Page 29 of Fire
I wasn’t sure if it was instinct or an unsettling feeling, but something inside told me to look behind me at the road. In the far distance, I could see headlights coming my way. It could be only one person since there were no other homes along this road. Niles had woken up sooner than I had thought. If I didn’t want to get caught, I needed to get off this road. I hurried down the small bank and into the woods and waited for Niles to drive by. When he came closer, his speed decreased until he came to a stop. I watched him get out of the car, and even though he couldn’t see me, I could hear him loud and clear. “I know you’re in the woods, pretty girl, so unless you want to die, you better show yourself.”
Hell no. There was no way he saw me slip inside the woods. He was too far away to see me or to know I ran into the woods. I wasn’t going to give up that easy. Keeping my eyes on him, I thought he had given up when he got inside the car. As I continued to wait for him to drive away, he left the vehicle with a flashlight in one hand and a gun in the other.
I could stay where I was and pray that he wouldn’t find me, or I could go deeper into the woods and hope I would find my way out. I decided to do the latter. The last thing I wanted was to be found. Keeping my steps light, I slowly backed away from Niles and the light coming from his flashlight. When I could no longer see the light, I ran through the tall trees as best I could. The only light I had was from the moon, and even then, it wasn’t much since the clouds muted most of the light.
Instead of going deeper into the woods, I decided to take cover behind a large rock nestled against a tree near the riverbank. I hadn’t seen Niles for some time and could only hope that he had given up. I knew better; he would never give up, given what I had done to him. It was more likely that he had gone for help. I was a survivor, and even though I was in the middle of nowhere and had no idea where the next town was, the best thing for me was to stay where I was until the sun came up so I could survey my surroundings.
I tried to make myself as comfortable as possible while waiting for the light to come. As I sat with only the sound of the river, I gazed up and watched the moon move in between the clouds. Staring up at the sky made my eyes grow heavy, causing me to fall asleep. Rest would be good, so I gave in instead of fighting my exhaustion.
One of the things I never thought I would find myself doing was spending the night in the woods. I wasn’t an outdoors kind of girl. Hell, spiders and snakes made me wheezy. Waking up with the sun on my face and the fresh air filling my lungs, I got the best rest ever. I wasn’t sure what time it was as I pushed away from the large rock. Hours ago, my concern was getting away from Niles. I wished I had thought that out a little more because I had no idea where the hell I was.I needed to think. In school, I learned to always follow the river downstream if ever you get lost. Looking toward the river, it wasn’t hard to tell which way the river was flowing. Pushing to my feet, I began walking with the flow of the water.
As I walked, making sure to stay near the river, the sun that warmed the morning was replaced with unfriendly clouds that rumbled above me. Soon I would be walking in the rain with no trace of shelter in sight. All I could do was keep moving and pray that Mother Nature would be kind and not dump her wrath on me.
The rain came down lightly, which was better than the downpour I had expected. As I continued to walk alongside the river, I second-guessed myself and wondered if I shouldn’t have gone upstream instead. Shaking those thoughts, I tried to stay positive. Sooner rather than later, I would come in contact with someone who would be able to help me. I had to keep telling myself that.
My feet were wet from the rain, and my legs felt like they weighed a ton. I wasn’t sure how many miles I had walked, but I was slowly beginning to lose hope. I had no other choice but to keep going.
With night falling, my stomach reminded me that it had been over twenty-four hours since I had anything to eat. What I wouldn’t give for a nice juicy hamburger or even the stew I shunned last night.
It was getting to the point where I couldn’t see what was ahead of me. It had stopped raining hours ago, and the sky was clear, but the trees blocked any light coming from the moon. On top of being hungry, I was tired and cold. This wasn’t how I saw myself dying, alone in the middle of nowhere with no hope of running into someone.
Needing a breather to gather my thoughts, I took a seat on a flat rock near the river. As I listened to the water flow, the reality of my current situation set in. The way I saw it, I could do one of two things. I could either keep on going or turn back and hope to find the cabin I was held at and hope that I could find a way to get word to Axe. Without food or water, I wasn’t sure how long I could survive—at the very most, a week.
Before I made a firm decision, I walked up the rocky bank to find a soft grassy place to rest. I removed the blanket from my shoulders and spread it out on the damp grass. Lying on one half, I brought the other half up over my body and tucked it under my chin. The air was cool, but the blanket did provide some warmth. A fire would have been ideal, but with no matches, it was out of the question since I had no Girl Scout skills to make one with sticks.
Hopefully, I wouldn’t get eaten by a bear first. I wasn’t even sure if there were bears located this close to Atlanta. If there were, I hoped they would go on their merry way and see that I was no threat to them.
Closing my eyes since I could no longer keep them open, I rested my head on my arm and tried to think of happy thoughts. Axe was my happy place, and thoughts of him eased me into a deep sleep.
~22~
Axe
After finishing a much-needed shower, I head back downstairs to see if Patton found any more information on Levi’s location. Before I headed down, I decided to make a pot of coffee since I knew it would be a long morning. While I leaned against the counter waiting for the coffee to finish brewing, Patton came up the stairs.
“Levi’s vehicle stopped moving. He stopped at a truck stop a few miles out of Atlanta. I have an alert set on my phone to let me know when he is on the move again.” Patton reached above the coffee pot and pulled out two coffee mugs. “How about some eggs and bacon?”
“You offering to cook?” I asked, taking one of the mugs from him and filling it to the rim with coffee.
“Of course. It could be a while, and I’m starving.”
I wasn’t sure how Patton could be so calm when I was wound up. I thought the run would do me good, but all it did was make me conjure the worst possible scenario for Kenzi. I knew what kind of man Wilkerson was, and if Niles Harris was even remotely close to his capabilities, Kenzi’s life meant nothing to either one of them, no matter the outcome.
While I was lost in thought, Patton asked, “How do you want your eggs?”
Without hesitation, I said, “Easy over.”
I continued where I left off, thinking of only Kenzi. Damn, how I wished I had a crystal ball to see where Wilkerson was holding her. As I sat on the barstool watching Patton cook, I ran my mind through everything I would do to Wilkerson and Harris if they hurt Kenzi in any way. I needed to find Wilkerson. After I went into the service, I lost contact with him. It was only after I finished my last tour that he contacted me. I wasn’t sure where he was living or if it was even in Atlanta. He no longer worked at the recruiting office the last I checked. That was ten years ago. The new recruiter who took his place said there was no address on file for him.Where had he been the last ten years?
Instead of sitting here feeling helpless, I had to do something. Pushing from the counter, I stood. Patton heard the stool screech against the tile and looked my way. “Where are you going? Breakfast is almost ready.”
Looking behind my shoulder, I said, “Go ahead and eat without me. There is something I need to do.”
Jogging down the stairs, I hurried to the computer room to see if I could find out any information on Van Wilkerson. If Patton did any research on him, I was certain that he would have told me if he had found anything. Then again, I didn’t ask. I knew more about the man and had a better idea of where to look. My time was ticking away, and I had two days to figure out where he took Kenzi.
Taking a seat in front of my computer, I entered my password and brought the screen to life. I was confident that I could find everything I needed to know about Van Wilkerson with all the software I had access to. I remembered him telling me that he was born in Wichita, Kansas, which seemed to be the best place to start. There was no better place to start than the beginning.
The information I found turned to be quite valuable. It turned out that even though Wilkerson was born in Kansas, his parents moved to Atlanta soon after his birth. His parents owned a home just north of Atlanta near Chatsworth, Georgia. While I continued my search, I discovered that Wilkerson’s parents no longer owned the property. Public record was a great thing, and it allowed me to find the information I needed. Even though the Wilkerson parents no longer owned the home, Van Wilkerson did. Attached to the deed of trust was the death certificate of Michael J. Wilkerson and June L. Wilkerson. As I glanced at the death certificates, nothing indicated that their deaths were caused by other than natural causes. Michael Wilkerson’s death came first with a heart attack, and June Wilkerson’s came three years later with complications due to COPD. Van Wilkerson inherited the property when he was twenty-six.
