She walked on, looking at the ground for signs of a bear though she had no idea what those signs would look like. Bears were huge. One would think they’d clear a path through the trees every time they went anywhere.
She paused to have another look around. Maybe she’d gone in the wrong direction altogether? She decided to go back the way she came. Loch probably wasn’t at the spring anymore. With any luck, Keller would’ve returned.
Confident in her new plan, and feeling a little foolish for dramatically running off, Holly turned back. Between one step and the next, pain exploded behind her eyes. She saw stars. The world narrowed down to a single, blurry pinpoint in a sea of black.
Then, she fell.
CHAPTER 28 - Holly
Holly woke up with the most intense headache she’d ever felt. It was ten times worse than when she had fainted on the deck. Twenty times, even. She was propped upright against something hard and unyielding. With every tiny movement, even the ones Holly didn’t realize she was making, new waves of pain hit.
Most frightening of all, she couldn’t see. Panic gripped her throat. Had she fallen? Slipped? Had she hit her head so hard she made herself go blind?
As her eyes struggled to focus, she noticed texture patterns in the film that covered her eyes. Fabric. Light-colored fabric. She was blindfolded.
A stone of dread sunk to the bottom of her stomach as she realized what must have happened. She was kidnapped. Someone must’ve hit her over the head. She turned her stiff neck, trying to dislodge the blindfold. As she did so, the lump on the back of her head bumped against the uneven surface of whatever she was propped up against. Pain exploded once more.
She might’ve lost consciousness for a few moments. It was hard to be sure. She felt like she was going to be sick though it was unclear whether pain or anxiety was the culprit. She rotated her wrists. They were bound in front of her. Her shoulders were restrained as well. She rotated as best she could to feel the ground beneath her. She felt soft earth, small pebbles, and prickly pine needles. The forest. She was still in the forest. But what part? Was she close to the house? Was she even in Silver Spruce territory anymore?
Keller’s words came flooding back to her.
As long as we’re in our territory, we can protect you without violating any of the clan laws.
If she wasn’t in Silver Spruce anymore, would they break laws to get to her?
She twisted again. The rough surface behind her was clearly a tree trunk.
“Hey, she’s waking up.” A gruff voice that sounded far too close for comfort made Holly jump. She bumped the lump on her head again.
“Oh, excellent,” replied a much smoother voice.
Rough hands gripped her face as her blindfold was removed. The sunlight blocked out everything else for a moment. Holly squinted and tried to turn away, but the hand locked her in place.
“What’s the point of blindfolding her if you’re going to show her your faces the moment she wakes up?” asked a voice Holly recognized instantly—Loch.
Her eyes flew open. She jerked her face out of the stranger’s grip, despite the pain.
“Loch!” she cried out. “What the fuck did you do to me?”
“Sharp girl.” The first stranger with the gruff voice chuckled. “She sniffed him out right quick.”
Holly’s eyes adjusted enough to see a titan of a man with a scraggly beard and a mean face. He was older, maybe fifty or sixty. It was hard to tell for sure. His skin was leathery and sun-worn. The other man looked about the same age but was much smaller. He had an oily quality to him that was deeply unsettling. Holly was repulsed by his touch.
She peered around both of them and spotted Loch. He was tied to a tree just as she was.
“What’s happening?” she asked him.
“Our boy Loch was caught in a double cross,” the oily man said. His breath reeked of onions, and Holly tried not to gag.
“It wasn’t a double cross.” Loch sighed deeply with a look of glazed boredom. What the hell was going on?
“You were going to tell her everything,” the other man said, jabbing a dirty, calloused finger at Loch.
“To gain her trust,” Loch said as if he were a simpleton. “The double cross was against her. Not you.”
“I fucking knew it,” Holly muttered. “I knew it.”
“Apparently, you didn’t. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here.” He stood up and walked away from Holly, but she barely noticed him now.
She couldn’t take her eyes off Loch. If looks could kill, he’d be pulverized.
I’m sorry¸ he mouthed.
“Oh, go to hell!” she screamed back.
No one made any attempts to silence her, so she kept screaming. Someone was going to hear her. Someone would come for her. She was willing to bet Johnny, Garret, and Keller were already out looking for her. By nightfall, Loch and his two criminal morons would be dead, and Holly would be on the couch sipping tea.
She paused, shocked by the violence of her own thoughts. She’d never wished death on another person before, no matter how terribly they had treated her. Then again, she’d never been kidnapped and double-crossed before, either. There was a first time for everything, apparently.
She finally stopped screaming when her throat started to burn.
“Have you tired yourself out?” the oily man asked. “Or have you still not figured out why we’re allowing you to scream your head off like an idiot?”
Holly clamped her mouth shut. A terrible realization washed over her. She was
