CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Yardley had never felt more exposed in her life than when she pushed through the cafeteria doors. Suddenly she was enveloped in illumination that was klieg-light-brilliant, or so it seemed after the tomb-like interior of the classroom building. Blinking and hiding her offended eyes behind an upheld hand, she fell back into the darkness and let the door close.
No way could she force herself to be exposed like a deer in headlights. Every cell in her body screamed Take cover.
Before the more cerebral parts of her brain caught up, her lizard brain’s self-protective tactics had moved her back across the cafeteria and into the classroom corridor. Lizard brain was taking her back the way she had come. It knew that way was safe. At least, it had been safe before. At the moment, nothing sounded better to either parts of her brain than “been there done that.”
It was a kick in the seat of her pride to realize that all she wanted to do was climb under her desk in her office and wait until daylight. She wasn’t going to do that but it made more sense than what she was about to do. Being afraid was getting to be a habit. First Stokes. Then finding David shot. Finally the realization that the man who’d shot David had brazenly entered her home to do more damage.
If not for Kye.
And that was why she was going out into this very unfriendly night. Because of the three of them, he was the innocent party. He was here because of her. She had to help him any way she could.
As for all the other feelings sloshing around inside her, they’d have to wait.
Nerves on high alert, she very carefully pushed open the same door she had unlocked for Kye to enter earlier. The deep shadows at the back of the building seemed almost friendly. But she was taking no chances. Her vision had yet to clear the blank blackness that followed exposure to her sodium security lamp out front.
Using her left hand as a guide along the wall, she moved for the corner of the building as fast as was safely possible. Once there, she paused to catch her breath. She hadn’t been able to see a thing. But as the door behind her finally clicked shut, her vision came online again, minus the floaty black spots still blanking places. She looked down for three seconds then up again.
Kye was up ahead, at the far end of the bunkhouse. She knew it was him because, despite the fact he was only a vague upright outline, she doubted anyone else was out in these frigid temperatures without a coat. His back glowed faintly, as if his torso were radioactive, his white undershirt eating up the merest rays of light.
Relief flooded her, making her stumble. A moment later another sight arrested her movement altogether.
Beyond the outline of Kye, figures emerged from the back of her house.
Her blood ran cold. The two carried a third slumped between them, head hanging limply down, with an arm draped over the shoulders of the men on either side.
David! Dear God.
Yard slapped a hand over her mouth. She hadn’t actually cried out, had she? The wail was so vivid in her mind she couldn’t be certain. Until she realized no one had reacted.
Heart thundering, she forced herself to concentrate on the men moving across her yard. They were headed toward the rear. At fifty feet out, the ground suddenly swelled upward into the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was one of the reasons her father had never bothered to fence it off, as he had the front property. No one was going to take an easy stroll up or down that slope. Tonight it was dark and treacherous with snow accumulations. The only reason the men carrying David would head that way was because they knew it was an escape route.
All at once she understood. They must have known about the utility road up along the lower ridge and parked a vehicle up there. The road ran for miles before coming out on the Lexington Turnpike that bisected the mountains. If they got away to the east, they would have a clear shot at escaping before law enforcement could pick up their tail. Someone needed to stop them.
With that thought in mind she moved forward—only to see Kye, weapon drawn, step out of the shadow into the light of the security lamp.
*