“If we’re lucky, they’ll break their fool necks long before then.” He wouldn’t mind at all. He’d leave their bodies where they lay, and get himself and Lolly back to the house as fast as they could move.
Again, Lolly nodded.
Of course, they hadn’t had a lot of luck so far tonight; what were the odds they’d get lucky now?
In the wood behind them, he heard the crackle of wood straining to resist the weight of the ice, and the sound sent a shiver down his back that had nothing to do with the cold and everything to do with dread. Lolly heard it, too. Her head lifted, and he felt the stillness in her body as she listened, waiting. It was early in the storm for limbs to start falling, but when he took into account the number of dead trees in these woods and the wind that would make the limbs fall sooner, he knew they didn’t have long. The question was, how soon would limbs start to drop, and how widespread would the fall be?
Dead limbs first; healthy limbs later. Then treetops would be splintering and falling; by morning entire trees would be coming down. If they didn’t get off the mountain soon, they weren’t going anywhere for a while.
“Lorelei! Ready or not, here I come!”
Lolly shuddered in his arms as she heard the lilting, savagely amused voice of the man who’d invaded her home. Gabriel didn’t like the way the man called her name, didn’t like the way Lolly trembled. She hadn’t given him any details about what had happened before he’d arrived—there hadn’t been time—but he knew how violent meth addicts could be. Whatever had happened—and he’d find out later, if they survived—she was handling it.
He’d never thought he would be admiring of Lolly Helton, but damn if he wasn’t. Not only had she showed plenty of spunk and common sense, not once had she complained, though he knew her feet had to be excruciatingly cold in those inadequate sneakers. A lot of people, with perfect justification, would have been ready to sit down and give up, but Lolly just put her head down and kept going. Given that determination, something had to have happened to make her react to the meth-head like this.
He tightened his arms around her, offering her both protection and comfort. “I won’t let him hurt you,” he breathed, because the two addicts were closer now and even a low tone would be too loud. That was a promise he intended to keep, come hell or high water, unless he was dead. Grimly he assessed the situation. If the two would pass by, keep going, and get far enough away that he and Lolly could make it back up the hill again without drawing attention to themselves … there had to be something in the garage he could use as a weapon, if it came to a confrontation.
Lolly leaned forward, fell into him. Her arms went around his waist, held him tight. They had on too many clothes to share any body heat, but the contact was nice. Gabriel gently cupped the back of her head, held her to his shoulder. All they had to do now was be very still and very quiet, and pray they weren’t seen. If they could just stay here a while longer, if they could melt into the darkness and be invisible …
Soon the druggies were too close for even an exchange of a whisper. He felt tension coiling in her muscles, but she didn’t move an inch. Even over the wind, he could hear the two talking as they picked their way down the hill, occasionally shining their flashlights into the woods. The flashlights were standard household models, the beams weak compared to what he used, but he and Lolly were just barely inside the tree line and the lights easily penetrated that far. He kept his face tucked down, because the relative paleness of bare skin was almost like a beacon in the dark.
The change from just a couple of hours ago was staggering. When he’d left his parents’ house Gabriel had expected to do battle with the weather and with Lolly, but this … this had never crossed his mind.
A beam of light flashed just a few feet to his right. The tree they stood behind gave them some cover, but not enough, not with light coming in from an angle. If they moved in order to keep the tree between them and the druggies, they’d make too much noise. There were twigs, untended undergrowth, and even dead leaves left to rot from the autumn fall—not to mention the ice—all at their feet. Even with the wind howling, it was more likely that movement would alert the hunters to their hiding place than their intermittent flashlight beams would find them.
Lolly stopped breathing. So did he. And as luck—very bad luck—would have it, a beam of light caught his sleeve. He watched it from the corner of his eye, watched it move away, then suddenly return and settle on his face. A woman’s voice yelled, “I got ’em! Darwin! Over here!”
No point in keeping quiet now. Gabriel shoved Lolly away from the tree, away from the flashlight, and lunged for deeper cover. “Run,” he said, grabbing her arm, and they both ran like hell as a gunshot exploded behind them.
Niki aimed into the woods where she’d seen the man, his face a startling bit of white in the darkness, and fired, but she was too slow. The two disappeared, but she could hear them crashing deeper into the woods. She’d lose them in there, and she didn’t like letting anyone get away from her, especially some hoity-toity rich bitch like Lorelei. She fired again, her aim following the sound they made as they ran. This was like hunting, she thought in pleased excitement as she followed them into the woods. Lorelei Helton and her friend were just like deer, a doe and a buck, running from danger, running from her gun. She liked thinking they were frantic with fear, and completely defenseless.
“Don’t shoot the woman!” Darwin shouted with what seemed to be real concern in his voice.