Page 18 of Manhunt in the Narrows
Chapter Thirteen
Her head throbbed as though her sinuses were infected.
Pressure built in her face, down the back of her neck. Behind her eyes.
Sayles couldn’t help the groan of pain as she turned her neck to the side. Liquid drained down the back of her throat, and she turned to cough it up. Something sharp bit into her palms as her stomach heaved.
“Oh, good. You’re alive.” Footsteps skidded to a halt close by, but it was hard to tell with the cast of shadows. “I wasn’t so sure there for a while.”
That voice. She didn’t recognize it. It seemed to echo, surround her, suffocate her. Jutted rock pressed into her hands as she got her bearings. Alive. She was alive. And wet. “Where am I?”
“Thought you ranger types knew every inch of this park?” His laugh wasn’t anything like the warmth she’d wrapped herself in from Elias’s. “Guess that saying is true. You learn something new every day.”
The park. She was still in Zion. In a…cave? Dark walls had been stained black with minerals and drainage, curving up and over her head. It wasn’t a cave per se. Didn’t go deep enough, with an oversize opening. An outcropping in the rock. Her heart beat too hard behind her ears to pick up signs of the river. She worked to come up with an answer of how the hell that waspossible. She did know every inch of this park, and the last thing she remembered… Cold. Falling. Fear.
Her senses adjusted enough to outline the man in front of her. The one sitting on a flat rock, knees hiked a bit higher, with a spoon in one hand and a bowl of something in the other. A backpack—similar to hers—rested against his thigh. Wait. Thatwasher pack.
“Hungry? It’s not great straight out of the can, but there’s still some left.” His features remained in shadow as clouds continued their rampage across the sky through the opening. Rain pummeled and slapped against wet rock a few feet away, tricking her brain into thinking the threat had passed.
The park had been cleared of visitors once word got out there was a killer on the loose. Which meant… Sayles shoved to sit, putting as much distance between them as the outcropping allowed. Her shoulders hit solid wall within a couple of feet. “You.”
He offered her a spoonful of whatever he’d been eating, and her stomach rolled with ingested river water. “You look like you could use this more than I do.”
She couldn’t keep herself together any longer. Curling to one side, she let her stomach have its moment. Water and the small bit of food she’d eaten after waking this morning charged free of her mouth. The small hit of adrenaline dissipated as memories assaulted over and over. Elias. She scanned the half cave. The last image of him—reaching for her from above—intensified the trembling quaking through her. She locked her hands into fists to try to control it, but there was no fighting nature. Her throat burned as she swallowed around bile and river water. “What…happened?”
“You almost died.” The killer set his meal aside, brushing both hands together as though discarding a thick layer of dirt. “I saved you.”
That didn’t make sense. Sayles searched the half-cave-like structure. For what, she had no idea. An escape. A sign of Elias. A general location of where she’d ended up. Her teeth chattered. The thin cotton uniform she’d worn these past few months only managed to hold on to the chill that refused to leave. “Why?”
Her captor—the killer Elias had been searching the interstate for—shoved to stand. He towered over her. Massive. Intimidating. The kind of man who was fully aware of his size and used it as a weapon against anyone in his way. Probably the same way he’d used it against those motorists he’d murdered. He closed the distance between them, crouching in front of her. Shadows blurred his features, but she could make out a pair of extremely arched eyes. Beard growth aged his face and accentuated the puffy skin beneath those eyes. He wasn’t lean. Not in the way Elias had honed layer upon layer of muscle through training and hard work, but the bulk was there. Less defined but just as deadly. Short hair curled over his forehead. Almost boyish apart from the predatory smile splitting his mouth. “You’re going to help me.”
“I’m not available.” Rock cut into her scalp as she tried—and failed—to add just a few more inches of space between them. Reminded all too easily of the way her ex had used his size and strength to get her to comply. But she wasn’t that woman anymore. She’d survived his manipulations. And she’d survive this man, too. “Ever.”
“But you were all too willing to assist Agent Broyles.” He set his arms against his knees. Blocking her escape. Ready to strike at a moment’s notice. “Isn’t that why you’re out here, Ranger Green? To help the FBI catch me.”
The shock of her name on his lips must’ve registered on her face before she had a chance to shut it down. Her name tag. She closed her eyes against the stupidity of that realization. Of course he knew her name. She was still wearing her name tag.Sayles tried to swallow down the uncertainty in her voice. “I go where I’m told.”
“That’s good.” An unnatural stillness seized the killer in front of her. “Because right now I need you to get me out of this park without the police or your agent following. Understand?”
She shook her head as best she could, every cell in her body focused on the wide opening at his back. No recognition of their surroundings, but she hadn’t been unconscious that long. Right? He had to have brought her somewhere off the Narrows trail, which meant she could find Elias. They could stop this killer from hurting anyone else. “I can’t do that.”
“Of course you can.” He stood, once again towering over her, using his size to force her compliance. “Otherwise, I have no need for you.”
She locked her gaze on his face. Trying to memorize every detail, every scar, or tattoo or identifying characteristic. In case she got out of this alive. “Are you going to kill me?”
“Only if I have to.” He shrugged as if the idea of murder was nothing more than a passing inconvenience.
“You make it sound like I have a choice.” Despite her two-day trek in the middle of a river, her mouth had gone dry. She gauged her chances of running for the entrance and getting a head start before he caught up with her. They weren’t looking good from her current position. “Did all your other victims get the same choice or did you make the decision for them?”
Elias would find her. She didn’t know how. She didn’t know if he’d managed to escape that slot canyon, and she didn’t want to think about the possibility he hadn’t. But she had to believe in something. The agent she’d agreed to guide through the park yesterday afternoon wasn’t the man she’d come to know in the hours since. He was better. Understanding. Protective. The kind of man who believed evil should never go unpunished. So unlike the other federal agents she’d known throughout her life and hermarriage. No matter what happened, she knew Elias would fight for her.
“Someone’s been talking about me.” That smile was back. Slick and oily with a hint of violence. “Tell me, Ranger Green, if you agree to get me out of this park unnoticed, will you share a tent with me, too?”
Nausea charged through her. He’d been watching them. Studying them. How close had he gotten without them noticing? She and Elias had assumed he’d been ahead of them on the trail, but what if he’d just been biding his time? A small piece of the courage it’d taken to stand up to her ex electrified her nerves. She raised her chin. She wouldn’t cower. She wouldn’t beg. If anything that would give this man exactly what he wanted—what her ex had wanted—and she’d grown tired of making herself smaller for other’s comfort. “Sure. As long as you’re not scared I’ll kill you in your sleep.”
His laugh rippled through her, raising warning in its wake. He crouched in front of her again, consuming her focus. Then gripped her chin harder than necessary to force her attention. “Hold on to that fight. You’re going to need it.”
Sayles ripped from his grasp and managed to summon enough saliva to spit at his face. Stars exploded as his hand connected to her jaw. Her body hit the unforgiving cave floor against her will. Pain unlike anything she’d experienced cocooned her in a never-ending echo. Tears sprang to her eyes. She couldn’t fight them. Couldn’t swallow the sob escaping her chest. Of all the manipulation, the abuse and the danger she’d survived, a single strike was the catalyst that would unravel her. She held her face as she righted herself, breaking off a piece of rock about as big as her hand.
