Page 9 of Shadowed Rubies
Realizing that he had a weapon made my stomach churn uncomfortably. I froze in place as he stalked across the short distance between us with the blade pointing in my direction. Deciding that this might really be it for me, I squeezed my eyes tightly shut and tried to prepare myself for death.
Although I would have thought I’d have a great epiphany, none came. In fact, my mind felt completely blank as I waited for Kevin to slice through my skin with his knife.
The loud snick startled me, but instead of the piercing pain of an injury, my hands fell away from each other. I took a moment to rub my sore wrists before brushing the hair back away from the blood-caked gash on Molly’s forehead. It felt foreign to be dealing with bodily fluids without the benefit of rubber gloves, but I doubted if Kevin could whip a pair of those out of his pocket.
Speaking over my shoulder, I said, “I need to clean and dress this wound.”
When I heard him begin shuffling away, presumably to do my bidding, I decided to push my luck a bit. “And this would be much easier if my ankles weren’t bound together.”
I chanced a look at Kevin but his back was to me as he rummaged through his cooler. His single word response of, “No,” made it obvious he wasn’t going to make this easy.
When he delivered me a canteen of water and a towel, I couldn’t help but wonder how clean they were. Since I had asked for supplies, I didn’t see any option except to go through the motions of cleaning her wound. I just hoped my ministrations weren’t doing more harm than good as I gently rubbed at the matted, bloody area along her hairline.
Molly stirred, moaning and shaking her head slowly from side to side as I attempted to clean her wound. When she lifted a hand to try to cover the area, I said in as soothing a voice as I could muster, “It’s going to be okay. I’m a doctor, and I’m going to help you.”
I hoped my tone didn’t betray the fact that I was lying. Me being a doctor was the only part of my comforting words to her that I knew to be true. I didn’t feel like much of a doctor, though, as I tended to her cut with a dirty towel and water from a canteen that likely came from a stream.
Evidently growing impatient with my light ministrations to Molly’s injury, Kevin stooped down to grab the water container from me. He tipped it back and took a long swig, before shoving it back in my direction. I was unable to hide my wariness as I accepted it back from him.
He pushed it up toward my mouth, and I knew that he wanted me to drink from it. My guess was that the water came from a creek and hadn’t been boiled or treated in any way. It was probably going to make me sick to drink it, but not drinking anything would leave me weak and dehydrated.
Under Kevin’s watchful eye, I tipped the canteen back and took a few tentative sips. The water was surprisingly cool and refreshing. It was tempting to gulp it down, but I had enough sense to know that wouldn’t be in my best interest.
Turning to Molly, I forced her lips apart and poured a few drops of water into her mouth. Even though I’d purposely limited how much went into her mouth, she coughed and spluttered, “What is that?”
“It’s just water,” I assured her before giving her another sip.
Deciding we’d both had enough, I turned to hand the canteen back to Kevin. He stowed the water container in his cooler and returned to stand over me. Looking up, I realized he was holding something out in my direction, while he was using his other hand to take a bite of a second, similar-looking object.
After tentatively accepting his offering, I stared at it. From the way he was gnawing on the piece he’d kept, I could tell the small piece of meat was tough, but at least it appeared to have been cooked. Knowing I needed to keep my strength up, I took a small bite before turning to offer some to Molly.
Showing more life than she had since arriving in the cave, Molly reared her head back. Sounding suspicious and less groggy, she asked, “What are you trying to feed me?”
“I’m not sure,” I answered honestly, before adding, “But it’s some type of red meat.”
“Probably squirrel,” Molly groused before closing her lips tight and turning her head away.
I stopped chewing and focused on not gagging. I’d been trying not to think about exactly what I might be eating. Our survival was my top priority at this point, but getting food poisoning from eating questionable meat from Kevin’s cooler, which I was confident didn’t have ice, was not a welcome addition to my agenda for the day.
I’d spent much of my life on a constant quest to lose weight, but this was not the way to make that happen. Besides, I’d finally made peace with my curves. I didn’t want to lose them now.
When Kevin sat down on his makeshift bed and stared at us, the tiny hairs on my arm stood up at attention.
Mirroring my thoughts, Molly stage-whispered, “What do you think he’s going to do with us now?”
From the side of my mouth, I answered, “I think that’s what he’s trying to figure out.”
12
Max
With each step, I became more furious and frightened. I had started this search thinking that Dr. Danica Waters had managed to get herself lost in the woods. Dean had mentioned to our group of friends several times that his older sister was book-smart, but directionally-challenged. Saving the good doctor’s dog from a fire in the morning and finding her in the woods this afternoon seemed like a good way to convince her that she could properly thank me by going out to dinner with me.
The instant Meg said Molly was missing, too, I knew we were dealing with much more than a simple lost hiker. Molly might be hungover, but her sense of direction was spot-on. She’d been a Girl Scout for as many years as I was in Cub Scouts. She wouldn’t have wandered off and gotten lost. The fact that she was missing meant that something was terribly wrong.
Unfortunately, the only scenarios I could devise in my head for why both women would be missing were chill-inducing. The most likely cause was that Kevin Durley had abducted them. If that was the case, he wouldn’t be able to run far or fast enough to escape my fury, once the ladies were safe. Nobody messes with my kid sister, except for me.
The way I’d spoken to Molly this morning on the phone kept cycling through my mind as I trudged through the woods.Why had I been so hateful with her? Why had I insisted that she come here to help search for Dani? If anything happened to her…
