Funeral for a Friend

23

High on the trail over Hawk Ridge, Cat felt as if she and Brayden were the only two people in the world. The dense brush made a little shelter where they sat on the rocks. Below them, the trees mostly blocked any views of the city, so all they could see were the green rolling hills of the northland heading to Canada and the great blue expanse of the lake. The morning air, only an hour after sunrise, was cool, with a breeze tumbling down the hillside and mussing her chestnut hair. The rush of the wind made the only sound, other than the occasional chatter of birds.

She plucked a stalk of white wildflowers that grew between the rocks and rubbed it along her cheek. She closed her eyes.

“You look relaxed,” Brayden said.

Cat gave him a dreamy smile without opening her eyes. “Not really, but being here helps. I needed to get away from all of the craziness for a while. That’s why I come here. To get away from everything. Hawk Ridge is my favorite place in the world.”

“Do you hike up here with Stride?”

“Nope. Not Stride. Not Serena. Not Curt. I always come here alone. Just me. And now you.”

“I’m honored.”

“You should be,” she replied, opening her eyes and giving him a smirk. “But you wouldn’t have let me come by myself, would you?”

“No.”

“There you go,” Cat said.

She shrugged a small backpack off her shoulders and put it in her lap. She unzipped one of the pockets and dug out a granola bar from inside, and she held it out to Brayden. “You want one?”

“No, thanks.”

“You don’t eat. You don’t drink. Are you always a good boy?”

Brayden laughed. “My father would roll his eyes at that idea, believe me. I was hell on wheels in school.”

“How’d you get past it?”

“Who says I did? You’re only seeing one side of me, Cat.”

“I’d like to see the other side.”

“No, you wouldn’t. Trust me, tigers are best left in their cages.”

“Oh, you’re a tiger, huh? Now you really have me interested.”

Brayden shook his head. “What is it with you? Do you flirt with every man you meet?”

Cat looked down at her lap, and her hair fell across her face.

“Sorry,” Brayden said. “That was mean. I don’t know why I said that.”

“No. You’re right. I’m screwed up when it comes to men. I probably always will be. Stride says I’ll have a normal relationship someday, but I don’t see it happening.”

“Why not?”

“Because of my past.”

“People change.”

Cat pulled her legs up and hugged her knees. She stared at the sweeping view below them instead of at Brayden. “Do you have any idea how many men had fucked me by the time I was sixteen? I’m sorry, Stride hates it when I talk like that, but I don’t know what else to call it. That’s what it was. That’s what they did. Guess how many.”

“It’s none of my business, and I don’t need to know.”

“Well, it was a lot. Most of them way older than you. That was my life, that was how I paid my way. The shrink I saw said I’d always be attracted to older men because of it. He said that while he was banging me in his office.”

“Cat, I don’t—”

“I had a boyfriend close to my age while I was pregnant,” she went on. “Al. It didn’t work out. I mean, he cheated on me, but even without that, I wasn’t really into him. The shrink was right. I’m stuck on older guys, no matter how they treat me.”

She could see that she was embarrassing him, but she charged ahead, the way she always did.

“Yesterday I told Stride I loved him. I mean, I do, and I always will, but he knew what I meant. He knew what I was offering if he wanted it. Can you believe I would say something so stupid? But that’s me. I always do. If something’s good in my life, I have to blow it up.”

“I really doubt there’s anything you could say that would blow up your relationship with Stride.”

“Well, it’s not like I don’t try. Believe me, I try hard with everybody. Look at you and me. I like you, Brayden. I like you a lot. And here I go running off at the mouth and telling you all sorts of shit that pretty much guarantees you’ll think I’m some kind of freak. Yeah, let’s go out with the ex-hooker who has a crush on the fifty-year-old guy who’s been like a father to her. I’m a prize. I really am. Did you know I’m a born-again virgin? It’s true. I haven’t had sex since I got off the street. I call it my second virginity. Which is a load of crap. I’m so horny I can’t see straight. I really, really, really want to have sex. With somebody, with anybody. But you know what I think about when I think about sex? I wonder if the guy will give me money when we’re done. I wonder if I’ll blurt out, ‘Hey that was fun, a hundred bucks please.’ Nobody would want to have sex with me for free. Come on. Look at what I’ve—”

Cat stopped in mid-sentence. Her eyes grew wide as her brain caught up with everything she’d been saying, and then she buried her face in her hands.

“Oh, my God,” she murmured, her voice muffled.

“It’s okay.”

She shook her head over and over. “Are you kidding? No, it’s not okay. I’m losing it. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. It’s the stalking, it’s everything. This is more than I can take.”

“Cat, I told you, it’s okay.”

She grabbed her backpack and scrambled to her feet. “Let’s go. Can we go? I need to get out of here.”

Brayden nodded. “Sure.”

He got to his feet, too, and they stood in front of each other on the rocks, not even a foot apart. The wind whistled around them. Two hawks floated in the currents of air far above their heads, and insects whined in the brush. Somewhere nearby, something cracked, an animal tiptoeing through the fallen branches. She felt tears in her eyes, but she hadn’t given in and cried yet. Brayden watched her, his blond hair swept back, a crooked smile on his face. He was tall, strong, beautiful.

“Kiss me,” Cat said.

“I can’t do that.”

“You said you have another side. You said you’re a tiger. Kiss me. No one will ever know. Kiss me!”

She didn’t give him a choice.

She took a step and grabbed him roughly. One hand went around his neck, one went around his waist. She tilted her face to him and pulled his head down, and her mouth closed over his, pushing his lips apart, moving inside him with her tongue. Her arms wrapped him up in a fierce embrace, her breasts crushed against his chest. He reacted, he gave in, just as she knew he would. Men always did. His fingers spread her silky hair. They broke apart only long enough to catch their breath and gasp with passion and then kissed again, even harder and stronger than before, his grip so intense that she felt herself lifted off the ground. She could feel his arousal.

When they stopped, he took a step backward. Shock flooded his expression, and his eyes darkened. Cat put her hands over her mouth, astonished at what they’d done, in disbelief that it had really happened.

There was no time to say anything more to each other.

An instant later, blood sprayed over her face like a red cloud.

Brayden shuddered. He staggered, grabbing his arm. The crack of a gunshot rippled over the wind. Cat tried to scream and couldn’t. She stood paralyzed, unable to move a muscle, until Brayden threw himself on top of her, pulling her to the rocks.

“Stay down, stay down!”

Another crack snapped through the air, and the ping of a bullet ricocheted off stone and sent up an explosion of dirt and dust. Then another. And another. Brayden slithered along the ground, taking Cat’s arm and dragging her with him. He pulled her into a valley behind a moss-covered boulder jutting out of the hillside. Wildflowers grew around them.

Just as they took cover, another shot fired right over their heads.

Brayden had his gun out in his left hand now. His right arm was ribboned with blood. He stretched out his arm with the gun aimed forward and took a quick look over the rocks.

“I don’t see anyone.”

“Should we run?”

“Not yet. Keep your head down.”

“But you’ve been shot!” she hissed. “Brayden, you’ve been shot! We need to get out of here!”

“I’m fine. Stay quiet, I need to listen.”

Cat squeezed her eyes shut. She heard the breeze around them, but nothing else except the heavy noise of their breathing. Each second ticked by with excruciating slowness as she huddled in the brush. Whoever was hiding on the other side of the clearing was quiet, too.

“Is he still there?”

“I didn’t hear anyone run away. I think he’s between us and the trail. We need to go straight down the hill to the road. Can you do that?”

“Me, sure, but what about you?”

“I told you, I’m fine.”

Brayden pointed across the flat ground. They were on a terraced, rocky section of the hillside, scattered with weeds and brush sprouting from the crevices. No more than twenty feet away, the land sloped downhill into a nest of tall bushes, spindly birches, and thick, conical evergreens. At the base of the hill was the narrow strip of road called Skyline Parkway.

“Once we reach the slope, we’ll be fine,” he told her. “But for a few seconds, we’ll be in the open.”

“What do we do?”

“When I say run, we run for the woods. Stay on my left side, and don’t get ahead of me.”

“But you’ll be exposed!”

“Hitting a moving target with a handgun is a lot harder than you think. Are you ready?”

Cat bit her lip. “I’m ready.”

“Run!”

With his left arm, Brayden yanked her to her feet, and the two of them took off across the rocks. Cat felt clumsy in her hiking boots, and when she stumbled, he had to keep her on her feet. His arm was around her waist. His body jigged, jumping and ducking across the uneven terrain as he guided her toward the trees. Gunfire erupted, little explosions that went wild. Cat’s mouth opened into one loud, unending scream as they flew for the slope, and when they got there, she threw herself into the arms of the brush, not caring as sharp little branches scratched her skin. Brayden was right there with her. He got ahead of her and cleared the path, breaking through the woods as she clung to his belt and followed. Everything was a blur of leaves rushing past her face, of dirt under her feet.

Then, seconds later, they burst out of the foliage onto the gravel road. The panorama opened up ahead of them. The city. The lake. White clouds streaming with the wind toward the east. Brayden’s Kia was parked on the shoulder twenty yards away. He kept his gun pointed into the trees as they hurried to the car.

“Get in the backseat,” he told her. “Lie down and stay there.”

She did as she was told, and she stretched out and covered her head. She heard Brayden’s footsteps, heard him go around to the driver’s side and fire the engine. The Kia accelerated with a screech. He sped around the curves, and the whole car shook, rolling her onto the floor.

It was only when they reached the city streets a mile later that he slowed down. Cat got up and tumbled awkwardly back into the front seat. She still had her backpack slung over her shoulders, and she grabbed it and found an extra T-shirt in one of the pockets. Brayden’s right arm was caked in blood, and she wrapped the shirt tenderly around his skin. Even the gentle touch made him wince.

“Are you really okay?” she asked.

“The bullet gouged me. I think it’s just a flesh wound.”

“You’re going to the hospital, right?”

“Yeah. Call Stride, tell him what happened. He should get a search party up on the ridge. The shooter won’t stick around, but maybe he left some evidence behind.”

Cat dug her phone out of her pocket, but before she could dial, she fell back against the seat and found herself struggling to breathe. She opened and closed her fists. The tears she’d been holding back ran like a river, and her whole body trembled.

Brayden saw her falling apart. “Cat, it’s over. We’re okay.”

She knew he was right, but it didn’t help.

“You’re fine. I’m fine.”

“He tried to kill me. He tried to kill both of us.”

Brayden reached out gingerly with his hand and touched her cheek, leaving behind sticky blood. “I know.”

“He saw us kiss,” Cat said, wiping away the blood.

“What?”

“We kissed up there. That’s what drove him crazy. He didn’t like that. He wants me all to himself.”