Page 29 of The Captive
CHAPTER 8
Lana’s body was riddled with impatience as her savior took his sweet time liberating her from the cabin.As she watched, he removed a small silver tool from the belt around his trim waist.A glass cutter, she realized.While her heart beat up a storm, she resisted tapping her foot as he dragged the cutter against the edges of the window.He worked slowly, dark brows drawn together in meticulous concentration.
Who was he?Obviously some kind of soldier, judging from the camo outfit he had on, the black wool hat and the endless supply of tools clipped to his belt.Not to mention the rifle.
She suddenly wondered if he’d used the thing in order to get this close to the cabin.A spark of worry ignited in her stomach.Charlie and the others usually walked the perimeter and stood guard, but Deacon hadn’t been back to this room in several hours.What if he’d been assigned to watch the cabin, and had encountered this man outside?
She pushed away the troubling thought.With extreme skill, the man removed the glass, then disappeared from view as he set it down on the ground.He popped up a second later, and for the first time in a month, Lana heard a voice that didn’t belong to Deacon or her captors.
“Lana Kelley?”he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
She nodded urgently.
“I’m Rick Garrison.”He tucked the glass cutter back in his belt.“Your father sent me.”
Relief soared inside her.“Thank God.”
“Are you hurt?”Garrison asked.“Can you walk?”
“I’m fine.Please, just get me out of here.”
“Do you have a coat?”
She noticed then that his breath left puffs of white in the air.A chill swept into the room, making her turn to the chair where she’d draped her coat.“It’s bright red,” she told him.“Will that be a problem?”
Garrison nodded briskly, already removing his own fitted black jacket.“Put this on,” he ordered, handing her the coat through the empty square left in the window.
She took it and quickly shoved her arms into the sleeves without bothering to zip up the coat.Then she climbed onto the small desk, biting her lip when the wood squeaked from the added weight.She glanced toward the door.Nobody came.Turning back to the window, she leaned forward, then hesitated when a thought occurred to her.Hadn’t Deacon said there was a motion sensor on her window?Yes, hehadsaid that.
“Motion sensor,” she blurted out, feeling panicked as she looked at Garrison.
“Taken care of,” was all he said.“Come on now.We need to hurry.”
Adrenaline spiked in her blood.Lana went out headfirst, landing in Garrison’s arm with the grace of a tourist.He steadied her, his dark eyes sweeping across her face to assess her well-being.
“They didn’t hurt you?”he said quietly.
She shook her head.
“Your father will be happy to hear that.”Garrison removed a lethal-looking pistol from his waistband.“Do you know how to use this?”
“Y-yes.My brothers took me to the shooting range a few times.”
Garrison’s fingers were warm as he gently placed the weapon in her hand.He unslung his rifle from his shoulder, holding it with complete ease.“You’re going to have to be extremely quiet.And very quick.I came here by foot, through the mountains, but I managed to leave an ATV up on the trail, about five miles from here.Can you handle that?”
Five miles.Lana tried not to cringe.She wasn’t out of shape by any means, but a five-mile hike in this bitter cold was not going to be pleasant.Still, she was determined to keep up.“I can handle it,” she said grimly.
“See that cluster of rocks?”Garrison gestured to a spot about a hundred yards away.
Lana nodded.
“That’s where we need to be.”He grimaced.“If I tell you to run, you run, all right?I’ve been up in the mountains for days, watching the cabin, and I’ve gotta tell you, these bastards are pros.They don’t have a recognizable routine.”
“Isn’t that good?Professionals usually know what they’re doing,” she said feebly.“This could mean they’re amateurs.”
“There’s nothing amateur about the way they’ve handled this.Uneven shifts, random perimeter checks.Different men each time.They’re smart, made sure that anyone who tried to infiltrate wouldn’t be able to rely on a clockworkrotation.Which means that the moment we head for those rocks, one of them could be coming out of nowhere.”
Lana swallowed.“Okay.”
