Page 142 of Swept for Forever
A knife.
I yanked it free, braced the handle between my knees, and worked the rope across the blade. Again and again.
It caught. Then sliced.
I was free.
I rummaged through his jacket, then checked his pants pockets.What?No car keys?
“Damn it,” I muttered. I hoped he’d left them somewhere obvious. Maybe a coffee table upstairs, or a hook by the door.
But I found a phone. There was no passcode screen, just a thumbprint sensor. I grabbed his hand and pressed his thumb to the button.
It clicked and unlocked.
“Sucker.”
The map app opened. Thank goodness for offline navigation. I was still somewhere on the edge of Buffaloberry Hill, though I didn’t recognize a thing. But I didn’t need to. I just had to head east, and I’d eventually hit the center of town.
I was about to bolt when something rolled out of his pocket.
Dom’s coin.
My fist closed around it. I tucked it into my bra, right over my heart.
There was no moping over him. Not now. I had work to do.
I slung the duffel over my shoulder and stepped over the guard. His big mouth was slack, finally silent. I gave him a good, solid kick on my way out.
“Thanks for unlocking the door, genius.”
I grabbed the steel door and pulled. It fought me every inch, but I got it shut and shoved the bolt across. Then I ran upstairs.
Out the front I went. The cold slapped my lungs, stinging all the way down as realization dawned on me. No wonder the bastard didn’t have keys.
There was no fucking car!
His buddy must’ve left him here alone.
The path ahead offered no cover, just open ground and too many directions. But the air carried a scent of wet stone and river moss.
Water.
I could hear the flow.
There was no fevered trail mix-up this time. No signs playing tricks.
I rounded the back of the lodge. Just beyond the trees was the river.
It was close, but the slope down from here was a sheer drop. It was too steep to attempt without snapping something, so I turned away from the building and followed the tree line until the bank eased up. There, the earth leveled out just enough for me to slide down.
Something slipped.
Dom’s coin.
I caught it just before it hit the dirt. “Not losing you,” I whispered, tucking it into the zippered pocket of my cargo pants.
Then I crouched at the edge and grabbed a fallen branch, poking it into the water. The current tugged, but not hard. The stick sank almost to the base.
