Oh. Dear. God.
Suddenly the aspens gave way to a clearing, a wide patch of grass and weeds, broken only by a few large boulders, huge huddling masses scattered in the dry field.
Shiloh propelled herself to the back of the largest rock and gasped for breath. Only then did she remember that she was nude, sweating and breathing hard. Her clothes were where she’d left them on the bank of the damned lake.
Idiot! Now what?
She flopped back against the rough boulder and tried to regain her wits as she heard the footsteps again. Fast. Wild. Oh Jesus. Squinting, pulse pounding in her ears, she dared to peer around the sharp edge of the stone to spy another person flying from the woods.
But not a man. A smaller woman, running as if Lucifer himself were on her tail.
Katrina!
“Kat!” Shiloh stage-whispered, and her friend, also still naked, looked sharply in her direction “Over here!”
Kat veered toward the boulder, sliding to a stop behind it, nearly crashing into Shiloh. “What the hell was that?” she rasped, gulping for air. “Was that sick freak out here with a camera?”
“At least it wasn’t a gun.”
Katrina bent over, hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. “Not that we saw. I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t see much. That damned flash!” Still drawing in air, she peered into the darkness. “Where’s Ruthie?”
“I don’t know. Haven’t seen her.” Or heard her either. Once Katrina appeared from the woods, the sounds of footsteps and something crashing through the undergrowth had stopped. “Maybe she ran the other way.”
“The other way was the lake,” Katrina reminded, an edge to her voice.
“Then she could’ve stopped to grab her clothes—”
“I don’t think so. Damn it!”
“Shhh. Listen.” Shiloh was straining to hear something, anything to indicate that the other girl was bearing down on them, ready to burst from the forest flanking this field. She found herself rooting for the girl she’d so recently thought of as a wimp or a baby. Come on, Ruthie. Come on. Just show up. Please!
“He’s got her,” Kat said, voicing Shiloh’s worst fears.
“You don’t know that.”
“But it’s a pretty good guess.” She shook her head.
“She could’ve angled off . . .”
“You don’t believe that any more than I do.” Kat straightened and swore. “I should’ve brought my cell phone.”
Kat was the only girl of the three who had a mobile flip phone.
“Why didn’t you?”
“I don’t know. I just didn’t. Look, we have to go back.”
“Are you crazy.”
“We can’t just leave her out here. With that maniac.”
Shiloh wanted to argue. “I know, but you don’t know that she’s not safe.”
“You want to take a chance?”
Shiloh shook her head. “No.”
“Then we have to go back,” Katrina repeated.
Before Shiloh could argue, a raw, terrified scream tore from the quaking aspens and pine trees.
“Oh Jesus. Ruthie!” Katrina started sprinting back the way she’d come, heading for the opening in the dark forest from which they’d both just emerged.
“Damn it,” Shiloh growled out and was right on the shorter girl’s heels. No way could Katrina handle the guy alone. No doubt Ruthie would be of little help.
Her toe throbbing, she chased Katrina along the path and through the creek back toward the lake. While she ran after Kat, she played out the scene they were sure to find: Ruthie being mauled or raped or tortured or killed by the psycho with the camera. Shit!
Unless the guy had been scared off by Ruthie’s scream. Maybe he’d taken the picture and left before anyone showed up.
Oh, please.
As they neared the lake, Katrina slowed and motioned for Shiloh to move off to the side, to split up so that they could approach from different angles. Shiloh eased away from Kat, taking a small spur in the trail, one that opened up to the lake twenty yards beyond the dock area. Her heart was a jackhammer in her chest as she reached down and scraped up a rock she found on the trail. About the size of a baseball, it was rough against her palm—heavy, and the only weapon she could find.
After the one bloodcurdling scream, she’d heard nothing. No, that wasn’t quite right; there was another noise, deep-throated grunts, the kind of rutting noises she’d heard through the paper-thin walls of the house where she lived. Oh God. Without another thought about her safety, she stepped from the foliage. “Stop!” she bellowed, spying the huge bear of a man, his pants at his ankles, lying atop a wan, unmoving Ruthie. “You son of a bitch, stop right there!”
“Wha–?” He looked up, his eyes zeroing in on Shiloh as she hoisted the rock high. God, who the hell was he? With the dark ski mask on his head, the only features she could make out were his body type and his beady, cold eyes.
He rolled off her and onto his feet in one motion. Ruthie whimpered. Only then did Shiloh see the knife, a curved blade winking evilly in the darkness.
“Oh Jesus,” she said under her breath, and this time it was a prayer.
“Whatcha got there, girlie?” he asked with a sneer. “A pebble?” Waggling the knife, he laughed, a cruel guttural sound that was eerily familiar, as if Shiloh had heard it before. But where? When? Who the hell was he? “You think yer gonna hit me with that itty-bitty rock? Go ahead and try.”
Amen to that! Without waiting a second, Shiloh hurled the stone with all the force she could muster. The rock hissed through the air, straight as an arrow, and hit the bastard square on the forehead.
Thwack.
The blow knocked him to his knees. He sputtered, tried to scramble to his feet, but his pants were like shackles around his ankles, and Katrina flew from her hiding place, a stick in her hand. “You sick bastard,” she cried and whacked him hard on the back of the head.
Craaaack!
The dry branch splintered in her hands.
Groaning, he fell forward.
His face landed on the dry ground.
Thud!
“Let’s go!” Shiloh yelled and raced for Ruthie.
“Oh Jesus. Are you okay?” Throwing herself onto her knees beside the stricken girl, she felt renewed panic. Ruthie lay staring upward at the sky, her eyes wide open, her expression blank. “Ruthie!” The girl was nearly catatonic. “Ruthie! Come on. We gotta get out of here!” She pulled on her arm.
Nothing. It was as if Ruthie’s bones had melted, her arm going slack.
“For the love of God, move it!” Shiloh ordered.
“Let me.” Katrina was at her side. “Ruth. Come on, honey. It’s all right.”
A low moan from the lump nearby indicated that no, they hadn’t killed the bastard. At least not yet.
“Get his knife,” Katrina ordered Shiloh. “And our clothes.” She was forcing Ruthie to her feet. “Come on, honey, we have to leave. Now!”