“Definitely not,” I muttered. “You going to help me take this bastard down?”
Benjamin spread his arms. “Say when.”
Benjamin, Atticus, and I jogged along the perimeter of the lake. Snow fell in sheets now, occluding the view of the other side. Skirting some marshy areas, an arena where we did campfires in the summer, and thick bracken along the banks slowed us down. By the time I reached the canoe, at least twenty minutes had passed. Sweat ran down my back, staving off the cold.
The haunting silence of the mountains taunted me.
You're too late.
Joshua maybe had a twenty-minute head start at most. Benjamin and I could easily close that gap. He'd kept up with me so far. MMA fighter or not, living up here conditioned me far better for speed than he would be right now, but at least he wasn't a liability.
Carefully, I worked my way to the canoe through the reeds. Benjamin followed, not surprisingly agile amongst the slippery snow and bracken. The snow fell fast enough that any tracks were faint, but it was clear that two people had clambered out of the canoe. What appeared to be water droplets dotted some parts of the snow. Was Stella wet? Surely Joshua wouldn't be stupid enough to get in the lake.
Or would he?
No, that didn't make sense, but my dread tripled anyway.
“What's up?” Ben asked, puffing.
“I think he pushed her in the lake,” I murmured.
“What?”
I pointed to the water droplets. “This is water. See how the snow is gone? The holes in the snow, but not by the lake edge? Doesn't make sense. The paddle is in the canoe, so it's not splashing.”
“But why?”
“Silence her, probably. You didn't hear anything, did you?”
“Nope.”
“He got her out right under my nose somehow. She’d be too shocked from the cold to scream if he pushed her in, and it could happen quietly.”
Benjamin's expression darkened. If Joshua was dragging her into the forest after a plunge in the lake, she'd drop temperature fast. But if they moved quick enough to get away, it would hold off anything but mild hypothermia. Still, Stella wouldn't be comfortable. If she stayed out in this all night or they stopped too long?
This would get ugly.
I cleared those thoughts, blood soaring past my ears as I strained to hear any sort of struggle. Atticus waited with an impatient whine. I kept him on the rope at my side so he'd stay quiet and ready for when I needed him.
“C'mon,” I murmured quietly to Benjamin. “I see where their tracks are going.”
With Stella's life on the line, my thoughts slowed into an oddly even pace. Steady instead of wild. I thought clearly because at least Joshua had given me the advantage of home turf.
While I followed what I could see of a trail into the woods, my thoughts ran to the forest behind the lake. Eventually, if Joshua cut to the northwest sharply enough, they'd run into the main road within a mile. But there was thick forest to work through, and gullies that wouldn't be easy in this snow. Visibility was obscured already, and if Stella was cold, she'd stumble. They wouldn't move as quickly as we could.
The likeliest scenario was that Joshua would get lost and they'd stumble around the woods until they both froze to death in the middle of the night. Unless he knew enough to head straight west or north. They'd eventually encounter the road or the river and the highway.
The urge to call out to Stella, let her know we were coming, came every five seconds. Instead, I kept quiet, prowling along their primitive trail. Enough snow had collected that they left clear tracks. Stella was still struggling.
“Struggle on, girl,” I murmured as we dove deeper into the forest.
27 Stella
My teeth chattered so hard against my gag I thought they would crack. There wasn't a lot I knew about hypothermia, but at least I knew that was a good sign. Despite being so cold I thought my bones would break in two, my mind was clear.
Joshua's grip on my upper arm was so tight it ached. The bandana he'd tied around my mouth was soaked now. The driving snow froze parts of it, so when my teeth crashed into it, it cracked with ice. My head throbbed. He'd walloped me across the face and stunned me into silence while he'd hauled me onto the pier, then into that wretched canoe beneath the dock. Should have sunk it while I sat there, talking to Grandma.
Had he just been lying in wait for the perfect opportunity to appear? Or was it sheer luck that that canoe was there? There was no way to tell.
Now, prickling pins moved all the way through my body. The wet water had already dried my hair into heavy chunks that were painful against my scalp. They felt like medusa snakes, crunchy and cold. Joshua dragged me behind him, my hands tied in front of me. My fingers were exposed to the air. I could only feel their painful edges now.
Maybe thirty minutes had passed since he hauled me out of the water, tied me into silence, and shoved me into that hidden canoe. Wisely, he'd already locked my hands before I got in the boat, so attempting to tip us over would have been my death. But that didn't mean I went quietly, attempting to leave as obvious a trail as possible as we flailed around the forest.
I had to believe that Mark would eventually see that out-of-place canoe. Still, it didn't stop the questions that streamed through my mind.
Where was Atticus? What would happen next? Why didn't Joshua say a word? Was it part of his disappearing act to be totally quiet? If Mark was on our trail, then the less noise, the better.
Joshua hadn't said a word after he'd pushed me into the lake, and that seemed far more ominous. I'd expected a maniacal prattle. Him to say his plans and reveal
