by now,
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Leo, please, quit following me!” she announced. “I mean it, give it a rest. I just need to be alone for a while.”
Moira had paused along the narrow path she’d been taking through the woods. It had become more and more difficult to navigate the crude trail snaking though all the trees, rocks, and foliage. Moira was afraid if she went any farther she’d get lost on her way back.
For the last ten minutes, she was almost certain Leo had been following her—at least, she hoped it was Leo. She could hear bushes rustling behind her. Yet whenever she glanced back, she didn’t see anyone. A few times, she saw a shrub or a tree’s low-hanging branches moving. She would call out his name, but never get an answer.
She’d hurt his feelings earlier. But Leo wouldn’t get even by scaring her now. He didn’t operate that way. He was a wiseass at times, but he was also one of the nicest, most dependable guys she knew. She often thought if he weren’t so available, so anxious to please her, she’d be more attracted to him. When Moira had thoughts like that, she wondered if she’d ever have a normal relationship.
It would be just like Leo to trail after her and give her a bit of space—to make certain she was okay. Despite his frequent clumsy attempts to make a pass at her, he was still a gentleman. That was one reason her mother was so gaga about him. He never dropped her off; he always walked her to the door. And he always let her have the last available seat if they got on a crowded bus. So he wouldn’t leave her alone in the woods, no matter how mad he was at her. But this was the fourth time she’d stopped to call out to him, and he still hadn’t replied.
“Leo, I mean it,” she said. “Please, go back to the cabin. It’s been a while since you’ve had anything to eat. You don’t want to have another episode like last night….”
She studied the rustling bushes. It appeared as if someone or something was ducking just beneath the tops of those leaves, slowly moving toward her. She heard twigs snapping.
Maybe it wasn’t him after all. Maybe it was some forest creature.
“Leo, is that you?” she asked loudly.
Whatever it was, it stopped moving.
A chill raced through her. Moira remembered last night, when she’d thought an intruder had snuck into the house—and this morning, when she’d caught someone spying on her in the shower. Maybe she wasn’t so paranoid after all.
“Who’s there?” she asked. There was no response, but she saw some branches shift ever so slightly in that same spot.
“LEO?” she screamed. “LEO, CAN YOU HEAR ME? LEO!”
Moira hoped to hear him call back to her in the distance. But there was nothing. She started to back away. Glancing down around her feet, she found a rock about the size of a baseball. It was covered with dirt and worms. But she snatched it up and quickly brushed it off. She kept walking backward, feeling her way along the path with her free hand. She didn’t dare turn around at this point. She clutched the rock and watched as something just below the tops of the shrubs made its way toward her.
“Get out of here!” she yelled. Moira held onto the rock to defend herself. But she grabbed some smaller rocks along the path and hurled them in the general direction of the disturbance. If an animal was in the brush, she didn’t want to hurt it; she just wanted to scare it away.
Then again, maybe she was provoking the damn thing. She wasn’t sure. She’d heard that these Pacific Northwest woodlands had everything from bears to cougars to wolves. Any minute now, that creature could emerge from those bushes and come charging at her.
Worse, it could be a two-legged creature preying upon her.
“Shit,” she murmured. She finally turned and started running, but the path seemed to disappear—until she was randomly zigzagging around trees and shrubs, going wherever she could find even the narrowest pathway. Moira had no idea where she was headed, but she kept moving. And she kept the rock clutched in her hand.
She finally came to a clearing and realized she was at the summit of a slope. She looked down at the tops of trees. In the distance below, she noticed a gap, a long, narrow channel that wove through the woods. At first, Moira thought it was a stream. But then, through the foliage, she glimpsed a blessed sight: a blue SUV sped along that trail. She was looking down on its roof. That wasn’t just a clearing down there. It was a road—
“Thank you, God,” she murmured. She was fed up with these woods, sick of feeling so lost and scared. On top of that, she was hungry.
Moira guessed that wonderful, paved road was about two or three blocks away, which through this thicket would seem like a mile. But at least she knew where she was headed now—and it was all downhill. There would be other cars after that SUV. She might even be able to catch a ride back to the cabin.
Moira held on to the rock as she started running again. She thought about how she might square things with Leo. Maybe they’d actually have a nice time tonight celebrating his birthday. Jordan had made reservations at some ritzy waterfront restaurant in downtown Cullen—probably the
She discovered a wider trail easier to navigate and realized she must be close to the road by now. She let the rock slip out of her hands. Moira started giggling as she thought about how freaked out she’d been by that thing in the woods back there. It was probably just a fawn or a squirrel, for God’s sake.
Following a curve in the path, she stepped through a pile of leaves, and suddenly, the ground seemed to drop out from under her. Moira heard this loud crackling and splintering sound. All at once, she was falling. She let out a scream and tried to grab at something. But there was nothing to stop her from tumbling into the chasm below. Moira hit the bottom of the trench, feetfirst. A searing pain shot through her left foot. She heard something snap, then she collapsed. Leaves, dirt, twigs, and broken branches crashed down on top of her.
Moira got the wind knocked out of her. Struggling for a breath, she tried to wipe the dirt out of her eyes. It was in her mouth, too. Coughing, she sat at the bottom of the pit. It took her another few moments to realize what had happened. The cloud of dust and grit finally cleared above her, and she looked up at the patch of sky. She felt like she was in an empty grave in a cemetery plot, only much deeper, maybe eight or ten feet down.
The top part of the pit was lined with wood supports that had turned black from years of underground moisture. Moss grew between the beams. Below that, the walls to the rest of the hole were just dirt and rock. Moira was cold, and with every breath she took, she could taste dirt. The place smelled like moist, decaying leaves and mud. She guessed someone had meant to dig a well here decades ago, but they’d given up after a while.
At first, Moira thought a bush had taken root and grown at the very top of the hole. That was why she’d mistaken it for a pile of leaves. But as she squinted at the splintered limbs hovering above her, she saw all their leaves were dead. Someone had stuck branches between the cracks of those wood supports along the top—to cover the hole.
Moira was still stunned and catching her breath at the bottom of the deep trench. She hadn’t tried to move yet. She lay there and wondered why in God’s name someone would camouflage a pit that way. Didn’t they realize a person could easily fall into this concealed hole—and be trapped here? Didn’t they know something like this might happen?
Then it dawned on her.
Of course they knew.
Leo thought about turning back to make sure Moira was okay.
With a long, thin branch he’d found, he tapped the trees along the trail. Just up ahead was the hot spring where he and Jordan had gone skinny-dipping last night. They’d had a blast—until his stupid diabetic episode. It was probably just as well Moira hadn’t come along with them. Truth be told, she’d been right. The main reason he’d wanted her to join them had been so he could catch a glimpse of her naked. But when he thought about it now, it would have been a drag with her there—even if he hadn’t had his diabetic meltdown. She probably would have kept
