Collision

Book One, Chapter Four

Kathleen couldn’t stop smiling as she walked back down the trail toward the cabins. In fact, it was all she could do to keep from laughing. She hugged her purse to herself.

I did it! I really did it!

She gasped when someone grabbed her wrist and pulled her into a thicket of trees. Before her martial arts training had time to kick in, the person covered her mouth with a hand and spun her around until they were face to face. Sam.

What is he doing? She narrowed her eyes at him. Is he out of his mind? She couldn’t read his expression.

“The police are here looking for me.” He kept his voice low. “If I take my hand away, do you promise you won’t scream?”

She nodded.

He slowly removed his hand, hovering it near her mouth. She knew he was holding it close in case she went back on her word.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

He explained what had happened while he was in the visitors’ bureau slash medical center. “I got out through the bathroom window and have been sneaking around the woods trying to get back to the cabin. I need my pack, then I can get out of here.”

“Are you sure it’s you they’re looking for?”

“I’m fairly certain. I overheard one of them say something about stealing government property.”

“Oh.” She frowned. “I guess you did kinda do that.”

“In my opinion, it’s a gray area.”

“They apparently don’t agree.” She poked her head out from behind a tree. “I don’t see them anywhere. Maybe they’ve gone. I’ll go see.”

“Wait.” He caught her arm. “We have to come up with some sort of plan. How will I know whether it’s safe to come out of the woods?”

“You said you were working your way around to the back of the cabins. If it’s safe, I’ll turn the kitchen light on.”

“It’s broad daylight.”

“Fine. I’ll hang a T-shirt out the window or something.”

“Or something?” He spread his hands. “I can’t go on some ambiguous sign that might or might not mean come out, come out, wherever you are.”

She rolled her eyes. “When it’s safe to come out, I’ll hang a blue T-shirt out the window. T-shirt? Come to the cabin. No T-shirt? Stay in hiding. Happy?”

“No, I’m not happy. I’m being hunted down like a fugitive. It’s hard to tell what these people think I did. But, yeah, I’m satisfied with the plan.”

“Good.” Once more, Kathleen started to walk away.

“Hey.”

She turned to look up at him.

“That was a fantastic jump.”

She squealed. “You saw it?”

“Shhhh!”

“Sorry,” she whispered. “You saw it?”

“Yeah, I saw it. You did great.”

She squeezed his arms and gave a quieter squeak of delight. “It was amazing, Sam. Have you ever done it?”

He shook his head.

“You’ve got to try it sometime.” She beamed up at him. “I’ll let you know as soon as it’s safe to come to the cabin. Do you still have your key on you?”

“It’s in my pocket.”

As Kathleen walked away, Sam berated himself for ever believing she could have turned him in. Of course, Amun-Ra had found some way to track him. He’d probably put GPS devices in all the emergency bags. The man was a control freak with a capital F. He wouldn’t let any of his investments get away from him. Not easily, anyway.

His right arm throbbed where Kathleen had squeezed it, but she’d been so happy. He was glad his pain hadn’t shown on his face. It was weird that she hadn’t brought anyone to share this experience with her. How many people go bungee jumping alone? Most people either have their friends or partners along for moral support if nothing else. But not Kathleen. It seemed she was a loner.

Sam was a loner too. The sooner he got his gear out of that cabin and took off, the better. He’d relied on Kathleen initially because he’d had to. She’d been there when he’d needed to make a quick escape, and she’d been instrumental in making that happen.

But even though he was convinced she hadn’t turned him in to the police, he couldn’t continue to rely on her. He knew absolutely nothing about this woman, except maybe the fact that she was an adrenaline junkie. And that certainly wasn’t enough to make him trust her. Besides, if Amun-Ra caught them, he’d likely consider the woman expendable. It was best they go their separate ways.

Staying near shady copses to avoid casting a shadow, Sam crept deeper into the woods.

As Kathleen sauntered back toward the cabin, she was stopped by a uniformed officer.

“Good afternoon, ma’am.” He held up a grainy photograph of Sam. “Have you seen this man?”

She took the photo from the policeman and studied it. “Who is this guy? What did he do?”

“I’m not at liberty to say. Just need to know if you’ve seen him.”

Kathleen shook her head. “I haven’t really been paying attention to other people. I just did my first bungee jump.”

“Congratulations.” He plucked the photo from her fingers.

“It was great. Have you ever done it?” She gave a deliberate scan of the area. Without giving the officer an opportunity to answer her question, she hurried on. “Wow, there are a lot of you guys here today.” She let her voice climb. “Is this man dangerous? I mean, he must be for so many police officers to be looking for him. What did he do? Did he kill somebody? Is it safe to be here?”

“Ma’am, please lower your voice before you cause a panic.”

“Well, I’m already panicked. This is scary.”

“Please calm down.” He placed one hand on her shoulder. “As far as we know, this man isn’t dangerous. We simply need to find him.”

“I don’t care. I don’t feel safe here. I’m leaving.”

“All right. But if you see this man, please let us know and don’t approach him.”

“Don’t approach him?” she repeated. “You just said he wasn’t dangerous. Why shouldn’t I approach him if he isn’t dangerous? You people owe it to those of us in this campground to tell us the truth…to keep us safe.”

A young man with a skateboard stepped closer. “Hey, what’s going on? I noticed all the police around and then here you are talking about somebody dangerous.” He nodded toward Kathleen. “She’s right. You all are supposed to protect us. If there’s a manhunt here, you need to let us get out.”

The officer sighed. “There’s not some maniac on the loose in the park. We’re merely looking for someone.  A potential…witness. It’s not a big deal.”

“Yeah, right,” said the skateboarder. “If it wasn’t a big deal, one or two of you—not half a dozen—could handle it.”

Kathleen eyed the skateboarder, who didn’t seem much older than some of her students. “Hey, I took my first bungee jump today!”

“All right!” He gave her a fist bump.

“Are you a jumper?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah.”

The officer shook his head and walked away. After hearing one of the skateboarder’s either embellished or completely fictitious accounts of bungee jumping backward off a bridge in Victoria Falls with only one leg secured, Kathleen excused herself and casually made her way to the cabin.

She kept an eye out for the officers as she walked, but she believed she’d done a sufficient job of convincing the first one she’d spoken with that she was an airhead who knew absolutely nothing. It wasn’t hard to maintain a silly expression to sustain that belief since she was still giddy from the jump.

As Kathleen mounted the two steps to the cabin door, she took the key from her purse and quickly unlocked the door. When she entered, a noise came from the bedroom, and she froze.

“Hey…babe. Is that you?” she called, not wanting to call out Sam’s name if it wasn’t him. She took a step back toward the door just in case it wasn’t Sam or a police officer.

“Um, yeah. Give me a minute. I just got out of the shower.”

“You did?”

“Is someone with you?”

“No.”

“Oh.” Sam stepped out of the bedroom. “You threw me.”

“I wasn’t sure it was you in there.” She closed the door. “What happened to waiting for my signal?”

“Changed my mind. I thought I’d be better off in here than out there with the cops. At least I can hide in here.”

“How’d you get inside?”

“I picked the lock on the back door.”

She frowned slightly. “And the bit about the shower?”

“Buying myself some time in case there was a policeman with you,” he said. “Someone still might be by to check the cabin.”

“Maybe, but I’ve already spoken with one and given him the impression that I’m a total ditz. So if he comes by, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“You spoke with one? Why?”

“He approached me and showed me a photo of you. Not a very good likeness, if you want my opinion.”

“And?”

She shrugged. “I got all scared and started asking questions. You know, who is this guy? What did he do? Is he dangerous?” She grinned. “He’d have a really hard time believing I’d picked you up off the side of the road and brought you here so you could creep around the woods and break into cabins.”

“That wasn’t my purpose in coming here.”

“I know. Lighten up a little.” She eased over to the window, pushed aside the curtain slightly, and looked outside. “As soon as we have a clear shot, we need to get you out of here.”

“I’ve been thinking about that.” He expelled a breath. “Not a good idea.”

“You said yourself that the police would probably be looking through all the cabins…if they haven’t searched them already.”

Sam shook his head. “I don’t think they’ve searched the occupied ones.”

“Okay, so why do we want to stick around?”

“You stick around. I’ll go back through the woods and find a road.”

“But that’s stupid. You’re hurt,” she said. “What did the doctor say?”

“The doctor was a glorified paramedic who said I have some road rash—which I knew—and a lot of bumps and bruises—which I also knew.” He stepped closer to Kathleen. “You’ve been great. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but the police are looking for me. I can’t drag you into this any more than you already are.”

Kathleen wrestled with her thoughts. On the one hand, he was, by his own admission, wanted for stealing some sort of government prototype. On the other hand, he was hurt, and she was the one who’d brought him out here to what she thought was the middle of nowhere. Had she been going to abandon him, she should’ve done it somewhere more populated where he could have at least found food and shelter.

She shook her head. “I brought you here. I’ll get you out of here.”

“What are you—Wonder Woman? I don’t see any magic lasso or bulletproof bracelets on you.”

“I realize you don’t have much faith in my abilities,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “But I’m the best chance you’ve got of getting out of this park without getting hauled off to jail.”

“I don’t see how you’re going to get me out of here without getting us both arrested. I’m trying to do you a favor here.”

“Spare me.” She shrugged. “If you want to go, go. I’ll shed a tear for you as I watch you being shot down on the news. But only one.”

He stood with his hands on his hips staring at her. “You think these cops have orders to shoot me on sight?”

“I don’t know what they’ve been ordered to do. But you said yourself that you stole an important weapon from some government bigwig. That tells me that while I might not actually witness you being shot down on the news, I seriously doubt I or anyone else will ever see you again once you’re in his custody.”

“I’m more than capable of taking care of myself, you know.”

“Suit yourself. I’m offering to get you out of this forest. You’d fallen asleep, and I didn’t check to see if you wanted to be dropped off somewhere more populated …where you might’ve had more options. If you want to go, you know where both doors are.”

A knock thudded at the door. Their eyes locked.

Kathleen nodded toward the bathroom. “Hurry,” she whispered. “Get in the shower.”

He started to speak, but she jerked her top off and dropped it onto the floor.

Sam hesitated.

There was another knock, and she pushed him toward the bedroom.

Sam quickly shut and locked the bathroom door and turned on the shower. What the hell—not to mention who—had he gotten himself involved with? He was ex-military, special forces, and here this…this high school science teacher… was ordering him around like he was fifteen years old. And he was doing what she said!

He listened at the door to see what she was saying. Who else could be knocking except one of the officers? But he couldn’t hear anything over the shower.

The bathroom had no window from which to escape. The only sunlight provided to the tiny room came through a small round window that didn’t open. He supposed he could ease out into the bedroom and get away. But if they were on their way into the room, they’d surely see him. He decided to stay where he was and hope for the best.

After what seemed like an hour but couldn’t have been more than five minutes, someone tried to open the bathroom door.

“Let me in.”

It was Kathleen.

He didn’t know if there were cops with her or not, but he opened the door. There she stood in her bra and skimpy panties. His mouth dropped open.

She winked. “That’s what they said. Now get out of my way and let me shower.”

“But what did they say?”

“I just told you.” She moved past him into the bathroom and unhooked her bra. “I’ll see you when I get out.” With her back still to him, she let the bra slide to the floor. “Or not.”

Kathleen Freemont was the damnedest woman he’d ever met.

He eased into the living room to make sure the door was bolted and then returned to the bedroom. He sat on the bed and stretched his legs out, figuring he might as well hang around…at least until Kathleen got out of the shower.