Page 4 of Fearless
Hadlee! It was Hadlee!
Grabbing her throat, Kitty swallowed, bringing moisture back to a mouth and throat gone dry from panting the cold winter air. Still, her voice was more like a squeaky gate hinge when she at last managed a real sound, “H-Hadlee?” It’s me, she tried to add, but again, her voice winked out.
The response on the other end, however, was as instantaneous as it was brusque. “Hang on.”
Kitty did. To the cellphone. With both hands.
“Who is it?” she heard Hadlee say again, but clearer now.
“Hadlee?” she croaked again, her voice squeaking in and out, but it was coming back. She almost started crying all over again.
“Kitty?” The shock in her old friend’s voice was as clear as the night was freezing cold.
“I’ve left him.” Her eyes burned even harder and though she gritted her teeth to keep back the uselessness of another round of sobs. Please, she mouthed. Help me. She had to cough before her voice warbled back into an audible range. “I don’t have anything”—she squeaked in and out of sound—“not even my shoes. Please, can you come get me?”
“Where are you?”
“At a payphone.” Kitty looked through the frosted plastic-glass, taking stock of her surroundings. “I think I’m at a gas station, but I don’t think it’s open anymore. The pumps are gone. It looks abandoned.”
“I know exactly where you are,” the male voice broke in, startling Kitty once more. He’d been so quiet up until then. He must have her on speaker phone. “Hang tight. We’re on our way.”
The sound of rustling clothes and jostling as the phone moved about nearly drowned out everything else.
Almost afraid to ask, Kitty whispered, “W-who is that?”
“Garreth from Black Light. It’s okay,” her old friend assured her. “You can trust him. We’ll be there as fast as we can.”
“Hurry,” Kitty begged, swiping her numb hands to brush to cooling tears from her face. “He’ll be up any minute and when he finds me gone…”
The phone beeped. Pulling it back, Kitty looked at the display. Two-percent.
“What is that?”
“Your phone,” Kitty said dully. “I barely had time to put a charge on it. It’s almost out of power.”
“Hang up,” the man ordered. “Save what battery power you have left. If Ethen finds you before we do, use it to call 9-1-1, do you understand?”
“Yes,” Kitty said, but she also knew that wouldn’t happen. She couldn’t afford to call the police, and if Ethen found her first, she wouldn’t have time to call anyone much less emergency services. Huddling in on herself, Kitty hugged her knees to her chest and tried to stay warm. If Ethen did find her, with any luck it wouldn’t be until after she froze to death.
At least that gave her something to hope for.
Chapter 2
Australia, almost two months later…
“You zonked out yet?” Noah Carver asked, leaning over the side of his boat. He peered into the dark, calm water of the Endeavour River and promptly set off the sixteen-foot salty snagged on his bait line. Two tons of angry crocodile splashed and thrashed, its massive tail slamming into the side of the small boat, rocking it wildly. Quickly sitting before he ended up in the water on top of the beast, Noah waited until the thrashing subsided and, with a low growl, the massive crocodile fell still once more.
“Sadly, mate”—Noah tsked with a sympathetic shake of his head—“this is what happens when you go eating people’s cats and sleeping in their kiddy pools. Sooner or later, I get a phone call.”
As if on cue, the Bluetooth hooked to his ear chirped.
“See?” Noah pointed out. “It’s always busy in the wet season.” He tapped the headset. “Hello, hello,” he said cheerfully. “When wildlife invades, I can make ‘em behave. How can I help you?”
“Hey, Noah. How’s business?”
“Blokey!” Noah brightened, a grin splitting his sun-bronzed face as he recognized the voice. “Never better, never better. On the job right now, as a matter of fact. How the hell are you? It’s been a couple of weeks.”
“Yeah, it’s been busy.” Garreth sighed heavily, which caught Noah’s immediate attention.
