Page 78 of Wild Child
Get the hell out of here.
The gentle rustle of leaves sang behind me for a few seconds before I heard a low whisper.
“Behind you.”
Devin lay there, a look of serious concern on his face. He tilted his head to the pack, then raised his eyebrow in silent question. I shook my head back and forth just once. My fingers continued to rummage through my bag, now almost empty. Steve had ditched most of my gear, probably to lighten the load. Maybe I could recover it later. I shook that thought away.
Nope. Didn't want to go back there.
“We gotta go,” Devin murmured. “No keys. Let's just get out of here.”
My fingertips grazed something cool and hard. I held up a finger from my free hand as shouting rose from beyond us.
“All of the dust and the girl? You idiots! You screwed up everything.”
A combined litany of curse words from Kimball and Neils followed. My heart beat faster. All they needed was to glance over. They’d see my shoes or my hair or something distinctive in the trees, and then they’d realize that the suspicious sounds had—even more suspiciously—just stopped for no reason. If they stepped back just a few feet and lookedanywhere, they’d see me on the ground.
Game over.
My fingertips closed over a jagged key. With a muted cry of triumph, I pinched it between my two fingers and pulled the entire key ring free with the light tinkle of metal on metal. Their rising shouts reverberated through the meadow as I scurried backward, abandoning my favorite bag and all the food and resources inside. We'd have to make it without the radio.
Dirt coated my arms and legs as I folded the keys into my fingers and hustled backward. My body left a clear path in the dirt, but we'd have to take the chance that they didn't follow it. Devin touched my back as I approached so I knew he was there.
“Nice work,” he murmured.
“What now?” Neils shouted. “What now? You will repay every damn dime of what you would have made—”
“It wasn’t my fault!” Kimball cried. “It was youridea to bring the girl.Youshould have made sure she arrived, not me. You're the one that wanted her. And Collins was going to take her first, just so you know. I wouldn't have touched her, of course.”
The syrupy placating of Kimball’s tone made me want to vomit. Kind Neils, whom I'd met countless times on the trail. Who acted like my friend. All this time, a diabolical member of a drug ring that destroyed lives and wanted to rape me.Whyhe'd wanted me at the cabin only made me sicker, so I forced the thought away.
“I don’t care who was in charge of getting her there!” Neils shrieked. The crack of a palm hitting skin followed. I winced. "You ruined everything and Istilldidn't get my chance with her. You're not worth the risk anymore, Kimball. Maybe you never were!"
Devin looked to me from where he lay on his back. “You ready?” he mouthed.
I nodded.
Dev gazed past us to a thick canopy of trees that dropped into a steep hill. If we were careful not to jostle anything, we’d be out of sight in just a few steps and at the bottom in a few more. Once there, we could slip into more mature trees without so many bushes and be nearly undetectable as we escaped.
Dev looked back at me in silent question, then grabbed my hand and squeezed it. The touch gave me a rush of courage. I nodded.
"Let's do it," I mouthed.
With one glance around us, and as the fever pitch of Kimball and Neils’ voices rose, Dev rolled back onto his stomach and began to crawl away, low to the ground. With my heart in my throat, I followed.
Dirt coated my lips from crawling so long on the ground, but I ignored the gritty texture and the taste of loam on my tongue. Instead, I focused on the weight of the keys in my palm. The reassuring texture of metal and freedom and hope against the tender, filthy skin.
We got this,I told myself.We got this. We’ll get out of this area, hit the trail at a run, get back to the truck, and then be home free within an hour.
We got this.
Then a hand clamped down on my ankle.
And I screamed.
20
Devin
