Trees and rocks stretched out as far as the eye could see, like green and gray ribbons unspooling in every direction, crowned by the deep, vivid blue of the sky and the burning orange citrine jewel of the sun so very high above.
Roslyn's had been the only vehicle in the parking lot, and no one was eating lunch at the picnic tables, stretching their legs after being cooped up in the car, or walking their dog through the grass for a quick potty break.
Good. I didn't want anyone to see us, especially with Owen and me looking like commandos out of some action movie, Warren our grizzled, rifle-toting sidekick. Besides, if someone saw us, there was always the chance that word would reach Grimes that we were coming.
Warren pointed to the right, and I realized that the park featured more than picnic tables and a pretty overlook. Several wooden signs shaped like arrows were stacked on top of one another where the grass gave way to the trees. Three faint paths started at the signs, then curved off in three different directions into the green and brown canopy of the forest beyond.
"The eastern trail leads to the next ridge over," Warren said. "That's where Grimes's camp is. From what I remember, Grimes and his men often use this little park as a meeting spot. Most folks in these parts know better than to stop here, day or night."
"Let me guess," I said. "Grimes and his men bring the guns, and other folks show up with suitcases full of cash."
Warren nodded. "cash, gold, even diamonds on occasion. Fletcher told me that he found an old-fashioned safe and a stash of valuables in one of the outbuildings at Grimes's camp. He said that he also saw some of Grimes's men burying metal boxes full of cash and guns in the woods all around the camp."
That didn't surprise me. A lot of folks in Ashland didn't trust banks - with good reason. Sometimes the people working for the financial institutions were even more crooked than the criminals who called the city home.
Finn was a prime example of that, given his day job as an investment banker. He didn't swindle his clients, but he thoroughly enjoyed playing shell games and hoodwinking
the government out of all of the tax money that his clients owed. And he was amazingly good at it; Finn could hide money better than a squirrel storing nuts for the winter.
And Grimes wasn't the only one with caches of money and weapons hidden here and there. I had stashes of cash, knives, clothes, and other supplies all over Ashland.
Fletcher's house. Bria's house. Finn's apartment. Behind a freezer in the back of the Pork Pit. In Roslyn's office at her nightclub, Northern Aggression. In a bathroom vent
in the English building at Ashland community college,
where I took so many classes. Even in a fireplace at Owen's mansion.
I glanced at Owen, who'd been quiet while Warren and
I were talking. I hadn't thought much about the duffel
bag that I'd left at his house a few months ago. But that had been back before Salina had come into our lives. I wondered if he still had my things or if he'd thrown them out.The last notion made my heart twinge with pain, but I ignored it and focused on the signs and trails again.
"c'mon. We need to get moving."
I slid my backpack onto my shoulders and headed for the eastern trail. Owen and Warren did the same with their gear, then fell into step behind me.
With myself in the lead, we walked a good distance in silence with only the sounds of the forest around us. The high, cheery chirp-chirp-chirp of the birds in the trees, the low, lazy drone of bees and other bugs, the sharp, crackling rustle-rustle-rustle of lizards, frogs, and other critters in the underbrush of dry leaves.
This was a pretty patch of woods, and if we'd been out on a summer hike, I would have taken my time and enjoyed the scenery. The dark brown soil of the forest floor gave way to the lush, vibrant green of leaves, and the arching branches of trees stretched high into the cloudless sky above. The thick canopy dappled the forest in shifting shadows, which provided some welcome relief from the July heat, although the humidity was as muggy and oppressive as ever. Despite the shade, sweat trickled down my neck and the small of my back, making my clothes stick to my skin like patches of soggy tape. I could have used my Ice magic to help cool myself, but I didn't want to waste my power like that. Not when I had a feeling that I'd need every ounce of my strength to go up against Grimes.
His combination of giant and dwarven blood made him tough enough, but add his Fire magic to that, and you had a truly dangerous enemy. Not to mention the fact that Hazel had the same sort of strength and Fire power that her brother did and how much malicious glee she took in using her magic to hurt other people.
But what worried me the most was Sophia. She'd been shot at least twice before she'd stumbled into the salon and then was burned with Hazel's Fire when she'd been dragged away. I didn't know how many more injuries Hazel and Grimes might have inflicted on her in the meantime or how much blood she might have lost.
So there was a very real chance that Sophia wouldn't be well enough to leave the mountain under her own power.
Since she had an even more muscular body than Jo-Jo's, she weighed more and would be even harder to move. But
if we had to carry her all the way down the mountain, so
be it.
After about half an hour of following the trail, the three of us stopped. We all chugged down some bottled
water, and then I drew out the maps of the area that had
been in Fletcher's file and showed them to Warren and Owen.
Warren tapped his finger on one of the maps, then pointed up ahead. "The edge of Grimes's property, at least what he likes to think of as his property, starts about another two miles up the trail, beyond that next big curve."
I eyed the sharp bend, where the trail made a hard right and disappeared behind a thick stand of oaks. "Will he have guards posted around the perimeter?"
Warren tapped another spot on the map. "Not way down here but definitely farther up the trail. There's another path, well, more like a deer track, that runs parallel to the main trail. We can follow that. It leads to a ridge that overlooks Grimes's entire camp. We can get our bear - ings there and decide where to go to next."
And see whether Sophia is even still alive.
He didn't say the words, but we all knew that it was a possibility, that Sophia might already be dead. That maybe all Grimes had wanted was to kidnap her so he could torture her to death.
Owen must have seen the worry in my face, because he gave my arm a gentle squeeze. "We'll find her, and we'll get her out of there. Jo-Jo can fix the rest. That's what you always say, right?"
"Right."
I echoed the word back to him, but my voice sounded faint and hollow, even to me. Because there were some wounds, some hurts, some sorrows that even Jo-Jo's Air magic simply couldn't fix, and Sophia had them, She had ever since the first time Grimes had taken her. Her raspy, broken voice, the sadness that glimmered in her black eyes, the way she sometimes tensed up when a new customer entered the Pork Pit. And now her worst nightmare, her deepest, darkest fear, had come to life and was happening to her all over again. Sophia had barely survived what Grimes had done to her the first time. I didn't know what - if anything - would be left of her after this new round of horrors.