Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79312 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
I’ll have to go in alone. Just me and Lydia against our enemies. Maybe it’s only ever been me and Lydia against the world.
“I’m calling in backup,” Nikko snaps, tossing me my phone.
Zofia stands in the doorway. “Go, go! Leave me. I’m an old woman. Leave me and go get her.”
“You’re safer here.”
“We’ll all go,” Vera says. “Nikko, we have to.”
Nikko’s jaw clenches and hope soars in me. We’ll get her so much more easily if it’s not just me alone in a vast, vacant campground.
“Zofia, get on my back. I’ll carry you in.”
“Give me a weapon, Nikko.” Vera’s eyes widen, and Zofia shakes her head. “Do you think I spent the better part of five decades in this life, and I don’t know how to use a weapon?”
Nikko hands Zofia a gun, and I turn and bend so she can leap onto my back.
“This way,” Vera says. “Follow me!”
We go all the way down to the driveway and take a right. About a mile down, I finally see the entrance.
“Listen,” Vera says. “They'll be looking for you at the main entrance and by the gate. But there was another entrance for deliveries or something that Lydia and I knew about. This way.” She leads us off the main path and shows me a break in the fence covered by a worn wooden sign.
Due to current dry conditions, open fires are strictly prohibited. Help us protect our forests and keep everyone safe!
Vera pushes the sign. It wobbles. “Lift it, and I can get in and open the gate for you.”
I yank it off its hinges, and it splinters in my hands. Behind the sign is a small space, just big enough for her to squeeze into.
“Well, that will do the job, too,” she mutters to herself.
“Careful,” Nikko growls. He reaches for Zofia and gently takes her off my back. “Once Vera opens it, you come in,” he says gently. Zofia stifles a cough and nods. Her hand on the gun trembles slightly.
The gate creaks open, and we enter. I pull up my phone and remind myself of what I tell Lydia.
Staying calm is most important and gives you an advantage.
The tracker I have embedded in Lydia’s a high-end deal Aleksandr helped me secure and will track her to within one centimeter. I flip open the app. Immediately, a map of the campground comes into view. There’s a tiny red dot behind several cottages further down the road.
“He’s got her in one of the cottages.”
We walk through the nearly vacant campground. I swivel my gun toward the sound of a twig snapping, only to find a doe staring at us with wide, sad eyes.
“A sign of good luck,” Zofia says softly. “The Native Americans believed seeing a deer in the wild like this was a sign of good luck or good fortune.” She sighs. “Let’s find her.”
We can do this.
I didn’t even tell Lydia before she lost her shit that everybody in my family has these, including Vera. Me, all my brothers, my mother and my sister. It doesn't just track our locations but our biometrics.
I scan her reading. Her heart rate is elevated, but it’s still beating. She's alive but terrified.
Clouds move in, covering the sun, and a brisk wind kicks up. Distant thunder rolls overhead just before fat raindrops begin to fall.
“You have her?” Nikko asks, standing behind me, Zofia and Vera between us.
I nod. “Yeah. It says she’s about half a mile up ahead.”
“It’s one of the cabins,” Vera says, swallowing hard. “It’s apart from the rest on a little island… there’s no possible way to get there without them seeing us. It’s a trap, you guys.”
“I don’t fucking care,” I say, shaking my head. “If I had time, I’d get a helicopter and a bomb squad, but I don’t trust them.”
“You’ll go after her,” Nikko says. “I’ll stand on the shore and shoot anyone who fucking moves.” I nod. It helps to have a trained assassin on your side.
“You’ll save some for me,” Zofia says softly, her eyes gleaming. Nikko gives her a look of surprise. Her eyes narrow. “That’s my daughter, Nikko. You know how I feel about my daughters.”
“I do,” he says. “And I’ll give you whoever you shoot first. Deal?”
The skies open, and rain pours down in torrents. I’m glad Vera is with me because she knows the layout of the campground better than anyone else.
“This way,” she says, speaking above the sound of the pouring rain. Mud splatters onto us, our footsteps slippery. Zofia slips, but Nikko grabs her arm and rights her. We move forward as one.
Lightning strikes, the campground temporarily illuminated in vivid white before we’re cast back into a cloudless darkness. I look back at the monitor and see Lydia’s pulse has slowed, only a little. She’s remembering to stay calm.