Page 58 of Sanctuary (The Wanderers 1)

She’d rather not use her gun if she could avoid it. The sound of gunshots always attracted unwanted attention. Pausing, she tucked the gun in her waistband, unsheathed her knife from her ankle, and palmed it.

So far she had never had to fight anyone. Not physically. She’d come awfully close several times during her two-week journey to find The Wanderers, but she and Ariel had managed to escape detection by the skin of their teeth each time. The only time she’d fired a gun at anyone had been to kill one of the men who murdered her parents. That had been from a distance.

Layla knew how to use a knife though, and if it came down to her or them, she wouldn’t hesitate to use it.

Voices made her skin crawl. Male. Two of them. As they grew closer, she could make out some of their words.

“This is a wild goose chase, Ike. Can’t we just go home?”

“Nope. There’s a woman out here. I can feel it in my bones. Those fuckers were lying. I know it.”

“We’ve been looking for hours. Why the hell stop now in the damn dark in the middle of nowhere?”

“Stan, she’s out here. Trust me.”

“Based on what? Your gut?”

Layla stood very still, wanting to hear more before she took off.

“You think that car that passed us with four men in it was out for an evening drive? Fuck no,” the one named Ike insisted.

Layla drew in a slow breath. Four men. Thank God. Had to be her men. She was beyond relieved. Now she had to pray that Jeremy and Tarin had called the compound. That they were still alive and waiting for backup, not that her men had come simply because her caravan hadn’t returned.

“Let’s split up,” Ike suggested. “I’ll go right. You go left.”

“You sure are going to extreme measures to get your dick wet.”

Ike’s voice rose. “Those jackasses were hiding something. I know it. There’s a woman out here. I intend to find her and put her in her place, under me, my cock buried in her wet cunt.”

Stan groaned. “What if she’s twelve years old. Or sixty?”

“At this point, I don’t fucking care. You gonna help me or not?” Ike was exasperated.

Layla’s skin crawled and a chill raced down her spine. These men didn’t intend to bring her back to their leader or community. They intended to rape her. Not surprising, but bone-chilling all the same.

She looked around, considering her options. Ike was about to head her direction. She needed to move. The longer Ike followed her, the more distance she would put between the two men.

Where’s my family?Yes, they were definitely her family. Her men. They would be here. She knew they would. They had to have passed Ike and Stan on the road. They had to know those two men were stalking Layla. She hoped they realized her predicament in a hurry.

She could only run so far and so long. Ike didn’t seem inclined to give up looking for her even though he apparently had no certainty she existed. She wondered how big the guy was. She hadn’t seen either man other than heads in a car window. Could she take him in a fight? Unlikely. Maybe if she had the element of surprise. But what if she lost? It wasn’t an option.

Part of her considered hiding, but the idea seemed risky. She needed to move. Hopefully, she could stay somewhat close to the main road and not get confused. She was pissed. Furious. Anyone who spent an entire day tracking a ghost they weren’t even certain existed simply to rape her didn’t deserve to continue living, but she was one woman alone. The only thing she had in her favor was the certainty that two men had decided to target her and that one of them was on her tail.

If she were larger, stronger, had more combat experience, she wouldn’t hesitate to take this asshole out. What if he found Ariel or one of the other women next time? It was possible he could make it difficult to maintain this particular post and they would lose the crops if they had to worry about the area being under constant surveillance.

Layla’s heart raced as the voices stopped. The two men had split up, which meant Ike would be approaching her soon.

She palmed her knife and started moving as silently and quickly as possible. She was well aware she was putting more and more distance between herself and the post, which meant she was running away from Jay, Gatlin, Ledger, and Nile.

She wished she could run toward them, but there was no way to do that now. She considered turning around, lining up a shot the moment Ike stepped into view, and shooting him in the head. She could do it, even in the dark. But it wouldn’t be wise. Not with Stan close enough to come join the battle.

“You can’t hide out here forever, bitch,” she heard, the voice much closer than it had been.

She moved faster, wishing she had more than the light of the moon. She couldn’t risk using a flashlight. It would give her away. Ike had one though. The beam kept flashing around her.

She rushed from one tree to the next, taking refuge behind the largest trunks she could find, breathing for a moment and then continuing. Her footfalls sounded loud to her own ears. Could Ike hear her moving?

As she darted from a particularly large tree toward a fallen log, the beam from Ike’s flashlight washed over her from side to side. Shit.

---