Head Over Heels (The Bridesmaids Club Book 3) (20 page)

“As soon as you arrive at grid twenty-three, report to Special Agent Lee. If you deviate in any way from what he tells you to do, you’ll be escorted off the ranch so fast that you won’t know what’s happened.”

Todd jerked his head forward in acknowledgment. He could live with taking directions from someone else as long as those directions led to Sally.

Alastair grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled a word on it. “Take this and don’t lose it.”

Todd stuffed the paper in his pocket and left the living room.

It was time to find Sally.

***

Sally pulled her knees closer to her chest and clamped her lips together. She tried not to move, not to make a sound. She’d stopped feeling the pain in her feet a while ago. She was so cold that she couldn’t feel much except the goose bumps covering her arms.

She’d heard the SUV leave. The headlights had flicked across the pine trees around her, giving her a brief glance of where she was. She’d thought about climbing out of the tree, running back to the barn. But it could be a trick. She didn’t know if the woman she’d stabbed had been in the truck or was following on foot. There could have been more people in the SUV, more people ready to kidnap her.

In the end, she’d decided to follow Alastair’s advice and stay where she was. With the noise coming from the barn, she wouldn’t have heard people approaching and no one would hear her yelling for help.

She was counting on the branches of the tree hiding her, keeping her safe from whoever was wandering around the ranch. She could see flashlights through the darkness. They were further away, toward the creek. It could be Alastair and Dominique, but it might not. Until they came closer, used the safe word, she wasn’t moving.

She twisted the band of her watch around, tried to see what the time was. But it was pitch-black in the tree and impossible to see anything. Alastair and Dominique must know she was gone by now. They would have called the Police, brought in reinforcements to find her.

Sally closed her eyes and imagined what Todd must have gone through when his wife and son had been killed. She’d never been so terrified, but it was nothing compared to what he must have felt.

She thought about the things she wanted to do with her life, the crazy, weird things that no one would understand. She wanted to skydive out of a plane, be part of the blue sky that stretched into forever. She wanted to see the ocean, walk on a beach and feel the sand between her toes. She choked back a sob. She wanted to find someone she loved more than life itself, get married and have babies.

Someone shouted and beams of light swiveled toward the trees. She pulled herself into a tighter ball and ignored everything around her. She started singing
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
in her head, over and over until she couldn’t remember how many times she’d repeated the simple nursery rhyme.

More noise surrounded her. Whoever was out there was getting close. Men were calling her name, beams of light pierced the darkness. She buried her head against her knees, prayed that her pale skin wouldn’t attract anyone’s attention.

And then she heard it, except it wasn’t the safe word she’d been waiting for. It was the deep, unmistakable bark of Max, her favorite canine. She started to move, then stopped.

Alastair had drummed into her what she needed to do. She had to wait.

If Max had been released from the barn, he might have raced across to the tree house out of habit. Or he might have smelled her scent, brought the people she didn’t want to see across here. She stared at the rope ladder. It was nothing but a lighter blur of black. She’d pulled it onto the wooden platform, coiled it around one of the thick branches surrounding her. No one would be able to get up the tree without it. She’d made sure of that.

More voices gathered close to the tree. Flashlights swiveled through the gloom and found her huddled shape against the edge of the tree.

“Sally, it’s me, Todd.”

She almost burst into tears. Her whole body started shaking worse than when she’d only been cold and afraid. She grabbed hold of the rope ladder, held on so tight that the cuts on her hands screamed in pain.

She could hear someone talking to Todd, but couldn’t work out who it was.

“Special Agent McDonald gave us the safe word. It’s…purple pumpkin?”

Sally’s hands dropped the rope. She uncurled her body and wiggled toward the edge of the platform. “I’m…” She started to speak, but her voice was croaky and almost non-existent. She cleared her throat and tried again. “I’m here.”

There was a moment's silence, then Todd’s voice shot through the terror that had driven her into the tree. “Throw down the ladder, Sally. I can’t come and get you without it.”

She unwound the dirty, frayed rope. She didn’t know if the tree house or ladder would survive two people using them, but she didn’t care.

“Here it comes.” The rope felt heavy in her hands, heavier than when she’d yanked it into the tree. She threw it over the edge and waited for Todd.

“Got it,” he yelled. Within minutes he’d pulled himself up the ladder and scrambled onto the platform. “It’s dark up here.”

Sally nodded. It was stupid. He couldn’t see what she was doing, but she didn’t know if she could speak.

“Sally?”

She started to stand up, but as soon as her feet hit the platform she cried out in pain.

“Stay where you are,” Todd said quickly.

She heard a click then scrunched her eyes tight. His flashlight blinded her, left white dots swimming behind her eyelids. She lifted her hands and covered her eyes.

“Sorry…” Todd mumbled. “I…” He moved closer. “Oh, Sally. I’m sorry. I really am so sorry.”

She didn’t know what he was talking about. “My feet are sore. I hurt them on some stones and twigs.”

Todd shone his flashlight on her feet and winced. “They’ve been bleeding. I’ll get someone to grab a harness and we’ll lower you to the ground.”

“Don’t be silly. All I need are a pair of sneakers to protect my feet. I’ll be okay.”

“No you won’t.” He looked over the edge of the platform. “Dylan? Are you there?”

“Yep.”

“I need a harness to get Sally out of the tree. And ask someone to bring their truck across here. Her feet are cut up pretty bad.”

“A truck’s pulling up now,” Dylan said. “I’ll be back in ten minutes.”

Todd sat beside her and started taking off his jacket.

“What are you doing?”

“You’re cold. If you’re not careful you’ll go into shock. Here…”

He held his jacket open and Sally put her arms into the sleeves. She might not want to be winched off the platform, but she wasn’t turning down the heat from his jacket.

Todd moved again, only this time Sally couldn’t work out what he was doing. “Don’t wiggle around too much. I don’t know strong the platform is.”

Todd stopped, then slowly went back to whatever he’d been doing. “Here…put these on your feet.” He shoved something into her hands. “Socks,” he muttered.

Sally felt his fingers on her skin and she pulled away.

Todd sucked in a sharp breath. “I’m sorry. I…”

“Stop saying you’re sorry. You’ve got nothing to be sorry for.” She leaned forward and carefully pulled the socks on. The cotton rubbed against the cuts on her skin, but they still felt better than having cold feet. “I didn’t pull my hand away because I don’t like you. I pulled it away because I fell over and hurt my hand.”

Todd turned his flashlight on and pointed it at her. “Show me.”

Sally frowned. “It’s probably only a scratch. You don’t need to worry about it.”

Todd’s mouth formed a straight line. “Show me.”

She wrapped her hands around her waist so he couldn’t see them. Each time she moved her fingers she had to stop herself from wincing. Whatever she’d done had been more than a scratch, and it hurt like crazy.

Todd lifted his flashlight until it was angled to the side of her. She knew she didn’t look her best, but she hadn’t expected him to mutter such a strong curse.

She pushed the flashlight away and watched the beam of light hit the trees. “Are Alistair and Dominique all right?”

Todd turned the flashlight back toward her. “Alistair’s fine, just worried about you. I haven’t seen Dominique. She was knocked unconscious. I think she might have been taken to the hospital. Did someone hit you?”

Sally frowned.

“Your face. It’s cut and bruised.” He lifted his hand and gently pushed her hair away from her face. “How many people attacked you?”

“No one attacked me. I did all of this on my own.”

Todd didn’t appreciate her sense of humor. “How many people should we be looking for?”

“Two that I know of. A woman with blonde hair told me she was an FBI special agent. Her name was Vicki Lanton. She said Mitch Zambezi was coming out to the ranch and she needed to take me away. When I realized she wasn’t who she’d told me she was, I took my shoes off and stabbed her under her chin with one of my heels.”

“You what?”

“Stabbed her. Have the police found her?”

“I don’t know.”

“There was a man, too. He had a British accent. It was too dark to see him, but he told me he liked hurting people.” Sally shivered despite the warmth of Todd’s jacket. The man had terrified her. He’d nearly found her, and she was sure he would of if he hadn’t left in such a hurry.

“The police stopped a man as he was leaving the ranch. I don’t know if it was the same one that came after you.” Todd yelled down to the people below, telling them to look for a woman with blonde hair and a man with a British accent. He sat back down beside her and leaned against the tree. “Mitch Zambezi’s been arrested.”

“I guess that’s something.”

“How bad is your hand?”

Sally clenched her fist and winced. “Sore.”

Todd didn’t say anything for a few minutes. “How attached are you to the hem of your dress?”

“What do you…oh.” Todd pulled a pocket knife out of his jacket. “Why do you want to cut my dress?”

“You’ve hurt your hand. We need to wrap something around it. If Dylan hasn’t got a winch, getting down the ladder will be difficult.”

Her hand was already throbbing. Gripping the ladder in one hand wouldn’t get her safely to the ground. She pulled the bottom of her dress up and held it toward Todd. “Cut away.”

Todd flicked the blade open and sliced the fabric. He silently put the knife away and tore a long strip of the satin away from the dress. “Now you have to give me your hand.”

She held her hand out and Todd frowned. “It’s more than a scratch.”

Sally didn’t want to look. She’d never told anyone, but she wasn’t that good around blood.

Todd ignored her shallow breathing and quickly wrapped the fabric around the palm of her hand. “You stabbed the woman who grabbed you?”

Sally bit her lip as he tied the ends of the fabric together. “The heel of my shoe was long and sharp. I didn’t have anything else.” Part of her knew she shouldn’t feel proud of what she’d done, but she did. She’d looked after herself, used all of her wits to get away.

“I wouldn’t have thought of using my shoe.” Todd shone his flashlight on her hand. “That should hold if you need to climb down the ladder.”

Sally thought about what had happened tonight. She’d beaten off a kidnapper, hidden from a crazy man, and now she was sitting in a tree with Todd. It had to be the weirdest night of her life.

They listened to the noise below them. The number of flashlights had decreased, but Max was still there. Sally could hear him panting and running between the pine trees. He probably thought they were playing hide-and-seek.

Todd moved his hand and the beam of the flashlight hit his wedding ring. Sally looked down at it and frowned.

“It reminds me of Emma,” Todd said softly. “Of what we had.”

“Do you miss her?”

“Every day.”

Sally thought about her grandparents. They’d died five years ago, but sometimes the little ball of grief inside of her was as raw and sore as the day they’d passed. Her granddad used to tell her that everything would be all right. That life was too short to worry about the small things. She wondered if he would be worried now.

“Are you two still up there?” Dylan’s voice yelled at them from the ground.

“Have you brought a harness?” Todd pointed his flashlight at Dylan.

“I did, but it’s not going to work. We found one of Sally’s high-heels. A police officer has the same sized feet, so she gave me her shoes for Sally. Here they come.” A pair of black leather shoes landed on the platform.

Todd didn’t look impressed. He picked up the shoes and handed them to Sally. “It’s going to be painful.”

Sally didn’t care. She had something else to worry about now. “I left the barn to go to the bathroom. I never got there.”

When Todd realized why she was putting the shoes on her feet so quickly, he smiled. “I guess we’d better get off here fast, then.”

Sally looked over the edge of the platform. It hadn’t seemed so high when she’d pulled herself up the ladder. Going down was a different story.