Hunter/Prey

Chapter 8

An hour and a half. He had that long to make it happen. The problem was the other three people in the cabin with Rachel. He’d have to get rid of them first before his “reinforcements” were supposed to show up.

The short girl, Sabrina, didn’t look all that athletic, and while he saw intelligence between those brown eyes, it took more than brains to stop him. The big guy, Donnie, would definitely be a problem. But Donnie was stupid, so maybe he was giving the kid too much credit. The other guy, Wade, didn’t look any smarter, but two meatheads were still one more than he liked to deal with at the same time.

And then, of course, there was the woman.

Allie.

That could be a made up name. Who knew what kind of lies she was telling the kids to get them on her side? She had already proven pretty damn resourceful, so he wouldn’t put it past her to be just as creative when it came to spinning a tale on the fly. If Beckard was good at one thing, it was hearing opportunity when it knocked, and he’d be goddamned if it wasn’t knocking pretty loudly at the moment.

Fortunately for him, the woman was tied up with duct tape and hadn’t moved from the corner where she sat quietly, head bent down in defeat. He didn’t believe it for a second. She was listening, absorbing everything he was telling the others and trying to figure out an alternative plan of action. Because she was smart and she knew she didn’t have a chance of convincing them he was the bad guy, not after kicking in their door with a shotgun.

That was so dramatic, too. Like a heroine in an action movie.

Ha!

He might have chuckled out loud, because Sabrina glanced over. “You say something?”

“I’m not sure, but I think the wound might have opened up,” he said, looking down at his side. “It feels like it’s burning. Can you take a look?”

Sabrina climbed off her stool. “Come on, the first aid kit’s in the bathroom, and I can clean some of that blood off for you.”

He got off the stool and reached for the shotgun on the counter—

“You don’t need that,” Sabrina said.

He pulled his hand back and smiled at her before saying to Donnie, “Keep an eye on it for me, will ya?”

The big kid nodded. “Meat’ll be done by the time you guys get back.” He turned one of the rib eye steaks over on the portable grill and grinned happily. “Can I cook or can I cook?”

“Just don’t burn mine again, Emeril Lagasse,” Sabrina said. Then to Beckard, “Come on, let’s get you fixed up.”

Beckard got off his stool and followed the brunette across the cabin.

As he walked past her, he glanced at Allie. Her head remained lowered, eyes staring at the floor as if she had withdrawn into her own world.

Bullshit.

He kept watching her, and just as he had almost passed her, she peeked and they locked eyes.

I knew it.

He winked, then stepped into the hallway after Sabrina.

It was going to be tricky with the big one outside and the couple in the room just down the hall from him at this very moment. He had to be very quiet, but at the same time very efficient. Fortunately, he had a lot of experience at doing both.

“She believes it,” the girl was saying.

“What’s that?”

“What she’s saying about you.” As she said that last part, she sneaked a look at him, as if trying to gauge his reaction. “She really does think you’re this serial killer they called the Roadside Killer. Why would she think that?”

“I guess she’s more mentally disturbed than I thought.” He feigned sadness. “I’ve seen a lot of crazy things in this job, but what happened tonight…I didn’t think she was capable of something like that.”

“Even after what she did to her boyfriend?”

“We don’t really know what she did to him, if anything.”

“Innocent until proven guilty?” Sabrina said, smiling at him as if to say, “You poor boy, you still believe in that silliness?”

He shrugged. “She was just a person of interest. I didn’t see any of this coming at all.”

“Still, she must have been pretty strong to knock you out. She doesn’t look that strong.”

“She had a little help. I hit my forehead on the steering wheel after the car went spinning off the road.”

“How did she manage that?”

He didn’t answer right away. Sabrina was unwinding the gauze around his waist to get a look at the wound underneath, but he noticed how she kept sneaking a look at his face by employing a variety of methods and angles, including using the dirt-stained mirror to their right to watch his reflection. She probably thought he didn’t know, but he knew.

Smart little bitch.

Not smart enough.

“I don’t know,” he said finally. “Man, the guys are going to have a field day at my expense when they hear about this, I can tell you that.”

“I can imagine. Guys being guys, I mean.”

“It’s worse with cops.”

“You don’t know where she put your gun belt?”

“No idea. She probably tossed it or something. She already had the shotgun. I was lucky to get out of there alive.”

“Maybe someone already found your car.”

“I don’t think so. When I came to, we were pretty deep in the woods. I must have stepped on the gas after she hit me from behind for us to get that far off the highway.”

Goddamn, I’m good at this. Who knew?

Sabrina tossed the bloody strips into a trash bin and peered at the wound for a moment. “Well, it’s not too bad. It’s mostly stopped bleeding. Does it still hurt?”

“More like nonstop tingling.”

“You were shot, so I’m guessing you’ll be tingling for a while. It looks like you’ll be okay until someone smarter than me and with a lot more medical school education looks at you.”

“You’re doing a pretty good job.”

She smiled almost shyly. “Thanks. I guess when you get right down to it, humans are basically animals who haven’t learned how to walk on all fours yet.”

He grinned and didn’t try to stop it that time because he figured it was the right reaction in response to a joke she probably had on standby. “Glad I stumbled into a veterinarian student all the way out here.”

“Must be your lucky night.”

“I’d say so. Aside from the whole getting shot part, I mean.”

She chuckled. “Still, you’re doing pretty good.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

She turned back to the first aid kit sitting on the counter and opened it. “Sit back.”

He did and let her roll another fresh strip of gauze around his waist. He could do a lot of things, but fixing his own wounds so he wouldn’t bleed to death wasn’t one of them. He blamed it on all the success he’d had over the years. Until now, until tonight, it had all been smooth sailing.

Then Allie showed up.

Christ, she lured me right in. The woman is cold as ice.

We could so make beautiful music together.

“I know about Wade and Rachel,” he said, “but you and Donnie?”

“We’re getting there,” Sabrina said, again with that slightly shy half-smile.

“Does he play football or something?”

“Donnie? Nah. He’s just a big Neanderthal.”

Beckard chuckled. “He’s a pretty big kid. That size’s going to waste.”

“He played in high school, but he was never good enough to get a scholarship or anything. I like him anyway, his primitive DNA and all.” When she was done, she put the rest of the roll back into the plastic white box. “You should try not to move too much until your friends get you to an actual doctor.”

“I wish I could do that, but I have too many things going on right now.”

“Like what?”

“You, for instance.”

She might have looked confused, but her back was to him and he couldn’t verify her reaction. “Me?”

“Yeah, you. Donnie and Wade, too. You guys are in my way.”

“I don’t understand,” she said, turning around. “In your way how—”

She never got a chance to finish, because he had already sank the first three inches of the knife into her side, and as she opened her mouth to gasp — or perhaps to scream — he clasped his left hand over it.

He pushed her back up against the counter and shoved in the remaining seven inches of steel. Her eyes widened into giant saucers, so wide that he imagined them popping and shooting across the room, maybe even bouncing off the closed door behind him and going splat against the floor, like in a cartoon.

Instead, she slumped against the counter, and he grabbed her around the waist and guided her body slowly to the floor. With the knife still embedded in her side, there wasn’t a lot of blood. Only a thin trickle managed to drip out of the wound and along the black handle, speckling the dirty tile floor.

Beckard took his hand away from her mouth only after she had stopped moving completely. He craned his head and listened for noises but could only smell sizzling steaks wafting into the room under the slot in the door.

He turned back to Sabrina, then pulled the knife gently out of her side to avoid the splashing effect. He wiped the blade on her shirt, then put it back into its nylon sheath before standing up and checking himself in the mirror.

Satisfied he didn’t have any extra (fresh) blood on him, Beckard flicked off the lights, then opened the bathroom door.

He felt like whistling but managed to stop himself just in time. He was giddy, which was something he didn’t have to temper because it didn’t really show outwardly. Or, at least, he didn’t think it did.

One down and two to go before he could start having fun again…