matt. Tell him I’m going to check it out.”

“Don’t leave me,” she begged. She couldn’t be alone with whatever was going on.

“I’m not leaving you; I’m protecting you.” He pulled her up from the floor. “Go, baby, and hide for me.”

That nearly pulled a sob from her as she struggled to keep herself together. Entering the bedroom at a crouch, she quickly opened the closet and climbed inside, pulling it closed.

It took three tries to call Matt, her fingers not working correctly as she tried to click on the contact. Unfortunately, she still did it wrong, as both Matt and Ryker came on the line.

“Carter said to tell Matt and you he’s going to go check it out.” Ashley wasted no time, rushing the words out when they answered.

Ryker spoke first. “Where are you?”

“In the closet,” she whispered.

“I’m checking the cameras,” Matt told her.

“Carter was too, but he couldn’t see him.”

“Let me work on it.” There was shuffling on the phone of someone moving around.

“Listen, Ashley,” Ryker said. “Carter is really good at what he does. That’s why I hired him. Trust that he will keep you safe and keep anyone from entering that cabin.”

As long as he’s safe, she thought. Biting down on her fist to keep from crying out, she didn’t reply to Ryker.

She sat there in silence, listening to the phone and for any movement outside. Nothing made a sound.

“I’ve got them,” Matt said.

A gunshot broke the silence and Ashley sobbed. There was no other word for the tears running down her face and the silent shaking her body was doing as she tried to breathe.

“Carter’s okay,” Ryker assured her. He had no way of knowing that.

The door to the cabin slammed open and shut quickly, and Ashley was back to biting her fist until she heard him.

“Baby, you can come out.”

“Baby?” Ryker muttered.

She didn’t care what he’d called her. She couldn’t move.

Carter found her in the closet and gently pulled her out of it and cradled her in his arms. “He’s gone for now, baby. It’s okay.”

Ashley hiccupped a sob and clung to him. He took the phone from her, and she tried to focus on what he was saying but couldn’t. All she knew was he was okay.

“Ashley.” His soothing tone hit her. “I need to put you down for just a minute, okay?”

Despite nodding, she clung tighter, unable to let go.

“I’m not going anywhere out of your sight, I promise.” He leaned down and set her in the chair at the table. “Stay right here.”

She pulled her knees up to her chest in the chair and followed him around the room with her eyes.

Carter grabbed both of the bags they’d packed just hours ago. Another bag with their electronics was on his back and the phone was still in his hand.

This was real now, and she regretted everything she’d ever done to get away from Carter before. Up until now, the threat had been imaginary. They’d believed it was real and Julian following her to Luke’s had been unnerving, but nothing had happened.

It was terrifying that someone had snuck up here. Carter was still talking to Matt and Ryker and demanding they check something before he went back to her.

“Baby, I need you to stay strong for me for just a little bit longer, okay?”

Ashley nodded—her voice wouldn’t work.

“Okay. Do you want me to tell you what’s going on or just what to do?”

She shook her head, not even knowing how to choose. Later, she’d probably appreciate that he tried to keep his word, but right now, she didn’t care.

“Okay. You’re going to stay right here for me. I’m going to take the tarp off the car, and Matt is watching all the cameras. Then we’re going to leave, okay?”

No. She wanted to yell at him not to leave her alone again. As worried as she was about herself, she was more worried for Carter.

“Stay right here.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

In the next second, he was opening the back door.

Alone again, she listened to everything he did. She heard the tarp rustle as he got it off the car.

The next thing she knew, she heard Carter grunt in pain and a lot of rustling. Voices carried through the closed door, and Ashley didn’t wait for more.

Wishing she had the phone, she closed herself in the closet again and prayed that it was Carter that found her. When this was all over, she was fishing her new phone out of that bag and never letting it out of her sight again.

She couldn’t hear them outside anymore. It was deceptively quiet from where she was. Carter would win, she told herself. There was no way that Julian would.

A gunshot once again pierced the night, and she couldn’t swallow the scream in her throat. Well and truly terrified, she didn’t hear Carter calling for her.

The closet door opened, and she didn’t have time to register it was Carter before he was scooping her into his arms. She fought back as he carried her through the cabin.

“It’s me, baby. It’s me.” He carried her to the rental car and deposited her in the front seat.

Ashley didn’t, couldn’t, relax. She saw Carter, heard him talking to her, but it was like he was too far away for her to understand the words.

As he drove, the sun started to come up, and her breathing slowly started to return to normal. They stopped at one point, and Carter gave her food from a drive-thru window.

“Eat something, baby,” he urged. “You don’t have to eat all of it, but I need to know you’re okay.”

Finally gaining control of her senses again, she took a bite of the biscuit and tried to swallow. Everything was like a paste in her mouth. Grabbing a drink, she took a long pull from the straw and swallowed the food.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Sorry for what?” Carter glanced at her.

“For moving. You told me to stay put and I moved.” She was focused on that for some reason.

“You did good. You went and hid. When I told you to do that, I didn’t know he was so close. That was exactly what you needed to do.”

She heard the words, but her brain wasn’t accepting them. Ignoring all of that, she asked the important question. “What happened?”

Carter blew out a breath. “He snuck up on me. I don’t know how he got so close to the cabin, but he was there when I pulled the tarp off. We got tangled in the tarp and fought before I could reach my gun. I shot him in the arm as he ran off.”

“What does he want? He can’t think I want anything to do with him after all this.” She hadn’t before, and this didn’t help his case.

“He wants me out of the way.” Carter gritted his teeth, and she watched a muscle work in his jaw.

“I’m sorry you’re involved in all of this.” And she was. If he got hurt because of her mess, or Luke’s father’s mess, she would never forgive herself.

Carter pulled the car to the side of the road and put it in park. Turning to face her, he waited for her to look at him before he spoke.

“You have nothing to apologize for. One, this is my job, to protect you. I signed up for this. Two, you didn’t do this. None of this is your fault. Do not apologize for that again, got it?” His voice was fierce.

Ashley nodded.

“Good. Now, we have a long drive ahead of us, and I don’t think you slept at all last night. Get some sleep, and I’ll let you know when we’re there.”

“Is he following us?” Ashley asked.

“No, baby. He will need help for that wound before he could get very far.” Carter reached over the seat and pulled out a blanket. “Get some rest.”

“I need my phone,” she told him.

“I left everything behind. When we can, we’ll get another burner. For now, we don’t have one.”

“Oh,” she said quietly.

“Go to sleep, Ashley. I’ll wake you when we stop.”

“Don’t you need rest?”

“I can go for a while longer.”

Conversation over, he turned back to the road and put the car in gear. She still had so many questions but kept them to herself for now.

She laid her head back against the seat and wrapped the biscuit back up, not wanting it. Looking out the window, she watched the scenery change. Her eyelids were heavy, but her brain wouldn’t stop enough so she could close them.

With no idea where they were going, she didn’t know when they’d get out of the car. It was confusing and frustrating, but she wasn’t willing to bother Carter again.

After an hour or so, Carter nudged her and handed her a water bottle. She refused, not wanting to need to stop to use the bathroom. He pressed, so she took a small sip and handed it back.