Page 101 of To the Grave

“Don’t know,” Otis said. “We heard shouting from the kitchen.”

Wolf looked down at the mud and I watched as he followed a series of footprints to the side of the house.

He waved us forward. “This way!”

Chapter 77

Daisy

Icaught Ruth’s hand as we ran past the house. It was like running through molasses, the wind and rain pushing us back, the darkness all around, only the falls crashing to the river below providing any kind of orientation once we left the pool area for the open field at the back of the house.

I was past feeling cold, past feeling anything but the primitive need to survive, my need to keep Ruth alive every bit as urgent. I didn’t even know if Otis was alive (please let him be alive) and I didn’t dare think about it as Ruth and I raced up the knoll leading to the family cemetery.

The ground was soft with long grass in the summer, gold in the autumn sun, but under the torrent of the nor’easter it was all mud, and we slipped and slid as we fought our way to the top.

Once there, I skirted my way along the cliff, trying to stay far enough away that we wouldn’t slip over the edge. It was treacherous and terrifying, the water a roar that conjured images of a monster waiting to eat us alive.

One wrong step and we were dead.

“Careful!” I shouted to Ruth.

Her hair was plastered to her head, her eyes wide with fear.

I had no idea if Gray and Arlo were behind us as I aimed for the woods on the other side of the cemetery. It wasn’t exactly a safe haven, but there were more places to hide, especially with the storm raging. Arlo and Gray wouldn’t be able to hear twigs snap and heavy breathing over the wind and the rain. They might give up.

Maybe.

We reached the cemetery and tore through the gate. The markers that had become so familiar during my visits to Jace’s grave looked spooky in the dark and rain, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it as we ran through the small plot of granite markers.

I could see Jace’s up ahead, the words etched on the surface obscured by the rain. The boundary of the cemetery was just past it. We were almost there.

I’d no sooner had the thought when I felt a yank on my arm, felt Ruth’s hand leave mine, and I turned around to see that Gray had ahold of her ankle, both of them on the ground in the mud. A split-second later Arlo plowed into me and we went down.

Arlo had a gun in one hand, which should have hindered his ability to keep me pinned to the ground, but he was strong and agile. He climbed on top of me and I saw it coming: how he’d pin me to the ground by straddling my body, how I’d be trapped.

I heard Locke’s command when I was pulling the sled or doing dead lifts:use your legs.

I kicked Arlo in the chest as hard as I could and he dropped back a few inches, enough that I thought I’d be able to get away, to help Ruth who was clawing and kicking at Gray, who was struggling to hold on to her in the slippery mud.

But then Arlo was on me again. “Why are you always running from me? Just like your fucking mother.”

And this time he had me pinned, just like he’d tried to do the first time.

I looked at Ruth, who was being choked by Gray next to me, and felt like I was drowning in helplessness, my arms pinned at my sides as Arlo pointed the gun at my head and released the safety.

Chapter 78

Wolf

She was on the ground, being held down by a large man, his back to us as we raced to their position by the marker Daisy had placed for Jace.

Gray was on top of Ruth, choking the life out of her, and the man on top of Daisy had his gun pointed at her head.

Fear blotted out all coherent thought as a cacophony of discordant sound, too chaotic to even be called music, filled my mind. All I could see was Daisy, our Daisy, with a gun to her head.

I flinched when a single gunshot tore through the night, then realized it had come not from the man holding Daisy, but from Rafe.

Ruth gasped for breath as Gray released his hold on her neck and Daisy scrambled to try and get away from the man pinning her to the ground. But he was too fast, and he reached out to grab her, hauling her to her feet and holding her in front of him, his gun to her temple.

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