Hunter/Prey

Chapter 6

Well, shit, this worked out pretty well.

He had to summon every ounce of willpower just to keep from grinning from ear to ear for longer than half a second at a time. It was hard. Even more difficult to keep the laughter from bursting out of him. Definitely one of those LMAO moments. Or maybe even a LMFBO.

Because this was funny. This was so goddamned funny.

“Is this her?” the brunette who had patched him up asked. She was staring at the woman as the big jock continued to hold her down. “She doesn’t look dangerous.”

“Trust me, she’s dangerous,” he said, turning the Remington over in his hands.

“Is that yours?” Wade asked, nodding at the weapon.

The kid (well, he was a kid to Beckard, anyway) stood protectively over his girlfriend, Rachel, while one eye remained fixed on the woman struggling on the floor. The big kid, Donnie, had her pinned in some kind of wrestling move. He had at least a solid hundred pounds on her and had both of her arms wrenched back. It looked painful.

“He’s dangerous!” the woman shouted, her eyes darting to everyone in the cabin except him. “You don’t know what you’re doing! He’s going to kill all of you!”

“You’re the one with the shotgun,” Rachel said, leaning around Wade just far enough to get a good look at the woman.

“He’s a killer!”

“Shut up,” Donnie said and put more pressure on her arms, making her cry out.

“Donnie, stop it,” the brunette said, walking over. She was a small thing, and too skinny. Definitely not Beckard’s type. “You’re hurting her.”

“I would stop if she didn’t keep trying to get up,” Donnie said.

“Just go easy, okay?”

The big guy nodded and relaxed his grip a bit on the woman’s arms. “Better?”

“Yes,” the girl said. She crouched in front of the woman and gave her an almost apologetic look. “Please stop struggling. You’re only hurting yourself.”

“He’s dangerous,” the woman said through clenched teeth. She was focusing on Sabrina, obviously having decided that was where her salvation lay. “He’s not who you think he is.”

“He’s a cop,” Donnie said.

“He’s a killer!”

“You’re the one who kicked in our door with a shotgun,” Rachel said. She had emerged out from behind Wade’s protective force field, apparently having decided it was safe again.

“I had no choice!”

Beckard almost felt sorry for her. He could see the strained expression on her face, a mixture of pain and irritation. Maybe mostly pain. She looked past Sabrina and glared at him, and Beckard, again, had to summon all his willpower not to grin mischievously back at her. He was close, so close, but he could feel Wade watching him and managed to rein it in.

“You still have that cell phone?” he asked Wade instead.

The twenty-something nodded and turned to his girlfriend. “Babe, go get it for him, will you?”

Rachel hurried off, disappearing into a hallway in the back. The bedroom was back there, Beckard guessed. He made a mental note of that for later.

“How’s the reception?” he asked Wade.

“Spotty,” Wade said, “but we’ve been able to connect every time we’ve tried since we got here.”

“Good to hear.” He let his eyes dramatically fall back to the woman squirming on the floor when he added, “I need to call for some backup. She’s a lot more dangerous than she looks.” He touched his bandaged side for effect. “I didn’t see it coming at all. One minute she’s in the back of my squad car, the next she’s gotten the handcuffs off.”

“How did she get your shotgun?” Donnie asked.

The woman had stopped struggling against Donnie, probably realizing she wasn’t going to get free. She was now listening, glancing from Sabrina to Wade and back to him. He could practically imagine her mind turning, processing, trying to get a grip on the situation. He couldn’t help but be impressed with her attitude.

We could so make beautiful music together…

…if only she’d stop trying to kill me.

“I wish I knew,” Beckard said. He let out a disappointed sigh. “I don’t even know how she got out of those cuffs. I’m just lucky she didn’t finish the job and that I found you guys first.”

“She took your gun belt, too?” Wade asked.

“Yeah. I was unconscious for a while after we crashed.” He shook his head. “She’s a lot tougher than she looks,” he said, directing that at Donnie. “You should be really careful with her.”

“She’s not going anywhere,” Donnie said. “I can sit on her all night if I have to.”

“Hopefully you won’t have to.”

Rachel came out of the back with a cell phone and handed it to him. He noticed her hand was still shaking slightly even though she was putting on a brave face.

“Thanks, Rachel,” he said. Then, with as much concern as he could muster, “You okay?”

She shook her head, and he decided he liked the way her long blonde hair flitted from side to side when she did that. “I’m just really freaked right now, that’s all. I’ll be fine.”

“You’re doing great, babe,” Wade said. He held out his hand and Rachel walked over, took it, and slipped back into his protective force field.

Ah, must be true love, Beckard thought. “Don’t worry, I’ll get her out of your hair soon and you guys can go back to enjoying your vacation.” He smiled at Rachel. “You’ll be all right, I promise.”

She gave him a half-smile back and Beckard thought, Damn, I poured that on pretty thick. Hopefully I didn’t scare her off.

“Got any bars?” Wade asked him.

He nodded. “Plenty,” he said, walking to one of the windows and pretending to look out while he dialed a number on the phone.

He glanced over his shoulder at the woman, catching her defiant glare. He was surprised she had given up trying to convince the kids. Then again, she was smart and probably figured out she had no chance of success. Or very little. After all, he was a pretty damn good liar and held all the cards. And now he had the shotgun, too.

The kids were milling about as he dialed, but he caught the small brunette watching him curiously, almost suspiciously.

She’s gonna be a problem, that one.

Someone finally picked up on the other end of the phone call, the voice coming through the speaker placed against his ear where only he could hear it. “The number you have dialed is no longer in service,” a computerized female voice answered. “Please hang up and try again.”

Beckard ignored the voice and said into the phone, “Hey, Diane, it’s me.” He paused briefly before continuing. “Yeah, tell the captain I ran into some trouble escorting that woman back to the station. We got into a car accident and she escaped.” Another dramatic pause, followed by, “I almost died but I’m okay, thanks to some kids at a cabin in the woods.” He threw a quick look back at Wade. “What’s the address here?”

Wade told him, and he repeated it into the phone.

“…please hang up and try again,” the computerized voice repeated for the fourth time.

“Yeah, as soon as you can,” he said into the phone, then wiped at a string of dirty sweat on his forehead. “Great, thanks Diane. I’ll wait for them here.” He ended the call, walked over, and handed the phone back to Rachel. “Thanks for letting me borrow it.”

She nodded and put the phone away with one hand, the other still wrapped tightly around Wade’s waist.

“What’d they say?” Sabrina asked.

“They’re sending two squad cars over to take us back,” he said before glancing down at his watch. “I guess two hours?”

“That’s a long time,” Wade said.

“The station’s about twenty miles up the highway, and they’re going to have to look for this place. I’m just glad they had enough people on the night shift to come get us. We’re usually pretty low on manpower after sundown.” He looked at the woman. She was still staring daggers at him from the floor. “She’s dangerous, guys. We have to be really careful with her.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Donnie said. “You got your shotgun back, and I’m sitting on her. What’s she gonna do?”

Beckard smiled. “Good point, Donnie.”

“What now?” Wade asked.

“Sit back and wait for my reinforcements to arrive. Then we’ll be out of your hair, and you guys can all pretend tonight never happened.” He touched his side for effect again. “Well, it’ll be a while yet for me, but it’s all part of the job, I guess.”

“Hey, Donnie, we packed that duct tape, right?” Wade asked.

Donnie thought about it, then nodded. “Back in the van, in my bag. Why?”

“So we can tie her up, since—” he turned to Beckard “—you don’t have your cuffs anymore, right?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know what she did with them. Probably threw them into the woods.”

“He’s lying,” the woman said. “Don’t believe anything he says. He’s a killer!”

“Who?” the brunette asked.

“Him!” she shouted, staring at Beckard. “He’s dangerous!”

Beckard ignored her and said to Wade, “Can you go get that duct tape?”

“Sure,” Wade said. Then, he added, looking over at the woman, “Maybe we can use it to shut her up, too.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Beckard grinned back at him.