In the next second, she was pulling down his zipper, not shocked to discover he wasn’t wearing any underwear. He stepped quickly out of his jeans, kicking them impatiently aside. “Now you,” he said.
Nikki threw open her robe and let it fall from her shoulders.
“Wow,” Tyler said.
“You like?”
“I like very much.” He pulled her toward the bed, his hands moving down to cup her buttocks.
“Bet you weren’t expecting this when you knocked on my window.”
“I gotta tell you, this is better than my wildest fantasies.”
“Tell me what you like,” Nikki said, climbing on top of him as they fell onto the mattress. “Tell me what you want me to do.
I’ll do whatever you want.” She began tracing a line from his chest to his groin with her tongue.
“You’re doing it,” he said hoarsely.
“What about this?” she asked, looking toward the bathroom as she took him inside her mouth, knowing Kenny was watching, transfixed.
“Are you kidding me?”
“Do you have a rubber?”
“What?”
“Gotta have a rubber.”
“I have some in the pocket of my jeans,” Tyler managed to croak out.
“Better get them.”
“Right.”
Nikki watched Kenny duck back into the bathroom as Tyler fumbled around in the dark for his jeans, standing up seconds later in triumph, a condom in his hand. He was returning to the bed when he stopped suddenly. “Do you smell something?”
Nikki sniffed lazily at the air. “Something probably crawled underneath the cottage to die.”
“Kind of a grim thought.”
“Things die.” Nikki looked pointedly at Tyler’s now flaccid penis.
“Don’t worry,” Tyler said, his eyes following her gaze. “I got distracted. I’m sure you can revive him.”
“You know what I’d like?” Nikki asked as Tyler was about to climb back into bed.
“Name it,” Tyler said eagerly.
“I’d like some tea.”
“What? Tea? Now?”
“I have this great peach and cranberry tea. It’s kind of an aphrodisiac.”
“What’s that?”
“Makes you horny. Lets you go all night.”
“Really?”
“It’s the best.” Nikki pushed herself off the bed, leading Tyler by the hand out of the bedroom, and wondering if all men were this dumb. It was time to get this show on the road, she was thinking as they entered the main room. Tyler Currington was about as challenging as Little Bo Peep.
“The smell’s even worse in here,” Tyler said as Nikki walked purposefully toward the knives on the kitchen counter and Kenny emerged from the bedroom, blood-encrusted machete in hand. “And there’s something sticky all over the carpet. God, what is it? Maybe you should put on a light.”
Nikki flipped on the overhead switch, her low cackle slithering across the blood on the floor like a snake through high grass. “The better to see you with, my dear.”
W
HERE THE HELL IS everybody?” Val was pacing back and forth in front of the deserted campground office, a small, prefabricated cabin made of pine and glass. “It must be seven o’clock by now.”
“Another five minutes,” Melissa told her, checking her watch again.
“You’d think somebody would get here a little early. I mean, don’t they have to get organized or anything?”
“Guess they’re pretty organized already.” James stared through the early morning fog at Jennifer, who was walking around the gravel parking lot in circles, still trying to get reception on her cell phone.
“I think I hear a car coming,” Gary announced, looking toward the road.
Seconds later, a dark green van pulled up and a heavyset, middle-aged woman wearing a brown uniform and carrying a jumbo-sized cup of steaming hot coffee got out. Her name tag identified her as Carolyn Murray, Director. She didn’t look happy when she saw them. “Is there a problem?” she asked warily, walking briskly toward the cabin.
Val glanced at Gary, afraid to let their eyes connect. Gary was as anxious as she was to contact the park rangers. Her daughter’s boyfriend had knocked his son unconscious, then left him by the side of the road, in the middle of the night, in the middle of a violent storm. Understandably, he wanted charges filed against the young man. Val had been too afraid to ask whether he wanted those charges to include Brianne.
Val followed Carolyn Murray to the cabin’s front door, trying to explain the situation as quickly and as best she could, the words somersaulting from her mouth in a twisted rush: her daughter had snuck out in the middle of the night to meet her boyfriend, the boyfriend had been drinking, he’d punched out Gary’s son, left him unconscious by the side of the road, disappeared with her daughter in the middle of that terrible storm, her daughter hadn’t returned to the camp, she was missing …
“Well, she’s not exactly missing, is she?” Carolyn Murray interrupted, fumbling in her pants’ pocket for her keys. “You just don’t know where she is.”
“Is there a difference?” Val felt Melissa’s sudden grip on her arm, warning her to stay calm.
“I’m just saying, it’s not as if she’s been kidnapped, that’s all. You said she snuck out to meet her boyfriend …”
“… who’d been drinking …”
“He attacked my son,” Gary interjected. They’d left Hayden at the tents to rest and watch for Brianne’s return.
“I’m sorry, but are you suggesting that Starbright is in any way responsible for this?” Carolyn Murray asked.
“No, of course we’re not suggesting …”
“We’re just saying,” Val began, her tongue sticking on the words. “We’re just saying …” Dear God, what
were
they saying? “If we could just use your phone to call the park rangers …”
“Oh,” Carolyn said, softening somewhat. “Certainly.” She pushed her key into the front door lock, twisting it back and forth to no avail. “Damn this stupid thing,” she cursed. “It’s always doing this.”
Could anything else possibly go wrong? Val wondered.
Jennifer suddenly screamed. “I did it! I got through. His phone is ringing. It’s actually ring— Hello? Hello, Henry, is that you?”
Better late than never, Val thought, trying not to hear the expression’s rarely voiced corollary whispering in her ear:
But better never than too late
.
“This is Jennifer. From last night. Wait, wait, you’re cracking up … Hello?”
“Got it,” Carolyn Murray exclaimed as the key suddenly turned in the lock and the cabin door fell open.
“Henry? Don’t move. I’ll call you right back on another line,” Jennifer said, following the others into the cabin.
“You can use that phone over there.” Carolyn pointed toward the wall, where an old-fashioned black telephone sat on a wobbly wooden coffee table between two worn turquoise-blue tub chairs. She walked behind the reception counter and took a long sip of her coffee, watching them intently while pretending to look over some papers. The expression on her face said she was still concerned about the campground’s potential liability in the event of a lawsuit.
Jennifer punched in the numbers to Henry’s line, numbers she now knew by heart. The phone was picked up immediately. “Henry, it’s me again, Jennifer.”
“Tell him Brianne is missing,” Val instructed, glancing at Carolyn Murray through lowered eyes.
Jennifer nodded. “You know my friend’s daughter,” she began, stumbling only slightly on the word
friend
, “the girl you escorted back to the campsite last night. Right, that’s the one.”
“What’s he saying?” Val asked.
Jennifer put her hand over the receiver. “He remembers who she is.” She quickly filled Henry in on everything that had happened, conceding that Brianne had driven off with Tyler and might no longer even be in the area. “What kind of car was he driving?” she asked Val, repeating Henry’s question.
“A black Honda,” Gary answered before Val had a chance. “A Civic. Hayden said it was at least ten years old.”
“Did he, by any chance, catch the license number?” Jennifer asked, echoing Henry’s question word for word.
Gary shook his head.
Jennifer passed this information on to Henry. “Really? Right now? Okay. Okay, yeah. Thank you so much.” She replaced the receiver in its carriage.
“What did he say?” Val asked. “What did he say?”
“He said he’ll call ranger headquarters immediately and alert them that Brianne is missing, give them her general description, etc. He said we should go back to the campsite and wait in case she comes back on her own, and that they’ll send some rangers out to interview us about Tyler and the car and everything. They’ll probably put an APB out on the car, and in the meantime, he’ll start looking around on his own, even though it’s his day off. So, that’s good. At least we’ve got the ball rolling.”
Val nodded gratefully, feeling her knees start to wobble and give way. Gary caught her just as she was about to hit the floor. Suddenly she was surrounded.
“My God. Are you all right?” James.
“Can we get some water over here?” Melissa.
“What happened?” Jennifer. “Did she faint?”
“Not quite. Almost,” Val said, trying to hold on to consciousness.
“Here’s some water.” Carolyn Murray elbowed her way into the middle of the tight group. “You all need to back off a bit, give the poor woman some air. You didn’t hit your head or anything, did you?”
“No.”
“You signed a waiver …” Carolyn reminded her.
“I’m not going to sue,” Val said adamantly, taking a series of small sips from the glass of water. “I’m just a little wobbly.”
“Understandably,” Melissa said.
“We didn’t get a lot of sleep last night,” James explained.
“Think you can stand up?” Gary asked.
“I think so.”
He helped Val to her feet. “Take your time.”
“I’m so sorry,” Val whispered, leaning into him and feeling his body stiffen, then pull away.
“I know.”
“I feel so guilty.”
“None of this is your fault, Val.”
Val sighed. But you blame me anyway, she thought, understanding his anger, knowing she’d feel the same way if their situations were reversed. His son had been injured. Her daughter was, if not responsible, then at least involved. Gary had every right to be furious.
“Do you mind if I use the phone to call New York?” Jennifer was asking the camp director. “I’ll call collect.”
Carolyn nodded and shrugged simultaneously, her eyebrows lifting toward her forehead. “Go ahead.”
Val knew that Jennifer was phoning Evan. She found it interesting that for a man who loved living on the edge, he was never actually there when everything started to collapse. She found herself wondering if this was more a matter of luck or cowardice.
“I keep getting his voice mail,” Jennifer said, giving up in defeat after leaving messages on both Evan’s private and work lines. “He promised yesterday he’d leave first thing this morning, so maybe that means he’s on his way. I’ll call the lodge again and leave another message for him there,” she added, doing just that.
“You’ll send the park rangers over to our tents as soon as they get here?” Val asked Carolyn.
“Count on it.”
Count on it
, Val repeated silently, savoring the sound of those three little words. There were fewer and fewer things one could count on these days, she was thinking as they left the office and began the trek back to the camp.
NIKKI WALKED INTO the living room from the bedroom, a fluffy white bath towel secured above her breasts, a smaller towel wrapped around her wet hair, like a turban. “Did I hear a phone ring when I was in the shower?”
“Listen to this,” Kenny said, his voice resonating with excitement as he finished securing the top button of the shirt he’d taken off the body of the murdered park ranger. He gave the tin badge on his chest a reassuring pat.
“Tell me.”
He relayed the details of his conversation with Jennifer. “I told her I’d notify my fellow officers immediately and start searching for Brianne personally, even though it’s my day off.”
“You’re such a good guy.”
“It should buy us a few hours anyway.”
“You look so handsome in your new uniform.”
“It’s not too tight?”
“Just a little. But it suits you. You’re making me horny all over again.”
“Haven’t you had enough?”
“Of you? Never.”
“What about Tyler? Did you get enough of him?”
Nikki felt a wave of pride. Was that jealousy she was hearing in his voice? She waved a dismissive hand in front of her face. “He was nothing.”
“You sure looked like you were enjoying yourself.”
“I enjoyed knowing you were watching me.”
“Like I’m going to enjoy knowing you’re watching me,” he told her, tucking the dead ranger’s gun into its holster, “when I bring Brianne home.”
Nikki felt a tightening in her chest, her previous resolve crumbling. She tried her best to sound casual. “Thought we were going to do her together.”
“We will. After I get things warmed up a little first.”
Nikki forced her lips into a smile, following after him. “Think she’ll still be there?” She was desperately hoping the girl had somehow managed to find her way out of the woods.
“Where would she go?”
Nikki shrugged. “I like the name Brianne,” she said, feigning indifference. “Maybe I’ll start using it, after …”
“After?”
“After she doesn’t need it anymore.”
He smiled. “Then I better go find her. In the meantime, maybe you can do something about the smell in here. Tyler was right. It’s getting pretty bad.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“I think I saw some air freshener in the bathroom.”
“I hate those things. They make me gag.”
“And while you’re at it, maybe you can clean up some of this blood.”
“What? Why? It’s just gonna get bloodier. Isn’t it?”
“Of course it is. But, in the meantime, we don’t want Brianne thinking we keep a messy house,” he said, with a wink. “How would that look?”
“Maybe we should just forget about her.”
“What? No way.”
“We’re running out of time here, Kenny. Not to mention, we spent most of our money on those fancy dinners at the lodge. And how long’s it gonna be before the real rangers start snooping around?” She smiled at the memory of him standing outside the cottage door, wearing the uniform of the park ranger he’d just murdered, the poor man having had the misfortune to cross his path while he was disposing of David Gowan’s body parts.