"I said stop!"
A second shot. A yelp.
Sam dropped out of sight.
Oh God, he'd shot Sam.
TWENTY-FIVE
I FOUGHT THE URGE to run to Sam and instead picked my way through the trees, heading in her direction.
"Don't worry," I heard the man say to Sam. "I just winged you. Now you wait right there while I go find that pretty little Indian friend of yours."
He jogged down the trail, passing Sam where she lay. Good. Keep going. Please keep going.
I crept through the trees until I was alongside Sam. I could still see the man. He stood a few meters away, peering down the empty stretch of trail.
Sam tried to wave for me to get the truck. I shook my head and motioned that he had the keys. Then I mouthed, "Where are you hurt?" She pointed to the side of her leg. I could see it now, blood darkening her calf. A long way from the femoral artery. Good, but she wasn't racing out of here anytime soon.
"No way your friend got to the road that fast," he said. "So where is she...?"
He scanned the forest. I stood perfectly still, and his gaze passed over me.
I'd screwed up. Really screwed up. It'd been too complicated a plan. Too easy for something to go wrong. I'd looked at this man--clean-cut and quiet--and at worst I'd seen a garden-variety pervert who'd take us into the woods, maybe try to feel us up and hope we might like it. Not a dangerous predator. Just a middle-age guy with a creepy fantasy.
The gun changed everything. The gun meant I had, yet again, been too confident in my assessment and, this time, wagered lives on it.
The man walked back to Sam, who still crouched on the ground, hand pressed to her wounded leg.
"Where did your friend go?" he asked.
"I don't know."
"I asked you once. I won't ask you"--he kicked her--"again."
I had to grip the tree to keep from running at him. Heat raged through me, and I thought it was fury until I saw my arms pulsing.
Oh, yes. God, yes, please!
The man pulled his foot back to kick Sam again.
"I didn't see!" she yelled. "You shot me, remember? She was in front of me and then you fired and I fell, and I'm guessing she didn't stick around."
"You're a little smart-ass, aren't you?"
"No, I'm just smart enough to know that she's smart enough to hide after you shot me. And I'd think you'd be smart enough to know that if I had seen where she went, I'd point you in the opposite direction."
Keep talking, Sam. Please keep talking.
I crouched and closed my eyes and focused. I imagined myself changing into a cougar as I got down on all fours and tried to move my arms and legs into what
seemed like the proper position.
I felt the fever ripping through me and saw my skin bubbling, muscles underneath contorting, but no matter what I did, nothing changed. I didn't change.
"Just go look for her," Sam was saying.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you, girl? Give you a chance to get away."