"What the fuck did that?"
I'm not an expert on wild animals, but the only thing I can imagine with claws long enough to do that kind of damage would be a grizzly-- and we're not in grizzly territory.
Austin looks as shocked as I am, but Leo shrugs. "Bigfoot," he says casually.
"She never said it was Bigfoot," I state for the record. What she did say has me eyeing the marks more carefully. These weren't made by opportunistic traffickers looking to kidnap a couple of women from their campsite unless one of them was Freddy Kruger.
"How far in did you guys go?" I turn to Leo, pleased to see that the man has the good sense to look worried in spite of his glib remarks.
"About twenty more feet." He raises an arm and points toward another set of pink ribbons swaying in the light breeze.
"How are your tracking skills?" Austin asks, pushing past Leo in the close forest to hand me a small, tactical flashlight.
"Good," I confirm. "One of my better skillsets. Not that I need them."
Shining the light just to one side of us, I point out the space where something-- or someone-- went through recently with no attempt whatsoever to hide their tracks.
"Shit. My grandma could follow that," Leo mutters, not waiting for me and Austin to follow him into the shadows.
Arizona
"...they'llbelieve me then, won't they? Yeah they will. I'm not crazy-- I'm not crazy!"
A harsh slap stings my cheek, pulling me back to consciousness. It takes a long minute for me to get my bearings and figure out what's going on.
My head feels like it's stuffed with cotton and I have to put effort into getting my eyes to focus.
At some point, I realize that my limbs aren't responding to my commands to move, and little by little, the tight cinch of rope cutting into my skin becomes apparent.
"They told me I was lying. Said I didn't have the balls to do the job. That son of a bitch actually laughed in my face, can you believe it?"
A man stands in front of me, talking nonstop more to himself than to me, I think. He watches me with interest while I slowly come to.
"Said I was soft. Accused me of letting the other one go-- said I let you both get away because I don't have what it takes for this kind of work. Said I'm too soft... I wasn't lying. I'll show him. I'll prove it."
Trying to ask him what he means is when I realize my mouth is taped shut.
"Shh, shh... not yet." He holds one finger over his lips to indicate staying quiet and moves his weight from one foot the other in a hopping motion.
This guy isn't right in the head, not by a long shot. His stringy hair hangs in his eyes, the stubble on his chin adds a feral quality to the dirty clothes hanging off his wiry frame. But it's the way his eyes move that clues me in that whatever this guy's plan is, there's no reasoning with him.
His pupils are dilated, his focus on anything and everything all at once and to call the guy "twitchy" is an understatement.
"You stay right there and be quiet." He shushes me again, and backs away, nervously scanning our surroundings while waving a pistol at anything that moves and several things that don't.
That's enough to make me stop struggling against the ropes, at least for now.
I'm tied to a tree. The rough bark digging into my back while the rope cuts across the front of my chest, arms, thighs, and ankles.
I don't know where I am, other than in the forest, and I'm too disoriented to figure out which direction is north and how far the sun has traveled since Talon and I met up with the other men at my old campsite.
My thoughts are still jumbled and I don't know how I got from talking with Leo about the way the shadows closed in behind the men as they led Astrid into the woods to waking up tied to a tree with a lunatic waving a gun and talking gibberish.
We're still in the woods. There's no vehicle in sight, but this forest is so thick, there could be a fire road or a jeep trail just a few feet away and there'd be no way to see it from here.
Which means I have no idea how far I am from Talon or any of the men he works with.
The fact that Crazy Guy doesn't want me to scream has to mean something though, right? If I can get the tape off of my mouth, maybe we're still close enough they can hear me.
