Standing up straight, I take a couple more breaths as I tuck the weapon back into my pocket and return inside.
“That motherfucker found us.”
I look at Iris and nod once, surprised she’s not screaming at me.
“He’s gone now,” I tell her as I pull her against my chest. “He won’t fucking touch you, you hear me?”
“He won’t stay gone.” She presses her cheek against me.
“Yeah,” I say softly, “I know he won’t.”
Chapter 30
“You’re going to freeze if you keep going out there.” Seri raises an eyebrow at me and smiles, but I know she’s worried.
“I’m just going to give it one more look while there’s still daylight,” I tell her.
“Don’t be long,” she says. “It’s still Christmas, after all.”
“I won’t be.”
As I bundle up to go outside, I forgo the snowshoes, preferring to be a little more mobile. The path from the cabin to the barn is well established at this point, and there isn’t much risk of sinking. Something in my gut tells me that Kyle is still close by, and I want to be able to get back to the cabin quickly. He’s been looking for Iris for months, and now that he knows where she is, he won’t stay away very long. The problem is, I don’t know when he’ll come back or with whom.
I look out across the horizon and listen closely for the sound of a snowmobile or any other kind of engine, but I see and hear nothing. I may be a criminal, but I never saw myself as someone with the same kind of mindset my prison peers had. If I were better at thinking like a criminal, maybe I would know what Kyle is going to do next. If I could predict his movements, I could better protect Iris.
One thing is for sure. Now that he knows I’m armed, he’s not going to come back alone. He has at least one friend with him. If I had to guess, I would say the driver of the car I saw at the clinic was Max, the business partner Iris told me about. If Kyle comes back tonight, he’ll have Max with him.
I head inside the barn and look all around, finding nothing unusual
. I walk over to the stone section and decide to pull out some bear meat. Seri might like having something a little different for Christmas dinner. I find a good piece under the fish and caribou, but it’s quite stuck. I pull my gloves off so I can grip my knife a little better and use the knife to chip away at some of the ice before I can pull out the meat.
As I come out of the barn, I see a slight movement to my left. I glance that way just before a rush of motion heads straight for me. A second later, I’m knocked off my feet, and the bear meat goes flying into a snow bank. I land on my ass next to the woodpile with a giant of a man heading straight for me.
“Hello again!” Kyle sneers as he walks around the edge of the barn.
They must have come from the southwest, around the far edge of the marsh, and followed the rock wall. All this time, I’ve been watching for them to come from the east, the direction of the road, but they took the long way around.
Fuck!
I jump to my feet as the big guy—Max, I assume—heads toward me again. Now that he’s not sitting inside of a car, I can appreciate the sheer size of the man. He has at least four inches and maybe sixty pounds on me.
He rushes at me, and I try to hold my knife out with one hand while simultaneously grabbing the Sig from the pocket of my parka. It doesn’t work. I’m not fast enough. Max is on top of me, grabbing my wrist and slamming my hand against the hard, icy ground until the knife drops. He leans his forearm across my neck and sneers down at me.
“Get him up,” Kyle says.
Max holds my arms, and Kyle punches me square in the jaw. My head reels and lights flash in my eyes from the blow. He hits me again just as Max releases my arms, and I go flying toward the woodpile.
I land in the snow and roll, hoping to regain my footing, but my leg lands hard against a splintered piece of wood sticking up from the ground. It penetrates my thigh, and I cry out. It feels like all the skin on my leg has been torn away, and when I try to put weight on that leg, I start to fall.
Max grabs my arm before I hit the ground. I swing at him, but the angle is wrong, and I don’t deliver enough force. Kyle is right there in front of me, and he kicks me in the side as Max grabs my other arm and wrenches both behind me. Kyle’s blow is insignificant through my parka.
As Max holds my arms, Kyle stalks up in front of me and spits in my face. He punches me in the chest, but the parka takes much of the blow.
“Just a bit too much padding here.” Kyle grins maliciously as he reaches forward and yanks my parka open. He pulls it back over my shoulders and then down my arms. I try to kick at him, but Max’s grip on me is too strong to do any damage. I continue to twist and turn, trying to get an advantage, but there’s nothing I can do. Once my thick coat is out of the way, Kyle slams his fist into my gut as the biting cold stings my body.
“Merry-fucking-Christmas, Mr. Bishop!” Kyle laughs as he hits me in the stomach and chest several times, then punches me in the face as well. “I gotta tell you, I couldn’t have asked for a better present.”
My vision is going a little blurry, but I try to hold my head up when he’s not actually hitting me. The sun is setting, and the temperature is dropping rapidly. Without the parka, my limbs are beginning to go numb as my body conserves its heat at my core.